How we thank and praise the Lord that today we as believers have received the Spirit as the blessing that God promised Abraham for all the nations, and we can drink the cup of blessing!
In Abraham’s seed all the nations will be blessed; this means that in Christ as the Spirit, all nations are blessed, and especially those who receive the Lord by believing into Him, they receive the Spirit as the blessing promised to Abraham!
And at the Lord’s table meeting, we have the privilege to drink not the cup of wrath or the cup filled with the Lord’s blood, but the cup of blessing, that is God becoming our portion, our blessing, for our enjoyment! Hallelujah!
When we see that we are the blessed people of the blessing God, enjoying the blessing of God every day, we will praise our God and father who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ (Eph. 1:3).
God the Father selected us and predestinated us unto sonship to be His sons, unto Himself, so that He may fulfill His purpose. God the Son, Christ, came to redeem us and accomplish God’s purpose; He blesses us with redemption, salvation, justification, reconciliation, and bringing us back to God through faith.
God the Spirit comes as the seal and pledge of our inheritance to speak forth the application of God’s accomplished purpose. The entire Triune God in His economy is dispensing Himself into us as the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, so that we may enjoy Him, experience Him, partake of Him, and be fully one with Him for the fulfillment of His purpose.
The Father is the source of the divine blessing; the Son is the sphere, the means, and the element of the divine blessing; and the Spirit is the nature and essence of the divine blessing. God’s blessing is not something outward; anything that is outward will pass away, but God Himself will never pass away.
God’s blessing is simply the Triune God Himself being dispensed into us for our enjoyment. Blessing is a person – blessing is the wonderful Person of the Triune God who, in His economy, dispenses Himself into His chosen and redeemed people to be their life and everything.
We Receive the Spirit as the Blessing God promised Abraham through Faith in Christ
How can we, Gentiles, partake of the blessing God promised Abraham many years ago?
Paul opens this matter up in Gal. 3:14 where he says that the Spirit is the blessing God promised to Abraham, and that the Spirit has been received by the believers through faith in Christ.
Throughout the Bible the Spirit has many titles, such as the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Jehovah, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of Jesus, etc; the consummate form of the Spirit is referred to as, the Spirit.
The Spirit is the consummated Spirit, the Spirit of the processed and consummated Triune God.
God promised to Abraham in Gen. 12:3 that in his seed all the nations of the earth will be blessed; the blessing promised by God to Abraham was fulfilled in Christ through His redemption on the cross (Gal. 3:13).
Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse on our behalf, for it is written, Cursed is everyone hanging on the tree, in order that the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles in Christ Jesus through the gospel.
Christ didn’t just suffer the curse – He became a curse for us, so that we can receive the consummated Spirit as the unique blessing. Now we can receive the total blessing, the consummated Spirit; we can receive the aggregate blessing, the total blessing of the Triune God, of the gospel, which is the Spirit.
When we hear the gospel and believe into the Lord we receive not only the blessing of forgiveness of sins, the washing and cleansing of sins, and justification; even more, we have received the greatest blessing – the Triune God (the Father, the Son, and the Spirit) as the processed, all-inclusive life-giving Spirit!
Through the gospel we have received the greatest blessing – the consummated Spirit as the blessing God promised to Abraham, and this blessing is in us as the indwelling Spirit to be our enjoyment in the most subjective way.
Through the fall of Adam, we all were brought under a curse, but God promised that, in his seed, all the nations will be blessed. Christ came as the seed of Abraham; He has redeemed us out of the curse of the law, so that the blessing of Abraham would come to us.
He died on the cross, and in His resurrection He became the Spirit; now as the transfigured descendent of Abraham, Christ is the life-giving Spirit as the blessing.
How can we experience and enjoy the Spirit as the blessing? According to the book of Galatians, we can enjoy the blessing by:
- having Christ revealed in us,
- by receiving Christ through the hearing of faith,
- by being born according to the Spirit,
- by being given the Spirit of God’s Son in our hearts,
- by putting on Christ through baptism,
- by being identified in His death so that it is no longer we who live but Christ living in us,
- by living and walking in the spirit,
- by having Christ formed in us,
- by sowing unto the Spirit, and
- by enjoying the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ with our spirit.
Thank You Lord for becoming the Spirit – the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit as the blessing of God promised to Abraham. Now we can receive, enjoy, and experience the Spirit as the blessing through faith in Christ. Thank You Lord for redeeming us out of the curse of the law so that the blessing may come to us. May we be those who enjoy the blessing by being identified with You, by letting You live in us, by living and walking by the Spirit, and by having Christ formed in us. Lord, we want to enjoy the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ with our spirit!
We enjoy the Cup of Blessing at the Lord’s Table – in this Portion we have God!
