Eph.1:3 – 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.
A.B. SIMPSON has a very unique translation of this verse. Check this out:
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all the blessings of the Spirit in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus.”
He says that these are the blessings that come from our relationship with the Holy Spirit, they are actually “the blessings of the Spirit”. Simpson goes on to to explain that the spiritual gift is actually the Spirit Himself. He is the spiritual blessing. This changes everything. Here is how he describes it:
“This is the text of the whole Epistle to the Ephesians. That epistle is an unfolding of ‘all the blessings of the Spirit.’ This is the true translation of the passage. There is a great difference between the blessings of the Spirit and spiritual blessings. This is a case where a single noun is worth a hundred adjectives. The person of the Holy Ghost is worth more than all His gifts.”
So if you consider what Paul is saying from this perspective it gives us a glimpse into the greatness of all that the Holy Spirit affords us. First we are reminded of how Paul describes our election in Ephesians 1:4 – “even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.” So the Lord has chosen us from eternity and set us apart by the Holy Spirit. He affirms this in Eph.1:13,14 – “In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.”
The Holy Spirit gives us a taste of our heavenly calling and our inheritance. So this is the beginning of all the blessings of the Spirit we are assured of in Christ. We have a calling, an inheritance, a heavenly reward, and all the gifts of the Spirit to empower us in this life. So Ephesians unveils for us all the blessings of the Spirit that we have received. He is our portion and will keep us throughout our life.
