Celebrate Being In Christ
Ephesians 1:2-14
Message #2
NOTE: this is a super rough draft of a transcript of a message Pastor Dave did many years ago. It has not been checked for grammar, spelling, etc. And the Bible verses are transcribed as Dave read them, they are not direct quotes from the Bible.
PLEASE read Ephesians 1:3-14 a number of times before reading this transcript.
We are looking in Ephesians at what is called the great blessing song of Ephesians. & there's two things that we must understand before we approach this fabulous text. Number one, it is written in the Hebrew song style. Baruchatah - It means blessing or a blessing song. It's written in the Hebrew style of a blessing song. It's critical that you understand that.
Number two, it's also critical that you understand from verse 3 all the way to verse 14 is one sentence. It is one flowing thought from verse 3 all the way to verse 14. It is an incredible compounding of blessing and praise from the Apostle Paul, written in Hebrew song form. written as a celebration of our spiritual blessings.
What was the Holy Spirit’s intent for moving on Paulk to write this long flowing blessing song? It's important that we ask that question so that we don't too quickly jump to what we would call the mystery that's within these verses. So many people are so quick to jump to the mystery that's in these verses that they miss all of the wonder.
They miss all of the majesty, the celebration, all of the magnificence of these verses, because somebody told them to grab one word, one concept, and then debate it with every Christian they can. And it's the most terrible thing in the world for Paul to write this grand, grand blessing song and for Christians to say, Let's pick apart this word or concept until we get into a good fight over it.
We don't want to do that. There is one of the greatest mysteries in all of the Bible written in this wonderful Blessing song. But there are some things about God that just cannot be fully revealed to the human mind. There is one of those mysteries in these verses. So instead of allowing it to turn us to frustration and stress, & debates & arguments, because our finite little pea brains can't understand the majesty of God, instead of that, we want to step back and look at this grand scripture as a grand Scripture.
These are blessings after blessings after blessings poured out upon us, about the wealth that we have in Christ. We want to stand in reverence, in wonder, in awe of all that we have in Christ. Next week we're going to take these same verses and we're going to look at the mystery of divine election and free will that is referenced here.
But first, we must be in awe of God here. it would be terrible to jump right to the mystery without first getting a sense of the purpose that the Holy Spirit wrote this section through Paul.
William Randolph Hearst. Most of you know him. There's a castle nearby that bears his name. In his time, he was one of the richest men in the world.
William Randolph Hearst was also an art collector. And one day he was looking through an art catalog and saw a painting that he had to have. It was a painting like no other that he had ever seen. And so he called his men in, and he showed them this painting and said, I must own this painting. This is one of the most valuable paintings in the world. You must search the world over for it, find its owner, and pay whatever price is necessary so that I can own this painting. And his men set out on a journey to find that painting and pay its owner whatever amount of money was necessary so that Hearst could own it.
After a few months, they come back to William Randolph Hearst rather sheepishly and say, Sir, we found your painting. It is in your basement. It's been there all the time. The painting that you desired more than any other in the world . . . you already owned. You just didn't know it.
And if you are born again today, if you've received Christ as your Savior, if you are in Christ, you have blessings and spiritual wealth beyond what you can even imagine. You already own it, but you may be like William Randolph Hearst. All of those blessings, all of that wealth in Christ that you own may be hidden in your basement, and you may not even know how wealthy you really are. You may not know the value of the blessings that you already have in Christ. Today is a day to step back and say, all this I have in Christ. This is what it means to be in Christ. All of this is mine in Christ.
Read with me in Ephesians one, verse three, it says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with . . . Here are three key elements we looked at last week. Number one, every spiritual blessing. Not many, not a lot, but every spiritual blessing, not material blessings, spiritual blessings, the things that really matter. Every spiritual blessing. Where? In the heavenly places. These spiritual blessings you already own in the heavenly places. And the third key are those words in Christ, in Christ, every spiritual blessing, you already possess, in your attic, if you will, in the heavenly places in Christ.
We've got to look at those words before we can move on to this Grand Blessing song. If you've been born again today, if you've received Jesus Christ as your Savior, one of the greatest revelations that God could ever give you, is that you would begin to understand what it means to be in Christ.
R. Kent Hughes says, The term in Christ is by far one of the most important theological concepts in the New Testament. That's how important it is to understand these words in Christ. In the 12 verses we're about to look at this term in one way or another is used nine times, nine times in 12 verses. If you put all of Paul's teaching together, 170 times Paul addresses us being in Christ. It makes it one of his key theological foundations.
Second Corinthians 5:17 says - Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new.
