Ephesians 1: Our Spiritual Blessings

What does the Christian life look like? It is often presented as two extremes: continual fight, struggle and submission, or a bountiful utopia of blessing and joy. Which one is correct? Or can they both touch on important aspects of the Christian life. We must remember that the God gives us great blessings because he loves to, but he also gives us discipline, sufferings and work to do.

Galatians, which dealt with a specific controversy in the church, has a very different tone than Ephesians. Paul begins Galatians rebuking them, but he starts Ephesians off discussing the spiritual blessing that we have in Christ. So what are some of these blessings? The first blessing is an often debated topic in verses 4-5, lest we get sidetracked on theological issues, let’s summarize it as that salvation is of God so that we Christians are no longer our own but belong to our savior Jesus Christ. Secondly, our sins are forgiven according to the wealth of his grace which he lavishes upon us (v. 7-8). Thirdly, we have an inheritance of which the Holy Spirit is the guarantee until we acquire it in its fullness when Christ returns (v. 11-14). These blessings center around our relationship with God in Christ and that Christ himself is our greatest blessing.

So what is the middle ground between the struggle and the blessings? We have a hope founded on the riches of our inheritance in Christ (v. 18) and the greatness of God’s power (v. 19). The power gives us the ability to live for Christ and suffer with him while also giving us joy and strength during the good times. This hope however is an installment of the ultimate fulfillment that we receive when Christ returns. We have then a future hope but also hope for the present.

Posted by Aaron