What does the Bible actually say? (Part 8: Looking for the Person and work of each of the members of the Godhead in a passage)

      Last time, we looked at some questions to ask when we looked at a text, in order to understand the meaning of the text. This time we'll be looking specifically for the "who" and the "what" of each of the members of the Godhead in a passage in order to understand who They are and what They do better.

     For this lesson, we're going to go to Ephesians 1. There is SOOOO much in this chapter and most of it (vv. 3-14?) is one long, run-on sentence in Greek. We're going to focus in on the first 14 verses of chapter 1 and see what we can find out about this amazing God! 

     To set the stage, Paul is writing to the church in Ephesus, around 60-62 AD. You can read of his time there in the book of Acts, chapters 18:18-21 (Paul's second missionary journey) then in chapter 19 (his third missionary journey). The city of Ephesus was filled with idolatry, sexual immorality, and witchcraft. The epistle teaches us how to live out the gospel and our position in Christ in the middle of an ungodly and immoral world. We are at war with demonic forces (chapter 6) but are solid in our identity as children of God. As you read the following verses, look for this God that we serve and belong to.

Materials you will need:

1. Holy Spirit

2. Prayer

3. A copy of the text

4. A place to take notes

     Begin with prayer, asking the Author of the Book to reveal Himself and to give you understanding.

1. Read the passage 5+ times.

2. Note every reference to who each of the members are (their person - look for adjectives) and what they do (look for verbs). 

3. Write them down and think about them. Look up unfamiliar words and ask questions about what you find.

Ephesians 1:1-14

"Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the saints who are at Ephesus and who are faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us. In all wisdom and insight He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth. In Him also we obtained and inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory. In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation - having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view of the redemption of God's own possession, to the praise of His glory." 

     There are a LOT of personal and possessive pronouns in this passage (he, him, his) and subjects referring to the Godhead. The trick is going to be figuring out who each of those pronouns belong to. Let's read through the passage again and mark each of them:

"1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the saints who are at Ephesus and who are faithful in Christ Jesus: 2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love 5 He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. 7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace 8 which He lavished on us. In all wisdom and insight 9 He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him 10  with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth. In Him 11 also we obtained and inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, 12 to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory. 13 In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation - having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise,  14 who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view of the redemption of God's own possession, to the praise of His glory." 

     That seems a bit overwhelming, I know. But let's begin to break it down. We do have multiple references to God/the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. those are the easy ones. Make note of those first. For the rest of them, look at the whole sentence or phrase. Sometimes, you can tell who is who by looking at what each of those "he/him/his" are doing. Also, look at repeating phrases. Do they seem to be attached to a particular member of the Godhead? There are some clear references to what the Son did to bring us salvation. Starting with what we know the Son did, we can backtrack to figure out what the passage is telling us about the Father. Let's begin by listing the obvious:

God the Father:    

- He is our Father.

- He chose Paul to be an apostle.

- He is a giver of grace and peace.

God the Son:

- He is our Lord.

- He is a giver of grace and peace. 

- He is the Beloved of His Father (see his baptism and transfiguration - Matt. 3, Matt. 17/Mark 9)

- "Jesus" -> "Yahweh saves"

- "Christ" -> "God's chosen" or "God's anointed One"

(side: "Christ" is a title, not Jesus' last name.)

Holy Spirit:

- He was promised. 

- He is God's down payment for our future inheritance.  

     Now, let's begin to tackle the potentially confusing middle verses. Let's begin with verses 3-4:

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christs, who has blessed us in with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love. . . ."

     Let's begin with what we know - God the Father has blessed us in Christ and now we find out that He chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world. One thing that might be helpful to do here is to eliminate the prepositional phrases (with every spiritual blessing, in the heavenly places, before the foundation of the world). By doing so, it's easier to see who the subjects and objects of the sentence are. This will eliminate information that could confuse us in our current search. These pieces of information are NOT unimportant, they're just in the way of our clear understanding of Who is Who right now. There is a pattern here - The Father blessed us (in Christ), the Father chose us (in Christ). We can add those things to our lists.  

God the Father:

- He chose us (in Christ).

- He blessed us (in Christ).

     Let's look at vv. 5-6:

"In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved."

     Using the process of elimination, given the fact that Jesus Christ is differentiated from this other One, we can say that the other pronouns are not referring to Him. One thing you will notice is that the Spirit is listed as the Spirit and is differentiated from the other two members of the Trinity (see the rest of the verses). Given this information, the only other member of the Godhead these pronouns could be referring to is the Father. Did you know that it was the Father who predestined you to be adopted as His son/daughter? Did you know that it was the Father's kind desire to do this for you? Did you know that He did this to magnify His grace? Did you know that He has freely poured His grace out on you because you belong to Him? Let's add these things to our lists.   

God the Father:

- predestined (chose ahead of time) that I would belong to Him through adoption

- decided that I would belong to Him because He wanted to show me kindness

- chose me to magnify how gracious He was

- freely poured out His grace on me because I belong to Him.

     Continue to work through these verses in small chunks, removing the prepositional phrases if they get in the way of clarity (you can add them back in once you've figured out who is who - they add such a richness and depth to this passage!),  and listing out how each of the members of the Godhead are described and what they did/are doing in the process of your salvation/sanctification. You will fall in love with the God of this text! I challenge you to look for these Three as you read your way through the Bible. Begin to develop a theology of who God is. This will enable you to discern when someone is accurately or inaccurately describing God and what He does and does not do. Keep a list of what you're finding out about the different members of the Trinity, along with the references where you find those things. You'll probably need a notebook or file(s) specifically for this purpose. It will be so worth it!