All Spiritual blessings… – Ephesians 1:3
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,” (ESV)
How do we come to enjoy spiritual blessings? What is the nature or character of the blessings we enjoy? These are the two themes of this sermon by Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones. Lloyd-Jones insists that the Christian only enjoys blessings through Christ. While acknowledging God gives common grace to everyone, the Holy Spirit gives unique grace that only Christians enjoy. Lloyd-Jones connects Paul’s words in Ephesians to his other letter to the Colossians (1:19; 2:3) showing the absolute necessity of going to God through Christ, our mediator. A second blessing Christians enjoy through Christ is that His grace flows through the Holy Spirit. The sovereign work of the Spirit quickens, convicts, enables, and keeps the Christian! Lloyd-Jones recaptures the “other-worldly” nature of the Christian’s blessings by criticizing the Social Gospel movements insistence that blessings are this worldly. The Christian, says Lloyd-Jones, does not deny or despise the world, but this is different from setting our affections upon it. If we do not keep an appropriate distance we forget that this is a fallen world and that our citizenship is in heaven. MLJ Trust