BETTER THAN WE COULD HAVE IMAGINED
by Tim Thomas
November 6, 2005
Ephesian 2:4-7
Amplified Bible
4But God -- so rich is He in His mercy! Because of and in order to satisfy the great and wonderful and intense love with which He loved us,
5Even when we were dead (slain) by [our own] shortcomings and trespasses, He made us alive together in fellowship and in union with Christ; [He gave us the very life of Christ Himself, the same new life with which He quickened Him, for] it is by grace (His favor and mercy which you did not deserve) that you are saved ([1]delivered from judgment and made partakers of Christ's salvation).
6And He raised us up together with Him and made us sit down together [giving us [2]joint seating with Him] in the heavenly sphere [by virtue of our being] in Christ Jesus (the Messiah, the Anointed One).
7He did this that He might clearly demonstrate through the ages to come the immeasurable (limitless, surpassing) riches of His free grace (His unmerited favor) in [His] kindness and goodness of heart toward us in Christ Jesus.
________
1Joseph Thayer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament. 2H.A.W. Meyer, Commentary on the New Testament.
New International Version
4But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions -- it is by grace you have been saved. 6And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.
|
This passage contrasts the description of what we deserved to receive as enemies of God -- outlined in verses 1 to 3 -- to what we actually received. I love the way the Amplified Bible translates verse 4, which incidentally follows the original Greek word order very closely. It begins with the Apostle Paul interrupting himself with an expression of amazement: "But God -- so rich is He in His mercy!". It ends with the Apostle Paul telling us why God treated us ever so much better than we deserved: because He loved us so immensely! Why did God loves us so immensely? I think it must be true that if the answer to that question has anything to do with what we did or could potentially do for God, then it really isn't love, at least not deep and sincere love. If you love somebody for the things that they do for you, then love is conditional. If a person stops doing what you love them for, then you stop loving them. True love (the Bible uses the Greek word "agape" to describe this kind of love) is based on who the object of affection is (e.g., we are God's creation, created for intimate fellowship with Him; as a human example, note that we love our children simply because they are our children, not because they obey us or do things for us that we like), or because of the characteristics of the lover (God is love -- see 1 John 4:8,16 -- and His nature is to love).
Verse 5 goes on to clarify that it didn't matter how short we had fallen of His standards of holiness and righteousness, it was because God's love was so great for us that He implemented a plan to rescue us and put us in the place He desired most: in fellowship with Him. The Amplified Bible takes a bit of liberty here by saying "in fellowship and in union with" where the other translations simply say "in" or "with" -- and, in fact, that is all that is in the Greek. However, as we see where the Apostle Paul goes with this idea in verse 6, the Amplified Bible's expansion of the meaning of "in" or "with" seems quite satisfactory. What is important to grasp is that this "in Christ" or "with Christ" or "in fellowship and in union with Christ" is not in the future tense: our becoming united with Christ and being in fellowship with God the Father is something that we factually have as believers, though many of us do not know this reality experientially. Why don't we?
I think in many cases it's because we have been taught in church that God is too holy for us to draw close to. We place too much emphasis on our sinfulness and God's holiness, and we forget about God's desire for intimacy and relationship (Ephesians 3:12, Hebrews 10:22, Hebrews 4:16, James 4:8) and the fact that Jesus died so that we might be reconciled to God. In general, it is true that we only live out or experience what we believe is possible. We are in prisons made by our own beliefs. Now I'm not arguing that anything one chooses to believe is true, because people clearly can believe the strangest things that have no basis in truth. What I am saying is that we can miss a great deal in life by only believing some of the things that are true and not all of the things that are true.
Let me illustrate my point. Picture Truth as a big circle. Then picture the portion of truth that we believe as a little circle inside the big circle. If we focus only on our sinfulness and God's holiness, then we constrain our view of God to that little circle. But if we also more completely understand that God has overcome the gap in relationship caused by our sinfulness by providing a way of intimacy through faith in the finished work of Jesus on the cross and rising from the dead, then our circle gets bigger. I know my circle is not yet the size of the big circle of Truth, but I do hope to live in the biggest circle that I can which lies inside the boundaries of Truth.
Verse 5 ends by emphasizing that this act of uniting us with Christ and coming into intimacy with the Father is by grace. Grace means that we did not deserve it and did not earn it -- it is a free gift of the Giver. It is because of Him, not because of us.
If we found verse 5 amazing, verse 6 should really blow our minds: God has seated us in the heavenly sphere in Christ Jesus. Now when Jesus was seated in the heavenly sphere, he sat down at the right hand of God the Father. Sitting at the Father's right hand is the position of authority. Is the Apostle Paul suggesting that as we sit with Christ, we are actually sitting in a position of authority? It's an incredible idea to ponder. Clearly, Jesus and the apostles taught that we would receive whatever we ask in prayer (John 14:14; John 16:23; 1 John 3:22; 1 John 5:14). Yet none of us in actuality receive everything we ask for. Somehow verse 6 is key to understanding this principle.
I'm far from a "name it, claim it" type of person, and yet I do believe in the power of prayer and that God does intervene in our lives regularly. It seems this verse is saying that our position of Godly authority comes in union with Christ. It is not because we are Christians, per se, but because of our position in the heavenly realms in Christ. Our prayers are answered only when we are of one mind with Christ. While the Bible says we have the mind of Christ (1 Cor 2:16), it is also true that His mind has not replaced our own minds, and that we can think, act, and will independently of Christ. This would explain why a number of our prayers get answered with "no", and why the apostle James writes that at least one of the reasons our prayers go unanswered is that we pray for things that satisfy our fleshly desires, and do not have God's desires at heart (James 4:3).
It seems to me that even when we are not perfectly of one mind with Christ that one of the privileges of being in His presence is that we can speak out our concerns (Phil 4:6-7), and that even when we don't know what to pray, Jesus Himself can intercede on our behalf (Hebrews 7:25; the Spirit intercedes, as well -- see Romans 8:26-27), and meet our needs.
Verse 7 concludes this passage by stating that one of the purposes for showering us with such amazing blessings is so that God could demonstrate, presumably to human beings as well as spiritual beings -- both angels and demons -- in all ages to come, the magnificence of His kindness and goodness. This kindness is revealed by what what we have just discussed: how we did not deserve anything but wrath from God; how He provided a way to be reconciled to Him through faith in Christ; how it cost Jesus His very life to reconcile us; and the many remarkable privileges and blessings He has given us by coming into relationship with Him.
|