Psalm 119:73-80

 73 Your hands have made and fashioned me;
    give me understanding that I may learn your commandments.
74Those who fear you shall see me and rejoice,
   because I have hoped in your word.
75I know, O LORD, that your rules are righteous,
   and that in faithfulness you have afflicted me.
76Let your steadfast love comfort me
   according to your promise to your servant.
77Let your mercy come to me, that I may live;
   for your law is my delight.
78Let the insolent be put to shame,
   because they have wronged me with falsehood;
   as for me, I will meditate on your precepts.
79Let those who fear you turn to me,
   that they may know your testimonies.
80May my heart be blameless in your statutes,
    that I may not be put to shame!

Pride. Pride. Pride. The love of self. Holding yourself up as a thing of great worth. The demand that you be worshipped and served. It kills love, generosity, godliness, kindness, gentleness and purity - and much more. Pride is a great evil, our most basic instinct and comfort – the sin that pervades most of our wrong decisions, and corrupts most of our good decisions! It is almost impossible to do anything godly without falling into pride (including write this post). It is your greatest character flaw – and it is mine too. We are all naturally keen to set ourselves up, against God, as the most valuable thing in the universe. Much more could, and has, been said on it. And while this part of Psalm 119 does not speak of pride – it made me think a lot about it.

It was verses like v74 that brought it to my mind, “Those who fear you shall see me and rejoice, because I have hoped in your word”. And v79, “Let those who fear you turn to me, that they may know your testimonies“. We should not for a second doubt the genuineness of the Psalmist, or jump to the conclusion that he’s an attention seeker – but you can see how easily, how quickly, phrases like this can be corrupted by pride. ‘I put my hope in God’s word; those who really fear God will see me and rejoice in me’, or, ‘Let those who really fear God turn to me, then they’ll learn God’s testimonies’. That is the natural, sinful way that will come easy to us – the buck stops at me, the attention stops at me – the praise, glory and attention of others is focused upon me.

What the Psalmist really hopes, and it’s very rebuking and humble, is that he is see-through. What I mean is that, all the attention and admiration he receives from ‘those who fear God’, i.e., the godly, will actually pass straight through him and travel on further to rest at the altar of God, not his own pride. ‘God, may others look to me and see your testimonies lived out, so that they might live a life that pleases you’. So when you look at the Psalmist doing good, you’re really seeing through him to the God behind him. And so, the Psalmist’s goal in being godly, following God with all his heart, is to be a window to the goodness and greatness of God. He wants others to trust in God! His goal is to magnify the sufficency and satisfaction of follow God and his rules.

So whether you are young or old, do desire to be an example to other Christians. Paul is constantly saying things like Philippians 3:17, “Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us.” He doesn’t want the church to imitate him for the end of highlighting Paul’s amazingness – no way! Paul wants them to imitate him insofar as they become more like Jesus - which results in praise to God. We should do likewise. And so, like the Psalmist, we should ask God to make us wiser, more knowledgeble in his Word, more obedient -that we might become models for others to follow. Not so we are held high as models to be worshipped, but to be imitated that the glory might rest on God.

Asking to be built up into maturity so you are followed is a hard thing to ask of God – but it’s only hard because we are so corrupted by pride. Perhaps our real prayer is that we, appropriately, look to amazing examples like the Psalmist and Paul and thank God for them, and asked to be made a little bit more like them. With that in mind, let’s pray through this part of the Psalm;

Heavenly Father,

Just as your hands made me and fashioned me from birth till know, work in me to give me understanding and learning in your commandments. I know Father that your rules are right, and that if I am afflicted by your hand it is all in line with your faithfulness to your promises given me in Christ. Let your steadfast love, your amazing love be my comfort. Thank you that your mercy flowed upon me through Christ, that I am alive – make your law my delight. Bring shame to the insolent, those who wrong your children, open their eyes to their evil and lead them to repentance. May my heart be blameless in your statues, that I may not be put to shame or bring your name into disrepute. Do all this father, that I might cause others to follow you. Keep me from my pride which desires this attention to fall at my feet and not yours. In Christ’s name, Amen.

Stained by pride,

Matt.

