Every Spiritual Blessing (preaching resource for Christmas 2: 1/5/25 )

This exegesis of Ephesians 1:3-14 provides context for the RCL Epistle reading on Christmas 2 (1/5/25). Insights are drawn from vaious sources, including Karl Barth's commentary on this passage).

"St. Paul" by Barbiere (public domain via Wikimedia Commons)

Introduction

Ephesians 1:3-14 is a prayer of Paul’s, often called a “doxology.” Here the apostle pours forth a cascade of praise to our triune God in what (in the original Greek) is a single, quite lengthy sentence. It speaks to who God is, what he has done through Christ, and therefore who we are in Christ. 

We begin in Ephesians 1:3:

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.

In the original Greek, the phrase “praise be to [him]…who has blessed us,” is an untranslatable play on words that implies that what we do (our praise) is a response to what God has already done. Karl Barth describes our praise as an “echo of what God has done first”first not only in sequence, but also in priority. Paul’s point is that who we are and what we do flow from who God is, and what he has done already on our behalf, namely to save us by making us his own, in Christ. It’s not about what we do, it's not about ourselves, though we are the beneficiaries, and therefore we praise him.

As to his own experience, Paul would never have understood his conversion to Christ on the Damascus Road as the cause of his being “in Christ.” Paul did not belong (come into Christ) because he believed, rather he believed because he already belonged. As we will see, Paul understood that he had been included in Christ long before he was even born. And that is cause for much praise.

Three circles: a movement of grace

In Ephesians 1:4-14, Paul describes one reality expressed in three temporal frameworks (circles), all proceeding from a common center (“in Christ”):

  • Circle 1 (past): In Christ, we have election (vv 4-6) 
  • Circle 2 (present): In Christ, we have forgiveness (vv 7-10)
  • Circle 3 (future): In Christ, we have hope, due to the sealing of the Spirit, which secures our inheritance (vv 11-14)

Each circle begins with a description of God’s action on behalf of humanity in Christ, then ends with the phrase, to the praise of his glory or something similar (see vv 6a, 12b and 14b). 

Though there is a time sequence implied by these circles, we should keep two things in mind: 

  • First that God exists outside of time (for him there is no past, present and future—just an eternal “now”). For that reason, we should not think that Paul sees some sort of rigid, cause-and-effect linear progression here. 
  • Paul's over-arching point is that salvation, in all its aspects, past, present and future, is God’s gift to us, by grace, in Christ. Indeed, God’s gracious action on our behalf is the very basis of our existence at all times. 

What we find in these circles is a movement of grace: from the past, into the present, then on to the future. That movement is from God… down to humanity… then back to God. Let’s now look at the first circle.

Circle #1: election

The circle, which speaks to the past and our election in Christ, is described in Eph 1:4-6:

For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.

The truth of the gospel, declared so beautifully in this doxology, is that in grace God acted firsthe (the Father) chose us in him (in Christ) before the creation of the world. This places God’s will and act of choosing us as far back as one can possibly goback before the creation of time itself. Note also that God’s intention for humanity, even before creation, proceeds not from our will (how can it, we weren’t around!), but from the mystery of God’s will, and from there, in Christ, it flows on in God’s actions on our behalf as we will see in the next two circles. 

And that mysterious will of God--his purpose in actinghas to do with “the praise of his glorious grace.” The grace in view is that by which God decided to create us, and then knowing the end from the beginning, the grace involved in accounting for our fall, acting in Christ to redeem us in order to make us who he created us to be, namely his sons (children). All this is done by God on our behalf apart from anything we do. He does it for us, in Christ alone, by grace alone. And that’s why we praise him!

Circle #2: forgiveness 

Moving forward in salvation history, the second circle circumscribes the present. Note Eph. 1:7-12:

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the richest of God’s grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillmentto bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ. In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory.

From the background of the distant past in which God elected us to be his children in Christ, Paul turns to the present in which the reality of our fallen condition is addressed through redemption. By God’s act of grace, in Christ, humanity was restored through forgiveness to that state to which God elected humanity from before creation, namely to be his children. And thus the past, which is all about grace, is tied to the present action of God, again all about God’s grace. And both occur “in Christ.”

