Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

This blessing is given by the apostle Paul to the church at Ephesus and “others who are faithful in Christ”. Grace and Peace, what a blessing!

Then Paul begins his inspired description detailing why we can have Grace and Peace. Following is what God has done for us through Christ.

“3 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, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, 5 having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved. 7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace 8 which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, 9 having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, 10 that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him. 11 In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, 12 that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory. 13 In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.” Ephesians 1:3-14 (NKJV)

The phrases I have in bold fonts are in the past tense. For those of you who struggled in English 101, they are DONE. We are not waiting for them to be done, they are done right now!

Because they are already done, and because they are done by God for our benefit, wholly on the merits of Christ, we can now have Grace and Peace. And, the blessed Holy Spirit is Himself our guarantee!

According to verse 13, when we heard the gospel, we trusted Christ, and at that time in history we appropriated for our benefit our status as sons, our inheritance, and now wait only for the final redemption of our bodies at the resurrection.

Religion is what man can do to gain favor with God. Christianity is what God has done for man because of Christ.

“Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Amen