Every Spiritual Blessing

In Christ

The address

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms.

Paul of Tarsus, c. AD 62 — opening a letter to the church at Ephesus, written under Roman guard (Ephesians 1:3).

Paul’s first full sentence gives every believer a new address: in Christ — inside His standing, His record, His welcome. You did not wake up merely in your bedroom. “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17)

Once“Separate from Christ… strangers to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.” (Ephesians 2:12)

Still heard“This infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object; in other words by God himself.” — Blaise Pascal, c. 1658 — Pensées 148, trans. Krailsheimer

Sins forgiven

Water on your face

As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.

David, c. 1000 BC — a king who had done things he could not undo (Psalm 103:12).

East and west never meet. That is the geometry of forgiveness: not filed away somewhere, removed. The water this morning only reached your face; the cleansing you stood in goes all the way down.

Once“Day after day every priest stands to minister and to offer again and again the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.” (Hebrews 10:11)

Found“John Newton, Clerk, once an infidel and libertine, a servant of slaves in Africa, was, by the rich mercy of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, preserved, restored, pardoned, and appointed to preach the faith he had long laboured to destroy.” — John Newton, 1807 — the epitaph he wrote for himself

No condemnation

The mirror

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Paul of Tarsus, c. AD 57 — to the church in Rome, the empire’s capital of verdicts (Romans 8:1).

The person in the mirror is easy to prosecute; most mornings you open the case yourself before seven-fifteen. This sentence closes it. “Who is there to condemn us? For Christ Jesus, who died, and more than that was raised to life… is interceding for us.” (Romans 8:34)

Once“If You, O LORD, kept track of iniquities, then who, O Lord, could stand?” (Psalm 130:3)

Still heard“All of my will has always been to conquer some horrible feeling of inadequacy… I push past one spell of it and discover myself as a special human being and then I get to another stage and think I’m mediocre and uninteresting.” — Madonna, 1991 — to Vanity Fair, at the height of her fame

Adopted

The photo on the wall

Behold what manner of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God. And that is what we are!

John, c. AD 90 — an old man by then, the last living apostle (1 John 3:1).

Not staff. Not tenants. Children — with a child’s access and a child’s inheritance: “no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, you are also an heir.” (Galatians 4:7)

Once“In the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not My people,’ they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’” (Hosea 1:10)

Found“Without Christ I was like a fish out of water, or like a bird in the water. With Christ I am in the ocean of Love, and, while in the world, am in heaven.” — Sadhu Sundar Singh, 1929 — With and Without Christ

The Spirit within

Moses’ wish

I wish that all the LORD’s people were prophets and that the LORD would place His Spirit on them!

Moses, c. 1400 BC — in the wilderness, the day the Spirit rested on seventy elders and no more (Numbers 11:29).

For most of history the Spirit came upon a handful — a prophet here, a king there, for a while. You got up in the dark this morning and were not alone in the room: “your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you.” (1 Corinthians 6:19)

Answered“He abides with you and will be in you.” (John 14:17)

Still heard“The centre of me is always and eternally a terrible pain… a searching for something beyond what the world contains, something transfigured and infinite… I do not find it, I do not think it is to be found — but the love of it is my life.” — Bertrand Russell, 1916 — in a letter to Constance Malleson, at the height of his fame

The Word

The book on the table

They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold; they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the comb.

David, c. 1000 BC — on the words of the LORD, in an age when a private copy was unthinkable (Psalm 19:10).

There were centuries when people would “stagger from sea to sea” for these words and not find them, and centuries more when English readers traded a load of hay for a few hand-copied pages of Paul. Sixty-six books of it sat on your table all night, next to the mail.

Once“I will send a famine on the land — not a famine of bread or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the LORD.” (Amos 8:11)

Still heard“I think everybody should get rich and famous and everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that that’s not the answer.” — Jim Carrey, 2005 — to the Ottawa Citizen

The church

The plain room

You have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to myriads of angels in joyful assembly, to the congregation of the firstborn, enrolled in heaven.

The letter to the Hebrews, c. AD 65 — to believers tempted to trade it all back for something more impressive-looking (Hebrews 12:22–23).

“You have come” — present tense, folding chairs and all. What gathers on Sunday is not an audience; it is the visible edge of an assembly most of which you cannot see yet.

Once“My soul longs, even faints, for the courts of the LORD… better is one day in Your courts than a thousand elsewhere.” (Psalm 84:2, 10)

Still heard“Is it not worthy of tears that, when the number of worlds is infinite, we have not yet become lords of a single one?” — Alexander the Great, weeping at a lecture on infinite worlds — as Plutarch tells it in On Tranquillity of Mind, trans. Helmbold

Access

A hand on us both

Nor is there a mediator between us, to lay his hand upon us both.

Job, date unknown — maybe the oldest ache in the Bible: God is not a man I can meet (Job 9:33).

