Ephesians: Redemption...the Riches of His Grace

Ephesians 1:7&8:  “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.  VS. 8: which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and grace.”

To me, it just keeps getting more amazing!  I do not know if I have new eyes or if I have always overlooked the magnificence of these scriptures.  In these two verses alone you have the plan of redemption.   You have the Savior sitting on the hillside giving the Beatitudes.  You have the power in the blood of Messiah.  All that we have comes as a consequence of the riches of His grace.  

Now, do we get it that it is God’s initiative that does all this?  The riches of HIs grace,,,doesn’t that just amaze you?  I forget that the old, old story was not old when Paul was telling it to the Ephesians and others.  Truly, it was as if God had poured out His richness…the riches of Heaven.  It may have seemed too good to be true.  It is funny how we have a way of putting ourselves as the center of attention when the center is the Messiah.  

I wonder if the children of Israel ever got the message when they beheld the sanctuary service which modeled all of this richness?  I wonder if we hear the message when we sit in church?  Are we too taken in with projects, processes, and power?  Has our identity in Him become lost to our identity in everything else?  Is the richness of Heaven missed on us?  The extreme of doing overtaking the essence of being the recipient of all this grace.  

He gave us redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins…according to the riches of His grace which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and grace.  There is no poverty mentality here!!  We can honestly say that we have everything that we need this moment in time.  Redemption is the riches of His grace!  His blood…redemption…His richness…in all wisdom and grace.  It is all from Him and His storehouse of richness, wisdom and grace.  We can take NO credit for it.  And He knows us so well that He knows if we could we would.  Rather than seeing something wrong with us, He sees a child needing help.  

There is so much more here than human words can tell.  We are given hints at God’s fulness.  We are given hints at His wisdom and grace.  Then we turn it into a self thing!  We have done this trying to deserve something.  Deserving is not the issue.  When I started this section on Ephesians, I could say (and did) that I love Bible study, and now I say with much enthusiasm that I love the Lord.  I stand amazed at what He has done for us and given us…fractured the Godhead and poured out Himself in the form of a man.  Praise God!