Ephesians 1:13-14

13In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

Today is the last post of this epic first installment of Ephesians. Today we come to the third, and final “In him we…” phrase, that Paul has used to display to us the incredible blessings that God, in His grace, has lavished upon us through Jesus Christ. (That’s a mouthful of a sentence – but it’s been great to read about it for the last week). Today, the emphasis changes slightly, to focus on us as individual Christians – v13 begins with “In him you“. Paul is writing our Christian autobiography for us! These verses are such an encouragement. If you’re a Christian, this is what has happened to you, individually. If you’re a Christian, this is what will happen to you, individually. God blessed you with every spiritual blessing in Christ. It’s an emphasis we can take for granted, and so one I am very grateful Paul takes as he wraps up this first section of Ephesians.

The question we might have at this point in Ephesians is, “How and when did the eternal, mind boggling realities of predestination and election actually ground themselves into my everyday life? And why didn’t he just save me at birth if I was going to be saved anyway?” These are good questions, and Paul answers them both.

Even in light of all the mind-bending truths that we have read of in this first part of Ephesians, like predestination and election, of a God choosing people from before time to be blessed through Jesus Christ so that his grace would be seen as glorious – even in light of all this, there comes a point, a real tangible, linear, ever-so-simple to see and comprehend moment where we go from being dead to God, to being sons of God. For all the confusion and ‘brain pain’ that Ephesians has raised (and it’s a great God-glorifying pain), for us, the equation and truth is simple. It’s so impossibly simple! And this is what is so incredible about grace – that God works out his universe shaping plans, with all this amazing stuff about his eternal glory and his lavishing of grace through predestination and election – he works it all out by us simply saying, “I believe”. That’s it. (!!!) The simplicity of all this is achieved by the effectual work of the Spirit, v13;

In him (Jesus) you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit

We’ve been given in Ephesians so far, a kind of ‘Universe from God’s point of view” glimpse by Paul. Our minds have been rattled by some huge things of God. But here in v13, Paul turns it back around to us as individuals, and you couldn’t ask for anything simpler to understand! You heard the word of truth – someone or something proclaimed to you the truth. What was that truth? Paul doesn’t rattle off 342 deep theological tangents – the word of truth was simply, the gospel of salvation. The good news that you, a sinner worthy only of your impending eternal death, could be saved. And all you did in response was…believe. That’s it. And at that moment, the eternal plans of God that are beyond our comprehension were poured out in blessing upon your life – in a way you didn’t even comprehend or notice. But God truly had, through that moment of clarity and simplicity, brought you into the greatest movement of the universe; the eternal worship of His grace. Whether or not God’s plans would succeed did not, and still doesn’t, rely on you one little bit. Because at that moment of your salvation, the promised Holy Spirit came into you and sealed you. Adopted. Delivered. Secure. Safe. Saved. v14 fills it out even more, just in case we weren’t convinced;

…sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

You have the best spiritual bodyguard imaginable. God himself in Spirit dwells in your heart, and his presence is a simple, yet powerful guarantee that the inheritance is yours. And what an inheritance it is that we have read about in Ephesians; As all the riches of God’s grace that were poured out in Christ are consummated on that last day, when the church of Jesus Christ is brought to their eternal home – brought purely by the work and grace of God within them, begun from before the beginning of time itself, wrought through the glorious work of Christ on the cross, sealed at the moment we just ‘believed’, and safely guarded and shaped by God himself in them.

In these first 14 monumental verses, there is but one theme in the end. One that has encompassed them all. It’s the theme of our inheritance itself, the theme of heaven. All this, all the universal truths we have read of and will personally enjoy – it will all be to the praise of his glory.

All by your grace Father, all for your glory. Amen.

And that, friends, is what Ephesians 1:1-13, and absolutely everything else is about. I pray that God has, and will, speak through his Word to you personally, to shape, equip, embolden and strengthen you. In Christ’s name. Amen.

God blessed with you in grace,

Matt.

Ephesians 1:11-12

11In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, 12so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory

We continue today with the second of the In Him refrains – how we have been blessed in Christ with every spiritual blessing, to the praise of God’s grace. And the cool thing is that we really don’t find any new theology here – Paul is just looking at what we’ve already discussed from a different angle, giving even greater breadth to our understanding of God’s ultimate plan. You should hear echos of the previous verses in most of the content of these two verses.

