Ephesians 1:2

Grace be to you and peace from God, our father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul opens this epistle in his usual manner. As an apostle of Christ Jesus, of the exalted Lord, whose Messiahship was prophesied and manifested, he did not choose the office himself, but he was called thereto by the express will of God; he received his apostleship without his own merit and worthiness. But having received it, he was fully conscious of the dignity with which he had been invested, and did not propose to have any one call this in question. He addresses himself to the saints and believers in Christ Jesus that were in Ephesus. The members of that congregation that were members in truth believed in Christ Jesus as the Redeemer that had atoned for all their sins, and by this faith they were consecrated and sanctified to God. They were thus connected with Christ in the most intimate fellowship and union. In his customary salutation Paul expresses a wish that this happy condition might continue. The grace and peace desired for the Ephesian Christians by the apostle are blessings which come only from God the Father and from Christ, the Lord. The Son has secured for all men the grace and mercy of His heavenly Father, the complete forgiveness of all sins, and thereby also peace with God, the enmity between sinful mankind and the holy God having been removed by the perfect satisfaction which His vicarious work has wrought. But Christ, the Mediator, is here incidentally represented, like the Father, as the Source and Originator of grace and peace; He is true God and Savior, with the Father, from eternity.