«　WEEK 12　DAY 5　»

　　Eph. 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ.

　　Rom. 8:4 That the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the spirit.

　　The praise in Ephesians 1:3 is deep and profound, encompassing the entire New Testament economy. Here we have not only creation, indicated by the title God, but also incarnation, indicated by the title the God of our Lord Jesus Christ….In the incarnation He is the Father to impart His life to all His sons….The highest praise to God says that our God the Creator became a man and that our God is also the life-imparting Father….Whatever Christ has attained and obtained is transmitted to the church.

　　The title Our Lord Jesus Christ is rich in meaning. Lord signifies Christ’s lordship, Jesus signifies His humanity to be our Redeemer and Savior, and Christ signifies that He is God’s anointed One. This is a further indication that 1:3 is the top praise, the highest well-speaking of God. We all need to speak well concerning God in this way: in the way of creation, incarnation, impartation of life, and transmission, with redemption, the Redeemer, the Savior, and the anointed One to accomplish God’s eternal purpose. (Life-study of Ephesians, pp. 17-18)

　　God has blessed us with His good, fine, and fair speakings. Every such speaking is a blessing to us. Ephesians 1:4 through 14 are an account of such speakings, such blessings. The word every [in 1:3] indicates the all-inclusiveness of God’s blessings. It includes all, with no exception.

　　All these blessings are spiritual. This indicates the relationship of God’s blessings to the Holy Spirit. Being spiritual, all the blessings with which God has blessed us are related to the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God is not only the channel, but also the reality, of God’s blessings. In this verse, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit are all related to the blessings bestowed upon us….God’s blessing is mainly the dispensation of the Triune God into us.

　　Heavenlies here indicates not only the heavenly place, but also the heavenly nature, state, characteristic, and atmosphere of the spiritual blessings with which God has blessed us. They are from the heavens with a heavenly nature, heavenly state, heavenly characteristic, and heavenly atmosphere. The believers in Christ are enjoying on earth these heavenly blessings. They are heavenly as well as spiritual….The blessings bestowed upon us are of God the Father, in God the Son, through God the Spirit, and in the heavenlies.

　　Finally, all these spiritual blessings are in Christ. Christ is the virtue, the instrument, and the sphere in which God has blessed us. Outside of Christ, without Christ, God has nothing to do with us. But in Christ He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies. If we are in ourselves, we are through with God’s blessing. Hallelujah, we are in Christ, who is the sphere, the channel, the instrument, and the virtue in which we have been blessed! (Life-study of Ephesians, pp. 21-22)

　　If these blessings were physical, material blessings, they would need to be enjoyed and experienced by us in our physical body. Likewise, if they were psychological blessings, we could realize them by exercising our soul—our mind, emotion, and will. However, these are spiritual blessings, the blessings of the Holy Spirit. Since the nature of all these blessings is spiritual, we need to exercise our spirit to realize, enjoy, and partake of them in our spirit. (CWWL, 1966, vol. 2, “The Divine Spirit with the Human Spirit in the Epistles,” p. 305)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of Ephesians, msg. 2; CWWL, 1966, vol. 2, “The Divine Spirit with the Human Spirit in the Epistles,” ch. 7