The first idea of inheritance in v11 really stems out of the concept of sonship introduced back in v5, he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ. Sons get the inheritance of their father, not based on whether they are perfect children, but on the very fact that they are children. And we’ve been adopted purely by the effectual power of God’s wondrous grace; which should make us the most joyous, most trusting and least self-righteous children in the world! We have obtained an inheritance, but don’t start thinking that ‘obtained’ means you actually took hold of it by your own accord, the verse goes on to say, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will. God choose you a long time ago! This verse is one of the most beautiful, yet immovable statements of God’s sovereignty. God works all things according to the counsel of his will. All things. Earthquakes, cancer, tsunamis, Satan, the fall, Judas, Barack Obama, snow, church, babies, famine – none of it happens in discord to the counsel of his will. Ultimately, He works it all. We need not freak out at this point. A God who is anything but completely sovereign is not a God worth our worship at all. He demands our silenced mouths, our minds that hurt from trying to figure this stuff out – because a God who is anything less is simply too simple to be God. But he’s still your father – that’s the truly amazing thing. Your dad knows and controls everything – and he loves you, has saved you, washed you, and has promised that everything you’ll experience in life is for the best, because he has a bigger plan, as we find out in v12;

11In him we have obtained an inheritance…v12so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.

Sound familiar? Paul’s just looking at what he’s already said from a different angle. He made clear in v5-6 that God predestined us to become Sons through Jesus Christ so that his grace would be seen and worshipped as glorious. Now our very inheritance as sons – the inheritance being the consummation of our adoption as Sons, that is the now the focal point of when the eternal praise of God’s grace begins. I may be wrong, but I take the phrase “we who were the first to hope in Christ” to mean the church as it first appears in the throne room of heaven. The arrival of the church is a marked point in the worship of heaven. Revelation makes clear the worship of Christ has already begun, but it seems here that as the church is brought into their inheritance as sons, the praise of God’s glory at the arrival of the church adds yet another dimension to the praise of the glory of God’s grace. What a privilege! And I didn’t do anything to be a part of this! That’s the whole point isn’t it – it’s all by grace so that God gets all the glory! All by his grace, all for his glory. I think that refrain is going to keep coming back in Ephesians.

Heavenly Father,

I am consistently blown away by your grace as I dive deeper into Ephesians 1. I can never thank and praise you enough for what you have done for me. I long to stand and worship you forever and ever in heaven – that I might begin to express what I must express! Thank you for blessing me in Christ with sonship – that I might, incredibly, have your inheritance – to see and worship the glory of your grace for all eternity. Help me to live as a joyous child, who never presumes on his own righteousness, but purely on your grace – that I might live to see Jesus Christ and your grace glorified in all the world. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

How good is Ephesians 1!

Matt.

Ephesians 1:6-10

6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, 8which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight 9 making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 10as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

I have felt rather insufficient trying to fully comprehend and explain verses 3-6, and I’m sure you’ve felt rather incapable of fully grasping them yourself. We now move on to the rest of the chapter, but really, the rest of the chapter is only fleshing out v6 – fleshing out and explaining how glorious God’s grace is that he has blessed us in the Beloved. And so, to show us just how God has blessed us in the Beloved, verses 7-14 are marked by the thrice repeated refrain, In Him we…In Him we…In Him you. My posts are going to be based upon these, for Paul’s purpose in the rest of this section is for us to be encouraged, informed and simply blown away by how we have been blessed in Christ. Every blessing we have has come through Christ – it is through Christ that we behold the glory of the grace of God. So today, we’ll be looking at the first “In Him we”, which begins at v7 and is fleshed out till v10.

As discussed in the last post, in Him, Jesus, we have redemption and forgiveness through his blood shed for us on the cross – the two things we needed the most, but also the two things we had no power to get ourselves. Therefore, the cross is the greatest display of the riches of (God’s) grace – that the being most deserving of eternal life and glory died, so that, the beings least deserving of eternal life and glory might have them. Paul goes on to say, beautifully, that this grace given to us in Him, was lavished upon us. ‘Lavished’ is a great word – it fills my mind with the image of great rushing flood, as God’s grace just overcomes us and carries us away. We barely have time to respond before the grace has washed us away to eternal life.

