But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
But God being rich and abundant in mercy acted toward those dead in sin out of his great love for them to make them alive with Christ. Those he loved were utterly destitute of spiritual life, dead in trespasses and sins in a hopeless condition under condemnation for disobeying his commands. Even while they were dead he quickened them together with Christ, and by grace they are saved through faith as the gift of God, not of themselves and not of works so there is no room for boasting. His goodness in this great love is proved by redemption and the great sacrifice, showing he loves people and counts them of value, so weakness and affliction are no reason to doubt his love. That quickening is the new birth by the Holy Spirit, delivering from bondage to self, changing the whole character into the divine image and bringing the liberty and privileges of the sons of God.
God's Mercy and Love
God is rich and abundant in mercy and acts toward people who are dead in sin out of his great love for them, and this love and mercy are the reason he makes them alive together with Christ. Salvation in this act is by grace through faith, not of themselves but as the gift of God rather than the result of works, leaving no room for self-exaltation or human merit. Though dead in sins he quickens them together with Christ, raises them with him, and makes them sit together in heavenly places, displaying through them the exceeding riches of his grace and kindness.
Abundant provision in Christ comes from this great love and mercy, giving grace freely with no stint and making salvation possible through Christ. This provision is sufficient to keep believers from failing or becoming discouraged and enables them to grow in spiritual life and to share consolation and grace with others. His love is long enough to reach to the very lowest depths of human woe and misery, turning with rich mercy to those dead in trespasses and sins and walking according to the course of this world and the prince of the power of the air, who is Satan the enemy of God and not Jesus. The blessing is found in Jesus Christ, and it is a rich and glorious assurance of promise that leads everyone who has tasted the love of God and the power of the world to come to praise him, given so that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in kindness through Christ Jesus.
This love for fallen humanity is a special expression born of mercy, undeserved and shown toward those who are imperfect, and sin brought mercy into active exercise. Grace could only be learned because of the fall, and God loves the sinless angels who serve and obey him but does not give them grace because they have never sinned and never needed it. Grace is his gift to undeserving human beings, sent in search of them when they did not seek it, and he delights to give it to everyone who hungers for it, not because they are worthy but because they are utterly unworthy, so that their need itself is the qualification assuring them they will receive it. His great love is personal and faithful, holding the individual dear to his heart, refusing to leave him to perish, and upholding him with everlasting arms beneath him. He is rich in mercy and rich in power, with a large treasure of love promised and given to those who ask, resting blessing upon them and doing great things for them, and help comes from him alone because he is faithful and his purpose will be fulfilled for those who do their part.
His goodness in great love is proved by the work of redemption and the great sacrifice made for fallen man, which proves he loves people and counts them of value. He is beneficent and generous in mercy and grace and faithful to what he has promised, so weakness, pain and affliction are no reason to doubt his love. This love gives rest of heart and mind like a tired child committing soul and body into his hands as to a faithful Creator who will keep what is committed to him, trusting his everlasting arms underneath and finding refuge in Jesus, who is afflicted in all affliction and shares in every affliction while giving strength through his eternal Son. His richness in mercy and great love is expressed in sending reproof and warnings, which is kindness and benevolence to reveal misconception of his character so his people will not spoil themselves and make shipwreck of faith. He pardons the transgressions of all who humble themselves and confess their sins and of those who err.
Christ's love is great though its greatness cannot be fully understood, yet its truth can be known by personal experience. He loves the heavenly beings around his throne, yet he has also loved us with this great love, and through kinship with him and adoption into God's family believers are called to treat his brothers and sisters with tenderness and to honor their Father and fellow members of his family. Young and old should realize how greatly he has loved them. Believers are rich in the mercy and grace and love of God, and this richness is their property to feel and live in. His great love in solicitude to redeem humanity is interested in all human actions and desires to mold and fashion men and women after the divine similitude, guiding by providence and reproving disobedience learned from the history of Israel, and he will not rest until every case is decided. Disobedience will be punished unless transgression and sin are forsaken and the weakest points are made strongest through continual watchcare, so that through obedience darkness becomes light.
Human Condition in Sin
Ephesians 2:4 speaks to people utterly destitute of spiritual life, dead in trespasses and sins. That death is a hopeless condition under condemnation of the law for disobeying God's commands. Even in that state God loved them with His great love because He is rich in mercy.
While dead they walked according to the course of this world and the prince of the power of the air. That prince is Satan the enemy of God, not Jesus. He is the spirit working in the children of disobedience. In that walk they lived in the lusts of the flesh, having their conversation there and fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind. By nature they were children of wrath even as others.
Rebellion and disobedience is taking part with the enemy who works to ruin. Belonging to God who paid a price requires glorifying God in body and spirit.
