The shocking power God wants to give us

Ephesians 1:14-23, Part 5

In the summer of 2010, I was sitting in a bank in Chicago, squirming in my seat, very uncomfortable.  A group of us from Faith Church were there on a mission trip, working with our sister church Kimball Avenue. We were listening to a presentation about the use of power to overturn injustice. 

I was squirming because power is so corrupt, especially in human hands.  So I mentioned that to the presenter during the Q & A.  I wasn’t ready for the presenter’s response.

Before I tell you what she said, this week we have been studying Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 1:14-23. In the previous post, Paul talked about the inheritance that God wants to share with us. Rather than an inheritance that we experience after a death, Paul’s point is that we can participate in God’s inheritance to us now.

How can we enjoy God’s inheritance to us now? In Ephesians 1, Paul goes on to explain what he means in verses 19–20,

“…and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms,”

Did Paul just say what I think he said?  That the same power that raised Jesus from the dead is available to us?  Resurrection power is available to us?  Can it be possible? 

Let’s clarify. Paul is not suggesting that God wants us to go around trying to raise dead people back to life.  He is simply saying that the same power is available to us in the here and now, because we are in relationship with the same God.  The same God that Paul prayed a few verses earlier, that we might know him better.

In our culture and society, we regularly learn about many warped views of power and demonstrations of power.  The use of power is often extremely evil and selfish.  This is at the root of the famous saying, “power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely.”  We can have so many brushes with abuse of power that we don’t want to be anywhere near it.  

It is not easy to wield power in a godly way.  That’s why I was so uncomfortable in that meeting in the bank in Chicago.

The presenter in Chicago, put me in my place very quickly and graciously, asking me, “Well don’t you have power as a pastor?”  Uh…It doesn’t seem like much power, but I had to admit, “Yes.”  They she drove her point home, “Don’t you want to use your power for good?”  Of course.  Yes!  The conclusion, there is a way to view and employ power for all sorts of good.

That’s what Paul is getting at here. We have access to the power of God, because God wants to work in us and through us so that we will have the abundant flourishing life Jesus said he came to bring us in John 10:10.  That abundant life is not an erasure of pain and difficulty, but as we saw earlier in the passage, the abundant life is based in God’s deep sacrificial love and sacrificially sharing that love with others.  Loving our neighbors as ourselves. Jesus wants to empower us to live that sacrificial love, just like he did.

I think of Jesus’ Vine & Branches analogy. It is all about power.  In John 15, Jesus teaches, “Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”

The Fruit of the Spirit is all about power. In Galatians 5:22-26, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.”

We need God’s power to be the people he wants us to be, to pursue the mission of his Kingdom.  There is a great humility in this prayer.  It is a reminder to us that we don’t have the power in and of ourselves.  But he does!  And he wants to make it available to us, for good, for the good of his kingdom, for the good of others, for the good of human flourishing. 

Then Paul concludes his prayer with a short benediction about Jesus.  

“Far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.”

I encourage you to pray the whole prayer of Ephesians 1:14-23 every day this week.  Maybe choose a few of the people in your life and pray this prayer for them.  Place their name in the prayer.  Ask God what you need to change in your day to day life for the people around you to know that you are praying this prayer for them, and that you are loving them.

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We don’t have to wait until we die to experience God’s inheritance

Ephesians 1:14-23, Part 4

Having a rich relative or friend who bestows a lavish inheritance on us is a dream for many people.  It is a common scene in literature, film, and television.  A wealthy person dies, the family attorney calls the family together for the reading of the will, and it is revealed who gets what. 

Often though, the revealing of a will turns a dream into a nightmare. The will might have some surprises that lead to utter disappointment, anger, and family drama. 

So what does Paul mean in Ephesians 1, verse 18, when he prays that Christians would know, “The hope to which he has called us, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people”?

When you hear those words, “hope” and “his glorious inheritance,” it would easy to assume that Paul is talking about heaven only.  Yes, Paul is talking about the hope we have for life after death.  But Paul is not saying, “Christians, my prayer is that you die as soon as possible, so you go to heaven and experience the hope and inheritance of God.”  As if hope and inheritance only kick in after we die. 

The whole point of Paul’s prayer is that he wants the people to know that hope now, while they’re still alive.  He is not saying that we can experience the fullness of eternity now.  He is saying, however, that we can know it now.  There is a way that we can dwell now in the hope God has blessed us with.  That hope, though we will not experience it fully until one day in the future, still matters now. 

It matters now that we are people who have hope.  It matters now that we are people who have an inheritance. 

