One of the funniest cartoons I ever saw showed a lawyer reading a client’s last will and testament to a group of greedy relatives. The caption read: “I, John Jones, being of sound mind and body, spent it all!”

When Jesus Christ wrote His last will and testament for His church, He made it possible for us to share His spiritual riches. Instead of spending it all, Jesus Christ paid it all. His death on the cross and His resurrection make possible our salvation.

He wrote us into His will, then He died so the will would be in force. Then He arose again that He might become the heavenly Advocate to make sure the terms of the will were correctly followed!

He has chosen us (v. 4). This is the marvelous doctrine of election, a doctrine that has confused some and confounded others.

God chose us even before He created the universe…He knew mankind would need a Savior, so He decided that those who responded to this gift would be part of His spiritual family (“in Christ”), so that our salvation is wholly of His grace and not on the basis of anything we ourselves have done.

A woman died in West Palm Beach, Florida, at the age of 71. The  coroner’s  report  listed  malnutrition as the cause of death. The woman weighed only fifty pounds at the time of her death.

She appeared to have lived a hard life. Authorities found her house indescribably filthy. Neighbors reported that she had made frequent trips to their back doors to beg for food. Her clothes came from a charity organization. It seemed that a penniless woman had finally come to the end of her difficult journey.

As the police searched through her trashy house, they came across two keys. The keys led them to safe-deposit boxes at two local banks. When the authorities opened one of the boxes, they discovered more than seven hundred valu- able stock certificates and securities, along with about $200,000 in cash.

The second box held only cash—$600,000 worth. The woman had begged for food, worn secondhand clothes, and died of malnutrition, even though her estate was valued at over $1,000,000!

Paul wrote the Ephesian letter to Christians who were inclined to do with their vast spiritual resources what the woman in Florida did with her material resources—fail to put them to good use.

Christians today can make that same mistake. We have tremendous possessions in Christ, and no Christian should ever become spiritually malnourished or wasted. We simply need to put to good use what God has provided.

Ephesians affirms the limitlessness of God’s heavenly reserves. The epistle demonstrates that Christians need not be spiritually deprived. As God’s children, we have available to us resources which can make us incredibly rich in God. Paul described them as “the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us” (1:7b, 8).

The text sets forth a timeless truth: God gives every possible spiritual blessing to those who are in Christ. What do you have in Christ? You have everything God has to give!

GOD GIVES US BLESSINGS BY HIS OWN CHOICE

Paul’s words call on Christians to praise God: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose 2   us in Him before the foundation of the world, . . .” (vv. 3, 4a; emphasis mine).

Before the earth existed, God desired to share with Christians His love and the riches located, literally, “in the heavenlies.” God’s nature prompts Him to express His love toward others and to share His riches with them.

God determined by His own free choice to create sons and daughters in His own image. He gave them the ability to enjoy being with Him, loving Him, sharing His home, and praising His name.

1. Phillip Keller’s description helps us to imagine the reaction when God first let the heavenly realm know about His plan: “Insofar as we human beings can ascertain, it was possibly one of the most daring ideas ever generated in the council chambers of God. And we may be quite sure that when the scheme was made known a wave of excitement swept across the expanses of eternity. None of the angels or other ministering spirits had ever dreamed of such a stirring project.

“God was determined to reproduce Himself. He would bring into being and sonship others like Himself. He was intent on populating His heavenly home with freewill beings fashioned in His own character. They would be heirs and joint heirs with Christ, His Son, entitled to enjoy eternity in ecstasy.”

God freely chose to make us sons and daughters. What are we to do with the idea that God chose us to be His children in Christ?

We can settle for less. We can discount the notion that God wants us to be His children.

On the other hand, we can accept God’s best. His aim is to adopt us and make us His children, to make  us heirs of His riches, to bring out His image in us, and to share heaven with us forever.

Think for a moment. Where are you in all of this? Are you settling for less? Is God’s choice to make you His child and to give heaven’s riches to you something that makes you marvel? Do you not desire to let this happen in your life?

