Reading: Ephesians 1
I love that even though we were children of wrath, God sent Jesus to die for us. God is full of mercy and love. If you have not read through Ephesian 1 I encourage you to do so along with my journaling today. Paul starts out addressing us with a blessing:
‘Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him. In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all thingsaccording to the counsel of His will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory. In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.’
Ephesians 1:3-14
Blessed and Chosen
Today I want to really take a look at this blessing that Paul wrote. First, he starts out saying we have every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. This is something we must know, that we are already blessed because of our relationship with the Father through the blood of Jesus. Jesus paid the price so that we could be in relationship with the Father and by having this relationship we have been blessed.
Next it says we were chosen. I love that like a husband chooses a wife for himself, we too were chosen by God. Now it gets better because it says we were chosen “that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.” Well I don’t know about you but many days I do not feel holy and without blame. But we must remember what Jesus has done for us. He took our punishment so that we would be made holy and righteous. We must focus on how God sees us through the lens of Jesus. Through the blood of Jesus and His sacrifice, we have been made holy. Not by our own works, but by the faith in Jesus and the finished work of the cross.
Adopted and Redeemed
It goes on to say we have been predestined for adoption. Yes, we are now sons and daughters of our heavenly Daddy, and He loves us so much. This adoption is according to the will of God. Some will say we don’t know the will of God, but here we see that it is His desire/will to have us as sons and daughters; to be chosen and loved. We can know the will of God by the actions and words that Jesus spoke. He only did what the Father told him to do and spoke what the Father told Him to speak.
We have redemption and forgiveness of sins, according to His grace. His grace is His part, but we must have faith in this grace to receive the benefits that come with it. One such benefit is mentioned here that we will have forgiveness of sins. We all know we were sinners before we knew Jesus, but now we have forgiveness through His blood. His blood made atonement for our sins forever past, present and future.
Grace Abounds
His grace abounds toward us so that we may have all wisdom and prudence (understanding) to know the mystery of His will. He wants us to know His will for our lives. He wants us to have these blessings. Furthermore, we have an inheritance, now that we are sons and daughters adopted in. We have received His grace into the blessings of Abraham (Deuteronomy 28) and all we need to do is go and read them.
For it continues that we have heard the word of truth, the gospel of our salvation, and it has been sealed with the Holy Spirit. The word of truth is Jesus Christ and all that He has done for us. That he died and rose again on the third day. Jesus is our Savior and by grace through our faith in Him, will come the mysterious of God’s will for our lives.
May God give you the wisdom and understanding spoken here as you read these words over yourself. ~Amen