One Blessing After Another

A few months ago, all you heard about was the flu vaccine, and how there was a big shortage. Every day, you heard about how not everyone was going to get the flu vaccine – only certain people – and if you don’t get that vaccine, then you are in big trouble. Maybe if you stand in line, you’ll get lucky and get the vaccine. But not everyone can get it.

God doesn’t hand out his blessings that way. Everyone gets blessed. And every Christian gets a “death vaccine.” Do you know what that means? Have you really been vaccined against death? The Biblical answer is yes. Because of sin, death was supposed to be a terrible thing. Once you die, you were supposed to stay dead forever. And your soul was supposed to go to hell, where you would be punished for all of your sins forever. That’s what was supposed to happen at death.

But on Christmas, Christ came into our world, and he brought with him the “death vaccine.” Instead of you being punished for your sins, Christ is punished instead, as your substitute, in your place. Instead of you going to hell, you go to heaven, because of Jesus. And instead of your body staying dead forever, on the last day, Christ promises to raise your body from the dead, and create a brand new world for you to live in. For a Christian, death is not something you need to be terrified of. Everyone who believes in Christ receives this “vaccine” against eternal death and punishment, and it’s called “the forgiveness of sins.” You get an extra dose of that vaccine every time you hear God’s Word and take the Lord’s Supper.

And look at that phrase – “one blessing after another.” In the original Greek, what the Bible is literally saying here is that we all have received from God “grace after grace.” In other words, today’s grace will be replaced by tomorrow’s grace. And this week’s grace will be replaced by next week’s grace. The4re is a never-ending supply of gracious blessings that God is giving to you.

We live in a world where we are told that we’re always supposed to be upgrading everything. If your car is getting too old, you’re supposed to update it, or upgrade it. If your computer is getting too old, you have to eventually upgrade that too. You better update your wardrobe, update your kitchen appliances – eventually, everything we have has to be updated or upgraded. Did you realize that God updates your blessings too? For example, if you committed a sin yesterday, then you know that God’s grace covers that sin. But what if you committed and new and different sin today? God’s grace is able to cover that new and different sin today. And the way God blesses you now is different than the way he blessed you 25 years ago. God keeps up with you, watches your life, and gives you one blessing after another, everything you need, even as your life changes.

Do you know what’s sad? A lot of Christians spend their time focusing on what they don’t have. You look back on the year 2004, and you think to yourself, “Boy, there are a lot of things I DON’T have. God really hasn’t blessed me all that much. I wish I had this. Why can’t I have that?” Have you ever felt yourself fall into that way of thinking – look at what I don’t have? Sometimes that causes us to get angry with God. We start questioning his wisdom and love. Does God really care about me?