Title Reason for Praise
three praises
Today's text seems a bit verbose because familiar words appear almost repeatedly. Praise, spiritual blessing, holy and blameless, grace, sin, forgiveness, God's plan, hope, gospel, Holy Spirit, promise, inheritance, God's people, complete freedom, etc. It takes time. So most people don't like this kind of talk very much. It's not that I don't like it, but I think it's a little uncomfortable because it's hard to approach. Of course, there are some people who receive grace on their own without much thought while dealing with these words, but most believers say, “That must be a good thing!” I stop thinking about it. On the other hand, the parables that Jesus taught, the stories of healing, or the dramatic stories of Acts are not only accessible to us, but also interesting.
I don't know if you've noticed when you read the text, but the text is structured in three ways. 3-6, 7-12, 13-14. Compared to other texts, the structure of this text catches our eye more easily because each paragraph ends with the sentence “We have no choice but to praise.” Verse 6, the last verse of the first chapter, is as follows. “We cannot help but praise God for this glorious grace freely given to us through his Beloved Son.” Verse 12, the last verse of the second paragraph, reads: “Therefore, we who first put our hope in Christ cannot help but praise the glory of God.” See also verse 14. “The Holy Spirit guarantees our inheritance and gives us complete freedom as God’s people. Therefore, we cannot help but praise the glory of God.”
Everywhere in the Old and New Testaments we hear statements about praising God. The Psalms are all about praise. The Pentateuch and the Prophets have not only specific forms of praise, but also many passages containing such content. What the hell does the Bible mean by praise? No one knows the meaning of the word praise. Praise is our attitude of praising or exalting something. When we say we praise God, we mean to praise or exalt him and his works. It would not be an exaggeration to say that the essence of Christian faith lies in such praise. So, there is a lot of praise in the form of worship. These days, that's not enough, so worship services are mostly focused on praise. It is a good phenomenon in the sense that the passion to praise God is intense.
christological praise
The praises of the Bible were by no means the self-pity or passion of men, but very clear content. Praise was made only through contents such as God's creation of the world, the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the presence of the Holy Spirit. In today's text, three praises contain such content. It has a christological structure as a whole, but when you go into detail, there are some differences.
The content of the first praise is the fact that God chose us before the creation of the heavens and the earth (4). However, it is said that that choice was made through Jesus Christ (5). How clearly do you recognize and believe this fact that the early Christian community recognized, believed, and had no choice but to praise? Some people will say they believe unconditionally, some people will think they don't believe it but believe it, and some people will think they don't know.
The content of the second praise is that God has made us know the profound will of God (8,9). Recognizing the meaning of election and predestination through Jesus Christ itself is the content of praise. It means that early Christians did not even consider our cognitive act as a subjective ability. Some may view this attitude as religious zealotism, but fundamentally it is not. Those who know how rustic and finite the human cognitive capacity is, and who know that some forces are intervening in our cognitive behavior, will take this confession of the early Christian community seriously. Composers don't think they're composing, they're the sound itself, and great artists don't think they paint themselves, it's similar to the idea that other powers do it.
The content of the third praise is that God has given us the Holy Spirit as a sign that we have become His people (13). It is not easy to explain exactly what the Holy Spirit refers to in today's text. The Acts of the Apostles sees the Holy Spirit as “tongues” or world missions, while the Gospel of John refers to the confession of faith in Jesus Christ itself. In a broader sense, the Holy Spirit is the Spirit who brings, sustains, and completes life in the world. The early Christian community was vividly conscious of some mystical force that drew them to them. Sometimes it is expressed in tongues, sometimes as healing, as Gentile missions, and as a fellowship in the church, so it is expressed differently, but in the end it means that we are possessed by the power of the holy life.
The content of the praise divided into three above is ultimately focused on ‘Jesus Christ’. God's election is through Jesus Christ, and our awareness is also an event that happened and will happen through Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit given to us was also a sign of the fact that we became God's people through Jesus Christ.
Perhaps some of you are like, “Yeah, so what does that mean? Isn't that just a Christian doctrine that we cannot easily follow?” Of course, this teaching is a doctrine, but it is not a one-sided doctrine, but a doctrine that contains a certain life and world. It is a problem to believe this doctrine unconditionally without thinking, but it is also a big problem to think that it has nothing to do with one's life. What on earth is Ephesians trying to say through this doctrinal content? Could it be that there are only three things to praise? Are we just hearing another doctrine that we hear over and over again today? So, do we just add dramatic stories and laughs to keep our faith from drying out? It can enhance the taste of food like seasonings, but the food is not seasoning, it depends on the ingredients and also the skill of the person making it. Now we have reached the stage where we need to dig into the heart of this verse. What is the main message of today's text that there is a reason to praise three times?
God's Glory
We have identified three reasons for praise in the text above. However, the essence of what these three items are saying is that they are much more essential. It is the ‘glory’ of God. Verses 12 and 14 are equally expressed: “We cannot help but praise the glory of God.” Verse 6 expresses the praise of God’s glory for ‘glorious grace’. It means that God's choice, our awareness of God's choice, and the presence of the Holy Spirit all reveal the 'glory of God'.
The Martin Luther translation translated this glory as ‘Herrlichkeit’. Literally, it is a word with the meaning of God's glory, sovereignty, dominion, etc. The fact that God has chosen us means that God's freedom has nothing to do with our will. This grace of becoming a child of God through Jesus Christ is God's own decision. The fact that we come to know and believe in Christ is also God's own freedom. Especially look at verse 11. “God, who fulfills all things according to his will, according to his plan predestined and chose us to believe in Christ.” It is in this very verse that the glory of God is meant. The reason God is God is because he does everything according to his own will through his own freedom.
At this point, there is a danger that we sometimes fall into fatalism. Praising the glory of God may paralyze all our independent thoughts and actions for which we are responsible. Many Christians say, "That's God's will!" You can see this in trying to get away from history while doing it.
However, this confession of praising the 'glory of God' is not a pessimistic fatalism, but an attitude of life that absolutely affirms everything, including all the dark parts of our lives. He who sees the world in the light of Christ is never depressed, afraid, closed, or fatal in any situation. He already has a heart to praise. Because he has already found the glory of God in his life and in this world. Is God's glory permeating your life? Are you aware of that? So you want to praise every day? I really hope this year will be like that.