In Ephesians 1:1, Paul designates himself "an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God." The Greek word for "apostle" is apostolos, which means "one sent forth" (apo, "from"; stello, "to send"). Apostello is the verb form of apostolos, and its full meaning is "to send one off on a commission to do something as one's representative." The word was used in an official capacity to refer to an ambassador or envoy; Paul considered himself an official envoy or ambassador of Christ Jesus.

The Greek word in verse 1 is in the genitive case (and likely the particular of that case that deals with derivation or source). Thus Paul is "an apostle sent by Christ Jesus," the term apostolos meaning "one sent forth (by another)." The great apostle looked upon himself as honored in being chosen as the representative of Christ Jesus. The allusion to his apostleship was for the purpose of giving this letter and all the other letters he wrote an official character (Paul identified himself as the apostle of Christ Jesus in the first verse of the first chapter of each letter he wrote). He became an apostle, he says, through the will of God. These words emphasize the fact that his apostleship was by divine appointment.

The word "redemption" occurs in Ephesians 1:7 (and verse 14). The Greek word used, apolutrosis, means "a releasing, for (on payment of) a ransom." Verse 7 says, "In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace." Our "redemption" is said to be "through His blood." The preposition "through" is dia, and following the dative case of the noun, it means "intermediate agency." The outpoured blood of the Son of God on the Cross is the lutron, "the price for redeeming, the ransom," used of the act of buying slaves, of paying the ransom for a life or of captives. The blood of Christ paid for the sins of the human slaves of sin in the sense that it satisfied the just demands of God's holy law that decreed that "the wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23). The outpoured "blood" of Christ means that His death is the price for our redemption.

Verses 13-14 say, "Having believed, you were marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession." In verse 14, we learn that Jesus Christ has purchased us for Himself and has given us the Holy Spirit as the Pledge that the redemption that has been so wondrously begun will be completed in our glorification in heaven, when we have glorified bodies just like the glorified body of our precious Lord.

"Redemption" pictures the souls of people released from bondage to Satan as they accept the ransom price offered for their redemption, the death of Jesus Christ. When Jesus rose from the dead, He blotted out all the sin-accounts of those who accepted Him as Savior and set them free from the power of their sin natures (see Isaiah 43:25). The only price that could buy the souls of people was the death of Christ and the only way the price could be paid to release the souls He bought from Satan was the resurrection of Christ.

"Inheritance" occurs in Ephesians 1:14 (plus 1:18 and 5:5). The Greek word is kleronomia, which means "a possessed lot" (kleros, "a lot"; nemomai, "to possess"). Its proper meaning is "an inherited property, an inheritance." Kleronomia is always rendered "inheritance" in the New Testament.

Notice what we learn about the inheritance that all people are given when they join God's forever-family through adoption that comes about when they accept Christ as Savior. 1:14 says that the Holy Spirit is "a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance." In other words, the indwelling Holy Spirit is the guarantee for your heavenly inheritance. In 1:18, Paul says that his prayer for believers is that "you may know ... the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints." Paul wants believers to know how rich they are spiritually as heirs to the glorious inheritance given all members of the family of God. In 5:5, Paul make it clear that "No immoral, impure or greedy person - such a man is an idolater - has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God." This inheritance is exclusive to blood-bought believers. According to Peter, this is "an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade - kept in heaven for you" (1 Peter 1:4). Believers are born again not only to a hope but also to the inheritance that is the substance of the hope. The inheritance is eternal-in its essence (it is not subject to decay) and in its preservation (it is divinely kept for us).

Our spiritual inheritance is beyond human description. God has been preparing it for us for 2,000 years. Paul explains it in this way, "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him" (1 Corinthians 2:9).

In verse 17, Paul prays that God will grant them "wisdom and revelation." "Wisdom" is the Greek work sophia, which means "insight into the true nature of things." Sophia is related to the Hebrew word hochmah, which means "skill with knowledge and understanding" and is translated with the Greek word sophia in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint). "Revelation" is the Greek word apokalupsis, which means "an uncovering" (apo, "from"; kalupto, "to hide, cover"). "Revelation" means, in verse 17, "the communication of the knowledge of God to the soul. Here in verse 17, Paul prays that believers will be given wisdom about the true nature of spiritual things and that the knowledge of God will become the knowledge of the Christian (accommodated to human understanding).

This spiritual wisdom and revelation is "so that you may know Him better." The word "know" is literally "knowledge." The Greek word, epignosis, is "knowledge that is true, accurate, thorough; full knowledge; experiential knowledge, not theoretical knowledge." To get to know (experience) God better, you need to have wisdom and revelation of what God discloses only to His spiritual children. Notice what that is: "In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace, that He lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. And He made known to us the mystery of His will" (verses 7-9). Here is spiritual revelation, intelligible to and exclusive only to the saved.

