In Christ

Jesu Juva

Ephesians 1:3-14                                                 

July 14, 2024

Proper 10B                      

 Dear saints of our Savior~

        I don’t care much for Bible trivia.  I think Bible trivia trivializes the Bible—reduces it down to obscure factoids, instead of the living, active, powerful Word of God.  But, nevertheless, here’s a little Bible trivia:  Do you know the shortest verse in the Bible? “Jesus wept” (John 11:35).  That’s the verse that every confirmation student only wishes I would assign for memorization.  But if I assigned the shortest sentence in the Scriptures I should also probably assign the longest sentence in the Scriptures—just to balance things out.

        What is the longest sentence in the Scriptures?  You probably don’t know, because all the English translations take this super-sized sentence and break it up into smaller chunks, to make it a little more manageable.  You heard it just a few minutes ago from Ephesians chapter one.  That long river of rhetoric from St. Paul is really just one, ginormous run-on sentence.  With clause after clause, this sentence just keeps going and going and going.  It’s a sentence long enough to make the hair of most English teachers stand straight up.  It’s a sentence that defies diagramming. 

        But at the heart of this massive collection of clauses is Jesus. For at least ten times by my count, this sentence is punctuated by the phrase, “in Christ” or “in Him.”  Paul uses this phrase “in Christ” repeatedly to show us where the action is.  It’s not in you or in me.  We were dead in trespasses and sin; and Paul gets to that in chapter two.  But here, the action is all “in Christ.”  That’s right where faith needs to be focused.  For if you take away all the “in Christs,” well, then the whole sentence collapses, crashes and burns.  But in Christ, this long sentence is a run-on river of blessing, splashing hope and joy into the ears and hearts of all who hear it.

        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.  That’s where your blessings are.  Not in yourselves but in Christ.  Not in earthly places, but in the heavenly places.  When it comes to earthly blessings like money and friends and good government, you never know what you’re going to get.  God gives more earthly blessings to some, and fewer earthly blessings to others.  But when it comes to spiritual blessings, you get the whole package.  “Every spiritual blessing” is yours in Christ.  Faith, forgiveness, everlasting life, peace that passes understanding—You have it all.  God withholds no spiritual blessing from you.

        How do you rate such spiritual blessings?  Because in Christ you were chosen.  He chose us.  In Christ you have been adopted.  The adoption papers have been signed, sealed and delivered.  You’re in!  But it’s not because we’re so lovable or adorable.  It’s not as though God were looking for a pet poodle from the Humane Society—“Oh, this one’s adorable.  I think I’ll choose this one to be mine.”  Nope.  Your God only adopts the “unadoptable,” the unlovable, wretched sinners destined for damnation.  Nor does God say, “Now you be good and then I’ll adopt you.”  God says, “You’re mine.  I’ve adopted you.  Now live like my child because that’s exactly who you are.”

        This adoption of yours was in the works for a long, long time.  In fact, you were predestined for adoption.  “Before the foundation of the world,” God had your salvation in mind.  Please notice that no one is predestined in wrath—only in love.  Predestination is a one-way deal—in love, in Christ, to become God’s child.  If anyone goes to hell (and some do), it is entirely against the loving will and purposes of God. 

        Some Christians have it wrong.  They believe in “double-predestination,” that God tells some “you’re in” and to others He says, “You’re out.”  Wrong.  God’s deep desire—God’s will—is for all to be saved.  The reason some aren’t saved is because they themselves reject God’s grace in Christ.  Those who reject Christ are not in Christ, but apart from Christ.  And apart from Jesus Christ there is no salvation.

        Now we’ve arrived at the white hot core of this long, long sentence.  At the center of the sentence Paul writes:  In Christ we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses.  At the center of the sentence is the cross of Christ.  The blood He shed there is the blood that buys you back, the blood that covers your sin, the blood that cleans up the mess you’ve made of your messed-up life.  This blood is the very same blood which He places in our mouths for the forgiveness of sins, in the Lord’s Supper.  To be “in Christ” means that the blood of Jesus avails for you.  It means that you will be among that great heavenly multitude who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 

        It’s all one long sentence, to be sure, but I think some of the best parts have been saved up for last.  Nearing the end of this sentence, all this wonderful news gets delivered to you personally.  This run-on sentence runs on to you—runs into your life with the waters of Holy Baptism and the power of the Holy Spirit.  Paul says it better, starting with another “in Christ.”  In Christ you also . . . were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it.”  Frankly, if this super sentence didn’t  run on to include this last part, we might be tempted to write it off as abstract theology—you know, something to debate over a latte at Starbucks or to write about in a term paper on world religions.  But I’m here to tell you that in Christ there is no such thing as abstract theology.  Because everything IN CHRIST is intended FOR YOU.

        St. Paul describes what it is you get with the incredibly important word, “inheritance.”  In Christ, you have an inheritance.  That’s a gospel word—a gift word.  How do you get an inheritance?  You don’t earn it like you do a paycheck.  No, someone has to die and leave it to you because you were in the decedent’s good graces.  That’s how you get an inheritance.  What you received in your baptism is a down-payment on that inheritance—a first installment with a guarantee of much more to come.

        But you can’t have it all just yet.  It would be nice, I know, but you can’t handle it.  It would be like a sixteen-year-old inheriting a million dollars.  Probably the worst thing that could happen to a sixteen-year-old would be to receive a check for a million dollars.  No one that age is ready for that kind money.  Some people my age aren’t ready for that kind of money.  No, it’s far better for that money to go into a trust fund until our teenager comes of age.  A little bit now to pay for college, with the promise of more to come later.  In the same way, our flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.  Our flesh and blood is hopelessly soiled with sin.  It can only die.  But one day we will come of age—on the day of Resurrection—when the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised imperishable and we will all be changed in the twinkling of an eye.  On that day, everything that you can only believe in today, you will see and acquire.  On that day, the entire inheritance becomes yours.  And you will learn the fullness of what it means to be “in Christ.”

        Beloved in the Lord, you are in Christ—although it probably doesn’t feel that way sometimes.  Many days—maybe even today—you don’t feel blessed by God—chosen by Him, adopted or redeemed.  This world is a hot mess; and the same can often be said of our own broken lives.  The debts and divorces, the trespasses and tears, the jealousies and the idolatries—it just doesn’t add up to much of a victorious life, does it? 

        But the longest sentence of the Bible teaches us that IN CHRIST, even your broken life can be a victorious life.  For God is at work to fix your broken life.  How?  IN CHRIST.  “God was reconciling the world to Himself IN CHRIST,” not counting your trespasses against you.  IN CHRIST it all adds up.  It all totals out.  His assets exceed the world’s liabilities.  The debt of your sin has been paid in full—IN CHRIST.  It’s a done deal.  It’s a promise which is yours for the believing. 

        In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.