Page 29 - Ephesians

to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His
will, to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ
would be to the praise of His glory. In Him, you also, after
listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your
salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with
the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our
inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s
own possession, to the praise of His glory.”

When you read Ephesians 1:1-14, your head swims, and you
have to say, “Where do you begin?” Do you realize that verses 3-
14, are the longest sentence in the Bible? It’s the summary
sentence of Ephesians, and probably the whole Bible. The King
James breaks it down into three sentences, 6, 12 & 14. The New
American Standard breaks it down into four sentences, 6, 10, 12
and 14. But in the Greek, it’s one long sentence. Grammarians
tell us that a sentence should never have more than 30 words.
Well, tell the Holy Spirit about that, because there are 270 words
in this one. Why is it so long?

It’s so long, because he can’t stop telling us how rich we are in
Christ. The longest sentence in the Bible describes “The
unfathomable riches of Christ”. I challenge you to try and read
verses 3-14 in one breath. You can’t. I guess that proves one
thing, it’s a “breath taking” sentence. When you see the majesty
of your wealth, your jaw will drop in amazement.

We could talk about blessed, chosen, predestined, adopted,
enlightened, access to the Father, enriched, redeemed, forgiven,
sealed, and indwelt. All mentioned, in this one sentence. You
could write an entire course on theology, with just those words.
The apostle is struggling with the inadequacy of human language.
That’s why he’s putting dashes, commas, semi colons and
parenthesis. He’s trying to pour it all out. With black ink on white
paper, he’s trying to communicate the infinite riches of God.

We’re all toddlers. We’re at ground zero, when it comes to
knowing Him. We have no standard for computing infinity. And