Ephesians 1:7–10 · WEB Classic
7 In him we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace 8 which he made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, 9 making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he purposed in him 10 to an administration of the fullness of the times, to sum up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens and the things on the earth, in him.
In Christ we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses. Redemption is release obtained at a cost. Paul immediately identifies that cost with Christ’s blood, directing us to his death. The language cannot be reduced to Jesus providing an inspiring example of selflessness. We needed deliverance from guilt, and that deliverance came through the crucified Son.
Forgiveness concerns trespasses we actually committed. Grace does not require us to pretend the offense was harmless. If nothing was wrong, forgiveness would be unnecessary. Nor does God call evil good in order to receive us. Christ’s death is the means by which the holy God grants the pardon sinners need. Romans 3:25–26 connects that same saving work to God’s righteousness in justifying the person who has faith in Jesus.
Israel’s redemption from Egypt gives the language a history. In Exodus 6:6–7, God promises to bring Israel out from under Egyptian burdens, redeem them, and take them as his people. The aim reaches beyond opening the border. They are being brought out of bondage to belong to the God who delivers them. An Israelite standing on the far side of the sea could not explain his freedom by describing how much Pharaoh had come to appreciate his work.
The Passover also places judgment within that rescue. Exodus 12 describes death coming upon Egypt’s firstborn while the blood marks the houses God will spare. Israel’s safety rests upon the provision God has appointed. The story does not teach that Israel was a nation of people who had no sins of their own. It teaches that deliverance from judgment depends upon God’s mercy and the means he supplies.
The sacrifices given to Israel continue to address the difficulty of guilty people approaching a holy God. Leviticus 17:11 connects blood, life, and atonement, and emphasizes that God has given the blood upon the altar. Even the provision by which they approach him comes from him. When Paul speaks of redemption through Christ’s blood, he is speaking within that history of rescue and atonement. Christ’s death delivers sinners by dealing with the guilt that excludes them from God’s presence.
Paul’s wording identifies forgiveness as a present possession: “we have” redemption in him. The price does not remain outstanding until we have suffered enough to make Christ’s sacrifice effective. Neither should we press the purchase imagery into a business transaction in which Satan has a legitimate invoice God must pay. Paul names the cost as Christ’s blood and the benefit as forgiveness. The cross deals with our guilt before God and defeats the powers that held us; it does not recognize the devil as the rightful owner of creation.
The blood language also belongs with Christ’s willing self-giving. Ephesians 5:2 describes him giving himself for us as an offering and sacrifice to God. The Father’s grace and the Son’s obedience are not rival intentions, as though a compassionate Jesus had to persuade an unwilling Father to show mercy. The Father purposes our adoption through the Son, and the Son gives himself in the love through which that purpose is accomplished.
We often measure forgiveness by how reasonable it feels to us. A small offense receives a small pardon, and a sufficiently serious offense makes us wonder whether pardon should be possible at all. Paul measures the abundance of forgiveness according to the riches of God’s grace. The adequacy of redemption rests upon Christ’s sacrifice rather than upon our ability to make our failures sound less embarrassing.
That does not turn forgiveness into permission to continue harming people. The grace that deals honestly with guilt leaves us with no reason to protect the behavior that created it. A person who treats Christ’s blood as an affordable way to keep doing whatever he wants has failed to reckon with the cost Paul names.
A mystery God has made known
God has made known the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure. A biblical mystery is something God has disclosed that could not be fully known apart from his revelation. The point is not that it remains permanently inaccessible to ordinary Christians. Once God reveals it, the church is responsible for understanding what he has said.
The mystery is disclosed in wisdom and understanding because God is letting his people see how their forgiveness belongs within his purpose for creation. Our pardon is personal, but the Father has not become concerned with the world only long enough to remove a few individuals from it. Verse 10 names the scope: heaven and earth are to be brought together under Christ. The person forgiven in verse 7 belongs to the Lord whose purpose embraces all things in verse 10.
The content is God’s purpose to bring all things together in Christ, things in heaven and things on earth. The universe is not governed by a competition between equally matched powers, with God hoping his side can recruit enough support to win. His purpose centers upon the Son under whose headship everything will finally be ordered.
The gathering of all things in Christ reaches beyond the forgiveness of isolated individuals. Sin has brought disorder, alienation, and hostility into God’s creation. God’s saving purpose has a scope large enough to address the world he made. Colossians 1:19–20 likewise connects reconciliation to the blood of Christ’s cross and speaks of things on earth and in heaven.
In Colossians, Paul begins with the Son’s relationship to creation before speaking of reconciliation. All things were created through him and for him, and all things hold together in him (1:16–17). Then Paul identifies peace through the blood of his cross (1:20). The maker and the reconciler are the same Lord. Redemption is therefore no rescue operation carried out by a kindly stranger who happens to pass a damaged world. The Son through whom it exists is the Son through whom its disorder is answered.
That cosmic scope does not teach that every person will eventually be saved regardless of unbelief. The same letter warns of God’s wrath against disobedience (Ephesians 5:5–6). Christ’s universal headship includes the subjection of his enemies; it does not erase the distinction between reconciliation and judgment. We cannot use the breadth of one sentence to cancel the warnings Paul actually gives.
Nor does God’s purpose make ordinary Christian obedience beneath our attention. If creation belongs under Christ’s headship, our treatment of the people within it belongs there too. It is difficult to celebrate the reconciliation of all things while refusing even to speak honestly to the person across the kitchen table. The Lord through whom God orders his world has a claim upon the lives he has redeemed.