{"id":6738,"date":"2020-08-03T05:11:34","date_gmt":"2020-08-03T10:11:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/wp\/?p=6738"},"modified":"2020-08-02T17:11:57","modified_gmt":"2020-08-02T22:11:57","slug":"ephesians-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/?p=6738","title":{"rendered":"Ephesians 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

Greeting<\/strong><\/p>\n

1\u00a0<\/strong>Paul,\u00a0an apostle of Christ Jesus\u00a0by the will of God,<\/p>\n

To the saints who are in Ephesus, and\u00a0are faithful[<\/sup>a<\/sup><\/a>]<\/sup>\u00a0in Christ Jesus:<\/p>\n

2\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This greeting is typical of Paul. The apostle knew the essential place of\u00a0grace\u00a0and\u00a0peace\u00a0from God in the life of the believer, and He knew that receiving God\u2019s grace comes\u00a0before<\/em>\u00a0a walk in peace with Him.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Spiritual Blessings in Christ<\/strong><\/p>\n

3\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>Blessed be\u00a0the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing\u00a0in the heavenly places,\u00a04\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>even as he\u00a0chose us in him\u00a0before the foundation of the world, that we should be\u00a0holy and blameless before him. In love\u00a05\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>he predestined us[<\/sup>b<\/sup><\/a>]<\/sup>\u00a0for\u00a0adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ,\u00a0according to the purpose of his will,\u00a06\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in\u00a0the Beloved.\u00a07\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>In him we have\u00a0redemption\u00a0through his blood,\u00a0the forgiveness of our trespasses,\u00a0according to the riches of his grace,\u00a08\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight<\/p>\n

Jesus does not redeem us by His sinless life or His moral example, but only by His death in our place \u2013 by\u00a0<\/strong>His blood<\/strong>. \u201cObserve, it is not redemption through his power, it is\u00a0through his bloo<\/em>d. It is not redemption through his love, it is through his blood.\u201d (Spurgeon)<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

9\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>making known[<\/sup>c<\/sup><\/a>]<\/sup>to us the mystery of his will,\u00a0according to his purpose, which he\u00a0set forth in Christ\u00a010\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>as a plan for\u00a0the fullness of time,\u00a0to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.<\/p>\n

11\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>In him we have obtained\u00a0an inheritance,\u00a0having been predestined\u00a0according to the purpose of him who works all things according to\u00a0the counsel of his will,\u00a012\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be\u00a0to the praise of his glory.<\/p>\n

This shows that God wants to unify all things in our lives under Him. \u201cIt is a heresy of our times to divide life into sacred and secular.\u201d (Foulkes)<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

13\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>In him you also, when you heard\u00a0the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him,\u00a0were sealed with the\u00a0promised Holy Spirit,\u00a014\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>who is\u00a0the guarantee[<\/sup>d<\/sup><\/a>]<\/sup>\u00a0of our\u00a0inheritance until\u00a0we acquire\u00a0possession of it,[<\/sup>e<\/sup><\/a>]<\/sup>\u00a0to the praise of his glory.<\/p>\n

Thanksgiving and Prayer<\/strong><\/p>\n

15\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>For this reason,\u00a0because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love[<\/sup>f<\/sup><\/a>]<\/sup>\u00a0toward all the saints,\u00a016\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>I\u00a0do not cease to give thanks for you,\u00a0remembering you in my prayers,17\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>that\u00a0the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory,\u00a0may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him,\u00a01<\/sup><\/strong><\/p>\n

Paul is praying that these people will know God. We need to have this desire to the people we know that are Lost. Do we pray for them? Doers them not knowing the Lord bother us? <\/sup><\/strong><\/p>\n

8\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is\u00a0the hope to which he has called you, what are\u00a0the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints,\u00a019\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe,\u00a0according to the working of\u00a0his great might\u00a020\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>that he worked in Christ\u00a0when he raised him from the dead and\u00a0seated him at his right hand\u00a0in the heavenly places,\u00a021\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>far above\u00a0all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above\u00a0every name that is named, not only in\u00a0this age but also in the one to come.\u00a022\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>And\u00a0he put all things under his feet and gave him as\u00a0head over all things to the church,\u00a023\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>which is his body,\u00a0the fullness of him\u00a0who fills\u00a0all in all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"excerpt","protected":false},"author":1168,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","filesize_raw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible-reading"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1168"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6738"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6738\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6739,"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6738\/revisions\/6739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}