EVERY SPIRITUAL BLESSING

Ephesians 1:3-14

Stuart Olyott

Keeping everything we have learned in mind, we come to explore more fully this subject of spiritual blessings. We do this by looking closely at Ephesians 1:3-14. Our passage thus overlaps our previous study but that does not matter, for we have so much to discover. There are three types of spiritual blessings which believers enjoy. If we search the whole of the paragraph before us, it will become plain what they are.

There are certain privileges which Christians enjoy now. If you are a Christian, you are enjoying them at this moment, as you sit and read this book. The first one which Paul mentions here is adoption. In verse 5, he says that God has blessed us, 'having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will'. The relationship which we have to the great God is that of children to their Father! We are his sons. This glorious prerogative is not enjoyed by anyone at all, except Christian believers. The Bible does not teach anywhere the universal fatherhood of God and the universal brotherhood of men, but it does say that 'As many as received him [Christ], to them he gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in his name' (John 1:12).

The sonship of which we are speaking is not natural, but adoptive. And it is the highest privilege which the gospel gives us. It is a wonderful thing to know that the Judge has declared us 'not guilty'. That is the truth of justification, and no other blessing could be ours if we were not fight with God. Justification is the foundation blessing of the Christian life. But this does not mean that it is the highest. What if the judge should take the criminal home and adopt him into his family, put his name upon him, give to him all the pleasure and benefits of his own home, and be a father to him? This is what God has done to us in Christ.

What is a Christian? A Christian is someone who has God as his or her Father. That is the simplest definition, and it is the best. Once this is clear, so much else becomes clear. Why should Christians behave differently? Because they are to take on the family likeness (Matt. 5:48). How are they to pray? As children speak to theft father (Matt. 6:9). Why are they not to worry about the supply of their needs? Because their heavenly Father cares about them (Matt. 6:31-32). This wonderful strand of teaching, hardly known in Old Testament days, comes into its own in the gospel, which is why Paul reminds us of it here.

But to fully appreciate and value what Paul is saying, we must put certain ideas out of our minds. In the early world, adoption was not as it often is today. Babies were not adopted, but adults. If a rich person had no natural heir to whom he could leave his riches, he would look round for someone outside his family who would be worthy of inheriting his wealth. He would then adopt him. Absolutely everything he had was now going to go into good hands. It was this practice which Paul had in mind when he spoke of adoption.

Once this is understood, the Bible's teaching on this point can only be seen as startling. God does not adopt people of proven worth. He does not give his treasures to people who are outstanding. Adoption is not a reward for holy living. God adopts wrongdoers. He enriches failures. He makes rebels his heirs. What grace – grace that is greater than all our sin!

Where there is adoption there is inevitably acceptance. This is spoken about in verse 6, where Paul states that God 'has made us accepted in the Beloved'.

To understand what this means we need only to think of the parable of the prodigal son. Far from home, destitute and feeding the pigs, the prodigal decided to return home. He would not ask to be received back into the family, but would ask his father to take him on as a hired servant. But this was not to be. 'When he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him' (Luke 15:20). Moments later the son's shame was covered by his father's best robe. A ring on his hand testified to all that he had been fully reinstated as a son. Shoes on his feet witnessed that he was a free man, and not in any sense a slave. His repentance and return were greeted with joy and celebration.

Now why did the father not treat the prodigal as a servant? Why did he give him a festive welcome? It was because he was his son. This being so, how could his acceptance be anything other than unconditional and complete?

This is how our heavenly Father treats us. We end each day with our lives stained by sin. Our thoughts have not been totally pure. Our lips have spoken unwise, and often unkind, words. We have not done what we should have done, and we most certainly have done what we should not have done. But does this mean that God has turned his back on us? As we seek his face in repentant prayer, we discover that he welcomes us without any reserve. We have been in the far country, but he has been waiting for us. When we turn to him, he runs to meet us, even when we are still a great way off. He throws his arms around us and treats us as dear children. He never hesitates. We approach him with tears, but find that his home is a house of joy.

How is it that the just and holy God can give us such a reception? It is because his eternal Son has never disappointed him in any way, and he sees us as being in him. He accepts us for Christ's sake. In our unholiest moments, in the depths of our backsliding, even then the righteousness of Christ is reckoned to our account, and the Father sees us as having no faults. There is no cloud between us and our God, not ever. There is no obstacle to our communion with him. We have never done anything but fail. There is not an ounce of worthiness in any of us. But God himself has made us accepted in the Beloved. It is nothing to do with us, and everything to do with him. We are back to the theme of grace. Our souls are stained crimson by the number of our crimes. But it is all washed away. In God's eyes we are whiter than snow. And all because of what he has done for us in our Lord Jesus Christ. What blessings we enjoy right now!

