"But 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, (by grace ye are saved;)." (Ephesians 2:4-5)

For two one-syllable words, the opening words of this passage speak endless volumes of truth. Before they appear, there is nothing but wrath and death. Then suddenly, there is rich mercy, and great love, and grace, and salvation, and eternal life! The difference is God!

The world before God intervened was dead in trespasses and sins and completely helpless. Instead of the "universal fatherhood of God," all men were "children of disobedience" and "children of wrath" (vv. 2-3), living "according to the course of this world" and "according to the prince of the power of the air" (that is, the devil) (v. 2).

But God! Note that the word does not say "But man." Salvation is all of God and all of grace. It is God, and God alone, who "hath quickened" those who were "dead in sins." Instead of walking according to the course of this world, He has made us "sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (v. 6). It is not humanistic works by which we are saved, but by "the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus" (v. 7).

All of this has been made possible by an even greater divine intervention: "And when they had fulfilled all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree, and laid him in a sepulchre. But God|!| raised him from the dead" (Acts 13:29-30). Jesus Christ, who rose victorious over sin and death and Satan, "is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him" (Hebrews 7:25). Because He has done all this, we can enjoy throughout "the ages to come . . . the exceeding riches of his grace" (Ephesians 2:7). HMM