Out of This World
Ephesians 1:3
As a child, Ireceived four kinds ofgifts for birthdays and Christmas:
- Uselessgifts: candy canes, black licorice and random toys I’d never play with
- Unexcitinggifts: hand-knit hats/scarves and underwear with superhero prints
- Excitinggifts: t-shirts, Lego sets, and computer games
- Elusivegifts: gift cards, checks, and dollar bills
I enjoyed theexciting gifts most – T-shirts with cool graphics, Lego sets with lots ofpieces, and computer games I’d never played before. But ask any adult whichgifts were most valuable, and they’ll say the elusive ones – the ones that weremoney.
The problemwith money gifts is we can’t wear, watch, or play with them. We can’t do funthings with them when we open them. We have to wait to use them in the future.
Yet in the bigpicture, it’s money gifts that give us most security. The person with moneygets to buy a car or pay for college education, not the one with Legos anddolls.
This concepthelps us understand what Paul is saying in Eph 1:3-14. This passage is thelongest sentence in the Bible (except for Luke’s genealogy of Christ, Luke2:23-38), so it can be hard to understand. Yet, it teaches valuable insightsabout being a Christian.
To summarize the main idea of this sentence, think this: “God has blessed us more far more than we realize; we just can’t see it yet.” As we study this sentence, we’ll spend most of our time looking at the blessings.
God has blessed us far more than we realize. We just can't see it yet.
However, weneed to talk about the most difficult part first – the fact that we can’t seethem. What good are benefits we can’t see? To answer this question, consider Eph 1:3.
God has blessed us so generously that the benefits areout of this world – literally.
His blessingsare many. Every means – “all, all kinds of” blessings. They are:
- Election(Eph 1:4)
- Predestination(Eph 1:5)
- Adoptionof sons (Eph 1:5)
- Redemption(Eph 1:7)
- Forgivenessof sins (Eph 1:7)
- Aninheritance (Eph 1:11, 14)
- Theseal of the Holy Spirit (Eph 1:13)
These blessingssound interesting, but do we know what they mean? Do we know what they are andwhy they’re important?
Or do we feel likea child whose parents tell them Grandma gave her a $20 bill for Christmas? Weappreciate the gift, but don’t understand it’s true significance. We wish we’dgotten something else to enjoy right now – like a spouse, a better marriage, araise at work, and victory over an addiction or habit.
There’s tworeasons why these blessings seem elusive, beyond the fact that they’re long,theological words we don’t understand. They’re spiritual (that’s the kind of blessingsthey are) and they’re in heavenly places (that’s where they’re located).
As spiritual, these blessings are neither physicalor material.
That’s why westruggle with this concept. As a child prefers tangible gifts, like dolls orremote-control cars more than money, so we prefer material gifts like financialprosperity and good health.
Though God doesgive us these things, they’re not what Paul had in mind, nor are theyguaranteed. After all, Paul was writing from prison! He certainly didn’t havematerial blessings in mind.
As spiritual, these blessings are the result ofthe Holy Spirit’s work in our lives.
Just as Paulemphasizes the roles of God the Father and God the Son throughout this letter, healso emphasizes God the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity. The Fatherblesses us on the basis of our relationship with Jesus through the activity ofthe Holy Spirit.
Once again,these blessings are invisible. Whereas the first disciples could see Jesus whenhe was on Earth, we cannot see the Holy Spirit who has come in his place. The Spiritcontinues to do things for us, enabling us to live the Christian life in manyways, but we cannot see him. That’s why his work, through extraordinary, is hardto comprehend.
Being in heavenly places, these blessings are notin the temporal world.
They are in thespiritual world, which according to Ephesians, is something more than just“heaven,” though this realm undoubtedly includes it.
“Heavenlyplaces” is the part of creation and reality beyond this physical, temporalworld we see today. Paul describes this realm throughout this letter. It’swhere:
- Our spiritual blessings are located (Eph 1:3)
- Christ went after he resurrected, where he rules over every other form of power and authority (Eph 1:20-21)
- We’re spiritually situated already with Jesus Christ as he rules over (Eph 2:6)
- Spiritual powers and authorities see God’s wisdom being worked out through the church (Eph 3:10)
- The actual opposition to Christ’s work in the church occurs (Eph 6:12)
Though these blessings are out of sight, they should not be out of mind.
This spiritual realmwill reappear throughout our study of this book. For now, we should know that though these blessings are “out ofsight,” they should not be “out of mind.” This spiritual place and ourspiritual blessings should be a key factor in our daily mindset.