Those still in Satan's bondage are spiritually blind strangers to repentance and to a broken and contrite heart. They know nothing of passing from death unto life, from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to God. They do not even comprehend its language.
Made Alive With Christ
Even when dead in sins God quickened them together with Christ, not aside from Christ, and by grace they are saved through faith, not of themselves but as the gift of God, not of works lest anyone should boast and leaving no room for self-exaltation or human merit. The same mercy and love that acted toward the dead in sin is the ground of making them alive together with Christ, raising them with Him and seating them with Him.
He raised them up together and made them sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, giving them a place in heavenly life and guiding them into a safe path. This sitting is not as independent atoms but as those so identified with Christ as to be wholly one with Him as He was one with the Father, which places great responsibility on them. It is the highest measure of character and the richest blessing possible for human beings to enjoy, giving hope of being made one in Christ and accepted by God.
He did this so that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward them through Christ Jesus, displaying through the redeemed the riches of His grace and kindness. God desires His children to show the world what sitting together in heavenly places in Christ means, and those who receive this experience bear it as testimony to that coming display. Those saved are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God ordained beforehand for them to walk in, called away from disloyalty to build character in obedience and accepted as laborers together with God. They are made no more strangers and foreigners but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Jesus Christ Himself as the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building fitly framed together grows unto a holy temple in the Lord for a habitation of God through the Spirit, with true believers built together through Christ. These good works are to be lived out rather than used to criticize others and claim superiority.
God has a purpose for each person and what each may become in striving to fulfill it, and His love and mercy are the ground of the hope that He will bring them to life with Christ and fulfill His purpose for them. These gifts do not come from human goodness or worthiness but from the free promptings of His grace. His grace is sufficient for all who serve Him and enables humanity to unite and cooperate with divinity, making salvation possible through Christ for even those dead in sin.
God's Eternal Purpose
After Adam believed Satan's misrepresentations of God and disobeyed, he was not permitted to work in Eden, yet God desired to reconcile humanity without changing His holiness, justice and truth. He devised a plan by which sinners need not perish but may gain everlasting life. That plan is His purpose for each person and what each may become by striving to fulfill it, calling sinners dead in trespasses and sins away from the disloyalty of the world to build character in obedience to His word. Even when they were dead He loved them with great love, quickened them together with Christ, raised them up and seated them together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, saving them by grace through faith as the gift of God not of works so no one can boast, as His purchased heritage and His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which He ordained beforehand for them to walk in, no more strangers but fellow citizens built into a holy temple for a habitation of God through the Spirit.
The recovery of sinners rests on this rich mercy and great love, and the redeemed will testify through the ages to the riches of His grace and kindness. That love is given to people through Jesus Christ, bringing rich grace that can forgive sin, impart Christ's righteousness, and transform sinners into God's children and heirs of heaven. This rich mercy and great love belong to His mysteries revealed through His prophets since the promise given in Eden and made known to all nations according to the command of the eternal God. Even when dead, He quickens sinners together with Christ and raises them to sit together in heavenly places in Him, so that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward them through Christ Jesus.
This keeping is in accord with His choice of believers in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and without blame before Him in love. It is a promise to be believed with greater faith by trusting His living Word, so that those laboring in His service do not fail nor become discouraged when Satan works with all his power to discourage and defeat them, but take a firmer hold from above to cope with the powers of darkness felt in every department of the work. That mercy was preached first to the Jewish nation for salvation to make them members of the royal family displaying the riches of grace through succeeding ages. When they as a nation rejected Christ and were cut off, Gentiles were grafted in, while Jews still have the privilege of partaking of salvation with Gentiles, with Jew and Gentile made one in Christ through the gospel of Jesus Christ received by belief bringing deliverance from a hopeless condition dead in trespasses and sins and transformation of character to show the fruits of the Spirit and share the divine nature in disposition, words and actions.
Redemption Through Christ's Sacrifice
Christ, the Eternal Truth and Sovereign of heaven, clothed his divinity with humanity and gave his life as a ransom, revealing a love that passes understanding. That love without parallel brought the Son of God from the courts of heaven to suffer and die so that people might live through him, even to the horror of darkness in Gethsemane where great drops of blood were forced from his pores on account of their sins, giving reason to mourn for sin. This mercy works through the Messiah's sacrifice at the cross of Calvary as the great center, bringing reconciliation for iniquity and everlasting righteousness and everlasting deliverance to all who walk after Christ separated from the world, endure to the end, and hold the beginning of their confidence firm unto the end.
The heavenly Father sent his Son into the world at infinite sacrifice to save fallen man from utter ruin, a love to be grasped by the mind to awaken spiritual-mindedness and deepen gratitude and obligation to him. As sinners behold Jesus' compassion and tender love at the cross they are transformed and come to hate the sin that caused his suffering. Christ's love opened the way to Paradise, and seeing the love in his death for sinners joins believers' lives to Christ and awakens desire to serve him.
