BY BRUCE GREEN
OPINION —
Paul starts our story at the cemetery. “You were dead” — not in ICU, not even on life support — we were dead. A dead person is powerless to change their situation. Before death we had choices, options and opportunities, but after death that was all over. We were spiritually dead and there wasn’t a thing we could do about it. We needed rescue!
We were dead due to our transgressions and sins (v. 1). Notice he says, “your transgressions and sins.” We weren’t spiritually dead because of what Adam or anyone else did. We weren’t this way because of our parents, our friends, or our enemies. We were dead because of what we did.
The good news is the story doesn’t end here. Paul points us to two powerful things—God’s “great” love and His “rich” mercy. That’s Paul’s way of saying our Father doesn’t dabble in these things—they are who He is. And because He is this way, “He made us alive in Christ even when we were dead in trans-gressions” (v. 5). He brought something that was dead back to life!
Paul is not really talking about our coming to God as much as He is talking about God’s coming to us. That’s why He concludes by noting that “it is by grace you have been saved” (v. 5). The acronym for grace (God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense) works well here as long as it doesn’t cause us to overlook God’s own suffering in the giving of His Son. Paul goes on to note not just our “being raised up with Christ,” but also being seated “with Him in the heavenly realms” (v. 6). Again, this is not about Jesus being with us down here on earth but us being with Jesus in heaven. This is the grace and glory of salvation Paul wants us to see.
But Paul doesn’t stop here and it’s important we don’t either. God cherishes the entire world—not just us. The idea that “God loves everyone, but I’m His favorite” is an idea that did not come from God. Paul tells us that we’ve been saved “in order that in the coming ages He might show the incomparable riches of His grace” (v. 7). He desires to exhibit this grace as “expressed in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus” to the world. The cross is exhibit A. The church is exhibit B.
This means we live as people of the cross. We are to treat others graciously—even when they don’t deserve it because that’s how God in Christ has treated us. As we do so, we are pointing people to God and the incomparable riches of His grace as well as fulfilling God’s purpose in our lives.
Remember, a life without cause is a life without effect!
Find more of Green’s writings at his website: a-taste-of-grace-with-bruce-green.com.