But then comes the slightly out-of-place looking phrase, v8, that God lavished this grace upon us in all wisdom and insight. I don’t know about you, but it doesn’t sound quite right on the first hearing. Doesn’t this sound strange, “God was indeed very wise and insightful in lavishing his grace upon me”. Taken the wrong way, it can easily turn into a case of God being very wise in choosing a legend like me to be the partaker of grace – which of course, wouldn’t be grace at all! Grace can only be grace if it is given to the undeserved. So then, how was it wise and insightful of God to lavish upon the scummy sinners of the earth all the riches of his grace in Christ? The answer is humbling – our salvation isn’t the ultimate goal of God’s grace being lavished upon us. God isn’t most interested in us. We are only a small part of a much, much bigger plan, and our salvation is wise because it clearly points to the bigger purpose. His purpose in saving us is clear, yet mind-blowing; v9-10

making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

In saving us, God is letting us in on the mystery of his will – the real end time purpose of creation. And it’s not really a mystery once you’re in on it – it’s the plan, one that will be fulfilled in the fullness of time, to unite all things in Jesus. And as we found from v6 yesterday, having Jesus as the centrepiece of eternity really means you have God’s grace as the centrepiece of all creation.

If you’re a Christian, welcome to the best secret club in the world. You now know the mystery, the answer.  But the humbling thing for us is that the answer isn’t you. The focus of worship won’t be you – all things will be subject to Christ, the eternal Lord of all creation. Pride has no place to live among us.

So, the first great blessing of God’s grace given us through the Beloved is that of redemption and forgiveness – that we might be lavished by grace, and highlight by our salvation the greatest secret ever known – (…it’s all about Jesus! But don’t keep it to yourself!…)

Heavenly Father,

How amazing is your grace! That you, the great Holy God, would lavish upon me, a rebellious God-hating sinner, all the riches of your grace in Christ! I want to hold up the cross as my greatest joy and salvation, may I boast in nothing else but this wondrous cross – by which I was reconciled to you, and made dead to the world that is being destroyed. Words cannot do justice to my thanks and praise of your love, and so, send me out to live a life worthy of the gospel – may I worship and give praise to this grace in everything I do. Help me to align my will with yours – to make known to all flesh the mystery hidden for ages past, the mystery soon to be frighteningly and gloriously revealed – the Lordship of Jesus Christ for eternity. Change me, mould me, shape me by your Spirit, to live a life that pleases you. All by your grace, all for you glory. In Christ’s name, Amen.

All by His grace, all for His glory – indeed.

Matt.

Ephesians 1:5-7

5He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace

Yesterday we hit rock bottom – we got to see why God did everything as he has done it. Why did he predestine us from before time to be adopted as sons through Jesus? Why did he engineer everything in the universe, from sin to suffering, human will, depravity, and most importantly – why did he have in mind a suffering Christ? We found that we could dig no deeper than v6, To the praise of his glorious grace. God ordained that there be sin, suffering and pain in the world, he elected a people for his own possession before the world was made – so that his grace could be praised as glorious as it was blessed upon the elect in his Beloved, Christ. And as v7 makes clear, that Beloved suffered. We know he suffered horribly. v7 gives us a very clean, but still very real portrayal of what happened through the suffering of the Beloved. In him (the Beloved) we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace.

This is an important verse in understanding why the cross, and all the plans of God will result in the great praise of his grace; which was the ultimate purpose and plan of God as we found yesterday. v7 is making clear how effectual, powerful and amazing God’s grace is. Jesus’ work on the cross was redemptive. Redemption is a slavery word. If you are redeemed from slavery, you are bought at a price. And so, God walks up to Satan’s slave house and slams a bottle of Jesus’ blood down on the counter. The price for unforgiven sin has been paid, God sets the elect free. This happened only according to the riches of his grace. Not according to his grace, but the riches of his grace. We see how amazing and praiseworthy his grace is in the redemption, the buying of sinners, by the suffering of Christ. But grace does more than just redeem, it forgives. In the suffering of Christ we have the forgiveness of our trespasses - we owed a debt that we could only pay with our very blood, and now, by the blood of Christ, we have had our slate washed clean forever. And this could only happen according to the riches of his grace – only because God’s grace is so glorious, praiseworthy and effectual.

Therefore, God has redeemed and forgiven his elect church, for the primary purpose of displaying the greatness of his grace. This is why the cross is at the centre of everything – it’s an event marked solely by grace! The perfect son, who was deserving of nothing but life and glory, humbled himself in love to die for a people deserving nothing but death and humiliation. This has got to grab us. The cross was the very plan of God! The horror of the cross is matched only by the eternal wonder and praise of God’s glory that will echo for all time in heaven. The very purpose of heaven is that God’s grace will be glorified – that’s why we’ll spend eternity worshipping Jesus and remembering what he did on the cross. In Revelation, the lamb of heaven looks as though it is slain. While Jesus is centrepiece of the worship of heaven – Jesus’ work that makes him Lord was displaying the grace of God through his obedience and love in submission to the plan of the cross. Heaven is ultimately the worship of God’s grace.