The story of the Babe of Bethlehem, the hope of the world, makes plain to children the great love with which Christ has loved us by teaching salvation truths and pointing them to Christ as a personal Saviour.
New Birth and Transformation
The quickening together with Christ is the new birth, a renewal by the infusion of the Holy Spirit and the formation of character in the divine image. It delivers from bondage to self, saving and ennobling, widening the thoughts and changing the whole character. Whether this change has taken place is the test of experience, and the promise is full transformation, not security in continuing as before without persevering in truth and doing the will of Christ.
This inward change of heart is as leaven hidden in meal, revealed in the life, cleansing the heart from impurity and fitting character for service for God. The Spirit works invisibly and radically until conversion is complete, supplying no new faculties but thoroughly changing their employment, softening and subduing natural inclinations. New thoughts, new feelings and new motives are implanted, every faculty is regenerated, while human identity is not lost.
To be made alive is to pass from death unto life, from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to God, being raised up to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. It brings the privileges and liberty of the sons of God and is proved to the world by a changed disposition and character. That proof is a humble joy leading to abasement of self rather than boisterous, noisy, boasting self-confidence, a language those still in Satan's bondage, spiritually blind strangers to repentance and to a broken and contrite heart, know nothing of and do not even comprehend.
The change after conversion comes from God, not from human goodness, for even repentance and coming to Christ are due to God's goodness. God gives spiritual life to those dead in sin, granting grace and pardon so they pass from death to life. That new spiritual life becomes true and strong and is expressed in good works, as His love fills hearts and minds and flows out in lives of service calling for praise and thanksgiving. This change must take place in the heart by hearing the Word of God as the great agency of transformation, sanctifying through the truth, with the true believer's works testifying that he is born of God. The Spirit's power quickens those dead in trespasses and sins to hear the words of life.
It becomes true in experience when sinners seek the Lord while He may be found, forsake the wicked way and unrighteous thoughts, and return to Him to receive mercy and abundant pardon. Then those dead in trespasses and sins are made alive together with Christ and raised up with Him, saved by grace through faith as the gift of God and not by works. Thoughts of self-exaltation must therefore be subdued, since all good works depend on a power outside of ourselves. Revival is this same act of rich mercy and great love to raise the dead in sin to spiritual life, signifying renewal of spiritual life, a quickening of the powers of mind and heart, a resurrection from spiritual death under the ministration of the Holy Spirit. Reformation is different, signifying reorganization and change in ideas and theories, habits and practices, and it will not bring forth the good fruit of righteousness unless connected with revival of the Spirit, so revival and reformation are to do their appointed work blended together.
This new life is joined to knowing Christ and believing in Him, and it frees people from sin's corruption. Out of mercy and great love God gives spiritual life with Christ even when people are dead in sin, raising them from spiritual death and filling their hearts with hope and joy. That raising is with Christ to a place in the heavenly realm. Divine grace changes the natural disposition so the heart once ruled by sinful desires becomes filled with divine love and the mind is sanctified. Christ's grace subdues the propensities of the natural heart, fitting fallen people for heaven to enjoy the company of the pure and holy, giving in Christ an inexhaustible source of joy and knowledge and a walk in the light of life.
His great love and kindness thus provide a way for those dead in sin to be raised up and sit with Christ in heavenly places, a gift to be valued since failing to appreciate it means losing heaven's richest blessings. This is salvation from sins, not in sins, by grace giving through Christ access by one Spirit to the Father, with hope, faith and peace within reach through His merits. Therefore no sinner need stay away naked and trembling, nor heed Satan's device to keep sinners from coming boldly to ask pardon for transgression and sin. Through the gospel of Jesus Christ received by belief, the dead receive life and power to reach holiness, for God's abundant love is revealed through His Son and the riches of Christ's grace are offered to all.
God loved us with great love while dead in trespasses and sins, and loves us still when we permit Him to take away sins and impute Christ's righteousness. Accepting His great love glorifies the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. His heart is determined to accept, cleanse, purify and sanctify if we let Him, and it must be done or we cannot see His face. This lifting of the believer to enjoy His love and grace makes glad the heart of God, making believers channels of light and lightbearers to the world through whom He communicates love and mercy and glory as they cooperate with Christ in restoring the moral image of God in fallen man.
