His Kindness In Spite of Me

"But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)..."

Ephesians 2:4, 5

These two verses, along with many others, succeed in humbling the saints by showing that our salvation is from God alone, and He saves us in spite of us. As I was meditating on the colored portion of the text, I began to see the importance of the way Paul structured these two verses. He could have left out the colored phrase because it was made clear in the previous verses in chapter 2 that we were all dead in our sins. So why does he mention this point again while talking about God's mercy toward us? I'm sure there could be more, but I found 2 major reasons:

1) The placement of this phrase in verse 4 magnifies our total depravity before a merciful God and our complete dependence upon Him for our salvation. It reminds us that, ultimately, we had nothing to do with our salvation. It is completely an act of God's kindness toward us, for how can a man dead in his sins do anything to earn the kindness of God in salvation? Or how can a dead man even know that he is dead and in need of life apart from God's kindness opening his eyes to see and his ears to hear? It is important to go back and read verses 1-3 of chapter 2 to get the full magnitude of God's mercy toward dead men.

2) It magnifies the fact that God saves in spite of us, even when we are dead. There is nothing, absolutely nothing, good or redeemable in man that would cause or draw the holy and righteous God to save him. That is why Paul stresses that we were completely dead and separated from the living Christ, and it was GOD and GOD alone who made us alive together with Christ. A dead man cannot make himself alive, can he? Nor can he cause another to make him alive. Paul surely wants to give credit where credit is due and silence the pride of man. BUT the good news is that God found a reason to save us: "So that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus." Ephesians 2:7 God so desires to glorify Himself and His name to all men that He chose to display His attributes to men by loving and saving a greatly undeserving and helpless people.

Surely, this is cause to praise Him! Surely, this is cause to be humble before Him! Surely, this is cause to love Him above all else!

"not as a result of works, so that no one may boast." Ephesians 2:9