Did Not Our Hearts Burn Within Us?

Dearly beloved,
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:” Ephesians 1:3

In the opening verses of Ephesians, God gives us revelation that takes your breath away. Ephesians 1:2 says, “…from God our Father” … and verse 3 tells us that He is “…the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ”. God fathered us both! We are both members of God’s household. We have an extremely privileged position, do we not?

God being Christ’s Father is unmistakable in Scripture. Christ is called the Son of God 50 times in the Four Gospels. Moreover, on several occasions, God Himself said, “This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased.” Nothing could ever undo the reality of their relationship and, likewise, nothing could ever undo the reality that God is our Father.

Christ is the Son of God. We are God’s sons as well. This is the first of many things that we now share in common with Christ Jesus our Lord as a result of his achievements. Think of the privileged status we now have as God’s children. By the grace of God, He is our Father and we are of His household, His dearly beloved and highly favored ones!

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:” Ephesians 1:3

It is so easy to read right over this verse and never give it a second thought. It's just twenty-two words in English, yet these words contain truth that is exceeding, abundantly above all that any being –earthly or heavenly-- could ever ask or think. They express the Father’s eternal desires and purposes. These truths unlock the entire epistle to us.

Concerning the element of time these blessings embrace “eternity”, concerning quantity they exhaust “every”, and concerning the kind of blessings, they are “spiritual”. Our Father has blessed us in the realm in which He lives, moves and has His being, “the heavenly realm”.

God, our Father, has exerted His infinite power to bless us with every possible spiritual blessing in the realm in which He dwells and our Father has given them to us in Christ by His grace.

When did He bless us? “...Before the foundation of the world”

Why has He blessed us? “...For his great love with which he loved us”.

What standard did he use to bless us? God desired to do this, He purposed it, It was the good pleasure of His will to do it. There is no other reason for us to have these blessings apart from the will of God Himself.

Who is the means of these blessings? We are not blessed because of our works; He blessed us with all of this “in Christ” by His great grace.. We are beneficiaries of his accomplishments.

Our Father saw to it that none of the members of the body of Christ is deficient in a single one of these spiritual blessings in the heavenly realm. It is all of them in all of us – and that forever. These riches of God’s grace are ours in Christ.

After his resurrection out from among the dead, Christ, “...expounded unto them, in all the scriptures, the things concerning himself.” “They said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?” He opened the scriptures to them concerning who he was.

Here, in Ephesians, God is opening His eternal purposes to us concerning Christ. He is revealing the mystery of His will, which He never before disclosed to man or angel. He is opening the scriptures concerning who we are in Christ. How thankful we should be for the exceeding riches of His grace that he is unfolding to us here.

God’s Word should burn in our hearts, the same as those who heard Christ that day on the road to Emmaus. Our hearts should burn within us as our Father speaks to us of the glorious realities that are ours in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Our Father wants us to understand His desires, His purposes, and His will. He is revealing this Divine knowledge to us so that we can know His eternal purpose concerning Christ and the Church. Give thanks and rejoice forevermore, dearly beloved.