I love gifts. (Who doesn’t, right?) I love getting gifts, and I love giving gifts. But I wonder if any of us understand what a gift truly is. We know that a gift is different from an earned paycheck. But sometimes we think we actually deserve the gifts we receive. We lived another 365 days and we were a great wife/mom/daughter/friend, so we get a gift. We receive gifts from our friends and loved ones – people don’t typically give gifts without having any reason to do so. 

Can you imagine giving the most costly gift to someone who has done nothing to deserve it but has done everything to not deserve it? 

We’ve been looking at Ephesians 2:4-5 in recent weeks, and prior to these verses, Paul reminds us that we were dead in our sin, following after the “prince of the power of the air” and living in rebellion against God (Ephesians 2:1-3). And yet, God gave us the gift of His grace and mercy. 

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved.” (Ephesians 2:4–5)

By grace we have been saved. This is a gift freely given by God—we don’t deserve it, and we can’t earn it. Paul makes this abundantly clear a few verses later: 

“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)

This is the beauty and wonder of God’s grace—it’s a gift we couldn’t earn by being a good person or doing something to make ourselves stand out in God’s eyes. We didn’t have any way to save ourselves, and He sent His Son to rescue us. We were in bondage to sin and death, and He sacrificed His Son to set us free. We were sinners living in rebellion against Him, and He gave His Son to take the punishment our sin deserved and give us eternal life. 

No matter what you face this week, you’ve been saved by the gift of God’s grace. 

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Last week, we returned to talking about two of my favorite verses: Ephesians 2:4-5. We’ve seen these verses speak into our hopeless spiritual condition with a big “But God.” We’ve considered the riches of God’s mercy and how He loved us with a great love before we loved Him. Today we’ll see what God intervened to do because of His mercy and love. 

In the beginning of Ephesians 2, Paul described us as dead in our sin. Dead people can’t be helped by a life raft, a dose of medicine, an encouraging word, or a great example of how to be alive. The only hope for someone who’s spiritually dead is a miracle in which God brings them from death to life. And praise God! – that’s exactly what He’s done for us in Christ: 

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved.” (Ephesians 2:4–5)

The new life we have in Christ is a gift of God’s grace. We couldn’t earn this new life, and we don’t deserve it. But “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). He accomplished all that is needed for us to receive the gift of life.

The new life we have in Christ is rooted in His resurrection. The night before His crucifixion, Jesus told His disciples: “Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live” (John 14:19). Because He lives and we are in Him, we also live.

The new life we have in Christ will never end. Because of our new life in Christ, we don’t have to fear death. As Jesus and His friend Martha stood outside the tomb of her brother Lazarus, Jesus told her: “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die” (John 11:25-26). 

In a world plagued by disease, violence, and death, we have this living hope: even when we were dead in our sins, God made us alive together with Christ. 

No matter what you face this week, you’ve been made alive with Christ. 

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Back in early March BC (Before Covid), I shared two devotionals on Ephesians 2:4-5 with plans to write more on these verses that are some of my favorites in all of God’s Word. We saw how “But God” changes everything and wondered at the riches of God’s mercy. This week I’d like to pick up where we left off more than two months ago in these verses. Let’s bask in God’s great love for us.

Sometimes my son and I have an “I love you” contest. We go back and forth: I love you, I love you more, I love you most, I love you to infinity . . . But I always hold the trump card: “I loved you first.” 

What if I played this game with God? Who would win? Which came first, God’s love for me or my love for Him? 

The stakes are high with this question. If God’s love for me follows my love for Him, then His love for me depends on my faithfulness. If I stop loving God, He might stop loving me. 

But if God loved me first, before I had done anything to earn His love, then I am secure. I am loved no matter how many times I fail Him, forget Him, or falter in my faith. 

Thankfully, Ephesians 2 teaches us that God loved us first: 

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved.” (Ephesians 2:4–5)

God loved us with a great love when we were dead in our sin. Before we ever loved Him, God sent Jesus to die for us (Rom. 5:8, I John 4:10). 

God loved us with a great love because of His mercy. He made us alive with Christ and saved us by His grace. None of it depended on our love for Him—praise the Lord! 

God loves us with a great love that is secure. His love depends on His faithfulness, not ours. His love never fails. His love is guaranteed by His perfection, not our performance. 

When you feel unlovable, remember God’s unchanging, unfailing, unstoppable love for you. When you feel overwhelmed by your sin, remember that Christ overcame sin and gave you new life. When you feel like your faith isn’t enough, remember that God loved you even before you believed. 

No matter what you face this week, God loved you first. 

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I’m a mostly boring person, and I don’t push the envelope very often. But occasionally, I let my gas gauge get down to E and create some excitement. 

Once I let my engine run on a cold day while I waited for my kids to finish piano lessons. (See how exciting our life was pre-Covid?) I finally realized the little display on my dashboard was trying to tell me I only had five miles to go until empty. I immediately turned off the car and pulled out my phone to search for the nearest gas station. Two miles away. No problem. 

But when the kids piled in and I started driving, the miles on the fuel range display ticked down more quickly than I expected. My kids and I prayed anxiously until we slid into the gas station with a zero on the display. 

Do you feel like you’re running on empty today? Maybe you feel like you’ve been on empty for weeks with no end in sight. I’ve got good news for you! The God of hope can fill you with joy, peace, and hope that overflows. 

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 15:13, NIV)

This overflowing hope is more than you could ever need. It never runs out. You’re not just driving around with your gas gauge on full, there is gas gushing out of your car! 

This hope is overflowing because its source is our infinite God of hope. He is both the object of our hope and the One who grants us hope in Him. This overflowing hope comes by the power of the Holy Spirit who dwells in us. 

When we face circumstances that look never-ending and hopeless, we can continue to be hopeful. When we are tempted to turn to other sources of hope and find that they leave us feeling empty, God Himself supplies the true hope we crave. The God of hope promises to fill His children with more than enough hope for all our struggles and suffering. 

No matter what you face this week, God will fill you with overflowing hope. 

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