“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessedly us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.” Ephesians 1:3
Jun 15, 2021 – “Count your many blessings, name them one by one!” Let’s do that. H. A. Ironside titles his book “In The Heavenlies” because the term “heavenlies” expresses an environment for “other world” living—a distinct expression to describe the victorious (not defeated) Christian life.
Verse 1 indicates our complete environment. Criswell writes, “Environment means ‘to circle around,’ and we are encircled by three things. First, we are in Christ. Our Christian life is lived in Christ. Second, our life is lived in the fellowship of the saints. Third, our life is lived in our own Ephesus, in the world around us…We are not saints in heaven, we are saints in our Ephesus.” And we are wonderfully blessed while living in our Ephesus! Blessed beyond all measure in the here and now.
Ephesians develops those blessings throughout its six chapters. The blessings include more than salvation from sin (God already sees us seated in heaven in Christ); they also include our eternal purpose, our union with Christ, our daily walk, our role in God’s church, family and work relationships, the believer’s armor against Satan, plus much, much more. We have received not only the first blessing, not only the second blessing but thousands more…and they keep coming.
Each verse in Ephesians is a case of Paul counting his blessings…and yours! Are you discouraged today? Then look up! Ephesians is the “look up” book. You will then realize the reality of these words from the early church father Clement of Alexandria: “God has turned all our sunsets into sunrise.”
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