Now, when Paul wrote this letter, he wasn't writing it to rebuke anyone because there were no real issues, as such, to address. Paul wrote this letter as a letter of encouragement to believers in Ephasis (on the central West Coast of modern day Turkey). The encouragement was this - think of yourselves in a whole new way. These people were once people who were involved in idol worship, illicit sex, and foolish philosophies - not that dissimilar the New Age philosophies today. Instead, Paul's encouragement was for them to think of themselves as people "in Christ" - people who had a brand new identity - People who had undergone a radical change of life to the better.

As we move through this series my encouragement is the same. Think of yourselves as people "in Christ" - people who have had a radical change at the hand of God because of His love and grace - because that is what has happened.

As we move through the series we will look at topics such as God's Purpose and Power; the Purpose of the Church; Living in Godly Relationships; Pusuing Spiritual Excellence; Walking in Light and Love with one another; a look at the Profile of the New Person etc all things that are encouragement's pointing towards who God desires us to be.

So today we are starting with Eph. 1:1-14 and the topic is "Our Identity in Christ".

1. GOD'S WORK (v.3)

1. Paul starts with God

So many of us search for peace and fulfillment in our lives. Just last week, Nigel and I were talking with a guy for about an hour and a half about a relationship with Christ. This fellow was searching for peace in his life as well as self-improvement. To obtain these things, he thought that he would do a course with the Christian Science sect, not to join there religion, but to advance his own mental well-being.

Sadly, many thousands of people are searching for truth in all of these humanistic ways - all of which are related to the New Age movement or at least have a relationship to the New Age movement on account of there philosophies and beliefs. Where these fall flat on their face is that they all start with me, and what I can do for myself. They have a mixture of ideologies that are supposed to lead you, if you put them all in place, to self-fulfillment.

Well, Paul wasn't one who followed the 'me first' philosophies of life. We find in verse 3 of this passage that Paul begins first with the One who is behind all these blessings, "the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." That is his starting point - not "here is some formula to follow towards self-fulfillment", but "praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ".

When a man begins with God you know that what he is going to say is in line with reality. Our problem is we don't start our thinking with God; we tend to start it with ourselves, with our experience, which is only a partial view of complete truth. When this occurs we immediately narrow the range of our vision to what we are going through and what is happening to us, and we don't see this in relationship to the whole reality of life as it is around us. As a result we get twisted and distorted ideas of what is happening. The only proper way to view truth is to see it in relationship to all truth everywhere. And there is only one way to do that, and that is to start with God. Only God is great enough to encompass all truth.

A great preacher, Ray Stedman, said, "This is the difference between what the Bible calls "natural" thinking, as done by "the natural man," and the "spiritual" thinking of "the spiritual man." Natural thinking is always limited, always wrong to some degree, because it isn't large enough and broad enough to handle all the facts. But spiritual thinking is always God-centered, and, therefore, true." We need to learn to be spiritual thinkers about ourselves, and this is the very point where Paul begins this letter - he starts with God, who he is, and what he has done.

So let's look at this. What is the aim of God's work?

2. Aim of God's work

Continuing with verse 3 we read, "blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who had blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ." According to this verse, God has given us sufficiency in Christ.

Check out what Paul says here. He doesn’t say "God will bless us", he says "God has blessed us." The work has been done - it is complete. And what has He blessed us with? He has not just given us a blessing; He has given us spiritual blessing. But look further. He has not just given us spiritual blessing; he has given us every spiritual blessing. And finally we are told that He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. What a promise! It's really more than a promise. It's a current reality.

If you do not know this truth, you will never walk in it. In Christ we have sufficiency, because we have every spiritual blessing in Christ. And so we must learn to rely on our resources in Christ. In Christ, we are rich. The riches of Christ have already been deposited into our account. We must now begin to draw upon those riches.

It's a bit like this. We all have bank accounts. Let's say that one day we get a phone call from somebody. They say to us, "You don't know me, but I have known you all of your life. Ion fact I knew you even before you were born. I have watched your life and have loved you all of your life. I see and share with your joys, and I see and share in your sorrows - though you have never realized this. If you transfer your bank account to my bank, and trust me to administer your account - you will never go needy - that I promise."