Notice how Paul describes the inheritance: the riches of his glorious inheritance. 

When it comes to the inheritance we receive from God, it is rich, and it is for all, and it is more than enough. 

But what does that mean for the here and now? If all Paul were talking about was an inheritance in heaven, I get that.  In eternity, while we cannot imagine how great it will be, we just trust and believe that it will be better by far than anything we could possibly imagine.  That is the ultimate inheritance.

But here and now?  How do we partake of our inheritance now? We find out in the next post.

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The importance of the eyes of your heart

Ephesians 1:15-23, Part 3

Did you know that your heart has eyes? And no, I’m not referring to anatomy. Stay with me here.

After praying that the people would have the spirit of wisdom and revelation to know God better, Paul has another powerful prayer request for them.  Here’s what he writes in Ephesians 1, verse 18,

“I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people.”

This request has some similarities to the request for wisdom and revelation in verse 17.  The eyes of your heart enlightened.  What does he mean?

Paul likely borrowing a metaphor from Israel’s great poet king, David, who wrote many psalms, including Psalm 19.  There David talks about how the heavens declare the glory of God, how the sun shines forth with light and heat.  Then David says God’s word is like that.  In verse Psalm 19, verse 8 David writes, “The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes.”

Both David and Paul are talking about our inner being.  Our personality, our desire, our will, our understanding, our mind, that inward part of us.  In the ancient world, the word “heart” referred symbolically to all of that.  It still does today, such as when we say to someone “I love you with all my heart.” 

Therefore in Ephesians 1:18, Paul’s prayer is that deep within us, our mind, our understanding, would be enlightened.  Paul wants something to be revealed to us.  He wants something to be uncovered, brought to light, so that we can really truly know it.

What does he want us to really truly know, deep within, to really get it? We find out in the next post!

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What to do to know God better

Ephesians 1:15-23, Part 2

Do you want to know God better?

That’s one of those questions Christians kind of have to answer yes to, right?  If I were in a group of Christians and I said, “Raise your hands if you want to know God better,” I would wager I’d get a pretty decent response.

What Christian would publicly say, and mean it, “Nope, I don’t want to know God better”?  Not many. Because if we say, “I don’t want to know God better,” we are essentially saying, “I’ve got God all figured out.  Nothing more to learn here.”  But God is by definition incomprehensible.  God’s ways are higher than our ways. When I say that God is incomprehensible, I do not mean that we cannot know anything about God. 

He has revealed himself significantly, through nature, through Jesus, through his Spirit, in his Word, through his church, so that we can know him and have a wonderfully close relationship with him.  But we cannot know him totally, perfectly, completely.  There is always more, a lot more, to learn about God.  This is why people keep studying the Bible, keep studying theology, of which a simple definition of theology is “the study of God,” to know him more. 

I think most Christians not only say they want to know God better, but they mean it. We really do want to know God better. But often we don’t know how to know him better. He might seem distant. The Bible might seem intimidating and confusing. What can we do to know God better?

We can ask God for help.

After encouraging the people about their love, in Ephesians 1, verse 17 Paul begins his prayer for them.  The first request he prays for is this,

“I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.

Have you ever prayed a prayer like that?

A prayer for wisdom?  Yes.  Asking for wisdom is a common prayer request.

But a prayer request for a spirit of wisdom and revelation?

Paul’s first prayer request right there in Ephesians 1:17. A spirit of wisdom and revelation.  He wanted that for the ancient Christians. So whatever a spirit of wisdom and revelation is, it is a very good thing.  Not to mention that Paul says the people will know God better because of the spirit of wisdom and revelation.

Thus Paul’s prayer request here is amazing.  That God would give us a spirit of wisdom and revelation to know him more.  There are some really confusing things about the Bible and about God, that even the most learned scholars admit are hard to grasp.  We need his help to know him more. 

A spirit of wisdom and revelation says, “Lord, give me wisdom to know you more.  Reveal yourself to me more.  I don’t have you figured out.  I want more of you.”  What a wonderful prayer request for ourselves and others.

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How to know if you faith is true faith

Ephesians 1:15-23, Part 1

How do you know if your faith in God is true faith?

In Ephesians 1:15-23, before Paul prays for the Christians, he describes true faith. When he describes true faith, I find it fascinating what Paul doesn’t say. He could have said,

“I see your faith because you gather for worship services.”

“I see your faith because you listen to the teaching the Bible.”

“I see your faith, because you are telling people about Jesus.”

