According to Paul in Ephesians 1:2-3 there are two great gifts given each believer that causes us to become “different, faithful and joined” to Christ.
1. Grace to you: The word describes God’s great kindness towards those that are by nature undeserving of His favor. Here is what is great is that His favor is not just given to us when we first trusted in Him and then we have none. No, it’s continually available to us. Practically speaking “all of His love, power, truth” all of Him is given to us and it will never run out, all we have to do is apply Him to our lives.
2. And peace: Because of the above fact then we also have peace with God, and the peace of God. But what is peace? Well, peace is freedom from everything that would cause us worry, fear, or anxiety. Oh, not that we will not face things that may cause us these things, but here we have the antidote to all that will trouble us. We have a basis of security and trust outside ourselves and the situations we find ourselves in that can not be broken. Rom. 8:39 declares “nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus”. Try as it might, run as we may, we have peace whenever and wherever we trust Him.
Yes, but how can we be so certain of them and I mean what if we just so blow it or things become so great as to dislodge us from grace and peace? Well, I suppose that would be a problem if they came from us, but look carefully at where they are found, “from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ”.
Hear me out on this, as we are not just exposing useless information. We are plumbers here not politicians as we are learning how to fix the leaks in our lives not just spend money and time talking about doing so. What could we possible do that would ever take away His love for us being that He did for us while we were yet sinners? And what circumstance could be larger than the creator? So, our anxiety, worry and fear has found a permanent death in the arms of God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
In verse 3 we find out that there are four powerful truths in this verse that you need to notice:
1. Who it is that is behind all these blessings? The word blessing is the word we get our word “eulogy” from and means a declaration of goodness. Where does such a declaration of goodness come from? Well Paul tells us from, “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ”. What this reveals to us is that these blessings are in no way brought about by the activity of men. It is God alone who does all of this. There is no demand or conditions placed upon these blessings only the direction for obtaining them “in Christ”! The emphasis here is not on what He gives, as much as it is on that He has given all of Himself!
2. When will we get these blessings? Look at those words “has blessed us” and what does it tell you? Well it suggests to you that these are not some sort of points you obtain as you do better. No, the truth is this is not some future promise rather it is a reminder that He has already given you all of Himself and you have had Him all along! You mean that I had all blessings found in my relationship the moment I first received His love? Yes! Folks the progression of our spiritual lives comes by way of our understanding this truth. What we have forgotten in our misplaced zeal is that that only activity that will change us or anyone else is that which God has done and not what we will do! Everything in our lives in Christ is about what He has done for me not about what I’ll do for Him!
3. How much of them will we receive?: Well Paul says, “every spiritual blessing”. Not most, some, all but a few, but every! God’s aim as seen in the three times repeated word blessing is to bring every spiritual blessing your way! These blessings are spiritual in nature and not material, “Oh I knew there was a catch!” On the contrary, the material is passing the spiritual is that which last forever. Do not think that the use of the word spiritual limits the extent as it only refers to the source as His blessings are designed to bring about His goodness in every area of our lives. There will be times in this life that we may not appreciate His blessings nor understand how what we have gone through will be a blessing but one day we will marvel at how in “all things He work together for good to those who love Him, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” (Rom. 8:28)
4. How do we obtain them?: Here we are told that they are “in heavenly places in Christ”. Here we see that we can only obtain them “in Christ” which is not a problem seeing that we are “in Christ”. Also we see that these blessings are in heavenly places which does not speak as being “out of reach” but rather not bound by earthly limits. Five times in the first three chapters Paul mentions our riches in Christ how glorious is it that we can come to our spiritual bank any time and withdraw more of His without fear of theft! There is an invisible reality of our life that Paul writes to the Colossians saying that “our life is hidden with Christ in God.” (Col. 3:3) Simply put we can tap into these blessing any time we want no matter what the circumstance or need.