Sunday, June 24, 2012

Blessing upon Blessing

Ephesians 1:3-14

This portion of scripture paints a vivid picture of the exceedingly great blessings the Father heaps on those who love Him. In verse three, we read that the Father has “…blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.” As Christians, we are blessed beyond measure. Think about what that means! God has opened the Heavenly store house of blessings to us, giving us free access to His strength, wisdom, love, whatever we need He will provide!

In verse four we read that God chose us “that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.” This is one of those spiritual blessings. To be holy and without blame before Him means that He has cleansed us from all iniquity and no longer remembers our past sins! But there’s more…

Verse five tells us that He has “predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself.” What an enviable position, to be called sons of the Most High, not merely servants!

Added to that is verse seven, “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace…” We are not only sons, without blame and holy, but we are forgiven of all our sins as well, and redeemed from our former life of slavery to sin – redeemed to His service!

But God is not done yet! “In Him also we have obtained an inheritance…” The Father not only adopted us as sons, but He treats us as real sons in that He has given us an inheritance in Christ! It sounds too good to be true… but it is true!

Not only that, but we are “sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, Who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.” (verses 13 & 14) All praise be unto Him Who has redeemed us! God left nothing to chance, or for us to mess up… He has sealed us with His Holy Spirit to ensure that we will receive this inheritance!

Wow! Blessing upon blessing, gift upon gift, glory upon glory! How great is the Father’s love toward us. All blessing and glory and honor be unto HIM, the Only, Wise GOD! Whatever He does, He does with extravagance. And His wonderful plan for the redemption of fallen man is no different. When God does something, He does it thoroughly, perfectly, and generously.

God didn’t have to provide a way for us to be ransomed and set free from the monster we let loose on ourselves. He certainly didn’t have to pay the ransom – give His own life – for us. He didn’t have to forgive our sin… but He did. And He didn’t stop there, “As it is written, ‘Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.’” (1 Cor. 2:9 NKJV) God’s plan of salvation goes far beyond anything we could have ever dreamed of. He could have stopped with the forgiveness of sins, and made us slaves in His house, but instead He adopted us as His sons and daughters. He could have stopped with making us adopted children, but He went on to give us an inheritance, as begotten children receive. To top it off, He has sealed us “with the Holy Spirit of promise, Who is the guarantee of our inheritance…”

Praise be unto Him Who sits on the throne, Who is the beginning and the end, Who always was and always will be, Who is all-powerful, and Who’s love is as big as HE is! Praise the one true God, Creator and supreme ruler of the universe! Praise GOD!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Praise the Lord!
And it's great to see you posting again after 2 years. ;-)
~Brother