“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 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—and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” Eph. 2:1-7
Given the tragedies of the past week we need more and more of God’s Word for it is the only place for true comfort. These verses are among some of the most powerful in the letter to the Ephesians. In fact, verses 1-10 are amazing when you dissect and digest them in prayer…something I would encourage all of you to do. But this morning we will look at verses 1-7 with a primary emphasis on verse 4.
Verses 1 through 3 tell us why we needed saving: we were spiritually dead. Verses 5- 7 tell us what the saving was for: God made us alive to show us and help us to experience more than we can imagine. But it’s verse 4, “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us . . . right in the middle, that tells us why God saved us. Verses 1–3 are the problem; verses 5–7 are the solution; and verse 4 is the reason God actually went about fixing the problem rather than leaving us where we were.
And what is that reason? God is not poor in mercy. He is rich in mercy. It is who He is, “But God, being…not becoming…but being rich in mercy.” Mercy is His nature and disposition…it expresses His heart toward His own. So then, mercy is who He is. If mercy was something He simply had, while His deepest nature was something different, there would be a limit on how much mercy He could grant. But if He is essentially merciful, then for Him to pour out mercy is for Him to act in accord with who He is. It is simply God being God. When God shows mercy, He is acting in a way that is true to Himself. Once again, this does not mean He is only merciful. He is also perfectly just and holy. He is rightly wrathful against sin and sinners.
Nowhere else in the Bible is God described as rich in anything. The only thing He is called rich in is: MERCY. What does this mean? It means that God is something other than what we naturally believe Him to be. It means the Christian life must be a lifelong shedding of untrue and confused thoughts of the goodness of God. In His justice, God is exacting; in His mercy, according to this, God is overflowing. Thomas Goodwin said trying to get a “handle” on what “rich in mercy” really means in our language when he said of this phrase, “He (God) is rich unto all; that is He is infinite, overflowing in goodness, He is good to a profuseness, He is good to the pouring forth of riches, He is good to an abundance.” Obviously there are not enough “big” adjectives in the English language to get at the core meaning of this phrase.
But verse 4 goes on and joins God being rich in mercy with, “…because of the great love with which He loved us…” When the Scriptures speak of God’s great love for us we must understand a couple of things: first, divine love is more than forbearance, longsuffering or patience. Second; His love is active in that in His protection, in His provision, in His shepherding…He surges forward when His children are threatened even if threatened as a result of their own sinfulness. This is just a little of what it means to “never leave us or forsake us”. His great love is always active towards His own even if we don’t realize it because of our own weaknesses and blindness at the time. God’s promises are all based in His love and He always keeps His promises. It has been said by pastors and theologians for centuries that God’s love is an “invincible” love. Parse that word out! His work is beyond our comprehension. Love and mercy work together within God’s nature… the more God’s love is revealed, the more Hs mercy flows from His heart.
We make a mistake when we think that Christ came to mend wounded people or to wake up sleepy people or to advise confuse people or to inspire bored people or to spur on lazy people or even to educate ignorant people…Christ came to raise dead people…that is what verses 1-3 illustrates well. God is rich in mercy and in His great love to raise the dead elect to life eternal. This was His plan since before the beginning and He is and has been and will continue to carry out this plan until He returns on that Day.
So, to wrap up this morning, God is rich in mercy because of His great love for His own…even in the great tragedies of this life. Because mercy is who He is—“being rich in mercy”—His heart gushes forth mercy to all who are to become His and who ARE his His. His mercy overcomes even the deadness of our souls that we are all naturally born into. The mercy of Ephesians 2: 4 does not seem far off and abstract when we feel the weight of our sin. Praise be to God for His rich mercy because of His great love for His own children.
In His Grip,
Pastor Mike
