Ephesians 1

Quest. How does Christ redeem us? Resp. By his own precious blood (Ephesians 1:7): In whom we have redemption through his blood. Among the Romans he was said to redeem another, that laid down a price equivalent for the ransom of the prisoner.

After the Lord had spoken to them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God. (Ephesians 1:20) He raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand, far above all principality, and power, and every name that is named. Question.

Christ taking our flesh, has made us nearer to himself than the angels. The angels are his friends, believers are flesh of his flesh; his members (Ephesians 5:30; Ephesians 1:23). And the same glory which is put upon Christ's human nature, shall be put upon believers.

3. Christ died that he might make good his last will and testament with his blood: There were many legacies which Christ bequeathed to believers, which had been all null and void had not he died, and by his death confirmed the will, (Hebrews 9:17) A testament is in force after m…

Verba Dei sunt opera, Luther: God puts forth infinite power in calling home a sinner to himself: He does not only put forth his voice, but his arm. The Apostle speaks of the [Greek text], the exceeding greatness of his power he exercises towards them that believe (Ephesians 1:19…

Use 3. of Comfort. As God is a Spirit, so the reward that he gives is spiritual; that is the excellency of it; as the chief blessings he gives us in this life are spiritual blessings (Ephesians 1:3), not gold and silver; he gives Christ, his love; he fills us with grace; so the…

It was said, "Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated." We are not elected for holiness, but to holiness (Ephesians 1:3). If we are not justified for our faith, much less elected for our faith; but we are not justified for it.

It sets heaven and earth against us: While we choose this bramble to rule, fire comes out of the bramble to devour us. 2. How are all believers bound to Jesus Christ, who has freed them from that misery to which sin has exposed them (Ephesians 1:7). In whom we have redemption th…

Every gracious soul (of whatever sex) lays claim to adoption, and has an interest in God as a Father: You shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty. Position 3. Adoption is an act of pure grace (Ephesians 1:5): Having predestinated us to the adoption of children, ac…

2. The power of God is seen in the conversion of souls. Surely a mighty power went to raise Christ from the grave, [〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉] (Ephesians 1:20). The same power goes to draw a sinner to God, as drew Christ out of the grave to Heaven.

Quest. What is the end of our Justification? Resp. The end is, 1. That God may inherit praise (Ephesians 1:6). To the praise of the glory of his grace. Hereby God raises the everlasting trophies of his own honor: How will the justified sinner proclaim the love of God, and make h…

Two things are chiefly to be regarded in obedience, the principle and the end: a child of God, though he shoots short in his obedience, yet he takes a right aim. 5. Obedience must be in and through Christ (Ephesians 1:6). He has accepted us in the Beloved.

In the text we are kept by the power of God to salvation; every person in the Trinity has a hand in making a believer persevere. God the Father establishes (2 Corinthians 1:21), God the Son confirms (1 Corinthians 1:8), God the Holy Ghost seals (Ephesians 1:13), so that it is th…

God will see the faith, and pass by the failing: The gospel remits something of the severity of the moral law. 3. Wherein our personal obedience comes short, God will be pleased to accept us in our surety (Ephesians 1:6). He has accepted us, [reconstructed: in the Beloved], in h…

Every link in the golden chain of salvation is wrought and interwoven with free grace. Election is free (Ephesians 1:4): He has chosen us in him, [〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉], according to the good pleasure of his will. Justification is free (Romans 3:24): Being justified freely…

So faith in every duty lays its hand upon the head of Christ. His blood does expiate the guilt, and the sweet odors of his intercession perfume our works of obedience (Ephesians 1:6). He has made us accepted in the Beloved.

Is it not with believers? And have not they coalition and union with Christ; Christ is the head, they are the body (Ephesians 1:23). This is a near union, much like that union between God the Father and Christ (John 17:21).

But there is little comfort in this; for so God is Father to the devils by creation, but he that made them will not save them. 2. God is a Father by election, having chosen a certain number to be his children, whom he will entail heaven upon; Ephesians 1:4. [in non-Latin alphabe…

7. & ult. When we read the Holy Scriptures, let us look up to God for a blessing. Beg the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, that we may see the [⟨ in non-Latin alphabet ⟩], the deep things of God (Ephesians 1:17). Pray to God, that the same Spirit that wrote the Scripture, would…

Every link in the chain of salvation, is wrought and interwoven with free grace. Election is free (Ephesians 1:4): He has chosen us in him [illegible], according to the good pleasure of his will. Justification is free (Romans 3:24): Being justified freely by his grace.

But why must this silver thread of faith run through the whole work of obedience? Answer. Because faith looks at Christ in every duty, it touches the hem of his garment, and through Christ both the person and the offering are accepted (Ephesians 1:6). 2. We do God's will accepta…

1. The new creature is a work of divine power; so much it imports, because it is a creation. The same power which raised Christ from the grave goes to the production of the new creature (Ephesians 1:20). It is a work of greater power to produce the new creature, than to make a w…

1. In his holy eternal purpose of providing a relief for lost sinners. He has done it, to the praise of the glory of his grace (Ephesians 1:6). 2. In the sending his Son in the pursuit and for the accomplishment of the holy purpose of his will and grace.

