Ephesians 2:4–6
“But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”
If you take a photograph of people from different nations, every photo will be unique—different colors, features, and body shapes. However, if you take an X-ray or an MRI of those same people, they will look exactly the same. In the same way, while we may look different on the outside—some appearing “good” and others not so good—if we were to take a spiritual MRI of every man’s soul, it would perfectly match the W.O.R.S.T. condition described in Ephesians 2:1–3.
Imagine if you had to listen to a sermon about that “worst condition” for the rest of your life. That would have been my message today, were it not for two glorious words: “But God.” What a relief it is to turn from our miserable state to the world of “But God.” This is a new world, and it appears bright and glorious only to those who have first felt the pain and horror of the world described in verses 1 through 3. Verse 1 begins with “You were,” but verse 4 begins with “But God.” These two phrases contain the full weight of the Gospel.
I do not know how many of you have truly seen yourselves in that dark picture, but whether you realize it or not, verses 1–3 describe you. Only when you recognize that reality will you be able to see the beautiful world Paul opens with those two words: BUT GOD. Verses 4 through 10 are a spiritual MRI of the sinners whom God saves. If you do not see yourself in this passage and find yourself filled with overflowing gratitude, it would have been better for you never to have been born.
As believers, we should approach this study with total gratitude and wonder. Whatever spiritual life you possess today was given to you by God; it was not yours by nature. If you know and love God today, remember that you were once dead to Him and hated Him. If you are not fully following the world today, it is because of “But God.” If you have hope for eternal heaven, if you are no longer controlled by Satan, and if you are no longer walking in the lusts of the flesh, it is only because of “But God.” Today, you are not children of wrath but children of inheritance because those two words completely turned the scene.
Just as we grasped verses 1–3 with the word W.O.R.S.T., we will grasp verses 4–10 with the word B.E.S.T.: Benefactor, Enablers, System, and Target. We have already seen the Benefactor—the author of this change is God Himself. Today, we move to the Enablers that moved Him to act.
When we realize God is the Author of this change, we must ask: Why? God was the person most wronged by our condition. Created in His image, we insulted Him more than any other creature. We rightly deserved His eternal wrath. God could have gathered us like dead junk and thrown us into hell with Satan, and He would have lost nothing. Why should God be concerned with turning His own just wrath away from a dead creature? What moved Him? What “enablers” within His character made Him do this?
The answer is found in verse 4: “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us…”
These are the two great enablers: Mercy and Love. These are the prime moving causes of our transformation and the most celebrated attributes of God in Scripture. To celebrate them properly, let us examine them using three headings: Meaning, Nature, and Contrast/Connection (M.N.C.).
1. The Meaning of Mercy and Love
First, what is the meaning of Mercy? Mercy is an essential and unavoidable attribute of God. When God revealed His glory to Moses in Exodus 34:6, the first thing He proclaimed was that He is “merciful and gracious.” Moses could not behold God’s glory without first seeing the outshining of His mercy. God is called the “Father of mercies” (2 Corinthians 1:3), the very source from whom all mercy flows.
The word “mercy” implies someone is in misery. It is shown to those in distress and pain. This attribute gives God the ability to feel the misery of His creatures so deeply that He is moved to act. We may pity someone and do nothing, but God’s mercy is pity joined to the appropriate action that brings deliverance. It is compassion in motion.
We see this perfectly in God’s Son. In the Gospels, when a blind beggar cries out, “Son of David, have mercy on me,” he isn’t just asking for pity; he is asking for sight. He is saying, “Exercise pity through the action my condition requires.” Jesus did exactly that. He didn’t just feel for the man; He performed the impossible miracle of giving him sight. That is the essence of mercy: pity joined to action appropriate to the need.
Love, the second word, is also an essential attribute. In fact, it is His very essence, for “God is love.” You cannot reverse that statement; love is not God, but God is love. Defining love is like trying to dissect the sun. You understand the sun far better by what it does—its light and warmth—than by analyzing its naked essence. Similarly, the love of God is known by what it does. Romans 5:8 says God demonstrates His love in that Christ died for us. 1 Corinthians 13 defines love not conceptually, but functionally—by what it does and does not do.
