Ephesians 1:8–10 presents the resurrection of Jesus Christ not as the end of the story, but as part of God’s eternal purpose now revealed in history. These verses show that God has lavished his grace upon his people in all wisdom and insight, making known to them the mystery of his will. That mystery, once hidden and now revealed, is centered in Christ and his gospel. What was seen only in shadows in the Old Testament has now been made clear in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In him, God has disclosed his saving plan, bringing sinners into the light of redemption and showing that all of history is moving according to his purpose.
God’s purpose in Christ is nothing less than the uniting of all things in heaven and on earth under the lordship of Jesus Christ. The fullness of time refers to God’s appointed moments in redemptive history, all of which are being carried out according to his sovereign plan and will culminate in the final restoration of all things under Christ. This does not mean that every individual will be saved, but that all creation will ultimately be brought under his authority and restored to its proper order for the glory of God. Therefore, the resurrection stands as the guarantee that this plan is truly moving forward, and the church even now serves as a preview of that coming unity as God gathers his people together in Christ.
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By the providence of God, we come to a section of the Scripture where I don’t need to turn to another section of Scripture to talk about the topic of Easter morning, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And as I mentioned Friday, if you were here for the Good Friday service, honestly, you could probably just take up anywhere you are in the Scripture and preach Christ because Christ is the main character. He is the preeminent one throughout all of the Scriptures. It is about him. It is about what he has done and what he is doing, about who he is.
Now, on this Easter Sunday, resurrection day, we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. We rejoice together that the tomb is empty, that the death that we deserved has been dealt its death blow, and that our Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ, lives. But what I want us to see also in this text this morning, what Paul, the writer of Ephesians, wanted us to understand at this point in his long sentence, is to see that the resurrection is not the end of the story. It is the turning point in God’s eternal plan being carried out for the entire universe.
In these verses that we will look at this morning, in verses 8–10 of chapter 1, Paul pulls back the curtain for us, revealing or showing us the mystery of God’s will. He shows us that the risen Christ stands at the very center of history. And everything that God has been doing from before the foundation of the world is moving toward the one great goal, which is to unite all things in heaven and on earth under the headship of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And so this is not what we celebrate on Easter is not some small private hope for Christians. It is, but this is cosmic in scope. The resurrection of Christ means something not just for us but for the whole creation.
If you will stand with me for the reading of God’s word. Not sure where we’ve started it this morning. Good. I wanted to go back to verse three again. Why? Because repetition. There you go. I got you. Got you learned.
Ephesians chapter 1. We’ll pick up reading. I’ll read beginning in verse 3 through 10 this morning. “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. Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before him in love. He predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of his will to the praise of his glorious grace with which he has blessed 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 upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.”
Father, this morning as we remember the resurrection corporately, Lord, we don’t do so as if we don’t think about it for the rest of the year. Lord, we celebrate this day as we do every day that our Savior lives. And this morning as we look at these three verses and we see that this mystery has been revealed to us, but this mystery is bigger than us. Help us to understand these things, Lord, so that you might be glorified in and through your people.
Lord, your word, every bit of what we have here in the Scriptures, is from your mouth. It is God-breathed, and you tell us that it is profitable for us for teaching. So Lord, teach us. If this is new, if there’s anyone in this room who this is new for, Lord, this morning, teach them. Lord, you say it’s also good for reproof. So Lord, show us where we’ve been wrong in our understanding or in our practice. But Lord, you don’t leave us in reproof. You correct us as well. Show us what we should believe. Show us how we might live in light of these truths.
And Lord, your word is also good for training in righteousness, those things that we know. This might be a reminder to us once again. Lord, remind us again as we continue to train ourselves for the purpose of godliness. Lord, so that we might be complete, equipped for every good work as you’ve promised. Lord, we lift high the name of Jesus this morning. Glorify yourself in this place by your Spirit. Give us understanding, and we give you all the glory and praise in Jesus’ name. Amen.
You may be seated.
First, notice this grace that we talked about last week, how it has been freely and richly given to us by God, which he, that is God, has lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight. This little word which again points us back to what we talked about last week in verse 7 when we talked about the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace which he lavished upon us. So let’s not forget that we’re talking about the grace of God here that is lavished. We talked about how he has given it to us richly, the riches of his grace, that it’s overwhelming, that it’s unending, that it’s eternal in scope.
