Eph 1:3: “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…”
Martyn Lloyd Jones said, ‘In 35 years of pastoral experience, Christians who are most miserable, sad, and struggling in their lives are those always thinking about themselves, their situation, and their feelings; what they will get.’ Much of the trouble in Christian life comes from this cursed subjective self-obsession–an egocentric perspective: always wondering what I will get, how I feel, and what I am going through. It is all about ‘me.’ The secret to being happy and always being blessed is to forget yourself and look to God. We will never be truly happy until we learn to take our eyes off ourselves and fix our gaze on God.
By design, God created man to find happiness in His glory. A children’s catechism based on the Westminster Shorter Catechism answers ‘Why did God create you?’ with, ‘To glorify and enjoy Him forever.’ Our forefathers sought to teach this from childhood, but many of us, even in old age, fail to learn it, and thus we live sad and miserable lives. God created us to live joyfully with a Godward focus, but sin turned us selfward; that is why we are so self-preoccupied, and this is the reason for much of our sadness this morning. Our great need is to lift our eyes intently and look at God, to see His wonder and what He has done for us, so we can forget ourselves and rejoice in Him. That is what we see Paul doing here in verse 3. God’s truth reorients us properly; it takes our eyes off ourselves, our situations, and our plans and focuses them on Him. The result is unspeakable joy and blessing.
So, as we begin this letter, if God has to open our eyes, we should rid ourselves of our cursed subjective self-obsession: “I have so many problems,” or “What will I get today?” Stop! Recognize that this wrong focus and disorientation cause most problems in our lives; we prioritize the wrong things.
Start where Paul does. If we grasp it and learn to pray with him, Paul’s prayer is life-reorienting. It can transform the way we pray and the way we view life. This prayer reminds us of the most important thing, the top priority of our lives and the purpose of our creation. We desperately need to be reminded. We, by default, forget every hour, which is why we are so miserable.
What are the three most important things? [1] Who is most important in life? [2] What is most important in life? [3] What brings the greatest happiness in life?
Who is most important in life? God. The first principle of theology is that there is a God in heaven, and I am not Him. Amid our difficulties and disappointments in life, we forget Him; we fix our eyes on problems, and it seems most important in life to resolve those problems. “How can I solve this?” That is the wrong question. We need to ask, “There is a God in heaven who has allowed this; what is He teaching me in this situation? I am not important; God is the most important being in my life. This prayer will bring us back to that truth.
The second way it can reorient us: What is most important in life? Remind yourself that the chief end of your life is not primarily your happiness but to glorify God. Oh, how we forget that and create our own misery! “There is something greater in every experience of my life that I need to remember, and that is God’s glory.” In my suffering, what is most important? Should I stop everything I’m doing immediately? Say, “God, even if I have to die, let me die. Please take my life; let me evaporate; disappear; why should I suffer so much?” No, that is wrong; the main motive should be that my suffering culminates in the glory of God. Through this, I should know and enjoy my God as I have never enjoyed Him before. My experience should lead to God’s glory. Oh, how a trivial set of personal problems completely blinds us to the great chief end, the big picture! This prayer will reorient and teach us that the most important aspect in every circumstance is God’s glory, from beginning to end, for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in health and sickness, in plenty and want. God’s glory is the most essential thing in the world, and this prayer refocuses us on that.
Not only ‘who is important’ and ‘what is important,’ but thirdly, ‘what brings the greatest happiness in life.’ The god of this world blinds and deceives us constantly by suggesting that our enjoyment lies in worldly blessings such as wealth and health. He makes us chase the wind and vanity throughout life. In this prayer, Paul shows us that the true happiness, satisfaction, and fullness we seek are not found in worldly things but come from enjoying God and His eternal spiritual blessings of grace. He shows what is important, God’s glory, and what will bring joy to us created in God’s image. Our chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. Apart from Him, there is no experience of the fullness of delight. This prayer reminds you of the blessings God has lavished upon you that you often forget. Do you understand how this prayer will reorient us to realize who is important, what is important, and what will bring the greatest joy?