Living Out God's Mercy
Those made alive are expected to bring the kindness shown to them into their dealings with one another, for God loved them even when dead in trespasses and sins, walking according to the course of this world and the prince of the power of the air and living in the lusts of the flesh and mind as children of wrath by nature, and quickened them together with Christ, saved them by grace, raised them up together and made them sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward them through Christ Jesus, and as His workmanship created unto good works they are to show the world what that heavenly seating means. Where His grace abides in the soul it gives the mind of Christ, and those who appreciate His great mercy and love practice the lessons of Christ, drawing nourishment from Him as the living Vine and as branches bearing the same kind of fruit as the parent stock. They become a wellspring of life refreshing all who come in contact with them and work in harmony with God as laborers together with Christ, showing His love through tenderness, courtesy and kind deeds. Because of the great love wherewith He loved them, believers are to cherish love rather than strife and malice and hatred, to love one another as Christ loved them, and by unity and love to make all understand that they are Christians.
Every converted soul is laid under the same work of personal effort in the name of Jesus to bring other souls still dead in trespasses and sins to a knowledge of the truth and to bear with Christ the burden for souls. When believers practice the truth themselves and teach it to those who do not know it, angels cooperate with them, the truth becomes a living, working principle in their own hearts, and fresh light is given as they impart what they have received to souls in the darkness of error. The changed Christian life is to reveal the value of Christ's righteousness through helpful words, pure actions and noble principles, for His mercy and love are the source of life with Christ even while people are dead in sins. Those saved are God's workmanship created in Christ for good works, saved by grace through faith not by works leaving no room for boasting, which they are to live out rather than use to criticize others and claim superiority.
The passage is full of instruction to be read carefully, joining salvation by grace through faith as God's gift with Christ dwelling in the heart by faith as contemplating, beholding and cherishing Him as dearest and most honored Friend so as not to grieve or offend Him. Rooted and grounded in love, believers can comprehend the breadth and length and depth and height and know the love of God which passes knowledge, being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Jesus Christ the Chief Cornerstone and builded for an habitation of God through the Spirit. In the human heart cleansed from moral impurity the Saviour dwells, ennobling and sanctifying the whole nature and making the person a temple for the Holy Spirit. Faith is given to comfort and help against depression, and it must not stagger in feeling but must cleave through the hellish shadow Satan always casts across the pathway to obstruct faith and eclipse light from Jesus the Sun of Righteousness, because faith is in truth.
This mercy, love and grace is the present privilege of every shepherd of the flock, entered by earnest heart-searching, prayer and seeking to know God and the power of His grace, producing earnest care and travail for lost souls rather than casual interest, to the end that in the ages to come God might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness through Christ Jesus. Trusting His living Word, workers must believe the promise with greater faith in keeping with His choice of them in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and without blame before Him in love, so that those laboring in God's service do not fail nor be discouraged when Satan works with all his power to discourage and defeat, but take a firmer hold from above to cope with the powers of darkness felt in every department of the work. The promise applies personally, as to Andrew whose spiritual life and character need to be formed through the truth and the school of Christ, since this mercy and love are the ground of making those dead in sin alive together with Christ. This testimony to God's mercy and love, which brings those dead in sin to life with Christ and raises them with Him, is to be borne in the church's work.
This expressed tenderness gives comfort and hope and consolation to all who appreciate His love. Remembering Christ's great love fills the heart with Christlike kindness toward others. His great love extends to the youth as His heritage, and the Holy Spirit came to reveal that love, convince of sin, soften hearts hardened by estrangement from God, and open understanding to give wisdom and knowledge for study used to glorify God, but when hearts had no desire for the Spirit's presence God's light was withdrawn. Those who represent Christ must show His tenderness and love, for God's character is marked by great love for humanity and rich mercy, and harsh oppressive treatment misrepresents Him as a hard master and can alienate people from Him and turn them from the truth.
His great love revealed in Christ's self-denial and sufferings must appear in all efforts to teach the truth, with practical lessons from Christ's teachings joined to prophecy and doctrine under the softening, subduing influence of the Spirit upon the heart. Even the most splendid temple amounts to nothing if hearts are not right, for God in mercy and great love meets with His people, so greatest anxiety should be about spiritual condition, thoughts directed heavenward, reverence, and educating children that God meets with His people. That great love claims all, creating a debt that cannot be computed because all that people have is His, shown not by selfishly grasping and withholding what He calls for or applying it to other purposes, a course by which thousands of souls are lost, but by sending forth gifts and offerings for the salvation of souls with praise and thanksgiving, bringing a faithful tithe with peace and thank offerings so there is no dearth of means in His treasury. His abundant great love gives reason for deep gratitude and praise with heart, soul and voice, expressed in cheerful gracious conversation and a life reflecting the Holy Spirit and adorning Christ's teaching, and remembering it helps value Christ's saving grace, speak gratefully of His goodness, and rest like a tired child committing soul and body to a faithful Creator with refuge in Jesus who is afflicted in all affliction.
