Introduction
The story is told of a lady called Hetty Green. She died in 1916 and left an estate with an estimated value of $100 million.. Hetty regularly ate cold porridge because it cost too much to heat it up. Her son had his leg amputated because she took so long to get him proper medical attention because she was looking for the cheapest treatment. Hetty was wealthy but she lived like a PAUPER. She never enjoyed nor benefited from the riches that were hers.
Imagine a second person who lived in a small village around the same period last century. He lived in poverty until one day he found out that he was the only living heir to a distant and extremely wealthy relative. What does he do when he finds out about his inheritance? He buys a set of the finest clothes he can find, and starts a whole new life. When he learns who he is and what he owns, it changes everything for him.
Which of these two people best represent you in your spiritual life? What is your perspective as you live out your life?
Main Body
In the original Greek the 12 verses, verses 3-14, cascade from Paul’s mouth in one huge and complicated sentence! It’s almost a praise song. It is absolutely bursting with joy and with all that God has done for us.
We could look at these verses from the angle of the Trinity; each member, Father, Son and Spirit and how they work together to bless us.
We could look at it from the angle of those theologically loaded words: blessing, heavenly realms, chosen, holy, blameless, predestined, adopted, grace, redemption, blood, forgiveness, mystery, God’s purpose, the Spirit’s seal, inheritance, God’s possession....etc, etc.
But in order for us to be able to get a handle on this beautiful and complex passage within 30 or so minutes, we’re going to have to simplify! I want us to be able to walk away later this evening with God’s Word ringing in our hearts. I want us to leave knowing God has blessed us Spiritually, Sufficiently and Specially. And I want knowing that to change our lives.
1. Spiritually
Firstly, God has blessed us with every Spiritual blessing, v3. He has blessed us in the heavenly realms. That’s Paul’s special way of talking about the spiritual world; that world which we, being living spirits ourselves, are part of; that world that currently we cannot see much of with our earthly eyes.
Under the Old Covenant Israel was promised many earthly blessings; wealth, children and good harvests. But under the New Covenant the Church is promised even better blessings – spiritual blessings. Yes, if we seek first the kingdom God will provide all we need. There are material blessings for the Church. But our blessings are mainly spiritual.
Maybe you’ve heard of the advert in the newspaper which read: “Lost. One dog with brown hair and several bald spots. Hobbles on right leg due to being broken when run over by car. Left hip hurt, right eye missing, left ear bitten off in dog fight, no teeth, answers to the name of ‘LUCKY’.”
Maybe you feel a bit like that dog! Maybe we don’t look like what we are! But here in these verses, whatever we may feel about ourselves, God says: this is your name, this is who you are! I have blessed you Spiritually. The eye cannot easily see the spiritual blessings, but they are there nonetheless! And boy, what blessings!
2. Sufficiently
Secondly, God has blessed us Sufficiently. God has blessed us with EVERY spiritual blessing. He has done this in the past and in the present. He will do it in the future.
It is a past blessing because vv4-5 tell us that he chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless sin his sight! What a thought! YOU were on God’s mind before time began. Look at those 3 words, he, us, him. God put Jesus and us together in his mind before creation. Look at those words - in Christ, in him, through him, in him, in him, through his blood, in Christ, under Christ, in him, in Christ, in Christ, and in him! God planned it that you would be united, joined to his Son through faith in Him.
He thought of us as individuals. He knew after you were created you would sin. He knew that after he redeemed you, you’d sin again, and again. But he made up his mind to have you, and to make you holy. It’s a past blessing because verse 5 goes on to say that God predestined us (past tense again) to be his adopted sons. An adopted son in the NT context would immediately have all the same rights as a natural son. Yes, that means that all Jesus has is ours! (Apart from his Divinity.) Paul says God had predestined us for this. He had decided beforehand that this would be our destiny; that through Christ’s work on the cross our destiny would be to become God’s own holy and blameless children!
You see, John Calvin didn’t make this up! It’s in the Bible! Yes, we have to believe in, to trust and to choose our Saviour Jesus. But then we find (as Jesus says in John 15:16), that “you did not choose me but I chose you.” Chosen, Predestined. These are past blessings.
