N.T. Wright on The Vision of Ephesians

The Russell Moore Show

Christianity Today, Russell Moore

Religion & Spirituality, Christianity

4.8 • 914 Ratings

🗓️ 1 December 2025

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this episode, Professor N. T. Wright joins us to walk through Ephesians as a panoramic room with a view—sunrise to moonset—where heaven and earth meet, and spiritual warfare is real but not partisan. Drawing from his new book The Vision of Ephesians: The Task of the Church and the Glory of God, Wright argues that Paul’s language about “predestination” is vocational before it’s destinational: the church is chosen to live for the praise of God’s glory in the present. RDM and Wright explore why Ephesians might have changed church history had the Reformers centered it as much as Romans and Galatians, how “principalities and powers” makes surprising sense in an algorithm-shaped age, and why unity and holiness aren’t rival goods but twin commands. They also wade into the passages that spark the most questions—marriage in Ephesians 5, mutual submission, and the armor of God—insisting on careful reading, cultural context, and a refusal to demonize flesh-and-blood neighbors. Whether you’re Christian-curious or deep in the commentaries, Wright offers a way to read Ephesians both fast (to catch the sweep) and slow (to trace the seams), with the church embodying a many-colored wisdom that refuses tribal sorting. Resources mentioned in this episode: Keep up with Russell: Sign up for the weekly newsletter where Russell shares thoughtful takes on big questions, offers a Christian perspective on life, and recommends books and music he's enjoying. Submit a question for the show at [email protected] Subscribe to the Christianity Today Magazine: Special offer for listeners of The Russell Moore Show: Click here for 25% off a subscription Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:26.5	Anyone who thinks that there are not superhuman forces at work messing up God's good creation
0:32.8	really needs to put their spectacles on the other way around.
0:38.2	Hello, this is Russell Moore, and this is the Russell Moore Show, brought to you by Christianity
0:42.9	today. Here, we look for signposts in a strange time by standing fast to what really
0:49.5	matters, kingdom over culture wars, truth over tribalism, pilgrimage over partisanship, sanity over cynicism,
0:57.2	witness over winning, and Christ over everything.
1:00.6	Today we have a conversation to do just that.
1:08.8	You know, there's that scene in C.S. Louis's Prince Caspian, where the Pevency children come back to Narnia after a year in their world, which turns out to be centuries in Narnia, and everything has changed.
1:22.0	Castle they ruled from is in ruins. No one remembers them. And yet, somehow, somewhere, Aslan is still at work.
1:31.0	I think about that sometimes when I think about the biblical book of Ephesians. Here's Paul,
1:36.9	writing to these tiny house churches scattered around, maybe eight people in one room, 15 in another. And he says to them,
1:46.4	you are seated with Christ in the heavenly places. You are the fullness of the one who fills all
1:51.6	in all. You are God's temple where heaven and earth come together. And I imagine people saying to one
1:56.8	another over candlelight, really? Us? That's the question we'll be talking about today,
2:03.8	because I think it's a question that is still pressing upon us right now. Now, there are some of
2:09.2	you who listen to this show who are not Christians, but are Christian curious, many of the
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