But God being rich and abundant in mercy acted toward those dead in sin out of his great love for them to make them alive with Christ. Those he loved were utterly destitute of spiritual life, dead in trespasses and sins in a hopeless condition under condemnation for disobeying his commands. Even while they were dead he quickened them together with Christ, and by grace they are saved through faith as the gift of God, not of themselves and not of works so there is no room for boasting. His goodness in this great love is proved by redemption and the great sacrifice, showing he loves people and counts them of value, so weakness and affliction are no reason to doubt his love. That quickening is the new birth by the Holy Spirit, delivering from bondage to self, changing the whole character into the divine image and bringing the liberty and privileges of the sons of God.
God's Mercy and Love
God is rich and abundant in mercy and acts toward people who are dead in sin out of his great love for them, and this love and mercy are the reason he makes them alive together with Christ. Salvation in this act is by grace through faith, not of themselves but as the gift of God rather than the result of works, leaving no room for self-exaltation or human merit. Though dead in sins he quickens them together with Christ, raises them with him, and makes them sit together in heavenly places, displaying through them the exceeding riches of his grace and kindness.
Abundant provision in Christ comes from this great love and mercy, giving grace freely with no stint and making salvation possible through Christ. This provision is sufficient to keep believers from failing or becoming discouraged and enables them to grow in spiritual life and to share consolation and grace with others. His love is long enough to reach to the very lowest depths of human woe and misery, turning with rich mercy to those dead in trespasses and sins and walking according to the course of this world and the prince of the power of the air, who is Satan the enemy of God and not Jesus. The blessing is found in Jesus Christ, and it is a rich and glorious assurance of promise that leads everyone who has tasted the love of God and the power of the world to come to praise him, given so that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in kindness through Christ Jesus.
This love for fallen humanity is a special expression born of mercy, undeserved and shown toward those who are imperfect, and sin brought mercy into active exercise. Grace could only be learned because of the fall, and God loves the sinless angels who serve and obey him but does not give them grace because they have never sinned and never needed it. Grace is his gift to undeserving human beings, sent in search of them when they did not seek it, and he delights to give it to everyone who hungers for it, not because they are worthy but because they are utterly unworthy, so that their need itself is the qualification assuring them they will receive it. His great love is personal and faithful, holding the individual dear to his heart, refusing to leave him to perish, and upholding him with everlasting arms beneath him. He is rich in mercy and rich in power, with a large treasure of love promised and given to those who ask, resting blessing upon them and doing great things for them, and help comes from him alone because he is faithful and his purpose will be fulfilled for those who do their part.
His goodness in great love is proved by the work of redemption and the great sacrifice made for fallen man, which proves he loves people and counts them of value. He is beneficent and generous in mercy and grace and faithful to what he has promised, so weakness, pain and affliction are no reason to doubt his love. This love gives rest of heart and mind like a tired child committing soul and body into his hands as to a faithful Creator who will keep what is committed to him, trusting his everlasting arms underneath and finding refuge in Jesus, who is afflicted in all affliction and shares in every affliction while giving strength through his eternal Son. His richness in mercy and great love is expressed in sending reproof and warnings, which is kindness and benevolence to reveal misconception of his character so his people will not spoil themselves and make shipwreck of faith. He pardons the transgressions of all who humble themselves and confess their sins and of those who err.
Christ's love is great though its greatness cannot be fully understood, yet its truth can be known by personal experience. He loves the heavenly beings around his throne, yet he has also loved us with this great love, and through kinship with him and adoption into God's family believers are called to treat his brothers and sisters with tenderness and to honor their Father and fellow members of his family. Young and old should realize how greatly he has loved them. Believers are rich in the mercy and grace and love of God, and this richness is their property to feel and live in. His great love in solicitude to redeem humanity is interested in all human actions and desires to mold and fashion men and women after the divine similitude, guiding by providence and reproving disobedience learned from the history of Israel, and he will not rest until every case is decided. Disobedience will be punished unless transgression and sin are forsaken and the weakest points are made strongest through continual watchcare, so that through obedience darkness becomes light.
Human Condition in Sin
Ephesians 2:4 speaks to people utterly destitute of spiritual life, dead in trespasses and sins. That death is a hopeless condition under condemnation of the law for disobeying God's commands. Even in that state God loved them with His great love because He is rich in mercy.
While dead they walked according to the course of this world and the prince of the power of the air. That prince is Satan the enemy of God, not Jesus. He is the spirit working in the children of disobedience. In that walk they lived in the lusts of the flesh, having their conversation there and fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind. By nature they were children of wrath even as others.
Rebellion and disobedience is taking part with the enemy who works to ruin. Belonging to God who paid a price requires glorifying God in body and spirit.
