Ephesians Series

by Athol Walter

Part 4 - Ephesians 1:3

To Worlds Unknown

We concluded our last study by comparing the all spiritual blessings of Ephesians with the earthly blessings promised to Israel, and the comment was made that in each case, the blessings promised and indeed given by a gracious God match the sphere or position in which those blessings will be enjoyed. We have yet to examine the phrase 'in heavenly places', but before we come to that, one or two other comments on the word spiritual.

Spiritual v Carnal?

As with the word church, this word spiritual has come to have a very special place in the believer's vocabulary - and rightly so. But that doesn't make a correct understanding of it automatic. Too often our conception of Scriptural truth is coloured by denominational teaching, by reading we may have done, even by statements in favourite hymns, but any of these could be faulty. The important thing for those who wish to walk worthy of their high calling in Christ Jesus is to see how the Scriptures use a word, and let that be the sole guide for us. Always the catch cry must be, "What does the Bible say about it'?"

The word 'spiritual' is a translation of the Greek word 'pneuma', which means to breathe, the noun form being of course, breath. This is why we call the tubes of rubber we ride around on in our cars and bikes pneumatic tyres. They are filled with air, the stuff we breathe. It is really quite amazing just how many words we have taken over from Greek into our language without much change at all.

The Hebrew word (in the Old Testament) that was translated 'pneuma' is 'nephesh', and like 'pneuma' is translated 'breath' and also 'spirit' and 'soul'. Readers who may wish to go further with these two words will find help in the Companion Bible, Appendices Nos. 9, 13, 101 and 110. It is not a small subject, let me tell you.

For our purposes, it will suffice if we stay with the New Testament, and look at some examples of the word spiritual there. I hope that you will open your Bible and read not only the verses I mention, but also the contexts.

We tend to think that if a thing is spiritual, it must of necessity be good, but in this very epistle we are studying, in 6:12, we read about 'spiritual wickedness'. It is at moments like these that we usually react in one of two ways, We can either say, 'Well, now, there is a new thought. It differs from what I have been taught, but let's see where it leads." Or we might say, "Well, that doesn't line up with what I believe. I don't want to have anything more to do with this", and then close the book along with our minds. I sincerely hope your reaction will be the first one.

If the Bible can speak about spiritual wickedness, then it follows that the word spiritual does not always refer to "good things". That means we must take some care.

But look again at Eph. 6:12, for the verse helps us some more. It sets the word spiritual over against flesh and blood, and that is an important point to remember.

Let's go further. Rom. 7:14 says, "For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin." And then Rom. 15:27 tells us, "For if the Gentiles have been made partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister unto them in carnal things."

So spiritual is also the opposite of carnal. Every time I read or hear the word carnal, I can't help but remember a debate between two Christian teachers that I heard some years back. One of the men was very heavily into spiritualising Scripture, and for him the word carnal was a very dirty word indeed. He used it often in his speeches, and he would almost shout it, and his facial expression and tone of voice left us in no doubt that, for him, anything carnal was worse than sin and to be excised ruthlessly from the Christian's life and thought.

Well, I am sorry to have to challenge that line of thinking, but if we let God's Word speak for itself, we must recognise that carnal things are not always bad, otherwise how can Paul exhort the Gentile believers in Rome to share their carnal things with their Jewish brethren in Israel who were suffering hardship at the time. These days, we would probably replace the phrase 'carnal things' with 'worldly goods' or some such, for that is what Paul is talking about.

Paul presents us with another contrast in 1 Cor. 15:44, where he speaks of our physical bodies like this: 'It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body." The next verse is very important, and I would love to get into it, but I must resist the temptation because it will take us too far afield. Except to say that where we read that Adam was made a living soul , the word soul is exactly the same word in the Greek as the word natural in the preceding verse. Of course, one is a noun, the other is an adjective, but what Paul literally wrote in v. 44 was: "It is sown a soulish body". I know that soulish is not really a word, but how else can it be expressed? I leave it there for now.

