WEDNESDAY
Yesterday we left off with God’s ultimate blessing in the Messiah. The Messiah, Jesus, redeems his people from the curse of sin. Ultimately, he will redeem all of creation from the curse of sin and creation will dwell in the fullness of God’s blessing forevermore.
Jesus’ life and ministry reveal that he has come to disarm the curse on creation and bring about the blessing of God. He heals the sick and raises the dead and later rises from the dead himself, disarming the curse of death. He lives a perfectly righteous life and forgives sin, disarming the curse of sin. He calms the storm, disarming the curse on creation. He teaches the truth and the way to live in God’s Kingdom. The Beatitudes in Matt. 5 describe the good life, a life truly living in the blessing of God. His death on the cross atones for the sins of God’s people, giving his people his righteousness. He gives his people the Holy Spirit, empowering them to live in righteousness and spread his goodness to creation. This disarms the curse of the Law. His resurrection reveals that he has life in himself, defeating the curse of sin and death. His resurrection reveals that he is inaugurating a new era in redemption history where sin and death no longer have power over God’s people, and the blessing of God is being restored to creation. Paul sums it up well in Galatians.
Galatians 3:13–14 13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”— 14 so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.
The power of this statement cannot be overstated. Jesus, the holy one, God in flesh, took the curse for God’s people so that we could experience the blessing of God! The greatest blessing God gives his people is the gift of himself in the Holy Spirit. This gift is only attained through faith in Jesus, which cleanses us from our unrighteousness so that we can be in the presence of God. Again, in Ephesians Paul emphasizes the great blessing we have in Jesus.
Ephesians 1:3 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,
We will talk about blessing God tomorrow (the first part of this verse). But for today, see that the Father has blessed us (God’s people) with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places! Paul describes these blessings in the next few verses:
- We were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless
- In love we are predestined for adoption as children of God.
- In Christ we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our sins.
- All things will be united in Christ
- We have obtained an inheritance
- We were sealed with the Holy Spirit
Despite God’s blessing being gloriously pronounced over us in Christ, we are not yet living in the fullness of God’s blessing. Although Jesus has disarmed the power of the curse we will not experience the blessing of God in full until he returns. The picture of the kingdom of God coming to earth in full in Revelation 21-22 is the picture of Eden restored to it’s full blessed state.
Interestingly, the last words Jesus said to his disciples before he ascended into heaven was a blessing. I sure wish Luke would have recorded these words.
Luke 24:50–53 50 And he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them. 51 While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven. 52 And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, 53 and were continually in the temple blessing God.
As this passage in Luke and the Ephesians passage reveal, the overwhelming blessing of God should lead us to speak words of blessing to God. This we will explore tomorrow.
Additional Content
Reflection
Reflect on the blessing of God in your life. Read the list above from Ephesians 1 about how God has blessed you with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. We tend to focus so much on the blessing of God in material things: wealth, house, car, health, etc. Those are fine but God does not promise to bless us with those. He does however promise to bless his people with these spiritual blessings. God’s blessing to us is the origin of our blessing returned to God. So before we start talking about how we ought to bless God we must first know how he has blessed us.