What are spiritual blessings?

All spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ. What, in detail, are they? If I singled out from this context, Eph. 1:3-14, the answer I should say: from verse 4, the being holy and blameless before Him in love; verse 5, being in a place of sonship through Jesus Christ to Himself; verse 6, made accepted in the Beloved (or graced in Him); verse 7, redemption through His blood, and the forgiveness of sins; verse 8, His abounding to us in all wisdom and intelligence; verse 9, the knowledge of the mystery of His will; verse 10, as to the gathering, hereafter, together in one, all things which are in Christ, whether in heaven or in earth, in Him; verse 11, in whom a peculiar inheritance has been allotted to us; verse 13, sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise; verse 14, who is the earnest of our inheritance, until the redemption of the purchased possession. These are but part of the blessed inventory, but they form a part of it. Other scriptures may give out their contents, and each, I doubt not, in harmony and keeping with the more immediate subject of the contents where they are found as these are.

Further: the blessings of the Church are spiritual blessings in heavenly places — not temporal blessings, as Israel's were. It was promised that they, if obedient, should be blessed in their basket and in their store, in the fruit of their body, the fruit of their cattle, and the fruit of the ground. It was with temporal blessings that they were to be blessed. And even in millennial times, when they will enjoy spiritual blessings also, the possession of every temporal comfort is a prominent feature in their predicted condition. "And the tree of the field shall yield her fruit, and the earth shall yield her increase, and they shall be safe in their land, and shall know that I am the Lord." (Ezek. 34:27.) There are no such promises as these to the Church. Existing, as it does, by virtue of union with a risen and exalted Saviour, its blessings are spiritual. Redemption, forgiveness, acceptance, adoption, knowledge of God's mind and will, co-heirship with Christ, the earnest of the Spirit; these, and such as these, are the blessings with which the Church is blessed. And it is in heavenly places too. Many read this passage as though it spake of heavenly frames or feelings, or dispositions, or states of mind; but this would make it the same thing as spiritual blessings: instead of which it is, "Who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places." But if we refer to the latter part of the chapter, where the expression, "heavenly places" again occurs, the meaning of these words will become self-evident: it speaks of Christ being set at God's right hand in heavenly places. Are not places intended there? Is there not a place where the glorified body of Christ resides? It is in that place, then, or in those places that the Church is blessed with all spiritual blessings in Christ. In Christ! Ah, that is the key to the whole mystery! But we may well pause here, and meditate a little further. The Lord grant us with unshod feet, as treading on holy ground, to turn aside and see this great sight!

In this epistle, as in no other, the eternal counsel of God for Christ and for those who believe in Him is explained. The starting point of God acting in grace is not the plight of the lost sinner (as, for example, in the epistle to the Romans and Colossians), but God's own counsel and will before all eternity. It is the plan of God the Father in Christ Jesus, that all who believe in Him, even now, while still on earth, shall receive all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. The way to this, however, is only through the redemptive work of Christ on the cross (Eph. 1:7). These blessings are: being a child of God, sonship, eternal life, and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. All these are blessings that have nothing to do with this earth but are purely spiritual and heavenly.

Then we are instructed as to the character of our blessings. The Father has “blessed us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ.” The little word “all” tells us of the fulness of our blessings. Not a single blessing that Christ, as a Man, enjoyed has been kept back. We are blessed with “all” spiritual blessings. However much the profession of Christianity may confer outward benefits upon men, it ever remains true that Christian blessings are spiritual and not material, as with the nation of Israel. Our blessings are none the less real because they have a spiritual character. Sonship, acceptance, forgiveness — some of the blessings brought before us in this Scripture — are spiritual blessings beyond the reach of this world's wealth, but secured through Christ to the simplest believer in Him.

Further, the proper sphere of our blessings is not earth but heaven. We are blessed “in heavenly places”. On earth we may have little; in heaven we are richly blessed. All these spiritual and heavenly blessings are in connection with Christ, not in any wise because of our connection with Adam. They are “in Christ”. The blessings of the Jew were temporal, on earth, and in the line of Abraham: Christian blessings are spiritual, heavenly, and in Christ. Unlike earthly blessings they do not depend upon health, or riches, or position, or education, or nationality. They are outside the whole range of things earthly, and will remain in all their fulness when the life in time is finished and our path on earth is closed.

