I really like the book of Ephesians.
Really.
It all started when a pastor friend of mine told me about the back-story behind Ephesians and why the apostle Paul made references throughout the book to believers being adopted into the family of God. (See “Christians at the Dump” here: https://kinshipradio.org/home/2019/02/07/christians-at-the-dump/)
Which is why, when that same pastor’s blog linked me to a book called, Ephesiology: A Study of the Ephesian Movement by Michael T. Cooper, I jumped all over it. I was so intrigued, I couldn’t wait days for the physical book to arrive. With a few clicks, it was almost instantly downloaded to my Kindle. (I still enjoy the feel of an actual paper book, and I’m not above dog-earing the pages for future reference or underlining key passages, but the quick fix of the Kindle certainly has its appeal.)
I’ve only read about a fourth of the book, and I’m eagerly anticipating when Cooper gets to the really good parts, but he blew me away this morning.
First off, he mentions that the book of John was written sometime between AD 67 and 95 in Ephesus. I knew it was one of the later books of the Bible, but I did not know it was written in Ephesus. Interesting.
Then, Cooper says the Apostle John demonstrates that the story of Jesus is for all people by his repeated use of the word κόσμος (cosmos), which is translated “world.” He points out that John used that word a total of fifty-eight times in his gospel –more than all the other gospels combined.
Take a look at John 3:17:
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. (NLT)
He uses that word three times in one sentence.
Now, of course, John had no way of knowing at the time that humanity would, at some point in the future, take the Greek word “cosmos” that meant “all the world” and someday use it to mean “all of the universe.”
But God did.
And, if we believe that all of Scripture is God-breathed and inspired by the Holy Spirit (2 Timothy 3:16) it certainly seems it was no accident that the Holy Spirit would breathe that particular word into John’s writing fifty-eight times.
As I pondered that, I was struck by the enormous grandeur of God’s plan for us all:
This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 1 John 4:9 (NLT)
And that is Christmas.
That is the glory of Christmas. God did not send His Son into Israel to save the Jews. He did not send Jesus to the United States of America to save a particular race or color or ethnicity of people. No, He sent His Son, His one and only Son, into all the cosmos to save every nation, every tribe, every tongue.
Jesus changed the world. In fact, He changed the cosmos.
Nothing was ever the same after Jesus. His teaching, His examples, His parables, His death on the cross, His resurrection from the grave, and His appearing to His disciples and hundreds of others after His death would leave behind a cosmos that could never again be the same.
As Paul writes in Colossians 1:6:
This same Good News that came to you is going out all over the world. It is bearing fruit everywhere by changing lives, just as it changed your lives from the day you first heard and understood the truth about God’s wonderful grace. (NLT)
And, as I pondered this from a cosmological perspective, I thought of the words John wrote at the very beginning of his Gospel:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. John 1: 1-3 (NIV)
All the cosmos was made through Jesus. All the stars, all the planets, all the galaxies –all things we would someday discover with powerful telescopes and billions of dollars of space exploration. All made through Jesus and for Jesus.
Paul expands on this even further in Colossians 1:15-17:
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. (ESV)
And, if you think about it, every Christmas song you hear on Kinship Christian Radio celebrates this one fact: That Jesus –this King of kings and Lord of lords, this ruler of all the Universe through whom all things were created and live and move and have their being –stepped down from His throne as a baby, a powerless and helpless baby, lying in an animal’s feeding trough so that He could save a cosmos of people who had done nothing to deserve it or earn it.
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16 (NIV)
Today’s Praise
How many kings step down from their thrones?
How many lords have abandoned their homes?
How many greats have become the least for me?
Lyrics from “How Many Kings” by Downhere
Photo by Luck Galindo, courtesy of Pexels