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Author
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Topic: All Spiritual Blessings In Heavenly Places
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epouraniois
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posted
‘Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ’ (Eph. 1:3).
Our blessings are not so much in mind in this opening passage as an overwhelming sense of grace. ‘Blessed be God’. No blessing is sought or desired, ‘all blessings’ are acknowledged.
‘He hath blessed us’. The word ‘blessings’ eulogia is derived from the verb ‘to bless’ eulogeo, which is a compound of eu ‘well’ and lego ‘to speak’. From this word comes the English ‘eulogy’, a word meaning a high form of praise. The same word translated ‘blessings’ in Ephesians 1:3 is translated ‘fair speeches’ in Romans 16:18, revealing it's primary meaning. 'Eu' is an adverb, and is found in Ephesians 6:3: ‘That it may be well with thee’. It is of frequent use as a particle in combination with other words, such as the word evangel or ‘gospel’ where the letter ‘u’ is pronounced ‘v’ in English.
Prior to the landmark of Acts 28, Paul, writing to believers, speaks of ‘the blessing of Abraham’ coming on the Gentiles, but Abraham is never mentioned in the ‘Prison Epistles’, and no blessing of Abraham is associated either with ‘heavenly places’ or ‘before the foundation of the world’. No one moreover could deny the use of the word ‘blessing’ when speaking of these great doctrines of salvation, yet the fact remains that Romans 15:29, ‘the fulness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ’, 1 Corinthians 10:16, ‘the cup of blessing which we bless’ and Galatians 3:14, ‘the blessing of Abraham’ are the only other occurrences of the word in Paul’s epistles.
In Christs'revelation of the Prison Epistles, in Ephesians 1:3 alone do we find the word ‘blessing’, and this meeting us in the very opening words, and never again employed in any capacity by the apostle.
These blessings of Ephesians 1:3 are peculiar in that they are ‘all spiritual’. In the original the word is singular, and a literal rendering is ‘In (or with) every blessing (that is) spiritual’. Where the Greek word pas ‘all’ is used of one, it means ‘the whole’, ‘entire’ or ‘all the ...’ but if used to cover several items, the meaning becomes ‘every’. Green, in his handbook says that where the adjective pas ‘all’ in the singular number is written without the article ‘the’ it signifies ‘every’, but with the article it means ‘the whole of’ the object which it qualifies. Thus pasa polis means ‘every city’, pasa he polis or he pasa polis ‘the whole city’, and he polis pasa would have a slightly different meaning - either ‘the city, all of it’ or ‘the city in every part’.
The Church of the One Body is blessed ‘with every blessing that is spiritual’. This is even wider in its scope than to say ‘all spiritual blessings’ for if the number of the blessings were but few - say three, they could be defined as ‘all spiritual’, whereas the mind reels in it's endeavours to grasp the fact that there is no blessing that comes under the category of ‘spiritual’ that is omitted. It is highly improbable that while we are in this life we shall be able to appreciate a tithe of what is here so freely bestowed.
It is evident that the word ‘spiritual’ is the opposite of the word ‘corporeal’, and this is what we find. Paul, in the epistle to the Romans places the idea of the ‘spiritual’ over against the ‘carnal’. ‘For we know that the law is spiritual pneumatikos; but I am carnal sarkinos’ (Rom. 7:14). ‘For if the Gentiles have been made partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister unto them in carnal things’ (Rom. 15:27). In 1 Corinthians he not only contrasts spiritual with carnal, but with ‘natural’.
(If we were in any of their churches we should be found serving Israel, standing outside awaiting the crumbs, assuming we understand the praticing of the doctrine).
‘The natural man (psuchikos) ... but he that is spiritual’ (1 Cor. 2:14,15).
‘It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body’ (1 Cor. 15:44).
The ‘carnal’ things of Romans 15:27 were good. We can learn from other passages, that the apostle was very earnest in his endeavour to fulfil the injunction received at Jerusalem that in the exercise of his ministry among the Gentiles, he should remember the poor saints at Jerusalem, and quite a large portion of the epistles to the Corinthians is occupied with this ‘collection’. These ‘carnal’ things would include food and drink and clothing, and other necessities of this life. The ‘natural’ is placed over against the spiritual, for the spiritual is supernatural and is enjoyed on resurrection ground.
