Appreciation of the reality of the super-grace life. Eph 1:6; 2Co 3:17-18

So far, our corrected translation of Ephesians 1 is as follows:

 

EPH 1:1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus through God’s purpose, will and design, to those being saints and faithful in Christ Jesus:

           

EPH 1:2 Grace to you and peace, from the ultimate source of God our Father, and Lord Jesus Christ.

           

EPH 1:3 Worthy of praise and glorification the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the one having provided us benefits by every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ:

           

EPH 1:4 Even as he has elected us for himself in him before the beginning of the world, that we keep on being saints and blameless in the presence of him:

           

EPH 1:5 In love having predestined us with the result of the appointment of adult sons for himself through Jesus Christ, according to the benevolent purpose from his will,

           

EPH 1:6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.

 

So far in verse 6 we have exegeted the first clause:

 

eis epainon - to the over-praise or applause. Epainon speaks of recognition or approval so literally “to the praise” is, “resulting in recognition.”

 

Praise of God is always intensive and it is always from the soul in appreciation for what God has done in grace. Grace is always the unmerited favor and blessing from God.

 

Praise, or in our case epainon, which is over-praise is a soul, a heart that is in awe of the glory [essence] of God’s grace.

 

What a plan! In EPH 1:6, those who understand the ultimate parts of God’s plan will appreciate and applaud God’s gracious purpose and will.

 

EPH 1:6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.

 

Next we have:

 

genitive singular of doxa - without the definite article it refers to the quality of God’s essence.

 

Each member of the Trinity has identical essence that they have always possessed.

 

This essence has a quality that is unmatched as well as a quality that is beautiful.

 

On the one hand we have the essence of the creature. Even in perfection in the Garden the creature’s essence paled in comparison to God’s essence.

 

Righteousness, Justice, Love, Immutability, Veracity, Omniscience, Omnipresence, Omnipotence, Eternal Life, Sovereignty.

 

All of these are perfect and eternal. Together the comprise God’s glory. And in this passage, without the definite article, it is the quality of God’s glory and essence that is magnified.

 

To translate the next prepositional phrase, “of His grace,” loses the real meaning here.

 

The correct translation is:

 

tes charitos autou - from the source of His grace.

 

“Resulting in the recognition of glory from the source of His grace.”

 

God has shown forth His glory to mankind from the ultimate source of grace. This makes it clear that we cannot work our way to a position from which we can see His glory.

 

 

God has shared His glory by means of grace. It is given to our favor without merit from any of us. He did all the work in EP so that He could bring us into the sphere of His glory so that we may behold it with out own eyes.

 

Therefore, it is a fact that God has shown His essenceHis glory, and since He has done so through grace, meaning you do not have to have some form of merit to see it, there is no excuse for anyone not to see it.

 

Life’s varying experience may present immediate problems; but the essential factors of salvation, preservation, and eternal glory are His to accomplish and are never made to depend upon human success, achievement, or merit.

 

And if you have beheld the glory of God you will understand that nothing is as beautiful or as valuable, therefore nothing can take its place as the ultimate source of life and beauty.

 

Matt 13:44

"The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and hid; and from joy over it he goes and sells all that he has, and buys that field.

 

Matt 13:45 - 46 "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls, and upon finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had, and bought it.

 

These parables could mean that you see the kingdom and sell everything that you have to get it. Though many interpret it this way it is wrong because we do not sell or buy anything.

 

The man and the merchant both refer to Jesus Christ. He sold everything that He had, His spiritual life and fellowship with God the Father, and He bought or redeemed the human race.

 

The Lord saw something of great value (the enslaved souls of men) and He gave all that He had to buy them.

 

Is there anything more beautiful? When you see Him and His cross you see God’s Love, God’s Justice, God’s Righteousness. That will become more beautiful to you than anything else.

 

If God is going to reveal His glory by means of grace then He has to provide for us a means of perceiving it from the source of His grace.

 

That means is the inculcation of the inspired word of God under the FHS.

 

2 Cor 3:17

Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

 

 

 

2 Cor 3:18

But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.

 

When we recognize it we appreciate it, in fact we applaud it; this is the meaning of praise.

 

Matt 13:17

For truly I say to you, that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it; and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.

 

EPH 1:18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory [from the source of His glory] of His inheritance in the saints,

 

 

EPH 1:6 to the praise of the glory of His grace [“Resulting in the recognition of glory from the source of His grace.”], which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.

 

“which He freely bestowed” - hes plus the aorist active indicative of chariteo [echaritosen] - “from which [grace] He has pursued us with grace.”

 

The aorist tense is a dramatic aorist stating a present reality with the certainty of a past event.

 

The past event is the doctrine of divine decrees or God’s decision in eternity past to treat mankind in grace.

 

Therefore, since man is restless and hard to catch this verb recognizes a man as a believer being pursued by grace.

 

Charismeans grace. “freely bestowed” - chariteo means to be pursued by grace or graced out.

 

No matter if we are carnal or spiritual, if we are in reversionism or advancing with momentum, God is going to pursue us with grace.

 

Now the form that the grace comes in will be different if we are in reversionism or carnality than if we are spiritual and advancing, but it is grace all the way.

 

The dramatic aorist is often used for a status which has just been realized, and the whole objective of Ephesians 1:6 is to become aware of the super-grace life with the result that you enter into the super-grace life.

 

How many times in your Christian walk did you hear a doctrine that you’d heard before and then bam; it just became a reality. It was realized through your own personal revelation.

