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Sermon preached on Ephesians 1:11-14 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 11/02/2025 in Petaluma, CA.
Sermon Manuscript
Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
Today we will finish up working through this doxology that spans from verses 3-14. We’ve been in it several weeks, and these final verses might seem to you like they have some repetition to what has already been said in it. But I want you to recognize that what it is doing is coming to a culmination where it is tying all the ideas together. Remember what’ve studied as we worked through the passage in order. Our first sermon in this passage considered the doctrines of predestination and adoption. The second sermon considered the redemption and forgiveness found in the gospel of salvation. The third sermon considered the eternal plan and purpose of God that unites all things under Christ. We said that included both Jewish and Gentile Christians. So then, today’s passage will again reference predestination, redemption, and adoption, and it will say that all this is what both Jewish and Gentile Christians have come to enjoy together in Jesus.
I will walk us through this in three points under these headings. First, we’ll consider how this passage says that the Christian has already “Obtained an Inheritance. Second, we’ll consider how we’ve been given a “Guarantee of our Inheritance”. Third, we’ll consider how we are waiting for our “Final Redemption”. I’ll then tie this all together to see it’s something that both Jewish and Gentiles Christians enjoy together and this is a reason for all Christians to praise God.
Let’s begin in our point then to consider how we have already obtained an inheritance. This is the wording of verse 11. It says, “In him we have obtained an inheritance.” Now the language there of inheritance is not the most typical word for inheritance like you have down in verse 14. It might be more literally said that we have obtained a share or a portion. Given the inheritance reference in verse 14, we are right to think of inheritance in verse 11. The predestination language in verse 11 also helps us think about inheritance, because back in verse 5 Paul connected predestination with adoption. So, verses 5 and 11 parallel each other. The adoption as sons culminates in an inheritance being received. To be predestinated to adoption is to be predestined to have a share in the inheritance that God has prepared for us.
Now while it is true that our adoption and its related inheritance is a matter of predestination, it nonetheless is not something that we actually receive until we become a Christian. Look at verses 12 and 13. There we see how two different groups of people are in mind. In verse 12, Paul speaks in the first person plural, as the “we who were the first to hope in Christ.” Then in verse 13, he turns to address the Ephesians, “In him you also, when you heard the word of trust, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him…” You see, Paul is distinguishing here between the first Christians that included himself, and now these later Christians that included these Ephesians. The first Christians, including Paul, were Jews who received the gospel of Jesus through faith. Now, these later Christians, including the Ephesians, would have been predominately Gentiles. They too have become Christians through faith in the gospel of Jesus. Without Christ, none of them would truly be adopted and have a share in the coming inheritance. But having responded to the gospel in faith, they both together now have their own share in this glorious inheritance. I hope you follow the logic here.
So what exactly is this inheritance that we now have a share in as Christians? To understand what inheritance we have in Christ, I want us to think first about how God promised an inheritance to the old covenant saints under the nation of Israel. The premise here is that what God promised to Israel under the old covenant was a type and a shadow of something greater. Under the old covenant, the Promised Land was described as the inheritance that he was giving his people. For example, Numbers 33:54 speaks of how when Israel enters into the land, they were to divide up the land an inheritance. That is why passages like Leviticus 25 said the land allotments were not allowed to be sold permanently, but would be reset every Year of Jubilee. God gave Israel the Promised Land as their inheritance. So then, when later Israel is removed from the Land in Babylonian exile, it caused the people to lament that they lost this divine inheritance. Yet, the prophets foretold that one day God would restore the inheritance of the land to his people under a new covenant.
Interestingly, under that arrangement, the Levites were not given any inheritance in the Promised Land. Numbers 18:20, “You shall have no inheritance in their land, neither shall you have any portion among them. I am your portion and your inheritance among the people of Israel.” Beyond even the Israelites, this theme is there for all God’s people, like in Psalm 16:5, “The LORD is my chosen portion.” In other words, the Levites were not given land, but ultimately God as their inheritance, something various verses hold out as the greater hope for all God’s people. Furthermore, the old covenant at various places speaks also in reverse, of how God has taken his chosen people as his own inheritance too. Deuteronomy 32:9 says, “The LORD’s portion is his people, Jacob his allotted heritage.”
