Ephesians 2:4-7
Why God Loves Us
Why does God love you? Have you ever thought about that? Why does God love you? Why would He?
If you remember our passage from last week we saw how unlovable we really are. We’re sinners. We sin. And because of this we deserve God’s wrath.
And then there is the great word in Scritpure “But” – B-U-T. But God. SO often the failure and corruption of our species is described only to be followed by But. I color words like “But” in orange. When I look at my Bible and see a word colored orange it indicates to me a comparison. The things the Bible says before that word are compared to the things being said after.
Just notice our passage for instance. Verse 3 ends with “Like the rest we were by nature objects of wrath.” We deserved God’s wrath. We had it coming. And immediately in verse 4 Paul says “But”! Verses 1-3 are like the darkness of our evil but verse 4 bursts the light of the glory of God with it’s wonderful message to lost sinners.
We didn’t love God first so that He said, “Oh! You love Me? Wow, I want to love you too then!” The only reason anyone ever loved God is because God loved them first.
Love is agape love. It is love that brings the highest benefit to another, even at the cost of self. Kenneth Wuest says it this way: “The distinctive love here is agape which speaks of a love called out of one’s heart by the preciousness of the one loved, a love that impels one to sacrifice one’s self for the benefit of the object loved. It is the love shown at Calvary (John 3:16).”
This is the kind of love that does not consider the worthiness of the object it is given to. In other words, it is not whether I think they deserve it or not that determines whether I act for their own good. It is the love that comes from a heart that finds them so valuable that I will give with great cost to myself so that they are better off.
This is the love that Christ has given us. God gives love to us but we did not deserve love. He came to us to bring the highest benefit to us when He was getting no benefit from us. Verses 1-3 are how we treat God – terrible – and verse 4 is how God treats us in response – tremendous.
Apply this to your life. When we don’t get what we want from people, or, they don’t meet our expectations of what they should be, we cut them off from our love. We scale back and withhold. When people act like verses 1-3 you treat them like verses 4-6. Don’t choke off you love. Don’t stop loving. Don’t stop extending the benefit of your love to the other person. Nothing will need this more than marriage. When your expectations go unmet and you’re not getting what you think you deserve (reasonably or unreasonably), have “great love” and be “rich in mercy”.
Let’s look today at some of the reasons why God loves us.
To Show Us His Mercy (v4)
First God loves us to show us His mercy. Verse 4 says “But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy”. God is a merciful God. He has had mercy on me and He has had mercy on you. He is rich in mercy! He has enough riches of mercy to cover the great debt of your sin and mine. J. Vernon McGee tells a story,
“A poor woman from the slums of London was invited to go with a group of people for a holiday at the ocean. She had never seen the ocean before, and when she saw it, she burst into tears. Those around her thought it was strange that she should cry when such a lovely holiday had been given to her. They asked her, ‘Why in the world are you crying?’ Pointing to the ocean she answered, ‘This is the only thing I have ever seen that there was enough of’”
God has an ocean of mercy. There is enough of it because He is rich with it.
Mercy has to do with justice. Psalm 103:10 helps to explain God’s mercy when it says, “He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities”. That is mercy – to not get the punishment we deserve. To give us wrath for our sins is justice, but, to spare us from His wrath is mercy. And His mercy comes from His great love for us.
Last week we said that it is impossible to understand the love of God apart from the wrath of God. Probably no other place is it more clear than when it comes to our Lord and His mercy. Justice condemns but mercy spares.
If we ignore justice we have no basis for mercy. In other words, if we ignore the reality of our guilt before God and that it is necessary I die for my sins, then what context is there to talk about His mercy? Paul is saying that we were guilty of sin and destined for God’s wrath which meant our ruin. But, instead of bringing His wrath, God showed mercy and spared us our being ruined under His wrath.
Mercy is the great “instead” of God. Instead of wrath, He brought mercy.
My brothers and sisters, mercy did not come without great cost. God was able to do this because of the cross of His Son. Someone has said this about the need to see the justice of God with His love:
“When we see our sins we will also see that we are accountable to God and that the payment for our trespasses are too great. Now, it is here, at the point when we see that the payment is too great for us, that we will be in a position to finally see the great love God has for us. This is because it is at this point we can see how much has been forgiven us. We can see it also in how great the price was that He paid in giving His own priceless Son to make the payment for our trespasses. His plan to pardon us from our sins and remove our guilt revolves around the most valuable person in existence. His Son, Jesus Christ, was given over to suffer for us on the cross and be our substitute so that we would not perish for our sins. That is love. Plain and simple.
