The Blessings of God

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Eph 1:3–14

 God has blessed us with all spiritual blessings. Paul’s list is:

  1. Chosen
  2. Predestined
  3. Redeemed
  4. Made Known
  5. Sealed

So as I continue to co-teach with my son, we have some pre-arranged questions. Graham, “Which of these blessings resonates with you the most?” __________ “Why?” [“Or is there a blessing not listed that is first on your list?”]

So, let me explore your answer … [and the dialogue between us continues around the following conversation. Although time did not permit us to explore each one]. 

God has Chosen You:

  • God has always been an electing God (Deut. 7:6-8).
  • You cannot share in God’s blessing unless you are first chosen. You do not come into the community of believers by accident or chance but by God’s plan. His choice was no afterthought.  You were chosen to be in Christ.
  • In every high school there is always an “in” crowd. They wear the latest styles with the right labels. They are friends with the right people and hang-out at the right places. When they have a slumber party and you’re invited, you feel good.  You know that you belong.  But what happens when one Friday night you are not called to go get Pizza?   Everyone else goes but you don’t even hear about it until Monday at School.  You feel rejected, left out.
  • Listen to what Paul says—You have been chosen to be in Christ. Being in Christ is the in place to be. These blessings described here are not blessings only for tomorrow.  He blessed you with his choosing even before the world began.  And all these blessings are only found in the place that is happening — in Christ.  And the church is the belonging place to be.
  • If I am in Christ, it is because God chose me.
  • Choosing sides in a ball game. My friend chooses me first!  Even to pitch! No one wants to feel rejected.  But we have all at one time felt rejection.  Maybe you were turned down for a job you really wanted.  Maybe you offered your hand to help someone, and they refused it.  Remember who God is.  God chose you.  God chose you in love.  What better motive can be given for God acting on your behalf.  In love God chose you for God doesn’t choose in any other way.
  • Like Health Insurance — Do you think, “Well, now that I have health insurance, I better go out here and break my leg so that I can take advantage of it.” No. I am ready ahead of time even when I don’t presently have a need for it.  Knowing the nature of children and sicknesses and accidents, I’m prepared to meet my family’s need before the need. This choosing took place before you even knew you wanted to be chosen. God was ready to bless before the need of blessing existed. God was ready to choose you before there was even the necessity of your need to be chosen. But God knew that through sin, you would reject him, and you would need to be chosen so God could supply what was lacking in you.  God picked you out, not just tolerated you, but picked you out due to your value. You were chosen by the best. And that choosing has a purpose — for you to be holy and blameless. How then ought you to live? A life of praise and thankfulness. A life of appreciation. What an image for the community to see … a church of folks who live their lives in appreciation for God has done for them. Making Christ attractive revealing in us the attractiveness of God.

God has Predestined You:

  • Don’t confuse this with predetermining who goes to heaven or hell. God is not designating here who goes where but designating that all those who are in Christ would be God’s children.  God did not predestine individuals.  God did predestine a plan of salvation.
  • God determined before the creation of the world that humanity would need redemption from sin. God decided to send his only son to die on a cross so that all could be saved. God has predetermined that all those who would trust in the atoning death of his son for salvation would be saved.
  • God’s plan of salvation was conceived before creation. God’s plan of salvation is still the only way God redeems people.  God’s plan of salvation is the gospel story of Jesus: Incarnation, Ministry, Message, Death, Resurrection, Ascension, Enthronement and Return.  It was predestined that those who believed this message and responded to it in obedience would be saved. It is predestined who will win the World Series next year. How?  I might become a betting man if it can be predetermined. The team that has the best division record in their division and will go to the league championship game and the winner of that 7-game series will play in the World Series.  The winner of that 7-game series will be the World Champions this October.
  • It is predestined that all those who are in Christ Jesus will be adopted as children. They won’t be slaves or servants or outsiders who live on the back 40 of the estate but children who dine with the Father at the Father’s banqueting table. Predestined to be a child and not a slave. It is like a nurse who works all day to come home and find her own sick child.  Does she demand a paycheck or overtime?  No!  They are in relationship. The Roman law of adoption allowed a mature adult who had grown up in one family to be adopted by another family and become a member of it just as fully as if he had grown up in it. Trajan was adopted by Nerva who desired a capable person to succeed him on the throne.
  • God adopted you due to God’s good pleasure. God desired to adopt you and call you his own.  You live in a world of so many unwanted children.  Children are abused, abandoned, and left without homes all over the country.  A report on PBS stated that the fastest growing group of poor in America are the children in our homes.  Children are growing up in America in the no parent household.  Often the parent who is still around is either on drugs or working so many hours that children are growing up left to their own devices. Screen time is the child care provider. But God adopted you to be his when he didn’t have to.

God has Redeemed Us

  • If we truly understood God, we would realize that he loves us, and is doing all that is possible to redeem us. He chose us to be holy and blameless, he predestined us to be adopted, He redeemed us by the blood of his Son accordance with the riches of His grace.  Our bankruptcy is clearly seen by the high price God paid by sending his son.  The only right response is a faith response that gives our life for him.  Once we see God, we will see our spiritual bankruptcy, but also, we will see God’s redemption.
  • There is a hospital in Memphis that Laura used to work for that is free to all patients [St. Jude’s Children Research Hospital]. It is not free because is not a good hospital, it is free because it is too expensive for anyone to afford to pay for the services rendered.
  • The price for our redemption is beyond our resources. But God lavished this redemption upon us in wisdom and discernment (planned and thought out).

God has Made Known to Us

  • Have you ever looked at the photo on your license? “I don’t like it, It’s not me.”  It’s you alright, but from a view point you don’t care for. We do not like to look at ourselves from the viewpoint of sin.  We don’t like looking at our own sinful condition.  We don’t like looking at our sin because human pride hates grace.  Human pride wants to do it all by itself. You cannot pick yourself up by your own bootstraps.
  • But if you had a millionaire uncle who every time he saw you would smile and say, “I’ve got plans for you.” What plans?  your imagination would go wild.  See verses 9-12.
  • All summed up and brought together in Christ. The world is falling apart.  Marriages are breaking up, families disintegrating, the ethnic hatreds of eastern Europe are heating up after a century of Soviet suppression, where is the glue in society that keeps people together.  God is the one who integrates and incorporates.  People can be put back together, and peace can be established between broken people in a way that psychology and the self-help books cannot.  All is summed up and brought together in Christ.

God has Sealed Us

  • We have received an inheritance that lets us know the whole transaction is legitimate. God has made it right for us to be his heir. The Holy Spirit is a seal that guarantees our inheritance.  The Holy Spirit given to dwell in the Christian is the first installment of our salvation. This word for deposit is the same word in modern Greek to describe an engagement ring.  Something being given as a promise to receive something later.   The Holy Spirit insures our future and empowers us for Christian living.
  • Sealing implies 1) a finished transaction; 2) ownership; 3) security and protection; 4) genuineness — God recognizes that we belong to him. And you need to hold on to your warranty (keep in step with the Spirit) for it to be effective.  And we will be God’s possession — God gains a people that will be to the praise of his glory.
  • We can have assurance because we know who stands behind the promise. Promises are only as good as the one who backs them up. If we hold on to him, there will be no denying our future inheritance for God has acted by giving us his Spirit as a foretaste of heaven.

How much more could be said: We stand in ovation as God moves across the stage of history choosing God’s own. Then we see God move again and the applause for God waves through the crowd.  God has redeemed us, God has made known to us, and God has sealed us.  Praise be to God our benefactor.