Salvation, Vocation, and Body Building: The Big Picture of Ephesians
What is salvation for? It is not hard to lose the forest for the trees in Paul's letter to the Ephesians. The letter opens with some very complex themes that, because they meet us first, tend to occupy most of our attention and interest as we come to the letter for guidance and edification: election (1.4), predestination (1.5), adoption (1.5), redemption (1.5), inheritance (1.11), salvation (1.13), the role of the Spirit, to name a few. As important as all of those themes are (and they are indeed foundational), its seems to me that part of what Paul is doing in his letter to the Ephesians is trying to get his readers to ask the question, What is this (election, adoption, redemption, salvation) all for? What are we chosen for ? What are we predestined for ? What are we adopted for ? Why have we been redeemed? And how does this all reveal God's glory and grace? Those who have been shaped by the Reformed tradition will likely respond that all of this--election, pred...