The Bible uses the word “cup” to indicate blessing; in Psa. 23:5, even in the presence of our enemies, the Lord as our Shepherd spreads a table for us, anoints our head with oil, and our cup runs over.
And in 1 Cor. 10:16 Paul calls the cup of wine at the Lord’s Table meeting a “cup of blessing which now we bless”. Under Christ’s shepherding, our cup runs over as we enjoy the Father as the source of blessing (Psa. 23:5; Eph. 1:3).
The Father is the source of blessing, and He Himself in the Son as the Spirit is the blessing itself; our cup runs over with blessing.
When the Lord Jesus established the new covenant, He said concerning the cup at the Lord’s Supper, This cup is the new covenant established in My blood; this do, as often as you drink it, unto the remembrance of Me (1 Cor. 11:25).
The bread is of life (John 6:35) and the cup is of blessing (1 Cor. 10:16). What we drink at the Lord’s table is the cup of blessing, the cup of the new covenant, comprising all the rich blessings of the New Testament – including God Himself.
Our portion should have been the cup of God’s wrath, for we are sinners and rebellious ones; but Christ drank the cup of wrath, and established the new covenant in His blessing. Now our portion is not God’s wrath but His blessing.
The blood Christ shed on the cross has become a covenant, and this covenant has become a cup – a portion, which is God Himself as a blessing for our enjoyment.
In the new covenant God gives us everything: He gives us forgiveness of sins, the divine life, salvation, and all the spiritual, heavenly, and divine blessings.
Hallelujah, the Lord shed His blood, God established the covenant, and we enjoy the cup, in which God and all that is of Him are our eternal, blessed portion! Because we are forgiven and redeemed, the cup is a portion of blessing to us – it is a cup of blessing, and in this cup we have God Himself as our unique blessing, our portion.
Losing God through man’s fall was the greatest loss, but through Christ’s redemption we have gained God back as our unique blessing. And at the Lord’s table we enjoy Him as our blessing by taking the cup of His blessing!
At the Lord’s table, when we drink the cup, we receive God’s blessing – the blessing that is God Himself. Hallelujah, through Christ’s redemption we have been brought back to God as our portion, and at the Lord’s table we enjoy the cup of blessing!
May we never lower down the meaning of blessing but in our prayer, praise, and speaking both at the Lord’s table and in our daily living may we enjoy the Triune God – God in Christ as the Spirit – as our blessing!
Thank You Lord Jesus for drinking the cup of God’s wrath on the cross so that we may be redeemed, brought back to God, and be qualified to receive and enjoy the cup of blessing! Hallelujah, we have been brought back to God as our unique portion, our inheritance, and our real and unique blessing! The cup of blessing which we now bless at the Lord’s table is a new covenant through which God is giving us everything that He is and has. Praise the Lord, we can enjoy God in Christ as the Spirit as the blessing day by day!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Mark Raabe for this week, and portions from, The Conclusion of the New Testament, msgs. 327, 333 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-study of Ezekiel (2), msg. 4 (week 16 in the HWMR), The God of blessing and the blessing of God.
- Hymns on this topic:
# God as the Spirit is our true blessing. / He shepherds us to pastures, expressing / Both tender love and bounteous supply, / Blessings in Christ to multiply. (Song on the God of blessing)
# In this portion we have God, / Whom we lost thru Adam’s fall; / By the shedding of Thy blood, / God becomes our all in all. / In this portion all we have – / Life and peace, redemption sure; / All that God has planned and willed, / In this portion we secure. (Hymns #223, stanza 3)
# An eternal portion, ‘tis, / Overflowing cup divine; / Heav’nly taste do we enjoy / In this cup of God’s design. / Here in love we drink this cup / In remembrance, Lord, of Thee; / Thus in spirit we partake / All Thy work on Calvary. (Hymns #223, stanza 3)
About aGodMan
To eat the bread means to receive the life supply, and to drink the cup means to receive the blessing.
The cup indicates a portion—either a portion of wrath or a portion of blessing. If we are condemned under God’s judgment, the cup is a portion of wrath to us (Rev. 14:10). If we are forgiven and redeemed, the cup is a portion of blessing to us. The Bible does not say that we drink the blood but that we drink the cup. This means that the redeeming blood of the Lord Jesus becomes our cup, our portion.
When we drink the cup, we not only review the redemption of the new covenant but also receive God’s blessing. This blessing is God Himself. Adam’s fall caused man to lose God, but Christ’s redemption brings God back to man. The losing of God in man’s fall was the greatest loss. Now our gaining God back in Christ’s redemption is the unique blessing. The cup as a portion is God Himself as the unique blessing to us. (Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1979, vol. 2, “Basic Lessons on Service,” p. 20)
Amen! Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord! Amen
What a blessed covenant!
Amen. Praise the Lord. Lord you are so much to us and have done so much for us. Thank you Lord for the cup of blessing which you have called us to at your table where you preside.