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. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.
Ephesians 1:3-4 NIV
Recently I have been rereading Ephesians. The opening chapter is a breathless, heady race into Paul's theology - although theology feels far too dry a word for this letter. You can sense his excitement as he writes. Each phrase is practically tripping over its predecessor as he jumps from topic to topic. It's all in there. Predestination, adoption, grace, redemption, salvation, the sovereignty of Christ, revelation, and the Holy Spirit all to the praise of his glory.
Those opening two sentences alone are breathtaking. We have every blessing in Christ and our destination was determined before the beginning of creation. If ever we feel inadequate this is the place to come. Whatever our failings, or our regrets, in Christ we have the opportunity to be presented before God completely blameless guaranteed in advance.
All too often the pressure of life or the lies of the enemy cause us to think or behave as if this were not the case. To feel anything but blessed. To be so conscious of our sin we feel that we can never be worthy of him. Ephesians chapter one is a shot in our arm telling us this is not so. We may not be capable of drawing near to God, but, in Christ he has already done everything that was needed, just as he planned before the first star ever shone.
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