Every Spiritual Blessing

“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.” –Ephesians 1:3

There is a lot of weight in the above verse, which is easy to pass over in quick reading.  Paul starts Ephesians in what is for him typical fashion, blessing his readers and offering praise to God.  But Paul is not one for quick, generic sentiment, and there is a world of meaning behind his statement.  Notice that he does not merely offer a quick note of praise to God, but specifies that God has already “blessed us with every spiritual blessing…because we are united with Christ.”

What exactly does this mean?  We can all thin of things we would consider “blessings” that we don’t have right now.  There may be possessions we’d like to be “blessed” with, or perhaps we or someone we know is sick, maybe even terminally ill.  Perhaps we are experiencing abuse, or any manner of hardship.  In times like these it is hard to see how God has blessed us in the manner that Paul is stating here.  Perhaps Paul is guilty of a little exaggeration.

Not so.  Consider: Paul states that God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing.  Often when we think of blessings, we think of things that are circumstantial, things related to the temporal place we find ourselves in within this world, but Paul is speaking of something far greater.  He is not referring to a change of circumstance or an easier life, but to eternal life, to our eternal standing before God, the forgiveness of all our sins, past, present and future, and our adoption as sons of God.  And why has He blessed us in this greatest of fashions?  Because we are “united with Christ,” have believe on Him and are indwelt by His Holy Spirit because of what Jesus has done for us.  Even our faith in Jesus is not from ourselves, but is a “gift from God” (Ephesians 2:8).

It’s easy when we are going through a hard time to feel like God has abandoned us, or is withholding His blessing.  When a loved one dies, or we are terribly sick, we hardly feel blessed, and to speak of a “spiritual blessing” feels like an empty sentiment in the midst of such dark circumstances.  But consider, were our circumstances to come to an abrupt end and we found ourselves face-to-face with our Maker, of what value would temporary, circumstantial blessings be then?  Would we complain that life had been hard, or rejoice that our eternal future is secure?  Or suppose we had a good life free of trouble, but faced eternal damnation?  “…what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul?” (Mark 8:36).  It is considerations like these that reveal the incredible reality of the blessing Paul is referring to, that it is in fact the chief of all blessings.  God does not promise believers health, wealth and prosperity in this world.  Often we find ourselves facing persecution and hardship because we follow Christ.  If I may be permitted the use of an old cliché, compared to the light of eternity, all other blessings are just a little more gravy.

So wherever we find ourselves, let us always consider that no matter what hardships come our way, we who have trusted in Christ are truly blessed to the utmost, for “what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory He will reveal to us later.” (Romans 8:18)