Spiritual Blessings in Christ

Overview

• Testament: New
• Book: Ephesians
• Chapters: Ephesians 1:3-14
• Summary: The great opening doxology of Ephesians — possibly a liturgical hymn — sweeping from election before creation to the final inheritance, structured around three strophes of trinitarian blessing and the repeated phrase “in Christ.”

Details

Ephesians 1:3-14 is a single sentence in the Greek, an extended doxology that refuses to stop, clause piling upon clause as Paul attempts to encompass the totality of what God has done in Christ. It opens with a blessing that is also a declaration: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ” (1:3). The movement of blessing is significant — God is to be blessed because he has first blessed us. The sphere of those blessings is “heavenly places” (epouraniois), a phrase unique to Ephesians (appearing five times), pointing to the realm where the decisive battles of the present age are fought and where believers are already seated with Christ (2:6).

The doxology unfolds in three strophes keyed to the three persons of the Trinity, each ending with a refrain of praise. The first strophe (1:4-6) concerns the Father’s work of election: “he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace” (1:4-6). Election is located “in him” — in Christ — from before creation itself. Its goal is not merely heaven but holiness and adoption; its ground is not human worthiness but the Father’s good pleasure; its aim is the praise of his glorious grace. The second strophe (1:7-12) moves to the Son’s work of redemption: “In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace” (1:7). Here the cosmic sweep narrows to the cross — blood, forgiveness — and then expands again to the “mystery of his will” (1:9) to sum up all things in Christ, things in heaven and on earth, in the fullness of times (1:10). The third strophe (1:13-14) turns to the Spirit: believers were “sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession” (1:13-14). The Spirit is the arrabōn — a down payment, a first installment guaranteeing what is yet to come.

The phrase “in Christ” or its near equivalents (“in him,” “in whom,” “in the beloved”) appears at least eleven times in these twelve verses and over thirty times in the letter as a whole. This is not incidental repetition; union with Christ is the architectural principle of Ephesians. Every spiritual blessing flows through the channel of being “in him.” Election, redemption, forgiveness, the mystery, the inheritance, the sealing — each is received not by personal achievement but by participation in Christ. The sweep of the passage is simultaneously cosmic (from before creation to the final summing-up of all things) and intensely personal (adoption, forgiveness, the Spirit given to the individual believer as a pledge).

The doxology functions as the theological foundation for the entirety of Ephesians. The ecclesiology of chapters 2-3 (the church as the body of Christ, Jews and Gentiles made one), the ethics of chapters 4-6 (walk worthy of the calling), and the spiritual warfare of chapter 6 (the armor of God) all presuppose that believers have been placed, by grace, into Christ — into his election, his redemption, his inheritance. Before any imperative is issued, the indicative is established in the most comprehensive terms possible: everything that God planned from before the foundation of the world is already given to those who are in Christ.

Important Verses

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.” — Ephesians 1:3-4

“In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace.” — Ephesians 1:7

“In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession.” — Ephesians 1:13-14

Cross-References

• OT Background: Abrahamic Covenant — the covenant promise to bless all nations, fulfilled and encompassed in Christ
• Related: Ephesians — the broader letter whose theology is grounded in this opening doxology
• Related: The New Creation — the Spirit as guarantee of the eschatological inheritance
• Related: Justification by Faith (Theme) — the grace-alone framework that undergirds election and redemption