Ephesians 1:3- 6
"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)
"There are no spiritual blessings of any kind whatever, other than ‘in Christ.’… As Bruce expressed it, ‘Christ is exalted to the heavenly realm, and thus those who are `in Him' belong to that heavenly realm also.’ This remarkable expression occurs five times in this epistle (Ephesians 1:3; 1:20, 2:6; 3:10; 6:12) and nowhere else.”(Coffman Commentary)
"... 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..." (Ephesians 1:4)
“Before the foundation of the world, God determined… that we would be 'chosen' on the basis of faith in the work of Jesus Christ for salvation, resulting in a change of character, from sin to holiness." [http://www.eternalsecurity.us/predestination_of_an_individual_.htm] “That's the practical content of our destiny as God's children. We are destined to take on the character of God our Father, the character of holiness and blamelessness. That's our destiny.” (John Piper) “Holiness is the habit of being of one mind with God, according as we find His mind described in Scripture. It is the habit of agreeing in God’s judgment, hating what He hates, loving what He loves, and measuring everything in this world by the standard of His Word. He who most entirely agrees with God, he is the most holy man… A holy man will strive to be like our Lord Jesus Christ. He will not only live the life of faith in Him and draw from Him all his daily peace and strength, but he will also labor to have the mind that was in Him and to be conformed to His image…” (J. C. Ryle)
"...having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will," (Ephesians 1:5) John Wesley put it this way— “Having foreordained that all who afterwards believed should enjoy the dignity of being sons of God, and joint - heirs with Christ... according to his free, fixed, unalterable purpose to confer this blessing on all those who should believe in Christ, and those only.” This plan of God to save the world through Messiah is to the praise of His glory. “Our holiness and our blamelessness and our love and our sonship are not ends in themselves. They exist for something greater: the praise of the glory of God's grace.” (John Piper)
"...by which He has made us accepted in the Beloved." (Ephesian 1:6) “Most Christians are trying to do things (live holy, read the Word, tithe, fast, etc.) to make themselves acceptable to God. … They’re blinded to the truth that He’s already made them ‘accepted in the beloved’ (Eph. 1:6). The Greek word translated here ‘accepted in the beloved’ is the exact same word rendered ‘highly favored’ in Luke 1:28. ‘And the angel [Gabriel] came in unto her, and said, ‘Hail, thou that art highly favored, the Lord is with thee [Mary]: blessed art thou among women’…These are the only two times this word is used in the New Testament.” (Andrew Wommack) You “stand accepted in One who never alters, in One who is always the beloved of God, always perfect, always without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, how much happier they would be, and how much more they would honor the Savior! Rejoice then, believer, in this: thou art accepted ‘in the beloved.’ Thou lookest within, and thou sayest, ‘There is nothing acceptable here!’ But look at Christ, and see if there is not everything acceptable there. Thy sins trouble thee; but God has cast thy sins behind His back, and thou art accepted in the Righteous One. Thou hast to fight with corruption, and to wrestle with temptation, but thou art already accepted in Him who has overcome the powers of evil.” (C. H. Spurgeon) “Of the greatest significance is the past tense…. indicating that God's action in making people accepted is not a continuing operation. Sinners are not acted upon continually and individually as they may believe in Christ; the great enabling charter of all human redemption has already been granted, sealed and delivered’” (Coffman Commentary). Yet, you should appropriate it by faith.
“In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace, which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, 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.” (Ephesian 1:7- 10)
“There is a clause near the end of the Apostle's Creed, which, I fear, is often repeated without thought or consideration. I refer to the clause which contains these words, ‘I believe in the forgiveness of sins.’ Thousands, I am afraid, never reflect what those words mean.” (J. C. Ryle) Sin is lawlessness. (1 John 3:4) perhaps torah-less-ness. The commandments alone are not as likely to convict us of wrongdoing; we must come to believe in Jesus’ Person… and that they belong to His government. “I was alive once without the law (torah) , but when the commandment (mitzvah) came, sin revived and I died.” (Romans 7:9). We must believe the teachings of the Bible, such as the fall of mankind and the promise of a Redeemer in Genesis 3:15. If we, like Paul, search the Scriptures, we too will learn of the requirement to keep God’s moral law of the Ten Commandment. Then self can be slain, BUT ALAS, if we search on, we will find the Jesus… and He will appropriate His atoning blood for our sins.
