After initial greetings, Ephesians opens with heartfelt praise and a bold statement:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places (Ephesians 1:3).
The letter abounds with examples of such blessings. In Christ we are chosen, we receive grace, redemption, forgiveness, inheritance, the Spirit’s seal and more (Ephesians 1:4, 6, 7, 11, 13). In Christ we are raised to sit with Him in heavenly places, we are created for good works, and His blood draws us near to be united (Ephesians 2:6,10, 13).
He created in Himself one new man.
For He Himself is our peace, who has made us both one. … [he abolished the Law] that He might create in Himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross (Ephesians 2:14-16).
Ephesians 1:22-23 defines the body as the church. To say, “one body” is to say, “one church.” Every member is “in Christ,” with all the blessings He gives. How did they come “into Christ”? Romans 6 and Galatians 3 answer that believers were baptized “into Christ.”
How did they come into the body of Christ? In the same way, through the one baptism inspired by the One Spirit. To be baptized into Christ is also to be added to the church (Acts 2:41, 47).
“All baptized into one body.”
For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:13).