But here he continues on by saying, “which he lavished on us.” Not only is he rich in it, he’s poured it out on us. God has not given out forgiveness in a little dropper. Those little medicine droppers. You know what I’m talking about? Some medicine you’re like, “That’s too much.” But for other things, you’re like, “Man, I want some more of that, right? It’s not enough.” No, he says he lavished his grace upon us in Christ. That word means what it sounds like. It means to cause something to overflow in a superabundance like a fountain pouring forth water without restraint coming from an endless source.
We can maybe wrap our mind around this a little bit since we live around here, or for many of us live around here. If you don’t live around here, sorry, but if you don’t live around here and you came from the west, you had to go over the dam to get here. And imagine all of a sudden, just that one time, the dam disappeared. What would happen? That’s a lot of water poured out in a superabundance. But what this word means, it’s even more than that. Of course, we know that the water would eventually pass through. This is like as if the springs were flowing just as fast as it was falling. He lavished his grace upon us.
Let’s not forget that, church. We’re talking about his people. This entire section from verse 3 through 13 is not a bunch of separated issues and things that Paul is talking about. This is one long sentence revealing God’s understanding and knowledge of his salvation of his people. Okay? So he’s telling us how he has saved us, how he saves us. And what he’s telling us here is there’s so much grace that I have given you. Listen, there is no way we are not forgiven. There is no way we are not redeemed. There is no way we’re not adopted. There’s no way we’re not predestined. There’s no way we are not holy and blameless before him. There’s no way that we are not chosen in him. There’s no way that we don’t have every spiritual blessing because he has lavished his grace upon us.
But there’s more to the phrase here in verse eight. It says, “Which he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight.” This outpouring of grace is not just some splattering randomness. It’s purposeful. It’s in all wisdom, in all understanding. But more than just purposeful, it brings about the wisdom and understanding that he’s pouring out on us. It gives us the wisdom and understanding that we need to understand in order to receive the grace and forgiveness and redemption that he has given to us.
God does not give recklessly. It is purposeful. His love is on purpose. His love is directed. And he pours out his grace upon people whom he is going to save in order that they will be saved. It’s not reckless love. And some of you are like, “That’s a song, isn’t it?” Yes. I don’t like that song very much. I always change the word as I’m singing that song. But you see my point. He made sure that lavish love and grace and mercy did its job. He chose. He predetermined. He wanted that we would be holy and blameless. He predestined us to adopt us as his sons and daughters according to the purpose of his will.
As we’ve talked about all these things, he’s expressing here what it took to change your heart, to break your heart, to save you from your sin, to redeem you, to forgive you. Once again, I’ve said this multiple times over the last few weeks. All of us who have fallen under this false sense of guilt of our sin, we think, man, there’s no way God will forgive me again. There’s no way that God could save me. Yes, there’s no way he cannot save you. There’s no way he would not forgive you. There’s nothing too big. It is lavished upon you. There’s no way out of it. You’re not going to swim out from under the dam that’s broken on top of you. He’s got you. You’re his.
And he has done so with wisdom and insight. He has made it so that he will save everyone he has determined to save. And he will make sure you have the wisdom and the insight that you need in order to believe. Why doesn’t everybody get saved every time we preach the gospel? You would think that if this is the kind of power that we are supposed to be able to have in preaching the gospel that every time we preach the gospel everybody in the room gets saved. But that’s not how it works. Why? Because that’s not according to his wisdom and his insight. It’s his plan to save. But buddy, I tell you what, if you’re in a room where you hear the gospel proclaimed and it’s your time to be saved, to receive that lavished grace and wisdom and insight in order to believe, you’re going to believe. There’s no way around it. There’s no way out of it. He made sure of it.
So when he pours out his grace on us, he is pouring out not just his grace but his very Spirit. It is the same Spirit of wisdom and understanding that was upon Christ as we hear about in Isaiah 11. It’s that same Spirit that he overwhelms us with. It’s his own Spirit to enlighten his people to understand and to believe. Colossians 2 tells us that in Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. God not only forgives, he enlightens those whom he will redeem.
Look at the next phrase: making known to us the mystery of his will. See, this is how he carries it out. This wisdom and understanding that he pours out on us by his Spirit makes known to us the mystery of his will. A mystery in Scripture is not some dark puzzle that you’re trying to find the pieces of and you’ve got to try to figure out how it all goes together. But the problem is that you’re in a dark room and the puzzle pieces are all black. That’s not the kind of mystery that it means by mystery in Scripture.
What he’s talking about here, the mystery of his will, is talking about a truth that was once hidden that has now been revealed. It was once hidden only in the mind of God. Only he knew how he would work it out. Only he knew who would be the Christ, only he knew when he would come and how he would die and all of these things. It was hidden because it was just in God. But now in time it has been revealed. God chose to reveal his mystery, the mystery of his will. But God only reveals what he has the good pleasure to reveal. He revealed to us what was necessary.