Yes, it is sinners that God adopts and accepts. But how can he do this, seeing that he is just and holy? How can the Pure One embrace the impure? He knows how defiled we are, for nothing anywhere is hidden from him. He knows the depths of our sins in all their details. On what basis can he receive us so unreservedly? It is because of two blessings to do with the past.

One of these is redemption. 'In [Christ] we have redemption through his blood,' says the apostle in verse 7. This word means to 'buy back' or to 'repurchase'. When people buy back articles they have left with the pawnbroker, they 'redeem' them. In the Old Testament, if a man raised money by selling his land, he had a God-given right to 'redeem' it, or buy it back, when he had sufficient funds to do so. Men and women who sold themselves into slavery could do the same, or they could be redeemed by someone else handing over the required sum of money. Freedom came through the paying of a price!

Our Lord Jesus Christ came to redeem. When she had seen the infant Messiah, Anna 'spoke of him to all those who looked for redemption in Jerusalem' (Luke 2:38). The Saviour himself declared that he had 'not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many' (Mark 10:45). He drew attention to the same concept when, at the Last Supper, he spoke of his blood being 'shed for many for the remission of sins' (Matt. 26:28).

Paul's language in his epistles is equally clear. To the Galatians, he writes, 'Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us' (Gal. 3:13). He reminds the Romans that we are 'justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus' (Rom. 3:24). We have been redeemed. We have been bought back. The price has been paid. Christ paid that price when he shed his blood on the cross. It is the price we should have paid ourselves, but he has paid it instead.

This being so, we have forgiveness. In Paul's mind, 'redemption' and 'forgiveness' cannot be separated. This is why he writes as he does in verse 7. Speaking of our Lord Jesus Christ, he says, 'In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace.'

There is a price to be paid for breaking the law of God. It is infinite punishment. We have broken that law, and justice demands that we pay the price. But the Saviour has come and done what we could never do. The infinite God-man has paid the infinite price. He has completely paid it. There is nothing left for us to pay. We have no debt. We are free. We are forgiven.

Jesus spoke of forgiveness in terms of paying a debt. He taught us to pray to our Father: 'And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors' (Matt. 6:12). The same emphasis comes across in the parable of the unforgiving servant in Matthew 18:21-35. In this story, a king does not insist that one of his servants should pay back an immense sum of money that he owes him. He lets him off. In other words, he forgives him. But this servant will not let off someone who owes him a much smaller debt. He is unforgiving and is ultimately punished by the king for it. 'So my heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses' (Matt. 18:35).

Our own debt to God cannot be measured, and we cannot pay it. But God does not cancel our debt by a wave of the hand. Justice demands that the debt be paid. And it has been! God's abounding love it, when the Saviour died in our Justice will not demand that the same debt be paid twice. I am forgiven! What God has done in the past guarantees the blessings we enjoy in the present. Adopted, accepted, there is nothing to pay!

There is no cloud between me and my God. I am his adopted son –accepted, welcomed and loved. What does the future hold for me?

The answer to this question is no secret. This is made clear in verses 8-10. Verse 8 tells us that God has lavished the riches of his grace upon us. An evidence of this is that we have been given wisdom and understanding. As others think about the future, they are left wondering and guessing. But we are not!

God has made known to us the mystery of his will (1:9). He has revealed it to apostles, like Paul, and they have passed it on to us. We are in on the secret. God has plans which depend upon no one but himself. The reasons for them lie in him alone. And yet it is his will that we should know what he has in store.

God controls history, and when his time is ripe he will bring to pass what he has always intended to do (1:10). And what is that? The time is coming when all things shall be under the rule of Christ. This present rebellious universe will not always remain in defiance. Soon there will not be any sort of authority in it anywhere, except that of the Lord Jesus Christ. All delegated authority will be gone and he will rule directly. All who have shown dissatisfaction with him will acknowledge him as Lord. The universe, thrown into disorientation through man's sin, will be brought back to its original orderliness and unity as everything, everywhere, submits to Christ. This does not mean that everyone is, at last, going to be saved. But it does mean that those who have mocked him will see him elevated. No other name will be honoured, 'that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father' (Phil. 2:10-11). Unconverted men and women do not even think about such a climactic ending to history. But it is no secret to us.

It is at that time we shall enter into our inheritance (1:11). As adopted children, the inheritance is ours now, but we shall enjoy full possession of it then. The Father chose us for this. He himself has decided our destination. We have been predestined.

