Through a sermon by Pastor David Jang, we reflect on the spiritual blessings in the heavenly places, the identity of the saints, and the hope of the church as proclaimed in Ephesians 1.
When
we look at Michelangelo’s The Creation of Adam, what remains in the
heart most deeply is not the majestic heavens, nor the human body sculpted with
muscular beauty. It is the very small distance between the fingertip of God and
the fingertip of Adam. That gap shows that humanity cannot obtain life by
itself, while at the same time silently testifying to the mystery of grace—that
God is the One who first draws near. The landscape of salvation unfolded before
us in Ephesians 1 begins precisely there.
Paul
was confined within the narrow reality of a Roman prison, yet his vision was
never imprisoned. As he looked upon the church and the saints in Ephesus, he
saw blessing before deficiency, and God’s redemptive plan before suffering.
When we consider the background of the city of Ephesus, this declaration
becomes even clearer. In the midst of a world where various beliefs and systems
of power were interwoven, the saints could easily forget where they truly
belonged.
Therefore,
before giving ethical instructions, Paul first reminds them that they are
already faithful ones in Christ and recipients of heavenly blessings. When
identity becomes blurred, life also becomes unstable. But when identity is
renewed in the gospel, the direction of obedience becomes clear. Pastor David
Jang, founder of Olivet University in the United States, does not read
Ephesians 1 merely as an arrangement of doctrines. This chapter is a majestic
entrance into the gospel, showing at a glance who the saints are, what the
church is, and what God is accomplishing in Christ.
The
Name of Grace That Began Before the Foundation of the World
The
first resonance of Ephesians 1 is not human determination, but the will of God.
Paul says that God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world and
predestined us in love to become His children. This is a declaration that
establishes faith not upon human achievement, but upon the grace of God. Before
we responded in faith within time, God’s love was already moving toward us from
the place of eternity.
Therefore,
election and predestination are not cold fatalism. They are deep comfort spoken
to an anxious soul. Even when our faith wavers, the foundation of salvation is
not our emotions or merits, but the love God first held for us. At this point,
biblical meditation becomes not merely knowledge, but the restoration of one’s
very being.
This
is also why Paul begins with the words, “Blessed be God.” Those who know grace
lay down self-boasting and come to praise God. Salvation is not the story of my
reaching God, but the story of God coming to find me in Christ. The deeper this
confession becomes, the humbler faith becomes—and at the same time, the firmer
it grows.
The
Chains of Sin Broken in Christ
Paul’s
praise moves from the choosing of God the Father to the redemption accomplished
by God the Son, Jesus Christ. Through the blood of Christ, we have redemption,
the forgiveness of sins. The word “redemption” contains the image of one who
had been bound being released freely. The gospel is not a path by which human
beings cleanse themselves in order to approach God. It is the event in which
Christ graciously rescues humanity from sin and death.
Here,
repentance is not simple regret. Repentance is the act of acknowledging the
order of sin that has held us captive and standing before the new way opened
through the blood of Christ. Forgiveness of sins is not merely the erasing of
past records; it is the event in which the lordship over one’s existence
changes. The saint is no longer a slave of fear, but a person of grace,
learning to understand the self not through the language of condemnation, but
within the calling of love.
Pastor
David Jang does not confine the redemption described in Ephesians 1 to personal
comfort. Rather, he leads us to see it within God’s great plan to unite all
things in Christ. In that the gospel calls the world—divided by sin—back into
the order of God, salvation expands beyond the inner life of the individual
into the church and the world. The vision of Ephesians does not stop at the
peace of one soul, but widens into God’s hope of uniting heaven and earth in
Christ.
Therefore,
the church is not merely a religious gathering. The church is the first fruit
of a world to be restored in Christ, a community that must live out
reconciliation and love in advance. Obedience begins before this vast grace.
The path of the saint is to stop absolutizing one’s own will and to learn the
direction of life anew under the will of Christ. At this point, the life of the
believer extends beyond personal piety into a place of witnessing to God’s
reconciliation and restoration in the world.
