Ephesians 1... I love it!

Tonight, I was reading Ephesians 1:3-14, and decided to break it down into a list. I do this sometimes, but I wanted to cut through the beautiful language and get to the meat of the passage. It says so much about who God is towards us, but always keeps one thing running through the entire section: The praise of God's glorious grace. Everything he does is to the praise of his glory, which is central to our identity as believers of Jesus Christ. Our very being is to the praise of God, not ourselves, therefore our entire existence should reflect his glory. So, here's what the passage says:

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, ⁴ even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love ⁵ he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, ⁶ to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. ⁷ In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, ⁸which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight ⁹ making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ ¹⁰as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

¹¹In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, ¹²so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. ¹³In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, ¹⁴who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

What does this passage say about us as believers?

1. He blessed us (v. 3)
2. He chose us before the creation of the world (v. 4)
2a. Which means that he planned for us.
3. He made us holy and blameless before him. (v. 4)
4. He loves us (v. 4)
5. He predestined (or planned. see no. 2) our adoption (v. 5)
6. He adopted us as his sons (v. 5)
7. He did this according to his will, so he wanted us (v. 5)
8. He blessed us with his grace in Christ. (v. 6)
9. He has redeemed us (v. 7)
10. He has forgiven us (v. 7)
11. He has lavished his grace on us (v. 8)
12. He has made his will known to us (v. 8)
13. He unites all things in him, including us (v. 9)
14. He has given us an inheritance. (v. 11)
15. We are to his praise of his glory (v. 12)
16. We are sealed with the Holy Spirit (v. 13)
17. We are guaranteed our inheritance - the Holy Spirit (v. 14)

What does this passage say about God?

1. Take the list about us, and switch the wording around. He does all of these things.
2. He plans, and is in complete control of creation. (vs. 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11)
3. He is to be praised (vs. 3, 6, 7, 12)
4. His is merciful (forgiving sins and giving grace). (vs. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)

All in all, we can look at this passage in one of three ways: We can see how much we are blessed, we can see how amazing God is, or we can see both. If we look at this from only the first perspective, it puts the focus on us, and we can easily distort this to say that we are the center of God's attention. If we focus on only the second, then we miss out on the amazing blessings that come from a life given to God. But if we focus on the third, then we see that God blesses us for the purpose of bringing himself glory. God's main concern is with his own glory, but that is the best thing for us as humans. Even in blessing us, God is still the center of the story, not us. I love this passage because it shows me that, even in my blessing, I am not the center of the universe, God is in complete control, and I can live in complete abandonment to him.

Praise up!