Two Minutes With The Bible

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The First Book To Read
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


In years gone by, when life was simpler, men had more time to ponder over the really important questions: What will become of me when I die? Is there a heaven — and a hell? Can I know God? Will He forgive my sins? If so, on what basis? What must I do to be saved?

The materialism, commercialism and technology of our day, however, have so complicated life that secondary problems hinder many people from even considering at leisure that which is most important.

Yet, despite all the hurry and anxiety, all the noise and distraction, there are troubled souls, hungering and thirsting for true satisfaction, for hearts cleansed from sin, for deliverance from the awful burden of a guilty conscience.

Such people should read Paul’s Epistle to the Romans and meditate on its great message of salvation. In fact, this is the first book they ought to read.

In Romans the inspired Apostle declares that “all have sinned” (3:23) and that “the wages of sin is death” (6:23). But this is not all. Romans also proclaims the good news that the Lord Jesus Christ “was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification” and that therefore we may have “peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (4:25; 5:1).

More than this, Romans offers abundant grace to all who trust in Christ. “The law entered that the offence might abound, but where sin abounded grace did much more abound” (5:20,21). Thus believers are “justified freely by [God’s] grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (3:24) and “the [free] gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (6:23).

We urge those who are not sure of salvation to read carefully and prayerfully this great Epistle to the Romans. You may be thanking God for the rest of your earthly life — and forever — that you did.

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Comfort One Another
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


Increasing world tension and the present trend of events in the Middle East have always filled many with fear, and there are even sincere believers in Christ who fear that perhaps the “Great Tribulation” of prophecy, with all its horrors, is at hand.

It is true indeed that even Paul’s epistles warn this world of the judgment to come. “…The Day of the Lord”, he says, “so cometh as a thief in the night”.

    “For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape” (I Thess. 5:2,3).

But before this time comes, the Lord will recall His ambassadors, as the apostle tells us in the following passage:

    “For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
    “Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
    “Wherefore comfort one another with these words” (I Thess. 4:16-18.).

This is the event with which “the dispensation of the grace of God” will be brought to a close. Then will follow “the day of His wrath”, but even as Paul goes on to tell about this in the passage which follows, he reassures the members of Christ’s Body that they will not be included amongst those to whom the Lord will come as “a thief in the night”.

    “But ye brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light…God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us…Wherefore comfort yourselves together…” (I Thess. 5:4-11).

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Three Brutal Murders
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


Every student of the Word should know the three brutal murders around which all history revolves. These three murders represent Israel’s response to God’s three-fold call to repentance. They explain the unpardonable sin and form the background for the present dispensation of grace.

It was John the Baptist, the last of the Old Testament prophets, who was sent as the forerunner of Christ to call Israel to repentance. He was beheaded by Herod, the wicked and licentious “king of the Jews”. After John, Christ Himself took up the cry: “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand”. Him they crucified. Then, at Pentecost, Israel was given a third opportunity to repent, until they shed blood again, stoning Stephen to death.

It should be noticed, too, that their guilt, as well as their bitter enmity, increased with the second and third murders! Had Israel, responded to John’s call to repentance Herod would never have dared to even put John in jail. This explains why our Lord did nothing to release him from prison, even though this had offended John. It was not His, but theirs to do something about John’s unjust imprisonment and every moment he spent in prison testified against them. Read carefully Luke 3:18-20; 7:19-29; and Matthew 14:1-11. As to the beheading of John the Baptist, they permitted it. As to the crucifixion of Christ, they demanded it (Luke 23:23,24). As to the stoning of Stephen, they committed it, casting him out of the city with their own hands and stoning him there.

And so that generation in Israel committed the unpardonable sin which our Lord warned would not be forgiven, either in that age, or in the age to come. Thus we close this article by quoting those precious passages from Paul’s epistles which clearly DENY the possibility of any “unpardonable sin” during the present “dispensation of the grace of God”:

    “We have redemption through His blood, THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS, according to the riches of His grace” (Eph. 1:7).