We can bank on them because we’re in Christ.
When I say, “bankon them,” I mean we can make daily, spiritual decisions based upon theseblessings, just as you buy material things on credit knowing that we have themoney in the bank to pay for them later.
Why can we bankon these blessings? Because we’re “in Christ.” This fact is so important thatit appears in this sentence 11 times (“in him,” “in the beloved,” “in Christ”).
When we sign upfor a bank account, what do we need to show? An official ID. Similarly, toreceive these blessings from God, we need to be “in Christ.” Not everyone has accessto these blessings. We must have a close, intimate relationship with Jesus. Doyou?
Unlike a theatre or stadium, there aren’t different levels of access, from public access to VIP. With Jesus, we’re either in or out, and everyone who’s in gets VIP access to God and his blessings.
With Jesus, we’re either in or out, and everyone who’s in gets VIP access to God and his blessings.
Why? BecauseJesus is who God sent to deliver us from sins and from the crumbling kingdom ofthis world into his everlasting kingdom. That’s what Christ (“Messiah”) means.
He is also theLord, which means he is the supreme master of God’s kingdom, especially in thespiritual realm where our spiritual blessings are and where we’ll eventually goourselves. But there’s more …
We can count on Christ because God is his Father.
Christ is morethan our Savior and the master of the spiritual realm. He is God. When Paulsays, “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,” he refers to the eternal,creator God of the Bible as the “God” of Jesus and the “Father” of Jesus. Whatdoes this mean?
The OT rarelyuses Father to describe God (only 15 times), but it is the primary wayof describing him in the NT (245 times). This title sets God apart from the pagangods, famous for their rude, brutal, wild, unloving behavior towards people. Itreveals him as a God who loves and who loves to give, just like a father does(Matt 6:9; 7:11; Jam 1:17).
His greatestgift and act of love was giving us Jesus as the Savior for our sins (John 3:16).In doing so, he gave us his “only begotten Son.” What does this mean?
Some claim thatif God is Jesus’ Father, then Jesus is inferior to God. Yet this is not thecase. In fact, it means the opposite – that the Son, though a separate person,is the same God as the Father. They are two separate persons but the one, sameGod.
Jewish scholarsof Jesus’ day knew this. They said Jesus “made himself equal with God” when hesaid that God was his Father (John 5:18). The Son of God, Jesus Christ, is equal withthe Father. They are the same God.
So, if we’re“in Christ,” we’re in union more than a man who is our Savior and the master ofthe spiritual realm, we’re in union with God himself. That’s security we can counton.
We should bless God for the otherworldly blessings he’sgiven us.
Here’s thequestion. If we have such a close relationship with God and he’s given us allkinds of spiritual blessings, what should we do about it? I can give two goodanswers:
- First,do everything we can to understand God and his blessings.
- Second,look for ways to let these spiritual blessings influence our everyday lives.
In fact, that’swhat this letter to Christians is all about. The first 3 chapters explain Godand his blessings to Christians in great detail. Then the second 3 chaptersexplain how to connect these truths to our lives at church, at home, and in theworld.
You see, it’sas though Eph 1-3 is our spiritual prospectus. A prospectus is that thick,magazine-like book we get in the mail when we open a financial investment (likea stock, bond, mutual fund, or insurance policy). In gives all sorts of detailsthat makes us more informed about our investment so we can make good financialdecisions.
The thing aboutinvestments is that we can’t see them now. They’re for the future, when we goto school or retire, for instance. Yet, even though we can’t see or spend them now,they’re still working for us – earning interest and growing in value.
But there’s away that they influence our lives besides the future. They impact our life nowin a real way by giving us confidence and a sense of security.
- Wecan prepare for school with confidence, paying attention to our studies andgetting good grades, knowing that when it’s time to enroll, we’ll be able topay for it.
- We cango through life working hard, vacationing, doing what we should, not worriedabout our future or stressing out over what will happen when we’re too old towork.
That’s what Eph4-6 is all about. It explains how we should live today because of what ourspiritual prospectus (Eph 1-3) says about our spiritual blessings. But studyingEph 1-6 will take a while, so I have a simpler answer for us today.
How should werespond to our spiritual blessings? Like Paul, we should “Bless God” (Eph 1:3).Since God has blessed us in so many ways, we should bless him for it.
