EPHESIANS 1:3\u201314<\/b><\/p>\n
Praise [blessed] be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ<\/i><\/p>\n
(Ephesians 1:3).<\/i><\/p>\n
Paul begins the body of his letter with a long sentence (1:3\u201314) that is usually broken up into several shorter sentences in the English translations. In verse 3, we find the word blessed<\/i> used twice. Paul writes, \u201cBlessed be God,\u201d and then says that God has \u201cblessed us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Paul amplifies what it means for God to bless us by saying that He has given us \u201cevery spiritual blessing,\u201d including redemption, forgiveness, lavish riches, wisdom, and understanding (1:7\u20139). But how do we bless God? What can we give Him? Clearly, what we give God is praise, which is why most English versions substitute the word praise<\/i> for blessed<\/i> at the beginning of Ephesians 1:3. God does not need anything from us, but He has chosen to ask for our praise; we on the other hand, need everything from Him. He gives us everything, and asks our thanks and allegiance in return.<\/p>\n
What does it mean that God has blessed us \u201cin the heavenly realms\u201d? The idea seems to be that we have become participants in heavenly things through Christ. He is seated at God\u2019s right hand, and in union with Him so are we. Usually we think of the Spirit\u2019s coming down from heaven to us in order to bridge the gap between us and heaven, but here in this passage the idea is that in some profound and mysterious sense, we are drawn up into heaven by the Spirit to be present with Jesus and the Father.<\/p>\n
Our ascension into heaven is not an experience we have \u201cby sight,\u201d though some day we shall physically ascend with Christ. It is by faith that we have access to the heavenly realm through prayer and praise, and the work of the Holy Spirit makes this access possible for us.<\/p>\n
When Paul writes of \u201cevery spiritual blessing,\u201d he does not mean invisible blessings or otherworldly blessings, or blessings that we somehow \u201cfeel in our spirits.\u201d The reference is to the Holy Spirit. We could capitalize the s<\/i> in spiritual<\/i>. The blessings are transmitted by the Spirit, who is the author of all spiritual gifts and graces. The Spirit blesses us with the things that are \u201cin Christ\u201d by sealing us in union with Him.<\/p>\n
CORAM DEO<\/b><\/p>\n
Genesis 45\u201347<\/p>\n
WEEKEND<\/b><\/p>\n
Genesis 48\u201350<\/p>\n
Exodus 1\u20132<\/p>\n
We are united to the heavenly realm, but we live on earth. The reason is clear: We are to act so that God\u2019s \u201cwill is done on earth as it is in heaven.\u201d In heaven God is praised; so it should be here. In heaven God is feared and obeyed; so it should be here. Think of a specific thing that you can do today to manifest heaven on earth.<\/p>\n
For further study: Matthew 6:9\u201315 \u2022 Philippians 3:12\u201321<\/i><\/p>\n
WEEKEND<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
EPHESIANS 1:3\u201314 Praise [blessed] be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ (Ephesians 1:3). Paul begins the body of his letter with a long sentence (1:3\u201314) that is usually broken up into several shorter sentences in the English translations. … Continue reading “TWO-WAY BLESSINGS”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11896\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}