So, we have learned that the Scriptures use the word spiritual as the opposite of flesh and blood, of natural, of carnal or fleshly. And just as spiritual is not always referring to something good, neither is carnal always bad.

For another example of carnal things not always being bad, we need only think back to our discussion of the earthly realm of Israel's blessings, as opposed to the spiritual blessings of the Church which is His Body in heavenly places far above all.

God promised the faithful Israelite peace and prosperity in the land given to his forefather Abraham. These are earthly blessings - indeed, in the light of what we have seen above, we could call them carnal blessings. Are they bad, and to be shunned by the people of Israel because they are not 'spiritual'? Certainly not. They are promised by God as the reward for obedience to the Law of Moses, and while that dispensation of law is not in operation now, I believe the time is coming when it will once more become the hope of the people of Israel. And that means that the promises of blessing relating to that dispensation will also operate once again.

Would you look at Psalm 128. Only 6 short verses, telling how the faithful Jew would be blessed. I can read those verses with interest and faith, knowing them to be the inspired word of God, but they do not speak directly to me, nor are they telling me about my spiritual blessings in Christ in heavenly places. But that does not invalidate them for those to whom they belong. I do not have to try to spiritualise them in some way to make them fit my sphere of blessing. I can leave them right where they are, and leave them to whom they belong without doing any injustice to God's Word, and without losing anything in my own spiritual life, either now or in the future.

Well, perhaps enough about spiritual and spiritual blessings. What does Paul tell us next? Nothing less than that every spiritual blessing is ours in heavenly places in Christ. There is more in the next verse , but we will chew over this piece for a while.

'In Christ'

We should note first of all, and it should be printed in capitals and underlined in red ink and whatever else will make us take notice, that we have these wonderful riches of grace IN CHRIST. This is Paul's constant theme - Christ is ALL and without Him we are nothing and have nothing. So here it is 'in Christ'., v. 5 – 'by Jesus Christ'; v. 6 - 'in the Beloved'; v. 7 - 'In whom' (Christ again); v. 10 - 'in Christ, even in Him'; v. 11 'In whom'; v. 12 'in Christ'; and so it goes on.

There is only one Lord and that is Jesus Christ. There is only one Saviour and that is Jesus Christ. There is only one mediator and that is Jesus Christ. There is only one name by which anyone can be saved, and that name is Jesus Christ. There is only one right and true way to God, only one door through which we can pass, and that way, that door, is Jesus Christ. Do I need to go on?

It makes no difference whether the Bible is referring to the redeemed of Israel, or the redeemed of the New Jerusalem, or the redeemed of the Church which is His Body, there is only one foundation for all these divisions in the family of God, and that foundation is the Lord Jesus Christ. His spotless life, His death in our place, His resurrection and His ascension to the heavenly places at the right hand of God has secured every blessing and privilege for God's people, regardless of the dispensational place of blessing to which they have been destined by the love and grace of God.

Heavenly Places

When we think about the phrase 'in heavenly places', we must be aware of several things. The Greek of the original is 'en tois epouraniois'.

My Interlinear Greek New Testament tells me that this is literally 'in the heavenlies. While there is no word for places in the Greek, it has to be added in English to make the sense.

It is one of the special things about Ephesians, that this phrase "in heavenly places" occurs no where else in the Bible. Some people have reacted to this by pointing out the many places where the word 'heavenly' occurs, but that is not what was said. The phrase we are looking at - in heavenly places - is unique to Paul's epistle to the Ephesians, and that point should make us pause a bit.

I think it is important to realise that it refers to a PLACE. It is not some abstract spiritual, concept. It answers the question WHERE?

Where will the redeemed and faithful Israelite enjoy his/her blessings'? In the land. Where will the overcomer spoken of in Revelation and other places, enjoy his/her blessings'? In the New Jerusalem. Where will the member of the Church which is His Body enjoy his/her blessings? In heavenly places.

Do you think I am being fanciful here? I hope not. But if so, consider two passages of Scripture.