GOD GIVES US HIS BLESSINGS IN HIS OWN WAY

God gives us every spiritual blessing “in Christ.” The phrase “in Christ” or its equivalent occurs more than twenty times in Ephesians. Paul made prominent use of it in these early verses:

The faithful are in Christ (v. 1).                                 Every spiritual blessing is in Christ (v. 3).

We are holy and blameless in Christ (v. 4).                Grace is freely bestowed in Christ (v. 6).

Redemption/forgiveness  of  sins  are  in Christ (v. 7).    The chosen are in Christ (v. 9).

We are marked, or sealed, in the Holy Spirit to guarantee our inheritance in Christ (v. 13).

John 14:20 – “In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.”

Romans 8:1 – “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

2 Corinthians 5:17 – “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”

Galatians 3:26-28 – “For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor free, nor male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

1 Thessalonians 4:16 – “For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.”

2 Timothy 1:9 – “Who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began.”

These verses illustrate the profound implications of being “in Christ,” including themes of identity, salvation, unity, and empowerment.

If you’re interested in further exploration or discussion of these concepts, feel free to ask!

To be “in Christ” means that you belong to Him. You have been united with Him. All of the privileges, responsibilities, and expectations of being in Christ are yours.

It does not send shock waves through the corridors of heaven when God gives you a place in His kingdom. That comes with being in Christ.

Angels do not faint when God sends His Spirit to dwell in you. That comes with being in Christ. No one objects that God forgives all your sins. That comes with being in Christ.

Because God declares us and leads us to be holy and blameless, we should strive to live lives now that reflect the holiness and blamelessness that are our destiny.

Get back to basics. I must reaffirm my identity: I am God’s child. God has made me His child through Jesus. That is what He wants me to be. Next, I must reaffirm for myself that I am “in Christ.” Galatians 3:26, 27 says, “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.”

Use the basics. When I am discouraged with myself, I can often trace the discouragement to neglect of the basics. Like the “poor” woman in Florida, I have not used my possessions. That leads to spiritual starvation.

The basics include (1) the Word of God—studying it, memorizing it, meditating on it; (2) prayer—having regular communion with God; (3) service—personally participating in kingdom work; and (4) fellowship—sharing life with fellow Christians.

William Barclay: Paul thinks of the purpose of God’s choice. God chose us that we should be holy and blameless. Here are two great words. Holy is the Greek word hagios, which always has in it the idea of difference and of separation.

A temple is holy because it is different from other buildings; a priest is holy because he is different from ordinary men; a victim is holy because it is different from other animals; God is supremely holy because he is different from men; the Sabbath is holy because it is different from other days. So, then, God chose the Christian that he should be different from other men.

Here is the challenge that the modern Church has been very slow to face. In the early Church the Christian never had any doubt that he must be different from the world; he, in fact, knew that he must be so different that the probability was that the world would kill him and the certainty was that the world would hate him.

But the tendency in the modern Church has been to play down the difference between the Church and the world. We have, in effect, often said to people: “So long as you live a decent, respectable life, it is quite all right to become a Church member and to call yourself a Christian. You don’t need to be so very different from other people.” In fact a Christian should be identifiable in the world.

It must always be remembered that this difference on which Christ insists is not one which takes a man out of the world; it makes him different within the world. It should be possible to identify the Christian in the school, the shop, the factory, the office, the hospital ward, everywhere. And the difference is that the Christian behaves not as any human laws compel him to do but as the law of Christ compels him to do.

A Christian teacher is out to satisfy the regulations not of an education authority or a headmaster but of Christ; and that will almost certainly mean a very different attitude to the pupils under his charge.

A Christian workman is out to satisfy the regulations not of a Trades Union but of Jesus Christ; and that will certainly make him a very different kind of workman, which may well end in him being so different that he is expelled from his union.

A Christian doctor will never regard a sick person as a case, but always as a person.

A Christian employer will be concerned with far more than the payment of minimum wages or the creation of minimum working conditions. It is the simple fact of the matter that if enough Christians became hagios, different, they would revolutionize society.