Imagine Paul sitting in jail amid a terrible situation, and think of these people living in Ephesus–immersed in idolatry, uncleanness, and the sexual perversion of Diana worship, not to mention the practice of black magic and fortune telling. Imagine living amid all this with all the persecution, discouragement, and temptations. How does Paul uplift these Christians? He never discusses Diana’s worship, attacks idolatry, or attempts to be relevant. Instead, he elevates their minds and souls and reveals the living God’s beauty, glory, and excellence and what the Lord has done for sinners like us through Jesus Christ.
I previously illustrated something in Philippians; let me convey it differently: Picture a flight of 500 passengers traveling for 12 hours from Africa. The baggage department discovered they had 10 deadly African snakes in a box that had escaped and slithered loose somewhere on the plane. Imagine the panic that the announcement would cause. The pilot wisely announced they were experiencing some difficulty with the oxygen supply, so he asked the passengers to wear their oxygen masks. Then he steeply ascended the plane and continued rising above the typical cruising altitude, breaking through the ceiling of the oxygen zone, up and up. As they climbed, the slithering snakes slowly suffocated and eventually died.
That is what Paul is doing here. You are worried about that snake–that problem–in your life rather than being filled with praise and joy at this moment. So, just at take-off, our pilot, Paul, kicks the flight into top gear. The flight stands upright, and we feel giddy just reading the first verse. He soars higher and higher to the highest heaven, then takes a left into past eternity and from there to the right of future eternity. As we ascend with him in this praise, our inner man strengthens. Our worries and temptations diminish; they suffocate and even die. So, ladies and gentlemen, fasten your seatbelts for an unforgettable ride of a lifetime.
The boarding pass for this flight is a spirit of prayer; you can enter this flight only in the spirit of prayer. I was teaching in men’s fellowship: knowing God is not just about listening to a sermon and leaving; it requires using that sermon and turning it into the subject of our meditation and prayer–to draw energy from it for prayer and to live a life of obedience. Do you know this whole chapter is a prayer? Verses 3 to 14 form a prayer of praise, while verses 15 to 23 comprise a petition.
We can enter this flight only by making these verses our daily prayer. Whatever we learn, we turn into our meditation and personal prayer to God so we can climb with Paul. Verses 3-14 express praise. While we may not see it in English or Tamil, the original Greek text in verses 3-14 forms the longest sentence in the New Testament, comprising 202 words. No translation into English or any other language can maintain such a structure, necessitating the division into smaller sentences. The man keeps going on and on with one sentence: “We’ve been blessed with every spiritual blessing…” …and then he begins to list the blessings, adding phrase upon phrase and doctrine upon doctrine, saying, “…and have you thought of this… and also this one…”
Here is an accumulation of relative clauses and phrases that the sharpest Greek scholars debate, scratching their heads. The sentence lacks a definite form or structure; no other letter or book in either the New or Old Testament contains anything similar. It represents a continuous stream of consciousness–heightened, intellectual, and informed worship. Such heightened praise is the great antidote to any prevailing discouraging climate, world-driven self-pity, or a self-focused, dead prayer life and worship.
Imagine the state of the church as the Ephesians gathered that day. Some came with persecution, maybe because they stopped going to the temple; others were wives whose husbands left them or husbands who found themselves abandoned; some were children chased from their houses; some maybe who lost their jobs or closed idol shops, who experienced business loss and did not know what they are going to live on; some with sickness; some missing attractions of temple worship – faith struggles. Then the Ephesian church Elder got up and read the letter in Greek… Eph 1:3, “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,” and continued on and on…
I imagine there was a pin-drop silence! They felt as though they were ascending higher and higher, and the hairs on the back of their necks stood on end. Their heart rates quickened, and some probably even forgot to breathe. They leaned forward, straining to hear every word. On and on [the letter] went, revealing the glories of what the grace of God had accomplished for them. As the Ephesian believers listened to what God had done for them (chapters 1-3), their eyes were opened; they resembled that man who had found infinite treasure. They had left their homes believing they were beggars and now realized how rich they truly were, and they were blown away to the highest heights… It was a transforming and unforgettable experience in their life. The result was that their relationships between husbands and wives changed, their children changed and became obedient, and their work lives changed. It is such doxology that overcomes the world. Paul’s praise was a tremendous eruption of a volcano. The volcanic lava flowed and filled the hearts of the Ephesians. They were lost in wonder and praise, and the lava overflowed into the city of Ephesus. With this vision of God’s infinite riches of grace, they looked at the Temple of Artemis and proclaimed, “Hear ye, men of the city of Ephesus. Behold our glorious God and the great things He has done for His people. How pitiable, useless, and blind we are to leave this God and worship hideous Diana!”