How should we respond to this? To think that my whole life, my conversion was the complete work of God? Well, it dethrones me as the centrepiece and worship of creation, and instead enthrones the grace of God! That’s fantastic, because my desire to make a name for myself by my own saving powers is the heart of sin – my sinful desire is to remove the richness of the grace of God!

To think that all the suffering I have, and will endure in life was ordained and allowed by God so that his grace could be displayed most fully in the suffering servant Christ on the cross? It dethrones me as someone intrinsically worthy of comfort, ease and pleasure – how could a loving God allow cancer, torture, tsunamis? We’re happy for Jesus to have nails driven through his hands for my sake – we’re happy to enjoy the benefits of grace as the fully deserving king was killed for the undeserving sinner…but now we’re going to turn around and get angry at God? The universe exists for a higher purpose than our comfort! If only our generation would humble itself to worship the grace of God!

Finally, to think that God would be so egocentric so as to manufacture a whole world of suffering, evil, sin, Satan, hell and everything horrible in between just so that he could have a big ego trip in heaven as his elect see just how good he is, and so that he can be worshipped by everyone? What sort of God would do that? What kind of God could be so self-centered? How can a loving God be so full of himself?

The answer is simple. A God of truth, who is actually as good as he says he is would do this. A God who created us to only find our fullest joy in his unimaginable greatness would do this. A God whose grace is actually as amazing as he says would do this.

If his grace is really that amazing, if he really is that good - for us to react with disapproval, disappointment, disbelief or anger means either one of two things - we don’t think he is that good, or we want some of the glory.

And that’s the foundation of sin.

Silenced with you,

Matt.

Ephesians 1:5-6

5He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.

I remember digging holes at the beach as a kid, and every time getting frustrated because there would come a point where you just could not dig any deeper. All you could do then was make the whole wider.  When we dig deep into scripture to find the ‘meaning of life’, the most ultimate plans and purposes of God, the reason he made anything at all, the reason he has done everything the way he’s done it – there comes a point where you cannot dig any deeper. And that’s good, because God makes it clear what the rock-bottom plan and purpose of everything is and then we are able to widen the hole outwards to discover more and more the implications and ramifications of such a truth on life. The problem is, people really don’t like what they find. And so, we must decide either to listen to people, or listen to God.

Ephesians 1:5-6 is perfectly clear and unequivocal. v5 makes it clear that God predestined in election those who would be his children. He chose who would be saved, and therefore who would not be saved. You do not need to freak out about this. Those who hold the view of a God who does not elect, do not view a God at all. It is blasphemous to portray God in this light, because then he is not all-powerful, all-knowing and all-seeing. Your picture of God is too small, and your picture of yourself is is probably far too big.

The joyful Christian rests gladly in the truth of adoption. That we were not born as natural children of God, but of our sinful parents, just like our children will be, under the curse of sin. And so we hold equally with the truth of predestination the doctrine of depravity, that we have each individually and therefore culpably set ourselves against God. And yet, entirely by the working and plan of God before the ages began, we have now been adopted into his family as sons. The creator of the universe, the definition of love, the greatest good imaginable, the all-knowing, all-loving, all-seeing, all-perfect God of everything is your dad. You were destructively satisfied in your previous family, but God adopted you. You did not put yourself out on the door for adoption, God came into your old house and took you (v7 will use the language of redemption to flesh this out).

You were adopted as sons through Jesus Christ. So, before the ages began, God had in mind that his people would become his children through Jesus Christ. The cross was not Plan B as though the creation in Genesis had gone out of God’s control! Revelation 13:8 makes this truth even clearer, “and all who dwell on earth will worship it (the beast), everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain.” The book of life of the Lamb who was slain…it existed before the foundation of the world, and your name was written in it. God created everything with the cross in mind. Friends, this means that Jesus Christ, in his death and resurrection is the centrepiece of all creation. Everything before it led to it, and everything that follows it leads from it. This is the plan. And if we were in any doubt about it, Ephesians 1:5 dispels it, it all happened, according to the purpose of his will.