“I see your faith because you pray.”

Paul doesn’t say any of that.  What does he say?

Notice the first three words Paul writes in verse 15, “For this reason…”

For what reason?  The reason is what Paul just wrote in the previous verses we talked about last week.  Here’s a one-sentence summary: In verses 3 through 14, Paul is praising God for God’s rich blessings that he has lavished on us.  For that reason.  For what God did, and for what God is still doing, which is choosing us in Christ.  For that reason, Paul describes true faith:

“For that reason,” Paul writes, “ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.”

Paul is saying, “I see you Christians!  I hear about you. I know what you are up to! And you have true faith!  I know you have true faith because of your love for all God’s people.”

That’s an important description.  Faith and love.  Faith without love is no faith. You cannot be said to have faith if you do not also love.  You can have beliefs, ideas in your mind.  But faith shows itself to be true by its actions.  If you have genuine faith, you will love. 

I’m not saying that your love has to be perfect.  God doesn’t expect perfection.  But when you have real faith, God’s love will flow out of your life.  It might be a love that needs work.  It might need to grow.

In fact all of us need to work on our love, right?  We humans have such a tendency to self-focus, selfishness, self-protection, self-everything.  We naturally focus on our selves. To overcome that selfishness, love takes works, practice.  To love is to be other-focused, which is often a lot like paddling upstream, as loving others well goes against our natural human selfishness.

But when we have faith in God, we have a whole new resource on which to grow love.  More on that in a moment. 

So if faith without love is no faith at all, what about love without faith?  Is that possible?

Love is amazing in and of itself.  Anyone, no matter their faith, can love.  People who claim to have no faith at all can still love, and they regularly do, sometimes even better than those who say they have faith.  Love is just so good it doesn’t need faith. 

But when love is based on faith in God the father, God the Son, and God the Spirit, that love is based on the source of love.  God himself is love.  When we faith in God, we learn how to love from God. 

Therefore, while I think love anywhere it found is good, love can be amplified and perfected when it is based on God, following God’s love.  When love is based on God, it has a regular source of renewal and energy.  We can continue to give love freely when we are refilling our hearts with the love of God.

That love is exactly what Paul sees in these Christians he is writing.  He sees them placing their faith on God, and then allowing God’s love to flow through them to others.

It is quite important, then, for us to evaluate our faith, not by its intellectual content, not by its ritual practices (like attendance at worship services or prayer meetings), but by how we love one another. Jesus taught his disciples “By this all will know that you are my disciples, that you love one another.” (John 13:33-34)

Loving one another doesn’t mean that you need to be best friends with everyone, even everyone in your church family, even if that church family is small in number.  It is quite normal for there to be a variety of levels in relationships.  Usually, we humans are very close to only a few people, and then we typically have lots of acquaintances of varying closeness.  Relationship levels often change over time, sometimes for good reasons, sometimes for bad reasons.  People move away.  Get new jobs.  A brokenness happens.  You drift apart.  Of course, as people who love one another, we work to repair brokenness, but even after forgiveness has been given, sometimes boundaries in relationships are needed and good. 

Paul’s point is clear: We are primarily to be people who are known for our love.  What does that kind of love look like?  It more than being polite.  It is more than being friendly.  Love will be patient, kind, sacrificial, caring.  Love is forgiving.  Looks out for the other’s best. (1 Corinthians 13:4-8) Love’s perspective is for the other and what they might need. When you are loving toward someone they will feel loved.

After encouraging the people about their love, in verse 17 Paul begins his prayer for them. We’ll learn about that in the next post.

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How to improve at prayer

Ephesians 1:15–23, Preview

Have you ever thought to yourself that some people seem to be really good at praying?  When we think that other people are good at praying, perhaps we feel that way because we don’t believe we are good at praying.  Especially praying out loud in front of other people. 

Praying out loud in front of others can be a public speaking double whammy.  Not only are you putting yourself out there for others to hear, which alone is risky and intimidating, but when you pray out loud you are also talking with God, which is often intensely personal.  The whole endeavor can feel like something we want to avoid like Covid.

It seems to me, however, that, as with so much in life, practice makes perfect when it comes to praying out loud. If we can just overcome our anxiety about it, and get the first few times over with, we will feel a growing confidence.  Then just keep at it.

Still, what can help people feel confident about praying is more than just getting past our misgivings about public speaking. Most of us will not need to pray publicly all that often anyway.  We will, however, pray privately, and even private prayer can feel intimidating, given that we are talking with God.  What should we say? The words to say in prayer sometimes seem hard to come by.

