The Christian is blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus (Ephesians chapter 1 verse 3). This means that Christian satisfaction arises from the same source and comes by the same means as salvation. Satisfaction, sanctification and salvation all come from Christ and all come by faith in Christ. Our blessings and rescources are no more the product of our own effort and striving than is our salvation! These blessings in heavenly places in Christ are ours by reason of our relationship with Jesus. Those blessings are in heaven (Ephesians 1:3), Jesus is in heaven (Ephesians 1:20) and we are in Jesus (Ephesians 2:6). From this our blessings flow and over flow. It is through Divine strengthening, Divine gift, personal exercise in trials, tests and afflictions and in our daily spiritual battles, that we begin to tap into these blessings. These blessings become experience in the testings of life.
The Flor de la Mar, sunk in 1511 off the coast of Malayasia with the largest as yet undiscovered treasure of any sunkken vessel, approximately £2 billion of gold, silver and precious stones, taken from the Sultan of Malacca by the Portuguese. It’s yours for the taking, if you can find it!
Ephesians presents the believer with a rich treasure trove of spiritual blessings (Ephesians 1:3). There does initially appear to be a catch. These blessings are in heavenly places! They are as high as the treasure of the Flor de la Mar is deep and maybe as inaccessible too!
These blessings are not only in heavenly place (v3) – PLACE which may seem out of reach but they are also:
In a PERSON (v3) – In Christ
Just as our salvation and justification is in a person (Romans 10:6-8) so too is our sanctification and spiritual growth in a person (Eph 1:3-4).
We would be aghast if the preacher on Sunday in the gospel service got up and informed the audience that the good news of the gospel was that salvation was possible so long as you just follow the:
- Rules
- Regulations
- Join the church
- Get baptised
And earn your way to heaven
We would rightly regard that as absurd.
We rejoice in the truth of the gospel.
- Christ brought down righteousness in His Person (Romans 8:6)
- Christ raised up righteousness after His finished work at Calvary evidenced by His resurrection (Romans 8:7)
Christ brought down righteousness in the holiness and uniqueness of His Person and character.
Christ raised up righteousness in His saving work.
Here is maybe a problem in the Christian life I stumble over, that just as salvation is uniquely found in the person and work of Christ so too is:
- Satisfaction
- Sanctification
- Sustenance
All found here, our blessings are all found here!
Would it be possible to forget this? The apostle speaks of this in a later letter to the Ephesians (1 Timothy 5:11). They forgot where the true source of satisfaction lay, it lies in the same place as the true source of our salvation; in Christ!
There seems to be a problem however! These blessings are in “heavenly places”, in a PLACE inaccessible?
These blessings are also in a PERSON, in Christ (v3).
That PERSON is also in the PLACE (Ephesians
Dr J Stewart Gillespie Systematic bible teaching from Ephesians www.graceinchrist.org