From the MLJ Archive

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: The words to which I should like to call your attention this morning are to be found in Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians, the first chapter and the sixth verse. The sixth verse in the first chapter of Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians: "To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved." Again to remind ourselves of the setting, let me read from verse 3: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children [or sons] by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved."

We have reminded ourselves that in these verses the Apostle displays before us particularly that part of the work of our salvation which we attribute to God the Father. In this great first chapter of this Epistle, he is dealing with this great theme of redemption and he shows us clearly how the three persons in the blessed holy Trinity have taken part in this work. And here from verse 4 to 6, he emphasizes especially the work of the Father; then from verse 7 to 12, it will be the work of the Son; and then in verses 13 and 14, the work of the Holy Spirit.

And he has told us, and we've already considered, what the Father has done. He tells us here that he has called us and chosen us before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. But not only that, higher still, he has called us, predestinated us to be his children. He's adopted us as his sons, according to the good pleasure of his will. And now here in this sixth verse, he takes us still a further step.

God, he tells us, has done all this to us and for us according to the good pleasure of his own will. He has been moved to do all this by nothing in us whatsoever. It is entirely himself. Salvation is not God's response to man's desire or to man's request. Man in sin doesn't desire salvation. He's never made a request for it. He's an enemy to God and an alien in his mind. He is dead in trespasses and sins.

Christian salvation, I say, is not God's response to anything in men. It is entirely from God. He was moved, I say, by nothing in that great eternal counsel before the very foundation of the world, save by his own glory and his own nature, his own grace and love and mercy and compassion. Now the Apostle has been emphasizing all that. But there must have been some reason why God did this. We say that with reverence. There must have been something that led and impelled God to plan and to purpose the salvation of men and women who believe in Christ.

What was that? Well, the answer to that, it seems to me, is given to us in this sixth verse that we are looking at together this morning. Here is the great motive, if you like, behind redemption. This is the ultimate purpose in the mind and in the wisdom of God that has led to everything that we read of as the carrying out of this great purpose of salvation in the pages of the Bible. The ultimate objective, the motive of it all, is this: to the praise of the glory of his grace.

It is all, I say, for the glory of God. And that is the thing that the Apostle opens before us in this particular verse. But the astonishing thing, indeed the almost incredible thing, is this: that God has purposed to do all this in us and through us. Because here the whole time he is really dealing with us. We have been chosen to be holy. We have been chosen to the adoption of sons. Yes, and we have been chosen that we might be to the praise of the glory of his grace.

So this is still a further step in the wonderful things that God has done and is doing for us as a part of this great process of redemption. You notice that all these statements are all connected together. There is no full stop here at all. Each one goes on to something else. And this verse starts with "to the praise"—to the intent or with the objective or with the object of that we should be to the praise of the glory of his grace.

Therefore, you see that here we are still looking at something that God has done for us and gives to us in this great redemption. And in this same statement, the Apostle also tells us how we should regard ourselves in the light of all this, what our reaction should be to all this. In other words, to put it in a different form, here once more we have one of those glorious statements which teach us as to how we should view this great salvation.

Now that is something to which the Bible is always calling us. Let me put it in an immediate practical form by putting it like this. Here we are in this season of Advent. Here we are in these Sundays and in these days which are leading up to Christmas Day, which reminds us of the coming of the Son of God into this world. The season, I say, of Advent. Now how do we view it? I suppose there is no better test of our profession of the Christian faith than just that.

What's our attitude towards it? Is it merely the attitude of the world, which is purely sentimental, quite pagan? It really has nothing to do with Christianity at all. Is it that? Is our thinking of this matter governed by that? Or do we think of this season of Advent in the terms that the Bible itself always uses as it makes reference to it? Because I think anybody who's ever read the Bible must agree with this: that every single reference to this Advent of the Son of God into this world in the scriptures is always in superlative terms.

Go back to your Old Testament. Look at your prophets. You will find that those prophets reach their greatest heights always when they are foretelling the coming of the Son of God into this world. Think of some of those most glorious passages in Isaiah, and you will find that he rises to his greatest heights invariably as he is describing this. Think of the 40th chapter, for instance, which bursts out with its great message of "Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people, saith our God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem."

And how the poetic imagery is piled up one on top of another and his mightiest eloquence is poured forth. It's all because he's thinking of this Advent. And the same thing is true with all the other prophetic writers. And as you come over into the New Testament, you will find that the most glorious passages are always the passages that deal with this and treat of this. "Great is the mystery of godliness," says Paul.

