From Richard D. Phillips‘ book, Chosen in Christ: The Glory of Grace in Ephesians 1:
Like the original readers, we are in two realms, that of this present world and that of Christ’s kingdom. It is in the latter that these spiritual blessings are manifest. Let’s take one for instance. Spiritually, in the heavenly realms, we are blessed with adoption as children of God. That is true of us now, but it is not manifest in this earthly sphere. No royal robes fall from our shoulders. No visible insignia marks us out as royal sons and daughters. Angels minister to our needs, yet no eye beholds them. No crowds gather to watch as we pass by, we who are chosen for eternal inheritance with Christ; no spellbound readers follow the day-to-day progress of our pilgrimage to glory; no hands reach out to touch our persons cleansed white and made resplendent by the shed blood of God’s Son. How odd all this is from the perspective of the heavenly realm; into these things angels inquire with wonder! Eternity will record the world’s disinterest and scoren of us as an oddity and a cause for its condemnation.