First Corinthians 15:22 says, For as in Adam, all die, even so in Christ, all shall be made alive.
This is the theology of what we call federal headship. You find it in Romans chapter five, and Paul is in essence, quoting this theology. Today, you are either in Adam or in Christ. You are in Adam, by your sin nature, & you are transferred to being in Christ by salvation, by receiving Jesus as your Savior. And being in Christ causes us to be raised up together in Christ. It causes us to be seated in the Heavenlies in Christ.
Second Corinthians 5:21 says - for he made him, who knew no sin to be sin that we might become the righteousness of God. That's the supernatural oneness of being so immersed in Christ that he not only took our sin upon himself, he became sin for us. So that we might become the righteousness of God, in Him.
The Bible is very clear that you become in Christ by putting your full faith & trust in Jesus Christ, by believing in Jesus Christ.
Look down at Ephesians 1:13 (from the NIV) it says, and you also were included in Christ. There's our key words, you were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having believed - there's the key words - having believed you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit.
That word believe means to put your full faith and trust in God, to put your full confidence in Him, in all things. You throw yourself upon Christ and say, I trust you for eternity. I receive you as my Savior. I believe that you are who you say you are and that you are the only way, the way the truth and the life in Christ comes from us. Putting your faith in Christ and being in Christ is the foundation of all that we're going to look at today.
So now, Here's the question Have you ever really been introduced to your spiritual bank account? Did anyone ever tell you what really you have in Christ? Have you ever heard about the vault of wealth, the spiritual riches that you have in Jesus Christ?
If you have no idea what your spiritual wealth is in Christ, listen to what a few commentators say about this section before we get to it. William Barclay says this Blessing Song represents not so much a reasoned statement as a lyrical song of praise.
Now listen, Christians pick these little verses apart, & they bicker and banter and debate. But Paul didn't write it to cause debate. He wrote it as this grand blessing song, a lyrical song of praise. Continuing, William Barclay says, Paul's mind goes on and on, not because he is thinking in logical stages, but because gift after gift and wonder after wonder from God pass before his eyes as the Holy Spirit's giving him the revelation of our spiritual wealth in Christ. It just goes on and on and on. It's one of the greatest run-on sentences ever penned, with blessing after blessing coming from the Holy Spirit.
William MacDonald in the Believer's Bible commentary says - here, the Apostle lifts his voice in a magnificent hymn of praise, soaring into some of the most awe-inspiring heights of New Testament worship. Here we have the overflow of a heart that adores God for the blessings of grace, In these verses, Paul traces God's activity and salvation from eternity past through time and on into eternity future. It's a grand, majestic, awe-inspiring text that we have to step back and go, Wow, that is mine? That's what I have in Christ? That's my wealth in Christ? And we should just be left speechless when we really understand the vastness, the majesty of this text.
Let me list for you the blessings that are within the one sentence that we're about to read from the Ephesians 1:3-14. Here they are - If you've put your faith in Christ today, if he's your savior today, then this is your spiritual bank account in Christ. Look at what it says.
You are blessed, you are chosen, you are predestined, you are adopted, you are accepted, you are redeemed, you are forgiven, you are enlightened, you are an heir of God. You are sealed for eternity.
Don't pick apart a word. Look at what this sentence says. It says that if you've received Christ as your Savior, you're blessed, you're chosen, you're predestined, you're adopted, you're accepted, you're redeemed, you're forgiven, you're enlightened, you're an heir of God, you're sealed, you're guaranteed. What more do you want from God?
This is the vastness of your blessings in God – listed in this one sentence. If you're in Christ today, you own it. It's yours. You may just not know it. It may be hidden in the attic somewhere. Or you may be so caught up in some material thing or some worldly thing that you're not even focused on it. I'm telling you, focus on it, because this life is a vapor. And when you stand before Christ, you want these things to be yours.
Alright, let's read it. Ephesians 1:3-14 - Verse three - Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us, that's number one, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us, that's number two, 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, that's number three, to adoption, that's number four, 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, that's number five, in the Beloved. In him we have redemption, that's number six, through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, that's number seven, according to the riches of his grace, which he made to abound toward us in our wisdom and prudence having made known to us, that's number eight, enlightened. 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, that's number nine. You are an heir obtained in inheritance being predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory in whom you also trusted. After you heard the word of truth, the Gospel of your salvation, in whom also having believed you were sealed, that's number ten, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. Who is the guarantee, number 11, The guarantee of our inheritance. Until the redemption of the purchased possession to the praise of His glory. Amen. This should rock us on our heels; one sentence, & time after time, the Holy Spirit reveals; And this and this and this and this and this. Until the spiritual blessings are piled so high, we can't even grasp it.
