WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE TO BE BLESSED?
Turn with me to Romans 8:31–32. Many biblical scholars believe that Paul seems to be wrapping up a discussion that he started in chapter five. So Romans 8 is really the end of a big section of Paul’s thinking in the book of Romans, and it is important and weighty.  Romans 8 is a beautiful chapter that talks about life in the Spirit for God’s people, the future of creation, and how it is tied to that. It talks about how God’s love is inseparable and how we can embrace God’s plan for us in the midst of suffering. All of these are gospel issues for Paul.

So, when we get to Romans 8:31, Paul says, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” That idea is central to the notion of blessing. The blessing is this: God is for us; God is good to us. That’s what it means for us to live blessed lives. It is as though Paul is saying, You want proof that God is for you, Christian? If you need proof that God is for you, He gave His only Son. What is the proof that God is for us? Where else do we need to look other than God giving the most valuable thing in the universe, offering up His one and only Son for His people? So, what is this text saying to us? It is saying God has given the most valuable thing in the world for His people to show us that He is good to us. What is He going to withhold? Is God really going to keep good things from us when He is giving Jesus?

So, this text points us to the fact that as Christians, we can find comfort knowing that God is for us. God has already given us the greatest blessing we can ever have in the redemption offered through his son Jesus. And, God has already given us the greatest blessing we can ever have in the redemption offered through His son Jesus. In addition, we have an eternal hope of blessing that looks like God giving us everything He ever intended us to have with Him. That is an important part of Romans 8:32. This is not just God benevolently saying, Okay, I’m going to be just this grandfather in the sky and give everybody everything that they want. No, it is something that we possess in Christ—that it is with Him that He will graciously give us all things. So, for God’s people, like Paul, we can say I may be suffering now, I might be hurting now, and I might be struggling now but those things do not compare to the glory that is to be revealed in His coming. And what is that glory? Nothing short of all the things that God intends us to have as His people, that is the future blessing that we await.