If God must open our eyes so that we can see the treasure, we need to begin where Paul starts in Eph 1:3: “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.” This is a tremendously rich verse. Every word is filled with meaning. I see seven things in this verse:
- A call to bless God
- A call to bless God as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ
- This is God’s blessing
- The nature of blessing
- The place of blessing
- The source of blessing.
- The recipients of the blessing
We will cover the first two today and continue next week—well, two weeks for one verse. That is a good start!
Ephesus is a treasure house; we don’t find gold unless we dig deep, and digging takes time and patience. We must take the time to gain Paul’s perspective.
First: A Call to Bless God
We understand the call to worship God, but what does it mean to ‘bless God?’ Can we truly bless God? In English, we generally use the word ‘bless’ to express good wishes for someone on their birthday or anniversary. The term is used only eight times in reference to God in a unique way. For example, Romans 1:25 states, “worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.” Blessedness is attributed to God the Creator and Him alone.
When God blesses us, we benefit from it. However, when we bless God, we don’t give him anything to benefit from. God is blessed forever; we cannot add anything to his blessed state. So, how do we bless God?
Blessing God differs from offering thanksgiving. When we thank God, our focus is on expressing gratitude for what He has done for us, emphasizing our appreciation for specific blessings. In blessing God, our focus is not on what God has given, though it may be big, but our focus is going beyond His gifts to acknowledge God’s inherent goodness and His worthiness of praise as the giver. The emphasis in blessing is on God’s character, love, and grace, which we recognize as the source of all blessings. Thanksgiving centers on gifts, while blessing centers on the giver.
For example, saying “Thank you, God, for this wonderful gift” expresses thanksgiving. In contrast, saying, “What an amazingly good and gracious God You must be to give such gifts,” reflects an expression of blessing. Do you see the difference? This is the correct orientation we desperately need to develop.
When Paul reflects on who God is and what he has done, he goes beyond simply thanking God for His works; he embraces the realization of who God is in Himself and how blessed he is. This is the living God, who alone possesses immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; who is immutable, immense, eternal, incomprehensible, almighty, in every way most holy, most wise, most free, most absolute; working all things according to the counsel of his own immutable and most righteous will for his own glory; most loving, gracious, merciful, long-suffering, abundant in goodness and truth, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin; the rewarder of them that diligently seek him, and withal most just and terrible in his judgments, hating all sin, and who will by no means clear the guilty [1689 LBCF, Chapter 2].
Paul views God as eternally blessed. In blessing, he is not adding to God but declaring that God deserves acknowledgment, praise, and celebration for His infinite excellencies. A call to bless God signifies nothing, yet we need to move beyond mere head knowledge of God’s attributes—simply knowing about Him—and, through daily meditation and prayer, deeply acknowledge, praise, and celebrate His blessed state.
This is a celebration of God’s blessed state. He is forever blessed with all His perfections and attributes. God embodies all beauty. When we bless God, we genuinely acknowledge and realize what He is in and of Himself. By declaring these truths, we recognize Him, praise Him, celebrate Him, and enjoy Him. It celebrates the excellence of God’s person and His deeds.
While all creatures can thank God, Psalm 145:10 indicates that blessing God is a unique activity belonging to the saints of God. Only the saints can bless Him.“All thy works shall give thanks unto thee, O LORD; and thy saints shall bless thee.” This is a privilege for those who are regenerated by the Holy Spirit, whose eyes are opened to see God’s glory, who can rise to this angelic state above self and bless God. All creatures will one day confess the perfections that reside in God; every knee will bow and confess. But now, Paul urges us, His saved people, to bless Him voluntarily and joyfully.
Blessing God is the highest expression of veneration and worship a creature can render to the Creator. Goodwin describes blessing God as wishing well and speaking well of Him out of goodwill and a recognition of His goodness toward us. This is known as ‘eulogy’ or ‘doxology.’
