I realized yesterday that after posting my nifty little diagram, I didn’t actually say anything about the passage…

As Paul does fairly often in his letters, he opens up Ephesians with a doctrinal explanation before exhorting his readers towards godly living. This passage in Ephesians 1:3-14 seems to be Paul praising God for what He has done. He starts off by saying, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has…” A friend of mine made the point that all praise comes from doctrine; you praise God because of what you know about Him through His revelation to us and you praise Him because of what He’s done knowing that doctrine teaches you what God does and does not do. For example, you praise God for His creation but doctrine teaches you that He was the one that created it.

Paul then explains what God has done for us in Jesus. He:

• chose/elected us (v4)
• predestined us for adoption (v5)
• redeemed us and forgave our sins (v7)
• gave us an inheritance (v11)
• sealed us with the Holy Spirit (v13)

And this seems to be the main point of this passage, that we praise God for giving us every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus.

But along the way, Paul makes these great little sidetracks that dig deeper into what Christ has done for us. In v11 Paul says that we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the council of His will. Whatever your view of predestination is, these passages make us thankful that God is sovereign because His ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts. His ways are perfect and therefore we can trust in His will for our lives. It reminds me of Christ telling us not to worry about anything in Matthew 6:25-34.

Even with these sidetracks, which we could get lost in thoughts about God’s sovereignty for hours from, Paul always ends up praising God by saying that all things are to the praise of His glory. This seems to be what Paul wanted his readers to see, that we are so blessed in Christ and that it was all done to the praise of His everlasting glory.

The first section of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians has always been confusing to me. This is classic Paul-authorship; lots of commas and run-on sentences that provide so much good stuff that your brain can’t stay with Paul’s train of thought. Here is the text from the ESV (I’m really thankful for the folks at Crossway for making the ESV so web-friendly and providing us with a great API):

Ephesians 1:3-14 - 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, 8which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight 9 making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 10as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

11In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, 12so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. 13In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

Try and read it very quickly and you’ll know what I mean about being confused. While I was studying this passage, it was helpful for me to break it up into smaller chunks so I could try and get a feel for what the flow of Paul’s thoughts were. I started doing this in PowerPoint by adding indentations to the breaks and italics where Paul’s mind seems to wander a bit and I realized that arrows and highlights were needed so I switched to Microsoft Visio to help me out with that. Here is what I came up with (click on the picture for a larger version):

Click here for a smaller version that might fit better on your screen so you don’t have to scroll all over the place to read it.

I found this helpful for myself to diagram what Paul was trying to say here. If you read from top to bottom, left to right, you’ll see how I broke the passage up into sections. I tried using highlighted blocks to denote similar passages, the blueish color denotes the blessings that Paul mentions we have in Christ in v3, the clouds represent tangents that Paul takes that, while theologically are topics all in themselves, makes it difficult to get a grasp of the whole passage when you get caught up praising God for what He’s done while you read them.

I would like to learn more about diagramming sentences (I will admit I did not pay close enough attention in grammar school to this). If anyone knows of any good resources, please post them in the comment sections. These don’t have to be “Christian” references either, I know there are a lot of fine English grammar books that deal with this topic that would be helpful to me. I found BibleArc to be a good place with a pretty good interface for “arcing” passages, does anyone have others? Thanks!

EDIT: I found this post from Challies blog. On it, there is what looks to be a good, free book from Desiring God Ministries and a few chapters of a book from Thomas R. Schreiner.

There is a Don’t Waste Your Life conference going on in San Luis Obispo this weekend. Here is the audio/text from John Piper’s first message. Keep checking back here for the next two messages.

A few weeks back, I posted a link to an article in the Economist about a new study attempting to find why, biologically, people believe in God. Dr. Mohler has a post on the same article (not in response to anything I’ve done of course) but provides much more insight into the study. Have a look, and while you’re at it, if you don’t read Al Mohler’s blog on a regular basis, I’d encourage you to do so.

The Expository Genius of John Calvin
by Dr. Steven J. Lawson
Reformation Trust, 2007

Overview

This wonderful book is written as a plea to modern-day preachers and teachers to return to the practice of expository preaching of the Word of God. From Dr. Lawson:

As we consider Calvin’s life and work, we will survey the distinguishing marks of his pulpit ministry, consider the core presuppositions that undergirded his biblical preaching, and examine his personal preparation for the pulpit. Along the way, we will gain an overview of his preaching itself—his sermon introduction, interpretation, application, conclusion, and final intercession. In short, we will explore the distinguishing marks of Calvin’s expository genius.

The goal here is not to take a sentimental journey—the hour is too desperate for such a triviality. Rather, the aim of this book is to raise the bar for a new generation of expositors. If you are a preacher or teacher, may you be challenged to a higher standard in your handling of the Word. If you are a supporter of one called to this ministry, may you know
how best to pray.

Outline

The book is divided into two parts. The first section gives a brief biographical sketch of John Calvin and the state of the church in Europe during his lifetime. The second section provides the reader with an overview of John Calvin’s preaching methods.

The biographical section, while not meant to be complete, is a great introduction for those who have not studied the life of John Calvin. It provides just enough detail to get a sense of what Calvin would have struggled with during his lifetime of opening the Word of God for himself and for others.

The second section, the majority of the book, details Calvin’s habits of expository preaching. Dr. Lawson begins with John’s thoughts toward what should be said and done in the pulpit and moves on to cover his study habits and how he prepared his sermons. It is interesting to note that Calvin, like many other preachers who spoke multiple times during the week, preached out of an overflow of his studies. He did not have to prepare his sermons in the typical manner because they were already formed in his mind. After pouring over the Scripture passage he was studying, preaching became, to him, simply relating that knowledge back to his audience in a manner that was easily understandable.

