ACC ~ Ephesians 1 v7 - 10

OVERVIEW:

We have been redeemed from former captivity (JEROME) by Christ’s death that is worthy of our love (THEODORET), bringing freedom now (AMBROSIASTER) and a promise for future glory (CHRYSOSTOM). God has given us a special gift of divine and human knowledge (MARIUS VICTORINUS, JEROME). God has revealed his previously hidden will for our salvation (AMBROSIASTER), though the revelation may still be from our vantage point incomplete (JEROME). Predestination is the eternal plan, the historical execution of which reveals Christ’s role as Lord of creation (ORIGEN, MARIUS VICTORINUS). With the complete cooperation of the Son the Father has reversed the degenerative trend of history (CHRYSOSTOM). “Uniting all things in him,” or recapitulation, denotes here the summing up of all times and creatures in Christ through the Spirit (IRENAEUS, CHRYSOSTOM), restoring every creature to its original goodness (THEODORET).

1:7a | Redemption Through Christ’s Blood

WHAT IS REDEMPTION. JEROME: The one who is yet to be redeemed is a captive. He has ceased to be free by coming under the power of the enemy. So we are captives in this world and bound by the yoke of slavery to the principalities and powers, unable to release our hands from our chains. So we raise our eyes upward until the Redeemer arrives. EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS 1.1.7.

THROUGH HIS BLOOD—WHAT HIS DEATH ACHIEVED. THEODORET: The death of the Lord has made us worthy of love. In shedding through him the toils of sin and being freed from slavery to the tyrant, we have been drawn toward the characteristics of God’s image. EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS 1.7.

1:7b | Forgiveness of Our Trespasses, According to His Grace

HOW OUR FORGIVENESS RELATES TO CHRIST’S REDEMPTIVE GRACE. ORIGEN: Forgiveness of sins follows redemption, for there would be no forgiveness of sin for anyone before redemption occurs. First then we need to be redeemed, to be no longer subject to our captor and oppressor, so that having been freed and taken out of his hands we may be able to receive the benefit of remission of sins. Once our wounds have been healed we are called to live in accord with piety and the other virtues. EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS.

HE SACRIFICED HIS BELOVED SON FOR THOSE WHO HATED HIM. CHRYSOSTOM: The wonder is not only that he gave his Son but that he did so in this way, by sacrificing the one he loved. It is astonishing that he gave the Beloved for those who hated him. See how highly he honors us. If even when we hated him and were enemies he gave the Beloved, what will he not do for us now? HOMILY ON EPHESIANS 1.1.8.

1:8 | Grace Lavished on Us

RICHES HEAPED ON US. MARIUS VICTORINUS: The riches of God are heaped upon us in that he makes us something better than we were at the beginning of our existence. EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS 1.1.8.

1:9a | Wisdom and Insight Made Known to Us

THE WISDOM AND PRUDENCE OF KNOWING CHRIST. MARIUS VICTORINUS: The whole of this wisdom and prudence consists in knowing Christ and through Christ understanding and seeing God. For whatever remaining wisdom there is in the world and whatever other wisdom of this kind there may be outside it, all wisdom and prudence is nonetheless empty, worthless and wretched without Christ. EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS 1.1.8.

THE MYSTERY OF HIS GIFT. AMBROSIASTER: The pleasure of God, whose counsel cannot be changed, was to show in Christ the mystery of his will. This happened at the time when he chose that he should be revealed. Now his will was this, that he should then draw close to all who were in sin, either in heaven or in earth. God gave Christ to bring believers the gift of forgiveness of their sins through faith in Christ. EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS 1.9.1.

PRUDENCE TOWARD THE VISIBLE, WISDOM TOWARD THE INVISIBLE. JEROME: The Stoics also hold that there is a distinction between wisdom and insight. They say, “Wisdom is the knowledge of things divine and human, insight only of that which is mortal.” According to this distinction we might apply Paul’s term wisdom to the invisible and visible and insight only to the visible. EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS 1.1.9.