This one word, ‘bless,’ encompasses deep, overwhelming feelings of adoration, praise, and thoughts that cannot be articulated. When a soul is filled with praise, it wishes well for God, speaks well of God, and is filled with a sense of God’s goodness. This transcends thanksgiving and praise. Caught up in the awareness of how great and glorious God is, the believer earnestly desires the good and glory of God with every fiber of her being. A rumbling fire in her heart erupts like a volcano, expressing itself with the words, “Blessed be God.” Consider David’s Psalm 103, where he urges his soul to reflect on what God has done for him: He forgives all your sins, heals all your diseases, redeems your life from the pit, crowns you with love and compassion, and satisfies your desires with good things. Yes, these are tremendous blessings, but his focus is not on the blessings themselves but on their giver. He cannot contain himself, proclaiming, “BLESS the LORD, O my soul.” Here, Paul, like a New Testament Psalmist, reflects on who God is and how infinitely He has blessed us, listing His blessings in this chapter, one after another, uninterrupted until verse 14. He bursts forth in a declaration of the infinite praiseworthiness of God. You cannot fully convey this experience in preaching; it must be lived. As redeemed people, this should be a daily experience, but our fallen nature has made it rare or even nonexistent.
This is where our re-orientation begins. Who is the most important thing in our lives? What is the most attractive thing in our lives? What is the greatest good? Philosophers use the term ‘sumum bonum’ to say that which controls man’s thoughts and feelings is what he will bless. Everyone sitting here has an idea of what this greatest good is for you. Some of you may be sitting here saying, “Blessed be money,” “Blessed be my lust,” “Blessed be my stomach,” “Blessed be my fashion, my food,” “Blessed be my job,” “my family,” “my house,” “my dream,” “my ambition.” Do you realize that as God’s creatures, none of these is truly important? You are chasing the wind and will never be happy. The most important thing for you is your Creator.
In a way, each human on earth is either blessing God–giving Him glory because He is sovereign, wise, and good in all He does–or cursing Him. If we do not bless Him because we think we are wiser than He is or because we are self-focused and upset about our situation, and we say, “He has no wisdom to keep me like this or to allow such financial, family, or health problems in my life,” we are essentially cursing Him.
Paul says He is blessed. It radically reorients our lives when we realize and declare that God is blessed. The highest blessedness resides in Him. My deepest and purest satisfaction is found in Him. He is the very personification of true delight. Apart from Him, true blessedness cannot be found or experienced anywhere. God is who is truly blessed, and therefore, if you want to be happy and blessed, your life orientation must be focused on God and preoccupied with Him. Seek happiness in Him.
You cannot bless like this unless you know God. I was teaching in the men’s meeting that knowing God is not merely reading some attribute of God or hearing a sermon but rather self-talking and teaching that attribute to yourself in meditation until you feel the energy to praise, thank, worship, and bless Him. We should ask in all our life situations, “In this difficult situation in life, I look to God from whom blessing comes. How can I show that God is blessed in this situation?” In every part of life, we should seek to bless God. Why? Because God is blessed. Paul is calling us to a doxological life here. The Christian life is doxological. It is directed towards God. It is preoccupied with God. It is God-intoxicated. This is why this prayer is so radically life-reorienting.
Is this your attitude? Do you love and truly know God? Do you bless God? Do you long with all that you are in your life to bless God from within; and with your lips? That’s what Paul is calling us to do in this passage.
Second:
We saw what it means to bless God. Next, we have A Call to bless God as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
From what distinct perspective does the Apostle Paul bless God? Paul, as a Jew, could have blessed God as the God of the Old Testament: “Praised be the God of Israel, the only true God.” But what is the perspective that leads him to bless God in the way he does now? Ephesians 1:3 states, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Paul is not simply stringing words together; every word is filled with meaning. This is one of the most glorious descriptions of the Trinity you will find. In fact, this prayer illustrates how the doctrine of the Trinity is practical for your daily life. You do not bless God properly unless you bless Him as Paul does here, as “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
There are two distinct areas of thought: First, there is a tremendous statement about God’s relationship to Christ. Second, there is a phrase that describes our relationship to Jesus Christ. When we deeply understand and experience that relationship, we will bless God. It is only by acknowledging and understanding God’s relationship with Christ and our relationship with Him that we can truly bless God.