    “Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. BUT WHERE SIN ABOUNDED, GRACE DID MUCH MORE ABOUND: that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 5:20,21).

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Paul's Three I Am's
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


Three times in Romans 1:14-16, the Apostle Paul uses the phrase “I am”, and each one carries an important message for every true believer in Christ.

First, he says in verse 14: “I am debtor” — debtor to all men, to tell them about the saving work of Christ. But why was he indebted to people he had never even seen? For several reasons:

First, he had in his hand what they needed to be saved from the penalty and power of sin. If I see a drunkard lying across the railroad track and I do nothing about it, am I not a murderer if he is killed by the train? If I see a man drowning and I have a life buoy in my hand but do not throw it to him, am I not a murderer if he goes down for the last time? If I see millions of lost souls about me and, knowing the message of salvation, do not tell them, am I not guilty if they die without Christ?

Further, Paul felt himself a debtor to others, because the Christ who had died for his sins had also died for the sins of others. As he says in II Corinthians 5:14,15: “Christ died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him who died for them and rose again.”

Finally, the Christ who had died for Paul’s sins, had commissioned him to tell others of His saving grace. Thus he says in I Corinthians 9:16,17:

    “Woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel! For…a dispensation of the gospel is committed unto me” (I Cor. 9:16,17).

Paul could say further what every true believer should be able to say: Not “I am debtor, but“, but rather, “I am debtor…SO, as much as in me is, I AM READY…” (Rom.1:15). He was ready to discharge his debt because he had that with which to discharge it — the wonderful “gospel of the grace of God”. And he did indeed make this the message known to others with all that was in him.

And now the third “I am”: “I am debtor…So I am ready… For I AM NOT ASHAMED of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth…” (Ver. 16). Paul was always proud to own Christ as the mighty Saviour from sin. Do you know Christ as your Saviour? Do you tell others of His saving grace?

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A Solemn Agreement
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


The Apostle Paul, referring to his journey to Jerusalem to tell the apostles and elders there about the good news that had been committed to him, says:

    “And I went up by revelation and COMMUNICATED UNTO THEM THAT GOSPEL WHICH I PREACH AMONG THE GENTILES, but privately to them which were of reputation, lest by any means I should run, or had run, in vain… And when James, Cephas [Peter] and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given unto me, THEY GAVE TO ME AND BARNABAS THE RIGHT HANDS OF FELLOWSHIP, that we should go unto the heathen [Gentiles, nations], and they unto the Circumcision [Israel]” (Gal. 2:2-9).

Here, by solemn agreement, Peter, James and John promised publicly to confine their ministry to Israel while Paul went to the Gentiles with his “gospel of the grace of God.” This is striking in view of the fact that the twelve, not Paul, had originally been sent into all the world.

Were they all out of the will of God in making this agreement? By no means! Subsequent revelation proves that they were all very much in the will of God and that with the rejection of Christ God had ushered in a new program.

In the light of these Scriptures it is difficult to understand how anyone can argue that Paul’s ministry was merely a perpetuation of that of the twelve, or that “the gospel of the kingdom” and “the gospel of the grace of God” are identical.

If the above passage teaches anything clearly, it teaches the unique character of Paul’s apostleship and message. The Apostle devotes almost two chapters of his letter to the Galatians to the fact that he had not received his message from the twelve, but rather had communicated to the twelve.

He stresses the fact that those who had first been sent to all nations, “beginning at Jerusalem,” had now, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, agreed to turn over their Gentile ministry to him that he might proclaim far and wide “the gospel of the grace of God,” as found in Eph. 2:8,9 and Rom. 3:24.

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Big Mistake
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


Several times in the last few weeks commentators over radio, TV and in the newspapers have made a big mistake. This was in connection with the kidnapping of Frank Sinatra, Jr.

