Today’s passage: Ephesians 1:15-23
This weekend, we’re coninuing our journey through the first few chapters of Ephesians. Paul wrote to the Ephesian Christians to remind them of how amazingly wonderful the good news of God really is, and to encourage them in their living out of that. As we saw last week, what makes the good news of Jesus so incredible is that God has done it all! God chose us, rescued us and saved us. And what’s more we have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus. As those who trust in Jesus, we are new people – we have died to sin; we are completely forgiven for everything we have done and will do! And we are now co-heirs with Christ Jesus – who has been placed in a position of absolute authority over everything.
As Christians we are blessed in Christ Jesus with every spiritual blessing; with everything that we need to live an abundant life – to live in eternal relationship with God, enjoying him forever. But so often we don’t live out of that abundance. We struggle sill with the sin that lives within us (not now as a controlling force, but as a parasite.) We struggle with living in a world that sill bears the bleeding scars of rebellion against God. In fact, that rebellion becomes, if anything, more visible to us – perhaps even directed against us who put our trust in God. How are we as followers of Jesus to enjoy the “spiritual blessings” that are ours in Christ Jesus? Or are they just for eternity? Are we meant to just “muddle it out” here until either Jesus returns or we die?
Having praised God for his kindness in blessing us in Christ Jesus so richly, Paul goes on to pray for his readers that God’s Spirit would open the eyes of their hearts to a fuller knowledge of God. As the old saying says, “It’s not what you know; it’s who you know.” Paul wants us to grow in our knowledge of our loving God who has blessed us. Since we have now been given a share of his own divine nature(WOW! 2 Peter 1:4!), the more we know God, the more we start to know the person that God has made us, and that will be revealed on the day that Jesus returns. And as we grow in our knowledge of God, we also come to understand more of the hope to which we have been called. We also come to realise just how valuable God considers us: we are not only his heirs, but also his own inheritance!
As Paul prays, he asks God to enable us to know the incomparably great power of God that is ours in Christ Jesus. He reminds us that God has already proven his incredible power in the resurrection of Jesus. That same power established Jesus as head over all creation; right now, there is no power in all of creation that is greater than Jesus. And God did that for the sake of the church! Jesus is Lord of all for the sake of you and I!
If you were to look at the night sky, much of it appears dark. Yet leave a camera on a long exposure, and you ind that far from the sky being mostly dark it is simply crammed with stars. What Paul prayed for – and what we need – is to know our Heavenly father more and more, so that we can live in this world out of his character and with his power. We truly are more than conquerors through Christ who gives us strength. As we grow closer to our Father, may that truth become more and more obvious to us
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