God’s amazing and generous favours

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ,” (Ephesians 1:3 NIV).

Jesus, by His sacrifice, opened the floodgates of blessings for us. Through Him, we have been blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places.

There are eight spiritual blessings for Christians as listed in Ephesians 1 verses 3 to 14. These blessings of grace could also be termed as divine favour from God because we did nothing to earn them. They are gifts from God. Though these blessings of grace are seemingly intangible and unquantifiable, they are real, simply enormous and mind-blowing. They have given us hope and the support we need to go through life.

1 Peter 5:10 says that after you have suffered for a while, the God of all grace, who has called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself restore you, secure you, strengthen you, and establish you.

We need to give special thanks to the “God of all grace” for all His favours. Like a hymn says: “Praise be to the Lord from whom all blessings flow.” Jesus made all blessings and favour possible.

“Grace means God’s provisions for us which did not cost us anything. We are not self-made people; we are God-made people. Christians should glorify God’s grace just as Paul did in his refrain throughout the book of Ephesians.”
Christians should praise God for His glory and grace. We cannot praise God’s grace enough. Grace is a key theme in Ephesians (1:7; 2:5, 8; 3:2, 7-8). Grace is simply a favour.

In Ephesians 1 verse 4, we are told that Christ chose us to be holy and without blame in Him. The implication of this is that God sees us not on the basis of our past sins, but on the basis of the finished work of Christ. We now have a righteous standing before God.

In verse 5, Christ adopted us as sons into the family of God. By our adoption as sons into the family of God our status changed.

In verse 6, He made us accepted in the Beloved, that is, we are now accepted into Christ and into the family of God’s children. We are members of His family.

In verse 7, we are reminded that we have redemption through the blood and forgiveness of sins.

Verse 9, he has made known to us the mystery of his will, “having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself,” (Ephesians 1:9 NKJV).

Verse 11, in Him we have obtained an inheritance that does not fade. 1 Peter 1:6 tells us that our inheritance is, “… incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you” (I Peter 1:4 NKJV). Think about an inheritance that cannot fade, reserved in heaven for you. How do you quantify this?

Verse 12, says: “That we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.”

Then, in verses 13-14, we have been sealed with the Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee or surety of our future inheritance, “who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory,” (Ephesians 1:14 NKJV).

The blessings of God’s grace are amazing and generous. They should evoke our lavish praises to the Almighty God who has made such indescribable sacrifice and favours available to us.

• Contact:pastoracukachi@gmail.com