Frank Sr., as we know, had to pay the kidnappers $240,000.00 for the ransom of his son. One after another the news commentators declared that this amount was by no means the highest amount ever paid for a ransom. In the Bobby Greenlease case, they said, the Kansas City auto dealer had to pay $600,000.00 to ransom his son — the highest price ever paid for the ransom of a human being.

Here they are wrong. $600,000.00 is by no means the highest price ever paid for the ransom of a human being.

St. Paul, by divine inspiration, wrote in I Tim. 2:4-6:

    “God will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.

    “For there is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus.

    “Who gave HIMSELF a ransom for all…”

Did you get that? Christ gave Himself a ransom for all. All mankind had been taken captive by Satan and sin, but Christ paid the price of our ransom. That price was Himself — His own life, which He gave on Calvary’s cross to pay for our redemption.

All that was accomplished at Calvary was not revealed, however, until God raised up the Apostle Paul, who goes on to say in Verses 6 and 7 of the above passage that this message was “testified in due time,” by him.

When sin had risen to its height in the world’s rejection of Christ, God reached down from heaven to save Saul, the chief of sinners, and sent him forth as the Apostle Paul to proclaim salvation by grace through faith in the Christ who had died for sin. This is why the Apostle declares in I Tim. 1:15,16:

    “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all longsuffering…”

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Thou Shalt Not Smoke!
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


Have you read about the clear law against smoking cigarettes in the state laws of Illinois? It’s been on the books since 1907 and here is what it says:

    Every person who shall manufacture, sell or give away any cigarette containing any substance deleterious to health, including tobacco, shall be punished by a fine not exceeding $100.00 or by imprisonment in the county jail for a period not to exceed 30 days.

This law has been on the Illinois state law books for 96 years, but in late years, certainly, it hasn’t been enforced and most Illinoisans don’t even know it’s there. The reason is that so many people smoke cigarettes that the authorities don’t even try to enforce it.

The prohibition era demonstrated the fact that human behavior cannot be legislated. This is so even with the law of God. Some people think that the Ten Commandments were given to help us to be good, but this is not so, for the Scriptures themselves state clearly that they were given to show us that we are bad and need a Savior.

Rom. 3:19 declares that the Law was given “that every mouth may be stopped, and that all the world may be brought in guilty before God.” Rom. 3:20 says: “By the law is the knowledge of sin.”

This is why we read in Rom. 8:3 that “what the law could not do, in that it was weak [on account of] the flesh,” God sent His Son to accomplish. Also in Heb. 7:19 we read that “the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did.” This is the “better hope” that we proclaim: that through Christ we may have “the forgiveness of sins” and that “by Him all who believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses” (Acts 13:38,39).

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Avoiding Strong Drink
by Pastor Paul M. Sadler


Scripture Reading:

    “Woe unto him that giveth his neighbour drink, that puttest thy bottle to him, and makest him drunken.”
    — Habakkuk 2:15

There are many passages in the Word of God, such as the above, that are timeless and transcend all the dispensations of God. While the liquor industry goes to great lengths to get people to believe that drinking is a harmless way to have a good time, the facts are otherwise. They are very careful never to advertise the drunk driver who kills innocent people or the homes that have been destroyed by strong drink. But a voice in the crowd says that a few social drinks will never hurt anyone. Most recovering alcoholics, however, tell a much different story of how their slide into a life of drunkenness all started with a social drink. “Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise” (Prov. 20:1).

A couple of years ago, I was driving through Apollo, Pennsylvania where I saw a piece of twisted wreckage along side of the road. Upon slowing down, I discovered that it was an automobile, or at least what was left of it. Apparently someone survived the crash because there were beer cans strategically placed beside the car along with a sign at the rear bumper which read, “And they told us we were going to have fun.” Someone lied!

While the world refers to alcoholism as a disease, the Word of God calls drunkenness a sin. It is not a disease, it is a matter of choice. Oh, the sorrow and heartache that has been caused by careless men and women who have given themselves over to the treachery of this sin. The answer is not found in the bottom of a bottle — the answer is Christ. Only He can deliver the drunkard from his drunkenness.