But it’s a Sufficient blessing because it’s also a Present blessing. We are, verse 7, redeemed and forgiven. That is what we have right this moment; we who have trusted and submitted to Jesus as our Master. We have redemption. We have forgiveness. Redemption was the price paid to gain freedom for a slave. Through the payment of Jesus’ death on the cross, we are given freedom from slavery to sin. Forgiveness for Israel had been granted on the basis of the shedding of animals’ blood. Now we are granted forgiveness on the basis of the perfect sacrifice of Jesus.
Have you trusted in Jesus? You have forgiveness. You were at war with God but you are now at peace. You were alienated from God, but you are now friends. This is your present blessing.
But it’s a Sufficient blessing because it’s also a Future blessing. I think the Amplified Bible does more justice to verse 10 than the NIV does... It reads that God
“[…planned] for the maturity of the times and the climax of the ages to unify all things and head them up and consummate them in Christ, [both] things in heaven and things on the earth.”
The future blessing is this: One day you and I will be united under Christ’s rule. One day this broken and fragmented world, even universe, will be brought back into complete harmony. Look at verse 14… it talks of our inheritance. God is drawing a people to himself. He is drawing that people together in unity. God’s new creation has begun. But there is more to come. Much, much more. Our spiritual inheritance is to live together eternally in God’s restored creation under God’s perfect rule in Christ.
3. Specially
Thirdly and finally, God has blessed Specially. In other words he has blessed us intentionally and purposely. If we are looking for that reason or purpose, remember Deuteronomy 7:7-8a.... (read)
The Lord loves you because he loves you! But there is another reason too...
Verse 6, to the praise of his glorious grace; verse 12, for the praise of his glory; verse 14, to the praise of his glory. You see, it’s all about God’s glory. We were made for his glory. We are blessed for his glory. Our lives began with God’s purpose and find fulfilment in living for God’s glory.
How difficult it is to grasp, to truly grasp this! Let’s be honest. How difficult to break free from the mindset that life is all about me and my ambitions and desires. How hard to receive this truth that we were made for God. To please him. May the Spirit help us!
We are blessed Spiritually, blessed Sufficiently, and we are blessed Specially.
Application & Conclusion
As we draw to a close, try to imagine with me what it was like for Paul as he wrote this letter. There he is, under house arrest in Rome. He is chained to a Roman guard night and day. When he wakes up in the morning after an uncomfortable night, there is the guard lying next to him; when he needs to use the bathroom, there is the Roman guard with him; when he has people visiting him, there is the Roman guard with him. He can’t leave his home, he can’t be alone, and he’s waiting. He’s waiting for the news to come about his trial before the Emperor. Paul the activist, and yet here he is forcibly cooped up in his home night and day! Yet unchained in his perspective... Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us! You see, Paul may have been cooped up and tied up, but he was roaming the universe! He was chained, but he was walking back into eternity past and seeing how God had predestined us, walking around in the freedom of a forgiven present and walking ahead into future eternity where he sees us living in harmonious bliss.
And there were the Ephesians. Living in an ungodly city. A city to which pilgrims would come to worship the goddess Artemis. Perhaps they feel weak in the spiritually hostile situation they live in. Perhaps they are fearful. Perhaps they are discouraged. And Paul wants to remind those believers about who they are, about their identity, about their destiny. To lift their eyes away from themselves, to the majesty of God’s plan they are caught up in.
What’s threatening to drag you down right now? What’s keeping you chained up? What’s discouraging? What’s limiting you? Whatever it is, Paul – NO – the Holy Spirit wants you to have a God’s eye view of your life. He wants you to have his perspective. He wants you to see who you are in Christ. He wants you to roam around eternity past, present and eternity future! It’s sometimes said of someone they’re too heavenly minded to be of any earthly good. But the truth is that most of us need to be MORE heavenly minded so we can face what earth throws at us! Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things, writes Paul to the Colossians.
As we continue our study of this letter we must first get this point! If we don’t it will affect our relationships in the world, the church, the home and the workplace. It will affect our struggle in spiritual warfare.
You may have heard of Fanny Crosby. She wrote over 8000 hymns including the famous ‘Blessed Assurance Jesus is Mine’. She was blind. And she said about her blindness, “The first face ever to gladden my sight will be when I get to heaven and behold the face of the One who died for me...” Fanny Crosby had the perspective that we get from Eph. 1:3-14. This is the perspective that will keep us going through thick and thin.