And then we hit rock-bottom. Why did God plan it this way – why did he have Christ on the cross redeeming his people into sonship as the centrepiece of all creation? Why would he allow sin into the world? Suffering into the world? Horrible afflictions into the world? And why would he allow a suffering Christ to come to pass? Why did he predestine a people? Why will he curse those who were not elected? Every tough question you can imagine – why did he allow it, no, plan for it to come to pass?…This is why, v6. To the praise of his glorious grace. To the praise of the glory of his grace. That’s it. That his grace would be seen as glorious. That his gracious character would be seen as amazing. That the grace that was blessed upon us in his Beloved, would be seen by all and worshiped by all. That’s it.

I want to finish on this note, and pursue it further tomorrow. We’ve reached the rock bottom, now we must widen the hole. What are the ramifications of this – why would God do this – how can this possibly be true – why is the grace so good?

Wrestling with you today,

Matt.

Ephesians 1:3-4

3 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, 4even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him in love.

The first 14 verses of Ephesians are intense. Paul, having greeted the church briefly (but very warmly as we found yesterday), throws himself into one of the grandest, fullest, meatiest and mind blowing celebrations of God, salvation, Christ and everything in between. Paul immediately raises the eyes of his readers to the loftiest heights, to gaze upon the ultimate plans of God, the absolute world-bending truths that are to be found in Christ, and to lead us in joyful praise and worship for what God has done for us. It is such a joy for me to read through this passage with you - they are some of the most amazing in the bible. So let’s join Paul as he celebrates and worships what God has done for us. (I apologise if I can’t clearly unpack these verses for you in the short space we have, I’d easily preach a whole sermon on each of these verses!)

v3, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us. What is the basis and motivation of our praise and blessing of God? Why should we live to see God glorified in our words, thoughts and deeds? Why should we magnify and proclaim the worthiness and greatness of God for all the world to see and enjoy? Because he has blessed us first. We are not indebted to God, as though, ‘he blessed us so we owe him some blessing back’. No, that’s what religion would say. He has not made us debtors to him, slaves to him, but rather, he has placed us in the position of sonship, he is our Father as verse 3 begins, and as verse 5 will flesh out. A child is not indebted to their father if their father blesses them. That would be horrible. But we are now free and privileged to enjoy a relationship of grace, blessing and inheritance – by no merit of our own. Paul fleshes all this out in the verses that follow, beginning with the verses we’ll look at today;

…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…

Paul says that God has rained upon us every blessing imaginable, even from heavenly realms for our spiritual lives. How did he do it? In Christ. This should blow our minds. Every spiritual blessing – it’s yours in Christ. Now. And not just now, but forever past, because you had every spiritual blessing in Christ even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world. Before anything existed, God chosefor you to be in Christ! You did not choose God, God choseyou before anything was made. Any justification for my spiritual pride has been irrevocably removed, because absolutely anything and everything good in my spiritual life has been blessed upon me by the electing choice of God before I was even a twinkle in myparent’s eyes. Let that sink in. Let it sink in, deep. This is grace, incomprehensible grace. The only thing I want to do is praise God! I am not ‘indebted’ into praising Him, I cannot help but praise Him for what he has done for me! And Paul, having felt the same way, now begins to fill out for us what it means and looks like to have every spiritual blessing in 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.

What did God choose for us to become? What is his end goal for us in choosing us? Who does he want us to be? One thing – he chose us in him…that we should be holy and blamelesss before him in love. To be holy and blameless before God is not a small thing. That’s 100% holy, 100% blameless, because God is 100% holy and blameless. And we know that because of our sin, all mankind was cast from God’s holy and blameless sight. And so for God to have chosen us before the foundation of the world to be perfect – that’s truly amazing. You’ll notice your bible puts the ‘in love’ with the next sentence, v5 “In love he predestined us…”. The Greek is entirely vague and could go either way, but for a number of reasons I believe it goes with this sentence. We stand holy and blameless together with all Christians, unified with love for one another. We stand in love, not sinful rivalry as though our spiritual blessing involved ‘moving up the ranks’. And all this being made holy and blamless means that the medium through which we became holy and blameless must be truly amazing. And that’s why Jesus is so good. Let’s pray that these ultimate, amazing truths would change us,

