Paul’s letter to the Christians in Ephesus is one of his best. It was John Calvin’s favourite letter. The late John Stott says that the letter is a ‘marvelously concise, yet comprehensive, summary of the Christian good news and its implications. Nobody can read it without being moved to wonder and worship, and challenged to consistency of life’. Today we commence a twelve week sojourn into a letter that should spur us on to great heights as we begin to realize just how blessed we are as followers of Jesus.
We will only take a snap shot of the first fourteen verses of the first chapter. There is so much in these verses for us to grasp. Paul tells us that we have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ. He goes on to list several of these blessings that are ours if we are in Christ! What are these spiritual blessings? They include election, adoption, redemption, forgiveness, wisdom and understanding, knowledge of God’s will, heirs in the making and the granting of a guarantee for our salvation. I could preach a sermon on each of these unique and incredible spiritual blessings!
Today, I am keen to draw your attention to only a couple of these and in particular to the great revelation of the blessings of election and adoption. Paul uses the terms ‘predestined’, ‘adopted’ and ‘chosen’. What do these terms mean and how do they apply to you and me? Is it possible that God has chosen you? Is it possible that God has predestined you? Is it possible that God has adopted you? I believe that every Christian has been chosen, predestined and adopted! But why has God done this? Is there anything special about us? I hope to answer these questions for you and to open your mind to something that is utterly incredible.
With the knowledge that we will gain today, I truly hope and pray that it will spur us onto realizing that we have been elected for a purpose and that purpose is to bring glory to God in all that we do. We have been chosen to be blameless and holy and not only this but to become a Christ like community with Jesus as its head!