This is why many people appreciate written prayers they can read.  The Lord’s Prayer is the epitome of using a written prayer, because it is the very prayer that Jesus himself taught us to pray.  Use the Lord’s Prayer as often as you like.  

The Lord’s Prayer is also a model for prayer, giving us categories and illustrations that we can use to develop our own prayer: Address, Confess, Request, Assess.  Check out the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6, and see if you can match those categories to the sections of the prayer. 

(I would be remiss if I did not mention that prayer is a conversation, not just talking to God, but also listening for him. Listening through his Word, listening for his voice, listening by observing his creation, listening through words of his people.  We do well to spend at least as much time listening to God as we do talking to him.)  

Thankfully, if you are looking for words to pray, the Lord’s Prayer is not the only written prayer in Scripture.  There are so many others, and this coming week in our continuing study of Ephesians, Paul prays a powerful prayer that we can borrow in our own prayers.  Check it our ahead of time in Ephesians 1:15–23.  If you ever wonder what you should prayer for yourself, for your family and friends, this is a great prayer.  We begin studying it on Monday.

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How ethnic segregation in the church is out of line with the Gospel

Ephesians 1:3–14, Part 5

In Paul’s day, there was a major division in the church: Jew and Gentile.  It was an ethnic problem, based primarily in the Jews’ exclusive view of their covenant with God.  They thought they were special in God’s eyes, and the other peoples of the world were pagan, unclean, and thus there should be a segregation between them. What does God have to say about the segregation of the church?

As Paul continues, he writes in Ephesians 1, verse 10, that God’s purpose in Christ will “…be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.”

God desires unity.  That is the first time Paul introduces that theme, unity, which will become a major focus in the rest of the letter.  It is so important to Paul, especially because he has just introduced the family metaphor. We are adopted into God’s family. 

But in Christ, Paul says, God is welcoming all into his family.  Thus there needs to be unity.  There shouldn’t be the Jewish Christian group, and then a separate Gentile Christian group.  There should just be the Christian group, where all are included, because God has gone to such great lengths to include all

Notice in verses 11-14, how Paul continues talking about God’s desire to include all,

“In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.”

God chose a multi-ethnic approach to his family.  All are included.  When Paul writes in verse 12, “we who were the first,” he is referring to the first people who were Christians, all Jews.  The 12 disciples, all Jews. The rest of the Christians in those early chapters of Acts, all Jews.  But eventually, a couple years, we don’t know precisely how long, those Jewish Christians, especially through the ministry of Paul, start to take the message of Jesus’ love for all, to all.  And many non-Jews start to become followers of Jesus. 

This is wonderful!  God’s heart is for all. But there is a problem. There are numerous Jewish Christians who believe, based on their thousands of years of Jewish heritage and theology and covenant, that it only makes sense that when non-Jews become Christians, those non-Jews also need to become Jews. Because the Jews are God’s chosen people, who have the covenant, right? 

There was a major push in the early church for Gentiles to start practicing Judaism, including having their adult males get circumcised.  To those Jewish Christians, that was the only way, in their minds, there could be unity in the church.  They could not conceive of Gentiles following Jesus, but not also following the Mosaic Law.  They could not wrap their minds around that. They wanted unity too, but in their view, it required adherence to the Mosaic Law.

Paul will write about this over and over in his letters.  We get a small glimpse into Paul’s take on this issue right here in verses 11–14.  What does Paul say?   In verse 12 he says, “Sure, we Jews were the first to put hour hope in Christ,” yet look at verse 13, “But you are included too!”  How are the non-Jews included?  By circumcision? By following the Mosaic Law?  By becoming Jewish? 

Nope. By hearing the message of truth, the gospel; by believing, at which point they are marked.  Not by circumcision, but by the Holy Spirit!  Paul uses the word “seal.”  He uses the words “deposit guaranteeing”.  The Spirit of God is what matters.  We have the Spirit of God, which is better by far, than following a ritual code, Paul says.  Thus the Spirit of God in our lives is essential.  It is through the Spirit of God that we have unity with one another. 

And that causes Paul to wrap up this section with another utterance of praise. 

What a deep section.  You are in.  God loves you and lavishes his grace on you in Christ.  By his Spirit we have unity with all in God’s family.  No matter your ethnicity, nationality, race.  We are brothers and sisters in the family.

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Hearing “Nein!” at an exclusive dance club versus hearing God say “Yes!”