He's always bursting forth into some kind of praise and of thanksgiving as he contemplates the greatness and the glory of the thing. It's the most astounding thing that has ever happened in the world or ever will happen in this world. The Advent, the coming of the Son of God into the world, the carrying out of this great plan and purpose of salvation is ever in the Bible, I say, a theme for endless praise and glorying and thanksgiving. Now the question I therefore ask is this: Is that our response to it?

Do we view it in that way? Is that the effect that it has upon us? I ask my question for this good reason: that as human beings, we all tend to show our reactions, we all tend to show our enthusiasms. You have but to be passing a football ground on a Saturday afternoon to know that people when they're really interested express that very definitely, and it can be heard without much trouble. Or if you watch them looking at a film or listening to a play or anything that interests or attracts them, they very soon show their appreciation.

They're keen about a thing, or if they've read a book, they must be telling everybody about it and talking about it. I wonder how as Christian people we manifest our interest in the Advent of the Son of God into this world. There's no question as to how the Bible does. I've just been reminding you; its highest heights of eloquence are produced by this. Does it have that effect upon us, I wonder? Surely this is the real trouble with the church today, and surely this is why the people, the masses of the people, are outside the church.

We somehow fail to give the impression that we have got here the most glorious, the most wonderful thing that has ever come into this world. We are lethargic and half-hearted, uncertain and apologetic. We are not singing and praising, and the result is people pay very little attention to the fact that we happen to call ourselves Christian people. Well now then, I say, we are reminded here that the whole atmosphere of salvation is one of praise. "To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved."

Well then, in view of all this, let us try to discover if we can, in order that we may cease to be the lethargic apologetic type of Christian and rather conform to the biblical pattern, let us ask this question: Why should this thought of Advent really lead to praise and to worship and adoration? Well, the first answer I find here is this: that the first and the greatest thing after all about salvation is that it is a revelation of the glory of God.

To the praise of the glory of his grace. Or if you prefer it, to the praise of his glory as it is manifested through his grace or by means of his grace. And that is why to translate this "to the praise of the glory of his grace" as "to the praise of his glorious grace" is a weakening of what the Apostle really said and meant. And again, it's unfortunate that the Revised Standard Version should have done that. It isn't his glorious grace; it is the glory of his grace. The glory of God as it is revealed and manifested through his grace.

Now I say that this is the chiefest reason for praise. The first thing and ultimately the most important thing about salvation is that it is a revelation and a manifestation of the glory of God. What do we mean by that? When we say "the glory of God," what exactly does that represent and connote? It's very difficult to answer that question because our language, our terminology, our categories are quite inadequate to convey any impression of the glory of God.

But we can say this much: the glory of God is the essential being of God. The glory of God is that which really makes God God. It is the very essence of God. We are told, you remember, by the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews that the Lord Jesus Christ is not only the express image of the person of God, but is the brightness or the effulgence of the glory of God. If there is one term that describes God more than another, it is this word "glory."

What does it include? Well, it includes these ideas: it includes beauty, it includes majesty. Better still, perhaps, is the word "splendor." It, of course, includes the idea of greatness, of might, and of eternity. They're all summed up in this one word "glory," and we really can't get beyond that. But it does include those separate ideas—an ineffable greatness and majesty and might and beauty and a splendor that is iridescent and radiant in and of itself. Well, take the biblical term: God is light and in him is no darkness at all. The glory of God.

Now this, I say, is the first and the chiefest thing about salvation—that it brings to us the glory of God. It's a manifestation, a revelation of this glory, this majesty, this splendor of God. It brings that to us, or brings us to that if you like. Now you will notice that in the Old Testament, this is the term that is always used to convey the immediate presence of God. The glory of God. We read that passage from the First Book of Kings and the eighth chapter in order that we might remind ourselves of that at the beginning.

We are told that at that given point, the glory of the Lord filled the temple. And let us remember this: that in that temple, the glory of God always dwelt in that innermost sanctuary of all. There with the cherubim above the mercy seat was this Shekinah glory. And you remember that we are told that even the high priest himself was only allowed to enter into that holiest of all but once a year, and then not without blood. Why? Well, because the glory of God dwelt there.

"Shall God indeed dwell with men?" asks Solomon in surprise. The answer is yes. He dwelt there in the holiest of all. There was his presence over the mercy seat, hovering over the mercy seat. And the high priest, this chosen representative, is only allowed to go into the presence once a year with the blood of sacrifice. He was going into the presence of God on behalf of the people. Now that gives us some idea of it. And you notice that the idea is always very intimately linked with this whole conception of salvation.

