Answers to Lesson Four:

Ephesians

Chapter Three

Review Questions:

Question One:  What is the meaning of the word "revelation" as it applies to the scriptures?

Answer:  The word "revelation" is used to describe a revealing of the mind of God to an individual such as the apostle Paul.  He was proud of the fact that he was not taught his knowledge of God, Jesus Christ and His kingdom by any human being but rather it came from God (see Galatians 1:12).

Question Two:  What is the meaning of the word "inspiration" as it applies to the scriptures?

Answer:  The word "inspiration" is used to describe the process of taking the revelation and writing it down.  The word, as used in I Timothy 3:16-17, is a combination of the words "God" and "breathed."  This process of inspiration claims accuracy in all areas including singular and plural (Galatians 3:16) and verb tense (Mark 12:26). 

Question Three:  What is the net effect of "revelation" and "inspiration" on our knowledge of God's will?

Answer:  The net effect of revelation and inspiration is that we can be assured that we know what God wants of us.  Paul assures us that "When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ" (Ephesians 3:4) and that "we have the mind of Christ" (I Corinthians 2:16).  This is why we are admonished to not "go beyond what is written" (I Corinthians 4:6).

Question Four:  How would you describe in your own words what God's "eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Ephesians 3:11) is?

Answer:   The eternal purpose was to provide a way that individuals could be saved through being reunited with God since He is "of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong" (Habakkuk 1:13) and your "iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear" (Isaiah 59:2).  This was a plan that was "set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth" (Ephesians 1:9-10).  It was a purpose that included "the definite plan and foreknowledge of God" (Acts 2:23).  It was a purpose or plan that was "foreknown before the foundation of the world" (I Peter 1:18-20).

Question Five:  Where is Christ to dwell in a Christian?

Answer:  According to Ephesians 3:17, Christ is to "dwell in your hearts through faith."

Question Six: In Ephesians 1:18-19, Paul prayed for three things for the Ephesians to know: (a) “what is the hope to which he has called you,” (b) “what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints,” and (c) “what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us that believe.”  How would you describe each of these?

Answer:  (a)  Although at one time you were "separated from Christ, alienated...having no hope and without God in the world" (Ephesians 2:12), you have now been "brought near by the blood of Christ" (Ephesians 2:13).  Although "we were dead in our trespasses" God has "made us alive together with Christ" (Ephesians 2:5).  It is our hope that "in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2:7).  All of this is "by grace you have been saved through faith.  And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God" (Ephesians 2:8)

(b)  The riches of His glorious inheritance include the fact that we will be built into a holy temple in the Lord and into a dwelling place for God (Ephesians 2:19-22) and that we will be "members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel" (Ephesians 3:6).

(c)  The immeasurable greatness of his power toward us is that he "is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us" (Ephesians 3:20).

Click here to move on to lesson 5 which is on Ephesians chapter 4.

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