Redemption through Jesus’ blood- “Observe, it is not redemption through his power, it is through his blood. It is not redemption through his love, it is through his blood. This is insisted upon emphatically, since in order to the forgiveness of sins it is redemption through his blood, as you have it over and over again in Scripture. ‘Without shedding of blood is no remission.’”(C. H. Spurgeon) Forgiveness of sin comes “by the exercise of faith which embraces Christ, rests upon Him as a house upon a rock foundation, and enters into His righteousness for safety as Noah entered the Ark for protection from the flood. It acknowledges the utter impossibility of being saved by personal obedience to the law. To become righteous in that way is forever out of the question. It confesses past sins, present weakness, and the impossibility of canceling past transgressions by future obedience. Justifying faith is then the trust of the soul in Christ as the only hope of salvation. It is the forsaking of the sinking ship of self-righteousness and taking refuge in the Ark of Christ's atonement.” [The Shield of the Young Methodist, pg 57]
Hidden Vertical sin: “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” (Exod 20:3) “The first commandment teaches the eternal deity of Christ [Messiah]. Worship belongs only to Jehovah. ‘I am the LORD: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images.’ (Isaiah 42:8) Worship offered to any other is idolatry. Yet, God the Father commands even the angels of heaven to worship Christ: ‘When he bringeth in the first begotten into the world, he saith, ‘And let all the angels of God worship him.’ [Psalm 97:7] (Hebrews 1:6) By the express command of God worship is given to the Lord Jesus Christ. We must not fail to grasp the plain logic of the word of God here. We may put it in the form of a syllogism... Worship belongs exclusively to Jehovah, the only true God;…God commands worship to be given to Jesus Christ;… Therefore Jesus Christ is the true God and Jehovah…. The first commandment, therefore, should be read in the light of the gospel. When it says, ‘Thou shall have no other gods before me,’ it commands us to acknowledge and confess the Lord Jesus Christ to be the true God and our Saviour. Jesus Himself said this: ‘Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.’ (John 14:1) That is the full significance of the first commandment….To obey it is to join with Thomas as he exclaimed of Christ: ‘My Lord and my God’ (John 20:28)” (Alan Cairns, Chariots of God) etc…
Hidden Horizontal sin: Many claim that Jesus loosened the requirements of the commandments. But is this what Jesus really did? On the contrary, He raised the standard. Jesus said: “You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not murder,' (Exod 20:13) and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment. But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, 'Raca!' shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, 'You fool!' shall be in danger of hell fire.”(Matt 5:21-23) Jesus said: “You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not commit adultery.' (Exod 20:14) But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” (Matt 5:27-28) Many openly judge those who are caught in the act of adultery, while they take pleasure in lusting in their hearts. If this sin is not confessed as sin and repented of, it will lead to your eternal demise. etc…
“People, both inside the church and out, think of sin primarily as something you do…or, if you’re good, something you avoid doing. The way we usually look at life, every potential behavior is either ‘good’ or ‘bad,’ ‘righteous’ or ‘sinful.’ Stealing is a sin. Helping someone shovel his sidewalk isn’t. Simple enough, right? BUT WHAT ABOUT LYING? Here’s where it gets a little more complicated. Lying seems like a sin, but what about telling your daughter that her piano recital was wonderful (when it wasn’t) or telling your wife you love what she made for dinner (when you don’t)? Suddenly, whether or not something ‘is a sin’ becomes a little murky, and we must begin to consider something deeper than what we do (or say) on the outside. WE MUST CONSIDER MOTIVATION. Why are you helping your neighbor shovel his sidewalk? Do you hope he’ll do something similar for you? Are you trying to get in his good graces? Maybe you just want to be perceived as a good neighbor. Notice that all of these motivations are about you. They are all self-focused, casting your neighbor as a pawn—someone you can use to get what you want, even if it’s just a feeling-good-about-yourself glow. These selfish motivations mark us as sinners… SO SIN DOES NOT ALWAYS LOOK ‘BAD.’ In fact, it often looks quite good. But what sin always does is attempt to gain for ourselves what Jesus offers us for free. We reject God’s gift and try to earn it on our own. Thankfully, God has promised that Jesus came to save train wrecks like us while we were busy trying to save ourselves.” (Tullian Tchividjian) http://liberate.org/2014/03/07/when-is-a-sin-really-a-sin/
When you are first convicted of sin, cry out to Jesus-- just as you are without one plea, but that His blood was shed for thee. All the fitness He requires is to feel your need of Him. Ask Him to forgive you and to be your personal Lord and Savior. He will grant full forgiveness of sins, which, “consciously enjoyed, will not only lift an enormous weight from off the soul, but it will breathe into the heart a great joy. When you know that sin is forgiven, you cannot be sad as before. The thought of perfect pardon, if it does but fill the spirit, will thrust out gloom, and remove apathy. It will make the lame man leap as a hart: he may still be lame, but he will leap as if he were not. And the tongue of the dumb, even though untrained to speech, shall be made to sing concerning free grace and dying love.” (C. H. Spurgeon)
It is not a one-time thing. Here is the prescription for walking with God, thereafter- church attendance and confession of our subsequent sins to God and one another. "This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us."(1 John 1:5-9)
“In Him also we have obtained an 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.” (Ephesians 1:11-12)
“‘In whom also we were made a heritage’… is a preferable rendering to that of AV, ‘In Him also we have obtained an inheritance.’ Both statements are true, but the apostle is thinking here of ‘God’s own possession’ (verse 14), ‘his inheritance in the saints’ (verse 18). So, in Old Testament days, it was revealed that ‘the Lord’s portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance’ (Deut 32:9)… In Christ, then, we have been admitted to the ranks of the chosen people, the holy heritage of God, ‘having been foreordained according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his will.’ As in verse 5 believers are said to have been foreordained ‘unto adoption as sons,’ so here it is implied that their inclusion in the heritage of God was an object of divine foreordination. From all eternity it was the purpose of God to bring into being a community of men and women who would be in a peculiar sense his own possession. And whatever God has purposed is sure of fulfillment; he is described here as the One ‘who worketh all things after the counsel of his will.’” (F. F. Bruce) It was foreordained that Gentile believers would be included — “so that we (Jews) who had already focused our hope on Christ would praise Him and give Him glory” (GOD'S WORD® Translation)
“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 with the Holy Spirit of promise , who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.” (Ephesians 1:13-14)
All true Christians trusted in Jesus after they heard the Word of truth-- the gospel of their salvation. YET “There is, we should note, different ways of ‘hearing’ God’s message. Some merely listen to the words, but nothing happens in their hearts and lives. They gain no understanding. Others hear and understand, but don’t do anything about it. And then there are those who hear, understand, and respond…” (George R.Knight)… by trusting in Jesus.