How would we feel getting a call like that?

Some of us would be skeptical others would be responsive. Now let's convert this into spiritual terms. God is always finding ways to reveal himself to us. He calls us, He made us - His aim is that we come to Him in trust and love. As we open our lives up to Him - let Him be boss of our lives, let Him be the administrator of the account of our lives - then we have, now, every spiritual blessing that can come our way. That is the love of God our Father.

This is what God is saying to us. You may choose not to believe, and live in spiritual poverty. Or you may choose to draw upon your resources in Christ. Write a check on this account and live in spiritual abundance and blessing.

You know, sometimes we can feel that we do not have what it takes to do what God is calling us to do. There is a lot the Lord commands us to do if we are going to truly let Him be Lord of our lives. But the commands of Christ are not aburden. It has been said that every command of God is not a demand on you, but a demand upon the God who gave the command. In other words, God will never give you something to do that He hasn't already given you the power to do. In Christ you are already sufficient for everything He calls you to do. So it is here that we need to begin to live in that knowledge.

We can do this by understanding God's incredible grace and mercy - a grace that we can experience.

We have already looked at the fact that if we are "in Christ" we have every spiritual blessing. But what, specifically, is this blessing?

Let's look at verses 4 and 5 - a few points come out:

1. He chose us before the creation of this world
2. He chose us to be holy and blameless
3. We are adopted as sons (children)

First, this term "in Christ":

This expression "in Christ" dominates Paul's thought in a way to emphasize to us the source of the blessings God gives to us.

Verses 4, 9, 11 describe how God's purpose and election take place in Christ, and

Verses 6-7 describe how God's grace and salvation are found in Christ.

In other words, these things come only as a result of our union with Christ. He is the only source of real, eternal, life. The source of real life is not through some New Age self-improvement or self-fulfillment course - it is only through a personal, submissive, loving and unique relationship with Jesus Christ as Lord. So what this is saying that Christ is the place where believers reside, the source in which we find God's salvation plan and blessings. He is the framework through whom we live and work. So Christ is the source of the spiritual blessings, and because of this, if we are "in Christ" then we share in those spiritual blessings because of the unity and union we share together.

The byproduct of being in Christ, is that, because of our obedience to Him, we will live lives that are holy and blameless.

Have you ever noticed that while we fix our focus on our own belly buttons - navel gazing - we tend to become a little more unholy and blameful? Those old bad habits creep in, or sometimes even flood in. And after a few weeks we become frustrated, empty, spiritually dry, confused and unfulfilled. And we then say, where has God gone. His answer is, "hey I've gone nowhere chum - where did you go?" The answer - into our own cocoon. It's at times like these we need to come back to Paul's words at start with God, not ourselves. It is as we place our focus on Him as highest priority, that we then live lives that are holy and blameless.

There is something else Paul says here about the blessing that has come our way. That is God has chosen and adopted us.

This little phrase has caused a lot of disagreement and confusion in Christian circles. What it means is this.

God's activity and planning has been around throughout history as we know it. He chose Noah and his family to begin humankind again; He chose Abraham as the father of the Israelite nation; He chose Israel to be the means through whom salvation could come to the world; He chose His Son Jesus to be the source of that salvation; and He chose the Christian Church to be the distribution of that salvation through the message about Christ.

In all this there is a definite plan. The fact is this. Jesus Christ is the source of our election. He took on the task to be a blessing in place of Israel. Our election takes place in him and through him - note the words of verse 4, "For He chose us in him" and verse 5 "he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ." So individuals are not elected and then put in Christ. In other words, God does not sit down as if He is writing out some kind of wish list writing down names of those he created that He would desire to be in Heaven with Him. He wants all people to come into a relationship with Him, we are all His creation, we are all His children. It is our rejection of Him, that causes our separation from Him for eternity.

What this whole area of election means is that because we come into a relationship with Christ - that is, we are in Christ, we are therefore elected. So our identity and election is in Christ.

This is the incredible thing about God's grace.

1. Inundated by Grace (v. 6b-8a)

There are 4 statements emphasizing God's grace in verses 6-8.

