Imagine your boss at work has just given you an assignment to fulfill, or you are taking an art class and have been given a project to do. How can I do this work if I don’t have the equipment needed? I don’t have the right tools or all the information I need. I want to go on a camping trip, but I don’t have the right equipment. What can I do? Then the boss or the art teacher tells me that I do have the material, it’s right there in a box by the work table, or in folders on my desk, or the camping equipment already packed in my car. It has already been given to me. What about living my Christian life? After becoming a Christian, how am I able to follow that path, and live a victorious Christian life? How can I accomplish that? In our passage today from Paul’s letter to the Ephesian church, we can see what God has given us in order to live a victorious life.
After we become a Christian, it sometimes might seem like a daunting task to follow the Lord, obey His Word, and live for Him. How can I do it? How do I love as I should, forgive others, and live with the fruits of the Spirit active in my life? We do have all that we need to live victoriously, though. Jesus has already secured for us every spiritual blessing that God has available for believers (vs. 3). Here are some of the blessings we have through Christ: We have the privilege of knowing God intimately. We were chosen for salvation, and have been adopted into God’s family as His children. God has granted us forgiveness of sins, given us spiritual insights into His Scriptures, and all of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. We have the power to do God’s will, and the hope of living forever with Jesus (vs. 4-6).
These are blessings we can enjoy now. They come from God in heaven, not from any earthly source. No one can steal them from us, or hold them back. We need to stop living like spiritual paupers, as if we have nothing. If we wish to enjoy all that has been given to us, we must delight ourselves in the Lord our Savior. God’s abundant blessings belong only to believers who are His children by faith in Christ. What He has is also ours.
We are not saved because we deserve it. God graciously and freely gives salvation to all who come to Him through Jesus Christ. Unrighteous people are declared righteous, unworthy sinners are declared worthy through the imputed righteousness of Jesus, granted us in salvation. We cannot take credit or pride in our salvation. God chose us before creation (vs. 4). The mystery of salvation originated in the timeless mind of God long before we existed. We were marked out beforehand, chosen, and adopted into God’s family (vs. 5). God graciously accepts us, even though we don’t deserve it, now that we belong to His Son.
There is a big difference between having the blessings of God and actually enjoying them. We need to learn what blessings God has provided for us, and then laying hold of them by faith (vs. 18). The more that we know of Jesus, the more we will be like Him. The hope we have through Jesus is a complete assurance of certain victory through God, not merely wishful thinking.
Paul prayed that we will know the power of God, and know Him (vs. 19-20). This is the power that defeated death, raised Jesus to life, and can now work in the lives of believers. We can know the power of God in our lives today, and we can trust that He can and will help us with all that concerns us. God’s incomparable power, that same power that raised Jesus from death, is available to help us in any need. Nothing is too difficult for Him. If death was not too difficult for Him, then certainly nothing we face today is either.
God has abundantly blessed us with all spiritual blessings. Jesus offers us abundant life now (John 10:10). We need to be living like it, live like we have His abundant life. We can tap into the endless supply of God’s grace. Eternity begins the moment we are saved. We don’t need to wait until heaven to enjoy God’s blessings. These blessings are ours. We use other tools to help us in our life. We need to take hold upon all that God has given us in order to live the life God wishes us to.
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