Ephesians Series: Spiritual Blessings in Christ

Spiritual Blessing in Christ: Ephesians 1:3-14

We looked briefly last week at Paul's introduction to the letter to the faithful saints at Ephesus. We learned that how we greet people can communicate a great deal:

What we believe about ourselves -

What we believe about others -

What we believe about God -

What we believe about the Gospel -

Today we move to the body of the letter. The first three chapters are theological in nature, while the last three are practical applications of the doctrines and focus on Christian behavior. It is a letter of encouragement and admonition, written to remind us of the blessings we have in Christ; to be thankful for them and to walk in a manner worthy of them.

Riches – 5 times

Fullness or filled – 6 times

Glory - 8 times

Grace – 12 times

In Christ or in Him - 13 times

The reason I decided to continue with the book is because it was written to fight complacency. The key theme in the book is mystery (a heretofore unrevealed truth) of the Gospel, the church is; the universal body of Christ is made up of both Jews and Gentiles, the present spiritual and earthly body of Christ, the instrument of God's glory in the world.

Thesis Statement for the entire letter: 3-4

God is to be praised as the Father of our Lord, because He blessed us – just as he chose us, in Christ. God is to be praised; Blessed (eulogettos, Adj.) from eulogeo, which means to speak well of – literally “praised,” and as an adjective is applied only to God. (mkarios is the GK word used for men as in Sermon on the Mount – means happy). Here, it very literally says, “Praised be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” God is the object of praise here.

God is praised first for who he is – Paul specifically identifies God as the Father of Jesus, who is both the Christ (messiah) and our Lord. God is worthy of our praise simply for who He is, apart from anything He has ever done or ever will do.

God is also to be praised for what He has done – God is the one who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing. Blessed; verb form, to bestow favor. How has God blessed us? All Spiritual Blessings; In His providential grace, God has already provided believers, at conversion, total blessing. Spiritual alludes to the fact that these blessings are all a work of God, not tat they are merely immaterial as opposed to material blessings. They are the work of God and that is why the blessing takes place in the heavenly places – literally “in the realm of God. The phrase “In Christ” is a dominant phrase in the first chapter. It makes clear that these spiritual blessings belong only to those who are justified by grace, through faith in Christ, so that what belongs to Christ is also theirs – including His righteousness, resources, position, privilege and power.

God is also to be praised for how He has done it – God has blessed us just as He chose us. Chose – we were blessed in the same manner in which we were chosen by God. To Choose (eklegomai, verb) literally means “to take” and is used only in the middle voice, in the sense of taking for oneself. To select, or to make a choice for oneself. We are chosen by God himself, for himself. In Christ – again the idea is that we are blessed in Christ, just as we were chosen in Christ. Apart from Jesus, there is no choosing and no blessing. They are made possible by the life and work of Jesus. Before the foundation of the world - Now, here is the crazy. We were blessed just like we were chosen, before the foundation of the world was lain. Through God's sovereign will, before the creation of the world, and therefore, independent of human influence and apart from human merit, God took us for himself in order to bless us and make us holy and blameless before Him.

God is to be praised for why He has done it – God blessed us, just as He chose us, so that we might be holy and blameless before Him. Holy (hagios, Adj.) “separated.” In Scripture, it's moral and spiritual significance is to be separated from sin and therefore consecrated to God, made sacred. Blameless (amomos, Adj.) “without blame,” or “without blemish.” Pure, implying wholeness with no fault being found. It is the supreme duty of all creatures to praise God. Are we fulfilling our duty of worshiping God as Paul outlines in Romans 12:1-2? We, as believers, are particularly to praise Him because of who He is, what He has done and why He has done it. God wants us to be holy and blameless, but in order for that to be a reality, we must be in Christ.