In Him

“…if the Epistle to the Romans is the purest expression of the gospel, the Epistle to the Ephesians is the sublimest and the most majestic expression of it.” Dr. Martin Lloyd Jones.

Over the next few months we as church will embark on a wonderful journey that will help us better understand and remember Gods greatest gift to us the church, the riches that we have in Christ and how the church is to live, love and serve.

In Christ we are blessed and chosen to know and walk with Him (1:1-4). He has blessed us in the heavenly places with every spiritual blessing in Christ and these blessings were secured before the foundation of the world.  In love He predestined and chose to adopt us and grant us full rights as adult sons and daughters into His kingdom (5-6). Evidence of this great blessing is our redemption. We have been set free from the master of sin and are now free to worship Him to the praise of His glory (7-12). The confidence that we have is that our heavenly Father has sealed us with His Holy Spirit as a pledge of our inheritance of what is to come. Turner and Carson suggest that the apostle Paul presents “a worship/prayer form for most of the first part of the letter itself and dictates the more ‘elevated’ and liturgical style…celebrating the accomplishment in Christ of Gods great purposes.”

Do you spend regular time reflecting on the blessings you have in knowing Christ and being chosen to walk with Him?

What are your thoughts on being predestined to know God before the foundation of the world?

We have been set free, redeemed, from sin. In the privacy of your heart is there a controlling sin that the Lord needs to extract?

How do you listen to the Holy Spirit, the promised seal of our salvation and how does this knowledge comfort and elicit praise to God?

In Christ, we are blessed and chosen, in love, adopted, set free and sealed with the Holy Spirit to the praise of His glory.