Day 67: What Have the Father, Son and Spirit Done For Us?

By Stacy Tyson | 2024-05-27

By grace through faith, we are Blessed and Chosen by the Father. We are Redeemed by the blood of His Son Jesus. We are Sealed by the Holy Spirit. These are foundational truths that shape our identity IN Christ. Today, we explore these ideas a little more deeply.

You Have Been Blessed and Chosen by The Father

Ephesians 1:3
Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms in Christ.

In the passage from Ephesians 1 that we are exploring this week, we see first that the Father has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ. This means that we have all that we need in Christ for our journey here on Earth. When Father-God chose us, He also set certain goals for us; He predetermined that we would be holy and blameless when we arrive at our final destination in His presence. He did all of this by deciding before anything else that He would adopt us as His children. All of this touches on some sticky issues like choosing and predestination that we will discuss later in this study.

Notice first of all God’s motivation in blessing us:

“In love… according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace… according to the riches of his grace which he lavished upon us,… in all wisdom and insight according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will… to the praise of his glory”

God does what He does for us by His love and grace to the praise of His glory!!! Something you must understand and accept is that God does not save you first and foremost for your sake; God saves you for His sake. At first this may sound a little harsh—it might even put you off a little. But that is the old way of thinking about things; putting ourselves in the center of the Universe. In order to understand and comprehend all that God is doing in your life you must first understand that it is not all about you. God always acts for the sake of His name because there is no higher goodness, purpose or reason. This is part of His righteousness revealed in His “right motivation.” When God acts for the sake of His glory, it results in the greatest blessing for you.

This study will give you assurance that you do not need to begin looking outside what Father-God makes available in Christ or in new experiences for blessings. You now possess every spiritual blessing the Father has for you this side of Heaven. There is more to come, but everything you need for the present is already with you through the power of the Holy Spirit in Christ!

You Have Been Redeemed by the Blood of Christ the Son

In this passage, notice how many times Paul says “in Him…” This whole study is going to focus on your new position before God “in Christ” and your new identity that flows out of this position. Whereas once your position and identity was defined by your fellowship and relationship with your physical fore-father Adam, now “in Christ” both your position and identity are defined by your fellowship and relationship with God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Our new position and identity is shaped by the redemption that Christ has provided in His blood. As we will hear a little later, to redeem something is to pay a price to set something (or in our case, someone) free from some slavery or obligation.

1 Peter 1:18-19
…you were ransomed (redeemed) from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 1:19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.

Jesus has given His own precious blood for us so that we could be set free from the debt and slavery of sin and death. This is a great blessing that we will explore in the rest of this study.

You Are Sealed by the Holy Spirit

Finally, Paul lets us see what happened behind the scenes when we heard the Gospel and trusted Christ. At that point, we were sealed by the Holy Spirit in order to guarantee that we would make it to our glorious destination and inheritance in Christ. Here, the idea is that all of this happens at the same instant: we hear, we believe, we are sealed. This is a one time event that happens all at once for every believer.

In ancient times, an official would often need to send official documents to other officials. In order to make sure that the documents were not tampered with, he would seal the documents with wax marked by a signet ring or cylinder seal. If the documents arrived with the seal broken, the servant who was entrusted with the documents would often be put to death. Thus, the seal became a way to guarantee that the authentic documents reached their destination unaltered. The seal signified and guaranteed several things:

Security, as in the case of official documents from a king or ruler,
Authenticity and Genuineness,
Identity and ownership.

This is what the Holy Spirit does for us. He marks us as God’s genuine children. He shows that we belong to God. He secures us on our journey to that we make it to our destination. His presence in us guarantees that God’s work will be fully completed when we arrive at our eternal inheritance.

God the Father blesses us in Christ. Christ redeems us with His own blood and enables God to welcome us into His family. The Holy Spirit seals us to guarantee that we make it to our final destination. All of this is made real by faith, by trusting the truth of the Gospel. And what motivates God to do any of this? Because of His great love with which He loved us (Ephesians 1:4b, 2:4)!!!

In Adam Vs. In Christ

All of this lays the foundation for where will be going in the next several lessons. These will all develop the truths that flow out of Romans 5:12-21 that we discussed in Discovering the Way. Our destinies have been shaped by the choices of two men: Adam and Christ. Adam brought Sin, Condemnation and Death into our human experience whereas Christ brings Righteousness, Peace and Life.