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, (Ephesians 1:3)

The text above is the first of twelve verses – one long, elegant sentence in the Greek – within which Paul the apostle praises God for blessing the Ephesian church with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ. In the verses that follow, from the 15th verse onward, Paul prays for the Ephesians that their spiritual eyes will be opened to fully come to terms with the import of these blessings.

Before I proceed further, let me answer a question on my mind which I believe will be of immense benefit to the discourse. When we know what praise is, in our relationship with God, then we can best appreciate Paul’s words in the text. An online Christian ministry, gotquestions, says this of praise:

[It] is the joyful recounting of all God has done for us … It is … the truthful [sincere and heartfelt] acknowledgment of the righteous acts of another. Since God has done many wonderful deeds, He is worthy of praise (Psalm 18:3).

With this brief description of what praise is, we can now look at Paul’s praises and glean at least four lessons with regards to Christian praise, prayer and doctrine.

The Place of Praise in the Christian’s Life

How important is praise in your Christian life? What position does it occupy on your prayer list? Is it something that comes at the tail end, when you have finished pouring out your petitions to God?
It is very instructive that before Paul made any petitions for the Ephesians, he started with praise. To Paul, prayer must begin with praise. A careful study of his epistles will reveal that this is his method everywhere. True Christian prayer must begin with praise. Similarly, the Psalmist said to enter His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise (Psalm 100:4). Indeed, it has been said that praise is the highest form of prayer.

The Nature of Christian Praise

A striking observation from Paul’s doxology here is his deliberate mention of the Trinity. He praises God the Father, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus. “Spiritual blessings” means, not only are the blessings in view of a non-material nature, they are derived or applied to us through the Holy Spirit.

We see from Paul’s doxology, that true Christian praise, like the entire Christian position, is essentially Trinitarian. We direct our praises to God, through Jesus Christ, in the power of the Holy Spirit. This brings me to my next point,

The Object of Christian Praise

First, notice that God is the object of our praise and worship. We are not the object.

Now, one may wonder that is it possible for anyone to make us the object of Christian praise? My answer is, sadly, very much so, as is apparent from my experience below.

In an assembly where my family and I used to worship – I used to be in the choir – each time before praises, the pastor will tell the congregation, “focus on your problems.” “Focus on what you want God to do for you during this time of praises.” Then we are told, “the harder you praise, the more you will be blessed.” Sounds familiar?

It is not enough that we tend to barge into God’s presence as it were, roll down a long list of requests – some of us even give Him ultimatum when He must answer us or else…, and perhaps when we are about to finish we thank Him, sometimes we even forget to thank Him — but even His praise we have hijacked! “Focus on our problems during times of singing praises to God”?

When my wife and I stood back to reflect on our worship services in that church, we realised that it was all about us, not about God. The sermons were always about us – how if we did A and B, God will bless us materially. We could not see the Gospel at the centre of the weekly sermons. Even the themes of the services were all materialistic. If it wasn’t about breaking financial curses, it was about anointing for promotion or about one material thing or the other.

Now in a sense, I believe the church today prays and praises the way we do because we don’t stop to consider who is the object of our praise.

Paul’s approach is so unlike ours these days. Observe his method: he doesn’t start with us, he starts with God and His blessedness!

Later on, Paul will praise God for the fact that He has blessed us. But that is not what he puts in the first place. His first focus is on the blessedness of the One who alone is the object of our praise. True Christian praise is God-centred, not man-centred.

When we gather in praise and corporate worship to God, we ought to approach with reverence, bearing in mind his attributes. We come before him with reverence and awe, not to entertain ourselves.

A.W. Tozer put it so aptly when he said, “Gathering together for worship has nothing to do with pleasing ourselves, but it has everything to do with pleasing God.”

The Motivation for Christian Praise

Paul goes on to praise God because He has blessed us – not with some, but all spiritual blessings! The Puritan theologian, Paul Bayne (1537-1617), paraphrased our opening verse thus:

“Praised be the God of our Saviour, praised be the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us; that is, by his blessing made us partakers of all spiritual blessings, such as take their beginning from heaven, are kept in heaven, shall all have their accomplishments in heaven; and all this in Christ, who is the root and the second Adam, whence every benefit supernatural springeth, and is derived unto us.”

Strangely, there are some who interpret every mention of “blessings” in the Bible in terms of material things only. But does Paul have material blessings in view here? The qualification “spiritual” will immediately debunk that. Further, the context shows that Paul has in mind the great plan of salvation — beginning in eternity past with the election of the saints in Christ, till eternity to come when God will once more head up all things under Christ. We see from the context that Paul had in mind the eternal counsel that took place between the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit; where each person of the blessed Trinity covenanted to do certain things in the grand plan of salvation. The Father thought up the plan of Salvation (Eph. 1:3-6). The Son took it upon Himself to carry out this plan, to take on human flesh and be born as a babe, suffer and die a shameful death on a tree (Eph. 1:7-12). The Father on His part promised to grant forgiveness to all those who would believe inthe Son and the work He did on the cross; and adopt them into His family (Eph. 1: 3-6). The Spirit on His part partook to apply the work of salvation to the believer (Eph. 1:13-14).

