Ephesians 2:7&8--Your Perspective of God

Ephesians Study

Chapter 2

Amplified Bible:

Ephesians 2:7: He did this that He might clearly demonstrate through the ages to come the immeasurable (limitless, surpassing) riches of His free grace (His unmerited favor) in [His] kindness and goodness of heart toward us in Christ Jesus.

Ephesians 2:8:  For it is by free grace (God's unmerited favor) that you are saved (delivered from judgment and made partakers of Christ's salvation) through [your] faith. And this [salvation] is not of yourselves [of your own doing, it came not through your own striving], but it is the gift of God;

God demonstrates His love through the Savior through the ages to come.  He knew that just as those at the cross and those nearer the cross were going to need this demonstration of God’s love and free grace, we who are a long way from the cross, would need it, also.  It touches my heart that He chose Paul the persecutor to preach such a glorious message.  That does speak to all of our hearts right now because at some point, we all have persecuted.  

It says to me that He knows the ways of mankind.  He knew we would need this demonstration reminder through the ages to come.  He knew we would need to see and hear the story again and again of the surpassing riches of His  FREE grace in His kindness and goodness of heart toward us in Christ Jesus.  God’s kindness is shown in Christ the Lord.  

Can you imagine Paul coming face to face with the Lord?  Paul held the coats of those who stoned Stephen.  Paul took many lives in defense of what he thought was the correct way…the way to be defended.  Perhaps he was one who shouted “crucify him.”  This face to face encounter with the Lord showed him the goodness of the heart of God in the gift of the Son.  Have you ever been broken because of what you have done?  Like Peter when he denied the Lord, he saw what was in himself.  It was a life changing event for him.  He was so broken that he went back to fishing.  It took a resurrected Savior to get Peter back on track to do what he was called to do.  This was the dying to self of Peter.  Peter had his face to face when the Lord asked him three times (once for the three denials) “do you love me?”  Then the Lord told him to feed His sheep.  

Our journey from the Garden of Eden mirrors an experience of being deceived and tricked.  Verse 8 says that this gift of the Savior did not come by our own doing and striving.  What the evil one took away from us, the Savior has restored.  None of it had to do with us.  Some will object…we were disobedient.  I say that we were deceived.  There is a huge difference.  Ever since, mankind has either been in the works orientation of the Jew or the Gentile, and it gives us something about which to be proud. 

It is so easy to read these words and miss the love that is here.  I have done it for years.  Thinking that the knowing of facts and scripture is the same as KNOWING Him.  We can be committed to reading the Word and not be in love with the Lord of those words.  Is it something we do on our checklist or is it a pathway to loving and knowing Him?  Do we even want to KNOW Him if He is the mean and vengeful god that we are often taught in church?  The disparity between that god that we often have presented to us and this, the real God, is the difference between love and fear.

What is your perspective of God.  Is He the Father who is represented in the prodigal son’s story?  Is He the Father who is represented in the older brother’s story?  They each have a perspective of the Father which is incorrect.  The Father goes on being who He is…loving, compassionate, kind, forgiving, giving.  Paul, on the other hand, has accepted that in the flesh, he is unworthy (younger son).  In the spiritual new life that is his through the Lord, he received the robe, sandals, and ring from the  Father and goes in to the party.  It isn’t about us.  It is about the Father and Son.  No wonder Paul’s heart is overflowing with love as he shares a new perspective free of what he had been taught!