Blessed In Christ

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

The third verse of Ephesian One has spoken the fact of blessing, the source of that blessing, the scope of the blessing, the timing of that blessing, the recipients of that blessing, the realm of that blessing, and the place af blessing. The end of verse three speaks to the Agent of that blessing - Jesus Christ.

Christians possess every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places because they are in Christ. When we trust in Him as Lord and Savior, we are placed in a marvelous union with Jesus Christ. “The one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him” (1 Cor. 6:17). Our unity as Christians is more than simply that of common agreement; it is the unity of a commonness of life, the common eternal life of God that pulses through the soul of every believer (cf. Rom. 15:5-7).

All that the Lord has, those in Christ have. “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ” (Rom. 8:16-17). Christ's riches are our riches, His resources are our resources, His righteousness is our righteousness, and His power is our power. His position is our position: where He is, we are. His privilege is our privilege: what He is we are. His possession is our possession: what He has, we have. His practice is our practice: what He does, we do. We are those things and have those things and do those things by the grace of God, which never fails to work His will in those who trust Him (1 Cor. 15:10).

These blessings are the possession of those who belong to Christ; that is those who are in Christ. This is an exclusive statement. The blessings are rooted in the finished and applied work of Jesus Christ. These blessings are not the possession of those who profess Christianity. They are not the possession of those who merely participate in religious activity. The are not ours because we are positive, because we confess them, want them, grasp them, or ask for them. They are ours because we are in Christ. Because we have trusted the finished work of Christ and that alone to commend us to God. This and this alone is the reason we are blessed with every spiritual blessing. Those blessings come by the agency of Jesus Christ to all those who are truly those who are in Christ.

The combination of the reference to the Father earlier in the verse with Christ at the end tells us a lot about the source of our blessings. They have their fount in God; and the means He uses to communicate that blessing to us is exclusively the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the sum of our discussion of the source of our blessing. Blessing comes from no other source. All that is in our lives that is blessed comes from God through Jesus Christ and exclusively through Christ. God blesses in no other fashion and by no other means. Further, should we desire blessing, there is no other "place" for us to go for blessing. Truly, our blessedness is in Christ!