"In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace." (Ephesians 1:7)

The attributes of God are characterized by the "riches of His grace." This amazing grace led Him to shed His blood as the price of our redemption.

No wonder men have developed the familiar acrostic for GRACE--"God’s Riches at Christ’s Expense." "For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich" (2 Corinthians 8:9).

Paul seems again and again to try to find descriptions for these riches. To the Romans he wrote of "the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering" (Romans 2:4) and of His plan to "make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of |his| mercy" (Romans 9:23). Speaking of God’s mercy, he exclaims, "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!" (Romans 11:33).

The inexhaustibility of these infinite depths of grace and mercy led Paul to call these attributes "the unsearchable riches of Christ" (Ephesians 3:8). Desiring that all believers might learn to appreciate the tremendous future they have in Christ, he prayed that "the eyes of your understanding being enlightened," somehow we might come to appreciate even now "the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints" (Ephesians 1:18).

Yet, marvelously rich and full though His grace is now, there is much more to come. "God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, . . . That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2:4-5, 7). HMM