IN CHRIST BLESSINGS

“And raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places IN CHRIST JESUS” – Ephesians 2:6

All the BLESSINGS of God come to us IN CHRIST. We are blessed because of Him: “Therefore, if anyone is IN CHRIST, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2Cor.5:17). Also, “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God IN HIM” (2Cor.5:21). God has made us righteous in Christ. We didn't do it. Jesus who is righteous became our righteousness. Therefore we who have believed can stand in God’s Presence as though we had never sinned. We can stand in His Presence without a sense of condemnation or spiritual inferiority complex: “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are IN CHRIST JESUS…” (Rom.8:1). When God looks at us who have been born again, He always sees us “in Christ” not as we see ourselves: “For we are His workmanship, created IN CHRIST Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them” (v.10).

God “has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places IN CHRIST” (Eph.1:3). The greatest of all blessings is our union with Christ – being IN HIM! The judgement of our sins was borne in Christ. In Him, we were crucified, buried, raised from the grave, and made alive: “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places IN CHRIST JESUS” (vv. 2:5-6). In Him we are reconciled with God and restored in fellowship and friendship with Him: “But now IN CHRIST Jesus you who once were far off have been made near by the blood of Christ” (v.13).

Moreover, we are complete in Christ (Col.2:10). All that happened to Him – through His life, death, resurrection and ascension – has happened to us in Him!  Jesus has done everything our Father-God had asked of Him. He fulfilled the moral, ceremonial, and civil laws; and so we too, in Him, have fulfilled all. He has met our greatest enemies – Sin, Satan and Death – and has overcome them; and we, grafted into Him, have overcome them too. God has exalted Him and blessed Him with the highest name. No blessing has the Father refused His own dear Son, and no blessing will He refuse us, as we abide in Him. We are joined to Him. We are blessed in Him. The Father loves us with the same love. He rewards us with the same reward. He made us His sons and heirs in Christ.

All the blessings of God come to us because of Christ. He has merited them and we receive them because of Him. It is not that we prayed enough to get them, or worked long enough, or were especially good and because of what we did – our agonising, obedience or works – then He blesses us with these blessings. The fundamental reason why we are blessed is because God joined us to Christ. For His sake He blesses sinners who believe in Jesus. So the great question for each of us is this: “Am I in Christ?” In Christ I am a new creation. Everything is new for me in Him – the mighty Champion, the Conqueror of Satan, sin and death! Then every blessing God delights to bestow on His Son He has bestowed on me. I am blessed in Christ!

How do the blessings in Christ become real in our lives? When we are born-again we come into Christ. But Jesus also said: “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides IN ME, and I in him, bears much fruit…If you abide IN ME, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you” (Jh.15: 5,7). His Word lives in us to the extent that we practice it. That’s the Master Key to the Blessed Life – IN CHRIST!