“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved.” (Ephesians 2:4-5).
BUT GOD. These are perhaps two of the most beautiful words in the Bible. The verses that precede this describe the spiritual condition of the human race. It isn’t pretty. Mankind has a serious problem that affects the whole of creation (Romans 8:18-25). The problem is sin. This includes behavior and the human heart’s innate posture toward God, our creator (Romans 8:7; 1:23, 25; 3:18). Sin is always, first and foremost, against God, and it affects us inwardly, outwardly, and above all else, upwardly. Sin bears immediate and eternal consequences we cannot escape… unless God Himself provides a way out. And this brings us to the beautiful words, BUT GOD. This verse reveals at least three things about God and what He did to remedy our problem.
First, God is “rich in mercy.” “Mercy” is withholding retribution where it is justly deserved. It is the basis of forgiveness to the guilty. Mercy is one of the many attributes of God that make up who He is. He is “rich in mercy,” intent on forgiving His people of their sin against Him and releasing them from all guilt.
Second, God has loved us with great love. This love is not conditioned on our lovability. Rather, “even when we were dead in our trespasses,” He loved us (Cf., Romans 5:6-11). God’s love is volitional. He CHOOSES to love the sinner. Had He not, we would be without hope. Unlike us, God’s love is not driven by His passions but by His divine purpose to have a people for His own sake.
Finally, God’s love is actively manifested toward His creation. It is manifested toward His people. Grounded in His mercy and driven by His divine purpose to love, God made us alive together with Christ. This is the act of grace that delivers us from the bondage and the penalty of sin. God unites the believer with Jesus Christ in a way that He becomes our substitute before God, and what is true of Christ is a reality for the saint. As our substitute, He was made… to be sin for us, who knew no sin (2 Corinthians 5:21). He bore our sin and took it to the cross to suffer the wrath of God that we justly deserve (Isaiah 53:4-6). God showed mercy to us because His justice was satisfied in Christ. In addition, as He lived on this earth, He was tempted in every respect as we are, yet without sin (Hebrews 4:15-16). The righteousness that He possesses and that He lived while in this world, fulfilling God’s commands, was forensically imputed to our account (Romans 5:12-21). So the Christians standing before God is a standing of righteousness, not his own, but the righteousness of Christ because of His union with Him. If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” (2 Corinthians 5:17).
The final question we’ll answer next week is, “How do I come to be included in this salvation?”