Ephesians 1:3-14·~1 min

Spiritual Blessings

Paul blesses the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed his people in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms. Before the foundation of the world, God chose them in Christ for holiness and, in love, destined them for adoption through Jesus Christ, all to the praise of his glorious grace.

B³lessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms. ⁴For He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless in His presence. In love ⁵He predestined us for adoption as His sons through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of His will, ⁶to the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the Beloved One.

In Christ, Paul says, believers have redemption through his blood and the forgiveness of trespasses according to the riches of grace that God lavished on them. In that grace God also made known the mystery of his will: the plan for the fullness of time to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under Christ.

⁷In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace ⁸that He lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. ⁹And He has made known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Christ ¹⁰as a plan for the fullness of time, to bring all things in heaven and on earth together in Christ.

Paul says that in Christ believers have obtained an inheritance according to God's purpose, and that those who first hoped in Christ live for the praise of his glory. He then includes his readers directly: having heard and believed the gospel, they were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the pledge of their inheritance until final redemption.

¹¹In Him we were also chosen as God’s own, having been predestined according to the plan of Him who works out everything by the counsel of His will, ¹²in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, would be for the praise of His glory. ¹³And in Him, having heard and believed the word of truth — the gospel of your salvation — you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, ¹⁴who is the pledge of our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession, to the praise of His glory.

Section summaryPaul blesses God for every spiritual blessing given in Christ, tracing the believers' story through election, holiness, adoption, redemption, forgiveness, revelation of God's will, inheritance, and the sealing of the Holy Spirit. Everything moves under God's gracious purpose and ends in the repeated note that all is to the praise of his glory.

Role in the chapterThis section gives the letter its great opening vision. It gathers salvation, history, and identity into one movement centered entirely in Christ and directed toward God's praise.