We cannot grasp this in our finite, minuscule understanding. We can't grasp all of our wealth in Christ – it’s too high. You just have to leave yourself in awe of God. Really, God, all of that is mine in Christ? I can't even grasp it all. Please don't let anyone ever turn this grand blessing song into some theological debate that does no good. When people begin theological debates over things that are not fully revealed in God’s Word, no good ever comes from it. I've seen it over and over and over again.
We should be dancing and praising God right now, we should just be overwhelmed. And instead we're debating. Paul never intended this to be a theological debate. Never. It's so clear he intended for us to just be struck by the majesty of it and the realization that we can never fully understand it.
It's like that door of Fort Knox, the vault in Fort Knox opening, and you see a mountain of gold, and someone says, this is ALL yours! And you say . . . yeah but why are some bars turned this way and some turned that way, & why are they rectangle instead of square? Listen, this is all your gold. Why are you caught up in the things that you can’t understand? Why not just fall on your knees and say, Lord, ALL this is mine?
So now, we're going to go through all these verses.
Number one. He blessed us. Verse three. 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, in Christ, in Christ. Are you in Christ today? If you're in Christ today, I'm about to pour out the spiritual blessings of God’s Word to you.
Number two is in verse four. He chose us - 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. Now we're going to look at this verse again next week and we're going to talk about the mystery of sovereign election and how the Bible teaches sovereign election and responsibility of free will simultaneously.
But don't do that in your mind today. We’ve just got to step back and say, wait a minute, Before time began, God chose me. He knew me, he knew me, He knew everything about me. He knew every action. And he chose me anyway. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord. We have to be in awe that God chose us. Save the questions.
We'll deal with the mystery next week. For today, just know that before time began, outside of time, God chose you. Look at numbers three and four – they are in verse five, a number of the translations put the comma after the words before him in verse four. So those two words in love really, probably go with the thought in verse five, so it would read - in love having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of His will, the word predestined means to foreordain
Please, I hope that the fact that God knew where you were going to spend eternity before time begin doesn't cause you to question God. Because one of God's basic character traits is His omniscience. The other thing about God that we need to understand, and we'll get into this next week, is God exists outside of time. Time is a dimension that we live in, not God.
Time is not a dimension that God lives in. And outside of the time dimension God knew you. IN His omniscient and he chose you, and he foreordained ordained you to adoption. Now, some of you may be saying, Well, what if he didn't? What if he didn't foreordain me? Listen, please, listen to me. Nowhere in the Bible can you get the idea that God would choose someone to arbitrarily be sent to hell. Nowhere. It doesn't exist.
God is never, ever, ever chosen someone to go to hell. The only way you can manage to get the hell is to reject God's free gift of salvation that gets you to heaven. God does not send you to hell. You send yourself there by rejecting his free gift. But he knows. He knows. So if you would say, but I don't want God to know that I'm going to hell, then guess what, get saved today?
Receive Jesus Christ as your savior today, then what does God know about you? He knows you're going to heaven. But He already knew – God cannot “not know.” And those that he foreknows, he chooses. He foreordains. He predestines (Rom 8:29-30).
Whosoever will, may come and drink from the fountain of the water of life freely. On the outside of the gate of heaven it says whosoever will - on the inside of the gate of Heaven it says, chosen from the foundation of the world. You can't understand that. Neither can I. We'll talk more about how much we can’t understand it all, next week.
Today you can just say, I am in awe, that before time began, God thought about me. I meant enough to God that He knew me in advance. And he knew me well enough to choose me and foreordain me to be adopted as a son or a daughter. He blessed us. He chose us, He predestined us. He adopted us.
An in verse six is the number five blessing, he made us accepted - to the praise of the glory of His grace by which he made us accepted in the Beloved. God made you accepted in the beloved.
And in his great agape love, he made you accepted just as you are, with all your hang ups, with all your foul ups, with all your shortcomings, with all your sin. God made you accepted in the Beloved, you should be in awe knowing what you know about that. He made you so accepted, that he blessed you, that he chose you, that he predestined you, that he adopted you.
And in verse seven, we see numbers six and seven. He redeemed you and he has forgiven you. Verse seven of Ephesians one. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace.
You have been set free from the judgment upon your sin that was justly do you. Because a ransom was paid - the full payment of your ransom was paid. It cost Jesus Christ his own life for you to be redeemed, to be set free. That was the cost. It says also there in verse seven, according to the riches of his grace. Grace means unmerited favor. Listen, you cannot earn forgiveness. If you're caught up in this thing of thinking, Well, I'm going to try to clean up my life so God will accept me, get over yourself. You’ve got nothing in you that God will accept. Nothing.
