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12

The Cause of Our Reconciliation

Eph. 2:4, 5b

But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,

 . . . (by grace ye are saved;)

 

As mentioned already, while Ephesians 1 tells us what God has done, Ephesians 2 details how God did it. Someone has rightly said that if you want to understand salvation as it is presented in Scripture, read these verses a thousand times.1 How profound that is! One cannot understand salvation unless he grasps the meaning of these verses. They do, indeed, present the very essence of salvation, which is God’s intervention into the plight of man to reconcile him.

With the dramatic contrast of But God firmly entrenched in our minds and hearts, we are now ready to see the details of our reconciliation. As we saw in the last chapter, verse 4-10 emphasize four principles:

 

·        The Cause of our reconciliation (vs. 4, 5b)

·        The Consequences of our reconciliation (vs. 5a, 6)

·        The Character of our reconciliation (vs. 7‑9)

·        The Challenge of our reconciliation (v. 10).

 

In this chapter we will examine the first of these four emphases. How has God brought about our salvation? How has He reconciled us? Reconciliation means “to restore to friendship, compatibility, or harmony.” We recall that God’s ultimate purpose is to restore the unity between man and Him­self so man can glorify Him. Now we can see how God has done that.

 

We look first at “The Cause Of Our Reconciliation” in verse 4 and 5b. These two verses give us three causes that brought about our salvation: Mercy, Love, and Grace.

 

I. Mercy (v. 4b)

who is rich in mercy,

 

It’s significant that we see here two emphases: the word mercy itself, and the adjective that modifies it.

 

The Word

 

A simple definition of mercy is “the withholding of deserved punishment and relieving distress.” The Greek is eleos, which speaks of “compassion, pity.” One Greek lexicon tells us, “Kindness or good will towards the miserable and afflicted, joined with a desire to relieve them.”2 So, mercy is obviously always to the helpless. Moreover, in light of verses 1‑3, we deserve the affliction, but God relieves it. We deserve all the affliction, misery, distress, depression, and heart­ache that comes our way; we deserve the domination of the world, Satan, and the flesh; we deserve God’s wrath. But God is merciful; He relieves us.

 

The Adjective

 

The adjective attached to mercy is the word rich. The Greek is plousios (the adjective form of the noun ploutos) and is the source of English words such as “plutonic.” In the technical sense the word refers to material riches. But in the general sense the word speaks of wealth or abundance in a particular area. For example, one might be “rich in wisdom,” that is, having an abun­dance of wisdom. It is significant that Paul never used plousios in the material sense of the word; he was no interested in riches as man thinks of them. He always used the word to speak of God, Christ, or even the believer. Many teachers today teach their “prosperity doctrines” and say that God has promised to bless his people with monetary riches. Such teachings are nothing less than heresy. The New Testament makes it clear that coming to Christ might cost us everything. Paul never spoke of such shallow and worldly things; rather, he spoke of spiri­tual riches.

 

So, God shows mercy in true abundance. The New Testament word for mercy is quite similar to the Old Testament word hesed which carries the idea of “free acts of rescue or deliverance.” 3 Furthermore, as we read in Psalm 103:8, “God is plenteous in mercy.” Oh, how marvelous is God’s mercy! Again, we de­serve our afflictions, But God relieves them.

 

II. Love (v.4c)

for his great love wherewith he loved us,

 

Again we see two emphases.

 

The Word

 

We have seen love mentioned before in Ephesians, but let us go deeper. Perhaps the best way to define the Greek word agape is “a self‑emptying self‑sacrifice.” God’s love is often viewed today as some sort of shallow sentimentality, but God’s love is deeper than we can ever comprehend. When the average person today says “love,” they do not even know what they are saying because they do not mean “a self-emptying self‑sacrifice.” Love today is more “self‑gratifying” than “self‑emptying.”

 

To go deeper, it is interesting to note that in secular Greek agape was actually rather colorless. As one Greek authority explains, agape originally carried an element of sym­pathy and spoke of the love of a person of higher rank for one of a lower rank; it even went so far as to speak of a love that was not self‑seeking. 4 But the Lord Jesus transformed the word; it took on the much deeper meaning of being TOTALLY SACRIFICIAL. As the same authority says, “[It] thus creates a new people who will tread the way of self-sacrificing love that [Christ] took.” 5 We, therefore, humbly offer the following definition of God’s love: “A self‑emptying self‑sacrifice in which God gave of Himself in the form of His only begotten Son Who gave His life for us.”

