November 28th 2018 – Ephesians 2:7-10

"So that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 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. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."

Ephesians 2:7-10

What was said at the end of yesterday's Note is echoed elsewhere by Paul, for example in 3:10, where he speaks of the ultimate purpose of the gospel as being that of the manifold wisdom of God being made manifest by the Church to 'the principalities and powers in heavenly places.' What Paul means is that the Church, saved by grace and ultimately glorified and transformed, might be a spectacle to the entire heavenly panoply, showing forth to their adoring gaze the glory and wonder of the divine purposes in Christ. Well might the Apostle Peter say, 'Which things the angels desire to look into', and well might Wesley exclaim,

'Tis mystery all! The Immortal dies!
Who can explore His strange design?
In vain the first-born seraph tries
To sound the depths of love divine.

It is only when we reach glory that we will see clearly. Here, in this as in other things, we 'see through a glass darkly' but when we view all the ransomed of the Lord, shining in everlasting splendour, like the stars outshining each other in glory - a great multitude that no man can number, of all nations and peoples and kindreds and tongues, clad in white robes, with palms in their hands, men and women who were once lost, dead in trespasses and sins, without Christ and without hope in the world, but now redeemed and saved to sin no more - then shall we know something of the marvel and the glory of the grace of God in Christ.

Nor is this all. There is more in this thought of God showing forth in the ages to come the riches of His grace, more than coming to a full and comprehensive knowledge of how great divine grace is. There is also the idea that 'being made like Him' at His coming - passing wonderful though this will be - is only the 'end of the beginning', and that there will be further and indeed unlimited adornment of the perfected lives of the redeemed, in ways that are far beyond our comprehension or ability even to conceive. Ah, do not let our earth-bound minds, puny as they are at best, limit the ineffable majesty of God's sovereign purposes for eternity. He is a glorious God indeed!