Celebrating Grace

What is the Big Purpose of this Merciful Rescue?

Eph 2.6,7 God raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

God’s grace is magnificent. God loves us to the degree that he wants us to understand and experience the full extent of his grace. Grace is not something you can experience as a spectator. Only when you have felt and tasted the wrath that your sinful self calls down justly upon yourself, can you celebrate with highest joy the grace that lifts you up into heavenly places in Christ.

[This goes some way to helping us understand why God permitted rebellion to enter his creation in the first place. Without forgiven rebels there is no understanding of his grace. ]

God has prepared coming ages – never-ending ages – of thrills, delights, beauty, tenderness and glory to show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. He draws us in to the relationship enjoyed by Father, Son and Spirit.

1 Corinthians 2.9 "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him."

God will show the ‘incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus’. We will never again disconnect the pleasures and blessings of God from their source. All that God shows us and lavishes on us will increase our love and worship of Jesus Christ as LORD. We will ever and always celebrate the gift of God’s grace which saved us. We will ever and always boast in Jesus Christ and never in our own efforts – not even our in our faith which we now know to be a gift from God.

God's Rescue Mission

God’s rescue mission is the evidence of his saving grace. Eph 2.1-10

God is fierce in his determination to eliminate evil, but he is also rich in mercy. God is gracious. Grace is his blessing lavished on those who not only don’t deserve it -but who actually deserve wrath.

All humankind is powerless to save itself. None of us can reignite our spiritual spark as we are thoroughly soaked in sin and death. Grace only can rescue us. By grace you have been saved (v.6).

God has pity on us. He brings us to life. Who is ‘us’? It clearly isn’t everyone without distinction. Paul is writing to the members of Christ’s body, the Church. He is writing to people who have already experienced this mercy that brings a person from death to life. No one should assume that this is just a blanket blessing for everyone, or even for those who have been brought up in a Christian setting. The ‘us’ Paul is referring to are people who were spiritually dead, but are now spiritually alive and are living completely different lives to their old ones. You WERE dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you USED TO LIVE when you followed the ways of the world (2.1). There is nothing general or ill-defined here. Those with Christ’s new life in them behave differently. None who still follow the ways of the world should deceive themselves into thinking that they are included (yet, anyway) among the ‘us’ who have been brought from spiritual deadness to life.

That new life is firmly tied to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. What Jesus did makes new life possible. His resurrection is the means God used to liberate us from his wrath change our nature to one he could bless. At the cross Jesus Christ deliberately took on death and in it received the wrath of God against the sins of those who share his death by trusting him. God confirmed that Christ’ death satisfied his wrath by raising him from the dead. And he not only raised Christ up into heavenly places again, but raises us (whose faith is in him) up too.

4 God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

To be in ‘seated in heavenly places’ with Christ, means that we have are no longer under his wrath – he accepts us in his presence. It also means that we are now connected spiritually with God through Christ. We live in two worlds: the material world and ‘heavenly places’ (the spiritual world). Paul expanded on this to the Colossians:

Colossians 3:1 If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

He goes on to speak about the remarkable and total changes in our behaviour that will result as we strip off our old ways and put on the new life that we receive daily from Christ.

Escaping Wrath

The Extreme Danger of Our Nature Ephesians 2.1-10
There is extreme and terrible danger in just being who we are naturally! It is not something we fall into. It expresses itself because of who we are. In verse 3, Paul describes the position that a nature like ours puts us in before God: by nature, objects of wrath.

Our default condition – the way we are by birth, even before we establish a track record of misbehaviour – demands God’s wrath. We are by nature, objects of God’s wrath. Our ingrained evil demands a response from God. He cannot contradict his own pure self by ignoring evil. Just as light cannot make a deal with darkness (the dark must be vanquished in the presence of the light) so God cannot compromise with evil. Our sinful nature – who we are at our essence – demands a confrontation with righteousness. And it cannot win. 2 Corinthians 6.14,15 For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial (Satan)?

If we expect, or even demand, that God should turn a blind eye to our sin, we have just proved that we are horribly ignorant of his character. We are asking God to change himself to accommodate our weakness. We have not understood that who we are by nature is why we are objects of his wrath.
An object is the goal or focus of something. In this case, that thing is God’s wrath and we are the objects it is aimed and focused at, because of our sinful nature. Our sinful nature demands God’s wrath. The wrath of God is not a fit of temper or uncontrolled outrage. God is never out of control and nothing catches him unawares, so he is never frustrated or vindictive. Wrath describes his actions to punish and eliminate evil. Wrath is the asserting of his righteousness over evil. God makes war on evil wherever it is found.

Romans 1.18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
Romans 2.5 But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed.
John 3.36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

For a person to escape the wrath of God which is aimed and focused on our sinful nature – our nature must undergo a change. This is what Jesus describes as new birth. We must be made spiritually alive so that we can respond willingly and righteously to God.