When Paul wrote about grace he seemed to feel that exaggeration was impossible. He spoke of "the exceeding riches of his grace." He said, "Where sin abounded grace did much more abound." He exclaimed, "Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift!" When he summed up the whole of his experience, he said, "By the grace of God I am what I am." Paul recognized that every spiritual blessing he had received and would receive was the gift of God's free grace in Christ. Therefore he urges us to join him in blessing God for his grace - "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ." There are four things clearly revealed in this verse of Scripture.
1. ALL SPIRITUAL BLESSINGS ARE BLESSINGS OF GRACE. Spiritual blessings are those things God gives to sin- ners in Christ. Some of them are enjoyed here. Some of them will not be enjoyed until we get to heaven.But all of them are free gifts of grace. Not one is earned by, dependent upon,or determined by those who receive them.
2. GOD HAS BESTOWED UPON ALL HIS ELECT ALL SPIRITUAL BLESSINGS. Nothing is excepted. Everything God himself can or will require of, or give to man, he has freely bestowed upon all his people. There are no spiritual paupers in the kingdom of God! There are no degrees of blessedness among the elect!
3. ALL THESE BLESSINGS OF GRACE WERE BESTOWED UPON US IN HEAVENLY PLACES BEFORE THE WORLD BEGAN. When Paul says, God "hath blessed us," his meaning is, God at one time in the past blessed us all. He blessed us collectively in the covenant of grace before the world began, "according as he hath chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world."
4. ALL THESE BLESSINGS OF GRACE ARE IN CHRIST, bestowed upon us by God for Christ's sake and in Christ. We were blessed in him as our covenant Head and Representative from eternity, blessed with all the blessings of grace, salvation, eternal life and heavenly glory (Read II Tim. 1:9). We come to enjoy the blessings of grace in time personally and experimentally. But they were given to us representatively in Christ before the world began. And all these spiritual blessings, which God gave to his elect in Christ from eternity, they shall come to possess in time and enjoy forever (Rom. 11:29).
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