APRIL 6 / APRIL 13, 2014
ALL SPIRITUAL BLESSINGS IN CHRIST
INTRODUCTION:
1. In his opening salutation the Apostle either pronounces or prays for the blessings of grace and peace from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ to be upon the Ephesian Christians.
2. After the opening salutation, he immediately begins to pour out his soul in true adoration to God for his blessings past (election), and present (redemption), and future (full inheritance as sons).
3. We want now to consider and rejoice in all of these spiritual blessings which are our in Christ.
4. As we do so, we will notice Paul’s initial objective in writing this epistle, which was to bring the Ephesian believers to understand the eternal nature of God’s plan of redemption which emphasizes the glory of His grace; and to make us better appreciate the greatness of the blessing of which we are the beneficiaries.
I. WE HAVE FIRST A GENERAL BLESSING OF GOD FOR ALL SPIRITUAL BLESSINGS. (VERSE 3)
A. HE BLESSES (EULOGIZES) GOD, BECAUSE GOD HAS BLESSED US. “Blessed be…”
1. “Blessed” (Greek eulogetos) expresses adoration. He is saying, “All praise be to God.”
2. All good things which we have received, and shall receive, originated with God the Father.
3. The sentence that here begins “Blessed be” rolls on like a snowball growing greater and greater as it goes. “The lofty terms in which Paul extols the grace of God toward the Ephesians, are intended to rouse their hearts to gratitude, to set them on flame, even to fill them to overflowing.” (John Calvin)
B. HE STYLES THIS BENEVOLENT AND BLESSED GOD AS NOT ONLY THE GOD OF OUR LORD, BUT AS HIS FATHER. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
1. This title calls attention to the divine nature of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is not only his God which places emphasis on Christ’s humanity, but His Father. Christ is the son of God by eternal generation.
2. The God in Whom we are to trust, and to Whom we offer praise as the source of all good, is the God of redemption, and as such, He is “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” It is because He spared not His own son that He shall with Him freely give us all things. (Rom. 8:32)
3. Thus we understand that as Mediator God was His God; as the second Person of the Trinity, God was His Father.
C. HE IDENTIFIES THE BLESSING HERE BESTOWED AS THE PRINCIPLE BLESSINGS WHICH GOD GIVES. “…who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.”
1. Notice the past tense, “hath blessed us.” All true believers in Christ have “all spiritual blessings.” We cannot fail to receive anything which He has purchased for us. We can claim even our glorification, because the son cannot fail in what the Father gave Him to do. (Rom. 8:30; John 6:37-40)
2. These are called “spiritual blessings” not merely because they pertain to the soul, but because they are derived from the Holy Spirit, whose presence and influence are the great blessings purchased by Christ. Thus, having the Holy Spirit we have all spiritual blessings.
3. “In heavenly places,” or “in the heavenlies,” indicate that these blessings are heavenly in their origin, and that they pertain to the heavenly state into which the believer is introduced.
4. It is as we are “in Christ” that in virtue of that union we are partakers of these benefits. It is as believers are in Christ that they have been blessed with all spiritual blessings – blessings which the Apostle now begins to innumerate: election, redemption, heirship, etc. The phrase, in Christ, or its equivalent occurs more than ten times in this short paragraph. (Verses 3-14)
II. WE HAVE NEXT THE PARTICULAR SPIRITUAL BLESSINGS WITH WHICH WE HAVE BEEN BLESSED IN CHRIST. (VERSES 4-14)
A. ELECTION AND PREDESTINATION. (VERSES 4, 5, 11)
1. The Author of election is God the Father. “According as HE hath chosen…” (See Verse 3)
2. The nature of this election is defined by the word “chosen,” which means to pick out or choose for one’s self.
3. The objects of this election are us, not everybody. The “us” are identified as saints and the faithful in Christ Jesus. (Verse 1)
4. The foundation of this election is Christ, as He is of all of our salvation from start to finish. God elected us in Christ. Note the connection to Verse 3. God the Father has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ, just as in Him, He elected us. In other words, in time the Father blessed us in Christ, just as from all eternity He elected us in Him for that purpose. The basic reason that we were chosen in Christ is that before all worlds Christ had become our representative and surety.