God dwells there in the holiest of all above the mercy seat because it is the point, the place at which the sin of man is dealt with. Sin has become, has come between God and man. But there God has provided the way, and therefore he meets man there at the mercy seat. The blood of sacrifice is offered; the law is there and is covered by this blood. And there God meets with men. The idea of the glory of God, you see, is always introduced in connection with God visiting man in salvation in some shape or form.

Now it's very interesting to trace this right through the Old Testament. In a rather surprising way, the first time we meet it in a sense is after man had sinned. Before that, we are told that God communed with man and man with God in the garden, and all was paradise and perfect. But man alas listened to the devil and he sinned and he fell, and he was turned out of the garden. And then you remember what we are told: that God set at the east end of the garden a flaming sword with the cherubim, prohibiting man to come back and to have access to the tree of life.

And that flaming sword and the cherubim are nothing but a manifestation and a demonstration of the glory of God. The glory of God stands there, as it were, preventing man by his own effort to come back. He's not allowed to have this privilege. It's the glory of God that confronts him, and he falls back when he sees it because of its transcendent character. And as you go on through your Old Testament, you will find that this is there always.

You remember that Abraham had some conception of this given to him. Read the 17th chapter of the book of Genesis and you'll find it. There was a great light and a darkness came upon him, and he didn't quite know whether he was awake or asleep, and God was making a covenant with him at that point. It's still the glory of God overshadowing him. You remember how as the children of Israel traveled from Egypt and in their Exodus and to the land of Canaan, there was a pillar of cloud by day and a fire by night ever with them.

And it was that which decided when they moved and went on. The pillar was above the tabernacle, you remember, and they were never to move until it rose and went on. It's God saving his people, manifesting his glory in their salvation. And you remember the description that Isaiah gives us of this when he was called to his prophetic office and to announce the coming of the Savior. The whole place was filled with smoke, and the posts of the door began to shake.

The glory of the Lord had been manifested to him, and he says, "I am a man of unclean lips." The glory of the Lord was so great that he saw himself in his sinfulness and in his wretchedness. Work through it for yourselves. I've simply extracted some of the most notable examples of it. But of course, it is when we come to the New Testament that we find this still more accentuated. Do you remember the first statement that we read of in connection with the coming of the Son of God, the carrying out of this great salvation? It's this.

We are told that the multitude, a great multitude of the heavenly host was heard crying out and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will amongst men." But you notice the order. Salvation: the Son has been born, the babe has arrived and is there in the manger in Bethlehem. What's the response? "Glory to God in the highest." That's the first thing. And only afterwards, "peace, good will amongst men." You see, the moment salvation is mentioned, it's the glory of God that's prominent. It's a revelation of this above everything else.

And it's not surprising therefore that the Apostle Paul in writing to Timothy says that there has been committed unto him the gospel of the glory of the blessed God. Or that in writing to the Corinthians he should say, "God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts." What for? "To reveal the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." My friends, that's what Advent means.

That's the explanation of what happened when the Son of God came into this world. The glory of God has been revealed, has been manifested amongst us. It's God coming to us and revealing himself and his glory. Very well then, I say once more that that is the way in which we should be thinking of Advent and of salvation. Does it fill us this morning with a sense of wonder and of praise and of astonishment and of amazement as we realize what God has done?

You know, we've been called to that—to the praise of the glory of his grace. As the chief thing about sin is that it means we're not giving to God the glory that is his due, so the chief thing about salvation is that it is a revelation of the glory of God. You see, our thinking has gone altogether wrong. When we think of sin, what do we think of? Well, we tend to think of certain actions. We think of sin in terms of sins, and when we say "I have sinned," what we mean is I did something I shouldn't have done, and I was sorry afterwards and I'm bearing the consequences.

My dear friend, that is perfectly true about sin, but that isn't the most terrible thing about sin. The most awful thing about sin is this: that there in that act, you were not giving to God the glory that is his due. We have been made that we might glorify God. The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. And the very essence of sin is our failure to glorify God.

And on the other hand, when we think of salvation, we must not think of salvation in the first instance as our deliverance from particular sins or our deliverance from condemnation. It is that, thank God for it. But you know, the most glorious thing about it is this: the glory of God has been revealed in it and has come to us and has embraced us where we are. So that I say that all our thinking about salvation should always be primarily in terms of the glory of God.

And this is the thing that troubles me so much about so much modern evangelism—that it's all in terms of some benefit to man and God seems to be forgotten. And we need deliverance from this and that, and we need this help and that, and Christ can give it, and the glory of God is never mentioned. And it is because we forget the glory of God as the primary thing that our evangelistic methods also are often far removed from what you find in the New Testament.

