Lent, Day 30: BY GRACE

Ephesians 2:1-10

We “were dead…but God…made us alive together with Christ” (vs. 1).  The past … the present.  From death to life.  From bondage to freedom. From what was, to what now is.  God has broken into our history and changed the trajectory of our lives.  Out of the “Kind intention of His will” (Eph. 1:5), God has brought us to the place of grace.  And God did all of this “when we were dead in our transgressions” (vs. 5).  While we were caught up in the bondage and destruction of our relationships with “the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience” (vs. 2), God worked the greatest of all possible miracles.  God welcomed us into His forever family.  He welcomed us home.

As to what God has done in our lives, we can take no credit.  We didn’t earn it.  We didn’t deserve.  We didn’t merit it.  Paul says, “by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God” (vs. 8). As the Message paraphrase says, “He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us! Then he picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah” (vs. 5-6). The old Gospel songs says it well, 

Love of Christ so freely given;  

Grace of God beyond degree; 

Mercy higher than the heavens;  

Deeper than the deepest sea                        

                     Thoro Harris, 1931

In this Lenten Season, may the truth of God’s amazing love captivate our hearts, and open us up in greater ways to a grace and mercy and love that is beyond human comprehension.  The great British preacher, Charles Spurgeon, told of an evening when he was riding home after a taxing day at work. He felt weary and depressed, when suddenly 2 Corinthians 12:9 flashed into his thinking, “My grace is sufficient for thee.” He said, 

“I should think it is, Lord,” and burst out laughing. He said that it seemed to make unbelief so absurd. It was as though some little fish, being very thirsty, was troubled about drinking the river dry, and the river said, “Drink away, little fish, my stream is sufficient for thee.” Or, it seemed after the seven years of plenty, a mouse feared that it would die of famine, and Joseph might say, “Cheer up, little mouse, my granaries are sufficient for thee.” Or, a man away up on a mountain saying to himself, “I fear I shall exhaust all the oxygen in the atmosphere.” But the earth might say, “Breathe away, oh man, and fill thy lungs ever; my atmosphere is sufficient for thee.”  (From Streams in the Desert, Mrs. Charles Cowman)

“But God, being rich in mercy.”  This about says it all, doesn’t it. Amen.