The present which Paul has in mind is the time of Christ’s first coming (advent)of the Incarnation when the Son of God assumed our humanity, warts and all, in order to accomplish what we could not do for ourselves, namely our redemption. Through his life, death, resurrection and ascension, the God-man Jesus set humanity on an entirely new footingno longer that of the first Adam, but now that of Jesus Christ, the second, or last, Adam. Because of what Jesus did, we are God’s children through the grace of adoption.

The implications of what Paul says here are stunningtoo good for many to accept. But we have to let these words say precisely what they say, and mean precisely what they mean. Through what God in Christ has done, the redemption of all humanity is a “done deal.” Here, located as we are in this present era in salvation history, many don’t see this reality clearly or at all, though, by grace, it has been made known to those who believe (like the Christians in Ephesus). Please understand, our belief does not create the reality of our salvation. Our belief does not make us God’s children. But it does allow us to see (comprehend, experience) what already is true (though, as we’ll see, the fullness of that reality is yet to unfold). 

As we wait that unfolding, we, as believers, have hope, and that brings us to the third circle.

Circle 3#: hope

This circle, in circumscribing our inheritance secured by sealing in the Holy Spirit, points to our hope. Notice Eph. 1:13-14:

And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.

Is Paul here overthrowing what he already declared? Are we not “included in Christ” until we hear “the message of truth” (the gospel)? Well, some draw that conclusion, but they are mistaken. Again, we must be very careful not to impose a linear, cause-and-effect structure on Paul’s doxology. Remember, it’s one sentenceall one piece about what God does to make us his children, in Christ, by grace; not by what we do. The NIV gives a rather unfortunate translation of v13a. Notice others:

  • NASB: In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed… 
  • NRSV: In him you also, when you had heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and had believed in him, were marked…

Paul’s point, understood in context, is that we (and here the “we” are believers) were (past tenseancient history) included in Christ (by grace, through election and adoption) when, eventually (in the present) we “heard the message” of our inclusion. And when we heard, and in faith received that message, something happened in our lives as believers that is quite important, quite stunning. But what happened was not our adoption, not our salvation, not our redemptionthese had all occurred before we believed. Instead, what happened when we believed was, in Paul’s terms, our “marking” or “sealing,” which involved the mysterious and transforming work of the Holy Spirit. 

In the culture of Paul’s day, to refer to “marking with a seal” would evoke the image of a contract, which becomes legally valid by virtue of the seal placed on it by the contracting party. The carrying out of the contract is assured and guaranteed through this symbol/mark, which pledges the parties to honor the contract whether they are present or absent. 

Believers have received such a marking from Goda seal that involves the Holy Spirit of promise, which is parallel in this passage with the message of truth. The message (word) is the truth, and the Spirit is the promise. Whoever has the promise, truly has it and the Holy Spirit with it. The fact that the children of God wait (in faith) for their inheritance, is its own proofthe guarantee and surety that they do not wait in vain. 

God does not need anyone other than himself to vouch for his promise; by sealing us with the Holy Spirit, God makes himself available to us in a new way, becoming for us the guarantor of his promise, allowing himself to be known by us in his divine trustworthiness. Non-believers, though already included in Christ, do not know this; they do not have this hope. They are devoid of this assurance.

To have the Holy Spirit in the way believers do, means that they experience a contentment in God. Paul says that the believers in Ephesus, by virtue of knowing and believing the word of truth, are those who are content in Godthose who feel blessed by God because they are content in God’s truthfulness and trustworthyness. 

Paul says that the Spirit himself is “a deposit guaranteeing….” What is being guaranteed here? The answer is the fullness of the kingdom, which is the future inheritance for which we as believers hope. Being in Christ and knowing it, we have every reason to hope for (expect) our inheritance. This is the blessing, which has been given to us in Christ. We believers have, through the sealing of the Holy Spirit in our minds, a living hope. 

We have this hope even though we live in a fallen world because we, by the Spirit, have minds reoriented to the world to come. And that is truly a blessing that, by grace, is ours in Christ. Amen.