 

Have you realized through your own personal revelation that the super-grace life is first real and that the result of your lifestyle right now is that you will enter into it, if you have not already?

 

This has to come from personal revelation. It is not my job to convince you, but rather it is the Holy Spirit’s job to convince and convict you of its reality. My job is to communicate it clearly and accurately and to repeat it and repeat it. 

 

The liberty given by means of the filling of the Holy Spirit, which is the Royal priesthood, is the freedom to metabolize doctrine with the direct result of personal revelation to the believer.

 

1 Cor 2:10

For to us God revealed them through the Spirit [your personal revelation of a certain doctrine]; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.

 

This is positive volition towards the word of God and the filling of the Holy Spirit - this is the believer’s responsibility. This lifestyle will open the eyes of your soul to see the super-grace life that is a clear view of God’s essence from the source of His grace.

 

We often reject this plan in favor of our own.

 

Paul had a responsibility to the Gentiles and he rejected it and went to the Jews. After two years in prison he fully recovered and accepted God’s calling on his life.

 

Ephesians is one of those prison epistles that Paul wrote to the Gentiles in his reversion recovery.

 

Paul in reversion recovery has come to realize the fact that ever since the moment he was saved he has been pursued by grace, which opened his eyes to the super-grace life.

 

That’s why he uses chariteo in EPH 1:6.

 

There is another man that I’ve studied recently who came to the save realization after his reversion recovery - David.

 

Ps 23:1

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

 

Ps 23:6

Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me [pursue me] all the days of my life,

 

Again:

“which He freely bestowed” - hes plus the aorist active indicative of chariteo [echaritosen] - “from which [grace] He has pursued us with grace.”

 

The active voice means the subject produces the action of the verb. In this case God the Father is the subject and He does the pursuing.

 

So what is the super-grace life? The believer’s recognition of the essenceglory of God that results in applause or intense appreciation.

 

How does any believer enter the super-grace life? The believer’s recognition that essenceglory of God is only seen in the Word of God.

 

Why does the believer have the potential for the super-grace life? The believer has been pursued by grace from salvation until death.

 

It is the plan of God the Father that pursues us from the point of salvation to the point that we depart from this earth. The indicative mood is the reality of the super-grace believer being pursued by God’s grace.

 

Therefore the believer will never take the credit for having reached and experienced the greater grace of the super-grace life.

 

This life begins at SSE and intensifies from there.

 

And the next pronoun reveals the equal privilege and equal opportunity of every believer to have this life.

 

There are no genetic, environmental, or volitional handicaps that can hinder any believer. These were erased at the moment of salvation.

 

Weak believers allow these things back into their lives, but with doctrine over time the weak will become strong and remove them from influencing the soul.

 

This equality is fully realized in the next little pronoun.

 

“us” is the accusative plural of the personal pronoun ego [hemas]. This personal pronoun means that any believer who is positive toward doctrine is under the principle of super-grace.

 

There is a place in Ireland that is about 30 minutes away from my house. It is an 18^th century house built for a duke that sits on a beautiful lake. The lake’s background is 2000 foot green mountains. Around the house are sprawling green lawns hundreds of yards in all directions.

 

And behind the house is a famous garden. Ireland’s climate is perfect for plants and flowers and for pretty much everything that can come out of the ground. And this garden is expertly cultivated.

 

They have roses of every color. Rose bushes 5 feet high filled with 100 peddle roses. Now when you look into one of those roses and see its vibrant color, its perfect symmetry, and your nose fills with its intoxicating smell you will forget everything, absolutely everything for those few moments.

 

 

 

I liken this to peering into the essence or the glory of God. You forget yourself. You forget your problems, any dangers, all past handicaps, and you stand in awe of God - that’s the resultant praise.

 

But unlike the garden, which is in season and out of season, the glory of God is available to “us” every day of our lives after salvation.

 

And when the days come that we will forget it is there and ready to be beheld, God will pursue us with it. This is the grace of our God!

 

And this daily availability of God’s glory is unique to the Church age.

 

Ex 34:33 When Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face.

 

Ex 34:34 But whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with Him, he would take off the veil until he came out; and whenever he came out and spoke to the sons of Israel what he had been commanded,

 

Ex 34:35 the sons of Israel would see the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses' face shone. So Moses would replace the veil over his face until he went in to speak with Him.

 

Moses was allowed to see the glory of God, but the children of Israel were not. We all as believer priests can behold the glory of God every day, and in much greater clarity than even Moses could have ever seen it.

 

2 Cor 3:7 But if the ministry of death, in letters engraved on stones, came with glory, so that the sons of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face, fading as it was,

 

2 Cor 3:8 how shall the ministry of the Spirit fail to be even more with glory?

 

2 Cor 3:9 For if the ministry of condemnation has glory, much more does the ministry of righteousness abound in glory.

 

2 Cor 3:10 For indeed what had glory, in this case has no glory on account of the glory that surpasses it.

 

2 Cor 3:11 For if that which fades away was with glory, much more that which remains is in glory.

 

2 Cor 3:12 Having therefore such a hope, we use great boldness in our speech,

 

2 Cor 3:13 and are not as Moses, who used to put a veil over his face that the sons of Israel might not look intently at the end of what was fading away.

 

2 Cor 3:14 But their minds were hardened; for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains unlifted, because it is removed in Christ.

 

2 Cor 3:15 But to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart;

 

2 Cor 3:16 but whenever a man turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.

 

2 Cor 3:17 Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

 

2 Cor 3:18 But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.