This chapter was (and still is) life changing for me. The clarity and beauty on display here is like that of God’s mercy and grace…immeasurable! Our pastor spoke of some of these verses on Sunday. I would encourage you to listen to that message. So, I came to this chapter seeking some unfamiliar ground. The taste of the 1-8 were still amazing but I was looking for something overlooked. A gem among many gems! If I could use the image of Bilbo looking for the Arkenstone among the riches of Erebor in the depths of the Lonely Mountain’s plunder…yeah, that’s what I was seeking.

I don’t know if you do this or not, but I have often thought that throughout eternity, God would show me, indeed all of His people, the details of His grace worked out in my life. I have often found glimmers of hope in hard days as I pondered what is to come. The end is coming? Eternal life awaits us. It’s like a long day at work and you notice 5 o’clock is near and that means it’s over!

The gem was this: (Eph. 2:7) …so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

So, in the ages (plural!!!) to come, God will show us the excessive riches of His grace towards us in Christ Jesus. In other words, He might just show me the details of the penalty of death that stood against me in MY trespasses and sins. He will show me how I formally walked according to the course of this world. I will get to see the unseen while here on earth as those invisible characters join the scene of my life’s story. I will see how I followed the prince of the air like a puppy follows its mom. I might see what I was as a son of disobedience vs. a Son of grace.

There are plenty of ways over the ages to come to reveal the ways I lived in the lusts of my flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of my mind. The natural me was headed down the road of wrath…God’s wrath along with the rest of the herd of humanity.

• I was dead
  • in MY trespasses
  • in My sins
  • in which I formally walked
  • in which I formally lived
• But God made me alive
  • in Christ Jesus
  • raised me up from the dead and seated me with Jesus in the heavenly places

Formally! Can you believe it? Can you imagine what that could look like from God’s perspective?!?!? The sentence of death and the looming justice of God’s wrath stood against me and then…like God breathing life into Adam…like Ezekiel prophesying over dead, dry bones…immediately I was alive–forgiven of my sin debt and counted righteous by faith in the Son. I went from the grave to the throne with Jesus in a matter of seconds. I went from a child of wrath to a child of the King. I went from following satan to following Jesus. (Have you started shouting yet?!). Wow!

• I was separated from Christ
• I was excluded from the commonwealth of Israel
• I was a stranger to the covenants of promise
• I had no hope
• I was without God in this world
• I was far off
• I had no peace
• I was at enmity with God
• I had no access to the Spirit of God

BUT NOW…I am NO LONGER a stranger and alien, but I am a fellow citizen with the saints, and I am of God’s household! I have a seat at the TABLE of the KING because of the King! Unbelievable!

One day…not a week…not a month…not a year…not an age…but One Glorious Day Jesus will come get us!