You were born in sin. You can either receive God's forgiveness, fully undeserved, or reject it. Those are your only choices. But I promise you, you can do nothing to earn God's forgiveness. It all comes according to the riches of His grace. His Unmerited favor.
So he blessed you, he chose you, he predestined you, he adopted you, he accepted you, he redeemed you. He forgave you. And in verses 8 to 10, we have number eight - He has enlightened you. . . . which he made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of his will.
What is that? What is the mystery of his will? Keep reading with me. According to his good pleasure, which he purposed in himself. Here is the mystery of his will - It's in verse ten - 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. God revealed the mystery of his will to you. You didn't figure God out. He revealed it to you. & it is a mystery to me that God would reveal it to us at all.
But what's more of a mystery is that God wants to gather us together with everything in heaven and on earth in Christ, that's His will, that all things be gathered together in one, in Christ. Believe me, you want to be there. Outside of there, the Bible says is darkness, the weeping and gnashing of teeth. It is eternal judgment.
It's your choice. God just knows which one you're going to make. But it's your choice. Number nine, verses 11 and 12 - in him also, we have obtained an inheritance. We are heirs of God being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory in Christ.
We have already obtained an inheritance. You see it there? We have obtained an inheritance. It's done. It's finished. It's already set. It's in the heavenly places. You have an inheritance. Romans eight from 15 to 17 says, We have received the spirit of adoption, & Verse 17 of Romans eight says, If we are children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.
What are you going to add to that? God has made you a joint heir with Jesus Christ for eternity. You are a joint heir with his own son. He's blessed you, He's chosen you. He's predestined, he's adopted you, he's accepted you, he's redeemed you, he's forgiven you.
He's enlightened you, and he's made you a joint heir. This is the wealth of the spiritual blessings that you have in Christ. In verse 13 is number ten. 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. The moment you believed you were sealed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.
Next week, we're going to talk about the Father's role in our salvation, the Son's role in our salvation, and the Spirit's role in our salvation. & here's the Spirit's role, or one of them - You were sealed. The picture here is; in ancient days of the king's signet ring, & when there was a possession of the king that is going to travel through a foreign land. And the king wants to make sure that everyone knows that that possession is the king's, And so he puts wax on it and presses his signet ring on there. And so every time someone sees it, they say, Oh, that belongs to the king!
That's what you have in the spiritual realm - when the spiritual beings look at you, you have a seal on you. You are God’s if you are in Christ today. And the good news is, all of heaven knows that you are in Christ. You are sealed with the king's imprint
number 11, verse 14, to wrap up, it says, who, meaning the Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance. You're not only sealed, you are guaranteed. The Holy Spirit is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession. Remember, redemption refers to someone who has been set free through the payment of a ransom. The redemption of the purchased possession, YOU, to the praise of his glory.
The word guarantee there literally means in earnest. It's a down payment. It's a taste of the things to come. What is to come? – The redemption of the purchased possession. All of these blessings crescendo at the purchased possession being redeemed. What is that? It's you. You are God's purchased possession.
That's how much you mean to God. God has purchased you and He is guaranteed your inheritance. That is the vastness of the value of your spiritual wealth. You, if you are in Christ, need to be rocked back on your heels and say, Oh God, how great thou art, how great, thou art Lord?
Why would you do that, God? Lord, you knew before time began that you would have to shed your own blood for me, that I couldn't be your purchased possession until you gave your own life for me. And yet you did it because of your great love.
If you are in Christ today, my prayer is that you are in amazement & in wonder, In an overwhelming sense of amazement, at God's great love for you, and of the value of the blessings that He is reserved for you.
If you are not in Christ at this moment. My prayer is that there's only one thing on your mind, that is, how can I get “in Christ?” Because there's a day coming when you will be either in Christ or not in Christ, and nothing else will matter.
And if you are “in Christ” through faith, then your spiritual blessings are immeasurable. We just went through 11 spiritual blessings in one sentence that are so big our minds can't even get around them, and that's only what we read in these verses. Eye has not seen nor ear heard the wonders that God has reserved for those who believe in him. We can't even imagine it.
If you need to be in Christ today. I want to give you an opportunity to be. You can pray this prayer, right now;
Dear Lord Jesus, please save me. I want to be found in Christ. Please forgive me and my sins. Wash me clean and make me new. Thank you for saving me. Thank you for your free gift of eternal life. I receive you as my Lord, and my Savior. Please come into my life and make me your disciple. I give you my life today. In Jesus name, Amen.
