3 May blessing (praise, laudation, and eulogy) be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah) Who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual (given by the Holy Spirit) blessing in the heavenly realm!
4 Even
as [in His love] He chose us [actually picked us out for Himself as His
own] in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should be
holy (consecrated and set apart for Him) and blameless in His sight, even above reproach, before Him in love.
5 For
He foreordained us (destined us, planned in love for us) to be adopted
(revealed) as His own children through Jesus Christ, in accordance with
the purpose of His will [[b]because it pleased Him and was His kind intent]—
6 [So that we might be] to the praise and the commendation of His glorious grace (favor and mercy), which He so freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. Eph. 1:3-6
Oh, what wonderful verses we have to look at today! Why do we praise God the Father and Jesus the Messiah? Because the Father has blessed us in Christ! What has He blessed us with? With every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realm! Wow! We have been given EVERY spiritual blessing that is in the heavenly realm! These are eternal, wonderful, supernatural blessings that won't fade or decay, blessings that last forever and are far greater than anything in this world! These blessings are from another dimension, the spiritual dimension, given by the Holy Spirit! Who has He blessed us in? IN Christ! These blessings are all found in Christ! In His person and all that HE is to and for us! Let's look at some of these blessings..What did God do in love? He chose us, picked us out for Himself as His own. Who did He do this in? In Christ! When did He do this? Before the foundation of the world! To chose carries the idea of 'calling by name' - so we see that before time began, God chose us, picked us out as His own, and called us by name, giving us our true identity in Christ! How did God choose us to be, how are we identified before Him? As holy and blameless in His sight. Holy carries the idea of being set apart, pure, complete and whole. Blameless carreis the idea of above reproach or fault, beyond criticism, praised, flawless, perfect like an exquisite jewel! God chose us as whole and holy, perfect and flawless persons before Him! Why? In love! He did it out of His great love for us, even before we were born, even before He created anything! We were already chosen and given the identity of whole and perfect and beloved in Christ! And it gets better! Even way back then before time began, what did God predestine or plan or mark out as our destiny? For us to be revealed as His own children through Jesus! Again, what motivated Him to do this? He plannned this out of His love for us! He predestined for us to be His own beloved children! This was His will for us, this is what pleased His heart and this was His kind intent toward us! Why would He do all this? To celebrate His glorious grace and favor with us, the grace (favor, kindness, acceptance, and unconditional love) He so freely bestowed on us in the Beloved, Christ, from before time began! We have been on God's heart since before the world began! He has had our identity in Christ, our place in His family, marked out from before time itself! He has had US set apart in His heart from before anything ever existed...
We were the child God dreamed of before time began, the child He always wanted, the child of His heart's desire! You weren't a recent creation of your earthly parents, no, your origin goes back much farther than that, back before time even began! Back before there was ruin, before corruption from sin, before any sin even occurred, before Adam's fall, before the Garden, before Satan ever way, before creation itself, what existed? Only God, the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, in perfect fellowship and union! There was only laughter, love, purity, other-centeredness, mutual sharing, transparent fellowship, safety and security, sweetness, acceptance, delight, joy, peace and life! The Trinity was all that existed in that place out of time, before anything that ever existed, existed! Beyond any place that ever would be, there was this place, this dimension where eternity just IS, and the Trinity was there, loving and fellowshipping and enjoying one another in perfect union!
And in that circle of fellowship and love, God thought of YOU! He imagined YOU! He dreamed of YOU! He created you in His mind, in His heart, in His thoughts..He imagined exactly what you would look like, the personality you would have, the quirks and eccentricities that make you so delightful. You were God's dream! He dreamed you up before time began - that's where and when you really began, that's your true origin - in the heart and mind of God!
Do you realize He has been thinking of you since BEFORE the world even existed? He has seen you, held you, thought of you, since before time itself! You were created IN Christ Jesus before there ever was a world. The Lamb was slain before the foundation of the world, He said before Abraham (or anyone else, for that matter!) was, I AM! You were made outside of time in the I AM! Your starting point was in eternal God, you were created as a perfect new creation way back then, before time! That is so because Jesus already was slain from the foundation of the world, He was already raised from the foundation of the world, and you were already raised with Him to new life from the foundation of the world! God saw you and created you back before time began as the new creation self in Christ! THAT is the self He originally made you, THAT is your true design, THAT is your real and only true identity! God is totally outside of time, and He sees the end from the beginning. He saw the new creation you from before the beginning! And He held that person, that real you, in His heart, in His mind, through time, through your birth on this earth, through your confused perceptions of who you were, through your frustrations at trying to find identity from other people or works or things, until your discovery of Christ's work to present the new you, which is the only real you, the original you that God always had in His mind, the you that was created in Christ before time! And with your faith awareness of Christ bringing to light the new creation in Him, this new you that God had held in HIS heart, that real you that had always existed in HIS mind, came flowering forth!
The new creation you, the new self in Christ, is the REAL true you that has always been God's intent and God's true creation of you! The other self that you thought was 'you' all those years, the old man, was not the real you at all! Now you are living authentically, as who you REALLY are and always were in God's mind, from outside of time itself!
Think about that real you, that God dreamed up way back before creation, way back before time. What existed then? Sin? NO! Struggle? NO! Confusion? NO! Shame? NO! Hurt or pain? NO! Rejection? NO! Loneliness? NO! Doubt? NO! The real you was made and existed in the mind of the Trinity before time started, when there was nothing BUT the Trinity in existence! Nothing but pure love, pure affection, pure joy, pure happiness, pure transparency, pure acceptance, pure approval, pure beauty, pure freedom, pure tenderness, pure sweetness, pure friendship, pure communion! THAT is a place of innocence! That is your true home and where you come from, your place of belonging, your place of origin! You were dreamed up in that Union Life, in the midst of that Perfect Love! So you are SO innocent! You are so beautiful and so priceless and so perfect! You are so beloved and tenderly cared for and cherished! You come from a place, a heart, where evil never existed and never will, where sin and separation, anxiety and pain, fear and sadness never even entered in any way, and never could! You were created in the heart of God in a place so innocent and shining with beauty that it lights up heaven with its light and makes anything on earth pale in comparison! Your new self isn't cleansed - it never WAS dirty! Your new self isn't forgiven - it never knew evil! You came from a time before evil and pain even existed, and that is the innocence you ARE in Christ, now and forever!
Can you sense the amazing and beautiful LOVE God had and has for you? You have been adored by Him from before eternity! You have been in His thoughts and in His heart since before forever! You are so cherished and so loved that words can't begin to describe it! And you are so innocent, beautiful, fresh and new because you came from a place before time, where age or decay never touched you and never shall! You are part of God's eternal heart forevermore, and He is so enchanted with the wonderful YOU that He made, in Christ, and chose to be His child, flawless, blameless, holy, whole, beautiful, fresh and lovely as a just-opened rose, from before time began!!