Part 1: From the Father 

Introduction

In this three-part series we will be examining Ephesians chapter 1 verses 1 to 14. We will be examining the spiritual possessions that we have in Christ given to us by the Father (part 1), the Son (part 2) and the Holy Spirit (part 3). This article is not meant to be an extensive study but merely a brief overview.

From the Father – 1:1-6

“Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace, with which He has blessed us in the Beloved.”

Verse 1-2:

Paul starts the book with his traditional format of greeting. He introduces himself and states where his authority comes from, “of Christ Jesus by the will of God”.

Paul addresses the Christians at Ephesus as saints. In laymen’s terms this simply means, the holy ones or the virtuous ones. In certain religious traditions the term saint is ascribed to a person who is seen as ‘above average’ or a ‘super Christian’. Paul however calls mere everyday Christians like you and me saints. The reason for this is because those who place their faith in Christ alone lack nothing. They have everything inside Christ that they need for this life and the next and they have it in abundance. The apostle, the pastor and the church member are all equal in sainthood status, because all who believe receive everything from God. God bestows on the believer of Christ every spiritual blessing and possession withholding nothing and given from an unending, unlimited stream of abundance.

These blessings or possessions is what we will be examining throughout this short series, starting with the possessions given to us by God the Father.

Verse 3:

Paul starts verse 3 by blessing the God who has greatly blessed us. The question that should come to mind is why is Paul blessing God? How could Paul bless God in anyway, especially considering a passage in which Paul explains God’s tremendous blessings bestowed on us? Paul’s usage of the clause, “Blessed be the God and Father” has enough content packed into that verse to justify a series for it alone. We will mention a few truths regarding Paul’s blessing in order to keep the article short and allow us to proceed to the next verses.

Paul’s blessing of God the Father is not meant to be seen as Paul giving God anything that he didn’t had. Paul’s statement is ascribing to God glory as the origin of all blessings. In a way, Paul is calling God the God of blessings.

The word blessing has at its root a meaning of happiness. When Jesus stated, “Blessed are the poor in spirit”, He is, among other things, saying “Happy are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”. Paul is therefore ascribing happiness to God. Paul is not doing it in a way the he wishes happiness for God, instead he is making a statement, God is happy and he is happy to bestow on us all these blessings (good things, things that will make us happy). In short, God is the blessed God who blesses us.

–       “in Christ”: The crux of this whole passage is this preposition. These blessings that are given by the Triune God are not to be found anywhere apart from Christ. In Christ alone there is blessings: eternal life, adoption and grace.

–       “every spiritual blessing”: As mentioned in the introduction, there is nothing the believer in Christ lacks. These blessings are not given progressively. They are not badges that must be earned as we develop as Christians. The believer receives all these blessings upon the moment they place their trust in Christ.

–       “in the heavenly places”: This phrase has dual meaning. Firstly, is refers to “every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places”, meaning that these blessings given to us by God come from heaven. The realm of God. The infinite, unlimited, inextinguishable source that is God. His blessings are forever and never ending. We cannot out-sin God’s forgiveness. We cannot come to the end of God’s grace. For the believer in Christ there is definite assurance that their connection to God is and will forever be unbroken.

Secondly, the phrase refers to goal or ultimate destination of our blessings. The blessings that we receive from the Father are not earthly blessings. We receive them while on earth and they are given to us in order to cope and survive here in this world, but ultimately these blessings are meant for the eternal life, not the temporary life. God’s blessings are focused on heaven. He blesses us so that we will have our best life in the life that is to come.

Verse 4:

Paul starts of by mentioning a heavenly blessing, “even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world”. In this verse Paul makes it clear that our blessings from God are not based on merit. We did nothing to receive God’s blessings. God didn’t look for potential before blessing. His blessings are solely based on his choice. Spurgeon said on this truth:

“I believe the doctrine of election, because I am quite certain that, if God had not chosen me, I should never have chosen Him; and I am sure He chose me before I was born, or else He never would have chosen me afterwards; and He must have elected me for reasons unknown to me, for I never could find in myself why He should have looked upon me with special love. So I am forced to accept that great Biblical doctrine.”

I was not favoured by God to receive his blessings instead of my next-door neighbour because I’m smarter or wiser than my neighbour, no. I was chosen by God solely based on his sovereign unconditional choice. This forces me to be humble and grateful. If God did not decide to look on me with grace I would have never known or chosen him. His choosing of me is nothing of my doing. I have nothing to boast of or nothing to lay claim to. Everything I am and have is because God chose me.

–       “that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love” Paul mentions here another blessing as well as a cause and a result.

▪         Blessing: A blessing that flows out of God’s blessing of election is the blessing of holiness and blamelessness. God’s choosing of us means that He makes us holy and blameless. He makes us like himself. He makes us qualified for eternal life in heaven (“redemption through his blood”). If you have faith in Christ, it means that God has chosen you, it means that you are holy and blameless, despite how you feel or your sin.