PLEASE read Ephesians 1:3-14 a number of times before reading this transcript.
We are looking in Ephesians at what is called the great blessing song of Ephesians. & there's two things that we must understand before we approach this fabulous text. Number one, it is written in the Hebrew song style. Baruchatah - It means blessing or a blessing song. It's written in the Hebrew style of a blessing song. It's critical that you understand that.
Number two, it's also critical that you understand from verse 3 all the way to verse 14 is one sentence. It is one flowing thought from verse 3 all the way to verse 14. It is an incredible compounding of blessing and praise from the Apostle Paul, written in Hebrew song form. written as a celebration of our spiritual blessings.
What was the Holy Spirit’s intent for moving on Paulk to write this long flowing blessing song? It's important that we ask that question so that we don't too quickly jump to what we would call the mystery that's within these verses. So many people are so quick to jump to the mystery that's in these verses that they miss all of the wonder.
They miss all of the majesty, the celebration, all of the magnificence of these verses, because somebody told them to grab one word, one concept, and then debate it with every Christian they can. And it's the most terrible thing in the world for Paul to write this grand, grand blessing song and for Christians to say, Let's pick apart this word or concept until we get into a good fight over it.
We don't want to do that. There is one of the greatest mysteries in all of the Bible written in this wonderful Blessing song. But there are some things about God that just cannot be fully revealed to the human mind. There is one of those mysteries in these verses. So instead of allowing it to turn us to frustration and stress, & debates & arguments, because our finite little pea brains can't understand the majesty of God, instead of that, we want to step back and look at this grand scripture as a grand Scripture.
These are blessings after blessings after blessings poured out upon us, about the wealth that we have in Christ. We want to stand in reverence, in wonder, in awe of all that we have in Christ. Next week we're going to take these same verses and we're going to look at the mystery of divine election and free will that is referenced here.
But first, we must be in awe of God here. it would be terrible to jump right to the mystery without first getting a sense of the purpose that the Holy Spirit wrote this section through Paul.
William Randolph Hearst. Most of you know him. There's a castle nearby that bears his name. In his time, he was one of the richest men in the world.
William Randolph Hearst was also an art collector. And one day he was looking through an art catalog and saw a painting that he had to have. It was a painting like no other that he had ever seen. And so he called his men in, and he showed them this painting and said, I must own this painting. This is one of the most valuable paintings in the world. You must search the world over for it, find its owner, and pay whatever price is necessary so that I can own this painting. And his men set out on a journey to find that painting and pay its owner whatever amount of money was necessary so that Hearst could own it.
After a few months, they come back to William Randolph Hearst rather sheepishly and say, Sir, we found your painting. It is in your basement. It's been there all the time. The painting that you desired more than any other in the world . . . you already owned. You just didn't know it.
And if you are born again today, if you've received Christ as your Savior, if you are in Christ, you have blessings and spiritual wealth beyond what you can even imagine. You already own it, but you may be like William Randolph Hearst. All of those blessings, all of that wealth in Christ that you own may be hidden in your basement, and you may not even know how wealthy you really are. You may not know the value of the blessings that you already have in Christ. Today is a day to step back and say, all this I have in Christ. This is what it means to be in Christ. All of this is mine in Christ.
Read with me in Ephesians one, verse three, it says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with . . . Here are three key elements we looked at last week. Number one, every spiritual blessing. Not many, not a lot, but every spiritual blessing, not material blessings, spiritual blessings, the things that really matter. Every spiritual blessing. Where? In the heavenly places. These spiritual blessings you already own in the heavenly places. And the third key are those words in Christ, in Christ, every spiritual blessing, you already possess, in your attic, if you will, in the heavenly places in Christ.
We've got to look at those words before we can move on to this Grand Blessing song. If you've been born again today, if you've received Jesus Christ as your Savior, one of the greatest revelations that God could ever give you, is that you would begin to understand what it means to be in Christ.
R. Kent Hughes says, The term in Christ is by far one of the most important theological concepts in the New Testament. That's how important it is to understand these words in Christ. In the 12 verses we're about to look at this term in one way or another is used nine times, nine times in 12 verses. If you put all of Paul's teaching together, 170 times Paul addresses us being in Christ. It makes it one of his key theological foundations.
Second Corinthians 5:17 says - Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new.
First Corinthians 15:22 says, For as in Adam, all die, even so in Christ, all shall be made alive.
