By Robin Schumacher, Exclusive Columnist
If you do any kind of professional writing, you know to keep your sentences short and crisp. Don’t drag on with many words that need a sea of comments to separate phrases because, with today’s short attention spans, we’re told people will struggle to retain your train of thought.
Clearly, the apostle Paul didn’t follow that advice when he wrote the opening of his letter to the Ephesians, which contains the longest sentence in the entire Bible. Verses 3-14 of chapter one comprise one sentence containing 202 words in the original Greek. The only one that comes close to it is Paul’s letter to the Colossians, where, again in chapter 1, verses 9-20 are also one sentence, having somewhere between 190-195 words depending on the Greek text being used.
Although many translations chop up the Ephesians sentence to help readability, the Lexham English Bible (LEB) stays faithful to the original Greek and keeps it together. Let’s take a deep breath and read through it together:
“Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him in love, having predestined us to adoption through Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace that he bestowed on us in the beloved, in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace, that he caused to abound to us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he purposed in him, for the administration of the fullness of times, to bring together all things in Christ, the things in the heavens and the things on the earth, in him in whom also we were chosen, having been predestined according to the purpose of the One who works all things according to the counsel of his will, that we who hoped beforehand in Christ should be for the praise of his glory, in whom also you, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also when you believed you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the down payment of our inheritance, until the redemption of the possession, to the praise of his glory.”
There’s a lot of profound doctrine and biblical truth to unpack there, which is why entire books have been written on it. Let me give you my favorite three key takeaways.
The reason God does anything
In one of Jonathan Edwards’ lesser-known works, The End for Which God Created the World, Edwards explores the question of why God decided to create something in the first place. In short, Edwards says God created the world for the display and enjoyment of His own glory. His aim in creation is to glorify Himself by communicating His glory to His creatures so that they know Him, delight in Him, and praise Him forever.
Paul agrees in this section of Scripture, saying that the highest purpose of our salvation is not our happiness, peace, or eternal life (even though those are wonderful realities), but that God’s true aim in saving us is the display of His own glory. To emphasize this, Paul says three times: “To the praise of the glory of His grace” (v. 6), “…to the praise of His glory” (v. 12), “…to the praise of His glory” (v. 14).
That glory, Paul shows, is given to all three members of the Trinity. The Father planned our salvation (vv. 3–6), the Son accomplished it (vv. 7–12), and the Holy Spirit guaranteed it (vv. 13–14). Isaiah sums up what Paul is getting across when he writes: “The people whom I formed for Myself will declare My praise” (Is. 43:21).
Salvation is of the Lord
It’s fair to say all Christians acknowledge, in general, something the book of Jonah says: “Salvation is from the LORD” (Jonah 2:9). But some believe that means only the plan of salvation vs. God being the efficient cause and retainer of our salvation.
Paul makes it clear in this section that it’s the latter.
The Apostle tells us salvation is entirely God’s work from beginning to end, emphasizing that every stage of salvation originates with Him, not us. He’s the one who chose us before the foundation of the world (v. 4), predestined us for adoption (v. 5), redeemed us through Christ (v. 7), forgave our sins (v. 7), revealed His will (vv. 8–9), gave us an inheritance (v. 11), and sealed us with the Holy Spirit (vv. 13–14).
The subject of nearly every major verb in the sentence is God, while we are the recipients. A rich commentary on what Paul wrote about how God works in our lives is found in the Canons of Dort III and IV. 11, 12, which are worth quoting in their entirety:
“Moreover, when God accomplishes this, his good pleasure, in the elect, or works in them true conversion, he not only provides that the Gospel should be outwardly preached to them, and powerfully illuminates their minds by the Holy Spirit, that they may rightly understand and discern what are the things of the Spirit of God, but he also, by the efficacy of the same regenerating Spirit, pervades the innermost recess of man, opens the closed, softens the hardened, and circumcises the uncircumcised heart, infuses new qualities into the will, and makes that will which had been dead alive, which was evil good, which had been unwilling willing, which had been refractory pliable, and actuates and strengthens it, that, as a good tree, it may be able to bring forth the fruit of good works … Whereupon the will, being now renewed, is not only actuated and moved by God, but being actuated by God, itself also becomes active. Wherefore man himself, by virtue of that grace received, is rightly said to believe and repent.”
The spotlight should always be on Jesus
If repetition means emphasis in Scripture (and it does), then Paul is trumpeting the fact 10 or so times in his sentence that all heavenly spotlights need to be on Jesus, and that He is the sphere in which every blessing exists.
We are chosen in Him, redeemed through Him, given an inheritance in Him, and sealed because we are in Him. Paul tells us that Christianity is primarily about being united to Christ from whom every blessing comes.
It’s worth pointing out one in particular, which is being sealed in Christ. With so many Christians today worried about whether they can lose their salvation, H. W. Hoehner provides relief for them in his Ephesians commentary when he writes, “The word “seal” indicates security (Matt. 27:66; Eph. 4:30), authentication and approval (John 6:27), certification of genuineness (John 3:33), and identification of ownership (2 Cor. 1:22; Rev. 7:2; 9:4).”
So, relax, your salvation is safe in God’s hands.
Summing up
My stab at shortening Paul’s long Ephesians sentence using the above three key learnings is this: All that God does is for the praise of His glory, including our salvation which the Father planned, the Son achieved, and the Holy Spirit secured, all provided entirely by His grace and accomplished through our union with Christ.
I can’t think of a better way to finish than to quote the cleric and hymn writer Augustus Toplady (the author of Rock of Ages), who sums up Paul’s fantastic truths this way in his hymn How Vast the Benefits Divine:
To thee, O Lord, alone is due
All glory and renown;
Aught to ourselves we dare not take,
Or rob thee of thy crown.
Thou wast thyself our Surety
In God’s redemption plan;
In thee his grace was given us,
Long ere the world began.
Robin Schumacher is an accomplished software executive and Christian apologist who has written many articles, authored and contributed to several Christian books, appeared on nationally syndicated radio programs, and presented at apologetic events. He holds a BS in Business, Master’s in Christian apologetics and a Ph.D. in New Testament. His latest book is, A Confident Faith: Winning people to Christ with the apologetics of the Apostle Paul.