Ephesians 1:3–14, Part 4

Have you heard of Berghain, the exclusive dance club in Berlin? I learned about it on this podcast. It is nearly impossible to get in, and the club doesn’t explain why.  People line up waiting for hours, hoping to be admitted.  Finally, they make it to the door, and the head bouncer says “Nein” and waves them off without any reasoning. So many people are disappointed.  There are loads of articles online with how-to guides claiming to have the right advice that will grant you entrance to Berghain. Some estimates suggest that 50% of hopefuls are turned away every day.

While that might sound strange, even counter-productive from a business perspective, Berghain is doing fine, thriving even. Come to think of it, there are loads of places, opportunities, organizations, clubs, and teams that do not have an open door policy. You can’t buy your way in. You can’t educate your way in. You can’t talk your way in. As much as we like to say, “You can do anything you put your mind to,” the reality in life is less hopeful.

That’s why what Paul writes in Ephesians 1, verses 5 and 6, is so astounding,

“[God] predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.”

The word Paul uses for adoption was a legal word.  One scholar defines it this way, “to formally and legally declare that someone who is not one’s own child is henceforth to be treated and cared for as one’s own child, including complete rights of inheritance.” (Louw & Nida)

God adopts, not begrudgingly, but according his pleasure and will.  He desires us to be adopted into his family.  In verse 6 Paul mentions grace, repeating the important concept of his introduction in verse 2.  We talked about adoption a bit last week here, now Paul himself features it, as the outflow of God’s grace. 

God graciously adopts us in the One he loves, Jesus, who he freely gives us.  Our adoption into the family of God is made possible because God wanted to make it happen, and in fact he went to extreme lengths to make it happen.  Just think of all Jesus did. 

Paul actually describes it.  Look at verses 7–9,

“In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ,”

But Paul says that when it comes to adoption in his family, we have redemption, forgiveness of sins, and he revealed the mystery of his will.  Paul is saying, “Christians, you are part of the in group.  You know the secret handshake, the passphrase.  All the parts of your lives that might have kept you out, your sin, is forgiven, you are redeemed, and it is all because of God’s lavish grace in Christ.

I’ve been to four adoption proceedings in courtrooms. They are some of the most beautiful, emotional, meaningful events I’ve experienced. The joy ripples through the lives of everyone involved. Judges say adoptions are by far the best part of their jobs. Children welcomed into families.

That’s what God did for us, because of his gracious love for us.  We have so much to praise God for.  Think about the joy, the hope, the stability it brings us to know that in God’s eyes, we are in.  We are adopted sons and daughters in his family. We hear God say, “Yes!” to us.

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Who and how God chooses

Ephesians 1:3–14, Part 3

Whether you are the kid at recess who gets chosen last for the kickball team, or whether you are the adult who doesn’t get chosen for a promotion, a job, a contest, it can be very difficult emotionally when we are not chosen. 

When I submitted book proposals, I experienced the empty feeling of not being chosen. Years ago I applied for teaching positions at local colleges, and I wasn’t chosen. It feels awful.

As we continue studying Ephesians 1:3–14, Paul is eulogizing, praising God for the spiritual blessings he has lavished on us, and in verse 4, Paul writes,

“For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love…”

He chose us.  God chose us.  It can be quite difficult whether no matter what age you are, when you are not chosen. 

But know this, God chooses us.  God looks at you and says “I choose you. I have always chosen you because I love you.”  See those two important words at the end of verse 4.  “In love.”  God chooses you and me because he loves us.  Praise God! 

You might feel passed over, unseen, unheard, neglected, as many of us do feel by the humans in our lives.  But not by God.  God chooses you, and he always has, because he loves you. 

Notice two other words in that sentence, “in him.”  He chose us in him.  Paul is saying that God chose us in Christ. In verse 3, we are blessed with every spiritual blessing…in Christ.  In fact, Paul repeats that one phrase over and over throughout this section, “in Christ” (or its variations: “in him,” “through Jesus Christ,” “in the One”), a phrase that indicates how and by whom and through whom God has chosen us.

Our chosenness has to do with Jesus.  The birth, life, ministry, teaching, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus, have everything to do with how God has chosen us.  This is vital.  Because it goes to show us that God is not like the kids at recess choosing who gets to be on the kickball team.  God is not like the organization choosing who gets hired, and who doesn’t.  God is not like the culture critic who says “I like their art, their book, their food, but not yours.”  Some Christians think of God like that, though.  As if he is a divine kickball team captain in the sky, picking some people for his team, and essentially condemning the others to separation from God. 

