Ephesians 1:3 - Meaning and Application

He begins with thanksgiving and praise, and then pours out, with great warmth and fullness, the precious blessings we enjoy through Jesus Christ. The great privileges of our faith fit very naturally into praise to God. Here he first blesses God in general for spiritual blessings, in Ephesians 1:3, calling him the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. As Mediator, Christ had the Father as his God, and as God, the second person of the blessed Trinity, God was his Father.

This shows the deep union between Christ and believers. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is also their God and Father, in and through him. All blessings come from God as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. No good can be expected from a holy and righteous God toward sinful people except through Christ’s mediation. He has blessed us with all spiritual blessings. Spiritual blessings are the best blessings God gives, and they are the ones we should praise him for. He blesses us by giving us things that truly make us blessed, though we cannot bless him back in the same way. We can only praise him, magnify him, and speak well of him for these gifts.

Those whom God blesses with any spiritual blessing, he blesses with all spiritual blessings. To those he gives Christ, he freely gives all these things. This is not how temporal blessings work. Some people have health but not wealth, and others have wealth but not health. But when God blesses with spiritual blessings, he gives them all. These are spiritual blessings in heavenly places, that is, some say, in the church, which is set apart from the world and called out of it. Or the phrase may mean heavenly things, things that come from heaven and prepare us for heaven, and secure our welcome there. We should therefore set our minds on spiritual and heavenly things as the main things, and on spiritual and heavenly blessings as the best blessings. Without them we cannot be happy, and with them we cannot truly be miserable. Do not set your hearts on earthly things, but on the things above. We receive these blessings in Christ, because just as all our service rises to God through Christ, so all our blessings come to us through him, since he is the Mediator between God and us.

The apostle then names several spiritual blessings, and many of them are explained at length here. The first is election and predestination, which are the hidden springs from which the others flow, in Ephesians 1:4, Ephesians 1:5, and Ephesians 1:11. Election, or choosing, looks at the great mass of mankind from which some are chosen and set apart. Predestination looks at the blessings they are appointed to receive, especially adoption, the making of believers into children of God so they may have the rights and inheritance of children. This act of love took place before the foundation of the world, not only before God’s people existed, but before the world itself began. They were chosen in God’s counsel from all eternity.

This makes these blessings all the greater, because they came from eternal purpose. Gifts given on the spot can be generous, but a parent’s long-planned provision for children is deeper and more solemn. In the same way, God’s eternal choice shows his love and also secures the blessings for his chosen people, because God’s purpose according to election will stand. He gives spiritual blessings in line with his eternal purpose. He has blessed us according to his choice in Christ, the great head of the chosen people, who is called God’s chosen one. In the chosen Redeemer, God set his favor on them.

The great aim of this choice is also shown here, that we should be holy, not because God saw in advance that we would be holy, but because he determined to make us holy. All who are chosen for happiness as the goal are chosen for holiness as the way. Their sanctification, meaning being made holy, is just as much the result of divine love as their salvation. And without blame before him means that this holiness should not be only outward, so that people could find no fault with us. It must be inward and real, the kind that God himself, who sees the heart, counts as true. It is holiness that comes from love to God and love to other people, since love is the root of true holiness. The original word means a kind of innocence that no one can reasonably criticize. Some therefore understand it as the perfect holiness believers will have in the life to come, when they will stand before God in his immediate presence forever.

The rule and source of God’s election are also given: it is according to the good pleasure of his will, in Ephesians 1:5, not because of anything he foresaw in them, but because it was his own sovereign will and brought him pleasure. It is according to his purpose, his fixed and unchangeable will, the will of him who works all things according to the counsel of his own will, in Ephesians 1:11. He powerfully brings to pass everything that concerns his chosen people, as he has wisely and freely planned and decided. The final end of all this is his own glory, to the praise of the glory of his grace, in Ephesians 1:6, and that we should be to the praise of his glory, in Ephesians 1:12. That is, we should live in such a way that his rich grace is made known, shown to be glorious, and given the highest praise. Everything is from God, through God, and to God, so everything must center on praising him. God’s glory is his own goal, and it should be ours in everything we do.

Some have understood this passage differently, especially as referring to the conversion of these Ephesians to Christianity. Those who want to see that view explained can consult Mr. Locke and other well-known writers on the passage.

The next spiritual blessing the apostle mentions is acceptance with God through Jesus Christ: “by which grace he has made us accepted in the beloved,” in Ephesians 1:6. Jesus Christ is the beloved of his Father, as well as of angels and saints (Matthew 3:17). It is a great privilege to be accepted by God. That means he loves us, takes care of us, and brings us into his family. We cannot be accepted by God except in and through Jesus Christ. God loves his people because of the beloved Son.

The third blessing is forgiveness of sins, and redemption through the blood of Jesus, in Ephesians 1:7. There is no forgiveness without redemption. Sin is what held us captive, and we cannot be freed from that captivity except by having our sins forgiven. We have this redemption in Christ, and this forgiveness through his blood.

