KJV Ephesians 2:4 “But God, Who is rich in mercy”
NASB Ephesians 2:4 “But God, being rich in mercy”
KJV Ephesians 2:13 “But now”
NASB Ephesians 2:13 “But now”
Human nature, being what it is, is prone to either exaggeration or minimalization. There are times when, however, we cannot overvalue something. We are confronted with that reality when we come to the two significant conjunctions in Ephesians 2.
It would be difficult to imagine a smaller word having such monumental consequences, altering our lives and our eternities. Into our darkness has been interjected a divine “but.” Darkness gives way to light. Into our hopeless and desperate condition has come, not a ray of hope, but the blazing light of God’s mercy. Despair has yielded to sure and perfect hope; alienation to family ties.
The first “but” answers to our deadness and danger; the second answers to our distance.
In the first, we are taken from an enemy status, disobedience, deadness, and bondage, and brought into the realm of life where there is forgiveness, redemption, and blessings unnumbered. In the second instance, we are translated from a hopeless, helpless, and hostile condition and ushered into the very presence of God. As well, the hostility between Jew and Gentile has been abolished, and we are now “One new Man.”
In the first instance, everything is attributed to the character of our God. He is rich in mercy; He has great love for us, and He has exceeding riches of grace and kindness. Everything is in the superlative. Our God only operates in the realm of the unmeasured and unimagined. He has taken sinners and made us saints. He has taken rebels and made us reverent worshipers.
The second mention of “but” is the source and basis of change. All is now resting and dependent on the Lord Jesus. It is now “in Christ Jesus, and “in His flesh,” and “by the cross.” To complete the Trinitarian Godhead, the Spirit of God is seen in the final verses of the chapter (vv 21, 22).
We can only stand back in adoring worship at the wisdom and ways of God. Everything rests on the character of God and the Cross of Christ.
Think as well of the eternity promised here. One in which we will have an eternal revelation of the “riches of His grace in His kindness toward us.” One in which we will be eternally the citizens of a city, the household of God (v 19).
Read it here: President Trump Wants to Get to Heaven
Consider
Go back over chapter 1 and note the blessings that come by the use of the small expressions, “in Whom” or “In Him.”