But that is not what is going on in this passage. That would be a very individualistic view of God’s work of choosing: “I choose him, her, but not that guy though.” Or “I choose 75% of people living in that country, but less than 1% in another.  And those tribal people living in the Amazon for centuries, never having contact with the outside world…forget them.” 

That’s not God. 

Instead, Paul clearly says that God chooses…in Christ. What does that mean though?  I disagree with the Christians who believe it an individualistic choosing.  My opinion, and feel free to disagree with me, is that Paul is describing a corporate choosing.  Let me illustrate.

In the Old Testament, God chose the people of Israel to be his people right?  He chose a group, a family. It was a corporate choosing.  He established a covenant with them.  He also embedded in that covenant a plan for non-Israelites could be join in. He also showed the people of Israel how their covenant was grounded in the original covenant with Abraham, whose family, God said, would be a blessing to the whole world. 

Israel understood their relationship with God through the lens of this covenant.  It was a group agreement.  But let me ask you this about their group agreement: Did that covenant mean that every single biological Israelite was guaranteed to partake of the covenant relationship with God, just because of their biology?  Had God established an agreement that was simply ethnic? 

Or did faith and life choices have something to do with it?  Yes, faith and life choices had everything to do with this arrangement.  God chose Israel as a collective, but each individual Israelite still had to choose him.  Many did not. 

Likewise, God chooses us in Christ.  There is a new covenant in Christ.  The point is that God is not choosing individuals, saying randomly, “You’re in, but you over there, you’re out.”  Instead, he chooses all in Christ.  “For God so loved the world”.  Or as Paul will write in 1 Timothy 2:3-4, “This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.”

God chooses all in Christ.

We know where the heavenly realms are

Ephesians 1:3–14, Part 2

After a greeting, Paul begins his letter titled “Ephesians” with a grand eulogy of God. As I noted in the previous post, while we give eulogies praising people who have passed away, Paul’s eulogy praises God who is very much alive. After saying, “Praise God,” Paul lists numerous reasons why he is praising God, the first in the middle of verse 3,

“who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.” 

Notice the spiritual language. Paul is not talking about earthly realms, and he is not talking about physical blessing.  Paul mentions heavenly realms and spiritual blessings. 

When he refers to “heavenly realms,” I suspect many assume Paul means “heaven,” singular, the abode of God. But Paul doesn’t describe it that way.  He says heavenly realms, plural. I double-checked the original Greek, and this word is plural.

What are the heavenly realms?  The sky?  The atmosphere?  Outer space?  Interestingly, in the original language, the word “realms” doesn’t appear.  Instead Paul is using an adjective, “heavenly,” as a plural noun, the “heavenlies”.  Because the word “heavenlies” is uncommon in English, many translations just add a word like “realm” or “places.”  This difference is important.  Why? We know is that Paul is not using the noun form of the word “heaven.” 

If this sounds a bit technical, stay with me.

Paul uses the same word, “the heavenlies,” a few times in Ephesians, and one of the most interesting instances can help us understand what Paul is referring to.  Look at Ephesians 6, verse 12.  There, to introduce the Armor of God, Paul writes a famous verse about spiritual warfare, about battle with evil spiritual beings,

“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in…_________”. Where? Hell?”

No.  The battle against spiritual forces of evil does not take place in hell.  The spiritual forces of evil are from hell, and they come do battle on earth.  Right?  Spiritual warfare takes place here on earth, right?

Does Paul write that “Our struggle is against…the spiritual forces of evil here on earth?”

No!  Shockingly, he says that our struggle is “against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”

That’s the same word we just read in chapter 1 verse 3.  Are you wondering, “Wait a minute, what are demons doing fighting battle against us in the heavenly realms? We are not in the heavenly realms.  We’re here on earth.  And how can demons be in heaven?  Only God, Jesus, angels, and the people in the book of life are supposed to be there!” 

What I’m getting at is that when Paul uses the word, “the heavenlies,” he isn’t referring to the celestial city of God.  The heavenlies are anywhere God is. The heavenlies are the many dwelling places of God, including earth. 

Paul’s point is not to transport us away from earth and suggest that we only experience blessing in some otherworldly abode of God. Instead Paul’s point is to say that we can experience every spiritual blessing in Christ wherever God is, and that includes now.  We do not have to die to experience the rich blessings of God.  We surely will experience them when we die, but Paul is saying that we also experience them now. 

But what spiritual blessings do we experience now?  We’ll learn about those spiritual blessings in the next post.

Photo by Mert Atakan on Unsplash