Therefore, a life yielded to God is the solution to the bondage of this terrible sin. Throughout the year social gatherings often bring with them a strong temptation to join the crowd. For those who struggle with this temptation, it is important to remember that the victory is already yours though Christ Jesus our Lord. Simply claim it! Then live one day at a time, by God’s grace, for His grace is more than sufficient (II Cor. 12:9). Amen!

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Is Paul Addressing Believers or Unbelievers?
by Pastor Paul M. Sadler


    “I’m confused! In Philippians 3:17-20, is Paul addressing believers or unbelievers?”

    “17 Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an example.

    “18 (For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the Cross of Christ:

    “19 Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things)

    “20 For our conversation [citizenship] is in heaven….”

Paul is addressing both groups! In verse 17 the apostle begins by encouraging those at Philippi who were saved to follow his teachings and manner of life. Notice, however, that he digresses in verses 18 and 19 to add a parenthetical thought. The reason the apostle pauses momentarily here is to point out that there were many who claimed to be Christians, probably for some type of personal gain, but he clearly exposes them to be enemies of the Cross of Christ. They lived to satisfy the desires of the flesh. Their god was food, and drink, and sex, as they gloried in their shame. They were consumed with earthly possessions, which blinded them to their need of the Savior. As a result, their “end is destruction!” Surely this could not be said of the believer. After Paul completes the parenthesis, he resumes with his initial train of thought, confirming our heavenly hope with the saints at Philippi, “For our citizenship is in heaven….”

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In His Service
by Pastor Paul M. Sadler


Scripture Reading:

    “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” — Romans 12:1,2

At all times we should stand ready to serve the Lord in whatever capacity He has called us. Time is precious! Isaac Watts once said: “Time, like an ever-rolling stream, bears all its sons away.” Unlike eternity, everything in this life has a beginning and an end, as Solomon reminds us:

    “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die” (Eccl. 3:1,2).

In the natural course of things, life and death are in God’s control. But what takes place between these two monumental events will have a bearing upon us throughout eternity. Life is the dash that appears between the dates on every tombstone. And that little dash speaks volumes. For some it marks a conversion to Christ and all the spiritual benefits that come with it. But for others it is a chronicle of rejection and rebellion against God, with no hope of reprieve. Which is true of you? If the latter, there’s still time to trust Christ and flee the wrath to come.

The question is, what will we do with the remaining time that’s left before our dash is etched in stone? Paul says, “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:13,14).

This passage has always amazed me. After 30 plus years of serving the Lord, Paul was still pressing toward the goal. He refused to allow the past to influence his life — whether it was past failures or accomplishments. God has done a wonderful work here at BBS through the years, but we must not dwell upon past accomplishments or failures.

Like Paul, we must press forward toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God.

May it be our desire that we might “know Christ,” that is, more fully, and experience the power of His resurrection. There is still much to be done, but with your help, we can leave a legacy of grace that will be long remembered after we lie in the dust of the earth.

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Are You A Pauline Epistle?
by Pastor Ricky Kurth


    “Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men” (II Cor. 3:2).

Since the Corinthians were saved by Paul’s gospel (I Cor. 15:1-4), the apostle calls them his epistles. Webster said that an epistle is “a writing… communicating intelligence to a distant person.” Surely the “intelligence,” i.e., the information that the Corinthians communicated to the world was that even the most sinful of men could be justified by God’s grace (I Cor.
6:9-11).

But if Paul could say to the Corinthians, “ye are our epistle,” why does he go on to say that they were “manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ” (3:3)? Ah, a letter written by an apostle under the inspiration of the Spirit was a letter from Christ! And since everyone who is saved today is also saved as a result of having believed Paul’s gospel, you too are a Pauline epistle! And so the debate over whether Paul wrote 14 or just 13 epistles is over! The apostle penned millions of letters over the past many centuries.

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True Riches In Christ
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


To know God through Christ and His redeeming work is to be rich indeed.

