“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.” Ephesians 1:3
When Jesus cried upon the cross, “It is finished,” there was settled in heaven for time and eternity the perfect work of salvation for lost men. It was a work, designed, engaged fully in, and perfectly accomplished out of love for the lost soul, that would be immutable, unchanging in its meaning, and certainly undiminishing in its power and effect on the souls of men. Not only was the image of Christ dying on the Cross to be the call of God to behold Him, and be drawn to the greatest manifestation of the love of God for time and eternity, but there would be revealed by that singular event, and confirmed by Christ’s resurrection, the eternal path of truth into the very presence of God the Father, in peace. The veil of the temple would be ripped in two, the access to God by the righteous gift of Christ of His life in His precious blood, would provide mankind with the greatest eternal opportunity of coming to God freely. With holy, reverent fear, the believer was to approach the eternal throne, receiving from the Father His mercy, and abounding grace, to live for His glory, honoring Him supremely. It would be Charles Wesley, who would write in one his great hymns of this immeasurable, and incomprehensible greatness of Christ’s finished work, and its application to the believer. He wrote: “No condemnation now I dread; Jesus, and all in Him is mine! Alive in Him, my living Head, And clothed in righteousness Divine, Bold I approach the eternal throne, And claim the crown, through Christ my own.” But what of today, and this dispensation of God’s purpose, the resources in Christ that belong to the believer for the fulfilling of the will of God, and the opportunity to serve Him effectively? How can one begin to grasp something of the blessings in Christ, first of all to know them, and then to appropriate Christ according to the truth’s changeless promise?
The first basic condition of rising up, and laying hold of Christ as our life by faith, is having a vision of the truth, or truths, of His work, and the Father’s blessing upon those who truly believe. Solomon wrote in the book of Proverbs, “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” (29:18) In the prophet Samuel’s day, Scripture tells us there was “no open vision.” There was a spiritual desert condition upon the land. That “vision,” or renewed revelation of God by His word, was essential to faith. Faith’s foundation is always in the truth as it is in Christ. God gives faith to believe Him, and this abundantly, when the convicting, correct perception of the knowledge of His will is grasped and lived by. Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians knew this, and by the Holy Spirit began his letter by revealing the bedrock truths of the Gospel, which were already fully fixed in heaven. He writes: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who HATH BLESSED us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.” This is a fact that has been accomplished and is actually true and applicable to every believer in Christ today. Paul begins his great epistle or letter, with that which has been accomplished, and provided for by God as a result of Christ’s finished work.
The second condition is not only being filled with the knowledge of the truth and will of God, and the vision of Christ’s finished work and His purposes, but the very appropriation of those blessings. When Israel was to enter into the promised land, her instructions were to go up and possess the land, make it her own. The believer today is called to set his affections on high, on things above, and receive them by faith on earth. The call is to “put on” the Lord Jesus Christ, taking Him as one’s life by faith.
Dear Father, Fill us with Christ. In Jesus’ name, Amen.