Being Not Turning into
The written works of Thomas Goodwin (one among our Puritan mates) come right down to us in twelve volumes, every quantity over 5 hundred pages. And the primary two volumes are given solely to Ephesians 1 and a couple of. It’s over a thousand pages of sermons on these two chapters of the Bible. And Goodwin slows manner down when he involves Ephesians 2:4, giving a number of sermons on this single verse:
However God, being wealthy in mercy, due to the good love with which he cherished us . . .
The broader context says we had been lifeless in our sins (Eph. 2:1–3). However God reached down and made us alive, delivering us from ourselves.
And why?
As a result of God just isn’t poor in mercy. He’s wealthy in mercy.
Nowhere else within the Bible is God described as wealthy in something. The one factor he’s referred to as wealthy in is mercy. What does this imply? It implies that God is one thing apart from what we naturally imagine him to be. It means the Christian life is a lifelong shedding of our small ideas on the mercy of God. God’s mercy is larger than we understand.
Let’s have a look at the textual content extra carefully. “God, being wealthy in mercy . . .” (Eph. 2:4). Being, not changing into. Not: he’ll be wealthy in mercy someday. Fairly: he’s already wealthy in mercy, for you and me, proper now. An announcement like that’s once more taking us into God’s very being and nature. “He’s the spring of all mercy,” says Goodwin. “It’s pure to him. It’s his nature. When he exhibits mercy, he does it together with his complete coronary heart.”1 For this reason he delights in mercy (Micah 7:18). God is a billionaire within the foreign money of mercy, and when he provides these riches to us, his personal huge fortune just isn’t diminished in any respect.
That includes quick, easy-to-read chapters and useful explanations, this simplified version of Mild and Lowly takes readers into the depths of Christ’s tender coronary heart for sinners and victims.
How can that be? As a result of mercy is who he’s. If mercy was one thing he merely had, whereas his deepest nature was one thing completely different, there could be a restrict on how a lot mercy he might produce. But when mercy is his very nature, then for him to pour out mercy is solely for him to be himself. This doesn’t imply he’s solely merciful. He’s additionally completely simply and holy. He’s rightly wrathful towards sin and sinners. However wrath just isn’t what he’s “wealthy in.”
The textual content goes on to affix God’s rich-in-mercy nature together with his nice love: “God, being wealthy in mercy, due to the good love with which he cherished us . . .” (Eph. 2:4).
When the Scripture speaks of “the good love with which he cherished us,” we should hear what it’s saying. Divine love isn’t just patiently placing up with us. It doesn’t stand nonetheless; it runs. It’s energetic, not passive. His love is nice as a result of it rushes ahead all of the extra when his beloved is threatened, even when threatened because of the beloved’s personal foolishness. We perceive this on a human degree; an earthly father’s love rises up inside him when he sees his baby accused or bothered, even when that baby actually did do one thing dangerous. Renewed affection boils up inside him.
Maybe all this discuss of mercy and love appears a little bit summary or exhausting to know. The richness of divine mercy turns into actual to us, nonetheless, as we see that the river of mercy flowing out of God’s coronary heart took form as a person. When Paul speaks of the saving look of Christ, he says, “The grace . . . appeared . . .” (Titus 2:11). The grace and mercy of God grew to become actuality in Jesus Christ. Subsequently to talk of Christ showing is to talk of grace showing. “Christ is nothing however pure grace clothed with our nature,” wrote the Puritan pastor Richard Sibbes.2
Subsequently once we have a look at the ministry of Christ within the Bible, and particularly on the cross, we’re seeing what “wealthy in mercy” (Eph. 2:4) seems like—how “wealthy in mercy” talks, the way it lives, the way it strikes towards victims.
Think about Your Life
Think about God’s richness in mercy on your personal life. Maybe, wanting on the proof of your life, you’re feeling as if this mercy of God in Christ has handed you by. Perhaps you will have been deeply mistreated. Misunderstood. Betrayed by the one particular person it’s best to have been capable of belief. Deserted.
Maybe you carry a ache that can by no means heal until you’re lifeless. If my life is proof of the mercy of God in Christ, you may suppose, I’m not impressed.
To you I say, the proof of Christ’s mercy towards you just isn’t your life. The proof of his mercy towards you is his—mistreated, misunderstood, betrayed, and deserted life. Eternally. In your house.
God’s mercy is larger than we understand.
If God despatched his personal Son to stroll by the valley of condemnation, rejection, and hell, you may belief him as you stroll by your personal valleys in your approach to heaven.
Maybe you will have problem receiving the wealthy mercy of God in Christ not due to what others have finished to you however due to what you’ve finished to torpedo your life. Perhaps by one large, silly resolution, or possibly by ten thousand little ones. You could have squandered his mercy, and it.
To you I say, have you learnt what Jesus does with those that squander his mercy?
He pours out extra mercy.
God is wealthy in mercy. That’s the entire level.
Whether or not now we have been sinned towards or have sinned ourselves into distress, the Bible says God just isn’t tightfisted with mercy however openhanded, not poor however wealthy.
That God is wealthy in mercy implies that your areas of deepest disgrace and remorse usually are not inns by which divine mercy passes however houses through which divine mercy abides.
It means the issues about you that make you cringe most, make him hug hardest.
It means his mercy just isn’t sluggish and cautious like ours. It’s free-flowing and flood-like.
It means our haunting disgrace just isn’t an issue for him however the very factor he loves most to work with.
It means our sins don’t trigger his like to take a success. Our sins trigger his like to surge ahead all of the extra.
It means on that day once we stand earlier than him, quietly, unhurriedly, we’ll weep with reduction, shocked at how shallow a view of his mercy-rich coronary heart we had.
Notes:
- Thomas Goodwin, Exposition of Ephesians 2, in The Works of Thomas Goodwin, 12 vols. (repr., Grand Rapids, MI: Reformation Heritage, 2006), 2:179.
- Richard Sibbes, The Church’s Riches by Christ’s Poverty, in The Works of Richard Sibbes, ed. A. B. Grosart, 7 vols. (Edinburgh: Banner of Reality, 1983), 4:518.
This text is customized from The Heart of Jesus: How He Really Feels about You by Dane C. Ortlund.
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