THE GIFT OF “BUT GOD”

“As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions -- it is by grace you have been saved.”  (Ephesians 2:1–5 NIV)

The good news is that we are not just changed, but we are forever changed!... The transformation that God is capable of doing in your life and mine is radical and it is eternal. When we make our lives an altar and choose each day to surrender, we will forever be changed.

Paul is quite direct with his words in this letter. He tells the believers that they, like him, were deserving of wrath. That’s the nature of humanity. We were sinners and we are sinners. But God. That can stand as a powerful sentence on its own. But God did not leave us as sinners to receive the punishment we deserved. But God did not turn His back on us. But God who is rich in mercy, perhaps better translated as abounding in mercy, saved us. And this is a mercy that meets us again and again as we surrender through confession and obedience to God…

What does Paul say God does because of His mercy? He makes us alive with Christ. The beauty of being alive, just like God’s mercy, is that we can experience this daily. In another of Paul’s letters he calls it walking “in newness of life” (Romans 6:4 CEB). And all of this comes as the gift of grace we have received because Jesus surrendered His life on a cross for us. It is the only reason we can be forever changed… Rest in the “but God” that has changed us from being dead in our transgressions to alive with Christ. 

-- Susan O. Kent in “Altar’d: The Transforming Power of Surrender”

#6070

BUT GOD

“But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions -- it is by grace you have been saved... through faith.”  (Ephesians 2:4,5,8a NIV)

I confess that I am an unreconstructed optimist. Not a naïve one; I’ve lived too long for that, long enough to have experienced a resounding case of pessimism. I have vivid memories of the Great Depression, and I’ve lived through several wars and those international anomalies that we call police actions. I’ve watched what has seemed to me to be a rather steady decline in both public and private morals and a growing confusion about ethics. And of course, I’ve watched the increasing prevalence of both evil and inanity (sometimes they’re synonymous) on television and the Internet.

But, there is God. And because there is God, there is goodness. I profoundly believe that God is at work in our world and that our planet has not yet been written off as a lost cause. History seems to tell me that though our human race appears so often to dedicate itself to its own destruction [see Ephesians 2:1-3], God is always at work -- usually, I think, behind the scenes. And because of God, faith, love, and goodness keep being reborn.

-- J. Ellsworth Kalas in “Life from the Upside: Seeing God at Work in the World”


#4619