Those still in Satan's bondage are spiritually blind strangers to repentance and to a broken and contrite heart. They know nothing of passing from death unto life, from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to God. They do not even comprehend its language.
Made Alive With Christ
Even when dead in sins God quickened them together with Christ, not aside from Christ, and by grace they are saved through faith, not of themselves but as the gift of God, not of works lest anyone should boast and leaving no room for self-exaltation or human merit. The same mercy and love that acted toward the dead in sin is the ground of making them alive together with Christ, raising them with Him and seating them with Him.
He raised them up together and made them sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, giving them a place in heavenly life and guiding them into a safe path. This sitting is not as independent atoms but as those so identified with Christ as to be wholly one with Him as He was one with the Father, which places great responsibility on them. It is the highest measure of character and the richest blessing possible for human beings to enjoy, giving hope of being made one in Christ and accepted by God.
He did this so that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward them through Christ Jesus, displaying through the redeemed the riches of His grace and kindness. God desires His children to show the world what sitting together in heavenly places in Christ means, and those who receive this experience bear it as testimony to that coming display. Those saved are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God ordained beforehand for them to walk in, called away from disloyalty to build character in obedience and accepted as laborers together with God. They are made no more strangers and foreigners but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Jesus Christ Himself as the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building fitly framed together grows unto a holy temple in the Lord for a habitation of God through the Spirit, with true believers built together through Christ. These good works are to be lived out rather than used to criticize others and claim superiority.
God has a purpose for each person and what each may become in striving to fulfill it, and His love and mercy are the ground of the hope that He will bring them to life with Christ and fulfill His purpose for them. These gifts do not come from human goodness or worthiness but from the free promptings of His grace. His grace is sufficient for all who serve Him and enables humanity to unite and cooperate with divinity, making salvation possible through Christ for even those dead in sin.
God's Eternal Purpose
After Adam believed Satan's misrepresentations of God and disobeyed, he was not permitted to work in Eden, yet God desired to reconcile humanity without changing His holiness, justice and truth. He devised a plan by which sinners need not perish but may gain everlasting life. That plan is His purpose for each person and what each may become by striving to fulfill it, calling sinners dead in trespasses and sins away from the disloyalty of the world to build character in obedience to His word. Even when they were dead He loved them with great love, quickened them together with Christ, raised them up and seated them together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, saving them by grace through faith as the gift of God not of works so no one can boast, as His purchased heritage and His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which He ordained beforehand for them to walk in, no more strangers but fellow citizens built into a holy temple for a habitation of God through the Spirit.
The recovery of sinners rests on this rich mercy and great love, and the redeemed will testify through the ages to the riches of His grace and kindness. That love is given to people through Jesus Christ, bringing rich grace that can forgive sin, impart Christ's righteousness, and transform sinners into God's children and heirs of heaven. This rich mercy and great love belong to His mysteries revealed through His prophets since the promise given in Eden and made known to all nations according to the command of the eternal God. Even when dead, He quickens sinners together with Christ and raises them to sit together in heavenly places in Him, so that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward them through Christ Jesus.
This keeping is in accord with His choice of believers in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and without blame before Him in love. It is a promise to be believed with greater faith by trusting His living Word, so that those laboring in His service do not fail nor become discouraged when Satan works with all his power to discourage and defeat them, but take a firmer hold from above to cope with the powers of darkness felt in every department of the work. That mercy was preached first to the Jewish nation for salvation to make them members of the royal family displaying the riches of grace through succeeding ages. When they as a nation rejected Christ and were cut off, Gentiles were grafted in, while Jews still have the privilege of partaking of salvation with Gentiles, with Jew and Gentile made one in Christ through the gospel of Jesus Christ received by belief bringing deliverance from a hopeless condition dead in trespasses and sins and transformation of character to show the fruits of the Spirit and share the divine nature in disposition, words and actions.
Redemption Through Christ's Sacrifice
Christ, the Eternal Truth and Sovereign of heaven, clothed his divinity with humanity and gave his life as a ransom, revealing a love that passes understanding. That love without parallel brought the Son of God from the courts of heaven to suffer and die so that people might live through him, even to the horror of darkness in Gethsemane where great drops of blood were forced from his pores on account of their sins, giving reason to mourn for sin. This mercy works through the Messiah's sacrifice at the cross of Calvary as the great center, bringing reconciliation for iniquity and everlasting righteousness and everlasting deliverance to all who walk after Christ separated from the world, endure to the end, and hold the beginning of their confidence firm unto the end.
The heavenly Father sent his Son into the world at infinite sacrifice to save fallen man from utter ruin, a love to be grasped by the mind to awaken spiritual-mindedness and deepen gratitude and obligation to him. As sinners behold Jesus' compassion and tender love at the cross they are transformed and come to hate the sin that caused his suffering. Christ's love opened the way to Paradise, and seeing the love in his death for sinners joins believers' lives to Christ and awakens desire to serve him.
