Ephesians 1:3-6 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.”
The word “blessed” appears twice in verse three and the word “blessings” appears once. Each of these words comes from a slightly different Greek root and carries subtle variations in meaning. These variations lend important distinctions to this verse of scripture.
When Paul says “Blessed be the God…” the word blessed carries the meaning of “adorable.” In our language today, the word adorable has come to be synonymous with “cute.” I assure you that Paul was not saying that our God is cute. Webster’s Dictionary of American English from 1828 gives the definition of adorable as “That ought to be adored; worth of divine honors. In popular use, worthy of the utmost love or respect.” The God and Father or our Lord Jesus Christ is worthy of the utmost love and respect. We ought to adore Him; that is we owe Him our adoration.
We call Him blessed, and He has blessed us. According to Strong’s, the Greek word translated as blessed in this second occurrence means “to speak well of, that is, (religiously) to bless (thank or invoke a benediction upon, prosper): – bless, praise.” Our God, who is worthy of adoration, has prospered us with all spiritual blessings. There is no other source for these blessings.
The Greek word rendered “blessings” means “fine speaking, that is, elegance of language; commendation (“eulogy”), that is, (reverentially) adoration; religiously, benediction; by implication consecration; by extension benefit or largess: – blessing (a matter of) bounty (X -tifully), fair speech.” The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ deserves our utmost love and respect, and He has prospered us to be separated from a common to a sacred use (consecrated).
When we are blessed to see Jesus as the Way, the Truth, and the Life, we are in heavenly places in Him. All the wisdom of this world cannot transport us into this place of spiritual blessing. It is the direct result of the choice that God the Father made of us in God the Son before the world was made. It is His divine purpose that we exist (should be-see Strong’s) holy and without blame before Him in love. It is the power of His unfailing love through the sacrifice of His Son that we are in this condition. We have knowledge of blessed estate because of the revelation of the Holy Ghost.
God’s limiting power (predestination) made this to be true before the world existed. The scripture here is plainly telling us that God has limited our end (predestinated us) to be adopted into His family by the work of Jesus Christ. We stand before Him, the objects of His love, holy and blameless. He accomplished this by Jesus Christ, and only by Jesus Christ. There was a trend going around on social media a while back where families that had adopted members were posting pictures with the caption “Touched by Adoption.” My precious brothers and sisters, we are all touched by the greatest adoption that has ever been. God has adopted us as His children through the loving sacrifice of Jesus!
Adopted children do not choose the time, place, or means of their adoption. They do not choose the adoptive parents nor even get to decide whether they will be adopted at all. This all rests in the hands of the one doing the adopting and the ability to satisfy the legal requirements of adoption and provide proof that they are able to take care of the children they adopt. All legal requirements were satisfied in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. Our Father owns the cattle of a thousand hills (Psa 50:10) and all the silver and gold (Hag 2:8). He is the giver of all spiritual blessings. There is none better equipped to provide for us than He who has loved us with an everlasting love!
Why has God taken such notice of us? He has done all this according to the good pleasure of His will; in other words, because He wants to. As His children, we are the praise of the glory of His grace. We laud Him because He has taken underserving sinners and He has made us to be highly favored in His love. He is absolutely adorable (worthy of divine honor) in this because it is His will and purpose alone that has brought this wondrous miracle of grace to us.
May we daily praise Him for the gift of being counted in the family of God according to His good pleasure!