This is the theology of what we call federal headship. You find it in Romans chapter five, and Paul is in essence, quoting this theology. Today, you are either in Adam or in Christ. You are in Adam, by your sin nature, & you are transferred to being in Christ by salvation, by receiving Jesus as your Savior. And being in Christ causes us to be raised up together in Christ. It causes us to be seated in the Heavenlies in Christ.
Second Corinthians 5:21 says - for he made him, who knew no sin to be sin that we might become the righteousness of God. That's the supernatural oneness of being so immersed in Christ that he not only took our sin upon himself, he became sin for us. So that we might become the righteousness of God, in Him.
The Bible is very clear that you become in Christ by putting your full faith & trust in Jesus Christ, by believing in Jesus Christ.
Look down at Ephesians 1:13 (from the NIV) it says, and you also were included in Christ. There's our key words, you were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having believed - there's the key words - having believed you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit.
That word believe means to put your full faith and trust in God, to put your full confidence in Him, in all things. You throw yourself upon Christ and say, I trust you for eternity. I receive you as my Savior. I believe that you are who you say you are and that you are the only way, the way the truth and the life in Christ comes from us. Putting your faith in Christ and being in Christ is the foundation of all that we're going to look at today.
So now, Here's the question Have you ever really been introduced to your spiritual bank account? Did anyone ever tell you what really you have in Christ? Have you ever heard about the vault of wealth, the spiritual riches that you have in Jesus Christ?
If you have no idea what your spiritual wealth is in Christ, listen to what a few commentators say about this section before we get to it. William Barclay says this Blessing Song represents not so much a reasoned statement as a lyrical song of praise.
Now listen, Christians pick these little verses apart, & they bicker and banter and debate. But Paul didn't write it to cause debate. He wrote it as this grand blessing song, a lyrical song of praise. Continuing, William Barclay says, Paul's mind goes on and on, not because he is thinking in logical stages, but because gift after gift and wonder after wonder from God pass before his eyes as the Holy Spirit's giving him the revelation of our spiritual wealth in Christ. It just goes on and on and on. It's one of the greatest run-on sentences ever penned, with blessing after blessing coming from the Holy Spirit.
William MacDonald in the Believer's Bible commentary says - here, the Apostle lifts his voice in a magnificent hymn of praise, soaring into some of the most awe-inspiring heights of New Testament worship. Here we have the overflow of a heart that adores God for the blessings of grace, In these verses, Paul traces God's activity and salvation from eternity past through time and on into eternity future. It's a grand, majestic, awe-inspiring text that we have to step back and go, Wow, that is mine? That's what I have in Christ? That's my wealth in Christ? And we should just be left speechless when we really understand the vastness, the majesty of this text.
Let me list for you the blessings that are within the one sentence that we're about to read from the Ephesians 1:3-14. Here they are - If you've put your faith in Christ today, if he's your savior today, then this is your spiritual bank account in Christ. Look at what it says.
You are blessed, you are chosen, you are predestined, you are adopted, you are accepted, you are redeemed, you are forgiven, you are enlightened, you are an heir of God. You are sealed for eternity.
Don't pick apart a word. Look at what this sentence says. It says that if you've received Christ as your Savior, you're blessed, you're chosen, you're predestined, you're adopted, you're accepted, you're redeemed, you're forgiven, you're enlightened, you're an heir of God, you're sealed, you're guaranteed. What more do you want from God?
This is the vastness of your blessings in God – listed in this one sentence. If you're in Christ today, you own it. It's yours. You may just not know it. It may be hidden in the attic somewhere. Or you may be so caught up in some material thing or some worldly thing that you're not even focused on it. I'm telling you, focus on it, because this life is a vapor. And when you stand before Christ, you want these things to be yours.
Alright, let's read it. Ephesians 1:3-14 - Verse three - Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us, that's number one, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us, that's number two, 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, that's number three, to adoption, that's number four, 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, that's number five, in the Beloved. In him we have redemption, that's number six, through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, that's number seven, according to the riches of his grace, which he made to abound toward us in our wisdom and prudence having made known to us, that's number eight, enlightened. 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, that's number nine. You are an heir obtained in inheritance being predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory in whom you also trusted. After you heard the word of truth, the Gospel of your salvation, in whom also having believed you were sealed, that's number ten, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. Who is the guarantee, number 11, The guarantee of our inheritance. Until the redemption of the purchased possession to the praise of His glory. Amen. This should rock us on our heels; one sentence, & time after time, the Holy Spirit reveals; And this and this and this and this and this. Until the spiritual blessings are piled so high, we can't even grasp it.