First, let us examine God’s relationship with Christ: Ephesians 1:3 states, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” The Father and the Son are two different persons, but they are one in essence and equal in power and glory. This is how God has always been. He never became triune; He simply is triune. This verse reveals two ways that God is related to Jesus Christ: [1] God is the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, and [2] God is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. We know that God is the Father of Jesus Christ; how did God become the God of Jesus Christ? Let me use two key concepts to explain this: [The Son is] coexistent with the Father in His being and actions, yet He is subordinate in the functions of redemption. Let us explore these two relationships.
First, regarding the God of our Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is co-equal with God, but in the work of redemption, when Christ took on human nature as the mediator–the Man Christ Jesus–He submitted Himself to His Father as God. It was this God who planned redemption, appointed Christ to His office, guided Him in the fulfillment of that office, and sustained and strengthened Him in performing all the duties of that office. Christ was born, grew, lived, died, rose, and ascended, and this God empowered Him to accomplish all of that for our salvation. As a Man, God was the object of Christ’s prayers, the focus of His faith, and He leaned on the Father as God. That is one side of Christ’s relationship with God. His Father became God because of His humiliation in the work of redemption. The scriptures illustrate this in many places.
There will be two women or two men, nicely dressed, very loving, gentle, and sweet, who will come to your house and say, “We want to teach deep truths about the Bible. Do you know the Bible clearly teaches that Jesus is not God?” They will cite a verse, for example, John 17:3, which says, “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” They argue that there is only one true God, and thus Jesus is not God. Then they may also reference the cry from Calvary, Matthew 27:46, which states, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” They might say, “Look, if Jesus was God, to whom was he praying when he lifted his eyes to heaven? Was He talking to Himself?” These people are known as Jehovah’s Witnesses.
How do you answer them? You cannot call them “brother,” instead, say, “Hello, sir/ma’am, you have been misled by false teachings. Please learn to read your Bible properly. Because your problem is you don’t understand that in the work of redemption, the Son of God, who was equal to God and was God, took on human nature as the Mediator, appointed to bear the sins of men in His own body on the cross. As Jesus, the Man, He entered into a new relationship of subservience to God the Father. He assumed a role similar to that of a servant who always sought to please his Master. Thus, within that office, as the appointed Redeemer and Mediator, the Father was the God of our Lord Jesus Christ. He prays to Him. He depends upon Him. He seeks direction from Him and gives praise to Him. He draws all His strength and sustenance from Him. This is why He prays. He had a relationship with His Father as God. So, don’t pick verses out of context. Read your Bible properly, and feel free to contact 9743246003, which is my Pastor’s number. He will help you read the Bible correctly.” Remember that response, and don’t sweat.
Secondly, Paul contemplates God not only as the God of our Lord Jesus Christ but also as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Here, he acknowledges Christ as the Son of God, or God the Son; in that sense, God was His Father. There was this uniqueness of the relationship. Now, we have a problem because, in our modern minds, the connotation of ‘Father’ is primarily associated with a relationship linked to the derivation of life. For us, asking, “Who is your Father?” equates to asking, “From whom do you derive your physical life?” However, this is not so in the Hebrew culture. There, it was more of a concept of identity, of the essence of life. The relationship implied equality in all aspects. In the Gospel of John, we see that the Jews sought to kill Jesus not because He was trivially claiming to be a child of God but because He was making Himself equal with God, claiming equality of essence, possessing the very life of the Godhead. Therefore, as the apostle Paul blesses God, he exclaims, “God, I bless You with exuberant praise because You are the God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Practically, do you see why you can bless God only when He is revealed to us as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ? For us, who seldom worship this God (since we typically only pray to Jesus), it is as if it suddenly dawns on us that we thought of ourselves as orphans without a Father, now realize that there He is, who not only now formed us in our mothers’ wombs and sustained us from birth, giving us life, breath, and all things, but He also appointed Christ as our redeemer in eternity past, sent Him into this world when the fullness of time had come, planned all that Christ spoke and did, and granted Him the power and strength to express His infinite love for us. All those words Jesus told us, that “My Father loves you, My Father sent Me,” now make perfect sense. Everything Christ did was in obedience to His Father, and all that He said was equally in obedience. He declared, “My words are not mine, but that of the Father who sent Me.” Doesn’t this reveal an ocean of the Father’s love for us? When you and I grasp that this God who is the Father of the Lord Jesus, who loved Him eternally as His greatest treasure, sent Him to die a cursed death on the cross for us… behold, God loved you and me in this world so profoundly that He gave His only begotten Son…
