Reflections:

• What do you think is the meaning of life?

• When a person is in dire straits, what do you think will be the outcome for that person with God? What about without God?

• Do you think the church is full of miracles and can solve all of people's problems?

• What do you think a person must not miss in order to live a fulfilling life?

The Essence of the Christian Faith in Jesus Christ

Ephesians, Chapter 1, if I were to give it a title, I would call it a transcendent faith. Our Christian faith is fundamentally not an ordinary faith; its essence is a transcendent one. Where does this transcendence lie? The book begins by stating:

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. (Ephesians 1:3)

This Christian faith comes from heaven. It truly comes from heaven, not from the soil of earth, not dug up from the ground, certainly not! It descends from heaven. As human beings, we must know how important the blessings that come from heaven are. In other words, these blessings from heaven are the most important treasures in our lives. When we know and understand this most important thing, we will be transformed. Tragically, people do not understand this treasure! Would people give up $1,000 to earn $100? No. In the same situation, would they give up $10,000 to earn $1,000? Also no. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the greatest, most important, and most valuable thing in our lives. It is a treasure! But people do not know how great that treasure is, so they often make the wrong choices, and life lacks blessings.

This point is crucial! Paul is explaining this principle to the readers of Ephesians, a group of faithful people building the church, pastors, and leaders. The principle is that blessings from heaven constitute a transcendent faith. What exactly is this blessing? It is that God chose us in Jesus Christ. Remember, we do not choose God; we merely make a choice, choosing God as the Lord of our lives. Fundamentally, God chooses you according to His abundant grace. In retrospect, every believer will find that our journey to faith is miraculous. Sometimes we ask ourselves: How did I come to believe? Not only did I believe, but I also began to serve Him. If God had not chosen us from heaven, we would not experience this marvel, nor would we be able to enter it.

God choosing us, this is a transcendent faith, a transcendent blessing. For example, if the President of China wanted to build a closer relationship with you, wouldn't that be a blessing? So today, this Heavenly Father, the Creator of the universe, personally chooses you, making you extremely precious and glorious in His sight. We have obtained this extremely important status. Our position is elevated from earth to heaven. What a precious and glorious grace this is!

Many Christians do not know this glorious grace, so they often pick up pennies and lose dollars in their choices, choosing the small and losing the large. You must know that our identity is very precious, chosen by God before all things, to be holy and blameless. Everyone has many problems, but God is willing to choose you, to make you holy and blameless. We have long sought the union of heaven and man, to be without blemish, and we choose various methods. But those are human efforts. For example: I never eat meat, I am a vegetarian, I do not harm even insignificant creatures like ants. If insects bite me, I never hit them. He thinks that doing these things will make him holy, but doing them is in vain!

But our faith is that God makes you and me holy. This holiness means that you are pleasing in God's eyes; that is called holiness, set apart. These efforts are to accomplish your status as children of the eternal God. With this status, we can inherit His inheritance. This is the transcendent faith. In Paul's letter to the Colossians, he speaks of the transcendent individual, the transcendent church, the transcendent Christ, and the transcendent faith. Ephesians, actually written at the same time as the letter to the Colossians but to a different audience, still addresses the transcendent faith.

This faith was not invented by the Romans, nor by the Chinese; it has nothing to do with human will. This faith and blessing come from heaven. If you know that you are the one who has received this grace, you will know how to treasure it. Today, we only see a small part of God's grace manifested. God will increasingly manifest His grace in the days to come, allowing us to see how precious our position is.

The Source of Spiritual Blessings

Next, it speaks of how this blessing comes about. This blessing is obtained through the redemption of the blood of Jesus Christ, his beloved Son. From the beginning, reading this, we realize that none of it is your or my work; it is all God's work. He chooses you, makes you holy, and makes you a child of the eternal God. It is not what you and I have done, but what God has done in us. Then, God gives His Son Jesus Christ, who redeems us with His precious blood. It is not you who does it; it is He who does it. So, what Paul emphasizes is not what you and I have done, but what God has done to make you and me holy.

Using Jesus' crucifixion and the shedding of His precious blood to redeem us is God's infinitely powerful wisdom. This wisdom is that when the time is right, all things in the world will be united in Jesus Christ. Actually, people all over the world have long had this dream, to unite heaven and man. It is difficult for us to truly understand now because we choose to be busy with our own insignificant things every day, so busy that we become dizzy and forget this excellent blessing.

People in the world use all their time to climb the ladder of status. In the end, when you climb to the height of Qin Shi Huang, you find that what you need most is not status. This is the devil's biggest lie. Qin Shi Huang galloped across the land, engaged in military life, conquered six kingdoms, and left a name for himself in history, only to die tragically in the end. After conquering the six kingdoms, he was deeply distressed in his heart. When he discovered that the throne was difficult to sit on, his end was near. His inner longing for immortality stemmed from his helplessness towards life. How much more so for those foolish ordinary people? They do not know that when anyone desperately climbs to the height of Qin Shi Huang, they will find that people do not need those positions and wealth, but eternal life.

