A Word in Season: Why God Blesses (Ephesians 2:7)

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The letter to the church in Ephesus begins with this great catalogue of thanksgiving to the

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God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

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Paul goes on to tell the Ephesians how he is praying for them in the light of all these things and then as chapter 2 opens he drives home the contrast between what they and every other believer were by nature and what we have become on account of grace.

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He talks about how having been dead in our sins we have been made alive together with Christ, how we have been raised up together with him and how we now sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

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And then in chapter 2 and verse 7 of the letter to the Ephesians Paul tells us why

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God has done these matchless works of marvellous grace in the lives of each one of his chosen people.

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Why has God made us alive together with Christ, saving us by grace? Why has

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God raised us up together with him? Why has God seated us in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus?

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What was the divine motive? What was the purpose of the Most High in working in this way?

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Is it simply so that we could be blessed? We might say well that's wonderful but is that as high as it goes?

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Does it have any other purpose? Well verse 7 tells us that the reason why

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God did these things was that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

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God's saving intent is so that something might be put on display, shown prominently and to its best advantage, so that before heaven and earth certain things may come to light and be seen shining in all their proper beauty and glory.

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And the thing to which God draws attention by working in the way that he does in the people that he saves are

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God's grace in his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

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These exceeding riches of his grace. This immeasurable, unimaginable greatness of the wealth of his free favour toward these people who have been chosen in their sin and misery and brought into his marvellous light.

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And it's grace in kindness. It's God's good will and God's good works towards hell deserving sinners that are brought to light in this great work of salvation.

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I think it's relatively easy for us to talk about God's grace, we do that often, but do we understand that it's also

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God's kindness. This God who is rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us has treated us graciously, not as we deserve, but contrary to all our deserving and shown kindness toward us.

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He has, because of the goodness of his divine heart, he's bestowed life on us.

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Resurrection power is at work in us and in our status we are now seated with Christ in the heavenlies and everything that is already present in principle is working towards a glorious fulfilment in the eternal day to come.

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And all of this is so that the exceeding riches of God's grace in his kindness toward us in Jesus Christ may be put on display, you notice, in the ages to come.

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Now that was true of the Ephesians in the sense that down through the centuries the example of God's grace toward them has continued to bring honour to the

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Lord who delivered them. And for the succeeding centuries, as you look down through the history of the

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Christian church from the fathers onwards, here you have again and again a trophy of grace.

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And these works do not draw attention to the work itself, but to the worker who has worked it.

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They point us back to the wisdom and the grace and the kindness and the power of the God who saves.

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And just as that is true in time, so it will be true on the day of judgement, so it will be true all through eternity.

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That the church of Jesus Christ will never cease to be the environment in which the grace and the kindness of God are displayed to the best advantage, to the praise of the glory of his grace.

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That's our joy, that's our privilege, and we should live so as to be now and forever those men and women.