ALL WISDOM REVEALED BUT KNOWN IN PART AS WE ARE ABLE. JEROME: Some attentive reader might object: “If Paul knows in part and prophesies in part and now sees as through a glass darkly, how is the mystery of God revealed either to him or to the Ephesians “in all wisdom and insight?” … It is not that they by themselves have learned this mystery “in all wisdom and insight,” but God “in all wisdom and insight” has revealed the mystery to us, so far as we are able to grasp it. EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS 1.1.9.

1:9b | According to God’s Purpose

WHETHER PREDESTINATION IS DISTINGUISHED FROM PURPOSE. ORIGEN: We must examine the possibility that predestination and purpose differ so that purpose is presupposed in predestination. Thus, as it were, the predestination is in the thought of God and the purpose unfolds in accordance with things predestined, so that then they become realities and actualize the predestination. EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS.

HIS PURPOSE SET FORTH IN CHRIST. MARIUS VICTORINUS: Not only has God a will, but the intention of his will is expressed in Christ. Hence all things are done through him. There is nothing in the mystery that is not done through Jesus Christ. EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS 1.1.9.

1:10a | A Plan for the Fullness of Time

HOW THE FULLNESS OF TIME WAS DETERMINED. CHRYSOSTOM: The “fullness of time” was the Son’s appearing. When, then, God had done all through angels, through prophets and through the law, yet nothing had improved, there was a danger that humanity had come into being for nothing. It was not going merely nowhere but to the bad. All were perishing together, just like in the days of the flood but more so. Just then he offered this gracious dispensation—to ensure that creation should not have come into being for nothing or in vain. The “fullness of time” is that divine wisdom by which, at the moment when all were most likely to perish, they were saved. HOMILY ON EPHESIANS 1.1.10.

THE COORDINATION OF THE WORK OF THE FATHER AND THE SON. CHRYSOSTOM: See how precisely he speaks. The origin is from the Father—the design, the resolution, the first initiative. The embodied fulfillment of the design came through the Son, who is never called servant but always Son. … What the Father has willed in the Son is not external to his will. What the Son has done has not deprived the Father of his willing action. All is common in the relation of Father and Son. HOMILY ON EPHESIANS 1.1.10.

1:10b | To Unite All Things in Him

UNITING HEAVENLY AND EARTHLY THINGS. IRENAEUS: Thus Christ unites … in himself all that is earthly and all that is spiritual. He unites humanity to Spirit and places the Spirit in humanity. Being himself made the fountainhead of the Spirit, Christ gives the Spirit to be the head of humanity. Thus through the Son by the Spirit we ourselves now see and hear and speak. AGAINST HERESIES 5.20.2.

ALL THINGS IN CHRIST. MARIUS VICTORINUS: It is not all things indifferently that are restored but all things that are in Christ—both those that are in heaven and those that are on the earth but only those that are in Christ. Others are strange to him. Whatever things then are in Christ, it is these that are revitalized and rise again, whether in heaven or in earth. For he is salvation, he is renewal, he is eternity. EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS 1.1.10.

WHAT IS MEANT BY THIS SUMMING UP. CHRYSOSTOM: To “recapitulate” is to join together. But let us press on closer to the fuller truth. In our customary usage a recapitulation is a brief summary of what has been said at great length. It is a concise expression of everything that has been detailed. That is what it is here as well. The providential ordering that has occurred over a long time, the Son has once for all “recapitulated.” Everything is summed up in him. … There is also another meaning: In Christ’s incarnation God has given a single head to all creation, both angels and humans. HOMILY ON EPHESIANS 1.1.10.

RECAPITULATING HEAVEN AND EARTH. THEODORET: Only God’s nature needs nothing. The whole creation stood in need of his healing order of gifts. For, since the elements came into being to serve human needs, he made them subject to corruption, for he could foresee that transgression was going to make humanity mortal also. As for the unseen powers, they were naturally aggrieved when they saw human beings living in wickedness. … By recapitulation he means the complete transformation of things. For through the gift given through Christ the Lord the human nature is raised anew and puts on incorruptibility. Ultimately the visible creation, delivered from corruption, will receive incorrup-tion. The hosts of unseen powers will rejoice continually, because sorrow and grief and sighing have fled away. This is what the divine apostle teaches through these words; for he said not simply “heaven and earth” but “those in heaven” and “those on earth.” EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS 1.10.