Spiritual blessings

Wednesday July 21, 2021

Spiritual blessings

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ ! In him, God chose us before the creation of the world so that we would be holy and without blemish before him. In his love. Ephesians 1:3,4

One of the keys to understanding the Epistle to the Ephesians is to always be aware of who it was intended for. The Ephesians had come to Jesus Christ through Jewish Christians such as Paul, Aquila and Priscilla, or Apollos. The assembly at Ephesus had a majority of Christians of pagan descent who might think they were no match for Christians of Jewish descent, certainly proud of their ancestry and knowledge of God.

The apostle Paul therefore addresses each other (he writes to us speaking of the Jews, and you speaking of others ; see chapter 2) to reveal to them the plan of God : to unite all believers in one body, object of spiritual blessings far superior to those, material, promised to the Israelites.

What are these blessings ? We are elected, that is, loved and chosen by God, holy, blameless, predestinated, adopted, made agreeable, redeemed, heirs, sealed with the Holy Spirit. By faith our spirits take hold of those blessings which will find their full fulfillment in heaven, but which are our joy now.

Moreover, the characteristic of the Christian period is to possess everything by faith. But, even if it is by faith that we make these blessings our own, they are no less real, for they are given by God who cannot lie.

We notice that it is written of all spiritual blessings. It is as if God is assuring us that we are blessed with all the variety of His spiritual blessings, not excluding any.

These blessings are in Christ. This is perhaps the most wonderful expression of these verses. It reminds us that, being born of God, we are identified with Christ, and nothing can separate us from him. This identification assures us that he will share with us all the glorious results acquired by Christ on the cross. We already enjoy it by faith.

It is the glory of the grace of God to have blessed us so abundantly. To the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ be all praise !

Source (Pleasing the Lord)