"In Ephesians 2:1-3 the apostle Paul presents a dismal picture of us before we trusted Christ as Savior:
As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins
in which you used to live when you followed the ways of
this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the
spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.
All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying
the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires
and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects
of wrath.
Paul says we were spiritually dead, unable to help ourselves or do anything about our plight. We were not drowning people needing a life buoy - we were dead people in need of life. Further, we were slaves to the world, to the devil, and to our sinful nature. And as we've already seen, we were by nature objects of God's holy wrath. Dead slaves, objects of wrath - what a desperate condition!
Against this dark backdrop of sin and misery, Paul gives the solution (verses 4-5):
But because of his great love for us, God who is rich
in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were
dead in transgressions - it is by grace you have been saved.
Three words stand out in this passage: love, mercy, and grace. Note Paul's superlative language: great love, rich in love, mercy and in verse 7, "the incomparable riches of his grace." What a sharp contrast Paul draws between our pitiful condition and God's glorious remedy. God is rich in mercy and rich in grace, and He bountifully bestows both on us because of His great love.
How should we understand the words grace and mercy as Paul uses them? Think of them as the two arms with which God reaches out in His love to save us. His grace is His arm of reaching out to us in our guilt, while His mercy is His love reaching out to save us in our pitiful condition because of our sin. Both grace and mercy contemplate our sin - grace its guilt, and mercy its misery.
Grace is God's favor through Christ to people who deserve His wrath. It is more than the oft-quoted definition of "unmerited favor." God's grave addresses not only our lack of merit, but also our positive demerit. It is blessing bestowed in the presence of demerit.
When I was a small child, homeless men (then called hobos) would sometimes appear at our front door and ask my mother for a meal. Without receiving any work in return, mother would prepare a plate of food for them to eat on our front porch. She was granting an unmerited or unearned favor, but it was not grace. If, however, a hobo appeared at our door whom my mother recognized as a man who had previously robbed us, a new element is introduced. Now the food is given despite demerit. Not only is the man undeserving of food in the sense of earning it; he actually deserves punishment instead because of his crime.
We all stand before God with innumerable counts of demerit against us. It isn't an overstatement to use Ezra's words: "Our sins are higher than our heads and our guilt has reached the heavens" (Ezra 9:6). We deserve God's wrath. Instead we receive favor, bountiful favor - we're blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ (Ephesians 1:3). Why?
The answer is in the two words through Christ in our definition of grace. Through Christ and His atoning death, we're delivered from the wrath we deserve. And through Christ and His life of obedience for us, we receive the boundless favor we don't deserve.
This favor comes to us in many forms. We're first of all saved by grace (Ephesians 2:8-9), but it doesn't stop there. Grace is God's power enabling us to cope with life's difficulties (2 Corinthians 12:9). It supplies the strength we need to live the Christian life (2 Timothy 2:1). Grace provides the spiritual gifts by which we serve in the body of Christ (Romans 12:6). Every blessing you receive, every answer to prayer you experience, is an expression of God's grace to you.
All these favors come to us because of the sinless life and sin-bearing death of our Lord. A popular definition of grace is the acronym, God's Riches At Christ's Expense. Jesus suffered in our place and paid for our sins. He also lived in our place and earned all our blessings.
While grace contemplates our guilt, mercy has regard to our misery, which is the consequence of our sin. God's mercy is more than compassion for someone in need. It is compassion in spite of demerit. If the hobo-robber in the above illustration ended up in a wretched condition in prison, and my mother in various ways sought to relieve his distress, that would begin to picture God's mercy.
But it would be only a faint picture. No misery in this life can begin to compare with the misery of those suffering eternally under the wrath of God. Even the Nazi Holocaust, awful as it was, pales by comparison to the lake of fire of God's judgement.
God is sovereign in extending His mercy. He said to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion" (Exodus 33:19, Romans 9:15). Sovereign in this sense refers not to God's power but to His right to do as He pleases. Paul is getting at this when he asks, "Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?" (Romans 9:21). We should therefore always be amazed that God extended His mercy to us.
God is likewise sovereign in extending His grace. He was under no obligation to forgive our sins. He could have plunged us into hell as He did the angels who sinned (2 Peter 2:4). Instead He sent His Son to turn aside His wrath by satisfying His justice. And He did even more: He also called us by His gospel and through His spirit to trust in Christ (2 Thessalonians 2:13-14). If you're a believer and your neighbor isn't, this is not due to your superior wisdom or greater insight into the issues of life. It's because of God's grace in calling you to Christ.
The gospel invitation is wide open to all: "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved" (Romans 10:13). "Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life" (Revelation 22:17). And yet when we come, we discover that we were chosen in Christ before the creation of the world (Ephesians 1:4). That is grace."
So good. We were dead. We were destined for eternal separation from God - enduring His justice, what we deserve. Yet, through Christ and His love, we are made right through His grace and ultimate sacrifice. Praise God!
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