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B.--Yes, and so for the first time in Ephesians we read of redemption. Here the great
Kinsman-Redeemer is seen delivering his brethren from the bondage of sin and death,
and redeeming the forfeited inheritance.
A.--Where do we read of an inheritance in the first section?
B.--It is involved in the word "adoption" which we must consider separately, and it is
further implied by the balance of the two occurrences of the word "predestinate":--
"Having predestinated us unto adoption" (5).
"In Whom we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated" (11).
A.--Why do you say the "Kinsman-Redeemer" here?
B.--That too is so important that we will leave it for the moment until we have finished
this parallel.
A.--The third section must be one that assures the inheritance, if it is to balance.
B.--That is exactly what we find:--
"Sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, The earnest of our inheritance" (13, 14).
and that inheritance not only ours because of the unalterable and unconditional will of the
Father, but ours by the great work of redemption, for it is:--
"until the redemption of the purchased possession" (14).
We have therefore in Eph. 1: 3-14:--
(1). The unalterable and unconditional will of the FATHER.
(2). The strange interval of bondage from which we can only be delivered by the
redemptive work of the SON. This redemptive work involves the heading up of all
things in heaven and earth, and is not complete until the whole of the promised
seed are restored and in possession of their inheritance.
(3). This assurance is the witness of the SPIRIT. The Spirit is essentially "the Holy Spirit
of promise". The inheritance is ours by will and by purchase.
Sin and Redemption.
Their place.
A.--Am I to understand by this parallel then that redemption is God's provision to
deliver from the bondage and forfeiture in which the seed of promise had become
involved, and not that sin and redemption form an essential part of His purpose?
B.--That is so. The original will is unconditional and unalterable. We are justified in
taking the words of Gal. 3: as a blessed argument. If the coming in of the law with its
bondage and curse 430 years after the covenant with Abraham could not alter by one jot
that original covenant, neither shall the present reign of sin and death in anywise prevent
one child of promise reaching the goal.