But God! (Ephesians 2:4-7)

Verses 4-7 show us what a wonderful life Christ promises us. But God might be the sweetest phrase in the whole Bible. We were dead, ‘but God’ made us alive. We were hopeless, ‘but God,’ gave us hope. We were helpless, ‘but God,’ gave us help. We were devil worshippers, ‘but God,’ has saved us. God has stepped in to deliver us from death, to deliver us from hell. He has done this by joining us to Jesus, He has saved us by giving us what belongs to Him. In these wonderful verses we see three things. God’s motivation for saving us, God’s action to save us, and God’s purpose for saving us.

Four things motivated God to save us. Verse four mentions His great love for us. God’s great love. Not His grudging love, or His miserable love, or His dutiful love…His great love. Jesus loves us so much that He was motivated to come and die in the ugliest way possible to save us. God is rich in mercy. Rich! His mercy overflows to us. We didn’t deserve saving, and we don’t deserve keeping, but God’s rich mercy overflows to rescue us from sin. Three times Paul mentions God’s grace. Our salvation wasn’t prompted by us, it was total, undeserved favour. In verse 7 we read of God’s kindness. He was kind to do for us exactly what we needed. What motivated God to save us? His love, His mercy, His grace and His kindness. What a wonderful God!

Secondly, in these verses, we see God’s action, what He has actually done because of His love and grace. God has made us alive together with Christ, and raised us up and seated us with Him in the Heavenly places. Wow! Doesn’t that sound better than a life dominated by the devil? Wouldn’t you rather be alive with Christ, under the influence of Heaven, that dead with the devil under the influence of hell? Paul shows us what the devil offers us, and then he shows us how Jesus totally outbids what he offers. Jesus is better, Paul says, come to Him. We benefit from the position and power of Jesus, if we are saved.

Finally we see God’s purpose for saving us in verse 7. This is so good we need to stop and read it together. I love that verse. The immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. Amazing! God has saved us for Himself, that He might show His grace and kindness. When we are saved, we are, forever, the subject of God’s grace and kindness. The devil is neither gracious, nor kind, why would you choose him over Jesus? Jesus has saved you not to ruin your fun, not to make you miserable or boring, but to be kind to you.