We cannot grasp this in our finite, minuscule understanding. We can't grasp all of our wealth in Christ – it’s too high. You just have to leave yourself in awe of God. Really, God, all of that is mine in Christ? I can't even grasp it all. Please don't let anyone ever turn this grand blessing song into some theological debate that does no good. When people begin theological debates over things that are not fully revealed in God’s Word, no good ever comes from it. I've seen it over and over and over again.
We should be dancing and praising God right now, we should just be overwhelmed. And instead we're debating. Paul never intended this to be a theological debate. Never. It's so clear he intended for us to just be struck by the majesty of it and the realization that we can never fully understand it.
It's like that door of Fort Knox, the vault in Fort Knox opening, and you see a mountain of gold, and someone says, this is ALL yours! And you say . . . yeah but why are some bars turned this way and some turned that way, & why are they rectangle instead of square? Listen, this is all your gold. Why are you caught up in the things that you can’t understand? Why not just fall on your knees and say, Lord, ALL this is mine?
So now, we're going to go through all these verses.
Number one. He blessed us. Verse three. 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, in Christ, in Christ. Are you in Christ today? If you're in Christ today, I'm about to pour out the spiritual blessings of God’s Word to you.
Number two is in verse four. He chose us - 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. Now we're going to look at this verse again next week and we're going to talk about the mystery of sovereign election and how the Bible teaches sovereign election and responsibility of free will simultaneously.
But don't do that in your mind today. We’ve just got to step back and say, wait a minute, Before time began, God chose me. He knew me, he knew me, He knew everything about me. He knew every action. And he chose me anyway. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord. We have to be in awe that God chose us. Save the questions.
We'll deal with the mystery next week. For today, just know that before time began, outside of time, God chose you. Look at numbers three and four – they are in verse five, a number of the translations put the comma after the words before him in verse four. So those two words in love really, probably go with the thought in verse five, so it would read - in love having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of His will, the word predestined means to foreordain
Please, I hope that the fact that God knew where you were going to spend eternity before time begin doesn't cause you to question God. Because one of God's basic character traits is His omniscience. The other thing about God that we need to understand, and we'll get into this next week, is God exists outside of time. Time is a dimension that we live in, not God.
Time is not a dimension that God lives in. And outside of the time dimension God knew you. IN His omniscient and he chose you, and he foreordained ordained you to adoption. Now, some of you may be saying, Well, what if he didn't? What if he didn't foreordain me? Listen, please, listen to me. Nowhere in the Bible can you get the idea that God would choose someone to arbitrarily be sent to hell. Nowhere. It doesn't exist.
God is never, ever, ever chosen someone to go to hell. The only way you can manage to get the hell is to reject God's free gift of salvation that gets you to heaven. God does not send you to hell. You send yourself there by rejecting his free gift. But he knows. He knows. So if you would say, but I don't want God to know that I'm going to hell, then guess what, get saved today?
Receive Jesus Christ as your savior today, then what does God know about you? He knows you're going to heaven. But He already knew – God cannot “not know.” And those that he foreknows, he chooses. He foreordains. He predestines (Rom 8:29-30).
Whosoever will, may come and drink from the fountain of the water of life freely. On the outside of the gate of heaven it says whosoever will - on the inside of the gate of Heaven it says, chosen from the foundation of the world. You can't understand that. Neither can I. We'll talk more about how much we can’t understand it all, next week.
Today you can just say, I am in awe, that before time began, God thought about me. I meant enough to God that He knew me in advance. And he knew me well enough to choose me and foreordain me to be adopted as a son or a daughter. He blessed us. He chose us, He predestined us. He adopted us.
An in verse six is the number five blessing, he made us accepted - to the praise of the glory of His grace by which he made us accepted in the Beloved. God made you accepted in the beloved.
And in his great agape love, he made you accepted just as you are, with all your hang ups, with all your foul ups, with all your shortcomings, with all your sin. God made you accepted in the Beloved, you should be in awe knowing what you know about that. He made you so accepted, that he blessed you, that he chose you, that he predestined you, that he adopted you.
And in verse seven, we see numbers six and seven. He redeemed you and he has forgiven you. Verse seven of Ephesians one. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace.
You have been set free from the judgment upon your sin that was justly do you. Because a ransom was paid - the full payment of your ransom was paid. It cost Jesus Christ his own life for you to be redeemed, to be set free. That was the cost. It says also there in verse seven, according to the riches of his grace. Grace means unmerited favor. Listen, you cannot earn forgiveness. If you're caught up in this thing of thinking, Well, I'm going to try to clean up my life so God will accept me, get over yourself. You’ve got nothing in you that God will accept. Nothing.
