Activity: Read Ephesians 1: 1–14.

• How many times Paul uses the phrase “in Christ” or “in him” or “through Christ”?
• How many times does Paul use “we”, “us/our”, and “you/your”?

AN INHERITANCE

Imagine a solicitor contacting you to tell you that from before you were born a relative had been saving up money for you and your extended family. Now that relative has died, you are all rich because the money has been left to you as an inheritance! Paul’s letter to the Christian community in Ephesus [a city in present-day south-western Turkey] begins with a prayer about the inheritance that God has saved up for the people who are “in Christ.”

SPRITUAL BLESSINGS

Paul starts with a traditional greeting in v. 1–2: “to the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful [fn]in Christ Jesus …”  Notice how he then begins his message in v. 3:

3 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

The rest of this section of Paul’s letter is his description of these spiritual blessings:

1 to the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful [fn] in Christ Jesus

3 Blessed be the God . . . who has blessed us in Christ

4 just as he chose us in Christ [fn] before the foundation of the world

5 He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ

6  his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved [Christ]

7 In him [Christ] we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses

9 [God] has made known to us the mystery of his will . . . in Christ,

10 to gather up all things in him [Christ]

11 In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance

13 In him [Christ] you also, heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation

13  in him, [Christ] [you] were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit

 The “faithful” “saints” are blessed, chosen, adopted, graced, redeemed, forgiven; we know God’ will, we are gathered in Christ, we have an inheritance, we’ve heard the gospel of salvation, and we have the promised Holy Spirit! And what’s more, this is what God always intended to do for all God’s people “before the foundation of the world”, as Paul says in v. 4!

IN CHRIST

How do we receive a share in this inheritance? Well that brings us to the two questions I asked at the beginning. The first question was: How many times does Paul use the phrase “in Christ” or “in him” or “through Christ”? I count 11 times, including “in the Beloved” in v. 6.  We share in God’s inheritance, God’s spiritual blessings, by being “in Christ” — by being one of the people who are “faithful” to God’s Christ, Jesus.

The second question I asked was: How many times does Paul use “we,” “you/your”, or “us/our”?  I count 3 “we”, 7 “us/our”, and 4 “you/your”, which makes 13 in total. It is not specific in English (although it is clear from Paul’s greeting to “the saints” in v. 1), but the “you” Paul speaks to here is always plural: “youse all” or “y’all, as the Americans say. At the conference I was at last month, the conference director Jenny (who is from the American South) often welcomed us each day using the southern American expression “All y’all.” Paul’s “all y’all” in this letter is important because it reminds us that that our inheritance was never intended to be just an individual blessing, it is something we share with the whole extended family of God.

 LAVISHED ON US

Let me ask another question: Why is Paul writing this letter, apparently to a group of people he had never personally met? The letter was probably written while Paul was in prison in Rome. While Paul was there more and more people were coming to faith in Christ. They needed to be taught the essentials of who God’s people are as a community “in Christ.”

At the same time lots of other new religious philosophies were spreading through the area (see Paul’s letter to the Colossians). These new ideas threatened to short-change the extraordinary work of salvation which God had planned for the people of God to receive “in Christ.”

In the original language in which Paul wrote his letter, verses 3–14 are one single sentence 203 words long. Why? It seems to me that Paul cannot contain his excitement about the richness of God’s “spiritual blessings”. For Paul what God has done for us in Jesus is like popping the cork on a bottle of champagne. And like an uncorked bottle of champagne, descriptions of God’s blessings in Christ just pour out of Paul’s mouth.  Why? Because God loved the world so much that he sent Christ into the world so that through his death (John 3:16; 1 John 3:16) God’s people, then and now, including all y’all here this morning, could share in “every spiritual blessing” that God has for us (v. 7–8):

7 In him [Christ], we have redemption through his blood [his death as a sacrifice], the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace 8 that he lavished on us.

Paul doesn’t want anyone to be short-changed, ripped off, sold a lemon, scammed or fleeced or defrauded, so that they miss out on the spiritual blessings God has for us.

 HOPE AND PRAISE

And now the most important question of all: How should we respond? Paul says God did this “so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory” (v. 12). So, the first response is to “set our hope on Christ,” if we haven’t done that yet. Make sure you are “in Christ.” The second response —as William Lane says, “the only appropriate response” — is to “live for the praise of his glory” [quote from “Ephesians—2 Thessalonians”, in The Daily Commentary, p. 237].

Before I conclude in prayer let’s take a few moments in silence to reflect on our lives. Have you set your hope on Christ? If you have, what does it mean for you to live—in every area of your life—for the praise of God’s glory?

Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you that in Christ we are blessed, chosen, adopted, graced, redeemed, forgiven; we know God’ will, we are gathered in Christ, we have an inheritance, we’ve heard the gospel of salvation, and we have the promised Holy Spirit! We have set our hope on you. Help us to live each day in every way for the praise of your glory, in the power of your Holy Spirit and in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.