Yet how can peoplelike us with nothing to offer God give anything back to him? After all, hedoesn’t need anything anyway. He already has everything.
We don’t bless God by giving him thing he needs. We bless him with praise
We don’t bless God by giving him thing he needs. We bless him with praise. We should speak well of him, give him thanks, and honor him in whatever way we can. The greatness of his blessings to us show that he is worthy of our greatest praise.
When God blessedMary by choosing her to be the mother of Jesus, how did she respond (Luke 1:28, 46-48)? The angel said to her, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are youamong women!” When she told her cousin, Elizabeth, about this blessingfrom God, she said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced inGod my Savior. For He has regarded the lowly state of His maidservant; forbehold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed.”
- Magnify means to “declare the greatness.”
- Rejoice means “to be extremely joyful.”
So believerstoday are the object of God’s blessing – not to be the mother of Jesus, but tobe the children of God through Jesus. Knowing how amazing this is and how youdon’t deserve such blessing, you should bless God back by praising him, bydeclaring his greatness and being extremely joyful. Are you amazed andoverjoyed at his blessings?
Conclusion
I’m eager to discoverwhat all these blessings mean: election, predestination, adoption of sons, redemption,forgiveness, inheritance, the seal of the Spirit. I hope you are, too.
In a way, learning these spiritual blessings is like reading a will to find out what our inheritance will be. Only this isn’t a temporary, financial inheritance from an earthly father. It’s an eternal, spiritual one from the supreme God, who happens to be our Father.
Learning these spiritual blessings is like reading a will to find out what our inheritance will be.
It’s also awill that has everything to do with Jesus Christ the Lord. The only reason youhave these blessings is because you’re in a close relationship with him.
So, let’s asktwo final questions.
Are you “in Christ?”
I’m not askingif you go to church, know about Jesus, or grew up in a Christian home. I’masking if you have a personal relationship with Jesus for yourself. Do youdepend on Jesus as your God and Savior? Have you stopped trying to be a goodperson and trusted in Jesus instead?
Perhaps now is thetime God appointed for you to stop trusting your own goodness, excusing your badbehavior, and looking to other gods, religions, and philosophies to guide yourlife.
If God isworking in your heart and mind right now, persuading you turn your back on all thoseother things, then put your trust in Jesus Christ alone as your God and Savior.The moment you believe, all the spiritual blessings of Eph 1:3-14 become yoursforever.
Does your relationship with him give you confidence to face the challenges of everyday life?
As Eph 1:1-2 remindsus, God has called us to be his holy people in an unholy city. For the originalrecipients of this letter, that city wat Ephesus with all of its problems. Forus, it’s New York City.
It’s not easyto live the Christian life in this city that we see and feel. It often seems likeeveryone and everything is against us. It even feels like everything inside of usis against us, too!
This week I wantto encourage you with some basic spiritual realities.
You have such a relationship with God through Christ that you can actually call him Father. You can look up at the sky and know the one who made it all is your Father and has provided you with so many benefits that are waiting to be discovered. These benefits, though invisible, are forever and are worth more than anything you can have in this world.
You have such a relationship with God through Christ that you can actually call him Father.
Though theseblessings are spiritual and in the heavenly realm beyond, they should still affectthe way you think and live right now. Just as a student can focus on his high-schoolstudies because he knows his college is paid for through a scholarship, andjust a working adult can go through the rigors of life in peace, knowing his retirementis covered by a pension or IRA, so you can go through life with total peace andconfidence.
God’s gifts of election,predestination, adoption, redemption, forgiveness, inheritance, and the seal ofthe Spirit are like your spiritual scholarship, pension, and IRA all in onepackage. You did nothing to earn these things and they will never go away. Theyare yours today in the heavenly places.
Though you don’t always feel blessed, these blessings transcend your feelings. You are blessed in all these ways even on your worst days. Personal failures, mistreatment by others, physical illness, bad weather, or any other problem cannot touch these blessings because they’re not in this world.
Though you don’t always feel blessed, these blessings transcend your feelings.
You may not have all the money, health, or other things this temporal, visible, material world has to offer – but that’s okay. You have what really counts and it will be for you when it matters, in eternity, when the things of this world all go away.
Get your eyes off the prison cell of life and focus on your spiritual blessings in heavenly realms.
Get your eyes off the prison cell of life and focus on yourspiritual blessings in heavenly realms. That’s wherethings are really happening and that’s where your relationship with God andspiritual blessings are visible and established.