Dr. Lawson continues and describes how Calvin began his sermons with a brief review of the previous sermon (Calvin preached verse-by-verse each week, continuing right where he left off in the previous message) and then gave his audience an overview of the text before preaching on the text itself. The book then discusses how Calvin went about his exposition of the text and how he crafted his words towards his audience and delivered his message. John Calvin’s sermons would end with an explanation of how to apply the text to their lives and, finally, a plea to his audience to take God’s Word to heart and live it in their daily lives.

Summary

Dr. Lawson’s work accomplished its goal, to call on preachers to return to a faithful exposition of God’s Word in the pulpit, and gave a wonderful example of one man who did just that. You may ask why a layman would want to read this book if they may never stand before a congregation. My answer would be that they would gain a valuable guide in what to look for in good preaching as they seek out a church to belong to. In that light, I would recommend this book to all audiences, not just preachers and teachers of God’s Word.

I end with a description of the faithfulness John Calvin had to continually preach the Word of God above all things:

Upon his return, Calvin hit the town preaching. Reassuming his pulpit ministry precisely where he had left off three years earlier—in the very next verse of his earlier exposition—Calvin became a mainstay, preaching multiple times on Sunday and, during some weeks, each weekday. His verse-by-verse exposition of Scripture, week after week, even day after day, would make Geneva a shining beacon of truth.

Reclaiming the Mind has some updated news on the recent discovery. While you’re at it, have a look at The Center For The Study Of New Testament Manuscripts, they have some great resources on textual criticism there.

This week, R.C. Sproul explains the gospel. Enjoy!

Click here if the above link does not work

“And there they continued to preach the gospel” - Acts 14:7

Each Tuesday a different reflection on the gospel and its continual effect on our lives

My wife and I took a few hours this week and went down to the Museum of Natural History in D.C. They have a new butterfly exhibit that Libby wanted to see and I’ll take any chance I can get to think more about evolution/creation. Butterflies have created quite the stir lately given one genus’ particular mating habits that seem to reinforce the idea/theory/fact of natural selection. So I assumed this exhibit was in-place to help create more buzz about this research. And it was.

First off, museums need to create more modular exhibits and their accompanied text. It’s unfortunate with the speed of things today that museums are months or years behind current research, I found people actually crossing things out with a permanent marker because something on a plaque was incorrect. Other than that museums are wonderful places to get an up-close, 3D look at things. There’s only so much a computer screen can really tell you. So just a quick note, if you are like me and haven’t been to a museum in a long time, go spend a Saturday at one.

Two major schools of thought exist today in Christian circles. Some call themselves young-earth creationists, others would label themselves old-earth creationists. One group sticks to a literal interpretation of Genesis 1-2 and say everything was created in six 24-hour days and, given the recorded genealogies we have in the Bible, would say the earth is around 5000-6000 years old. The other says Genesis 1-2 should be read poetically and that the time period of God’s creation was very long, thus accounting for the scientific research stating that the earth is about 4.6 billion years old. Within both of these groups there are all types of differing ideas on evolution and man’s beginnings. Both sides would hold fast to their high-view of the Word of God and the truth that God created all things no matter what process He used to get there.

I hold to a young-earth creation viewpoint only because I haven’t been convinced otherwise. Old-earth creationism has too many gray areas that haven’t been answered yet for me. For instance:

Gen 1:7then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature…15The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it…But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. 21So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. 22And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.

I don’t know how to read that poetically. If man evolved from more primitive forms of modern-day humans, at which point in the evolution did God say “this one is the first one”? Paul said we all sinned in Adam, did all the other creatures before Adam sin or is Romans 3:23 incorrect? Adam is found in genealogies (Genesis 5, Luke 3) which tells me that we are not to interpret Adam as being mankind but as a particular individual. Even more so, Paul says Adam is a type of Christ, we certainly can’t say that mankind is a type of Christ, it must be an individual otherwise we all become a type of Christ.

You might say there are too many gray areas in young-earth thought but those seem to be gray areas when viewed from the ever-changing state of current science. Where did the dinosaurs come from? What about the look/feel of the earth? it looks old. What about the bones of primitive man we’ve found? I don’t have any answers to these questions that don’t refute what I believe to be a correct interpretation of Genesis 1-2 so therefore I continue in my young-earth beliefs.

Where are you on this issue? Is it even an issue for you? I would love to hear from those who consider themselves old-earth folks on this.

I woke up this morning and found that some bloggers had been up all night, furiously typing to provide us with some great Easter morning devotionals. So, to thank them for their hard work I’m going to steal them (it’s ok though, most of them like it when you do this):

• Low in the grave he lay
• Christ is risen!
• Living by faith in the risen Christ
• Because Christ is risen, abound in the work of the Lord
• Easter
• Did Jesus spend Saturday in Hell?
• Holy Week: Sunday

He is Risen!

Have a blessed Easter weekend!

• A chart showing the 11 recorded resurrection appearances that Jesus made. (HT: JT)
• This article is fairly graphic, medically describing the pain Jesus went through, there is some good info but be warned. (HT: JT)
• This map is really neat, it shows when and where the major events of this past week occurred. Be sure to click on the markers to read the descriptions. (HT: ESV Blog)
• Slate explains why Easter hasn’t become so commercialized. I took the picture below at a local bookstore.
• An Easter video from Matthew 28.
• Mark D. Roberts a few posts on the last words of Jesus.
• A good post on why the “un-churched” (the Chreaster or Crossmas crowd) don’t attend church other than Christmas and Easter.
• One publisher is leaving the gruesome cross out of their Sunday School Easter material.