And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham.
You are his heirs, and now all the promises God gave to him belong to you.
I will bless you…and you will be a blessing.
And because you Gentiles have become his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, and now you can call God your dear Father….And since you are his child, everything he has belongs to you.—He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?
For all things are yours: whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas, or the world or life or death, or things present or things to come–all are yours. And you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s. —Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places…
As we know Jesus better, his divine power gives us everything we need for living a godly life. He has called us to receive his own glory and goodness! And by that same mighty power, he has given us all of his rich and wonderful promises [so that you may] escape the decadence all around you caused by evil desires and that you will share in his divine nature. —As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.
Give as freely as you have received!
Gal.3:29 NLT; Gen.12:2 NIV; Gal.4:6,7 NLT; Rom.8:32 NIV; I Cor. 3:22-23 NKJV; Eph. 1:3-4 ESV; II Pet.1:3-4 NLT; II Cor.6:10 KJV; Mt. 10:8 NLT
God has done it–the promises are His and the carrying out of them–I will bless you and you will be a blessing. It is our part to believe and to live out of His rich resources. I’m pretty sure I don’t comprehend the half of what I possess in Christ. What does it even mean that we ‘possess all things’?!
What I do know, thanks to Abraham, is that bad things happen when we doubt God’s ability to fulfill His promises in His timetable. Doubt leaves the door open to our own paltry store of resources. It cries: ‘DO SOMETHING!’. Abraham and Sarah did. And they can attest to the results. Their offspring are still at war.
But God is intent on blessing His children and making them a blessing, if only we will look and live…And I am intent on grasping what it is to rest in God’s promise, to believe that all I am and have in Christ is enough to leave behind a blessing wherever I may go…
Paul devoted a whole letter to dealing with the issue of ‘God’s own fulfillment of His promise’ versus ‘a human attempt to bring about the fulfilment of God’s promise’ (Gal.4:23 NLT British text) He was frankly fearful for the plight of anyone “trying to find favour with God by what you do or don’t do.” (Gal.4:10 NLT) because God had done all that was necessary. All that was left was to rely on His supply.
The penniless sinner thereby becomes the heir to all things and is equipped to represent God to a poverty-stricken world! This is an arrangement not dependent on ‘keeping up my side of the deal’. In this new deal God acted on his own, knowing this would be the only way the deal would go through. He committed to do good to Abraham all the days of his life and through him to bless the whole world. In sending Jesus this blessing has become reality for all who believe, no exceptions.
“A mediator is needed if two people enter into an agreement, but God acted on his own when he made his promise to Abraham.” Gal.3:20 NLT
‘…while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.’ Rom.5:8
In Christ, God woos the penitent sinner–no worries, I have done it all. Rest your weakness on me. Know that you are not able but I am. And we are declared ‘children of the free woman, acceptable to God because of our faith.’ (Gal.4:31 NLT) and fit for all the good works God has prepared for us to walk in. If I sometimes doubt my ability to be a blessing perhaps I have lost sight of the very promises of God. To be blessed and a blessing is just a fact of life in the Spirit! As we abide in Christ we are the salt of the earth and bright luminaries in a dark world. Blessed to be a blessing–that is what you are!
