Passage: Ephesians 1:7

The Big Idea

Who would choose to be poor? More of us than we realize. In Christ we have redemption and forgiveness, not just out of God’s riches but according to the riches of His grace, which are limitless. Every area of life we hold back from Him is an area where we’ve chosen to be a spiritual beggar instead of living as a child of the King. All we add is faith.

Who Would Choose to Be Poor?

Ask that question online and most people answer, “Nobody.” When someone does choose poverty, we say they’re crazy. But I suggest that many of us have chosen to be poor, and we don’t even know it.

A story is told of a missionary in West Africa trying to translate the word redeem into the local language. He asked his assistant how to say it. “We say, ‘God took our heads out,'” the man replied. “But how does that explain redemption?” the missionary asked.

The assistant explained that generations earlier, some of his ancestors had been captured by slave traders, chained together and driven to the coast, each with a heavy iron collar around his neck. As the slaves passed through a village, a chief might recognize a friend among the captives and pay the traders in gold, ivory, silver or brass. The prisoner was redeemed, and his head was taken out of the iron collar.

In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace (Ephesians 1:7).

Redeemed from Slavery

The Roman world was built on slavery. Historians estimate that millions of people in the empire were slaves. Paul’s readers understood slavery far better than we do.

Slaves were treated as mere property, not as precious human souls.
They were bought and sold like any other commodity.
Rarely, a slave would be redeemed, bought back into freedom.

Last time we studied how Jesus did that for us: by His blood. We aren’t just property; we’re human souls. And the price was blood, life itself.

William Cowper wrote:

There is a fountain filled with blood
Drawn from Emmanuel’s veins;
And sinners plunged beneath that flood
Lose all their guilty stains.

E’er since, by faith, I saw the stream
Thy flowing wounds supply,
Redeeming love has been my theme,
And shall be till I die.

The price was paid in full when Jesus died on the cross. We were made free that day. Someone who could afford the cost paid it.

On the cross, Jesus cried, “It is finished!” (John 19:30). The Greek word, tetelestai, carries the idea of a debt paid in full. Not “It’s almost done,” or “It’s just beginning.” It’s finished! Paid in full!

But so often we treat it differently: “That’s great that Jesus died and all, but I need to get on my horse and get some stuff done here and now.”

No. We’ve been freed from that self-dependence!

What were we freed from?

The Law: a performance-based relationship.
Sin: the inner desire for it.
Satan: his deception and temptation.
This evil world system: the outside pressure to sin.

We’ve been redeemed, bought back from slavery to all these things, made free, and then forgiven.

The Forgiveness of Sins

One of the things this price bought us was forgiveness.

A Sunday school teacher finished her lesson and wanted to make sure she’d made her point. “Can anyone tell me what you must do before you can obtain forgiveness of sin?” After a pause, a little boy in the back said, “Sin.”

The psalmist says that as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us (Psalm 103:12).

What an amazing statement. Not north to south, which have end points, but east to west, which never meet.
True forgiveness never needs to bring it up again.
It’s almost too good to be true.
So who’s bringing it up in my mind when I think about my past sins? Not God.

Micah asks, who is a God like You, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression? He doesn’t stay angry forever, because He delights in mercy. He will have compassion on us again, subdue our iniquities, and cast all our sins into the depths of the sea (Micah 7:18-19).

God is passionate about getting rid of your sins. He throws them to the bottom of the sea, a picture of a place we can never find them.
Through His shed blood, Christ took the sins of the world on Himself and carried them an infinite distance away, with no return possible.
It isn’t a spiritual game of hide-and-seek.
There’s no bitterness growing in God’s heart about it.

Because it’s according to the riches of His grace!

According to His Riches

How much have we been forgiven? What is the measure of God’s forgiveness?

It isn’t merely out of God’s wealth, but in proportion to God’s wealth. Our redemption and forgiveness rest on the boundless resources of God’s infinite grace.

If you asked a multimillionaire to support a worthy ministry and he wrote a check for twenty-five dollars, he’d be giving out of his riches. Plenty of poor people give that much. But if he gave you all his dollars, he’d be giving according to his riches.

Riches = resources. I’m always talking about God’s resources. His grace is His resources given to you. He gives them all! He doesn’t limit your access to all He has and all He is.

Even though we’re unworthy, He gives grace. In fact, humility is the requirement for receiving it: God gives grace to the humble (James 4:6).
Even when we fail, He gives grace, because He has forgiven us.
But we access grace by faith (Romans 5:1-2).

The measure of His gift is His measureless grace. The measure of what I receive is my easily measured faith. Jesus touched the blind men’s eyes and said, “According to your faith let it be to you” (Matthew 9:29).

I think Paul is thinking, “You guys don’t get it!” How wonderful is His grace? How vast? How big is the bank account with your name on it? Paul keeps coming back to it: the riches of the glory of His inheritance (Ephesians 1:18), the exceeding riches of His grace (2:7), the unsearchable riches of Christ (3:8).

Annie Johnson Flint’s beloved poem “He Giveth More Grace” celebrates exactly this: that His love has no limit and His grace no measure, and out of His infinite riches in Jesus, He gives and gives and gives again.

The whole wealth of God is available to every Christian.

Where Are You Choosing to Be Poor?

So when do I start living from those resources? How do I start seeing the riches of His grace?

Believe what you read. When you read that in Him is redemption, forgiveness and all the riches of God, do you believe it?

Do you believe He’s all you need?
Do you believe that apart from Him you can do nothing?
Or are church and Jesus just one “part” of your life?

At different times in my life, I’ve held things back from the Lord:

My job.
My family.
My hobbies.
My free time.

What I didn’t realize was that those were the very areas where I was choosing to be poor: choosing to be a spiritual beggar instead of enjoying the blessings of a child of God.

The Threefold Charter

The first fourteen verses of Ephesians can be outlined as a threefold charter:

The will of the Father (1:3-6).
The work of the Son (1:7-12).
The witness of the Spirit (1:13-14).

A charter is a formal grant of rights, recognizing the recipient’s right to exercise them.

It’s the Father’s will for you to receive these blessings.
It’s the Son’s work that secures them for you.
It’s the Spirit who bears witness to them in your life.

All you add is faith. Do you believe?

Will you treat every area of your life with humility and faith, acknowledging your daily need and God’s daily sufficiency, His riches given to you for every challenge? Or will you meet those trials head-on in your own strength?

Grace Takeaway

Jesus took your head out of the iron collar. He paid your debt in full and threw your sins into the depths of the sea. And He did it according to the riches of His grace, which have no limit. Don’t choose to be poor. Bring every area of your life to Him in humility and faith, and live from the bank account He has already filled in your name.

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Choose Riches