Heavenly Father,

I am constrained by joy to praise your wondrous name, O’ God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; that you have blessed me, a self-glorifying sinner, with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places! To know that you have not even held back from me a single blessing - O’ may I worship you with my very life! Thank you so much for Christ. Everything I have and am has come through Christ. And I say with great gladness that I could not choose you Father, but that my only hope was that you chose me, even before the foundation of the world. Thank you that through Christ I can stand holy and blameless in your perfect sight. All the power and guilt and condemnation of sin has disappeared for those who are in Christ Jesus. I long for the day that never ends, when we your church can stand before the throne of Christ and worship him forever. Ceaseless praise, endless blessing to the lamb! May I live this life as I will live the life to come, forever praising you and glorifying Christ in everything I do. Blessed be your name. And I pray it in Christ’s name, Amen.

Overwhelmed with you,

Matt.

P.S – Sorry for these posts getting longer – I feel that these thick, rock solid amazing verses give me little choice!

Ephesians 1:1-2

1Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God,

To the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful in Christ Jesus.

2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

The letter to the Ephesians is amazing. If you’ve never sat down and read it from front to back, do it today! In my opinion, it’s the spiritual equivalent of a strong glass of orange juice; refreshing, revitalising, beautiful to devour, strengthening, satisfying and makes you want to have it again and again. So it is with great eagerness that I make Ephesians my third bible ’strand’ in this blog, along with Psalm 119 and Romans. Do sign up for the trip!

The letter begins magnificently. It is written by Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus. Brothers and sisters, like Paul the apostle we don’t follow Jesus. We follow Christ Jesus, Jesus Christ, the Lord Jesus, Jesus our Lord. I did I bit of research in an online concordance and found that Paul refers to Jesus 197 times in his epistles. Of those 197 times, only 7 times does he write ‘Jesus’ alone, without ‘Christ’ or ‘Lord’. 7 times. And of those 7 times, most occur because adding ’Christ’ or ‘Lord’ wouldn’t make grammatical sense! Have you ever noticed this? Get passionate about exactly who Jesus is! The very reason he is so good to declare to our friends and family is because he is the Christ, the promised king that would redeem a people for God, and because he is the Lord, the eternal king of absolutely everything (including death!). And this Christ Jesus, as we’ll see, is the rock solid centrepiece of the letter to the Ephesians. Ephesians is nothing without the Lord Jesus Christ.

And I love how Paul, right from the get go, gives all the glory to God. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God. There really weren’t many apostles – we only know of 13, so it’s a pretty elite bunch that everyone looked up to and had enormous respect for. They were filled with amazing gifts, they had all had personal, physical encounters with Christ, they were amazing teachers, evangelists, healers, missionaries, prayer-warriors and pastors. But Paul wants us straight away to look upwards - Paul was an amazing guy, but everything he was came about only by the will of God. Wherever you are on your Christian walk, spiritual new born or spiritual aircraft carrier, don’t ever move on from this point; you were saved, you have become who you are, and you will be what you’ll be only because God willed it to be. Humbling stuff, but it’s the only way that God gets the glory, and that means it’s the only way we’ll get the grace.

Speaking of grace, it’s everywhere in the rest of our tiny little passage for today. “To the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful in Christ Jesus.” The letter is written to the saints in the city of Ephesus, those who are faithful in Christ Jesus. The Ephesians have been given the title of ’saints’, set apart as the holy people of God, not by anything they did but through grace. Saints are not perfect, they are forgiven, redeemed and bought from slavery by grace. And the Ephesians are faithful in Christ Jesus. They’re holding onto Christ Jesus. In faith they are actively holding him up as their salvation. Again, they trust in what Christ did, not what they do. It’s all about grace.

And so Paul wraps up his short greetings with an intensely warm and encouraging blessing that’s all about grace - Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I feel constrained to pray!

Heavenly Father,

Thank you for your grace. Thank you for making us saints, a holy nation set apart as your very children through your plan worked out through the Lord Jesus Christ. May I hold Jesus Christ up for all to see as trustworthy - as infinetley worthy of our faith and trust, by being faithful to him in all I do. Thank you that I need not trouble myself to claim my faith as my own, but help me gladly give all the glory to you, for it is by your will I am who I am. Flood your church with your grace and peace, through the channels opened deep and wide by the resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord. Father, by your Spirit, please mould, shape and change me as I read through Ephesians, all by your grace, all for your glory. In Jesus Christ’s name, Amen.

Rejoicing with you in grace,

Matt.