Made to praise
Expounding on what the abundant life is all about, in Ephesians 1, there is an amazing description of what God has done for us that I have seemingly read right past for the past 25 years or so. God has “blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.” Let that sink in for a minute. EVERY SPIRITUAL BLESSING. What on earth does that even mean. It sounds important and impressive and like something worth fleshing out.. so let’s go.
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ. In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory. (Ephesians 1:3-14)
Three times in Paul's unpacking of "every spiritual blessing" that God has blessed us with, he describes the reason for God doing this "to the praise of his Glory". It seems God's end game is having his creation restored so that he may receive our praising of his Glory that he may be glorified by us. We wouldn't really be glorifying God if we played a roll in our own restoration or redemption. God needs to do the work, to be deserving of us praising His glory, praising Him. The story arch of redemption is God working in and through Jesus to restore humanity to a sinless perfection, and the Holy Spirit being our seal, or promise that he is not through yet. What he said he would do he did, so what he promises to do he will do. The work of restoration and redemption is all God's doing, through His son, sealed by His spirit, until we receive our glorified bodies at the rapture, and can finally praise His glory appropriately with full awareness of what he saved us from and what he saved us for. Until we have been given our glorified bodies, and glorified minds, we cannot properly fathom what unending joy awaits us in His presence, and what unending destruction and torment he saved us from.
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. (Ephesians 1:3)
Paul is going to give us a play by play run down of what God is doing to redeem man kind, and he calls this rescue mission God blessing "us with every spiritual blessing". Note where these blessings are - "in the heavenly realms" and "in Christ". These blessings are ours but not in the sense that they are going to put food on the table, or gas in the tank. These blessings God is pouring out on us, "every" one of them by the way, he held nothing back, are in the heavenly places. Paul goes on to explain their source even further, is in Christ. Without Christ, none of these blessings come to us.
#1 - God chose us
For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. (Ephesians 1:4a)
Right out the gate we are reminded that our role in our redemption and restoration is ZERO. Before God created the world, he chose us to be holy and blameless, to be restored. In 2 Thessalonians 2:13-14 Paul continues this thought, and explains that we do have one thing we have to do in this redemption process. Believe. Have faith. Paul says "God chose you as firstfruits to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth. He called you to this through our gospel, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ" The work of sanctification (the act of making or declaring something holy), is done by God, to bring glory to God, by making us glorified in God. Our part is to have faith in truth. In Ephesians 5:26-27 Paul explains why Christ gave himself up for the church "to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.” Christ's death is again referenced in Colossians 1:22 as the reason we are holy and blameless, it’s his blood that purifies us, and the subsequent coming of the Holy Spirit that leads us into holiness through our sanctification. God chose us in (Christ) and will make us holy and blameless, if we have the faith in him to do it.
#2 - God predestined us to be his children
In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. (Ephesians 1:4b-6)
The redemption process is so that we can become part of God's family, his children. He has filled out the adoption paperwork, and Christ paid the fee for every single person who has ever lived. He wants to remove all of us from our current nature - "children of wrath" and "sons of disobedience" (Ephesians 2:2-3) and adopt us into his family. This invitation is for everyone - we are all predestined to be redeemed but not all of us will recognize the need for it and accept God's offer. To bring glory to himself, and because of his kindness toward us, he freely bestowed his grace upon us by having his son take the penalty we were due so that we might believe in it, and become sons and daughters too.
#3 - God redeems, forgives, and lavishes
In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us. (Ephesians 1:7-8a)
In Him, through Him, according to Him. He is doing all the work here, and you will see as we progress along that our role in this gift exchange is simply to accept it and believe it. God is doing all the work in restoring our soul and relationship with Him. In 1:8 Paul says God is lavishing His grace upon us. The Greek word here means to super-abound, be in excess, be superfluous. God wants to bury us in his grace, he wants us to float in an ocean of his grace. That's why he paid the ransom! That's what "redeemed" means, by the way. Sin has us all captured, and demands death for our release, so God sent his son to be that death payment and free us from our captive. He then forgives us any wrong doing because the death of His son was the payment due. God is doing all this so that one day we can fully appreciate and understand His grace and glory because we simply cannot with the puny human brains we have now.
#4 - God made known to us the mystery of his will
With all wisdom and understanding, he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ. (Ephesians 1:8b-10)
In the Bible when there is a reference to a mystery, it is describing a truth that has always been there, but not yet revealed. Like unearthing a gem stone at a mine, or discovering you actually do like mustard on hot dogs. It was always there, always true, you were just unaware of it. Unfortunately, most of humanity remains unaware of this mystery which is now made known - that God has a master agenda, and overarching theme to everything He has done, is doing, and will do. God's endgame is "to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ"
God has enlightened us to his plan. God's will is to unify everything, everywhere, under Christ. At the end of time, Christ will come back and unify what had been separated, God & His creation. What Satan temporarily messed up, will soon be restored.
#5 - God invites us to an inheritance
In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. (Ephesians 1:11-12)
Chosen, predestined, redeemed, forgiven, shown the mystery of His will: that our future is to experience life as it was intended, sin free and fully summed up in His son (v10). Our predestination and the representation of eternity in the present, i.e. our inheritance, were both done by God. They were done so we would "praise the glory of His grace" (v6) and "praise His glory" (v14) - what does that mean? Praise (approve, commend) the glory (magnificence, excellence, splendor, absolute perfection) of His grace (unmerited favor) and Him. God's characteristics and attributes are just as glorious as God is Himself.
#6 - God seals us
And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory. (Ephesians 1:13-14)
The hearing, believing, and sealing. The consummation of the spiritual blessings is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Its God's way of putting a seal on us & our evidence of our inclusion into the family of God. Our final stage of redemption will be that of our bodies at the rapture and the Holy Spirit "is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory." It’s like the post card of where we are headed, the plane ticket, its the final spiritual blessing because the work is finished. There is nothing more to do except believe and eagerly wait. God chose me, predestined me, redeemed me, forgave me, made Himself known to me, made me a joint heir w/ Christ, sealed me with His spirit. Thats my spiritual status and my new identity until Christ returns and redeems our bodies and minds and we can finally praise the glory of our God and His grace with full understanding and awe the way he intended. Its also your identity, if you believe.
Fleshed out
Every spiritual blessing has been poured out up on us to restore what once was. Satan is out to steal our hope, kill our ambitions, and destroy out outreach, but Christ came to restore, redeem, and revive. We have been chosen, predestined, redeemed, forgiven, lavished upon, introduced, incorporated, and sealed. You have every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms poured out upon you. Start living like it!
“Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. 2 By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.
3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance[a]: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,”