October 16, every blessing
Every spiritual blessing in the heavens.
Ephesians 1:3
With great familiarity for many, this verse should result in the follower of Jesus shouting “amen” to the amazing reality of spiritual blessings. Laid upon the Christian are such spiritual blessings that will never fully be comprehended in this lifetime. Yet, these blessings have been bestowed through God’s grace manifested in our Savior.
In Ephesians 1:3, Paul references our spiritual blessings:
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.
Our focus for this moment in God’s Word rests upon the phrase, “every spiritual blessing in the heavens.” To begin, notice varying translations of this great statement:
All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. (New Living Translation)
Praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ for the spiritual blessings that Christ has brought us from heaven! (Contemporary English Version)
Let us give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! For in our union with Christ He has blessed us by giving us every spiritual blessing in the heavenly world. (Good News Translation)
Every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realm has already been lavished upon us as a love gift from our wonderful heavenly Father, the Father of our Lord Jesus—all because he sees us wrapped into Christ. This is why we celebrate Him with all our hearts. (The Passion Translation)
The obvious and conclusive truth of this grand announcement becomes in our hearts the certainty of our spiritual wellbeing, our spiritual health, and our every increasing blessings originating at the throne of God. And, for this we rejoice.
Such spiritual blessings become enumerated by Paul in the greater context of verse 3.
God chose us (verse 4).
God adopted us through the divine effects of the cross of Jesus according to His favor and not our merits (verse 5-6).
We have redemption, the forgiveness of all our sins (verse 7-8).
We are secure in our relationship with Him for all eternity (9-10).
Each time I review the above blessings, I stand overwhelmed and amazed. For these blessings are not some neatly packaged blessings by which we are tagged as “blessed.” These truths comprise our very existence and our eternal future.
We are chosen, does not merely reflect a theological ideology formed by the consultation of man’s consideration. We are chosen, and therefore we celebrate that our relationship with God as His child represents the work that is completely His, with no effort nor merit of our own. However you may fit into the theological divides of salvation theology created by man’s interpretation, being chosen by God represents that He works in our salvation completely. He then calls us to exercise our own free will in responding to His glorious grace. This is why the second blessing listed represents that we are chosen ‘in Christ,” meaning that it truly matters what we do in response to the truth of the Gospel. There stands before humankind no greater decision than to respond to Christ Jesus for who He truly is as God’s only Son and only way of salvation. And when one responds to Jesus by faith, we receive by God’s grace alone the forgiveness of sin. We stand redeemed (purchased by the sacrifice of Jesus from the very slave block of our inherited sin and our personal sins). And, from this place of having been redeemed, all merits laid aside as “filthy rags”, we become secure in our relationship with Jesus for all eternity – as God has fulfilled all things in heaven and on earth together in the Messiah. And, we stand as directly benefitted by this and all other spiritual blessings listed here, and all blessings enumerated throughout the holy counsel of God’s Word.
I Peter 3:9 announces in compliment to Paul’s words, “to this we were called, to inherit the blessing.” Inheritances, in the truest sense of the word, are never earned but only received. You have received the inheritance of the spiritual blessings in Christ if indeed you have trusted in Him.
So, you are blessed. You are blessed indeed. Go forward from this moment living as one who is eternally blessed with the riches of Heaven.
Blessings!
