God's View of His People

Thursdays are for the New Testament. This post was prepared 5/29/15 for publication 6/18/15.

Peterson, Eugene H., and Peter Santucci. Practice Resurrection: A Conversation on Growing up in Christ. Grand Rapids, Mich.: William B. Eerdmans Pub., 2010. Kindle Electronic Edition.
Chapter 4, “Paul and the Saints: Ephesians 1:15-23” Loc. 771-991.

In the first half of Ephesians 1 Paul has told of Jesus’ wonders. Now, Peterson states, we submit ourselves to the blessing of God. Our starting point is always God, not ourselves (Peterson 2010, Loc. 779). The language of this process is prayer. “If we are to practice this resurrection prayer, a further renovation of imagination is required: we need to have an existential understanding of prayer as an all-involving way of life” (Peterson 2010, Loc. 781). In prayer, “we bless the God who blesses us” (Peterson 2010, Loc. 795). Peterson then shows that Paul shifts in Ephesians 1:16 to praying for the Ephesians, that God would give them very particular gifts (Peterson 2010, Loc. 805), empowered by the resurrection (Peterson 2010, Loc. 808). Peterson sums the result up with the noun Paul uses - prayer (Peterson 2010, Loc. 817). Prayer is what we do in all of life as we grow in grace.

Peterson goes on to illustrate the nature of the Christian, consistently referred to by Paul as “saint” (Peterson 2010, Loc. 869). This is the way God sees his people. It can and should take us by surprise, as we know our sin and failure. Yet God views his redeemed people as the holy ones. We dignify others by caring for them as well. They are the saints of God (Peterson 2010, Loc. 921).