But the first and the chiefest thing about salvation, whatever we may think or say, is that it is a revelation and a manifestation of the glory of the ineffable God. But let us move on. The second principle I find here is that our salvation is the highest manifestation of the glory of God. It is not only that it is a manifestation of the glory of God; it's the highest manifestation of it. It isn't the only manifestation of it, but it is the highest manifestation.

The glory of God is displayed in everything that God does. God whenever he does anything manifests his glory. It's to be seen in nature, isn't it? "The heavens declare the glory of God." And it is because you and I are so blinded by sin that we don't see that every time we look into the heavens. We look into the heavens and we think of some scientist or some man who's talking about distances. "The heavens," says the psalmist, "declare the glory of God."

He made them; he set them. He ordered the planets and set them in their courses. It is he who has ordained the seasons, the wind and the rain—Paul expounds all that in the 14th of Acts. And indeed, he tells us in the first chapter of the Epistle to the Romans that ultimately what makes men inexcusable in sin is that the invisible things of him have been revealed, that God has manifested his glory as the maker and the creator, but man didn't see it. He worshipped the creature rather than the creator.

The glory of God is seen in these flowers in front of us. Look at their perfect order, look at the design and the arrangement, the blending of the colors. Is this accident and chance? What a suggestion. It's the glorious God who's made them. It's a reflection of something of his own perfect being. The glory of God. You see it in history likewise. You see it in providence. You see it in that hand that is overruling all the schemes of men throughout the centuries.

Read of the great rise and development of dynasties and of civilizations and of their wane. There is only one explanation of it all: it's God ruling it all and not allowing any one to rise to a position of final supremacy. Even secular history manifests the glory of God. But if you want to see it still more clearly, read the Old Testament history. And in the flood, and in the Exodus, in the opening of the Red Sea, in the dividing of Jordan, in the giving of the law on Mount Sinai, what do you see?

The glory of God everywhere, dominating the whole history. But the point I am emphasizing this morning is this: that it is redemption that finally reveals it at its greatest height and at its most pure magnificence. How does it do it? Well, it is in redemption we see finally the wisdom of God. You see the wisdom of God in nature and creation, in history as I've been explaining, but if you really want to see the wisdom of God, why you've got to come and look into the face of Christ who is the wisdom of God, says Paul to the Corinthians, and the power of God.

Have you ever thought of the marvelous way in which God has contrived our salvation? There is man in sin, estranged from God and involved in troubles. Look what the world has tried to do about him. Read your philosophy books, read your history books, read about your educational schemes, your plans for utopia—man has been trying to save man, and look what he's made of it. And put over against all that God's way of salvation in Christ.

There's the wisdom of God. Man had never thought of it, could never have imagined it. That's God's way, and it's the glory of God revealed through his wisdom in redemption. Or take his power. The power of God can be seen in the earthquake and in the storm, in the avalanche, in the power of a river and of a flood. It's all the power of God. And you know, if you and I were truly Christian, every time we hear a thunderclap or see a flash of lightning, we should say "Praise God, it's a manifestation of his might."

But all that is nothing by comparison with the power of God as revealed in redemption. His power in defeating Satan causes every other power of his to pale into insignificance. And think of his power in the resurrection—Paul is going to speak of that in this chapter. He says, "I wish the eyes of your understanding were enlightened that you might know the exceeding greatness of his power to usward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead."

That's the power that God had to deal with: the power of the devil, the power of Satan, the power of death, the power of hell and the grave, and he's mastered and conquered them all. That's the measure of his power revealed in redemption. And it's exactly the same with his holiness and his righteousness. The ancient law reveals to us the holiness and the righteousness and the justice of God. His view of sin and his condemnation of it.

But my dear friends, if we want to know anything about the holiness and the righteousness and the justice of God, we must hasten away to Calvary's Hill and stand there and look and ask "Why this?" And there's only one answer: the holiness of God. The holiness of God is such that he cannot deal with the sinner except this should happen. Nothing less than the death of his son is sufficient to satisfy the holy demands of this righteous, just God.

So he hath set him forth as the propitiation for sins, to declare his righteousness. And there's never been a greater declaration of it—the glory of God revealed in this way. But of course finally, the glory of God is revealed supremely in his grace. It isn't that I'm comparing these things or trying to say that one is greater than another. I'm talking about wisdom and about power and about holiness and righteousness.

But it is the grace of God that finally reveals his glory most of all. Not so much what he's done for us, but that he should ever have done it, in view of our rebellion and our sinfulness and our vileness. Why did he ever look upon us? Why has he troubled with us? The answer is his grace. And you don't know the glory of God until you see it in the face of Jesus Christ and the grace that streams from it.

