What blessings or benefits do we get from being Christians or children of God? Are there any benefits to fellowship with the Holy Spirit? or are we just moving on and our lives have no benefits?
So my study of Ephesians 1 continues and reveals that God has loaded believers with spiritual blessings. Verse 3 says that God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ.
Verse 4 says that God chose us even before the foundations of the earth. This means that your coming to Christ is no coincidence as God had already chosen you way before you were born. Jeremiah 1:5 testifies that before we were ever thought of or brought into this life, God had already planned everything about us from the day we would be born up until the day we will die. So we can have the peace of mind of knowing that God knows about us and has already planned everything about our lives. So have the blessing of being called Christians because we are accepted in Christ. Verse 4 also says that he chose us to be holy and blameless through Jesus Christ and made fit to worship God as part of God’s family. Because of this blessing of being fit to worship God, he is able to move through our lives to reach out and touch other people’s lives to draw them into the kingdom of God.
The bible says we are loved unconditionally. Romans 8: 37-39 talks about the unconditional love God has for his children. The love is so great that even before we were Christians God sent Jesus to die for us so he could welcome us into his kingdom (Romans 5:8). We must have this assurance so that the enemy of our souls will not come and steal the truth from our hearts that God does not love or we are not worthy of his love because of our past. The Bible says God loves us and that nothing in all creation can separate us from his love. Even when we stray afar, his love gently guides us back to him. Having this assurance gives us the confidence and blessing of being loved completely by God. No matter what we are going through, Romans 8:28 says God will turn it around for our good because of his love for us. Amen.
I have the benefit of being redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ, Ephesians 1:7. Outside of Christ, there is no redemption meaning we are lost and await eternal condemnation alongside everyone else who rejects Christ. The bible talks about this in Acts 4:12. So as a believer in Christ I am saved and am no longer a candidate for eternal damnation. I have the benefit of knowing that all my sins, past, present and future are forgiven still verse 7 of Ephesians. We willfully rebelled and turned from his ways but in Christ we have the chance to have a clean slate.
We have the privilege of knowing the mysteries of God Ephesians 1:9. Most people read the bible and do not understand it, also when some people hear the gospel it does not mean anything to them. But as Christians the Holy Spirit enables us to understand the bible and the mysteries therein. When we fellowship with God and ask him to reveal his ways and mysteries to us, he does that willingly through the Holy Spirit (James 1:5). This way we get to know him and understand him more and learn about what pleases God and the things we should not be doing. So we have the blessing of being guided by God himself (Isaiah 58:11). In addition, Christ is the only solution to the broken and sinful world we live in today. There are so many unanswered questions and injustice (please see previous blog on Psalm 82) that we do not understand them as they are mysteries. As Christians or believers in Christ, we have the benefit of trusting God to reveal these mysteries to us . If God in his infinite mercies sees it fit to reveal them he does, if he does not we trust him that he is in control because his ways are not our ways (Isaiah 55:8-9). Because the deep things are for God alone to understand and handle (Deut 29:29), ours is to trust him to give us comfort (Holy Spirit) to handle things we do not understand as we go through life.
We have the blessings of an eternal inheritance in heaven, Ephesians 1:11. We have been inherited as God’s inheritance through Christ. This means we have a glorious reward awaiting us in heaven, understandably we all want to be blessed here on earth but it is nothing compared to what God has in store for us in heaven. We have eternal life not in damnation but in the presence of God worshiping him where he will wipe away all of our tears (Revelations 2:14) and there shall be no more pain o sorrow. Praise God.
I will continue the part b in the next blog as this one is too long already ; )