The God whom we bless has blessed us. God’s well-speaking concerning us encompasses the entire New Testament. In the New Testament God speaks well regarding us. The twenty-seven books of the New Testament are filled with God’s beautiful speech concerning us. Revelation 22:14 is an example of God’s well-speaking: “Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter by the gates into the city.” The words, “Grace to you and peace” (1:2), are also part of God’s well-speaking. If you want to hear God’s well-speaking, you need to read the New Testament and say amen to every aspect of it. He chose us before the foundation of the world. Amen. He chose us to be holy and without blemish. Amen.
We bless God, because God has blessed us. Because He has spoken so well concerning us, we return the well-speaking to Him. For example, when we read about the redemption of our body, we should say, “God, how I thank You that You have come into me, that You are saturating me with Yourself, and that one day this saturation will be expressed through my body. That will be the day of the redemption of my body. God, how I thank You for this!” To speak like this is to return the well-speaking to Him. Thus, He blesses you, and you bless Him. Learn to speak well concerning God according to His New Testament economy. After listening to God’s well-speaking concerning us, we are qualified to speak well of Him.
We are qualified because we are His creatures, His redeemed ones, and His regenerated ones. All the blessings, benefits, and bounties in the universe are of three categories. The first category is God’s creation, the second is God’s redemption, and the third is God’s regeneration. In God’s creation we enjoy so many good things: air, sunshine, minerals, animal life, vegetable life. All these are good things of God’s creation, and we are qualified to partake of them because we are God’s creatures. Furthermore, as the redeemed ones, we enjoy forgiveness of sins, justification by faith, reconciliation in God’s grace, and sanctification. Because we are redeemed, all the benefits in God’s redemption are ours. Moreover, because we have been regenerated, we enjoy God’s life, His nature, and His Person. By these three qualifications—being created, redeemed, and regenerated—we are fully and thoroughly qualified to enjoy all the blessings in the universe, the blessings in God’s creation, redemption, and regeneration. The angels may be sinless, but they are not qualified to enjoy all these blessings. But through the blood of Christ, we enjoy forgiveness of sins, the washing of the blood, justification by faith, and peace with God. We enjoy all the blessings of Christ’s redemption. Furthermore, we daily enjoy all the benefits and bounties of God’s regeneration. We have the divine life, the divine nature, and the divine Person. What could be higher than this? Today we enjoy the Creator, the Redeemer, and the Father. This is the second aspect of well-speaking.
The third aspect of well-speaking is that God “has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ.” God has blessed us with His good, fine, and fair speakings. Every such speaking is a blessing to us. Verses 4 through 14 are an account of such speakings, such blessings. All these blessings are spiritual, in the heavenlies, and in Christ.
The word “every” indicates the all-inclusiveness of God’s blessings. It includes all, with no exception.
All these blessings are spiritual. This indicates the relationship of God’s blessings to the Holy Spirit. Being spiritual, all the blessings with which God has blessed us are related to the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God is not only the channel, but also the reality, of God’s blessings. In this verse, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit are all related to the blessings bestowed upon us. This is actually God’s dispensation of Himself into us. God’s blessing is mainly the dispensation of the Triune God into us.
Furthermore, these spiritual blessings are in the heavenlies. “Heavenlies” here indicates not only the heavenly place, but also the heavenly nature, state, characteristic, and atmosphere of the spiritual blessings with which God has blessed us. They are from the heavens with a heavenly nature, heavenly state, heavenly characteristic, and heavenly atmosphere. The believers in Christ are enjoying on earth these heavenly blessings. They are heavenly as well as spiritual. They are different from the blessings with which God blessed Israel. Those were physical and earthly. The blessings bestowed upon us are of God the Father, in God the Son, through God the Spirit, and in the heavenlies.
Finally, all these spiritual blessings are in Christ. Christ is the virtue, the instrument, and the sphere in which God has blessed us. Outside of Christ, without Christ, God has nothing to do with us. But in Christ He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies.
We are not in ourselves, but in Christ. If we are in ourselves, we are through with God’s blessing. Hallelujah, we are in Christ, who is the sphere, the channel, the instrument, and the virtue in which we have been blessed!