It was because he had seen something of this that Samuel Davies cried out saying: "Great God of wonders! All thy ways are matchless, godlike and divine; But the fair glories of thy grace more godlike and unrivalled shine." It's there you see his glory. But let me hasten before I close to say something still more astonishing in a sense: that all that I've been saying is to be revealed finally in and through you and myself.

God has chosen us to holiness, he's predestinated us to the adoption of sons to this end. It is by making us his children, it is by making us holy that God reveals this particular glory of his. Listen to Paul putting it in this very Epistle in the third chapter in the tenth verse: he says, "To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God." It is through you and through me that God reveals this grace of his and this glory of his.

It is something, says Peter, that the very angels desire to look into, and they don't understand, but it's true. "All mine are thine and thine are mine," says the Son to the Father in the 17th of John, "and I am glorified in them." "Let your light so shine before men," he says again, "that they may see your good works, but glorify your Father which is in heaven." Beloved people, we've been called to this—to the praise of the glory of his grace.

We are to live like that and conduct ourselves like that, that as men and women look at us and see us, they shall be compelled to say "What a glorious God! Nothing can explain this in these people save the glory of the almighty God in redemption in Christ." We are to the praise of the glory of his grace. So that brings me to my ultimate statement which is this: How should we view ourselves in the light of all this? And here is the Apostle's answer.

Listen: We have been called and chosen to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. Now this is a most tremendous statement. Unfortunately, the Revised Version, which you have in front of you, and the Revised Standard Version have again, it seems to me, gone tragically astray in their translation here. You will read there that he has freely bestowed on us in the beloved this grace. They read "to the praise of the glory of his grace, which he has freely bestowed upon us in the beloved." The Authorized has "in which he has made us accepted in the beloved."

But here I think we find that the Authorized Version as well as the Revised and the Revised Standard Version have all of them failed really to bring out what the Apostle said. What does he say? Well, here is the interesting answer. The word that the Apostle uses here was the very word, the exact word that is used in the Gospel according to St. Luke in the first chapter and the 28th verse, which we read at the beginning. Now still more interesting, this word that the Apostle uses here is only used again in the whole of the New Testament in Luke 1:28, and this is how it's translated there.

Listen: The angel came in unto Mary and said, "Hail, thou that art highly favored, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou amongst women." Now the word is "highly favored." The Revised Standard puts that like this: "Hail, O favored one." The Revised Version has it: "Hail, thou that art highly favored." It's right there. But why not translate it in exactly the same way when it appears here in the Epistle to the Ephesians? Because as I say, it's exactly the same word.

"To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath highly favored us in the beloved." Surely that is the meaning that the Apostle was anxious to convey. He uses the same language about us as the angel used about the Virgin Mary. The angel goes to the Virgin Mary and says, "Hail, thou that hast been highly favored." He means this: he says, "Do you know that God has chosen you of all the women in the world to bear his son? God has privileged you, has highly favored you; he selected you for this, that the Son of God should enter into your womb and be born of you. You are highly favored."

And here the Apostle says exactly the same thing about us. He's already told us that we have been adopted unto the adoption of sons. Ah yes, but it's more than that. Not only are we made sons of God, but Christ comes into us. Christ in you, the hope of glory. That Christ, says Paul to the Galatians, may be formed in you. We are highly favored, as Mary was physically; he entered into her, spiritually he enters into every one of us who are his children. Christ in us.

"That holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God." Yes, and because we are partakers of the divine nature, we are the sons of God. He is in us, Christ within us. In Mary, in us. Highly favored. God has chosen us. We don't know why. But all the privilege, all the favor. Highly favored one you are, the Christian. God in his infinite wisdom, in his infinite love and grace and mercy, before the very foundation of the world decided that you and I were to be highly favored.

And that by his grace we should not only be redeemed from the ravages and the consequences of sin and be adopted into his family, but that into us his very Son should come to dwell. Christ in you. Our bodies the very temple of the Holy Ghost himself. That is the Apostle's conception of the Christian. That is how you and I should habitually and normally think of ourselves as we walk the streets of this city and engaged in our work with all other men and women.

We see them in the darkness of sin. Why am I what I am? And there's only one answer: I have been highly favored. God in spite of me has done this to me and for me. I am what I am solely and entirely by the grace of God. I give him all the glory; there is none in me. "He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord." Does your view of salvation give the entire glory to God, or are you reserving a little for yourself?

Are you saying that it is your faith, it's your believing that's done it? If so, you're detracting from the glory of God. It's entirely his. "To the praise of the glory of his grace, in which he has highly favored us in the beloved." Amen.