True Riches (1)

As one reads Ephesians 1:3—Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ—he is reminded of what most of us consider to be riches: oil wells, real estate, diamonds, gold, silver, stocks, bonds, and the like. Now, there is certainly nothing at all wrong with those things in themselves, but when they become our priority, our source of riches, then we have a problem. Why? Because these are not real riches; they are arti­ficial riches or substitute riches. Man is in need of riches, but he rejects true riches and substitutes these false riches.

How tragic it is that many Christians today have gotten caught up in this philosophy. Many have gotten caught up in all sorts of “prosperity teaching,” the latest version of which is, as one author calls it in the title of his book, “The Cult of Jabez.” In very strong but no less true words, that author exposes the popular book, The Prayer of Jabez, as “the most mesmerizing deception to be launched on American Christianity in the modern era.” Why? Because the basic, underlying error of the book is that the repetition of a prayer, any prayer, even a Biblical prayer, unlocks the power of God in our lives. The whole thrust of the book is that by repeating this obscure Old Testament prayer (mentioned only once in I Chron. 4:10 and a clear violation of the prohibition of “vain repletion” in Matt. 6:8), the Christian can unlock blessing and miracles. This is, indeed, the philosophy of the day: God is at our disposal, at our beckoning call, to give us whatever we want.

On the contrary, in all their efforts to “get blessed,” such people ignore the declaration of our text that true riches are spiritual. The word spiritual is pneumatikos, which is the word used to de­scribe the work of the Holy Spirit. This word is used in speak­ing of “spiritual gifts,” that is, gifts which come from the Spirit (Rom. 1:11; I Cor. 12:1; etc.). This is also used in reference to “spiritual men”, that is, men who are controlled by the Spirit (I Cor. 2:13—literal translation of “comparing spiritual things with spiritual” is “explaining spiritual things to spiritual men”—and 15). Therefore, since these blessings are connected with the Holy Spirit, they are spiritual in nature and content.

How many spiritual blessings are there? When we look at verse 3, we might be inclined to think that it merely intro­duces the set number of blessings listed in verses 4‑14. But it goes far deeper than this. The word blessings is actually singular in the Greek (“with every spiritual blessing”). So, it’s not so much that God gives many riches (though this is how it appears to us); rather, He gives true wealth, one continuous flow of blessing and wealth. We all know the hymn that admonishes us to, ”Count your many blessings; name them one by one.” While we certainly do that, may we also see the greater picture; may we not only see the individual blessings, but may we recog­nize the one continuous flow of wealth that comes from God.

As we look at the individual riches in verses 4‑14, may we think of them as this continuous flow. While we’ll look at each in a little more detail, it would be of value to look at them now as a group. What is our spiritual [wealth]? Paul mentions eight aspects our wealth: Election (v. 4), Predestination (v. 5), Adoption, (vs. 5-6), Redemption (v. 7), Forgiveness (v. 7), Revelation (vs. 8-10), Inheritance vs. 11-12), and Sealing (vs. 13-14). Each one of these is wealth beyond any dreams of earthly avarice we could image. Oh, what wealth we have in Christ!