Secondly, God is rightly blessed only when the scriptural truths about the person and work of Jesus Christ are known, believed, and embraced. If God is the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, then everything Christ said and did is true and valid. For God is not the God of a liar or an imposter; He is the God of Jesus Christ, who said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
Therefore, if God is His Father, all His claims must be acknowledged as coming from the very God. Unless we recognize His glorious Godhead and fall prostrate at His feet like Peter, saying, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of God,” unless we identify with Thomas, exclaiming, “My Lord and my God,” we never truly bless God as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Next, consider what this reveals about our relationship with Christ. It is only in this context that we can truly bless him. Notice he does not say, “Blessed be the God and Father of Jesus,” or simply, “Blessed be the God and Father of Jesus Christ,” nor even, “Blessed be the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ.” What does he say? “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” This little word, ‘our,’ signifies our relationship to this Trinitarian God. Look at the titles. They encompass the entirety of the work of our Lord Jesus Christ. The word ‘Lord’ connects the idea of someone with complete authority and ownership – a conqueror who is triumphant and sovereign over all. He is the ruler of the universe. The name ‘Jesus’ reflects His humanity, the name given to Him as Savior, Jehovah, our salvation, who will save His people from their sins. ‘Christ’ refers to the anointed and promised Messiah–the Anointed final Priest, King, and Prophet. Paul and other believers have comprehended who Jesus Christ is and recognized His perfect finished work for His people, thereby accepting and submitting to His Lordship. They joyfully acknowledge Him as Lord, Master, Jesus the Savior, the anointed Priest, King, and Prophet. Our hopes for acceptance and mercy with God are intertwined with what He is and has accomplished. So Paul contemplates this God. “Blessed be God.” Which God? The God who is the God of the Lord Jesus Christ, who guided Him in all that He said and did in the work of redemption for us; the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, the second person in the Godhead. This second person is our Lord Jesus Christ. Wow, how daring that the Author mentions our names alongside the Triune, Holy, blessed God. Lord Jesus Christ, with His sovereign authority, humanity, and anointed ministry as Priest, King, and Prophet (PKP), is our possession through our union with Him. In the glorious plan of God the Father, He has made us related to the Triune God through the Lord Jesus Christ. He has included our names in His family within this relationship. When we reflect on the status God has lifted us to–the heights of His grace—we realize how good He must be; we forget about ourselves and, immersed in God’s grace, love, and mercy, cannot help but bless Him. However, such a blessing can only occur within the context of such a relationship with Christ and an understanding of His relationship with the God who was and is the source of all redemptive blessings through Him. We do not bless the true God without a sense of that relationship. Now, put all this together and hear Paul saying in Ephesians 1:3, “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.”
Application
Do you see that true blessings and happiness come from blessing the blessed God? Only when you believe who Jesus is and what He has done will you be in the circle within which He can lift you and enable you to bless God. Then He becomes your Lord Jesus Christ, God becomes the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and you become related to that family. Unless, by grace, the Spirit of God has brought you broken to Christ’s feet, looking unto Him in faith–a true faith that involves submission—you cannot bless God. God cannot reveal any special blessings that Paul will speak about next. He may bless you with common blessings such as food, clothes, sun, and rain, but these are merely animal blessings. All this He gives you so you seek Him and come to know Him. Unless you truly repent and believe in Jesus Christ—having a salvation experience—you can come to church and give lip service to everything bound up in the expression, “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,” but you can never bless God like Paul.