It is a true and bare respect which God has to his obedience, he fixes his eye upon that, when he does this, and for the sake thereof he does it: that God seals a pardon, and gives evidence of it to the souls and consciences of any of the children of men, upon their believing, f…

To the effecting of these ends, especially the increase and establishment of our faith, are they suited and appointed of God, whereon all their efficacy does depend. In their due observation, does God give out that supply of grace which he has promised (Ephesians 1:16, 17, 18, 1…

All which the Church is diligently to inquire into, as things that belong to the pattern of the house of God, the goings out thereof, and the comings in thereof, the forms thereof, and the ordinances thereof, with the laws thereof, promised to be shewed to it (Ezekiel 43:11), to…

Qu. 18. Whereas sundry of these things are founded in the light and law of nature, as requisite to all solemn worship, and are moreover commanded in the moral law, and explications of it in the Old Testament; how do you look upon them as evangelical institutions to be observed p…

And the Lord Christ has not left that as a matter of liberty, choice or conveniency, which he has made the foundation of the due manner of the performance of all those duties whereby his disciples yield obedience to his commands, to his glory in the world. Sixthly, the principal…

Whoever has any interest herein, or right hereunto, it must be granted to him from above, by Jesus Christ, and that as Mediator and head of his Church. For as all Church power, is in an especial manner by the authority and grant of the Father vested in him alone (Matthew 28:18;…

Churches being gathered and setled according to the mind of Christ, ought to preserve a mutual holy communion among themselves, and to exercise it, in the discharge of those duties whereby their mutuall good and edification may be promoted. For whereas they are all united under…

Q. Why do you make sinne a transgression of the law by a creature? A. Because God the Creator may do things forbidden in the law, and yet not sin, as to kill and destroy; because the law is not a rule to him but to us, his own will being his rule (Ephesians 1:11; Psalms 115:3).…

Q. What is the effect and benefit of his mediatorship? A. Hereby God and man that were at enmity are reconciled together again, and made one (Colossians 1:20; Ephesians 1:10; Ephesians 2:14, 15).

Q. And how is Christ King of the elect? A. Not only by his providence, as over all creatures: nor only by his word and ordinances, as to the visible Church, but also by the special working of the grace of his holy Spirit in their hearts (Ezekiel 36:26; Ephesians 1:22; Colossians…

Q: Besides the Resurrection and ascension of Christ, what further degree is there of his exaltation? A. His sitting at the right hand of God (Psalm 110:1; Mark 16:19; Ephesians 1:20; Colossians 3:1; Hebrews 1:3, 13; and 8:1; and 10:12, 13). Q. What are we to understand by Christ…

Q. Do you say that God's decree reaches to all things whatever comes to pass in time? A. Yes, all things whatever have been, are, or that shall be hereafter, were before decreed, and determined by God (Ephesians 1:11; Acts 15:18). Q. What are some of the principal things that ar…

Q. Had this world a beginning by creation, or was it from everlasting? A. The scripture in many places, and especially in the first of Genesis does declare that the world was not from everlasting, but had a beginning by the Lord's creating of it (Hebrews 11:3; Revelation 4:11; P…

A. What scriptures do show that there is such a providence of God? Q. Many, and namely these (John 5:17; Ephesians 1:11; Acts 17:25, 28; Lamentations 3:37; Ecclesiastes 3:1, 2, &c.). Q. How else may the same be proved?

To understand this, we must know that God, to help our faith (which, as I said before, is distinguished from sight as we now speak of it), grants a threefold light to his people, to add assurance and joy to their faith, which is to faith as a backing of steel to a bow to strengt…

For first of all, the very will is a rule to itself, and the divine counsels. Ephesians 1:5, 11: We were predestinated according to his purpose, who works all things after the counsel of his own will. Secondly, God's election is the rule of faith that is to be given or not given.

And: who are called of his purpose. Hence adoption (Ephesians 1): predestinated to adoption. And sanctification (Ephesians 1): He has chosen us that we should be holy and blameless.

Again it is objected: He that says that the decree of God is the energetical operative beginning of all things, necessarily makes the decree of God, the beginning also of sin. Whereunto I answer, That the holy Ghost himself says that the decree of God is the beginning of all thi…

and this, man does by praising God, and giving thanks unto him, who is the Author of all blessings. So Paul says, Blessed be God even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly things in Christ: Ephesians 1:3: beginning his…

He is Antichrist (an enemy and an adversary to Jesus the Christ) that denies the Father and the Son. For he that denies the Son's authority, to be the eternal King and Prophet of the Church of the New Testament, to the end of the world, according to the royal commission he recei…

For the Jews at this day believe (as John and his Disciples then taught, that they should believe on him that should come, Acts 19:4) even in that Messiah whom they wait for. And we believe (as Peter and Paul then taught) that Christ indeed is come, and crucified, dead, and rise…

Such a faith as a practical syllogism can make, is not a faith wrought by the Lord's almighty power: for though a syllogism makes faith; yet such a faith is but a human faith; because the conclusion follows but from the strength of reasonings, or reason; not from the power of Go…

First, we do believe, that in our effectual calling, God draws us to union with Christ (John 6:44), shedding abroad his Spirit in our hearts (Romans 5:5), and working faith in us to receive Christ (John 1:12, 13), and to live by faith upon him (Galatians 2:20). Secondly, we are…

Thirdly, the means is, faith apprehending it (Philippians 3:9). Fourthly, the Spirit of Christ sealing of it (Ephesians 1:13). This truth revealed for the comfort of poor drooping saints found great opposition; but the good Lord, stirred up your gracious spirit, to countenance,…

Therefore the will of God here intended (as was intimated before) is nothing but the eternal, gracious, free act, or purpose of his will, whereby he determined or purposed in himself, to recover a Church out of lost mankind, to sanctify them to himself, and to bring them to the…

And the first act of angelical obedience we read of, was their keeping man from a return into Eden, and eating of the Tree of Life (Genesis 3:24), and men could look on them only as flaming swords, ready to execute the wrath of God and the curse upon him. And this state would ha…

(2) The Lord Christ intercedes that this faith may never fail, or be utterly lost (John 17:8, 11, 15, &c.). (3) The power of God is engaged in the preservation of it (2 Peter 1:3; 1 Peter 1:5; Ephesians 1:19, 20). (4) The promises of the covenant are expressly multiplied to this…