Ephesians 1:3 says, “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.” This is a declaration of praise to God for the abundance of spiritual blessings available to believers in Christ. Traditionally these blessings were understood to be in the heavenly places, a realm where God and spiritual beings exist, and where believers are united with Christ.
The word “heavenly” often refers to the divine realm or the spiritual realities in contrast earthly or temporal things with those that are eternal and divine.
Here Paul is describing both the kind of blessings and the location of those spiritual blessings, which are far better than material blessings. These blessings are ours in the heavenly places in Christ, they are higher, better, and more secure than earthly blessings.
A powerful way of illustrating using the phrase "on earth as it is in heaven". We can use the analogy of God's will being fulfilled on earth, mirroring the perfect order and harmony of heaven. This can be further illustrated by contrasting the current state of the world with God's desired reality, highlighting areas like justice, peace, and unity.
Perhaps Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase of Ephesians 1:3 is a helpful way of understanding what is being said and the nature of the blessing Christ gives. “How blessed is God! And what a blessing he is! He’s the Father of our Master, Jesus Christ, and takes us to the high places of blessing in him.”
God of secret purposes and extravagant blessings,
we come to praise you.
We come because we want to,
we sing our songs because we are glad to,
we pray for your grace because we need to,
and we ask for the love of Christ in our hearts
because without it we are a dead loss.
Please lift every shutter within our mind,
and open every door within our soul,
that you, the Lord of glory, the God of countless hosts, may come in.
Through Christ Jesus, the joy of loving hearts. Amen!
No comments:
Post a Comment