The story of the Babe of Bethlehem, the hope of the world, makes plain to children the great love with which Christ has loved us by teaching salvation truths and pointing them to Christ as a personal Saviour.
New Birth and Transformation
The quickening together with Christ is the new birth, a renewal by the infusion of the Holy Spirit and the formation of character in the divine image. It delivers from bondage to self, saving and ennobling, widening the thoughts and changing the whole character. Whether this change has taken place is the test of experience, and the promise is full transformation, not security in continuing as before without persevering in truth and doing the will of Christ.
This inward change of heart is as leaven hidden in meal, revealed in the life, cleansing the heart from impurity and fitting character for service for God. The Spirit works invisibly and radically until conversion is complete, supplying no new faculties but thoroughly changing their employment, softening and subduing natural inclinations. New thoughts, new feelings and new motives are implanted, every faculty is regenerated, while human identity is not lost.
To be made alive is to pass from death unto life, from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to God, being raised up to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. It brings the privileges and liberty of the sons of God and is proved to the world by a changed disposition and character. That proof is a humble joy leading to abasement of self rather than boisterous, noisy, boasting self-confidence, a language those still in Satan's bondage, spiritually blind strangers to repentance and to a broken and contrite heart, know nothing of and do not even comprehend.
The change after conversion comes from God, not from human goodness, for even repentance and coming to Christ are due to God's goodness. God gives spiritual life to those dead in sin, granting grace and pardon so they pass from death to life. That new spiritual life becomes true and strong and is expressed in good works, as His love fills hearts and minds and flows out in lives of service calling for praise and thanksgiving. This change must take place in the heart by hearing the Word of God as the great agency of transformation, sanctifying through the truth, with the true believer's works testifying that he is born of God. The Spirit's power quickens those dead in trespasses and sins to hear the words of life.
It becomes true in experience when sinners seek the Lord while He may be found, forsake the wicked way and unrighteous thoughts, and return to Him to receive mercy and abundant pardon. Then those dead in trespasses and sins are made alive together with Christ and raised up with Him, saved by grace through faith as the gift of God and not by works. Thoughts of self-exaltation must therefore be subdued, since all good works depend on a power outside of ourselves. Revival is this same act of rich mercy and great love to raise the dead in sin to spiritual life, signifying renewal of spiritual life, a quickening of the powers of mind and heart, a resurrection from spiritual death under the ministration of the Holy Spirit. Reformation is different, signifying reorganization and change in ideas and theories, habits and practices, and it will not bring forth the good fruit of righteousness unless connected with revival of the Spirit, so revival and reformation are to do their appointed work blended together.
This new life is joined to knowing Christ and believing in Him, and it frees people from sin's corruption. Out of mercy and great love God gives spiritual life with Christ even when people are dead in sin, raising them from spiritual death and filling their hearts with hope and joy. That raising is with Christ to a place in the heavenly realm. Divine grace changes the natural disposition so the heart once ruled by sinful desires becomes filled with divine love and the mind is sanctified. Christ's grace subdues the propensities of the natural heart, fitting fallen people for heaven to enjoy the company of the pure and holy, giving in Christ an inexhaustible source of joy and knowledge and a walk in the light of life.
His great love and kindness thus provide a way for those dead in sin to be raised up and sit with Christ in heavenly places, a gift to be valued since failing to appreciate it means losing heaven's richest blessings. This is salvation from sins, not in sins, by grace giving through Christ access by one Spirit to the Father, with hope, faith and peace within reach through His merits. Therefore no sinner need stay away naked and trembling, nor heed Satan's device to keep sinners from coming boldly to ask pardon for transgression and sin. Through the gospel of Jesus Christ received by belief, the dead receive life and power to reach holiness, for God's abundant love is revealed through His Son and the riches of Christ's grace are offered to all.
God loved us with great love while dead in trespasses and sins, and loves us still when we permit Him to take away sins and impute Christ's righteousness. Accepting His great love glorifies the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. His heart is determined to accept, cleanse, purify and sanctify if we let Him, and it must be done or we cannot see His face. This lifting of the believer to enjoy His love and grace makes glad the heart of God, making believers channels of light and lightbearers to the world through whom He communicates love and mercy and glory as they cooperate with Christ in restoring the moral image of God in fallen man.
