Spiritual Blessings in Christ (Ephesians 1.3-14)

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.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. He worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Together we may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

He chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. Those who walk blamelessly do what is right and speak truth in their heart. You are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. We ought always to give thanks to God, brothers and sisters, beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the first fruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good actions, which God prepared beforehand so that we may walk in them with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, and walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. He has reconciled in his body of flesh by his death to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him. For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. Speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. He saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our actions but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ.

He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell. When the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed. “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received a spirit of adoption when we cry, “Abba! Father!” For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. Those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

Praise his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. For this reason, the Father loves the Son because the Son laid down his life that he may take it up again. The Father loves the Son and has placed all things in his hands. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son.

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace that he lavished on us. Do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? We are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. Because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption. Having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. According to the riches of his glory, he grants you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. God chose to make known how great the riches of the glory of this mystery are, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

With all wisdom and insight, he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ. Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased! We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. Now to him who can strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages. For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.

As a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth, through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law. The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel. For by means of him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. This was in accordance with the eternal purpose that he has carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord. Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.

So that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.

In him you also, when you had heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and had believed in him, were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him because he abides with you, and he will be in you. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing. You have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus. Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.

This is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God’s own people, to the praise of his glory. Now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which can build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. Having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, you know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints. You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.