So I call upon you who sit here this morning, strangers to grace: repent and submit to the Lordship of Christ. He is the Governor of this universe; His government reigns. Don’t think you can despise His saving work, defy His government, and go on. He sits now as a Prince and a Priest upon the throne, dispensing mercy. That very throne of grace will soon become the throne of judgment. Every refusal of His mercy will be judged and punished, for all judgment has been committed to Him. The very words He spoke will judge you one day.
Believers, do you realize how disoriented our lives are? Our problems arise from not knowing the fountain of blessings. We don’t understand who is most important, what is most important, and what brings the greatest happiness. I hope this prayer makes us realize that the most important person in our lives is God, that our highest priority and motive in life is God’s glory, and that we are made to bless this God. Only then will we experience the greatest joy of enjoying this God and His redemptive blessing.
Martyn Lloyd-Jones states (ibid., p. 49), “There is no more true test of our Christian profession than to discover how prominent this note of praise and thanksgiving is in our life.” To what extent do praise, adoration, thankfulness, and joy in God rise to the surface in your daily life? I’m not talking about glibly going around saying, “Praise the Lord!” all the time but heartfelt joy and satisfaction in Christ flooding your soul. It should not be a rare experience!
If blessing God is not as frequent as it should be, something is wrong. Remember, when we do not bless God, we are, in a way, cursing Him. If you are not blessing God regularly as a believer, you should soon fix it by meditating on this chapter.
Realize what He has done through Jesus Christ: this God, who is the God of our Lord Jesus Christ. Think of the humiliation of Christ, who was equal to God: He was God, but He took a humble position, so God has become His God. Your sin and my sin created this need. Scripture would never record that God was the God of Christ if not for His love for us. It shows the infinite love of the Father and the Son poured forth to save us from our depravity and sin. The Son humbled and emptied Himself by giving up the divine prerogatives of the Godhead, taking on human nature, taking on the form of a slave, and even dying on the cross. He joined Himself to us in our weakness, in our sin, in our misery, and God imputed all our sins to Him, made Him ‘sin’ for our redemption, and cursed Him to bless us. It was this God who did that. O, how we should remember this truth and bless Him as the God of our Lord Jesus Christ!
O, how it should fill our hearts with wonder that He is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! To think of that mystery of the Godhead…how many millions are blind? It was a stumbling block to the people who walked close enough to touch Jesus in the flesh: all they saw was a carpenter’s son. If being physically close to the Son of God and seeing His miracles was not enough to open their spiritual eyes, and today, all people see is only the man, Jesus Christ, how blessed are we? If the Spirit opens our eyes to see Him as the eternal Son of God, the one who is the only begotten Son of the Father, the second person of the Trinity, and we acknowledge that God loved us so much to give His only Son to a cursed death, we will burst out, saying, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
This verse teaches us how imbalanced our prayers can be. Some of us pray, focusing solely on Jesus or merely speaking into thin air in the name of prayer. Have you looked the Father in the eye, this great being known as God and the Father of Jesus Christ, and blessed Him for who He is? Paul instructs us that the Christian life is Father-focused because the Christian life is Father-blessed. Our praise is focused not simply upon God generically but at our loving and sovereign heavenly Father–the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ–because He is the source of all our spiritual blessings.
Next, examine your relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Is He your Lord? Is your life under the rule of His word? Are you like so many walking the broad road to destruction? One day, He will say, “You call me Lord, Lord, and do not do what I say.” Remember, if you are not blessing God, you are cursing Him.
We have seen the call to bless God as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. We haven’t even thought about blessings, which we will see in verses 3-14. All those blessings should lead us back to the first phrase of verse 3 over and over again: “Blessed be this God.” We shouldn’t move on and forget about blessing God. Everything we come to understand with greater clarity through the ministry of the Spirit should expand our hearts and increase our desire to bless and magnify this great God. If we understand this as Paul did, we will overflow with doxology, richly praise, and dedicate ourselves to prayer. Only to bless and glorify God can we ask Him to open our eyes. He will respond not when we ask, “Open my eyes so I can be cheerful and happy,” which is, again, self-focused, but rather, “Open my eyes to see how much You have blessed me so I can bless You!” The Lord willing, we will focus on all the spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ on the next Lord’s Day.
Grace Reformed Baptist Church, Bangalore 