If your eyes cannot see the spiritual blessings, you will desperately run in the wrong direction. Therefore, before we even start, let us not choose to climb the mountains of this world. When we understand the spiritual blessings in heaven, let us be glorious Christians. This is an extraordinarily wonderful thing. In fact, with these concepts, we surpass the emperors Qin Shi Huang, Han Wu, Tang Zong, and Song Zu. Although these emperors established great achievements, the helplessness and sorrow of human beings still did not let them go when they were dying. I do not want our brothers and sisters to climb to that position only to discover that there is an abyss in front of us. That is definitely not a blessing.

I reiterate: the blessing is that through the precious blood of Jesus Christ, we have become children of the eternal God, united in Jesus Christ. That He works all things according to the counsel of His will, that the praise of His glory might be shown through us who were the first to set our hope on Christ. As it is written:

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.

This is a great blessing! Paul made a clear exposition of the Christian faith. First, hear the gospel. Second, believe in Jesus. Third, receive the Holy Spirit. The greatest tragedy in this world is to do the first two steps but not receive the Holy Spirit. This is the deception of the devil. Next, Paul wrote to the Ephesians, I always pray for you, that you may truly know this. We must also do so! He often asked the Ephesians and other churches, Do you really know? Do you really know this spiritual blessing? So he often prayed that God would give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation, that you may truly know Him.

First, what is the hope to which he has called you in this gospel, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints. Second, what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might. People who read Paul's letters in that era had no difficulty, but today we are not like that, why? Because we cannot see that power, so we read Paul's letters poorly. Today, we begin to see the glory of God in our church. We begin to see the power of God being manifested. Therefore, the brothers and sisters in our church begin to pray to God, let us know these words written by Paul, let us truly know what is the hope of this calling, let us truly know what are the riches of the glorious inheritance we have in Jesus Christ. Let us know what is the immeasurable greatness of his power that works in Jesus Christ.

As soon as you hear the Body of Christ, you know that is the church, as written in Chapter 1, verse 23, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. This clearly states the theme. The church is the Body of Jesus Christ. These Ephesian elders, pastors, teachers, and co-workers must know that this gospel is such a gospel, this power is the power to raise people from the dead, the power to overcome death, the power that surpasses all principalities, powers, might, dominion, and every name that is named.

Do not think that some celebrity is worthy of being your idol, because the title that God has given us far surpasses everything visible and tangible in this world, even surpassing the dark forces that rule the world. Therefore, brothers and sisters gradually discover that the Christian faith is a transcendent faith that will manifest the great power of God. When we practice with this sentence, we can see it. Why did the churches we built before not have this power? Because they were not built according to the word of God. That was a club, and the power of God could not be seen. Today, the church is turning around, changing, seeing the glory of God, and seeing the power of God. The power that is manifested is truly unimaginable to us. Miracles and wonders are greatly manifested in our midst.

In this coming year, I encourage brothers and sisters to believe in the Lord with the mindset of Ephesians Chapter 1. Do not think that there is anything in this world that can surpass the grace of your belief in the Lord. Although I like to share career planning with everyone, do not put that thing before what really matters. Do not think that believing in the Lord is for your career. In fact, everything is for our belief in the Lord. Once this concept changes, the power of God will be manifested through us. Therefore, do not panic when you encounter difficulties in your work, because we are the Father's representatives on earth. You are the ambassadors of the Kingdom of Heaven in this world. If you do not know what Paul is talking about, you cannot know what is the hope, what is the glory, and what is the inheritance. Nor do you know how great that power is. So you collapse when you encounter difficulties.

Therefore, more prayer is not paying a price, but receiving more grace. Therefore, some brothers and sisters who are willing to give time to prayer will receive more grace. Many people choose to pray when they encounter a crisis in their lives, and do not pray when there are no difficulties. This is a fatal choice. Because that difficulty becomes the purpose of his prayer, and what Paul wants to correct is this problem. Because the purpose of our lives is to build up the Body of Jesus Christ, which is the church.

All things will be united in Jesus Christ's body, becoming part of God. All things are in him, inheriting such a rich and glorious inheritance in God. We, even Paul, cannot find a suitable word to describe this inheritance when describing it, and can only say that it is such a rich inheritance. Because that glory is the answer to all our problems. When God's glory is manifested on us, all problems disappear. Whatever title we put on this chapter, it is good, but we must remember what Paul wants to tell us through this letter.