2. The Nature of Mercy and Love
Notice that God was not just merciful to us; He was “rich in mercy.” This is a wealth, a superabundance, an over-measure of mercy. Paul loves the word “riches.” He speaks of the riches of grace, the riches of glory, and the unsearchable riches of Christ.
Why “rich” mercy? Because we were so utterly poor. We needed a wealth of mercy to raise us from the dead. We were the most pitiable group imaginable: dead, slaves to the world, and captives of the Devil. Legally, we were the worst criminals in heaven’s court. We deserved wrath, yet mercy is “not receiving what one deserves.” God didn’t just withhold punishment; He forgave, justified, and adopted us. This is truly rich mercy.
The sweetest phrase in verse 4 is “to us.” God was rich in mercy specifically toward you and me. This is a sovereign mercy. God said, “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy.” He might have shown a “common” mercy to others by giving them health or a good family, but His richest mercy is reserved for those He raises from the dead.
What is the nature of this Love? Paul calls it “great love.” In the entire book of Ephesians, Paul reserves the adjective “great” specifically for this moment. He uses it to describe the infinite degree of God’s love. Why was it great? Because our need was great. We weren’t just sick; we were dead. We weren’t just struggling; we were captives. Our “greatly worst” condition required a “great love.” This love “passes knowledge,” meaning it is so deep that only the Holy Spirit can help us experimentally grasp it.
3. The Contrast of Mercy and Love
What makes this love so amazing are the contrasting objects of that love. Verse 5 says He loved us “even when we were dead in trespasses.”
That word “EVEN” is vital. It emphasizes the magnitude of the miracle. While we were like stinking, decaying spiritual zombies—nauseating to a holy God—He loved us. We were ungrateful rebels. It is not in human “flesh and blood” to continue loving someone who is unkind and ungrateful to you, yet God persevered. Even when we lived in constant rebellion against His Word, even when we kicked the face of the One who gave us breath, He was moved by His own heart to love us.
This love is uncoerced and unconditional. There was nothing in us to act as a magnet for His heart. The origin of His love was His own sovereign, loving heart. He loved us because He chose to love us.
Not only were we ungrateful, but despite depending on God for our very breath, we were as proud as Lucifer. Like the Pharisee in the temple, we thanked God that we were not like other men. We were content with ourselves, though we had nothing to be content with. We were wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked, yet we claimed to be rich, increased with goods, and in need of nothing. We despised the Savior because we exalted ourselves; we thought little of Christ because we thought much of ourselves. In our pride, we dared to strut before the eternal throne as if we were great, though we were but worms of the dust.
It is one of the most difficult things in the world to love a proud person. You can love someone despite a thousand faults if they are humble, but when someone is boastful, human nature recoils. Yet, God, in His great love, loved us even while we were dead in sins and steeped in pride.
Look through your own biography and consider the reality of your past: the deception, the lying, the lustful eyes, the covetousness, envy, hatred, and bitterness—all hidden behind a hypocritical mask of goodness. Some of us went to the utmost extremity of sin, effectively saying, “I will provoke God until His grace leaves Him.” Yet, God did not wait for us to improve or get better. He set His love on us while we were still dead.
I can comprehend God’s pity and compassion, but I cannot truly comprehend His love—nor can you. Consider what it means for God to love you. Earthly love is sweet—the love of a parent, a spouse, or a child—but these are only faint images of the love of God. You know how much you are cheered by the affection of a dear friend, but Paul says that the Creator of the heavens and the earth has set His heart’s affection upon you. It is a “great love.” He loves you so much that He made the ultimate sacrifice for you, blesses you daily, and is preparing a place for you to live with Him forever.
Why did God raise us from the dead? The answer is this amazing love. As the hymn says:
The love of God is greater far than tongue or pen can ever tell; it goes beyond the highest star, and reaches to the lowest hell. Could we with ink the ocean fill, and were the skies of parchment made; were every stalk on earth a quill, and every man a scribe by trade; to write the love of God above would drain the ocean dry; nor could the scroll contain the whole, though stretched from sky to sky.