These two concepts find their substantive fulfillment under the revelation of the New Testament. Jesus came in Matthew 5:5, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth,” quoting Psalm 37:11. Do you understand this Christian? The inheritance that we are talking about today includes that we Christians will inherit the earth. This is developing and expanding the understanding of the old covenant. The old covenant saw God give some land to his people. But ultimately, after Christ returns and transforms the heavens and the earth into the glory of the new creation, we will receive it all as an inheritance. But, also, in that new world, God will dwell with us, and us with him. God himself will be our inheritance, and even we will be God’s inheritance. So these ideas all come together in the glory that awaits us. Saints of Christ Jesus, this is your inheritance. You will inherit the whole new creation and be with your loving Heavenly Father forever!
This leads us to our second point. Verses 13-14 speaks of how the Holy Spirit has been given to us as a guarantee of the inheritance. This language of a guarantee refers to a pledge or a deposit of the inheritance. The idea is that it is something we are given before we get the inheritance that is supposed to convey that we can trust we will get the full inheritance in due time. That of course assumes we have not yet come to fully receive the actual inheritance. But this is a fitting guarantee. Let’s use this second point to think why the Holy Spirit is such a fitting guarantee of the inheritance that has been bequeathed upon us.
First, we consider how the Holy Spirit here is described as the “promised” Spirit, verse 13. The grammar could alternatively be translated as the Spirit of Promise. That might make us look to the future, possibly referring to how the Holy Spirit is the spirit of the promised inheritance. Though, likely our pew Bible translation conveys the right sense, that the Spirit is the one that had been repeatedly promised earlier in Scripture, such as in passages like Acts 2:33, Matthew 3:11, John 14:26, etc. In other words, God keeps his promises. He promised to send the Holy Spirit, and he has. Likewise, he has promised a coming inheritance, and we’ll get that too in God’s timing.
A second aspect of how the Holy Spirit is a fitting guarantee is that he serves as a seal of our salvation. This is what verse 13 describes. When we believe on Jesus and are saved, the Holy Spirit indwells us as a seal of our salvation. This seal speaks of authenticity and ownership. It’s like a king’s seal that stamps a law to confirm it comes in the authority of the king. Or it’s like a brand put on cattle to identify the owner of the animal. It’s like how we saw in Revelation, that the wicked receive the mark of the beast to show they are of the enemy, but God’s people are sealed to show they are the protected servants of the Lord. The Holy Spirit living inside us assures us that we really belong to God and his gospel is truly of God. The Holy Spirit is the divine mark of authenticity on our souls. All who possess that mark will ultimately receive the divine inheritance in store for his people.
A third aspect of how the Holy Spirit is a fitting guarantee is to understand that elsewhere the Spirit is called the Spirit of adoption. That fact complements this passage because it brings out the connection of the Spirit and our inheritance in the fact of adoption. Romans 8:15 explains that the Holy Spirit’s function as the Spirit of Adoption includes that it creates within us a yearning to pray to God as our heavenly father. In other words, that helps us to understand how the Holy Spirit is cultivating within us a true father-son relationship between us and God. As we see that growing in our hearts, it is another way we recognize that we truly are children of God, heirs with Christ.
A fourth aspect of how the Holy Spirit is a fitting guarantee is to understand that the Spirit is the one who presently brings us the power of age to come. The inheritance properly comes to us in the age to come. But already in this present age, the Spirit is bringing something of the power of that age to come into our hearts. I’ll briefly trace that in Ephesians and we’ll keep learning more of it as we work though the book. Later in verses 19-20, it will speak of the power that rose Jesus from the dead, which we know was by the Holy Spirit, that such is the same power at work in us right now, i.e. the Holy Spirit. Jesus’ resurrection is all about the coming age, and that same power is already at work now in our souls too. Chapter 2, verse 18, will speak about how we currently have access to God by the Holy Spirit. Our coming inheritance is about full unhindered access to God, but the Spirit allows us to enjoy something of that already. Chapter 3, verse 16, speaks of how the Spirit is bringing God’s power to strengthen our hearts. Chapter 4 carries that thought onward into speaking of how we end up growing in spiritual maturity. Chapter 5, likewise, speaks of the Spirit-filled life that results in various Christian fruit such as joy, worship, service, gratitude, and godliness. This is all to say that the Holy Spirit brings something of the future inheritance to be a present power in our life.
So then, the Holy Spirit is a very fitting guarantee of the coming inheritance. One final way to say it, is that remember we said that we can think of how the LORD himself is our inheritance? Indeed, God is already inside us by the Holy Spirit, so in that sense we’ve already begun to enjoy that central aspect of our inheritance as God’s sons.
