Every Spiritual Blessing

Every Spiritual Blessing—Ephesians 1:3-10

 If you’ve been a Christian for very long at all, you’ve probably experienced what I’ll call a spiritual desert. A spiritual desert is when you’re trying to follow Jesus, but you just feel kind of “blah.” There’s not much water in a desert, not much vegetation, and you’re just kind of plodding along, one foot in front of the other. And you know you’re supposed to be doing certain things—things like reading the Bible and praying and being around other Christians and making disciples—and you try to do those things, but it’s like something’s weighing you down and robbing you of your joy.  And let me be very upfront with you right at the beginning: I don’t have some magical formula that’s going to instantly raise you up to a mountaintop spiritual experience. I think God often uses spiritual deserts for a purpose and seemingly hides his face from us for a period of time to strengthen our faith in him. However, I do think that the Bible provides us with the water we need to sustain us through those desert experiences. 

You see, God wants us to have joy, the kind of joy that’s in our hearts regardless of the shifting circumstances of our lives—health concerns, financial concerns, relationship concerns. God wants us to have a joy that nothing in this world can take away. I mean, joy is listed in Galatians 5 as a fruit or a result of the Spirit living within us. And this joy is really the fuel of the Christian life. It’s the relative lack of this joy that makes spiritual deserts so difficult. And so we come to the question: “How do we maintain the joy that’s supposed to be energizing us on a daily basis?” Well, our text this evening answers that question. It shows us how remembering God’s blessings brings joy to the joyless Christian. Remembering God’s blessings brings joy to the joyless Christian. And when we say blessings, we’re specifically referring to blessings related to the gospel.

So please turn with me in your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 1. If you’re using of the story Bibles we provide, that’s on page 811. Two weeks ago, we finished working our way through the book of Acts chapter by chapter. And now, we’re going to begin working through Ephesians. And you may remember that Acts ended with Paul imprisoned in Rome, awaiting trial before the emperor. And it was actually during that imprisonment that he wrote this letter to the Ephesian church. Let’s begin with chapter 1, verse 1.

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. 

This passage is all about what Paul says in verse 3, how God “has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing.” And then Paul continues on for the next eleven verses telling us all about these various spiritual blessings. Verses 3 through 14 are actually one big sentence in the original language Paul wrote in. It’s almost as if he starts talking about all these blessings, and then he just can’t stop himself long enough to put a period down. And you might wonder, “Why would he start the letter off this way?” And I believe he does it because he understands that remember God’s blessings brings joy to the joyless Christian. Since he was writing this letter in prison, he probably needed to keep reminding himself of these gospel blessings, and he also believed it was vital for the Ephesians to remember these blessings as well so that they also would be encouraged and motivated to continue on even though they were probably weary. In these verses, we find three blessings that bring joy to the joyless Christian. 

Chosen to Be Holy and Blameless

Number one, God has chosen us to be holy and blameless. Look at verse 4: “even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.” So that means, if we’ve been saved, when God looks at us, he doesn’t see what we used to be. He’s not holding us at an arms length, constantly thinking about the ways we’ve rebelled against him. I think we sometimes project our difficulties forgiving people onto God. We imagine that because we hold grudges and because we harbor unforgiveness that God must be doing the same against us. And so we walk around with this cloud of guilt hanging over our heads. Sometimes it’s thicker and sometimes it’s thinner, but it’s always sort of…there. But we need to remember that our feelings don’t define reality. That would probably be a good phrase for some of us to write down on a sticky note and put in our vehicle. Our feelings don’t define reality. 

When God looks at us, he sees people who are holy and blameless. As far as he’s concerned, our guilty record has been wiped clean, our spiritual rap sheet has been placed in the shredder. That’s how God sees us, as holy and blameless, and his perspective is the only one that really matters. When we turned away from our sins and embraced Jesus, it’s like we received new clothes. Jesus took away our dirty laundry that was almost unrecognizable because of the stains of our sin and our rebellion, and he gave us new clothes to wear. He clothed us with his righteousness, his holiness. So that’s the first blessing in verse 4. We can rejoice in the fact that all of our past mistakes describe what we were, not what we are. God chose us before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. 

Predestined for Adoption

And then the second blessing that brings joy to the joyless Christian, as we see it in verse 5: “he predestined us for adoption as sons [and daughters] through Jesus Christ.” And you know why that brings me such joy? Because God didn’t just bless me from a distance. He could have. He could have just wiped away the guilt of my sin and saved me from hell, and that could be the end of it. And that would be a heck of a lot more than I deserved. He wouldn’t have even been obligated to do that. But he did do that, and not only that but so much more than that. He adopted me into his family. 

Becky and I just attended an adoption seminar a few weeks ago, just to get more information because it’s something we’re thinking about doing a few years into the future. And they were explaining the multi-year process of adopting a child and how an international adoption can cost anywhere between $30,000-$50,000. And it really got me thinking about what a huge commitment that is. You know, it’s one thing to pray for the orphans in the world or even volunteer to sponsor one of them on a monthly basis so they can be fed and educated and everything else. Those are very nice and commendable things to do. And that’s probably all God’s calling many people to do. But it’s another thing entirely to actually adopt one or two or three of them into your family. That just takes it to a whole new level. We’re talking about a different kind of commitment that’s required. We’re no longer blessing them from a distance; we’re adopting them into our family. And that’s exactly what God has done for us. We’re in his family, we’re known by his name, we’re loved and totally accepted.