And there is no chance that we shall fail to arrive in the promised glory. What could stop us? Without being responsible for its sin, God personally controls what happens in his universe. He has foreordained whatever comes to pass. He governs all his creatures and all their actions. '[He] works all things according to the counsel of his will' (1:11). Everything, everywhere, is bringing to pass the eternal purpose of God. And within that purpose he has planned that his redeemed and adopted people should safely enter into their inheritance, 'that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of his glory' (1:12).

Oh, what riches await us! How the Bible excites us as it speaks about the future! Sooner than we dare believe, we shall be with Christ. Our bodies will be resurrected to be like his glorious body. Our characters will be perfectly holy, and therefore perfectly happy. Sin will have gone and, therefore, the curse. We shall be where there are no more tears. Death will be no more, nor will there be any form of sorrow or pain. We shall bask in the light of the Lamb of God, enjoying perfect fellowship with him, with his elect people and with the holy angels. Nothing will spoil this – ever. Everything will be new. The new creation will be a world of divine beauty and love. And God will be all in all.

Seeing that countless millions are going to be welcomed into the final glory, is it possible that God might overlook me? Not at all! None of God's people will be forgotten. The apostle puts to flight our fears by telling us in verses 13-14 that the entry of each believer is guaranteed.

This is because something wonderful happens to each Christian at the moment he believes. God puts a mark on him. 'You were sealed,' says Paul. What is he telling us? He is referring to a practice which both he and the Ephesians understood very well. Cargo belonging to several merchants would travel on the same ship. Who was to know which boxes belonged to which merchant? Every merchant had his own distinctive sign or 'seal'. Everything 'that belonged to him carried that mark. Whatever did not carry that mark obviously belonged to somebody else.

All believers have been sealed. Verse 13 says so, and Paul will make the point again in 4:30. Having believed, they were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. This sealing is not something the Holy Spirit does. The seal is the Holy Spirit. All who have trusted in Christ through hearing the word of truth, the gospel of salvation, have received the Holy Spirit. The fact that he is in their life is proof that they belong to the Master. They will be unloaded at the right port and will go to the right destination.

To underline this point, Paul uses a different illustration in verse 14. Here he says that the Holy Spirit 'is the guarantee of our inheritance'. The Greek word translated 'guarantee' is also taken from the world of commerce. If a trader wishes to buy something, but does not have all the money required, he leaves a deposit with whoever is selling what he wants. This deposit is a pledge to buy the goods and a promise to return with the full amount necessary. It is a down payment guaranteeing that there will be more to follow.

This is exactly the Holy Spirit's role. He is given to us at the moment of believing. We receive him on the simple condition of being in Christ. And why is he given? It is to show us that all we have been promised will certainly be ours. He 'is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession' (1:14). In fact, we ourselves are the possession that God has purchased. The Lord will return for us and take us home. The down payment which has been given declares to all that this is a fact. Nobody who bears the divine mark will be overlooked. But we should remember that the opposite is also true. Those who do not bear that mark will not be glorified, for 'If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not his' (Rom. 8:9).

How important it is to know that we have received the Holy Spirit! To know this is to know we have become true Christians. Those who have not received the Holy Spirit are not even Christians at all. Those who have not been sealed have no mark of ownership upon them. It is a grave mistake to assume that they are some sort of defective or inferior believer. The fact is that they do not belong to the Master but to Satan.

To ask someone, 'Have you been sealed with the Holy Spirit?' is the same as asking him if he is a believer. It is asking him whether he has the mark of ownership which is the guarantee of his final entry into the future inheritance.

Wherever the Holy Spirit enters a life, three things happen to the person concerned: he comes to believe the truth about our Lord Jesus Christ – about who he is and what he has done; he comes to love God's demands as found in his Word, and to sincerely attempt to implement them; he comes to love other believers more than any other group of people on earth, and lives to forward their welfare. The proof of the Spirit's presence is thus doctrinal, moral and social. He brings men and women to believe and to behave differently. The gift of tongues does not prove the Spirit to be present, because plenty of people who follow other gods exercise that gift. Nor are elated feelings a sign, because you can get similar emotions from certain drugs. The Holy Spirit brings about what no one can counterfeit. He brings about a spiritual change for which God gets the glory (1:14).

Isn't it wonderful to be a Christian? In this life, now, we know God, have the privilege of being his children, and are unhesitatingly accepted by him. Our consciences are at peace because the Saviour has paid the price we should have paid, and God has forgiven us our every sin. We do not fear the future – not the grave, not the resurrection, and not the judgement – because we know what the ultimate outcome will be. In due time, everything will be centred on Christ and subject to him. Then we shall enter into our inheritance. The guarantee of this has already been given to us.

Who is richer than we are? Only the Giver, who has granted us all this by pure grace. 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!