The guilt and stain of sin could be removed only by the blood of Jesus. All our spiritual blessings come to us through that stream. This great gift comes to us freely, yet our blessed Lord paid dearly for it. Even so, it still matches the riches of God’s grace.

Christ’s sacrifice and God’s rich grace fit together perfectly in the great work of human redemption. God was satisfied by Christ as our substitute and surety, meaning he stood in our place and guaranteed what we could not. Yet it was still rich grace that accepted a surety at all, when God might have carried out the full severity of the law on the sinner. It was also rich grace to provide such a surety as his own Son, and freely give him up, when nothing like that could have entered our minds or been found for us in any other way.

In this, God has shown not only rich grace, but also that he has abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence (Ephesians 1:8). There is wisdom in planning this work, and prudence in carrying out the purpose of his will. How clearly God’s wisdom and prudence appear in fitting justice and mercy together so well in this great matter, preserving the honor of God and his law while making the rescue and salvation of sinners certain!

Another privilege the apostle blesses God for is divine revelation, that God has made known to us the mystery of his will (Ephesians 1:9). That means he has revealed so much of his good will toward people, which had long been hidden and is still hidden from much of the world. We owe this to Christ, who had been in the Father’s bosom from eternity and came to tell his will to human beings. This was according to God’s good pleasure, his secret plans about human redemption, which he purposed from himself alone, not because of anything in us.

In this revelation, and in making known the mystery of his will, God’s wisdom and prudence shine brightly. The gospel is called the word of truth and the gospel of our salvation (Ephesians 1:13). Every word of it is true. It contains the most serious and important truths, and it is confirmed and sealed by the oath of God. So we should turn to it in all our searches for divine truth. It is the gospel of our salvation because it announces the good news of salvation, offers salvation, and shows the way to it. The blessed Spirit makes the reading and preaching of it effective for the salvation of souls.

How we should value this glorious gospel and thank God for it. It is light shining in a dark place, and we should be grateful for it and pay close attention to it.

Union in and with Christ is another great privilege, a spiritual blessing, and the base of many others. God gathers together in one all things in Christ (Ephesians 1:10). All the lines of divine revelation meet in Christ, and all true religion centers in him. Jews and Gentiles are united to each other because both are united to Christ. Things in heaven and things on earth are gathered together in him. Peace is made, and fellowship is set in order, between heaven and earth through him.

The countless company of angels becomes one with the church through Christ. God planned this in himself, and it was his purpose for that arrangement to be carried out by sending Christ in the fullness of time, at the exact time God had chosen and fixed.

The eternal inheritance is the great blessing we receive in Christ: In whom also we have obtained an inheritance (Ephesians 1:11). Heaven is that inheritance, and its happiness is enough to satisfy a soul. It comes as an inheritance, the gift of a Father to his children. If children, then heirs. All the blessings we now hold are small compared with that inheritance. What is given to an heir while he is still young is nothing compared with what is reserved for him when he comes of age.

Christians are said to have obtained this inheritance because they have a present right to it, and even actual possession of it, in Christ their head and representative. The seal and earnest of the Spirit are also among these blessings. We are sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise (Ephesians 1:13). The blessed Spirit is holy himself, and he makes us holy. He is called the Spirit of promise because he is the promised Spirit. By him believers are sealed, meaning marked out, set apart for God, and shown to belong to him.

The Spirit is the earnest of our inheritance (Ephesians 1:14). An earnest is a first payment that secures the full amount later. So it is with the gift of the Holy Spirit. All his work in us, as one who makes us holy and comforts us, is heaven begun, glory in seed form and in bud. The Spirit’s light is an earnest of everlasting light, sanctification is an earnest of perfect holiness, and his comforts are earnests of everlasting joys.

He is called the earnest until the redemption of the purchased possession. It can be called a possession here because this earnest makes it as certain for the heirs as if they already held it. It was purchased for them by the blood of Christ. The word redemption is used because it had been mortgaged and lost through sin, and Christ restores it to us, thus redeeming it, with an allusion to the law of redemption. From this, we should notice how gracious that promise is which secures the gift of the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.

The apostle also names the great end of God in giving all these spiritual privileges, that we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ, those of us to whom the gospel first came and who were first brought to faith in Christ and to hope and trust in him. Being first in grace is a great honor. The apostle says, “Who were in Christ before me” (Romans 16:7). Those who have known Christ’s grace longer are under a special duty to glorify God. They should be strong in faith and give him even greater praise, though this is the duty of all.

This is the purpose for which we were made, and for which we were redeemed, the great design of our Christian life and of all that God has done for us, unto the praise of his glory (Ephesians 1:14). He intends that his grace, power, and every other perfection should become clear and splendid through this, and that the sons of men should magnify him.