Under the old covenant one man entered the innermost room, once a year, never without blood. The afternoon Jesus died, the temple curtain tore top to bottom (Matthew 27:51) — so the church now prays the way Hebrews dares it to: “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence.” (Hebrews 4:16)

Answered“There is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” (1 Timothy 2:5)

Still heard“Why do I have three Super Bowl rings, and still think there’s something greater out there for me? … God, it’s gotta be more than this.” Asked what the answer was: “I wish I knew.” — Tom Brady, 2005 — to Steve Kroft on 60 Minutes, after his third Super Bowl

The table

A meal He wanted

I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before My suffering.

Jesus of Nazareth — at the table, the night He was betrayed (Luke 22:15).

The longing runs in the direction you least expect: He was eager. A torn piece of supermarket bread, a thimble of juice — “as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.” (1 Corinthians 11:26) And He still means to eat with you: “I will come in and dine with him, and he with Me.” (Revelation 3:20)

Found“Multiply these tiny triumphs by a million, add them all together, and they are nothing — less than nothing, a positive impediment — measured against one draught of that living water Christ offers to the spiritually thirsty.” — Malcolm Muggeridge, 1969 — Jesus Rediscovered, looking back on a life of fame

Sung over

The other singer

He will rejoice over you with gladness; He will quiet you with His love; He will rejoice over you with singing.

Zephaniah, c. 630 BC — to a city under judgment, promised a day of song (Zephaniah 3:17).

You came to sing — off-key, a little self-conscious, third song before your shoulders drop. The verse says the music goes both directions, and that His part is over you.

Good works, prepared

Stones already laid

For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance as our way of life.

Paul of Tarsus, c. AD 62 — same letter, same prison (Ephesians 2:10).

Monday’s meetings, the neighbor’s fence, the same seat in the same carpool — the week ahead is not filler between Sundays. Some of it was paved before you were born, and all of it can be worked “as for the Lord and not for men.” (Colossians 3:23)

Once“When I considered all the works that my hands had accomplished… I found everything to be futile, a pursuit of the wind.” (Ecclesiastes 2:11)

Still heard“‘Suppose that all your objects in life were realized… would this be a great joy and happiness to you?’ And an irrepressible self-consciousness distinctly answered, ‘No!’ At this my heart sank within me.” — John Stuart Mill, 1873 — Autobiography, recalling his breakdown at twenty

Those entrusted to you

The house next door

He determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their lands. God intended that they would seek Him and perhaps reach out for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us.

Paul of Tarsus, c. AD 50 — to the philosophers of Athens, on why anyone lives where they live (Acts 17:26–27).

The good works prepared in advance are mostly not projects; they have names. The people at your table, the neighbor whose fence you share, the coworker in the next seat, the children who take your Sundays — their appointed times and the boundaries of their lands were set so that they would land within reach of someone, and this week that someone is you. Children get the commands “when you sit at home and when you walk along the road” (Deuteronomy 6:7); everyone else gets what the Samaritan was told: “Go and do likewise.” (Luke 10:37) None of it is small: “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of Mine, you did for Me.” (Matthew 25:40)

Once“I will bless you… so that you will be a blessing.” (Genesis 12:2)

Kept

Held

I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them out of My hand.

Jesus of Nazareth — in Solomon’s Colonnade, in winter (John 10:28).

Your grip on Him is not the load-bearing one. “He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:6) — and He “is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you unblemished in His glorious presence, with great joy.” (Jude 24)

Found“You have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.” — Augustine of Hippo, c. 397 — Confessions I.1, trans. Chadwick

Death, demoted

Sleep, with a sequel

But I know that my Redeemer lives, and in the end He will stand upon the earth. Even after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God.

Job, again — sitting in ashes, wishing his words could be “chiseled in stone forever.” They were (Job 19:25–26).

The New Testament’s boldest habit is its bedtime vocabulary: believers who die are “asleep.” Grief remains, but not “like the rest, who are without hope.” (1 Thessalonians 4:13–14) “Where, O Death, is your victory? Where, O Death, is your sting?” (1 Corinthians 15:55)

OnceA lifetime “held in slavery by their fear of death.” (Hebrews 2:15)

Still heard“Is there any meaning in my life that the inevitable death awaiting me does not destroy?” — Leo Tolstoy, 1882 — A Confession, written at the height of his fame

The inheritance

Many rooms

In My Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?

Jesus of Nazareth — same table, same night (John 14:2).

The house you woke up in this morning is a rough sketch of one being kept for you: “an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, reserved in heaven for you.” (1 Peter 1:4) Reserved — it already has your name on it.

Still heard“If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.” — C. S. Lewis, 1952 — Mere Christianity

Seeing Him

The face

You cannot see My face, for no one can see Me and live.

The LORD, to Moses, c. 1400 BC — the closest anyone had come, shown only the afterglow (Exodus 33:20).

That was the ceiling for fifteen centuries: cloud, fire, a glimpse from a cleft in the rock. The Bible’s whole plot bends toward its reversal — “we will be like Him, for we will see Him as He is” (1 John 3:2) — and the day ends the way this page does, with David’s line for a pillow: “When I awake, I will be satisfied in Your presence.” (Psalm 17:15)

Answered“They will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads.” (Revelation 22:4)