The Gifts & The Body 3: We Can Because He Did

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The Believer's Already Blessings in Christ (Ephesians 1-3)

We are saints- 1:1; 2:19

Blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies- 1:3

Chosen in Christ- 1:4

Chosen to be holy and blameless before Him in love- 1:4

Predestined to the adoption as sons- 1:5

Predestined according to the kind intention of His will- 1:5

Predestined to the praise of the glory of His grace- 1:5-6, 12

Recipients of His “freely bestowed” grace- 1:6

Redeemed through His blood- 1:7

 Forgiven of our trespasses- 1:7

 Forgiven according to the riches of His grace- 1:7

 His grace has been lavished on us- 1:8

 It is the kind intention of God’s will to give us wisdom and insight into the dispensation of the fullness of times in which all things will culminate in Christ Jesus- 1:9-10

 We have obtained an inheritance that was predestined for us- 1:11

 Sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise- 1:13

 We are God’s possession, awaiting future redemption- 1:14

 Capacity to love all the saints- 1:15

 Access to greater wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of God- 1:17

 Enlightened, that we may know the hope of His calling- 1:18

 Enlightened, that we may know the riches of the glory of His inheritance in believers- 1:18

 Enlightened, to know the surpassing greatness of His power toward us- 1:19

 Have received God’s rich mercy- 2:4

 Greatly loved by God- 2:4

 Made alive together with Christ by God- 2:5

 Raised up with Christ by God- 2:6

 Seated with Christ in the heavenlies by God- 2:6

 Examples of the surpassing riches of God’s grace in kindness- 2:7

 Saved by grace- 2:5, 8

God’s Workmanship, created in Christ- 2:10

 Created in Christ for good works that have been prepared beforehand- 2:10

Brought near by the blood of Christ- 2:13

 Possessing the Person of Peace, Jesus Christ- 2:14

 Unified and at peace with believing Jews in One New Man- 2:14-15; 5:30

 Free from the Law- 2:14-15

 Reconciled to God through the cross- 2:16

 Access to God through one Spirit- 2:18

 Fellow-citizens- 2:19

 Of God’s household- 2:19

 Growing into a “Holy of holies” unto the Lord- 2:21

 Built together into a dwelling place for God’s Spirit- 2:22

 Able to know the mystery revealed to the apostles and prophets- 3:4-5

 Fellow heirs of the body- 3:6

 Fellow members of the body- 3:6

 Fellow partakers of the promise- 3:6

 Revealers of the manifold wisdom of God to spiritual forces in the heavenlies- 3:9-10

 Boldness and confident access to the body- 3:6, 12

 Strengthened with power in the inner man by His Spirit- 3:16

 Greater fellowship where Christ will settle in our hearts- 3:17

 Rooted and grounded in love- 3:17

 Greater fellowship enabling us to comprehend the multi-faceted love of Christ which surpasses knowledge- 3:18-19

 Greater fellowship to be filled up with God’s fullness- 3:19

 His power works within us- 3:20


In the Greek, "Worthy" "has the idea of equal weight. Conduct and calling are to balance in weight. The aorist is constative and includes the entire walk of the Ephesians: viewed as a whole, it is to have the mark of worthiness. More is implied than likeness between calling and conduct, namely also corresponding weight and value."

R. C. H. Lenski, The Interpretation of St. Paul’s Epistles to the Galatians, to the Ephesians and to the Philippians (Columbus, O.: Lutheran Book Concern, 1937), 506.