His goal

In Ephesians, chapter 2, it says

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us … made us alive together with Christ… so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

I love scriptures that reveal the purposes of God's heart. To the extent that my little pea-brain can handle it, I want to understand why God does what He does. Some would read that sentence and just say, "Duh. God is love, and therefore everything He does is motivated by love." I get that. Its a pretty simple idea. I just love those places in His word where He elaborates a little on the concept. And this is one of my favorites.

The second chapter of Ephesians is about as "loaded" with theological truth as any chapter in the Bible. If they were going to take away my Bible, and I could keep one chapter, this would be one of the finalists in my list of choices. And verse 7 is probably my favorite in the chapter. What it says to me is one of the most overwhelming statements of God's love in the entirety of scripture.

The first part of the chapter is pretty straightforward about the mess we were in. We were dead. Spiritually dead. Cut off from God. Then Paul talks about God's great mercy, grace, and love in saving us. Awesome. But then he takes it a step further, and tells us why God did it. The first time I read that part of the passage and received just a tiny bit of understanding of it, I was stopped cold. I just had to sit there and let it sink in. And it stunned me again today.

Why did God save us? Why did Jesus leave the beauty and glory of heaven to take on flesh and blood? Why did he live a simple life amongst a poor people under the domination of a powerful human empire? He did it specifically for the purpose of suffering His gruesome death on the cross, but why? Paul tells us in verse 7.

… so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

Just stop and think about that phrase for a minute. He paid that massive price so that He might bring us back to a position where he could bless us. When we were "following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, ... live(ing) in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind..." we were not in a place where He could freely share His love with us in the way He wants to. We had turned our backs on Him, living in rebellion against His wise and loving ways, and all He wanted to do was bless us. In the coming ages He wants to shower us with the riches of His grace. He wants to share with us all the infinite kindness in His heart. He has gone to unbelievable lengths to reconcile us back to Himself, just so He could pour out His love in our lives.

That's an amazing love. Absolutely amazing.