What is this mystery? I think you understand this mystery is Christ and his gospel. What the Old Testament believers, the Old Testament followers of God, knew, they trusted God’s plan. They trusted what God said he was going to do, but they didn’t see it. They didn’t understand it. They only saw it in shadows. It was a mystery of how God was going to carry out this plan. What they only saw in shadows, we now look back on in brilliant light. After the cross, after the resurrection, this mystery has been revealed. God saves sinners from every tribe, tongue, and nation through the finished work of Jesus Christ through his death, burial, and resurrection. That’s the mystery that’s been revealed.
Who is the Savior who will save us from our sins? Oh, it’s Jesus. How do we know? Because he’s the only one who died, was buried, and rose from the dead. Mystery revealed. The eternal Son took on flesh, lived a perfect life, died on the cross, was buried, and rose again on the third day. Colossians chapter 1 calls this the mystery hidden for ages and generations, but now revealed to his saints. What is this mystery? This mystery is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Romans 16 speaks of the revelation of the mystery kept for long ages. And then over in chapter 3 of Ephesians, which we’ll get to in a couple years, shows that this mystery also includes brothers and sisters, you and me, Gentiles, those who were not of the Jewish lineage, that we would also become fellow heirs in one body through the gospel of Jesus Christ.
That empty tomb on resurrection day that we celebrate, it reveals that the mystery is no longer hidden. Jesus is that promised Messiah of the Old Testament. Jesus is the one who has accomplished our redemption. God has chosen in his wonderful kindness to disclose his great plan to his people so that we would know what he has done for us and all that he has made available to us in Christ Jesus.
You see, in this revelation of Jesus Christ, life finds true meaning. Apart from Christ, life is meaningless. And now those of us who have seen this mystery, who understand Christ and his gospel and who have believed in him for salvation, we are then brought into fellowship with God and we are made part of then his unfolding redemptive purposes here on earth. We get to share this mystery with others and see them also be overwhelmed by the lavish grace of God and the Spirit of God and their eyes opened to understand the wisdom and insight of the mystery hidden for ages and they see Jesus and they believe. We get to be part of that now.
In fact, we’re only here today because Christians for the last 2,000 years have been part of God’s redemptive plan to bring about a people for his own good and his own glory. He has made known to us the mystery of his will.
And so, how has God revealed this mystery? According to his purpose which he set forth in Christ. The word purpose here points us to God’s not just purpose in time. Like as we’re going along, he decided, “Oh, okay. I see that that’s happened. Now I want to respond to that with this.” No. What do we know about God? That his purpose is from eternity past before the foundation of the earth. He does not change. God is the unchanging one. So according to his purpose means according to his good pleasure from before the foundation of the world.
Jesus Christ, listen to me, was not an afterthought. When Adam and Eve fell in the garden and sin entered into creation, God didn’t go, “Uh-oh, I’ve got to figure out a way out of this.” Jesus Christ is what all of this is all about. That’s why we fell in the garden. That’s why we’re born in sin. So that Christ would be glorified. He would be magnified. He would be lifted up as the serpent on the pole that everyone must look to for salvation. It was to glorify Christ. It’s all about him.
The purpose of his plan from before the foundation of the world was to set forth everything in Jesus. And by the way, this Jesus was also there when that plan was being made. Let’s not forget that little tidbit. Jesus, the eternal Son of God, was there in the planning stages, if you want to say that. Obviously, we could get into the philosophical nature of God, but we won’t get there. He was there. It was set forth in Christ before anything else.
And believer, this lies at the heart of what we believe. Our salvation is all of Christ. It’s all of grace. It is nothing that we have done. No human works, no merit, no foreseen faith on God’s part that he saw forward and thought, “Oh, that guy’s going to have faith, so I’m going to save him.” No, this was all part of God’s grand design. He’s carrying out his purposes. The cross and the empty tomb are the fulfillment of his eternal purposes. Everything points back to Jesus. Everything points back to his death, burial, and resurrection for our redemption. That’s what he is showing all of creation, all of the universe. He is showing off himself, his Son, in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.
And Paul shows us then that the goal of this purpose set forth in Christ was as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. The fullness of time here is referring to not a sort of a time clock, chronological time clock. That’s not what this word references here. Time is not the clock time. He’s talking about moments of fulfillment in redemptive history. God has appointed these moments in time and he is bringing about the fullness of time. He is making sure that everything he has planned is fully realized.
