Citizens of Heaven
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 1:3)
The letter to the Ephesians is thought by many to be a circular letter. That means it was written to be circulated to more than one recipient. Each copy would have a different town identified in the copy. The one that we have that made the Bible was to the people of Ephesus.
When the Apostle Paul wrote this letter, he was excited about the church and what it represented. God had done something amazing in Jesus and connected eternity and the world. By faith, people were joined to the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. As a result they received the very best of all that God had to offer. This was not because God wasn’t already offering it. It was because without faith, we lack the eyes to see and grasp all that God is doing
The arrival of Jesus changes that. Once we encounter the God who comes to us in Christ, we discover the goodness of God and the sacrificial love that God gives to us. We discern that in the midst of the various struggles of life, God continues to work and brings life out of death and hope out of despair.
The result is that we live our lives as both residents of the world and also as citizens of heaven. We see the temporal and impact it with the love and grace of Jesus. We see the eternal and trust that no matter what we encounter here, it will not be enough to destroy the promise of “every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.”
You are free to live a life of praise and thanksgiving. Why? Because your faith in Christ tells you that God has promised you everything that eternity has to offer. So rejoice, even when times are tough. Because of Christ, there is always a light shining into our future.
