It's easy to focus on redemption, and to downplay the other benefits of the resurrection. After all, if this salvation provided to us is "all of grace," then we're undeserving of all that we're given. Being redeemed of sins is more than we could ever have hoped for. Why shouldn't we focus on that?

But we're not getting the full picture if we limit ourselves to redemption, as important as that is. Scripture tells us that we've received more than merely redemption. It is through Jesus that God provides to us not only salvation, but all of His promised blessings (2 Cor. 1:20).

And the magnitude of these blessings is staggering. Paul writes in Ephesians that God has blessed us "in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world..." (Eph. 1:3-4, ESV).  Peter gives us the same thing, albeit with slightly different wording, when he says that we have been given "all that pertains to life and godliness" (2 Pet. 1:3, ESV).

What are all these spiritual blessings? I could start trying to name them off, but better that you think on them. That's really the point of this exercise. What blessings, beyond redemption, has God provided for you? What is He providing for you right now (not to mention what's yet to come)?

God could have stopped with redemption; He didn't. He didn't stop until He had given us everything He had for us.

Labels: blessings, Christ, covenant, grace, mediator