Spiritual Blessings in Heavenly Places

 Ephesians 1:3 ESV

Paul is proclaiming that the God in Heaven, who is known as the Father of Jesus Christ, deserves commendation and praise for His actions towards us. God (the Father) is our creator, who made us as imagers from the very beginning. We reflect His image because we are human, and it is a part of our genetic makeup to do so, not by a choice we make, but by Him choosing us.

The Father's actions towards us have been well documented and characterized. The book of Genesis states that God created us and selected us to be His imagers on earth while the heavenly imagers already existed in the spiritual realm. God's ultimate aim was to bring together and unite all of His imagers (or family) into one orderly place, which He called Eden, where He chose to reside.

As a father myself, I understand the desire to want my children to love me unconditionally without any pressure or manipulation on my part. It's important for their love and affection to be genuinely theirs, rather than just meeting my expectations.  In like manner, God did not want to control his creations directly. He wanted them to experience His love freely, but with freedom comes the risk of rebellion and choosing other paths than love.

The Father created humans to rule over the earth, and according to Paul part of our role is to judge the angels or spiritual beings. However, some angels didn't want to be judged by what they considered an inferior creation, humans, and rebelled against this plan. In the spiritual realm, one of the heavenly cherubs incited a rebellion that caused a third of the angels or spiritual beings to abdicate their allegiances to God and His order. Despite the risks, the Father allowed this to happen because He believed that true love would eventually triumph and He would establish His kingdom on Earth.

The story of love always involves sacrifices, and the ultimate sacrifice was made by the Father when He offered the death of His son to reconcile the rebellion and restore peace in heaven and on earth. This allowed love to rule once again. According to Paul, since Jesus emerged victorious over death, God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing. One way to understand this blessing is the impartation of benefits, one of those benefits is that we have been adopted as sons and daughters of our heavenly Father, thanks to the sacrifice of Jesus, and not just adopted, but joint heirs.  We now have restored access to the Father that we had in the beginning in Eden.

The passage states that we have been granted every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. This means that we are coregents and have been given access to the Father through Jesus Christ. As co-heirs with Jesus, we are entitled to all of the benefits and privileges that come with our coregency. Paul goes even further in another place by stating that we are seated with Christ in heavenly places. This means that we have been given a place of authority to rule and reign with Jesus in the earthly realm.

While this may sound like a far-fetched idea to some, the truth is that it represents the essence of the Christian life in Christ. According to our beliefs, Jesus will return soon to claim His kingdom from those of us who have embraced this spiritual reality, which will then become a physical reality upon His arrival. 

Another antitype Paul uses is 1 Thessalonians 4:15-18 “For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 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. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.”

The beauty of this passage lies in its portrayal of the Lord's victorious return, similar to that of the victorious warriors of the past who returned from battle. In such moments, the entire city would come out to welcome and celebrate the victor who brought back the spoils of war. Jesus also experienced such a welcoming reception when he entered Jerusalem riding a donkey. The people stood before him, waving palm branches and laying them on the ground before him, shouting 'Hosanna in the highest, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord'. However, this time, the whole world will welcome and bow down before Him, for He will be the returning victorious king.

Jesus is coming back to rule and reign on earth and transform it into Eden - His dwelling place. We are all called to celebrate with Him and join in the feast prepared for His return. He is coming for His bride, which is His ecclesia that has prepared herself for His arrival.  His bride is not just a beautiful girl in a pretty dress. She is a victorious people who have taken their place as sons and daughters of the King and understood their role in God's ultimate plan of redemption.

All of this detail is derived from just one verse in Ephesians 1:3, highlighting the Bible's remarkable integration of thought.

Stephen Barnett