Firstly, Matt. 5:5, "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." And secondly, Philippians 3:18-20, and I quote from the New English Bible, "For as I have often told you, and now tell you with tears in my eyes, there are many whose way of life makes them enemies of the cross of Christ. They are heading for destruction, appetite is their god, and they glory in their shame..: We, by contrast, are citizens of heaven, and from heaven we expect our deliverer to come, the Lord Jesus Christ."

When Christ was speaking to His followers in Israel, He told them they could look forward to inheriting the earth. I suspect that the word 'earth' there should be translated 'land', but we can leave that aside for now. Then in Philippians, Paul tells his converts that they are citizens of heaven. I have had people tell me that these two things mean one and the same. I'm sorry, but if inheriting the earth or the land means the same as being citizens of heaven, then we may as well close the Book, and go off and play bowls or something.

Then Colossians 3:1 has a bearing on this also. "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, (where is that, Paul?) where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God". You know, of course, that Ephesians is going to instruct us that being at the right hand of God is the same as being in heavenly places.

I said earlier that the word heavens and heavenlies occurs many times throughout Scripture. For instance, we read of our heavenly Father, and even our Father in Heaven. The word in these cases is not 'epouraniois', as in Ephesians but the simpler word 'ouraniois'. For the sake of Greek scholars who may read this, I must state that I know the endings of these words change according to case and gender etc. As can be easily seen, the word heavenlies in Ephesians has two letters in front of it that the other word does not have. The letters are 'ep' and it is a contraction of the preposition 'epi' which means above or upon. Our Bibles generally ignore the difference, but to give the word its full power we should translate it as the above heavens, or the super heavens. It is not easy to find a satisfactory English equivalent, but we should keep in mind that the word has an added dimension to it.

Further down in the chapter, at 1:20, we are told that Christ was raised from the dead by God's power, and seated at his own (i.e. God's) right hand in the heavenly places, far above all. We will come to these overwhelming statements in due course, but when we consider what is said in these verses towards the end of the chapter, we shouldn't wonder that the place is referred to as the 'epouraniois', the 'above-heavens'.

The occurrences of "in heavenly places" are, as I said before, all in Ephesians. They are 1:3; 1:20; 2:6; 3:10; and 6:12. Please refer to them all. You will see that in 6:10, the translators have written "high places", but you can rest assured that the phrase in the Greek is exactly the same as the others. This is a little example that shows you can't always trust the translators.

I mentioned Col. 3:1 above, but we need to bring it to mind again. The phrase, in heavenly places, does not occur there, but we read that the things above which we are to seek after, are where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God, and we know from the references in Ephesians that this is synonymous with heavenly places.

Now I would like you to go to Hebrews 4:14. Here we are told that our great High Priest (the Lord Jesus Christ) has past into the heavens. My margin and later translations tell me this should read, passed THROUGH the heavens. Then Heb. 7:26 says that Christ is made higher than the heavens. Well, that fits what we have seen already. But then in Heb. 9:24 we read that Christ has entered into heaven itself .

To some this seems like a contradiction. How can He be passed through the heavens, be made higher thin the heavens, be seated at the right of God in the above heavens, and yet be in heaven?

The Bible speaks of more than one heaven. If you look at Genesis 1, you will see how there are differences made. The first verse speaks of heaven, which I think is the dwelling place of God, the heavenly places of Ephesians. Then in verses 7 and 8, we read that God made a firmament above the earth, and it was called heaven. This is the heavens in which birds and aeroplanes fly. Then, we go outside at night and look up into the sky and see all the stars lighting up the heavens. No birds there, it is too high or far for them. No God dwelling there either, His dwelling place is far beyond.

So Christ can be in Heaven, the dwelling place of the Holy God, and still have passed through the heavens, the lesser heavens of the universe and the earth's atmosphere.

Well, to say that we are a little out of our depth (or out of our atmosphere) is a real understatement. But whether we understand the different heavens that God has made or not, we can rest assured, on the absolute integrity of His Word, that the member of the Church which is His Body, is blessed with every blessing that is spiritual in the heavenly places far above all, where Christ sits at the right hand of God. What other calling in Scripture compares with this? Is this not grace? Yes, indeed, but it is more than that. It is the riches of His grace.

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