Living Out God's Mercy
Those made alive are expected to bring the kindness shown to them into their dealings with one another, for God loved them even when dead in trespasses and sins, walking according to the course of this world and the prince of the power of the air and living in the lusts of the flesh and mind as children of wrath by nature, and quickened them together with Christ, saved them by grace, raised them up together and made them sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward them through Christ Jesus, and as His workmanship created unto good works they are to show the world what that heavenly seating means. Where His grace abides in the soul it gives the mind of Christ, and those who appreciate His great mercy and love practice the lessons of Christ, drawing nourishment from Him as the living Vine and as branches bearing the same kind of fruit as the parent stock. They become a wellspring of life refreshing all who come in contact with them and work in harmony with God as laborers together with Christ, showing His love through tenderness, courtesy and kind deeds. Because of the great love wherewith He loved them, believers are to cherish love rather than strife and malice and hatred, to love one another as Christ loved them, and by unity and love to make all understand that they are Christians.
Every converted soul is laid under the same work of personal effort in the name of Jesus to bring other souls still dead in trespasses and sins to a knowledge of the truth and to bear with Christ the burden for souls. When believers practice the truth themselves and teach it to those who do not know it, angels cooperate with them, the truth becomes a living, working principle in their own hearts, and fresh light is given as they impart what they have received to souls in the darkness of error. The changed Christian life is to reveal the value of Christ's righteousness through helpful words, pure actions and noble principles, for His mercy and love are the source of life with Christ even while people are dead in sins. Those saved are God's workmanship created in Christ for good works, saved by grace through faith not by works leaving no room for boasting, which they are to live out rather than use to criticize others and claim superiority.
The passage is full of instruction to be read carefully, joining salvation by grace through faith as God's gift with Christ dwelling in the heart by faith as contemplating, beholding and cherishing Him as dearest and most honored Friend so as not to grieve or offend Him. Rooted and grounded in love, believers can comprehend the breadth and length and depth and height and know the love of God which passes knowledge, being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Jesus Christ the Chief Cornerstone and builded for an habitation of God through the Spirit. In the human heart cleansed from moral impurity the Saviour dwells, ennobling and sanctifying the whole nature and making the person a temple for the Holy Spirit. Faith is given to comfort and help against depression, and it must not stagger in feeling but must cleave through the hellish shadow Satan always casts across the pathway to obstruct faith and eclipse light from Jesus the Sun of Righteousness, because faith is in truth.
This mercy, love and grace is the present privilege of every shepherd of the flock, entered by earnest heart-searching, prayer and seeking to know God and the power of His grace, producing earnest care and travail for lost souls rather than casual interest, to the end that in the ages to come God might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness through Christ Jesus. Trusting His living Word, workers must believe the promise with greater faith in keeping with His choice of them in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and without blame before Him in love, so that those laboring in God's service do not fail nor be discouraged when Satan works with all his power to discourage and defeat, but take a firmer hold from above to cope with the powers of darkness felt in every department of the work. The promise applies personally, as to Andrew whose spiritual life and character need to be formed through the truth and the school of Christ, since this mercy and love are the ground of making those dead in sin alive together with Christ. This testimony to God's mercy and love, which brings those dead in sin to life with Christ and raises them with Him, is to be borne in the church's work.
This expressed tenderness gives comfort and hope and consolation to all who appreciate His love. Remembering Christ's great love fills the heart with Christlike kindness toward others. His great love extends to the youth as His heritage, and the Holy Spirit came to reveal that love, convince of sin, soften hearts hardened by estrangement from God, and open understanding to give wisdom and knowledge for study used to glorify God, but when hearts had no desire for the Spirit's presence God's light was withdrawn. Those who represent Christ must show His tenderness and love, for God's character is marked by great love for humanity and rich mercy, and harsh oppressive treatment misrepresents Him as a hard master and can alienate people from Him and turn them from the truth.
His great love revealed in Christ's self-denial and sufferings must appear in all efforts to teach the truth, with practical lessons from Christ's teachings joined to prophecy and doctrine under the softening, subduing influence of the Spirit upon the heart. Even the most splendid temple amounts to nothing if hearts are not right, for God in mercy and great love meets with His people, so greatest anxiety should be about spiritual condition, thoughts directed heavenward, reverence, and educating children that God meets with His people. That great love claims all, creating a debt that cannot be computed because all that people have is His, shown not by selfishly grasping and withholding what He calls for or applying it to other purposes, a course by which thousands of souls are lost, but by sending forth gifts and offerings for the salvation of souls with praise and thanksgiving, bringing a faithful tithe with peace and thank offerings so there is no dearth of means in His treasury. His abundant great love gives reason for deep gratitude and praise with heart, soul and voice, expressed in cheerful gracious conversation and a life reflecting the Holy Spirit and adorning Christ's teaching, and remembering it helps value Christ's saving grace, speak gratefully of His goodness, and rest like a tired child committing soul and body to a faithful Creator with refuge in Jesus who is afflicted in all affliction.