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, (Ephesians 1:3, NKJV)
My father always used to tell me the most spiritual book in the New Testament is Ephesians, and what I want to say will bring a spirit of joy and blessing and thanksgiving - which is needed very much at this time! Paul begins this letter saying, ‘Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the Will of God.’ This is an amazing though: to replace Judas, the eleven cast lots, but the one who realistically replaced Judas was Paul - an apostle of Jesus Christ BY THE WILL OF GOD, rather than by the choice of man.
Paul continues his letter, v3, ‘Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ’! We don’t have to wait until we get unto the Kingdom of God. Jesus’ whole message was about the Kingdom of God. As I write, there has just been an American election; in Britain we are going through Brexit; the world is struggling with coronavirus - but we need to be reminded that the message of Jesus was focused on the coming Kingdom, the blessing of the Kingdom! Not the kingdoms of this world! Jesus said, “My Kingdom is NOT of this world!” It’s a heavenly Kingdom. And Paul is reminding us that God has already blessed us with spiritual blessings in heavenly places. As we experience the blessing and the love of Jesus through our relationship with Him in our hearts, that translates us into a spiritual, heavenly place - even while we’re still here!
It’s true! I’m moved with the sense of the wonderful relationship we have with Jesus, how strong and how powerful and precious that is! If we understand what Paul is saying, our spiritual blessing is not through the Church, though ceremonies or formalities - our real spiritual blessing is only in Jesus 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, (Ephesians 1:4-5, NKJV)
We read on in verse 4, God chose us in Christ - before the foundation of the world! That we should be holy before Him in love, having predestined us to be adopted by Jesus Christ, as children of God, according to the good pleasure of His Will. This is remarkable! We were chosen BEFORE the world began! Jesus Himself is referred to as the ‘Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world’! 1 Peter 1:18-20, Revelation 13:8. Only God, as a Heavenly Father, could make a way of escape BEFORE we commit the offence! It gives me such a sense of joy and blessing! BEFORE we sinned, the way of salvation was made!
Before I was put in prison in 1972 by the communists, BEFORE that happened, God had ALREADY made the way of escape! We have to understand the foreknowledge of God! BEFORE we were born, when we were in our mother’s womb, God foreordained a plan and a purpose for our lives! That we should be ‘holy and without blame before Him in love’!
Nothing happens by accident, by chance. To us maybe, what’s going on is an accident or a chance. Maybe we don’t understand why. But God does. We have to be a little bit careful when we look at the idea of predestination. Some misinterpret it to believe that God has predestined us, either to be saved, or to be lost, that He has decided, that we don’t make the decision whether we become Christian or not… But this is how my father described predestination to me: it’s like a father on a cliff top having a wonderful time with him kicking a football - but now the ball is going towards the edge of the cliff, and the young boy, in his lack of knowledge, is running to save the ball - but the father is crying out “Stop!!!” - because he knows, if his son follows that ball, he will fall off the cliff! The father hasn’t ‘predestined’ the son to fall off the cliff, he seeking to stop what he knows in advance will happen! God has not ordained that you fall off that cliff! But He knows that if you carry on in your present way you will! He’s doing everything in His Power to stop you!
So Paul is saying here in vv4-5, that God has prepared, that we have been predestined from the very beginning! - This makes me so full of wonder and blessing when I think about it - when we look at the sin of the world and the corruption, and the battles between governments - God didn’t preordain that this would happen. But He prepared, in advance, the Kingdom - the Glory of the Kingdom that is to come! From the beginning! God sees the end from the beginning!
We can’t see this, we live one day at a time. But what I love, when we believe, is the certainty that we have, our confidence in God. I cannot over-emphasise the peace that I have, and the peace that you should have - and this peace is based on God’s foreknowledge! God knew before I was born what would be happening in my life, that I would become the evangelist, and I can look back on the things that led me in this direction. God is in control! Our confidence comes from His foreknowledge!