“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, and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”
-Ephesians 2:4–6
Yes. Are those verses not awesome? What God has done in our lives. “When we were dead in our trespasses.” We were dead in our sin, headed to eternal death because of our sin. That’s what we were.
And you read the beginning of Ephesians 2, you see even more descriptions. “Following the course of this world. Following the prince of the power of the air.” We were living in the “passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of our bodies and our minds.” By nature, we were “children of wrath.” That’s the language used to describe us. And the culmination of it all there in verse five, “We were dead.” Not kind of dead, or partly dead, or just not doing well and in need of some help. We were dead. And God, who is “rich in mercy,” listen to the language, “because of the great love with which he loved us.” He “made us alive.”
Ephesians 2:4–6 Reminds Us that We Go from Death to Life
This is what happened. This is what happened to the Christian. He or she was dead and now he or she is alive. It’s not he or she was bad and now he or she is better, or not he or she was okay and now he or she is improved. No, he or she was dead before without spiritual life and now is alive with Christ, raised up with him, seated with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. This is describing the union we have with Jesus, listen to this purpose clause, “So that in the coming ages,” so just think about ages and ages and ages to come, God is going to “show the immeasurable riches” of his grace toward us in Christ. There’s ages to come of immeasurable riches for us to enjoy.
So we pray, God, all glory be to your name for being rich in mercy. You are rich in mercy and you are great in love. You have loved us and brought us to life. All glory be to your name, God, for bringing us from death to life, for saving us by your grace, and raising us up to be seated with you in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, to be seated with Jesus, so that in the coming ages, we might experience immeasurable riches of your grace. God, thank you. We have done nothing to deserve this. We were dead in our sin and you have done all these things in our lives by your grace and your mercy and your love.
Praising God for His Work
So we praise you. And at the same time, God, we want others to experience this. We want our family members and friends and neighbors and coworkers to experience this. We want the nations to experience this. So God, we pray, use our lives toward that end. God, please use our lives to lead people right around us, in our homes and our neighborhoods and our workplaces to you and to the life, to go from death to life. God, we pray that you would bring more people from death to life around us and around the world.
We pray for the Lobi people of Burkina Faso, hundreds of thousands of them unreached by the gospel, by this grace, by this love, by this mercy. God, we pray, cause the gospel to go to the Lobi people of Burkina Faso, that they might know your love for them, so that they might experience with us in the coming ages the immeasurable riches of your grace. Oh God, we praise you for Ephesians 2:4–6. And we pray that your love and mercy and grace toward us would spread through us. So that many more people and people groups around the world that are unreached by the gospel. Might enjoy this mercy and grace and love. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
David Platt serves as a Lead Pastor for McLean Bible Church. He is also the Founder and Chairman of Radical, an organization that helps people follow Jesus and make him known in their neighborhood and all nations.
David received his B.A. from the University of Georgia and M.Div., Th.M., and Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Some of his published works include Radical, Radical Together, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, and Don’t Hold Back.
He lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area with his wife and children.