In the cross of Jesus Christ the integrity of God's holy justice was expressed, and, the integrity of His love for us was expressed. In Jesus Christ's death on the cross, the demand of His holy justice was met, and, in the cross the demand of His holy love was also met.”
The justice of God is demanding because of verses 1-3 but the love of God is also demanding. Both demands are met perfectly on the cross. Mercy flows out now from the cross. We poor sinners are spared God’s wrath and lavished with His grace and kindness and blessings. God loves us so that He might show us mercy.
Furthermore, because of His great love for us, God saves us. In our sin we were dead but in Christ God has made us alive.
To Show Himself Off through Us (v6-7)
Then notice that He loves us in order to show Himself off through us. Verses 6-7 say, “And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly relams in Christ Jesus in order that in the coming ages He might show the incomparable riches of His grace, expressed in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus.”
Everything God has done and is going to do is ultimately for His own glory. We are raised to life for His glory. We are seated with Christ for His glory. And we will be shown off as trophies of His grace and kindness for all to see for all time.
Notice the correlation with what God has done physically with Christ and what He has done to us spiritually. In 1:20 Paul says that God raised Christ physically from the dead. In 2:5 Paul says God made us alive when we were dead spiritually. In 1:20 Paul says God seated Christ in the heavenly realms. In 2:6 God has seated us with Christ in the heavenly realms.
God has done in Christ what He has done in us. Have you been raised to life? Have you been given eternal life? Jesus said in John 11:25-26, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies. And whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” Have you believed this? Have you believed in Jesus to receive the forgiveness of your sins and to be made alive in His name?
All of this is for what is coming though. God is going to show off His grace towards us.
Conclusion
Let’s make a few application points to close with today:
In applying this to our own lives, we ought to apply this principle. We demonstrate great love when we forgive great sins. Such love and such forgiveness only become possible for us to give when we ourselves see that it was God Who loved us so greatly in the first place.”
Why God Loves Us
Why does God love you? Have you ever thought about that? Why does God love you? Why would He?
If you remember our passage from last week we saw how unlovable we really are. We’re sinners. We sin. And because of this we deserve God’s wrath.
And then there is the great word in Scritpure “But” – B-U-T. But God. SO often the failure and corruption of our species is described only to be followed by But. I color words like “But” in orange. When I look at my Bible and see a word colored orange it indicates to me a comparison. The things the Bible says before that word are compared to the things being said after.
Just notice our passage for instance. Verse 3 ends with “Like the rest we were by nature objects of wrath.” We deserved God’s wrath. We had it coming. And immediately in verse 4 Paul says “But”! Verses 1-3 are like the darkness of our evil but verse 4 bursts the light of the glory of God with it’s wonderful message to lost sinners.
We didn’t love God first so that He said, “Oh! You love Me? Wow, I want to love you too then!” The only reason anyone ever loved God is because God loved them first.
Love is agape love. It is love that brings the highest benefit to another, even at the cost of self. Kenneth Wuest says it this way: “The distinctive love here is agape which speaks of a love called out of one’s heart by the preciousness of the one loved, a love that impels one to sacrifice one’s self for the benefit of the object loved. It is the love shown at Calvary (John 3:16).”
This is the kind of love that does not consider the worthiness of the object it is given to. In other words, it is not whether I think they deserve it or not that determines whether I act for their own good. It is the love that comes from a heart that finds them so valuable that I will give with great cost to myself so that they are better off.
This is the love that Christ has given us. God gives love to us but we did not deserve love. He came to us to bring the highest benefit to us when He was getting no benefit from us. Verses 1-3 are how we treat God – terrible – and verse 4 is how God treats us in response – tremendous.
Apply this to your life. When we don’t get what we want from people, or, they don’t meet our expectations of what they should be, we cut them off from our love. We scale back and withhold. When people act like verses 1-3 you treat them like verses 4-6. Don’t choke off you love. Don’t stop loving. Don’t stop extending the benefit of your love to the other person. Nothing will need this more than marriage. When your expectations go unmet and you’re not getting what you think you deserve (reasonably or unreasonably), have “great love” and be “rich in mercy”.
