6th February 2025

Paul’s epistle to the church at Ephesus is a letter to a local church which we can also think of as a letter to local churches everywhere. In the opening section of chapter one, Paul directs our attention to the earthly and heavenly blessings we enjoy as Christian believers. The earthly blessings, like the spiritual blessings, come to us by the grace of God, and we thank God for all ways in which our lives have been enriched in this earthly realm. But what of the spiritual blessings? What are they and how do we enter into them?

Paul reminds us of three examples of spiritual blessings: past, present, and future realities, and these belong to all who have put their faith and trust in Jesus alone.

In the present, we enjoy the blessing of sonship (v.5) through our union with Christ who promised this blessing to all who share in the Father’s love, extending that same love even to enemies and those who oppress, ‘that you may be children of your Father in heaven’ (Matthew 5:45). In Christ we are accepted, favoured and cherished by God as his very own dear children. This is why Jesus taught us that, when we pray, we should direct our prayers to God as ‘our Father’ in heaven (Matthew 6:9), from where our new birth originates (John 3:3).  

This present blessing of adoption to sonship flows out from the past blessing of redemption (Ephesians 1:7), whereby our sins have been fully dealt with through Jesus’ shed blood. The season of Advent, particularly as it pertains to the celebration of the Saviour’s birth, recalls for us how the widow, Anna, arriving at the temple the moment Mary’s baby was being blessed, went out and spoke about the child ‘to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem’ (Luke 2:38). That promised redemption has since extended far beyond that physical border, and has come to us as a result of our faith in Jesus ‘…in accordance with the riches of God’s grace…’ (Ephesians 1:7). 

The spiritual blessings are not only past and present, but extend into the future. The future is not only assured to us, but neither is it a secret hidden from us, since God has ‘made known to us the mystery of his will’ (v.9). This entire creation, which has been estranged from God since the fall of Adam, will, one day ‘when the times reach their fulfilment’ (v.10), be gathered together in Christ, according to God’s foreordained plan (v.10).

What God has always planned to do, from the creation of the world, he will do, and we have the guarantee of that future inheritance, having been ‘marked in him with a seal’ (v.13) from the moment we came to faith in Christ, the Holy Spirit himself being God’s deposit of assurance (v.14).   

Local congregation:
Grace Communion Peterborough
Farcet Village Hall                                                    
Main Street
Farcet
Peterborough
PE7 3AN

Meeting time:
Sunday 11.00 am

Local congregational contact:
Richard Dempsey
Email:  richard.dempsey@word-of-lifeLocal church website: GRACE COMMUNION CHURCH PETERBOROUGH – Landing Page

Word of Life contact:
wordoflife@gracecom.church