God Gives Spiritual Blessings

3Give praise to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing. Those blessings come from the heavenly world. They belong to us because we belong to Christ.

4God chose us to belong to Christ before the world was created. He chose us to be holy and without blame in his eyes. He loved us. 5So he decided long ago to adopt us as his children. He did it because of what Jesus Christ has done. It pleased God to do it. 6All those things bring praise to his glorious grace. God freely gave us his grace because of the One he loves.

7We have been set free because of what Christ has done. Through his blood our sins have been forgiven. We have been set free because God’s grace is so rich. 8He poured his grace on us by giving us great wisdom and understanding.

9He showed us the mystery of his plan. It was in keeping with what he wanted to do. It was what he had planned through Christ. 10It will all come about when history has been completed. God will then bring together all things in heaven and on earth under one ruler. The ruler is Christ.

11We were also chosen to belong to him. God decided to choose us long ago in keeping with his plan. He works out everything to fit his plan and purpose. 12We were the first to put our hope in Christ. We were chosen to bring praise to his glory.

13You also became believers in Christ. That happened when you heard the message of truth. It was the good news about how you could be saved. When you believed, he marked you with a seal. The seal is the Holy Spirit that he promised.

14The Spirit marks us as God’s own. We can now be sure that someday we will receive all that God has promised. That will happen after God sets all of his people completely free. All of those things will bring praise to his glory.