2:1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Grace is amazing. Verses 8-10 are pretty famous verses, especially for those that find themselves in search of that ironclad proof from the bible that our salvation depends exclusively upon God' grace, and not our actions.
However, it occurs to me this morning that none of this means much without verses 6 and 7. This is what salvation is all about. Literally, it's what our being raised up is all about. He raised us up with Christ and seated us with Christ in the heavenly places....so that. This is the why of salvation. Why were we saved?
So that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
It occurs to me that our level of amazement over being saved at all has a lot to do with how excited/hope-filled and anticipation-filled we are over verse 7. It's incomprehendable, but it's what our being raised up was all about.