So the fullness of time would include that moment when the fullness of time had come and God sent forth his Son like Galatians 4 talks about. It would also include, like what Romans 5 tells us, that at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. The fullness of time would also include the spread of the gospel going out even now today. And the fullness of time will have its final consummation when Christ returns and completes all that God had determined.
And notice here again, it’s a plan for the fullness of time, not a hoping to work it out by the end of time. It’s a plan. He is administrating all of history. God is working. Maybe you’ve heard this old expression. It’s his story. History is his story, that he’s working out his story and we are part of it here now today. He’s carrying out his plan. He is ordering every event. There is not a molecule, I believe it was Sproul who said something like this, there’s not one molecule outside of where it’s supposed to be. And so he’s working out all these details. And Christ Jesus is the chief steward of all these things.
And the goal of this plan is revealed right here. It’s no mystery. To unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. The word unite here means what you would think. It’s to put it all together, to bring it all together, to put everything under one head, Jesus. Where sin brought disorder, where sin brought brokenness into God’s creation, God’s purpose is to bring it all back together. God will restore proper order not just to our own lives but to the entire universe. All things were created through him and for him, Colossians 1 tells us, and now they will find their true peace and function by being brought back under his lordship, which includes our salvation and the reconciliation of all things through the blood of his cross.
You see, church, the church today, the local gathering of Christ’s people, is meant to give us a preview of this future unity. It’s not the place you decide to go on Sunday morning because you feel like you want to be spiritual. The church is God’s people, and God has determined to unite all his people under one head, that is Jesus Christ. So when we gather together here in our local bodies of the church, this is just a taste. This is just a preview of what’s to come. What is to come: former enemies, Jews, Gentiles, different kinds of people, different races, social classes, reconciled into one body through faith in Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 1:20–23, which we’ll again get to maybe later this year, ties all of this directly to the resurrection. God raised Christ, seated him above all rule and authority and gave him as head over all things to the church. We represent the uniting of all things in heaven and earth on earth here and now.
Now I want to be careful here. I want to remember this whole sentence from verse 3 to 14 in the original is all referencing God’s people. Okay? So, we want to be very careful here. Uniting all things in him does not mean that every single individual will be saved. That would be universalism. We do not believe that everybody is saved just because they’re a human being. That’s not how it works because that’s not what God says. Remember, the context of these verses is within the church, within those who already believe.
You see, Scripture everywhere tells us that life and death, eternal life and death, depend on whether we receive or reject Jesus Christ. So this section doesn’t mean that every being, every power, or every being will be saved. But what it does mean is that every being and every power will ultimately be under Christ’s authority and all creation will be restored to its original intended order for the glory of God.
And so then the resurrection which we celebrate this morning of Christ Jesus is the guarantee that the plan is actually moving forward toward that end, to unite all things. There will be a new heaven and a new earth. Mark 1:15 records Jesus saying, “The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel.” And Philippians 2 reminds us that one day every knee will bow in heaven and on earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
And the old preacher Charles Spurgeon, as he was reflecting on this passage, said all the things that are in Christ are to be gathered together. Believing Jews no longer to be divided from believing Gentiles. Today the church of God is separated, disfigured and weakened by the diverse sects and parties. But it shall not be always so. There is a gathering under the Christ and he will in the fullness of time perfectly accomplish it.
Beloved, as we come to a conclusion this morning, we need to let these truths sink deep into our hearts, not just on this resurrection Sunday, but every day. These three verses here in Ephesians 1:8–10 tell us that God has poured out grace upon us in wisdom and understanding. He has made known to us the mystery of his will, which was Christ crucified and risen for sinners. And all of this is according to his eternal purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
So if you are here this morning and you are not yet in Christ, the gospel is simple and clear this morning. Jesus, the eternal Son of God, died in the place of guilty sinners like you and like me, bearing God’s holy wrath on the cross. And yet he rose victorious from the grave, proving that the payment was accepted in full. The mystery has been revealed. Salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. So if you have never trusted in him, I urge you today, repent of your sin and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and according to his promise, you shall be saved.
You will receive the blessings that we’ve discussed. You will receive forgiveness. You will receive adoption into his family. You will have the sure hope of glory when all things are united in him.
And for those of us in this room who already believe, rejoice in the risen Savior. He is the guarantee. He is the fountain of every blessing. And so as we leave this place this morning, we must proclaim that the mystery is revealed and live as people who know the risen Savior because we belong to the one who will one day make all things new.
To God alone be the glory through Jesus our Lord. Amen.