First Person

I love the opening paragraph of Ephesians. It's great, deep, powerful stuff. And everything it says about "us" is totally true about you and me individually. You can legitimately read Ephesians 1:3-10 in the first person. And you should:

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed me in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose me in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.

In love he predestined me to be adopted as his son through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will — to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given me in the One he loves. In him I have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on me with all wisdom and understanding.

And he made known to me the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment — to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.

Now let that sink in for a bit.