“Already”
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.” (Ephesians 1:3)
1. The Father already blessed us
John Flavel gives a great illustration he heard on justification. I think it is a great illustration on what it means to be already blessed in Christ Jesus.
“My friend Dr. Roy Gustafson has the finest illustration of justification I have ever heard. It seems that there was a man in England who put his Rolls-Royce on a boat and went across to the continent to go on a holiday. While he was driving around Europe, something happened to the motor of his car. He cabled the Rolls-Royce people back in England and asked, “I’m having trouble with my car; what do you suggest I do?” Well, the Rolls-Royce people flew a mechanic over! The mechanic repaired the car and flew back to England and left the man to continue his holiday. As you can imagine, the fellow was wondering, “How much is this going to cost me?” So when he got back to England, he wrote the people a letter and asked how much he owed them. He received a letter from the office that read: “Dear Sir: There is no record anywhere in our files that anything ever went wrong with a Rolls-Royce.” That is justification.”
As believers, we aren’t trying to get something from God but have already received from God. We need to agree with Him through our words of faith that every spiritual blessing is already ours in Christ Jesus.
In regards to blessing the Father for what He has done Charles Spurgeon makes this statement:
“We are not sitting here, and groaning, and crying, and fretting, and worrying, and questioning our own salvation. He has blessed us; and therefore we will bless him. If you think little of what God has done for you, you will do very little for him; but if you have a great notion of his great mercy to you, you will be greatly grateful to your gracious God.” Praise God!
2. The Father already blessed us with every spiritual blessing
I don’t know how many spiritual blessings there are but I know justification is one mighty blessing! All you Bible scholars try to think of every spiritual blessing you can think of at this moment. If you did God still has more left! Thank the Lord for temporal blessings but we thank Him even more for endless spiritual blessings
3. The Father already blessed us in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus
The location of our blessings is in Christ who is in heaven. The Holy Spirit came down and dwells in us so these spiritual blessings will bear witness in our hearts. The Holy Spirit has awakened us to the “already.” We should live daily in the “already.” If we never live in the “already” we will never live successfully in the present. We will never have confidence for the future if we don’t understand the “already.” We aren’t trying to get to heaven, we have “already” received heaven as a down-payment of our inheritance He “already” gave us. Many hardships and many difficulties from the flesh and the enemy but we always live in the “already.” Praise the Lord!