 

Every time I think of that definition I immediately think of Scripture references that illustrate it:

But God commendeth His [self‑emptying self‑sacri­fice] toward us in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us (Rom. 5:8).

For God [had such a self‑emptying self‑sacrifice for] the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life (Jn. 3:16).

 

One cannot help but notice that “ultimate contrast” in these verses. We were sinners, But God loved us. Oh, here is love!

 

The Adjective

 

As if it were not enough to speak of God’s love, Paul adds more; he points out God’s great love. The basic meaning of the Greek (polus) is “much or great.” But when used figuratively, as it is here, it conveys the idea of intensity. 6 In other words, Paul is not speaking so much of the volume of God’s love as much as he is its passion. Many of us enjoy do­ing certain things in life; at times we all pursue a hobby or other interest “intensely.” But if we could multiply this by infinity, we would even then only scratch the surface of the love of God.

 

Further, notice the word for (dia), which literally means “because of” or “on account of.” Putting it all together it reads, “But God, Who is rich in mercy, because of His intense love. . .” Mercy is the result of God’s love. Think of it! God’s love is so intense that He had mercy on us who did not deserve it. God has shown mercy because He loves us.

This Truth immediately begs the question, “Why does God love us?” In all my years of ministry, the only answer I have ever come to is this: I don’t know. When we look at verses 1‑3 from the human perspective, there is no reason God should or would love us, but He does.

 

Before going on, may we ask, “Is love enough?” We hear much about God’s love today, but is it enough to save us. J. Vernon McGee recounts an incident that dramatically illustrates this. Back in the hippie days, he led a Bible class in San Diego. One day a young man approached McGee to talk. The young fellow was quite a sight. He had the word love written all over his clothes, his hat, his coat, down both legs of his pants, and even on his shoes. McGee asked him, “Why in the world do you have love written all over you?” He replied, “Man, God is love.” “Well,” McGee said, “I agree with you. Nothing could be truer than that.” But then the young man added, “God saves us by His love,” to which McGee said, “I don’t agree with that. God doesn’t save us by His love. Can you give me a verse that says He does?” The young fellow scratched his head and thought a while, admitted he couldn’t think of one, and then asked, “Well, if God doesn’t save us by love, then how does He save us?” McGee answered, “Very frankly, I'm glad you asked me that question because the Bible says, ‘By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast.’ God saves us by His grace.” Then the young man wanted to know the difference. This is how McGee explained it to him:

 

God cannot, on the basis of His love, open the back door of heaven and slip us in under cover of darkness. He can’t let down the bars of heaven at the front door and bring us in because of His love. God is also light. God is the moral ruler of this universe. God is righteousness. He is holy and He is good. That adds up to one thing: God cannot do things that are wrong—that is, wrong according to His own standard. So God couldn’t save us by love. Love had God strapped—we could say it put Him in a bind. He could love without being able to save. I thought you would quote John 3:16 to me. Let’s look at what that verse says: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Does it say God so loved the world that He saved the world? No, that’s exactly what it doesn’t say. God so loved this world that He gave His only begotten Son. You see, God couldn’t save the world by love because He goes on to say, “that whosoever believeth in him should not perish.” You and I are going to perish. We’re lost sinners, and God still loves us, but the love of God can’t bring us into heaven. God had to provide a salvation, and He paid the penalty for our sins. Now a God of love can reach out His hands to a lost world and say, “If you will believe in My Son, because He died for you—if you will come on that basis—I can save you.” God doesn’t save us by His love. God saves us by His grace.

 

Oh, we do thank God for His great love, but as great as that love was, it was not enough. The so-called “Gospel of Love” being preached today is a false Gospel (Gal. 1:8-9). While God’s “love is the groundwork of our salvation,” 7 something else is need to build the structure. And that “structure” leads us to the third cause of our reconciliation.

 

III. Grace (v. 5b)

(by grace ye are saved;)

 

If we may say it, here is the grandest theme of Scripture. We do not in any way discount mercy and love, but there is just something grand about the subject of grace. We shall deal with grace again in greater detail in our study of verses 7-9 (Chapter 14), but we here lay the foundation. Once again, we see two things.

