God"s Great Grace
The good news for the Christian is that God’s wrath has been poured out not on us but on the Savior. Jesus drank the cup, a metaphor that describes the wrath of God. He drank the cup, and we get to drink the cup of grace. Bless His holy name.
Paul draws our attention to the depth of our depravity in order to magnify the mercy and grace of God in saving us, like a black cloth on which a beautiful diamond sits. And Paul gives us the diamond of the gospel with two of the sweetest words in the Bible: “But God.”
What prompted God’s salvation was His mercy, love, grace, and kindness.
Paul can, in the same sentence, affirm the wrath of God and the love of God. In fact, you cannot understand one without the other. Notice the descriptions of God’s goodness in these verses.
God’s mercy is also sovereignly distributed. God says, “I will show mercy to whom I will show mercy” (
To the Romans Paul writes, “But God proves His own love for us in that while we were still sinners [dead, depraved, and doomed], Christ died for us!” (
Being made alive when we were dead is a work of grace. Believers have experienced the undeserved favor of God. Twelve times “grace” is mentioned in Ephesians. In chapter 1 Paul said that our salvation was “to the praise of His glorious grace” (1:6).
For all eternity we will be recipients of His grace, trophies of His grace. He has displayed infinite riches of grace in kindness to us.
Now notice what God did in His mercy, grace, love, and kindness. Paul begins by telling us that God made us alive with Christ (v. 5). The main verb that governs the phrase, “made us alive,” is introduced. Just as Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, He also said to us, “________ come forth.” And like Lazarus, we rise and rejoice in His grace.
We have what theologians have termed an “outer call,” which goes out to everyone through the proclamation of the gospel, and “an inner call,” which the Holy Spirit does in hearts. Those who are Christians have sensed this inner calling (
We cannot overemphasize the importance of this doctrine of regeneration. Christianity is not about becoming a nicer person, nor is it about starting a new religious routine. It is about becoming a new person (
I love a particular story regarding the ministry of the eighteenth-century evangelist George Whitefield, who reportedly preached on
Notice also how Paul says we have been made alive “with the Messiah” (v. 5, synezo¯poiesen). Paul underscores our union with Christ. In fact, all three verbs have a prefix meaning “with” (alive with Christ, raised with Christ, seated with Christ).
Consider the staggering nature of God’s work in uniting us with Christ. Paul says that God raised us up with Christ (v. 6a). This is a clear allusion to the resurrection of Jesus. Paul uses a compound word to declare that we have been raised together, synergeiren, which has the prefix syn-. We know this word from computers. We get the word sync from it (short for “synchronize”). We sync our phones with our computers in order to transfer the music on the computer to the phone. Well, we were synced with Christ! What God did for Christ, He did at the same time for believers
The final work of grace that Paul notes is future oriented. He says God will dispense grace forever to us in Christ (v. 7). The reason God has showed us such grace is so we might be the demonstration of His grace forever. We will be His trophies of grace. God says in effect, “Look what I can do with such a mess.” Ponder the idea of grace for “ages” to come. Instead of wrath, we have everlasting grace!
God’s great rescue of us is by grace.
Think of the great reversal that has taken place between verses 1–3 and 4–7.
Dead in trespasses and sins! Alive together with Christ
Sons of disobedience! Raised up with Christ
Children of wrath! Seated with Christ
Children of wrath! Recipients of generous mercy
Children of wrath! Recipients of great love
Children of wrath! Recipients of rich grace
Children of wrath! Recipients of God’s kindness
Children of wrath! Trophies of God’s grace
Paul says that grace comes through faith. This is the human response: belief (cf.
There is only One who should be exalted in this salvation, and that is God. We have not worked for it, and we cannot, therefore, brag about ourselves (
After saying that our works cannot save us, Paul notes the importance of works. He does not want us to think that works are unimportant. He states that works simply are not the root of our salvation. They are the fruit of salvation. There is a saying, “It is faith alone that justifies, but faith that justifies can never be alone.” We are not saved by faith plus works but by a faith that does work. We have a living faith, a functioning faith!
Now that we belong to God, God is working on us and in us so that He might work through us. Paul says, “we are his workmanship”
The heavens and earth display the glory of God’s material creation. But this is a new creation, called “saved sinners.” They declare the glory of God’s spiritual creation (cf.
Because we are God’s workmanship in Christ Jesus, people should see our works and say, “That’s a work of God.” Jesus said, “In the same way, let your light shine before men, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven” (
Indeed, the instinct of one who has new life is to do good works—at home, at work, and everywhere—to the glory of God.
Paul says these works have been “prepared ahead of time.” God, in His sovereignty, had good deeds in mind when He chose us for salvation. And He planned that “we should walk in them.” Notice the last line and compare it with verse 2, “in which you previously walked.” This forms an inclusio, or bookends. We have made the full loop. We once walked in darkness, being controlled by the world, the flesh, and the Devil. But God made us alive through faith in Christ, and now we are walking in Christ, doing good works.
I am not what I ought to be—ah, how imperfect and deficient! I am not what I wish to be—I abhor what is evil, and I would cleave to what is good! I am not what I hope to be—soon, soon shall I put off mortality, and with mortality all sin and imperfection. Yet, though I am not what I ought to be, nor what I wish to be, nor what I hope to be, I can truly say, I am not what I once was; a slave to sin and Satan; and I can heartily join with the apostle, and acknowledge, “By the grace of God I am what I am.”
