"All Spiritual Blessing"
Ephesians 1:3
When Paul wrote about grace he seemed to
feel that exaggeration was impossible. He spoke of "the exceeding riches
of his grace." He said, "Where sin abounded grace
did much more abound." He exclaimed, "Thanks be unto God for his
unspeakable gift!" When he summed up the whole of his experience, he said,
"By the grace of God I am what I am." Paul recognized that every
spiritual blessing he had received and would receive was the gift of God's free
grace in Christ. Therefore he urges us to join him in blessing God for his
grace - "Blessed be the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ." There are four things clearly revealed in this verse of
Scripture.
1. ALL
SPIRITUAL BLESSINGS ARE BLESSINGS OF GRACE. Spiritual blessings are those
things God gives to sin- ners in Christ. Some of them are enjoyed here. Some of
them will not be enjoyed until we get to heaven.But all of them are free gifts
of grace. Not one is earned by, dependent upon,or
determined by those who receive them.
2. GOD HAS
BESTOWED UPON ALL HIS ELECT ALL SPIRITUAL BLESSINGS. Nothing is excepted. Everything God himself can or will require of, or
give to man, he has freely bestowed upon all his people. There are no spiritual
paupers in the
3. ALL THESE
BLESSINGS OF GRACE WERE BESTOWED UPON US IN HEAVENLY PLACES BEFORE THE WORLD
BEGAN. When Paul says, God "hath blessed us," his meaning is, God at
one time in the past blessed us all. He blessed us collectively in the covenant
of grace before the world began, "according as he hath chosen us in Christ
before the foundation of the world."
4. ALL THESE
BLESSINGS OF GRACE ARE IN CHRIST, bestowed upon us by God for Christ's sake and
in Christ. We were blessed in him as our covenant Head and Representative from
eternity, blessed with all the blessings of grace, salvation, eternal life and
heavenly glory (Read II Tim. 1:9). We come to enjoy the blessings of grace in
time personally and experimentally. But they were given to us representatively
in Christ before the world began. And all these spiritual blessings, which God
gave to his elect in Christ from eternity, they shall come to possess in time
and enjoy forever (Rom.
Don Fortner