“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,

just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world,

that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.”

Ephesians 1:3, 4

Father Matta El-Meskeen (Matthew the Poor)

 

 

WHEN THE APOSTLE PAUL soars to the heavens he makes us hear a spiritual symphony emanating from above, from the heart of God. Because no other apostle or saint was able to make us hear such a beautiful symphony.

For the first time in our life we hear that God blessed us from heaven with a whole spiritual blessing, something no saint or angel received. It is known that: “The blessing of the Lord makes one rich, and He adds no sorrow with it.”1 For they are unseen gifts God drew and planned since the beginning, before

the foundation of the world. These blessings are not physical but spiritual, and special,

that do not disappear, nor are diminished by the envious, hateful, the adversary, enemy

or boss. They are recorded in heaven in our name, and are not due to works or merit but

are fantastic gifts out of God’s grace and bounty in glory freely and without counter

payment that God planned out of His absolute kindness. We do not know the types of

these blessings as it is something that is beyond our thinking, all absolutely spiritual

emanating for the depth of God’s love that is limitless. Most of which the angels aspire

to, they being heavenly blessings but preserved for new human kind. All make us closer

to God and remove all the obstructions that hinder man’s elevation to glory.

All these blessings are in Jesus Christ in whom all these treasures of wisdom,

knowledge and understanding are gathered. God elevated Him to be His beloved

companion seated beside Him, subjecting at His feet all the powers of evil envying man

and resenting him. God elevated Him to become His partner in everything.

He also gave Him the task of saving man to distance him from the enemy’s power that had

taken hold of him and had instilled in him the poison of sin that led him to death.

The choice that was fulfilled in Christ is an integrated one Christ having taken on the

old body from us and being crucified in it to free us from it.

Christ’s pleasure was in fulfilling His Father’s will, as when Christ was made to

enter the world He said: “Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, But a body You

have prepared for Me.”2 “I delight to do Your will, O my God, And Your law is within

my heart.”3

Also when He went forward to the cross it was said: “who for the joy that was set

before Him endured the cross, despising the shame.”4

Our sanctification in Christ was also fulfilled according to a plan before the

foundation of the world. All of it so that we may appear before God as saints without

blame in love.

Thus God fulfilled all that is specific for our salvation, justification and sanctification

in Christ in accordance to His plan. All of it as an eternal mystery God did not divulge

but kept sealed since the beginning. He did not tell angel, prophet nor saint but revealed

it finally to His apostles and prophets through the Spirit5. The Apostle Paul was privy to

this sealed secret and announced it to the nations God elected to that mystery. It

concerns the entrance of nations to God’s mercy and pleasure making them partners in

the inheritance and justification of God.

Prayer

Having revealed Your care for us since the beginning, O Lord outpour Your mercy

upon us at present.

Before the foundation of the world we were known and chosen by You. Complete

Your will for us.

You elected us in Christ and Your choice of us at present has become a reality we

sense,

Your choice and plan for us has made us don Your mercy

Standing before You as saints without blame is the talk of the angels and cherubim,

Because You made us stand before You and outpoured Your love on us.

We have become a new creation talking about Your grace and in wonder over Your

mercy.

July 10, 2005

2 Heb 10:5.

3 Ps 40:8.

4 Heb 12:2.

5 Note Eph 3:5.

 

1 Prov 10:22.