5. The time of this election is said to have occurred “before the foundation of the world,” that is, from eternity.
6. The purpose of this election is “that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.”
7. A further purpose is seen in that the chosen are predestinated (foreordained) to become sons by adoption. God has picked out for Himself those whom He will adopt into the family to become sons and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. (Verse 5) The elect do in time become sons by spiritual birth, then all who are born of the Spirit, are made sons and heirs of God by adoption. (See John 1:12, 13; Rom. 8:14-17; Gal. 4:4-6; II Tim. 2:9-11)
a) Notice God the Father adopts us, but it is through the work of Jesus Christ that this adoption becomes a reality.
b) It is by His atonement that the new standing and also the spirit of sonship are made possible for the chosen ones.
8. This eternal choice and determination and outcome is “according to the good pleasure of His will.” (See also Verse 11)
a) Thus He made His choice.
b) Thus He predestinated their adoption.
c) Thus He covenanted with the Son to accomplish the work necessary to make it reality.
B. ACCEPTANCE WITH GOD. (VERSE 6)
1. The previous blessings, i.e. our election and adoption are “to the praise of the glory of His grace.” (Verse 5c)
2. It by this grace that He has made us accepted in the beloved.
3. Jesus Christ is the beloved of His Father. (Matt. 3:17)
4. It is our great privilege to be accepted of God, which implies His love to us, and His taking us under His care as His adopted sons.
5. We cannot be accepted of God, except in and through Jesus Christ, yet being thus accepted, we are as beloved in the Father’s sight as is the Son Himself.
C. REMISSION OF SINS AND REDEMPTION THROUGH THE BLOOD OF CHRIST. (VERSES 7, 8)
1. There is no remission without redemption. It was by reason of sin that we were in bondage, and we cannot be liberated except by our sins being remitted.
2. This redemption we have in Christ, and this remission through His blood. IN fact all blessings flow down to us in that stream.
3. This great benefit, which comes freely to us, was dearly bought and paid for by our blessed Lord, and that, according to the riches of God’s grace.
a) It was rich grace that God would be satisfied by a surety when He might have executed the severity of the law upon the transgressor, and it was rich grace to provide such a surety in His own Son.
b) That God should deliver up His own Son to satisfy His own justice would never have entered into our thoughts.
4. Surely, God has abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence. (Verse 8)
D. DIVINE REVELATION. (VERSE 9)
1. God has made known to us His good-will to men, which had been concealed for so long, and is still hidden from a great part of the world. (See Ch. 3:2-5)
2. This blessing we owe to Christ, Who, having lain in the bosom of the Father from eternity came to make known His will to the children of men.
3. What is made known to us in the Gospel is that which according to His good pleasure (His secret counsels concerning man’s redemption), which He purposed in Himself. (See Deut. 29:29)
4. In this revelation in which is made known to us the mystery of His will, the wisdom and prudence of God do abundantly shine forth. It is described in Verse 13 as the word of truth, and the gospel of your salvation.
E. UNION IN AND WITH CHRIST. (VERSE 10) “He gathers together in one all things in Christ.”
1. All the lines of divine revelation meet in Christ; all religion centers in Him. Jews and Gentiles are united to each other by being both united to Christ.
2. Things in heaven and things on earth are come together in Him. Peace is made and correspondence is established between heaven and earth.
3. The holy angels become one with the church and redeemed men in Christ.
F. THE ETERNAL INHERITANCE. (VERSES 11-13)
1. In Christ we are adopted and accepted as beloved sons into the family of God. Therefore in Christ we have received (lit. been allotted) an inheritance.
2. For this we have been predestinated unto the adoption of children…according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will. (Verses 5, 11)
3. In this inheritance both Jews and Gentiles share alike. (Verses 12, 13)
a) “That we (Jews, to whom the Gospel was first preached) should be to the praise of His glory who first trusted…”
b) “In whom ye also (Gentile believers at Ephesus) trusted after that ye heard…”
G. THE SEAL AND EARNEST OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. (VERSES 13b, 14)
1. The blessed Spirit is holy, and makes us holy. He is “the Holy Spirit of promise,” as he is the promised Spirit. (Joel 2:28ff; John 14:16, 17, 26; 16:7, 8)
2. By Him believers are sealed, that is, separated, set apart unto god and distinguished and marked as belonging to Him.
3. The Spirit is the earnest of our inheritance.
a) The earnest is part of payment which secures the full sum.
b) So is the gift of the Holy Spirit to us. As sanctifier and comforter His influence and operation in us is like heaven begun.
4. He is said to be the earnest until the redemption of the purchased possession. One day we will have our full inheritance, at which time all that was mortgaged by the fall shall be fully restored. (Rom. 8:22, 23; I Thess. 5:23;Rev. 21:1-7)
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