In a sense, our praise and worship today is superficial because we have stopped contemplating the great work of God in the salvation of man. The contemporary Christian only praises when he has material blessings in view. This is a far cry from apostolic praise.

To the Christian, houses, cars, money and property are not the choicest of blessings. These are temporary. The Christian’s joy and praise is not predicated on material blessings only. His blessings are first of all spiritual – they are other-worldly!

The Christian rejoices that his name is written in heaven. We rejoice because we are forgiven, absolved from sin, accepted in the Beloved, and heirs of heaven!

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While some avoid it altogether, others have a problem “accepting” it, appealing to reasons such as it being unfair, or inconsistent with the nature of God. Regardless of our feelings, there is no denying that this doctrine is nonetheless taught in Scripture. It behoves us therefore as faithful bible students to confront it, and contemplate it. After all, Paul wrote this epistle, not to bible scholars or theologians, but to the Church at Ephesus — most of whom would have had no background in theological training.  The recipients were gentiles, formerly alien to the sacred writings of the Jews. In addition, the contents of practical instructions given towards the latter part of the epistle shows that some of them were probably slaves, with no formal education. Yet Paul undoubtedly expected that they would read and contemplate these doctrines, and revel in them! So should we, if we indeed believe that all Scripture is God-breathed.

It all starts and ends with God

Paul in the third verse of Ephesians  chapter one mentions special blessings that are the Christian’s in Christ. “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”, he exclaims. But how do these spiritual blessings, which are in the heavenly places, become ours here on earth? This is the question Paul addresses in his next statement in the fourth verse.

It is instructive that Paul does not start with our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. He does not even start with the work that the Lord Jesus Christ himself has done, or with the work of the Holy Spirit in applying these blessing to the believer. He starts with God the Father! This is a repudiation of the man-centred kind of Gospel which is becoming very popular in our day. To Paul, Christianity starts and ends with God! It was the Father who thought up the plan of salvation; He it is who sent Jesus to die for us whilst we were yet sinners and enemies against Him in our minds. Paul tells us elsewhere that even the faith to believe unto salvation is a gift from Him, so that boasting on the part of man is totally excluded as far as salvation is concerned. And He does all this according to the great counsel of His will, for His good pleasure! The truth is, what Paul does here is in perfect agreement with the entire biblical teaching, which we can sum up as a revelation of all what God has done in Christ with regards to the salvation of man.

Election, Paul’s first argument

Paul’s explanation to how these spiritual blessings have become ours is, we are what we are because He (God) has chosen us!

even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love (Ephesians 1:4).

This is what Paul puts in the first place. The recurring phrase in this chapter is “to the praise of His glory” in various forms — “according to the purpose of His will”,“according to the riches of his grace” etc. Surely, this is to emphasise the point that the decisive action in salvation, and therefore all the glory belong to God. The doctrine of election reveals to us the Sovereignty and love of God like no other.

Ultimately in time, the believer will in response to the Gospel choose to place his faith in Christ Jesus. However, in the words of our Lord Himself, we did not choose Him, but He chose us and appointed us that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide (John 15:16). God’s action in election comes first, faith unto salvation follows. Herein is a reason why every Christian should isolate and contemplate this doctrine – the fact that both Paul and our Lord put it in the first position in explaining the Christian position. As if to remind us that our salvation is not an after-thought, Paul starts with the divine perspective. The awe-inspiring truth of all this is that He chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world; in spite of us. This is the humbling truth of the election of the saints.

For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are,  so that no human being[b] might boast in the presence of God. (1Cor1:28-29).

Election, The Joy and Security of the Saints

Further, this doctrine is the basis of the surety and certainty of our salvation. If God’s salvation plan was conceived and executed by Him in spite of us, then we can be assured that He will carry it out to completion. If I am saved by His Grace and not by anything in me, then I can be assured that He who has began a good work will bring it to a perfect completion. Oh what joy to know that nothing can separate those whom God has elected, called and justified from the love of God!

Those He saves are His delight
Christ will hold me fast
Precious in His holy sight
He will hold me fast
He’ll not let my soul be lost
His promises shall last
Bought by Him at such a cost
He will hold me fast

He will hold me fast

He will hold me fast

For my Savior loves me so

He will hold me fast”

~ Ada Habershonnew, 2013

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