This answers to the fear that believers often have of facing Satan's enmity and taking possession of their rightful inheritance of the spiritual blessings that are in Christ Jesus "in heavenly places" (Eph.1:3). Because we think too much of the world and material blessings, we do not have the spiritual energy to take possession of what really belongs to us in the way of spiritual blessing. These blessings are many, which include forgiveness, redemption, justification, reconciliation, peace with God, eternal life, the gift of the Spirit, membership in the body of Christ, the Church, and many others. Satan resists our intention of entering into the value of these, so there must be spiritual conflict if we are to enjoy them.

But we must examine these things more closely. We have seen the establishment of the two relationships between man and God — relationships in which Christ Himself stands. He ascended to His God and our God, to His Father and our Father. We share all the blessings that flow from these two relationships. He has blessed us with all spiritual blessings; not one is lacking. And they are of the highest order; they are not temporal, as was the case with the Jews. It is in the most exalted capacity of the renewed man that we enjoy these blessings: and they are adapted to that capacity, they are spiritual. They are also in the highest sphere: it is not in Canaan or Emmanuel's land. These blessings are granted us in the heavenly places; they are granted us in the most excellent way — one which leaves room for no comparison — it is in Christ. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. But this flows from the heart of God Himself, from a thought outside the circumstances in which He finds us in time. Before the world was, this was our place in His heart. He purposed to give us a place in Christ. He chose us in Him.

The Christian era in which we live is a very special time – and very different from the age of the law: it is characterized by invisible rather than visible things (besides other differences). Typical Christian blessings are of a spiritual nature and do not consist in material values as in the old covenant. We live by faith and not by sight. God certainly grants us blessing in material things, but our proper, typical Christian blessings are spiritual. We are blessed “with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ” (Ephesians 1: 3). Spiritual blessings cannot be grasped by our hands or seen by our eyes; they are blessings that the heart can enjoy.

"On the Son thus revealed within," as one has sweetly said "hangs everything that is peculiar to the calling and glory of the church — her holy prerogatives — acceptance in the Beloved with forgiveness of sins through His blood — entrance into the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, so as to have made known to us the mystery of the will of God — future inheritance in and with Him in whom all things in heaven and earth are to be gathered — and the present seal and earnest of this inheritance is the Holy Ghost. This bright roll of privileges is inscribed by the apostle, thus — 'spiritual blessings in the heavenlies;' and so they are; blessings through the Spirit flowing from and linking us with Him who is the Lord in the heavens." (Eph. 1:3-14)

As usual the apostle salutes the saints with the best wishes for their blessing. "Grace be to you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ." Then, without delay, the next verses introduce a general view of the glorious topic that occupied him. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." It is God in His proper nature, and in His relationship to Jesus. He is the God of Jesus; He is the Father of Jesus. But the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ "hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ." It is not carnal blessing such as was in measure given under the law to Israel, and will be under the new covenant by and by; it is spiritual blessing. The earth is their sphere; it is there that Israel looks to be blessed, and the Gentiles somewhat farther off, but all in the ordered blessing of the Most High God. Altogether differently here "the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ" has blessed us where Christ is on high. There is no place good enough for Christ the Son but heaven. There it is God Himself displays most His own glory; there He displays Christ Himself to all the heavenly hosts, delighting to put honour on that Man whom He raised from the dead and set at His own right hand. It is there not merely that He means to bless us, but that He has blessed us already. Such is the character of our blessing, and such its seat. The character is spiritual, the seat heavenly; and as the whole is given by the God and Father of our Lord Jesus, so it is secured in Christ.

Here another point must be remarked, which arises out of these things and is necessarily linked up with them, viz., that the One in whom all the blessing centres is the Administrator of all to men. Like Joseph, who was brought from the prison to be chief ruler in Egypt, our Lord has come back from the dead to be the supreme Administrator of all the bounty of God. All that range of blessing which we read in Himself, He lives to administer, because He died to secure. The blessings are spiritual, heavenly and eternal (Eph. 1:3). Spiritual in contrast with basket and store. Unlike the Israelites who got houses, wells and gardens which they had not produced; ours are intangible and exist outside the range of nature and of the sphere of divine providence on the earth. This accounts for the way that many, who have little in this world, may be rich in the possession of the things of God. They are heavenly because belonging to the life of heaven, and form no part of the life of the earthly man; and they, are eternal as existing in the heart of God from all eternity and forming no part of the time scene. How slow we are, and how much we lose on account of our reluctance, to leave what is seen and temporal. The feast of grace, which brings in new creation, may still be refused for five yoke of oxen or a piece of land.