Subject – The Earnest of Our Inheritance Until the Redemption!
Ephesians 1:14 “Which is the earnest of our
inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.”
May I say in this conclusion, what a blessing is has been to
write these articles about our Sovereignty of God. As we live in a religious
world that idolizes themselves over God and wished they could make God
surrender to their every wish, but to KNOW that everything is in God’s
Sovereign hands and He does as He wishes in all His creation. This is the very
God in which we have our faith, this is the very God that we have trusted to
save our unworthy souls. We do not serve the weak insignificant god that the
religious world does, but the God that is in all points Sovereign. In these 11
verses we have seen how God saves worthless sinner and makes those sinner’s
clean as snow and has adopted that same worthless sinner to be His child by
adoption, this is called SOVEREIGNTY. First, God said V. 4 “According as
he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we
should be holy and without blame before him in love” Second, God told us not
only will we stand before Him white as snow, but also told us we will be His
children because He predestinated us to be children V 4. Third, Our Father told
us that we were purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ through redemption on
the cross, and that act of love by Jesus Christ was enough to forgive all our
sins, making us as though we have never sinned V. 7. Fourth, in V. 10 God told
us He elect and predestinate these children, but also that He was the
administrator of the fulfilment of each step of His loving, gracious act.
Fifth, in V. 12 God promised that we would be “the praise of his glory”
because everything we are as Christians is to His praise in His election,
predestination, His Love, His will, and nothing on our part. There is not one
single part of our Christian being that we can take credit for. And whatever we
are as Christians is His will and glory, all to glorify His Beloved Son
Jesus Christ. None of it was for our glory, but to Christ Jesus. Sixth, in
V. 13 we saw how that God not only saved us in the Man Jesus the Christ, but
that He sent His Holy Spirit to carryout all the actions of our salvation, to
deliver to us fruits from on high, and to seal us that we should be preserved so
that we could never fall or fail from the glorious gift of our salvation that
glorifies His Beloved Son.
“Which is the earnest of our
inheritance” We must understand what this means, this is the beginning of
salvation. This goes all the way back to the “Eternal Covenant” that took place
before the foundation of the world. After the Father elected us or chose us, He
than gave all that elect to His Son Jesus Christ on the ordained promise that
the Son would give His life and blood at Calvary for them. This very elect are
those that Jesus spoke about in His prayer to the father right before His death.
John 17:2 “As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should
give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.” God told us this
agreement was sealed by the Holy Spirit and it was His work to secure each end
of the agreement. The word “earnest” means a down payment and Jesus’s word was
good enough for the down payment and the Holy Spirit was the sealer of that
promise to make sure it was all done and completed as the Father willed.
The Father also said “until the redemption of the
purchased possession” The purchased possession are the elect of God that
the Father gave the Son in eternity past, Paul called these elect “…the
circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus,
and have no confidence in the flesh.” Philippians 3:3 or “the cutting out”
a remnant to be redeemed by Jesus Christ to worship God. Paul also called these
elect “a peculiar people” “Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us
from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good
works.” Titus 2:14
All of this was accomplished, not of our own will, but the
will of our Sovereign God and Father. Look at how many times in these 11 verses
alone it speaks of God’s glory, “unto the praise of his glory”, “after
the counsel of his own will”, over and over it is all about The Father will and
never about ours. The will of the Father was the will of Jesus who died for us.
Everything was planned, predestinated, ordained, and carried out by the Father,
under the sealing power of the Holy Spirt, and accomplished death of Jesus
Christ at Calvary. Nothing was man’s work or involvement, except the acceptance
of the blessings of God our Saviour. Jude 1:25 “To the only wise God
our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever.
Amen.” Thank you our Father in heaven for the glorious gift of salvation!