The Word of God is unintelligible to the unsaved, except to understand God's wonderful plan of salvation, for we need the indwelling Holy Spirit to crack the code of the Bible (see 1 Corinthians 2:13-14). The Holy Spirit reveals the spiritual meaning of God's Word, giving each believer the wisdom (skill) to handle the Word of God in the right way (see 2 Timothy 2:15).

In Ephesians 2:1, God reveals to us that we can be physically alive, but spiritually dead. The word, "dead", is the Greek word nekros, which is used to mean one who is either physically or spiritually without life. Our English words, "necropsy" (autopsy), "necropolis" (cemetery), and "necrosis" (death of living cells), come from this Greek word. In verse 1, it means "spiritually dead" (absence of a life that recognizes and is devoted to God). Spiritual death is the state of separation from God and His life. Death is a separation, whether physical: the separation of the person from his body; or spiritual: the separation of the person from God.

People of the world are either the living dead or the living alive. People that you work with, live with, and neighbor with may be fully alive physically but fully dead spiritually. No wonder that the unsaved consider it foolish to go to church and worship God. No wonder that life is explained as the product of eons of evolution, beginning with a primordial soup of organic compounds that evolved into living one-celled animals and plants when a lighting strike hit the soup just right. No wonder creationism and morality is laughed at by so many. The living dead have a Christ-shaped vacuum in their lives and, until Christ fills that vacuum, they fill it with everything else that is false to try to find the meaning of life.

The power that raised Christ from the dead and exalted Him is also the power that took the unsaved Ephesians out of the state of spiritual death and gave them a new life when they accepted Christ as their Savior (see verse 5). That power is the only power that can deliver anyone from being one of the living dead.

"Because of His great love for us, God who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions" (Ephesians 2:4). The word for "love" here is the Greek word, agape, which speaks of a love called out of one's heart by the preciousness of the one loved, a love that impels one to sacrifice one's self for the benefit of the person loved. With this great love, God loved us when He chose us, and it is on account of that love that He acts with us as He does.

Agape love is sacrificial love. It is distinct from phileo, which is translated as "brotherly love" in the New Testament, and refers to the love of a sibling. Phileo refers to the love a brother feels toward his sister or to a business associate or a member of a social group. A Christian who does what Jesus says in John 15:13 evidences the highest form of agape love possible: "Greater agape love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." This is love for a friend that is so powerful, you will lose your life to save his or hers. Agape love is what Jesus demonstrated when He lay down His life, not just for His friends, but for His enemies as well. This supernatural love fills the life of each person who accepts God's agape love. We are able to demonstrate sacrificial love that is in the best interests of those to whom we display it.

In Ephesians 14-15, Paul explains a miracle of human relationships. Where there was warfare raging in the heart of both the Jew and the Gentile, God brought peace. "For He Himself is our Peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in His flesh the law with its commandments and regulations." "Peace" is the Greek word, eirene, and means "concord. Not only did God bring peace to sinners who came to Him on the way of the cross, but He is Peace. " Peace, for the Christian, is the presence of God in good times or bad, not the absence of conflict. It is practicing the presence of the "Prince of Peace" (Isaiah 9:6).

Paul cites in Colossians 1:20 how peace with God comes about: "by making peace through His blood, shed on the cross." Our peace treaty with God is signed with the blood of Christ. After Paul informs us that God is Peace, he next focuses on the purpose of this peace with God: "to create in Himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace" (Ephesians 2:15). The "two" men are unbelieving Jews and Gentiles. The "one new man" are believing Jews and Gentiles. The purpose is that any person on earth may approach God through the blood of His Son to be welcomed into the family of God.

As believers, we enjoy peace on two levels: because of peace with God, we can experience the peace of God, that enables us to be calm no matter what our outward circumstances are doing: "the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:7).

"Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household" (Ephesians 2:19). "Foreigner" is the Greek noun, parodkos, which means "an alien, a sojourner" (para, "near"; oikos, a "dwelling"), in contrast to a fellow-citizen. "Aliens" is the Greek adjective, paroikos, which means the same as parodkos. The words "strangers" and "aliens" are a comprehensive expression which include "all who, whether by natural or territorial demarcation, or by the absence of civic privileges, were not citizens."

Sinners are aliens to the kingdom of God, having a totally depraved nature that makes them different, and different in a hostile sense. Paul refers to his readers in Ephesus as "no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household." They are sinners saved by grace, who now have a citizenship in heaven and are members of the family of God.

"Surely you have heard about the administration of God's grace that was given to me for you, that is, the mystery made known to me by revelation, as I have already written briefly. In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ ... This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 3:2-6).

"Mystery" is the Greek noun, musterion, "that which is known to the mustes, 'the initiated' (from mueo, "to initiate into the mysteries"). In the New Testament, it denotes, not the mysterious (as with the English word), but that which, being outside the range of unassisted natural apprehension, can be made known only by divine revelation, and is made known in a manner and at a time appointed by God, and to those only who are illumined by His Spirit. In the ordinary sense, a "mystery" implies knowledge withheld; its scriptural significance is truth revealed.