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The Pastoral Epistles of Saint Paul
Talk by Metropolitan Jonah (Paffhausen), part 19, Ephesians 1
October 11, 2022

Topics include: 
(1) Introduction to St. Paul's Letter to the Ephesians;
(2) Themes of Chapter 1: Eucharistic, Trinitarian, the Recapitulation of all things in Christ; 
(3) Chosen and Predestined in love. The Orthodox Church does not teach double predestination. God predestines people to salvation according to His foreknowledge of their response to His love. God's antecedent will (to save all) and His consequent will (people choose to do evil and can refuse God's grace); 
(4) "Redemption through his blood": An expiatory model according to a Day of Atonement understanding (the sprinkling of blood sanctifies and imparts grace and forgiveness) rather than a propitiatory model based on turning aside of wrath; 
(5) Christ brings a cosmic recapitulation. Discussed by St. Maximus. The return of all beings to the Father in Christ through the Holy Spirit. That return is the Church, the union of the creation with God. It starts in us at our Baptism and Chrismation. The Church is as old as creation itself. Our inheritance is to be united with God (and one another) in Christ.