Before
Paul begins to narrate descriptively the spiritual blessings of God, he first
points us to the God of particularity in Jesus Christ. Before we know that God
is the Father of all, we need to first know that he is the Father of our Lord,
Jesus Christ. It is through his beloved Son we have been adopted into his
family. The Christian God is not a Greek
god who is transcendent to a point where he does not get involved with human
affair; He is not a divine force above our heads. Rather, “He is the God who
made the world, and who has now made himself known in and through Jesus. As far
as Paul is concerned, any picture of God which doesn’t now have Jesus in the
middle of it is a distortion or a downright fabrication.”[1]
The word euvloghto,j can be understood as “blessed” or “praised.”
“Praised be to the God…” is preferable. God does not need to be blessed; we
need to be blessed. Rather, we don’t need to be praised, but God is worthy of
our praise. God is the object of our praise; we are the object of his blessing.
We praise for God’s blessings in Christ.
Paul introduces two of his letters with an introductory blessing (Eph.
1:3-14; 2 Cor. 1:3-7).[2] Ephesians 1:3-14 is considered as a “declarative
praise” that is formed in one long, single sentence (in Greek) in which God’s
blessings, such as election, adoption, forgiveness of sin, etc… are vividly
described by Paul. This eulogy is Paul’s doxological introduction to the entire
letter. At the end of the so-called “doctrinal section” (Ephesians 1-3), Paul
concludes with another doxology: “Now to him who is
able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the
power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus
throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen” (Eph. 3:20-21).
As John
Piper says, “God gets the glory; we get the mercy.”
The term “spiritual” (pneumatiko,j) is an
adjective for the Spirit, that is, “pertaining to or belonging to the Spirit.”[3] In this vein,
spiritual blessings mean blessings that pertain to the Spirit. God has blessed
us in Jesus Christ with every spiritual
blessing. The role of the Spirit is not out of the picture. The rest of the
sentence shows that this whole business of praising God for his blessings
toward us is trinitarian through and
through (God the Father, 1:4-6; God the Son, 1:7-12; God the Spirit, 1:13-14).
Gordon Fee points out that “the use of this adjective…indicates that the
emphasis is on the nature of the blessings, rather than their source.”[4] Either these
blessings are spiritual or the Spirit
is the source of them, the Spirit is at work. As Fee rightly puts, “The Spirit
is the present means whereby God appropriates to the believing community the
‘blessings’ that flow from the redemptive work of Christ.”[5]
This
eulogy is formed as an inclusio and
bracketed by the Spirit.[6]
At the end of the section, God the Spirit is the Spirit of the promise, who is
“a deposit on our inheritance.” He serves as the guarantee of our future
salvation (1:13-14). Our receiving of God’s blessings in Jesus Christ can only
become a reality through the Spirit. The Spirit actualizes the blessings of God
in us. J. I. Packer writes:
The Christian life in
all its aspects—intellectual and ethical, devotional and relational, upsurging
in worship and outgoing in witness—is supernatural; only the Spirit can
initiate and sustain it. So apart from him, not only will there be no lively
believers and no lively congregations, there will be no believers and no
congregations at all. But in fact the church continues to live and grow, for
the Spirit’s ministry has not failed, nor ever will, with the passage of time.[7]
We
keep in step with the Spirit in ministry. We listen to him, worship him, and
obey him.
[1] N. T. Wright, Paul for Everyone: The Prison Letters:
Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians and Philemon (Louisville: Westminster
John Knox Press, 2004), p. 5.
[2] Peter T. O’Brien points out the
difference between an introductory thanksgiving and an introductory blessing or
eulogy. He writes, “While his [Paul] introductory thanksgivings focus on God’s
work in the lives of others, his eulogies praise god for blessings in which he
himself participates.” “Benediction, Blessing, Doxology, Thanksgiving,” in Dictionary of Paul and His Letters,
edited by Gerald F. Hawthorne, et. al. (Leicester: InterVarsity Press; Downers
Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1993), p. 68.
[3] Gordon D. Fee, God’s Empowering Presence: The Holy Spirit
in the Letters of Paul (Peabody: Hendrickson, 1994), p. 666.
[4] Ibid., p. 666.
[5] Ibid., p. 667.
[6] Clinton E. Arnold, Ephesians (Grand Rapids: Zondervan,
2010), p. 78.
[7] J. I. Packer, Keep in Step with the Spirit: Finding
Fullness in our Walk with God (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2005), p. 15.
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