Why such an allotment?
The answer to this is in the next verse.
12 so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. (Ephesians 1:12–ESV)
The reason for the allotment is that God might be glorified. People, purified ones, by the excellence of what their lives turn into, will be the essence of praise. Christ following people = praise. Paul is telling of an existence that is of such a character that God gets acknowledged as having done tremendous things, things beyond our imagination.
In last week’s lesson, I wrote of some events I had been reading in Lynn Austin’s book All She Ever Wanted. Having finished it, I saw the bigger thing Austin was doing. She was weaving a story of God’s goodness up out of the ashes of humanity’s badness. It settled very nicely at the end with many (not all) people reclaimed for and engaged to God. How could the “blooming mess” of Rory Quinn’s decision to leave Ireland have turned into blooming goodness? God did it, but as Austin unpacked it, you would not see it coming. The great-granddaughter of Rory Quinn did not see it coming either, but at the end of the long road trip, she took she saw what God did.
A value in novels is that one can see the end and then extrapolate them in different directions. By drawing parallels between the Quinn-Bartlett family to the God-me, the God-you family verses like Ephesians 1:12 take on a different life. The good that the Quinn-Barlett group of people ended up knowing came because of God. It results in a “feeling of understanding,” an experience of God’s glory.
We are not novels but are real. Paul said that the result of those who hope in Christ is praise of God’s glory. I get that, but sometimes it takes a bit for the getting.
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