[in whom also, having believed, you were sealed] “The Holy Spirit has ‘sealed’ all Christians. A seal is a mark of ownership…. In the book of Ezekiel God put a mark or a seal on His people to distinguish them as His personal possession and save them from destruction (Ezekiel 9: 4-9). And by sealing Gentile believers God stamps them as His own.” (George R. Knight) [with the Holy Spirit of promise] “Paul probably used the phrase to refer to the fact that the Old Testament promised the Holy Spirit (see Joel 2: 28; Ezek. 36: 27) and that He was ‘poured out by the exalted Jesus at Pentecost’… Jesus, of course, also promised that the Holy Spirit would come to guide His people (see John 14-16; Acts 1: 4, 5).” (George R. Knight) “The sealing does not come before we believe, and those who demand some assurance from God before they will believe treat God as if His word could not be trusted. ‘For sealing there are needed the softened wax; the imprint of the beloved face; the steady pressure. Would that the Spirit might impress the face of our dear Lord on our softened hearts, that they may keep it for evermore!’ (Meyer)” (David Guzik) [who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession] This “meant a ‘first installment, deposit, down payment, pledge… which secures a legal claim to the article in question.” (Danker)
“Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers: that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come.” (Ephesians 1:15-21)
“Another important aspect of Paul’s prayer that we must emphasize is that he is not praying that the Ephesians will receive the blessing, but rather that they might more fully understand what they already possess.” (George Knight) “Alexander Pope wrote, ‘Know then thyself, presume not God to scan; the proper study of mankind is man.’ Charles Spurgeon responded to this famous statement: ‘It has been said by someone that ‘the proper study of mankind is man.’ I will not oppose the idea, but I believe it is equally true that the proper study of God’s elect is God; the proper study of a Christian is the Godhead. The highest science, the loftiest speculation, the mightiest philosophy which can ever engage the attention of a child of God, is the name, the nature, the person, the work, the doings, and the existence of the great God whom he calls his Father.’… ‘For philosophy comes to man with the message, ‘Know thyself;’ the Gospel meets him with the far more glorious and fruitful watchword; ‘Know thy God.’ (Alford)”(David Guzik)
[that you may know what is the hope of His calling] A. W. Pinks says that no reading of commentaries can secure an answer to this query for you, and even a searching or study of the Scriptures will not of itself convey the answer to you. Only as, and when, the eyes of your understanding are enlightened will that delightful and wondrous experience be yours.
[that you may know… what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints] “The revelation of God's inheritance is firstly seen in the OT when God took His people out of Egypt. Both in the books of Moses, in the Kings, and throughout the Psalms, this same theme is repeated. In addition to God's people being His inheritance, the psalmist also adds to God's inheritance (LXX, kleronomia) the holy temple and the holy city, Jerusalem (Psa. 79:1). Zechariah (2:12) includes the holy land in God's inheritance… Israel is God's people and His inheritance (Deut. 9:26, 27, LXX, kleros). He took His people out of Egypt that they could be His inheritance (Deut. 4:20; cf. Deut. 9:29 and 1Kings 8:51, 53). Jacob is referred to as the lot (LXX, meros) of God's inheritance (LXX, kleronomia) (Deut. 32:9). Jacob is God's people and Israel is His inheritance (Psa. 78:71)… We can scarcely realize what it must mean to God to see His purpose complete, to see creatures of His hand, sinners redeemed by His grace, reflecting His own glory (40).” http://www.jesusloversincleveland.org/English/bible/greek/jim/inheritance.htm
“And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.” (Ephesians 1:22-23)