The Scriptures have much to say about the infinite riches of God. They tell us of “the riches of His glory” (Rom. 9:23; Eph. 3:16), “the riches of His wisdom and knowledge” (Rom. 11:33), “the riches of His goodness and forbearance and longsuffering” (Rom. 2:4) and “the riches of His grace (Eph. 1:7; 2:7). God would have us enjoy these riches through faith in Christ, who died for our sins.

    “For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich” (II Cor. 8:9).

We should rejoice continually that God, in addition to being rich in wisdom and knowledge and in glory and power, is also “rich in mercy” (Eph. 2:4) and that “the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon Him, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Rom. 10:12,13).

To St. Paul, the chief of sinners, saved by grace, God revealed the greatest riches of all. Paul said: “Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints is this grace given, that I should preach among the nations the unsearchable riches of Christ” (Eph. 3:8.). These riches include, among other things, “all the riches of the full assurance of understanding” (Col. 2:2). How wonderful to have an intelligent understanding of God’s plan of salvation and of all He has purposed in His heart of love for those who accept the salvation He has provided through His beloved Son!

True riches are not comprised of material things. The Scripture calls these “uncertain riches” and warns us not to trust in them (I Tim. 6:17). True riches is “to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge” and so to be “filled with all the fulness of God” (Eph. 3:19).

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The Gospel of Salvation
by Pastor Paul M. Sadler


The Word of God teaches, “The wages of sin is death.”  When Christ stepped across the stars into this world of sin and woe, death was powerless over Him.  Christ knew no sin!  He was the sinless, spotless Lamb of God; therefore death could not lay its icy grip upon His shoulder.

Tell me then, how is it that, at the end of His earthly ministry, He’s suffering and dying in shame and disgrace?  You see, Christ wasn’t dying for His sins, for He knew no sin (II Cor. 5:21; I John 3:5).  He was dying for your sins and my sins upon that cruel tree.  Our sins and iniquities were laid upon Him that He might redeem us back to God through His precious blood.

Now God turns to a lost and dying world with the good news of Calvary.  Simply believe that Christ died for your sins personally, and rose again the third day, and God will wonderfully save you from the wrath to come, according to the riches of His grace.  Do you know the joy of sins forgiven?  If not, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31; Rom. 10:13; I Cor. 15:3,4).

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The Divine Mirror
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


In the divine Mirror, the Bible, we may behold ourselves or we may behold Christ.

It is well to use it first to behold ourselves and see the ruin sin has brought. But let us not stop here. Let a man look into a mirror and find the sun in it and the glory will be reflected in his face. And so it is with the Word. When we see ourselves in it we must necessarily be disappointed, but when we look for Him in the Word and find Him there, His glory casts its reflection upon us!

What need have we then to hide our faces? If David could say, “They looked unto Him, and were lightened: and their faces were not ashamed” (Psa. 34:5), how much more should this be said of us! We know, or should know, more of Him than those of David’s day, and those Scriptures specially addressed to us send us forth, not to proclaim God’s righteous demands, but to proclaim Christ, the righteous One, who met these demands at Calvary and offers justification and life to all.

And as, in our study of the Scriptures, we turn from the shame of man to the glory of Christ; as we behold Him and see all we have and are in Him, we become constantly more like Him, “changed into the same image from glory to glory” (II Cor. 3:18.).

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Reflections on Ephesians
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


There is no epistle in which we find more about the grace of God than that great and wonderful epistle of Paul to the Ephesians! It is one of his prison epistles and, interestingly enough, he was actually and literally in jail for telling a secret, the secret of the mystery (Eph. 6:19,20). Evidently he had a great deal of opposition in trying to make this secret known. That’s rather unusual, isn’t it?

The Ephesian epistle was probably written about 64 A.D., and was evidently sent by the hand of a man named Tychicus (6:21,22), along with two other letters, one to the Colossians (Col. 4:7-9), and that to Philemon (Col. 4:7-9 cf. Phile. 10-12). Never, never were more valuable documents entrusted to human hands!