▪         Cause: Paul mentions that because of our election, that is enough of a cause or reason for us to pursue holiness. We mentioned above that a blessing of God’s election is holiness and blamelessness despite our feelings or sin. This doesn’t mean that we have free reign or license to sin, on the contrary, God’s election is the greatest motivation for and cause of holiness in our lives. If I know that because of God’s blessings, I’m guaranteed heaven today, despite my struggles and sins, I’m strengthened and comforted. I can continue to fight my sin with the knowledge that God is on my side and not out to get me or to catch me in the act.

▪         Result: The result of God’s election, his choosing of us, is that we are made holy and blameless. When we stand before God, if our faith is in Christ, we will be holy, as He is holy, and blameless. There will be no accusation that can be made against us.

–       “In love”: Many scholars have debated the proper placing of this prepositional phrase. One camp would place the phrase at the end of verse 4, another camp would place the phrase at the beginning of verse 5. A third camp would claim that Paul’s ambiguous placing of the phrase was on purpose. A way for Paul to connect verse 4 and 5 with the singular usage of a prepositional phrase. It would be safe and orthodox for the Bible reader to choose any three of the camps.

▪         “He chose us…that we should be holy and blameless before him in love” – God’s choosing is done in love towards us or that we should be loving and show love towards Him as we are holy and blameless.

▪         “In love he predestined us” – This refers to God’s election based on love.

Verse 5:

Verse five contains juggernaut words like, predestined and adoption. Flowing from the previous verse, Paul states that God’s predestination of us comes from His love for us. The term and topic of predestination is one that authors have written whole books on.

▪         Predestination: Predestination is broad term that usually refers to election (making of believers) and reprobation (hardening of hearts or left to their own sinfulness). We will only be looking at the first element, election. Grudem defines election as: “Election is an act of God before creation in which he chooses some people to be saved, not on account of any foreseen merit in them, but only because of his sovereign good pleasure”. As part of God’s blessings toward us, Paul makes mention that God chose us for salvation. We are not saved because of our merit, but because of God graciously opening our eyes to see and behold Christ in order to place our faith in him. This means I cannot lose my salvation. If I was chosen by God not because of my merit and despite God being able to see my future sin and failures, how can I lose my salvation based on my merit or lack of? If I’m able to lose my salvation it means that I’m currently in the process of keeping myself saved. If I could lose my salvation it means that my current status of salvation is based on my own works. If I could lose my salvation, I would (John MacArthur).

▪         Adoption: “Adoption is an act of God whereby He makes us members of his family” (Grudem). When the blessed God bestows on us the various spiritual blessings, He not only forgives us our sins and gives us heaven, He also makes as fellow heirs with Christ. He makes us his sons and daughters. The amazing reality of this truth is that God elevates us to the same level of sonship (and by default, daughtership) as our Lord Jesus Christ. This is why we can call God our Father. We are brothers and sisters of our Lord Jesus Christ and fellow heirs with Him. The love that God the Father shows to his Son, the Lord Jesus, is the same love He shows to those who are in his Son (John 17:23).

–       “through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will” – Paul once again reminds us of the fundamental truth, that none of the blessings mentioned in this passage are available outside of Jesus Christ. In Christ alone our hope if found. No other person, god or pretending mediator can provide for us these blessings. Christ and Christ alone. We should place our trust in Him alone. This is the will of God, as Paul mentions in the closing part of the verse. It was God’s will to do it all this way. Any other way is wrong and blasphemous.

Verse 6:

This verse functions as a type of crescendo for the first six verses, the blessings received from the Father. Paul draws our attention away from ourselves and the magnificent blessings that are bestowed upon us and reminds us of the ultimate reason for why any of this happens and matters, “to the praise of his glorious grace”. Everything, and Paul means everything revolves around God’s glory. As mentioned already, we were not chosen because of anything of value in us. We were predestined because of God’s desire to glorify Himself.

“But, why does God lavish His blessings upon us? Is it all about us or is it about Him? One of the most important truths in Scripture to grasp is that God is passionate about His glory. John Piper explains this in many of his books, but especially in God’s Passion for His Glory [Crossway Books], half of which is a reproduction of Jonathan Edwards’ treatise, “The End for Which God Created the World.” It is not an easy book to read (I have read it twice now), but it is worth grappling with! Edwards argues that because God is infinitely perfect, He must seek His own glory, because to seek the glory of any being or thing less perfect than God would be sin. For any creature, self-glorification is sin. But, because God is infinitely perfect, He would be unrighteous if He did not glory in that which is perfect, namely, in Himself.” (Bible.org).

Although the verse makes mention of “his glorious grace”, his grace is part of his character and how He decided to reveal to us His character. God glorifies Himself by showing grace towards us, who do not deserve it. Paul closes the section of the Father’s blessings by smoothly transition over to the Son, “with which He has blessed us in the Beloved”. Paul once again reminds his readers that these blessings, this grace is only to be found in Christ. Paul makes a beautiful reference to Christ as the Beloved. This shows how our affections should be aimed at Christ. He is our Beloved, our darling, our Groom. It also mirrors Christ’s affections towards us.

Closing Thoughts

For the Christian there is nothing he or she lacks. There exists no super Christians who have more spiritual blessings than others. All of God’s blessings He freely gives to those who place their faith and trust in Christ alone.