From Glory to Glory in Ephesians 1.3–10
Ephesians 1.3–10 is a majestic statement.
It opens in the heavenly realms, before the foundation of the world (1.3–4), and concludes in the fulness of time, with all things in heaven and earth united in Christ (1.10)—a grand sweep of divine history. It is an awesome and extraordinary declaration of God’s plans. And its syntax matches its message.
Scattered throughout its sweep of history are references to what God has done for us, his people—“blessed us”, “chosen us”, “predestined us”, etc. Just as we find ourselves caught up in the syntax of Ephesian 1, so we find ourselves caught up in God’s plans.
And the specific way in which we are caught up in them is significant. The text of 1.3–10 contains nine verbs (aside from the verb ‘to be’). Centrally, in verse 7, we have the text’s only present tense verb, which describes our present possession. “We have redemption”. On either side of that verb we find four other verbs. Every one of them is an aorist form, which has God as its subject. And every time Christ is mentioned, he is connected to one of these verbs agentivally: we are “blessed in Christ”, “chosen in him”, “predestined through Jesus Christ”, etc. The text’s grammar is thus significant. We are not just ‘somehow caught up’ in God’s plans. Rather, we are acted upon by a fatherly God, and are made the object of his action by means of our union with his Son.
Also relevant to note is Ephesians 1.3–10’s trajectory.
The shape of God’s plans can be thought of in (at least) two ways. In one sense, God’s plans are V-shaped: paradise lost and paradise regained. In another sense, however, God’s plans simply move onwards and upwards as they converge towards their goal.
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and the earth was without form and void” (Gen. 1.1–2). By implication, then, the heavenly realms came formed and filled. Only the earth was “formless and empty”. It needed to be conformed to heaven’s likeness, which is precisely what is described in Ephesians 1.3–10. God lays his plans, chooses his people, sets forth Christ as heaven and earth’s uniter, redeems us, adopts us, showers us with grace, and will one day populate his new creation with us.