Let us turn now to the final point for today, to consider how we are waiting for the final redemption. Now, we’ve already made the point that our full inheritance isn’t until the future when Christ returns. But I want you to draw your attention to how the end of the verse puts things in terms of a final redemption. What I am referring to is translated in the ESV as “until we acquire possession of it”. However, that is an overly interpretive translation and I don’t think it gets quite right. The literal interpretation of that phrase is “until the redemption of the possession.” It’s the same word for “redemption” as back in verse 7 which spoke about how are already have been redeemed. But now, this passage ends by talking about a future redemption. Now, the ESV shows that some interpreters have struggled with understanding what is going on here. The verse had just been talking about a future inheritance that we were waiting for, so the ESV wants to translate this redemption language as if it is about us finally obtaining the inheritance. But I don’t think that is right. Most other English translations preserve the redemption language, such as the NKJV and others.
The NASB likewise retains that redemption language but adds a few words to explain the alternative interpretation. The NASB translates, “until the redemption of those who are God’s possession.” I think that is actually the right meaning here. It is a rather glorious idea. Let me connect the dots. The passage spoke about how we have obtained a share in the inheritance as God’s sons. It says that we don’t have the inheritance in the full, so in the meantime we’ve been given the Holy Spirit as a guarantee or pledge. But then when it says “until” it doesn’t tell us what we’d expect it to say. It doesn’t say we get the pledge “until we get the inheritance.” Rather, it says, “until we get redeemed.” It makes a switch there from our receiving an inheritance back to the idea of our redemption. This beautifully ties together the whole passage. Already we’ve been redeemed in that our sins our forgiven. But our full and final redemption is yet in the future. It will coincide with the same time that we receive in the full our divine inheritance. And interestingly, it also subtly brings out that old covenant concept that the saints themselves have become God’s inheritance. All of this will come to the full when Christ returns. Later Ephesians 4:30 will connect the dots for us by saying that we “were sealed for the day of redemption.” That clearly echoes today’s verses. We have been redeemed, but yet we will be redeemed, even as we have obtained an inheritance, but yet we will obtain an inheritance. Praise be to God!
Indeed, praise to God is the overarching point here. I refer you to both verses 12 and 14 where we see the repeated phrase, “to the praise of his glory”. The Jews who first came to Christ are “to the praise of his glory.” The Gentiles who then came to Christ as “to the praise of his glory”. This culminates in the final redemption idea here. Both Jews and Gentiles are joint heirs together in Christ Jesus. Together, all Christians will fully and finally be redeemed on the day of redemption, the day Christ returns to ushers us into glory. As that redemption comes to a culmination, so too does the praise of his glory come to a climax.
Again, in remembering this beautiful doxology here in verses 3-14, we acknowledge all the many things God has done to bring about this ultimate redemption. That acknowledgment is there especially in verse 11 when it speaks both of his predestined plans and also how he works all things according to his will. God predestined all his plans of redemption. But then God worked out all his plans of redemption in time and history. This is that same idea that we find in Romans 8:28-30, that God works all things together for the good of his predestined people. Again, doesn’t this so emphasize the praise of his glory? God planned it. And then God executed the plans. Everything through history has seen his plan of redemption unfold.
That is still true today. Today we see how the first Christians, the Jewish Christians, passed on the faith to many Gentiles who became Christian. They in turn passed on the faith to others. That has come down through the millennia to us. God has been working his plans throughout all of that. And that means God is working now in our day to continue to bring the gospel. Let us be used by God for such a purpose! Who will you spread this gospel message, to the praise of God’s glory?
As a further application, we see how these Jewish Christian had to reach out of their comfort zone to share the gospel with Gentiles. But God showed them that the gospel was not just for insiders. The gospel needed to also go to outsiders, as well, that they could become insiders together in Christ. We too need to bring the gospel to all the world, and that may take us outside our comfort zones. The gospel is to go to all people, regardless of their race, their finances, their IQ, their jobs, or their political party. The gospel is to go all classes of people, even to all classes of sinners. That means the gospel is to go to all people, even those who practice sexual immorality, or identify as transgender, or hold to false religion, or however immoral they may be. Yes, the gospel will call sinners to repent of their sin that they’ve previously embraced. But it is true for all people, that the gospel will call each of us to have a radically new life in Christ Jesus. Trinity Presbyterian Church, let us bring the gospel to all classes of people, and sinners of all sorts, that God would be yet redeeming more and more unto himself, to the praise of his glory,
Amen.
Copyright © 2025 Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
All Rights Reserved.
