Daily Bible Reading 9th September 2024 // Ephesians 1:3-12
1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God,
To the saints who are in Ephesus, and 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, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed 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 upon us, in all wisdom and insight 9 making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
11 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, 12 so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.
If we were to ask what having a share in this stewardship could possibly mean, there are not wanting hints and suggestions about this in the New Testament itself in some of the parables that Jesus taught, as for example in the parable of the talents and the pounds: 'Well done, good and faithful servant, thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many thing', and in similar vein 'Be thou ruler over ten cities'. And we can turn to other places in Paul's epistles to illuminate this. In Romans 8:19ff the apostle speaks of the whole creation waiting with eager longing for the manifestation of the sons of God so that it can be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of His children. We may look at it this way: whatever God's original purposes for creation were, they were hindered, frustrated, and held up by the sin of man. Earth, so to speak, of all God's creation, became the 'black sheep', the 'sheep that was lost'; and because of this the normal development of creation was sisted and held up until the lost sheep could be found and when that fulfilment takes place, the whole universe will come into its own. In the meantime, only one piece is missing in the cosmic puzzle, and when it is recovered, the whole creation will move into life and energy and activity almost beyond man's power to conceive. Even now, the great Steward is at work, and presently He will finish the work He has begun on humanity - the preparatory rehabilitating work - and then, when a redeemed humanity is complete and takes its full place in the divine plan - and such is God's grace that it will be a foremost place in that plan - God's purposes will come into their own, and things inexpressible, beyond the thought of man, will begin to happen and glory upon glory will shine and gleam all through the universe with surpassing splendour, forever and ever, and Christ will be all in all! Such is the prospect and such the extent, of the Christian hope and the Christian life. Who would not rejoice in it, when once its glory has dawned on their souls!