The spiritual blessings of the Mystery are in complete contrast with any ‘carnal’ or ‘natural’ blessings of the law.
‘Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field ... blessed shall be thy basket and thy store ... The LORD shall command the blessing upon thee in thy storehouses ... The LORD shall make thee plenteous in goods ...’ (Deut. 28:3-13).
‘Blessed is every one that feareth the LORD; that walketh in His ways. For thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands: happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee. Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house: thy children like olive plants round about thy table’ (Psa. 128:1-3).
How completely opposite all this is from the experience of the believer under the dispensation of grace. Ephesians 1:3 does not speak of daily bread, of dwelling place, of home comforts, or of business success, it visualizes a new plane, the spiritual, which is on resurrection ground. The earnest of our inheritance is not a bunch of grapes as it was when the spies returned with the grapes of Eshcol, neither are our enemies men of flesh and blood, but spiritual foes.
A member of the One Body may be rich or poor, sick or well, in trouble or tranquil, but such conditions have no reference to ‘every blessing that is spiritual’ for two reasons.
1. By reason of their nature.
2. By reason of their sphere.
The second reason refers of course to the words ‘in heavenly places’. Of these, Abraham's blessings would be an intruder. ‘He ascended up’ anabaino literally means ‘to go up’ as one would a mountain (Matt. 5:1); or as the false shepherds who ‘climb up’ some other way (John 10:1). The Ascension is put in contrast with His ‘descent’ katabaino. This also primarily means ‘to go down’ as rain descends (Matt. 7:25); or when one descends a mountain (Matt. 17:9). Ephesians 4 tells us that His descent was to ‘the lower parts’ katoteros and that His ascent was ‘far above all heavens’, and lest we should be tempted for any reason to set a limit to this ascent, we are further informed that this descent and this ascent was in order that He may ‘fill all things’. Consequently, the Saviour ascended to the highest conceivable position in glory.
This position is described as huperano, ‘far above all heaven’ is found in Ephesians 1:21: ‘Far above all principality and power’. They are coextensive in scope and meaning. Christ is said to be ‘in heaven’ (Heb. 9:24) in the self-same epistle that says He ‘passed through the heavens’. How can this be? The Hebrew reader acquainted with the first chapter of Genesis would need no explanation. The heaven, which is ‘at the right hand of God’ is the heaven of Genesis 1:1. The heavens through which Christ ‘passed’ and above which He ascended are called the ‘firmament’ or ‘expansion’ in Genesis 1:6. This ‘heaven’ spread out during the ages, ‘as a curtain’ and ‘as a tent to dwell in’ is to pass away.
The Lord is far above this limited ‘heaven’ and so is the sphere of blessing allotted to the Church of this dispensation. While there are references in the Old Testament Scriptures as well as in the New Testament which show that saints of old knew that there were ‘heavens’ beyond the limited firmament of Genesis 1:6, no believer ever entertained a hope that the sphere of his blessing was THERE where the exalted Christ now sits ‘far above all heavens’, yet this is what we are now to learn. The expression en tois epouraniois occurs five times in Ephesians.
Before The Mystery revelation to the apostle could come, the kingdom hope intended to prosper. Afterwards Christ created a new creation in Himself, bringing The Church hope into view for the first time.
And herein exists entrance unto the knowledge of the fellowship of the revelation of The Mystery. There are many mysteries in the Bible, yet only one 'The Mystery', likewise, only one 'The Church' (which is His body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all).
While not many are instructed in The Mystery, it is important. The Mystery revelation completes the word of God (Colossians 1:25). It was not well received in the apostles time, he writes of those believers, all in Asia turned away. It is not much different today. Who could be responcible for cloaking that which completes God's word, replacing it with covenants no Gentile ever made?
Ahh, spritual wickedness in high places. So not everything spiritual means that it is good. Upon entrance into the prison epistles it will be noticed that not much of anything in this new created body is recognizable, everything from that which came before is missing, namely the flesh.
‘Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ’ (Eph. 1:3).
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