Ephesians — Spiritual Pike's Peak of the New Testament!
A warm welcome to each one of you! Today, I would like to turn to Ephesians 1:7 and mine out an an inspiring spiritual nugget of truth from God's Word!
Ephesians has been referred to as the spiritual "Pike's Peak" or the spiritual "Alps" of the New Testament. This Epistle contains some of the most awesome, towering, breathtaking revelations in God's Word —of our blessings — because we have a faithful relationship with God the Father in Jesus Christ.
A Prison Epistle
Ephesians is what referred to as one of the "Prison Epistles" — probably written between 59-61 AD while Paul was in prison in Rome.
This obviously gave him much time to meditate on our relationship to God the Father when we are — as Paul expresses — "In Christ Jesus". Thus God's people have been given these wonderful treasures of truth — in this breathtaking book in the Bible, inspired by Spirit of God.
Ephesians — Spiritual Riches of Jesus Christ
One of the great themes of this epistle — an inspiring truth that Paul, through the Holy Spirit, wanted to open our eyes to are the GREAT SPIRITUAL RICHES we have in Christ.
Paul speaks of those riches in the seventh verse of Chapter one —
Ephesians 1:7- "In whom we have REDEMPTION through His blood [blood of Jesus Christ] ACCORDING to the riches of His grace.
Notice the word ACCORDING to the riches of His grace. The word "ACCORDING" opens up to us a tremendous spiritual truth — that God blesses us ACCORDING His riches NOT OUT of His riches. That is a big difference!
"Paul echoes again in Philippians 4:19 — another of Paul's four "Prison Epistles — " But my God shall supply all your needs ACCORDING to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus."
John D. Rockefeller Example
Let me give you an illustration of that. John D. Rockefeller by the 1930's was considered one of the wealthiest Americans of all time. The wealthy oil magnate peak worth was about 336 billon dollars factoring in today's inflation adjustments.
It was reported once that when he played golf in Florida that he gave his caddy a ten cent tip!
Now obviously, he was giving OUT of his riches, not ACCORDING to his riches! But God does not only give out of His riches, He gives ACCORDING to His riches. What an encouraging revelation to boost our faith!
How Rich is God?
How rich is God? It tells us in Psalms 50:10 — " For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills."
We read in Haggai 2:8 — "The silver is mine and the the gold is mine, saith the Lord of hosts."
So I leave you with this encouraging truth. God blesses us ACCORDING to His riches, not merely OUT of His riches. We have a rich and generous Heavenly Father!
We also have these resources on God's Word should also be very informative —