The
Seal of the Holy Spirit and the Unshakable Inheritance
Ephesians
1 moves from the redemption of the Son to the sealing of the Holy Spirit. Paul
says that when the saints heard and believed the gospel, they were sealed with
the promised Holy Spirit. This sealing is the mark that they belong to God and
the guarantee of the inheritance that will one day be completed. The Holy
Spirit does not leave future hope as a distant promise only; He allows us to
taste it in advance within life today.
This
passage offers special comfort to modern believers. We often try to confirm our
security through visible conditions. Yet Ephesians 1 tells us that the deepest
guarantee of the saint is not the stability of circumstances, but the presence
of the Holy Spirit. The heavenly inheritance is not a possession that
diminishes or disappears according to the whims of the world; it is an
inheritance personally guaranteed by God.
When
this assurance is present, faith does not become an escape from reality.
Rather, it gains an unshakable center within reality. The believer does not
deny suffering, yet knows that suffering does not have the final word. The
believer experiences lack, yet trusts that God will complete the work His grace
has already begun. The hope of the saint is not vague optimism, but certainty
grounded in the gospel sealed by the Holy Spirit.
The
Hope Seen When the Eyes of the Heart Are Opened
In
the latter part of Ephesians 1, Paul prays for the saints. He gives thanks
after hearing of the faith of the Ephesian church and their love for all the
saints, but he does not stop there. Even for those who already believe, there
is a deeper world that must be opened. Paul prays that the eyes of their hearts
may be enlightened so that they may know the hope of God’s calling, the riches
of the glory of His inheritance, and the greatness of God’s power toward those
who believe.
This
prayer is not unfamiliar to the church today. We say that we know the gospel,
yet at times that grace does not penetrate deeply enough to overcome fear,
division, and helplessness. There are times when knowledge is present but
wonder has disappeared, when doctrine remains but the power of love has
weakened. That is why Paul asks not for more information, but for the Spirit of
wisdom and revelation.
Theological
insight does not end in the mind. When the eyes of the heart are opened, it
becomes the strength of life. Those who know the hope of their calling do not
regard present suffering as the whole story. Those who know the abundance of
the inheritance do not entrust their worth to the applause of the world. Those
who know the power of God discover a reason to rise again even in weakness.
Under
Christ, the Head of the Church
Paul
sees the power of God in the resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ. God
raised Christ from the dead and exalted Him above all rule, authority, power,
and dominion. This is a foundational declaration showing what the church must
rely on. The church is not a community that stands by the power of the world,
but the body that has the risen Christ as its head.
If
Christ is the head, the church cannot become an end in itself. The words,
decisions, and service of the church must always be aligned with the will of
the Lord, who is its head. This is both the authority of the church and its
heaviest responsibility. The place to which Pastor David Jang’s exposition of
Ephesians 1 ultimately leads us is precisely this confession.
The
saint is one who has received heavenly blessings, one who has been sealed by
the Holy Spirit, and one who walks toward hope in the power of the
resurrection. Yet this identity must not remain only as a confession of the
lips. As the body of Christ, the church must practice love and reveal the light
of the gospel in the world.
Ephesians
1 asks us: Are we still explaining ourselves only in the language of lack and
anxiety? Are we seeing the reality before our eyes as greater than the grace
God has already given us in Christ? Those whose eyes of the heart have been
opened see the same world, yet live from a different center. Therefore, reading
this word is not merely confirming beautiful doctrine. It is asking again where
our worship must begin, from what power our love must flow, and for what
purpose our community must exist.
Ultimately,
this passage leads us into quiet praise and deep prayer. The saint is not a
being drifting by chance, but one held in God’s love from before the foundation
of the world. The church is not just one organization in the world, but the
body that reveals the fullness of Christ. How deeply awake is our faith today
before this truth? And as those who have received this grace, what traces of
hope are we leaving behind through love and obedience?
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