Let’s look today at some of the reasons why God loves us.
To Show Us His Mercy (v4)
First God loves us to show us His mercy. Verse 4 says “But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy”. God is a merciful God. He has had mercy on me and He has had mercy on you. He is rich in mercy! He has enough riches of mercy to cover the great debt of your sin and mine. J. Vernon McGee tells a story,
“A poor woman from the slums of London was invited to go with a group of people for a holiday at the ocean. She had never seen the ocean before, and when she saw it, she burst into tears. Those around her thought it was strange that she should cry when such a lovely holiday had been given to her. They asked her, ‘Why in the world are you crying?’ Pointing to the ocean she answered, ‘This is the only thing I have ever seen that there was enough of’”
God has an ocean of mercy. There is enough of it because He is rich with it.
Mercy has to do with justice. Psalm 103:10 helps to explain God’s mercy when it says, “He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities”. That is mercy – to not get the punishment we deserve. To give us wrath for our sins is justice, but, to spare us from His wrath is mercy. And His mercy comes from His great love for us.
Last week we said that it is impossible to understand the love of God apart from the wrath of God. Probably no other place is it more clear than when it comes to our Lord and His mercy. Justice condemns but mercy spares.
If we ignore justice we have no basis for mercy. In other words, if we ignore the reality of our guilt before God and that it is necessary I die for my sins, then what context is there to talk about His mercy? Paul is saying that we were guilty of sin and destined for God’s wrath which meant our ruin. But, instead of bringing His wrath, God showed mercy and spared us our being ruined under His wrath.
Mercy is the great “instead” of God. Instead of wrath, He brought mercy.
My brothers and sisters, mercy did not come without great cost. God was able to do this because of the cross of His Son. Someone has said this about the need to see the justice of God with His love:
“When we see our sins we will also see that we are accountable to God and that the payment for our trespasses are too great. Now, it is here, at the point when we see that the payment is too great for us, that we will be in a position to finally see the great love God has for us. This is because it is at this point we can see how much has been forgiven us. We can see it also in how great the price was that He paid in giving His own priceless Son to make the payment for our trespasses. His plan to pardon us from our sins and remove our guilt revolves around the most valuable person in existence. His Son, Jesus Christ, was given over to suffer for us on the cross and be our substitute so that we would not perish for our sins. That is love. Plain and simple.
In the cross of Jesus Christ the integrity of God's holy justice was expressed, and, the integrity of His love for us was expressed. In Jesus Christ's death on the cross, the demand of His holy justice was met, and, in the cross the demand of His holy love was also met.”
The justice of God is demanding because of verses 1-3 but the love of God is also demanding. Both demands are met perfectly on the cross. Mercy flows out now from the cross. We poor sinners are spared God’s wrath and lavished with His grace and kindness and blessings. God loves us so that He might show us mercy.
Furthermore, because of His great love for us, God saves us. In our sin we were dead but in Christ God has made us alive.
To Show Himself Off through Us (v6-7)
Then notice that He loves us in order to show Himself off through us. Verses 6-7 say, “And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly relams in Christ Jesus in order that in the coming ages He might show the incomparable riches of His grace, expressed in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus.”
Everything God has done and is going to do is ultimately for His own glory. We are raised to life for His glory. We are seated with Christ for His glory. And we will be shown off as trophies of His grace and kindness for all to see for all time.
Notice the correlation with what God has done physically with Christ and what He has done to us spiritually. In 1:20 Paul says that God raised Christ physically from the dead. In 2:5 Paul says God made us alive when we were dead spiritually. In 1:20 Paul says God seated Christ in the heavenly realms. In 2:6 God has seated us with Christ in the heavenly realms.
God has done in Christ what He has done in us. Have you been raised to life? Have you been given eternal life? Jesus said in John 11:25-26, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies. And whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” Have you believed this? Have you believed in Jesus to receive the forgiveness of your sins and to be made alive in His name?
All of this is for what is coming though. God is going to show off His grace towards us.
Conclusion
Let’s make a few application points to close with today:
In applying this to our own lives, we ought to apply this principle. We demonstrate great love when we forgive great sins. Such love and such forgiveness only become possible for us to give when we ourselves see that it was God Who loved us so greatly in the first place.”
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