Thanksgiving

Robert Meredith

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays.  It is a special time when family and friends come together to give thanks for all of our blessings.  The Apostle Paul declared, “Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 5:20).  Many of us have so much for which to be thankful:  our health and the many blessings that we having living in this land of the free.

  The greatest blessings we enjoy are spiritual.  Paul tells us in Ephesians 1:3 that “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.”  In the Book of Ephesians we can read of many spiritual blessings, all of which are located in Christ.  The first blessing we will notice is found in Ephesians 1:5, where Paul points out that we are God’s adopted children.  When a person obeys the Gospel, he is added to the family of God and becomes a member of the household of God (Ephesians 2:19).

At the same time that he becomes a member of God’s household, he is also accepted of God (Ephesians 1:6).  Before he became a child of God, he was separated by his sins from God.  However, in Christ, one is no longer rejected, but accepted by God.  Another spiritual blessing is the redemption we have through Christ’s blood.  To redeem something means to buy it back.  We have been bought at a great price, Christ’s shed blood (1 Corinthians 6:20).  This shed blood provides the forgiveness of sins (Ephesians 1:7).  By God’s grace, man, the transgressor, is forgiven by the One against whom he has sinned.

  Another great blessing that we have in Jesus is that we obtained an inheritance (Ephesians 1:11).  The Apostle Peter tells us this inheritance is in Heaven (1 Peter 1:3-4).  The glories and splendor of Heaven will one day be the faithful’s inheritance.  We are also blessed by the fact that the Holy Spirit has put His stamp of approval on all who obey the Gospel (Ephesians 1:13).  The Holy Spirit promises that when one hears the Word of Truth and obey it he is saved.  Man can be assured that if he lives as the Word directs, he will be saved, because the Holy Spirit cannot lie (Titus 1:2).

  Too, Paul mentions that God has quickened, or made alive, those who were dead in their transgressions (Ephesians 2:1).  This spiritual life is another blessing found only in Christ.  In Ephesians 2:13 we are told that by Christ’s blood we are brought near to God.  No longer are we without Christ and strangers from the covenant of promise, but we are reconciled unto God in one body, the church (Ephesians 2:16).

  These are some of the great spiritual blessings for which we should always be thankful.  Salvation by God’s grace is found only in Christ.  In Galatians 3:27 we are told how we get into Christ.  “For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.”