- Overcomer Literature Trust
- Swindon
- Wiltshire
The Blessings and Position Received by the Church
By Witness Lee
Ephesians 1 v3-14 is on God’s blessings to the church in Christ. These numerous blessings can be summarised as three categories, concerning the Father, concerning the Son, and concerning the Spirit. The God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ
The beginning of verse 3 says, “blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” This refers to the two statuses of God, the God of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. God is the God of the Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of Man, and He is the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of God.
Having Blessed Us
Ephesians 1 v3 goes on to say, “who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ.” In the original text the words blessed and blessing have the same root. The word blessing is a noun, and the word blessed is a verb. We bless God with praise to Him, and God blesses us with blessings to us. To bless is to speak well of others, to speak of others’ merits. If a person speaks well of me and my merits, he is blessing me. Our speaking well of God and His merits is our praise to Him, and God’s favour toward us is His blessing of us.
In the Heavenlies
Here it says that God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ. Heavenlies refers to the realm, nature and condition of heaven. The spiritual blessings with which God has given to the Church include the Father, the Son, the Spirit, and heaven. This is how God has blessed the Church.
In Every Spiritual Blessing in Christ
God has blessed us not only with blessings but also in blessings. God has not blessed us with small portions. If a mouse comes into a large storage room full of rice, he will not find a small portion there, rather, he will have much rice to eat. He is blessed in the blessings of the store of rice. God’s blessings are bountiful, strong and great. God has blessed us with such blessings and in such blessings. Here Paul shows that the blessings God has given us in Christ are wide-ranging, numerous, deep and limitless. They are the unsearchable riches of Christ (Ephesians 3 v8). Not only so, God’s blessings are all spiritual, not physical. This means that God’s blessings are in the Holy Spirit. This also unveils the Triune God, God blesses us in Christ and also in the Holy Spirit. We know that outside of Christ, God does not have anything to give us. Outside of Christ the Church loses her position, and once the position of the Church is lost, all of God’s blessings are gone, because God’s blessings are given to the Church only in Christ.
Choosing Us before the Foundation of the World
The beginning of 1 v4 says, “even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world.” The choosing is in Christ and before the foundation of the world.
The term “chose” is not adequate to convey the meaning in the original language. Suppose there are four objects, and I choose one of them. This means that I pick out one of them. Before the foundation of the word, God chose us, picked us out. Do not think that our salvation is a matter only of the present time. I always feel that I am different from, apart from, the worldly people. This is the effect of being chosen. Not only have we been chosen, forgiven of our sins and delivered out of the world, but we also have been picked by God out of hundreds of thousands of people. This choosing did not happen after we were born. Rather, God chose us before the foundation of the world. We need to pray very much that we may see how great this choosing is. Choosing is related to God, in Christ, spiritual, in the heavenlies and before the foundation of the world. Every blessing of God is given to us in these five great matters.
From ‘CWWL’, 1953, Vol 2, p.11, at https://tinyurl.com/mswkf2un.