All Spiritual Blessings

2018-08-11

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: (4) According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: (5) Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, (6) To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. (Ephesians 1:3-6)

God the Father orchestrated much through His saving of us. The Father is the subject of this long sentence, and the lone actor in all the actions listed. The book of Ephesians is filled with the power He demonstrated in His Son Jesus Christ. In these first verses, there are many noteworthy things:

  1. We are blessed with all spiritual blessings. Many Christians pray for blessings, as I have in the past. Stop praying for blessings, when we have them all already! Why ask God to do something that He already has done? We are equipped with all that we need to serve Him in this life. We are in Christ in the heavenly places (Colossians 3:1-3), what else do we need? Ephesians 1:3
  2. We were chosen before the foundation of the world. What we were chosen for we will discuss next, but first let it be known that God knew all about us from the beginning of time, and chose us to be a part of His plan. Ephesians 1:4
  3. We were chosen to be holy and without blame. We were not chosen to be saved. We were chosen to be set apart and to be blameless before Him. We are to be distinct from the world system that is governed by Satan. We have a position of holiness in Christ, but we must believe Him in order to be holy in practice. One day, we will be 100 percent experientially holy, when Christ returns. Ephesians 1:4
  4. We were predestinated unto the adoption of children. Once again, we do not see anything about God choosing who is saved. We see God choosing the saved to receive the adoption of children. God in His great power did this. Since we are in Christ, the only begotten Son of God, we have been chosen unto this adoption. Ephesians 1:5
  5. We were chosen and predestinated for God’s pleasure and glory. Since He did everything single-handedly, there is no room for anyone to boast. His work without the partnership of others maximizes His glory to the uttermost. It also pleased Him to do these things for us; God the Father is very good to us. Ephesians 1:5-6
  6. We are accepted in the beloved. As we will see in many subsequent verses, God placed us in a position of being accepted in Christ. We once were enemies, but now we are accepted sons, because of the finished work of Christ. Ephesians 1:6

For all these reasons, we see why Paul proclaims: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”