The Trinity in Ephesians 1
The three Persons of the Christian Godhead found throughout the Bible, both Old Testament and New Testament, are also found in every chapter of Paul’s epistle to the Ephesians. Ephesus was a Roman city with a Greek culture, on the western coast of Asia Minor, at the Aegean Sea (Port of Miletus). It was a religious center that especially honored the goddess Artemis (Greek)/Diana (Roman). Paul lived there three years, as it became the longest layover on his three missionary journeys.
The Apostle Paul’s concentrated weaving of each Person of the Trinity, into his letter, makes this epistle an excellent study of the doctrines of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We will now consider each One, before moving on to subsequent chapters of Ephesians, in future articles. The epistle is written, “…to the saints who are at Ephesus (1:1).”
Paul begins by praising God the Father, “who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ (1:3).” When Christians speak of blessing, it is important to see these coming from God the Father, and they are bounded and bordered “in Christ.” Elsewhere Paul distinguishes between the natural man and the spiritual man (1 Cor 2:14–15). The spiritual blessings are for the spiritual man, who is distinguished by his receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit (Rom 5:5), who Himself is the Giver of spiritual gifts (Rom 12; 1 Cor 12; Eph 4).
God the Father “chose us in Him (1:4).” This is the doctrine of election, where the Father selects “us” saints, and gifts us to His eternal Son, our Lord Jesus Christ (Jn 6:37; 17:2, 6, 24). When did the Father do this work of selection? Paul writes, “…before the foundation of the world (1:4).”
The object in election is the formation and preservation of a sanctified people, chosen to be a holy nation (1 Pet 2:9), that is, “holy and blameless before Him (1:4).” Although the first man, Adam, was “the son of God (Lk 3:38),” he forfeited his position through disobedient rebellion (Gen 3), choosing the devil to be his father (Jn 8:44; 1 Jn 3:10). Adam and his posterity became unholy.
Some in Adam, a remnant, were chosen from the beginning for salvation (Rom 11:5; 2 Thess 2:13), the adoption of God, “In love, He predestined us to adoption, as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will (1:5).”
Humanity’s guilt before God, in Adam, is universal. Salvation — from sin, death, judgment, and eternal punishment in the lake of fire (Rom 20:14–15) — is this predestined adoption by God the Father. God the Father has willed to have mercy upon whom He will have mercy (Rom 9:15–16), with His elect, adopted children being the vessels of mercy, prepared for glory (Rom 9:23). The unholy will be re-made holy, in Christ, and the guilty will be re-made blameless (doctrines of sanctification and glorification).
Redeeming God’s adopted children is the work of Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God come into the world (1:7). As the Lamb of God (Jn 1:29), slain from before the foundation of the world (Rev 5:6, 12; 13:8), the holy One of God was conceived, born, lived and died without sin (2 Cor 5:21; Heb 4:15). Yet it pleased the Father to place the sin of His people on Christ (Is 53:5), for this is who He came to save (Mt 1:21). He bore our sin in His body on the cross (1 Pet 2:24). “We have redemption through His blood (1:7),” is how Paul wrote it.
The revelation of this mystery was made known to God’s beloved. This was done with types and shadows for the Old Testament saints, along with the preaching of the prophets, but in these last days God has spoken to us in His Son (Heb 1:2), in whom the saints have an inheritance (1:11).
The elect, redeemed listen to the message of truth, the Gospel of our salvation, preached in the Spirit, and received by the indwelling of the Spirit, and we believe (1:13). It is the Holy Spirit who baptizes, regenerates, and abides, forever, in those He has caused to be born again of God (Jn 3:1–8; 1 Pet 1:3). It is the will of God that these receive Christ (Jn 1:12–13) and have faith in Him (Phil 1:29), by the grace given to them (Eph 2:8–9).
God the Father and God the Son send God the Spirit to give wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Christ (1:17). The Christian heart is enlightened (1:18), to know Christ. Therefore, to know Christ is to know God (Jn 17:3; Col 2:2), and in knowing God, we know of our salvation (Lk 1:77), as it is written and revealed on the pages of the Bible, by the Holy Spirit (2 Pet 1:20–21).
To know God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit and their respective works of election, redemption, and regeneration is to the praise of God’s glory, power, and grace. He has done great things, and He has graciously informed us (1 Jn 5:20). The Father has been gracious in choosing us. The Son has been gracious in reconciling us. The Spirit has been gracious in revealing it all to us.
Ephesians chapter one is loaded with the biblical doctrine of the Trinity. May God continue to grant us the grace to meditate on the riches of the knowledge of our Triune God, so that we might have our place, in the praise of His glory, as it is written, “So we Your people and the sheep of Your pasture will give thanks to You, forever; To all generations, we will tell of Your praise (Ps 79:13).”
David Norczyk
Spokane Valley, Washington
September 17, 2022
