There are two kinds of people in this world: those who like grammar and those who don’t. Some people are concerned about the proper use of objective and subjective pronouns, about split infinitives, and whether or not a sentence ends in a preposition.

And then there are other folk who don’t mind grammatical infelicities as long as people get the meaning. I, hearing my son say, “Me and Kristiana played a game today”, might instruct him to say, “Kristiana and I played a game today.” You, hearing that correction, might say, “Give him a break, you know what he means.”

Indeed I do, but grammar is important, particularly the Bible’s grammar. Ignorance of the New Testament’s grammar of the Christian life hampers our enjoyment of God’s grace and attempts to live for God’s glory. Bear with me as I give a short grammar lesson. Then we will get to the more enjoyable task of seeing this worked out in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians.

Grammar⤒🔗

The grammar I am referring to is indicative and imperative statements. We use indicatives and imperatives all the time even if we don’t know that we are.

An indicative statement is a simple statement; an imperative statement is a simple command. An indicative indicates to you what is; an imperative commands what you must do. Your children will intuitively know the difference between the two kinds of statements. They can distinguish between “The dishes are dirty,” and “Wash the dishes.” The first is an indicative; the second is an imperative.

Gospel Grammar←⤒🔗

As I study and preach through Ephesians, I am struck by how Paul uses these two kinds of statements. This is clear in the book division. Ephesians 4:1 is a hinge verse connecting the first three chapters with the last three chapters. Throughout Ephesians 1-3, the Apostle gives only one command to the Christians and that is to remember what they were before the gospel of Christ came to them. Most of the beginning of the letter is declaring what God has done for the believers in Christ, who they now are as the elected, redeemed, adopted, and reconciled people of God, and what God’s plan is for world history.

Beginning in Ephesians 4:1, commands about how to live, pepper what remains of the letter. Paul tells them how to act with fellow Christians, the things they must stop doing, the actions they must begin to do, and how to live as Christians in the home and workplace. We could say it like this: Paul begins with indicatives and then moves on to imperatives.

That is the gospel grammar and that must always be the order if we are to live happily and fruitfully as Christian believers. To live a godly life we must be aware that God has reconciled us to Himself in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. We must know that though we were by nature children of wrath, God, who is rich in mercy, has made us alive in Christ.

And it isn’t enough to know that God has done something for us; he has done something to us. The fallen in Adam have been recreated in Christ Jesus, are the temple of the Lord, and therefore God dwells in them by his Spirit. Praise the Lord we are no longer what we were.

Further, we need to know that God’s will is to have all things in heaven and on earth brought together again under the headship of Christ to the praise of God’s glory. Precisely because these things are true about the saints in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus, Paul can go on to tell them how they should live. The imperatives of the gospel flow from the indicatives of the gospel. Christians are to live worthy of the calling they have received. Exactly because they are Christians and not unbelievers, they are to live in unity, to live a life of love, and to find out what pleases the Lord.

In fact, the indicative is so important for Paul that even in the imperative section of the letter he constantly brings the Ephesians back to gospel grace. He urges them in Ephesians 4:32 to forgive one another (that’s the imperative) just as in Christ God forgave you (that’s the indicative). He commands them to have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness because though they were once darkness they now are light in the Lord and should live as children of light (Ephesians 5:11, 8).

Time and again Paul highlights for us that how we should live flows out of who we now are as the recipients of God’s rich grace in Jesus Christ. We do the imperatives because God has done the indicatives.

This is not, by the way, only New Testament grammar. When God assembled his people at Mt Sinai (Exodus 20), He first told them what He had done for them before He commanded them how to live. They were His people, He was their God. And as their God He had graciously brought them out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. Salvation is what God had done for them. God’s people is who the Israelites were, God’s treasured possession. Because He had done that and because this is who they were, they were instructed how they should live. We do the imperatives because God has done the indicatives.

The great indicatives of the gospel must shape us as Christians so that we can fruitfully live out the great imperatives of the gospel. For us to be shaped, the predominant theme of Christian preaching must be what God has done, not what we must do. Too much preaching is “Do, Do, Do” instead of “Done, Done, Done.” No wonder Paul resolved to know nothing among the Corinthians except Jesus Christ and him crucified (1 Corinthians 2:2). I probably made grammatical errors in this article. If I have, I trust you still get what I mean. But if we are to relish God’s grace and live for God’s glory we can’t afford to get the gospel grammar incorrect. May Christ, our teacher, instruct us by his Word and Spirit.