#DailyDevotion God The Father Has Blessed You In Christ Jesus
Eph.13Let us praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who in Christ has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in heaven.
We have a God, no the one and only living God, who is our Father. Many things claim to be God or we make them God, for we put our trust in them to provide us with every good thing. But the one and only true living God is the Father. He is the source of all things and he is the provider of all good things. We also have our LORD Jesus Christ. The Father is the Father of our LORD Jesus Christ. Our LORD Jesus Christ is also the one true living God. He has the name LORD because he is the LORD we see throughout the Old Testament. LORD in the Old Testament stands in the place of the divine name of God, Yahweh, “I am who I am.” He existed before creation with the Father and is eternal, one and equal to the Father in every respect. As the book of Hebrews tells us, “He is the Expression of His Being.” Paul says in Col. 115“He is the Image of the invisible God.” Now for just being the one true living God, the Father and the Son deserve to be praised.
But the Father deserves to be praise also as Paul says here, “Who in Christ has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in heaven.” “In Christ” is very important and is central to everything Paul writes in Ephesians, though it is a big theme throughout his letters. The Father does everything in Christ. All creation was created in and through Christ. It is in Christ the Father saves all humanity from the sin of Adam and from death. It is in Christ the Father defeats Satan and all his plans and devices.
But we praise God the Father especially for blessing us with every spiritual blessing in heaven in Christ. What sorts of spiritual blessings has the Father blessed us with? For starters in Christ we have an atoning sacrifice which removes our sins from us. In Christ, we are blessed with God righteousness as a gift, a free gift. In Christ we are justified, declared not guilty of our sins. In Christ we receive the holiness of God. God in Christ makes us his heirs and co-heirs with Christ of the kingdom of God. The Father conforms us to the image and likeness to Christ in Christ. In Christ we participate in the divine nature of God. In Christ Jesus our LORD we are declared and make holy and perfect like God our Father.
We receive all these spiritual blessings in heaven in Christ when we are placed in Christ Jesus. When were we placed in Christ Jesus? Where can we be certain we are in Christ Jesus our LORD? Paul tells us in Romans 6, 3“Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4Now when we were baptized into His death, we were buried with Him so that as the Father’s glory raised Christ from the dead we, too, will live a new life. 5If we were united with Him in this likeness of His death, then we will be united with Him also in the likeness of His resurrection.” Where we can be certain we have been united with Christ and all his blessings in your baptism into Christ. So treasure and praise God the Father for your baptism regularly.
Heavenly Father, you have blessed us with every spiritual blessing in heaven in our LORD Jesus Christ and have assured us of these blessings by baptizing us into Christ Jesus. Grant us faith to praise and bless you continually for all your blessings unto us. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.