You were born in sin. You can either receive God's forgiveness, fully undeserved, or reject it. Those are your only choices. But I promise you, you can do nothing to earn God's forgiveness. It all comes according to the riches of His grace. His Unmerited favor.
So he blessed you, he chose you, he predestined you, he adopted you, he accepted you, he redeemed you. He forgave you. And in verses 8 to 10, we have number eight - He has enlightened you. . . . which he made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of his will.
What is that? What is the mystery of his will? Keep reading with me. According to his good pleasure, which he purposed in himself. Here is the mystery of his will - It's in verse ten - 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. God revealed the mystery of his will to you. You didn't figure God out. He revealed it to you. & it is a mystery to me that God would reveal it to us at all.
But what's more of a mystery is that God wants to gather us together with everything in heaven and on earth in Christ, that's His will, that all things be gathered together in one, in Christ. Believe me, you want to be there. Outside of there, the Bible says is darkness, the weeping and gnashing of teeth. It is eternal judgment.
It's your choice. God just knows which one you're going to make. But it's your choice. Number nine, verses 11 and 12 - in him also, we have obtained an inheritance. We are heirs of God being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory in Christ.
We have already obtained an inheritance. You see it there? We have obtained an inheritance. It's done. It's finished. It's already set. It's in the heavenly places. You have an inheritance. Romans eight from 15 to 17 says, We have received the spirit of adoption, & Verse 17 of Romans eight says, If we are children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.
What are you going to add to that? God has made you a joint heir with Jesus Christ for eternity. You are a joint heir with his own son. He's blessed you, He's chosen you. He's predestined, he's adopted you, he's accepted you, he's redeemed you, he's forgiven you.
He's enlightened you, and he's made you a joint heir. This is the wealth of the spiritual blessings that you have in Christ. In verse 13 is number ten. 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. The moment you believed you were sealed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.
Next week, we're going to talk about the Father's role in our salvation, the Son's role in our salvation, and the Spirit's role in our salvation. & here's the Spirit's role, or one of them - You were sealed. The picture here is; in ancient days of the king's signet ring, & when there was a possession of the king that is going to travel through a foreign land. And the king wants to make sure that everyone knows that that possession is the king's, And so he puts wax on it and presses his signet ring on there. And so every time someone sees it, they say, Oh, that belongs to the king!
That's what you have in the spiritual realm - when the spiritual beings look at you, you have a seal on you. You are God’s if you are in Christ today. And the good news is, all of heaven knows that you are in Christ. You are sealed with the king's imprint
number 11, verse 14, to wrap up, it says, who, meaning the Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance. You're not only sealed, you are guaranteed. The Holy Spirit is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession. Remember, redemption refers to someone who has been set free through the payment of a ransom. The redemption of the purchased possession, YOU, to the praise of his glory.
The word guarantee there literally means in earnest. It's a down payment. It's a taste of the things to come. What is to come? – The redemption of the purchased possession. All of these blessings crescendo at the purchased possession being redeemed. What is that? It's you. You are God's purchased possession.
That's how much you mean to God. God has purchased you and He is guaranteed your inheritance. That is the vastness of the value of your spiritual wealth. You, if you are in Christ, need to be rocked back on your heels and say, Oh God, how great thou art, how great, thou art Lord?
Why would you do that, God? Lord, you knew before time began that you would have to shed your own blood for me, that I couldn't be your purchased possession until you gave your own life for me. And yet you did it because of your great love.
If you are in Christ today, my prayer is that you are in amazement & in wonder, In an overwhelming sense of amazement, at God's great love for you, and of the value of the blessings that He is reserved for you.
If you are not in Christ at this moment. My prayer is that there's only one thing on your mind, that is, how can I get “in Christ?” Because there's a day coming when you will be either in Christ or not in Christ, and nothing else will matter.
And if you are “in Christ” through faith, then your spiritual blessings are immeasurable. We just went through 11 spiritual blessings in one sentence that are so big our minds can't even get around them, and that's only what we read in these verses. Eye has not seen nor ear heard the wonders that God has reserved for those who believe in him. We can't even imagine it.
If you need to be in Christ today. I want to give you an opportunity to be. You can pray this prayer, right now;
Dear Lord Jesus, please save me. I want to be found in Christ. Please forgive me and my sins. Wash me clean and make me new. Thank you for saving me. Thank you for your free gift of eternal life. I receive you as my Lord, and my Savior. Please come into my life and make me your disciple. I give you my life today. In Jesus name, Amen.