GOD has been pleased to reveal Himself to us by His Son in this gospel day under the name of Father. This Name conveys to our hearts the most gracious relationship; it is the title of the most tender love of God toward us. This Name opens up to us God’s deepest grace, for once we were enemies to Him by wicked works, but now we are not merely pardoned sinners, we are His children, and since we are God’s children He cares for us in every possible way, both regarding time and eternity.
The God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is our God and our Father, has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ. These blessings were counseled before time began; they are made ours in time, and will be fully enjoyed in eternity. They are secured to us in Christ; we have them not in our own keeping, nor are they vested in ourselves. These blessings are not dependent upon what we may be or do, nor upon our walk; they are our own personally, but solely as vested in Christ. Neither Satan, nor any power, can rob one single believer of one of these blessings, since they belong to us in Christ. Come, then, what may, what sorrow, what trial, these spiritual blessings shall never, never fail.
The extent of these blessings is beyond our calculation. The most advanced believer on earth can never know their range. The more he may learn of them, the more he will discover there is to be learned. “All spiritual blessings in the heavenly places” is the extent of them; there is not one of these blessings with which God, our Father, has omitted to bless us.
These blessings are spiritual, and we are blessed with them in the heavenly places. They must not be confounded with such as refer to our career on earth. By learning more of Christ where He now is seated, we shall gather acquaintance with their character. The Spirit of God teaches us of them, and, to the Spirit-taught, these blessings are far more real than the things of earth are to the natural man. Our being seated in the heavenly places in Christ, our acceptance in the Beloved, our coming glory with Christ, and such favors of God to us, are among these spiritual blessings.
Our God and Father has His special blessings for us, as His children on earth, in the trials of earth, as well as the spiritual blessings in the heavenly places. There are experiences of God to be derived on earth, such as even the bliss of heaven will not afford. In a peculiar way, this lifetime is the scene for the display of God’s mercies to us; in heaven He will show in us the glory of His grace; here each day brings to us some mercy from Him. Bearing in mind the opening verse of the Epistle to the Ephesians just referred to, we read this opening verse of the second Epistle to the Corinthians: “Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort.” The relationship given is somewhat similar to that in the Epistle to the Ephesians, but the range of His goodness to us how different! Heavenly places are not in view, but our lot on earth―our things, our trials, our needs. And in connection with our wants our God designates Himself for us, the Father of mercies. What a rest is this, His Name, to His tried and suffering child! And it is well, indeed, for us, the children, to go to Him in the fullness of this name, “Father of mercies”; yes, mercies, not mercy, for who shall count them? He calls Himself, moreover, “the God of all comfort.” This tender title is very soothing to the tried believer. He designates Himself elsewhere “the God of glory,” but a saint on a sick bed, or watching by a sick bedside, needs comfort, and our God is the God of all comfort. It is not now all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places, but all comfort for the earthly lot, that is connected with our Father’s Name.
Now these mercies and this comfort of our Father and God work very blessed spiritual results in the children. He turns the seasons of trial into the golden hours of our lives; He comforts us in all (do not let us forget His word says “all”) our tribulation. He makes the very wounds of our heart the means whereby we acquire ability from Himself to comfort others, for He speaks to us during our sorrows in such a way that we are enriched with His consolation as otherwise would be impossible. Hence His afflicted people say, “We could not have been without this grief, for we have learned our Father’s love therein as we never knew it before.”
Let our reader compare the first chapters of the Epistle to the Ephesians and the Second Epistle to the Corinthians, and well consider them in the light of the gracious Name of his God―Father.
In the twelfth chapter of the Gospel by Luke another insight into the love of our God toward us is given. We have our daily cares as well as our great trials. The blessed Lord treats of these daily cares, and He deals with those which are the commonest of all―food and raiment. He teaches us how God feeds the birds, and clothes the flowers of the field, and then calms our anxious thoughts by these tender words: “Your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things.”
It is as if the Lord Jesus, the perfect dependent Man, who trusted His God for the bread He ate, would leave us like little children in the repose of our Father’s love toward us. The child ceases its cares when in its father’s arms. Who of us would let his child lack aught he could give him if he knew his child needed? Our Father knows; let this be sufficient. He has numbered the very hairs of our heads. We are of more value than many sparrows and not one of them falls to the ground without Him.
Is it not so, that many a child of God who can discourse very clearly on “all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places” being his in Christ, is quite at a loss for the spirit of the dear child when the burden is the small matter of the day? Great trials, we know, are generally patiently borne by God’s children, because their weight drives the sufferer to God. It is the little things we too generally fret about, and as to which we are not unfrequently of a doubtful mind. Let us assure our hearts in our Father’s Love―He knows! He withdraws not His eyes from His people. He watches us every day and night. He needs no acquainting with our concerns, though He is pleased to hear everything we have to say to Him about our cares. “Your Father knoweth” ...