Love is the source, and mercy is the channel. He loved us, and that love cut the channel for His mercy. Love feels, but mercy moves. Because His love is great and His mercy is rich, He was moved to do great things to save us.
His mercy and love moved Him to remove every hindrance to your salvation. Interestingly, the greatest hindrances were not in you, but in Himself. How could a holy God, who must uphold His law which demands death for sin, maintain His integrity and justice while letting guilty sinners go free? This was the problem. Rich mercy and great love conceived a solution: the incarnation of the second person of the Godhead.
It demanded that the Son of God become a true man to render perfect obedience to the law. In that humanity, He went to the cross to receive the full weight of the wrath that burned against us by nature. I say it reverently: the Son of God became a “son of wrath” so that the billows of God’s anger would break over His holy head instead of ours. When He cried, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” God was removing the hindrances within Himself to your salvation.
Application: Admire, Ask, and Acknowledge
May the Lord help us stand in holy amazement before His mercy and love. We apply this through three actions: Admire, Ask, and Acknowledge.
First, Admire. If you ask why God chose you out of billions, the answer is purely His mercy.
- When you were a spiritual corpse in the morgue of trespasses—unresponsive and rotting—God raised you and turned your funeral into a resurrection. Why? Because of His mercy.
- When you wanted to live only for the world and its pleasures, drifting toward the lake of fire, God opened your eyes to the vanity of the world and lifted you to sit with Christ. Why? Because of His love.
- When you were roped by Satan, God broke those chains and freed you. Why? Because of His mercy.
- When you were a slave to lust, God changed your DNA with a divine nature so you could live for His glory. Why? Because of His love.
- When you were a child of wrath, God made you a child of inheritance—a trophy of His grace instead of His anger.
John Bunyan, the author of The Pilgrim’s Progress, was once a “worst sinner.” He was a soldier who nearly died several times, but God spared him. He once plucked the sting out of a viper with his bare hands and remained unhurt. He later realized God would not let him die until he had been brought to Christ. We, too, have survived many dangers because God would not let us perish until we were saved. We must ascribe this entirely to His rich mercy.
Second, Ask. Ask for a deeper understanding of this love and mercy. Always see God through these two lenses. Satan will try to make you view God as an enemy or as an angry judge, especially when you suffer or fail. Do not believe him! If God loved you when you were dead in sins, He will not desert you now. If He did not spare His own Son for you while you were a rebel, will He deny you anything necessary for your good now that you are His child? Nothing encourages prayer like understanding mercy. Mercy implies misery; if you are in a miserable or hopeless situation today, know that God’s mercy finds solutions where we see none.
Furthermore, a deeper understanding of God’s love expands our love for Him. We love Him in direct proportion to our appreciation of His love for us. This love also gives us the ability to love the “unlovable” people in our lives—the rude, the irritating, and the cruel. If God loved us when we had a thousand faults, we must forgive others as He forgave us.
Third, Acknowledge. To those who have not yet come to Christ, do you acknowledge your need for this mercy? The Devil blinds you with pride to keep you from seeing your condition. If you feel there is nothing good in you, that is actually a reason for hope. Paul says God loved us even when we were dead. If God requires no goodness as a prerequisite for His love, then your lack of goodness is no barrier.
Jesus is the Physician for the sick, not the healthy. He has opened a hospital for the “incurable”—those who cannot be cured by morality or religion. No matter how black your sins are, they are not a reason for God to reject you if you come to Him. He says, “I know what you are, but the penalty has been paid.”
You do not need to “feel” a certain way or “do” a certain work. You need only to acknowledge your need and rest in what Christ has done. The Ephesians heard the Gospel and believed. Today, you have heard it as well. Will you continue in your dead condition, or will you believe and live? Why should God quicken dead sinners? The answer is simple: because of the rich mercy and great love wherewith He loved us.