1. God's choosing people found 'in Christ' leads to the praise of his grace
2. God's grace is freely given in the One who loves us - Jesus
3. Salvation comes from the wealth of God's grace
4. Grace is lavished upon us.

The word Grace refers to God's unbelievable acceptance of us. It is something God gives us - it is the giving of Himself to us - His creation. He comes alongside us, takes us in His own arms in love, and works for our benefit. A theologian called Klyne Snodgrass said "Grace is the Judge of the universe asking criminals to sit down to a meal in his home." I would actually take this further to say that He takes us into His own home that we may live there. So it is here that we find that God always take the initiative and grants people the gift of eternal life in Christ Jesus as Lord and Savior.

Now, another byproduct of being found 'in Christ', is that God chooses to reveal His will to us.

1. God's Will revealed (v. 9-10)

The point of these verses is to highlight the fact that God's work in Christ wasn't just some kind of afterthought by Him or an incidental event in the course of history that He took advantage of, as some would have us believe. No. God intended this all along. He counted the cost - He sent His Son. His heart was so much filled with love and compassion for you and me, that we have a relationship with Him - He planned all along His grace and love demonstrated through Jesus Christ.

So what is revealed?

1. God's purpose and work - just look at Paul's own incredible calling and we see God purpose and work being demonstrated. Think about your own relationship with God and how you entered that relationship and you will see God's purpose and work at hand. God actively displays His purpose and work by drawing people to Himself, and then commissioning them to actively be involved in His work that others may be reached for Christ.
2. God's work as mystery. In the modern day context this means what is unknown, but in God's scheme of things it means the hidden divine plan now revealed by God. He has laid the plan on the table for everyone to see, we just need to open our eyes, our minds, and our hearts to let that plan take effect in our own lives - He does to work, we need to give the availability.

Folks, the fact of the plan is this. One day, every knee shall bow (Phil 2:10) and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. All of God's creation will be unified around Christ Himself. Jesus Christ, then, ultimately is Lord of all. Is He your Lord today. Don't let the revelation of God's plan and His calling on your life be too late - respond now to Him and His love.

One of the great things about all of this, is that God gives us a seal - a stamp that confirms our relationship in Christ.

1. Sealed with the Spirit (v. 13-14)

At conversion, all believers receive the Holy Spirit both as a seal and a deposit guaranteeing future life with God.

In the old days seals were used to guarantee the validity of the contents inside. Today, with ocean going cargo containers, the containers are sealed, validating the goods contained inside. So a seal conveys the sense of ownership and authenticity. In our case, the Holy Spirit is the seal given to believers to verify that they belong to God.

The Holy Spirit is also a 'deposit'. The Greek word used here indicates a down payment. When we purchase something we need to guarantee our intent to purchase the item, whether it be a house, car, boat - whatever. So we put down a deposit guaranteeing our intent to purchase. The Holy Spirit is God's first installment, as it were, on our salvation and the guarantee that the full future inheritance will be delivered. Note though, that the emphasis here isn't our possession of salvation BUT God's possession of His people.

So the significance is this. God has acquired a people, a people who are normal everyday people like you and me.

I want to finish off with this encouragement to you.

If you are a Christian, remind yourself of what lasts -- and what doesn't last. Tell yourself every morning:

•I am a child of the king

•I was chosen by God in Christ before the foundation of the world

•God gave me His Spirit as a down payment

•Therefore, I can overcome all that the world throws at me, and respond in love, with joy and with peace. God is in control; and I am HIS.

For a moment I want to return to the fellow Nigel and I were talking to last week.

The questions:

Where do I get my significance?

Where do I find fulfillment?

Where do I find acceptance?

Where do I find belonging?

Where do I find fullness of life?

Where do I find security?

If your answer is not "In Christ" to any of these question, then you are selling yourself short, and the course of action you take will ultimately only lead to frustration, confusion and emptiness.

The other side of the coin is this. If your answer is "In Christ" to all of these questions, then you never have to ask these questions, because they are a reality. Instead, your focus and concentration will be upon obeying His leading and will in your life.

By Scott Douglas, Burdekin Baptist Church, 27^th December 1998