Day 169

Today’s Reading: Ephesians 1

Today people use a lot of hyperbole. From their social-media posts to their arguments with their families, people say words like every, never, and always to “prove” their points.

Hyperbole is exaggerated statements. It sounds like this:

You never pick up your dirty laundry.

Every time we talk you never listen.

You do this to me every time.

You always make us late.

This is all impossible.

Why can’t we make those hyperbole statements?

Listen closely. We can’t because no one on the planet can ever be that consistent. There is only one who can be that consistent, and that is God Himself. God never lies. God is always faithful. And in Ephesians 1, Paul associates another word of hyperbole with God: “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” (verse 3).

Every spiritual blessing. Wow! The word every is what makes this verse and the ones following amazing. Every spiritual blessing belongs to you. Paul is saying, What else do you need when you’ve got all you need!

Every is a strong word. It’s hyperbole, and it’s all God.

Every spiritual blessing means, nothing is missing for you and me to win in this Christian life. It means that since God says it, we can trust it. And every can be fulfilled only by a consistent God.

What Paul shares next shows us how incredible God is—how much He loves us and cares for us. After Paul goes all hyperbole about God, He tells us why we have received every spiritual blessing:

Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us. . . . In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory. In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory. (Ephesians 1:4-8, 10-14)

He has blessed us how?

Here are some of God’s amazing blessings in Paul’s list:

He chose us before the foundation of the world. To be chosen is to have God already have us in mind before we were even born.

He predestined us to adoption. He is our Father. What an amazing thing to know in a fatherless society. We have a Father when we get saved.

In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us. What do you think about when you think of lavish? I think of a rich father who keeps giving to his children. God our Father never stops giving to us; He is a lavish God. It means giving to overflowing.

You were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise. You were given the Holy Spirit the moment you became God’s property. The Holy Spirit in you is a seal and a pledge that you are going to heaven and you belong to God. When people in the first century wanted to claim something they had purchased, they wo