 

The Word

 

The basic meaning of the Greek charis in classical Greek was “that which affords joy, pleasure, delight.” 8 From that several meanings were derived: grace, favor, thankfulness, gratitude, delight, kindness, etc. 9 So, originally, as Charles Ryrie points out in his book, The Grace Of God, the word didn’t carry the idea of some­thing “unmerited.” 10 Why? Greek philosophy believed in human merit and self‑sufficiency. Today’s rampant Humanism is merely old Greek philosophy with a new title. But even in their self‑sufficiency the Greeks, like many people today, thought they needed “a little help,” so they prayed to their gods for favors and gifts. But all this is still far from the New Testament prin­ciple of God’s unmerited favor to totally helpless men.

 

The New Testament truly took charis to new levels of mean­ing, transforming it into something much deeper. While some of the meanings from the Classical Greek are found, 11 the New Testament usage is for the most part new and unique. Why? What trans­formed this word? The reason for this transformation is that New Testament grace is coupled with the person and work of Jesus Christ. One example, of course, is John 1:17: “Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.” John is not saying that simply thankfulness, delight, kindness, or gratitude came by Christ, but rather something far deeper. Throughout the New Testament grace is coupled with Christ, for He is the ultimate manifestation of God’s grace. God gave His Son to the Word to save men from their sins, given to an undeserving race that hated Him and ultimately crucified Him.

 

Notice the last phrase of verse 5, By grace ye are saved. In the Greek this is called a “periphrasic construction.” The Scripture writer used this when all the truth he wanted to express could not be given in only one verb tense; he, therefore, used two.

 

First, we see the word saved, which is in the Perfect Tense (past action with an em­phasis on the present result). The verse then reads, “By grace you have been completely saved in the past with the present result that you are in a saved state of being.”

 

But secondly, Paul wanted to say more! Kenneth Wuest explains: “Paul is not satisfied with showing the existence of finished results in present time. He wants to show the persistence of results through present time.”12 In other words, he wants us to know that this salvation persists, that it continues and never ends. He does this with the words ye are, which come from the Greek verb “to be” in the Present Tense. This shows continuous duration of the resulting state of being. So, the full translation of Paul’s thought would be: “By grace you who were completely saved in the past with the result that you are in the state of salvation now and which now continues through the present time.”

May we say again, Hallelujah!

 

There Is No Adjective

 

It is immediately noticeable that while both mercy and love are coupled with an adjective, grace is not. Why? Some might think that it is because mercy and love are more important. But we submit another reason: There is no adjective because one is not needed. Just to say grace is to say it all. Evidently mercy and love need modification, but grace does not. It’s redundant to say, “great grace,” even though that is true; it’s redundant to say, “rich in grace,” even though that is also true. But to say grace is to say enough. As we will see in verse 7-9, it is a misunderstanding of grace that is at the root of false teaching on salvation.

Before we close, let us note the important distinction between mercy and grace:

 

·        Mercy – the withholding of what is deserved (e.g. death and hell).

·        Grace – the bestowing of what is not deserved (e.g. life and heaven).

Or as one commentator puts it, “Mercy pities. Grace pardons.” 13

 

Finally, we can put mercy, love, and grace together thusly: Because God loves us, He withholds the consequences of our afflictions that we do deserve and then even bestows blessings that we do not deserve. Because He loved us, he withheld death and hell and bestowed life and heaven.

 

Dear Christian, we cannot even begin to comprehend this! We cannot possibly grasp the intensity with which God has loved us. Some of us might think that when we get to heaven we will understand it—then again, perhaps we will not. Perhaps even in our glorified state, we will still not be able to fathom the depths of God’s mercy, love, and grace, “For who hath known the mind of the Lord?” (Rom. 11:34). Oh, how wonderful our God is!

 

1  Adapted from Sproul.

2  Thayer, p. 203.

3  Archer Vol. 1, p. 305.

4  Kittle, p. 7.

5  Kittle, p. 8‑9.

6  Zodhiates, p. 1196 and Eadie, p. 141.

7  Adam Clark.

8  Thayer, p. 675.

9  Brown, Vol. 2, p. 115.

10        Charles Ryrie, The Grace Of God (Chicago: Moody Press, 1975), p. 21‑22.

11        Ibid, p. 22‑23 gives some examples of these.

12        Wuest, p. 66.

13        Hendrickson, p. 117 (emphasis his).

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