Now, in the earlier epistles of Paul, we learn a great deal about dispensational change and development, but in Ephesians we have arrived, and find ourselves on the highest, broadest spiritual ground. Here the Holy Spirit reveals to us, in all their fullness, those blessed truths which distinguish this dispensation from others.

For example, the mystery or the sacred secret is here revealed in all its fullness. He says that this secret is now made known (1:9) through him (3:1-3), but it is for all to see (3:9), for it concerns our close relationship to Christ (5:30,32). And since Satan will oppose the proclamation of this secret, boldness is needed to proclaim it (6:19,20).

In this epistle, the one Body of Christ, the Church of this dispensation, is emphasized throughout. The whole body, he says, is the fulness, the complement, the fulness of Christ (1:23). He says God is making one new man today (2:15), reconciling Jews and Gentiles to Himself in one body (2:16), a joint body (3:6), in which we are to keep the unity of the Spirit (4:3,4). The Body, he says, must grow up, and it must build itself up in love (4:11-16). Christ is the Head of the Body, and its Savior (5:23), and we are the members (5:30). How close that brings all believers to each other! How close it brings us to Christ!

Our position in the heavenlies is prominently brought out in this epistle. We read that, immediately upon conversion, we are blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies (1:3). We’re told that God’s power in raising Christ from the dead and exalting Him far above all is now extended to us-ward who believe (1:19-21). Positionally, he says, we’ve already been raised from the dead and seated in the heavenlies (2:6). Now, he says, it is ours to occupy this position by faith, as a witness to the principalities and powers in the heavenlies (3:10). Hence we must wrestle with the rulers of the darkness of this age, wicked spirits in the heavenlies (6:12). And for this, he says, we’re going to need the whole armor of God (6:10,11).

In this epistle, all is grace. Read Ephesians and see how it is permeated with grace. Even the salutation speaks of grace and peace (1:2). Compare that with what we read about the second coming of Christ to this earth, where He will come to judge and make war (Rev. 19:11). Grace and peace is the exact opposite of judgment and war! Thank God He hasn’t declared war yet. He hasn’t visited this world in judgment yet. He still offers to sinners everywhere, and to saints, of course, in greater measure, grace and peace.

Now the doxology—oh, what a doxology of grace! The doxology in the Ephesian epistle is the longest of all of Paul’s doxologies, and in the original it is his longest sentence. We’re blessed because we are chosen by God the Father to the praise of His glory (1:4-6). We’re made accepted in the Son to the praise of His glory. We’re sealed by the Spirit to the praise of His glory. Glory to the triune God! Glory for His grace!

We read individual things, too, about the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. All throughout this epistle, everything emanates from the Father. The Father is always the source. The Father has chosen us (1:3,4) according to the good pleasure of His will (v. 5), according to the riches of His grace (vv. 6,7), according to His good pleasure (v. 9), according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will (v. 11), according to the working of His mighty power (v. 19), and according to His eternal purpose (3:11). There’s more about that in the epistle, showing that everything finds its source in the will of God.

Then we see how our salvation centers in the Son. He’s always the second person in the Trinity. His place is always in the midst. We read, for example, that we’re blessed with all spiritual blessings in Christ (1:3), and have redemption through His blood (v. 7), in whom we are greatly enriched (v. 11), in whom also we are saved (v. 13), and sealed (v. 13). Think of that! We are in Christ, and because of His finished work, the believer is sealed until the day of redemption.

Then we come to the Spirit. It all comes down to us through, or by the operation of, the Spirit. We’re sealed by the Spirit (1:13), and we have access to God the Father by the Spirit (2:18.). We are an habitation of God through the Spirit (2:22), and we’re strengthened by the Spirit (3:16). We must not grieve the Spirit (4:30), but rather bear the fruit of the Spirit (5:9). We must be filled with the Spirit (5:18.), use the sword of the Spirit (6:17), and we must pray in the Spirit (6:18.).

What a tremendous, tremendous epistle!