Redeemed through Christ’s Blood

And finally, not only are we holy and blameless and not only are we adopted as God’s children, but the third blessing that should bring joy to the joyless Christian is that we’ve been redeemed through his blood. Look at verse 7: “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace.” That word redeemed was actually a term that was used in the ancient slave trade. Back then, a good portion of people in the Roman Empire were actually slaves, and if was different than American slavery. It wasn’t based on race. People could become slaves if they were captured in war or couldn’t pay their debts or committed certain crimes, or various other unfortunate circumstances. But this slavery didn’t have to be permanent. Slaves could actually be bought or redeemed out of slavery, most often by a family member. That’s that the word “redemption” referred to. It involved paying a price to purchase someone out of slavery. 

And that’s a lot like what God did for us. Slavery is used throughout the New Testament as a metaphor for the state we’re in before salvation. We’re slaves of sin. But when Jesus died on the cross, he paid the price to redeem us out of our spiritual slavery. No longer are we ruled or dominated by sin. As this verse says, we have “redemption through his blood.”

God’s Sovereign Choice

So those are the three blessings that should bring joy to us when we’re in a joyless state. God has chosen us to be holy and blameless in his sight, he’s predestined us to adoption, and he’s redeemed us through Jesus’ blood. Remembering those blessings, the blessings of the gospel, can bring us joy even when we feel weary and joyless. And if we look closely at this passage, we see something that I believe even turns up the volume of that joy a few notches. Notice how, throughout the passage, Paul goes out of his way to describe how God gave us these blessings not because we deserved them but for the simple reason that desired to do so. 

In verse 4, he notes that God “chose us in him before the foundation of the world” to be holy and blameless. Why “before the foundation of the world”? Why use the extra ink to add that phrase in there? Because Paul wants us to understand that God’s choice wasn’t made on the basis of anything commendable that he saw in us. He chose us before we even existed. And also, look at verse 5. God “predestined us for adoption” according to what? “According to the purpose of his will.” And then, again, down in verse 9, God made “known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose.” And we see it again in verse 11, which is actually beyond the scope of this evening’s main text, but we’ll talk about it more next week, it says that we’ve “been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will.” Do you see a pattern here? God’s choice, God’s will, God’s purpose. We didn’t deserve any of these blessings, but God gave them to us simply because that’s what he desired to do. 

We often have a strange sense of entitlement, as if God owes us certain things. I was talking to one gentleman a few weeks ago who was actually furious with God for letting his mom and his girlfriend die. And usually when I’m talking with someone who’s lost a loved one, I try to be very gentle and comforting. But this guy was different. He wasn’t just wondering why God took his loved ones away. He was basically shaking his fist at God in a very defiant way even in our conversation. And because of his brazen disrespect toward God, I just sensed the Spirit leading me to lovingly but firmly ask him where he got the idea that God owes him anything. Because that’s what he was assuming. He was assuming quite arrogantly that God owes him certain things, while in reality God doesn’t owe us anything. And, as we see over and over again in our text, any blessing he does give us is totally unearned and undeserved. God gives these blessings simply on the basis of his own sovereign will. 

And even though God’s will is somewhat mysterious and beyond our ability to understand, this passage does pull back the curtain a bit and give us some insight into why God wills the things he wills. It’s all about him being glorified. That’s another theme we find in this passage. Look at verse 6: it says that God blesses us “to the praise of his glorious grace,” so that everyone can see his grace and praise him for it. And then again, peeking into next week’s text, verse 12: he predestined us “so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be [or exist] to the praise of his glory.” And yet again, verse 14: God gave us the Holy Spirit “to the praise of his glory.” Are you getting the sense that all of this is a whole lot bigger than us? The Bible is a very God-centered book. It’s not about us. This world is primarily about God and God’s glory.

And that’s ultimately why God has blessed us so abundantly. It’s all about his will and his glory. Those are the two themes we see here. And I don’t know about you, but remembering that I haven’t deserved any of the blessings God’s given me actually makes me more joyful that I’ve received them. I mean, think about it: Are you more joyful when someone gives you $1,000 as a paycheck that you deserve or as a free gift that you don’t deserve? The undeserved nature of God’s gifts should make as that much more joyful and grateful that we’ve received them.

Guys (and ladies): God has been so good to us. He’s blessed us so abundantly. And we hadn’t done anything for him. The only thing we did was sin and rebel. And yet, God chose us to be holy and blameless in his sight. He adopted us as his sons and daughters. He redeemed us from our sin, forgiving everything we had ever done against him. If remembering those blessings that were entirely undeserved doesn’t bring joy to your heart, then I don’t know what will. Ask yourself, “Do I just subscribe to these things or do I really believe them? Are they real to me, just as real as the room I’m sitting in?” 

For those of you who have been trying to follow Jesus and seek Jesus and serve Jesus, but you find yourself feeling weary and depleted, like you’re going through a spiritual desert: remembering God’s blessings in the gospel can be the water for your parched lips. It can give you the joy you need to continue moving forward. It’s what kept Paul going as he sat in a Roman prison, it’s what Paul knew would keep the Ephesian church going as they faced the difficulties they faced, and it’s what will keep you going as you try to move forward in your life. Do you just subscribe to believing in these gospel blessings, or do you really believe you possess them?