October 19, 2023 - Ephesians 1-3

Last evening, at Baxter, Daniel wrapped up our study of the epistle to the Hebrews largely by reading verse after verse, first, that tell us how we should live and, then, verse after verse about Jesus. It was a time I just sort of closed my eyes and listened to him read Scripture. We can do something similar with these chapters from Ephesians, as Paul reminds us of all that we have in Christ.

“Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” (1:2).

“Blessed be God . . . who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing” (1:3).

“He chose us” (1:4)

“In love he predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ” (1:5)

“He has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace” (1:7)

“In him we have obtained an inheritance” (1:11)

All this is just a sampling of all that the Ephesian believers, and we, have in Christ Jesus. And now, we “are no longer strangers and aliens, but [we] are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God” (2:19). Oh, the breadth and length and height and depth of God’s love for us in Christ! (3:18,19)

Oh-oh the deep, deep love of Jesus

Vast unmeasured, boundless, free

Rolling as a mighty ocean

In its fullness over me.

Underneath me, all around me

Is the current of His love

Leading onward, leading homeward to

Thy glorious rest above. --S. Trevor Francis (1902)