Ephesians 2:4-10 is a wonderful passage; listen to what they say about God, and what they say about His children as I read them?

4 But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5made us alive together with Christ even when we were dead in trespasses, it is by grace you have been saved, 6 and God raised us up with Christ, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that that in the coming ages He might show the incomparable riches of His grace, expressed in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith, and this not from yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not by works, so that no-one should boast. 10 For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Here are a few wonderful truths from these verses:

  • God is rich in mercy.
  • God loved us even before we became believers.
  • God makes us alive with Christ!
  • God saves us by His grace, alone!
  • As children of Christ, we sit with Him in the heavenly places!
  • God will continue to show us the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
  • Our salvation is not of ourselves, but it is a gift of His grace to us.
  • We are God's workmanship.
  • We are created in Christ for our good works.
  • God even prepared our good works beforehand that we should walk in them.

Aren’t these beautiful treasures that we find in these seven short verses.

How do we who are the weak things of this world do it to shame the wise.? By God's grace alone. He loved while we were still unconverted, saved us by His grace alone, and has prepared us for the good works He has already ordained that we would do!
As believers we are alive in Christ! That is something I will never understand, but I am so very grateful for our wonderful, wise, and holy God who sent our Lord Jesus Christ to save a people for Himself!

How can I help but love Him, when He loves me so?

The word grace has been much on my heart lately

Grace is God’s generous favour to undeserving sinners and needy saints. Grace is God's free and undeserved blessings. The grace of God is the expression of God's goodness toward the undeserving.

In salvation, men who deserve hell obtain heaven because of grace that flows from the Cross.

Paul in 1 Corinthians 1:18 reminds us “For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”

This provision of heaven instead of hell cannot be explained apart from free, albeit costly grace. Grace is a gift that costs everything to the Giver and nothing to the receiver

It is given to people who don’t deserve it, barely recognize it, and hardly appreciate it. Paul is teaching in this passage that every conversion is a living supernatural example of God’s supernatural grace! Hallelujah!

Blaise Pascal puts it like this: "To make a man a saint, grace is absolutely necessary and whoever doubts it, does not know what a saint is or what a man is."

People in both the Old and New Testaments have always been saved the same way, by grace through faith. God does not have two ways of saving sinners; one by keeping the law and the other by grace, but always and ever by amazing grace that saved a wretch like me.

The first mention of "grace" is found in Genesis 6:8 where Moses says that Noah found favour (grace) in the eyes of the LORD.

Grace is the ultimate ground of salvation, Paul in 2 Timothy 1:9 says that God saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity"

Charles Spurgeon in his book "All of Grace" said - "Because God is gracious, therefore sinful men are forgiven, converted, purified and saved. It is not because of anything in them, or that ever can be in them, that they are saved; but because of the boundless love, goodness, pity, compassion, mercy and grace of God."

The infinitely high price of our redemption was paid for by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich

Grace starts with God, continues with God, and ends with God. Anything we do is in response to what God has first done for us. It follows that even after salvation by grace through faith, we remain forever debtors to and dependent upon God's all sufficient grace.

Every gift should be given unconditionally and sacrificially. It always costs the giver something. A gift is given for the benefit of the receiver of the gift, to bring joy and happiness to him or her.

Salvation is a gift, not a reward for our labours. If we could earn it, it would be what is owed us and not a gift. We are saved by the grace of God, period.

It is God’s invitation for us to be embraced in His love. It is God reaching out to us inviting us to enjoy the blessings of living in fellowship with Him. He gave His very life so that we can have eternal life. All we have to do is to accept His gift and enjoy it to the fullest.

Brothers and sisters, consider the cost of God’s gift of salvation. He sent Jesus to earth to die for our sins.

For the only time in eternity, God and His Son weren’t in communion together. On the cross, God the Father had to turn His back on the Lord Jesus and not look at Him because He had our sins on Him.

The Lord Jesus suffered not only the horrific agony of dying on the Roman cross, He tasted the horrific guilt and shame of our sins, even though He Himself had never sinned. Salvation is the most precious gift man could ever receive. Don’t you want to shout out and continually be saying “What a love, what a cost, Thank You Lord for the cross and this amazing gift You gave. What a MIGHTY GOD we serve!

If you have not yet done so, please accept God’s free gift of salvation. He does not withhold His gift from anyone who wants it.

To my fellow believer, we have so much to be grateful for, ask the Lord to help us to live each day in gratitude for His great gift to us. To help us to live a life that pleases Him and that brings all honour and glory and praise to Him and to live so that others may see His light shining brightly in you and me.

Prayer: Gracious Father God, we thank you for your free gift of love. May we always appreciate its value, and what it cost you, through Jesus Christ our Saviour. Thank You Lord for what You did at Calvary by taking upon Yourself the guilt and penalty of human sin. Thank you, generous Father, for the gift of grace, the gift of faith, the gift of salvation, and most of all, the gift of our Lord Jesus. We can never repay these gifts, but we look forward to saying "Thank you!" through our lifestyles now and we look forward to continuing to say "Thank you!" through all eternity. Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found. All to Jesus I surrender! Thank You Lord Jesus for Your amazing grace. Amen.

Much love and blessings in Christ Jesus from Maurice and Margaret.