#DailyDevotion Your Creator Is Rich In Mercy. He Is Full Of Grace

Lent Day 22

Eph. 2:4 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—

 

Unfortunately the society we live in does not think of God as being rich in mercy. He is generally considered a wrathful ogre or a live and let live type of guy. But God is rich in mercy. He has a lot of it he wants to spread around. The mere fact he has to have mercy on us is because we don’t deserve it. We deserve the opposite for any and all of our sins and perhaps even more importantly our sinfulness. The mere sinfulness of our being causes us to be dead in trespasses which like a stick up the nose of our Lord God. But God wants to be merciful to you and all people everywhere.

 

But if we really are that bad why would God have merciful toward us? Because of the great love with which he loved us. We are his creation. More than that, we are his creation made in his image and likeness. He created us to love us. He created us to make our being his holy temple to dwell in and commune with him. So though we were dead in trespasses and sins, he still loved us with his great love.

 

Being dead, God has made us ‘alive together with Christ.’ Through the forgiveness of sins for Christ’ sake the Holy Spirit makes alive who were once dead.  Adam did die the day he sinned. He has passed this death to all his progeny. Now by the resurrection of Jesus, all who have been given the gift of faith through the preaching of Jesus are made inwardly alive. We were bodily alive, though mortal, but dead inside. Now we possess eternal life. While our outward body is wasting away day by day, inwardly we are being renewed by the eternal life of Jesus Christ.

 

By grace you have been saved. God’s mercy is a gift to you. It is undeserved, unearned, and not merited by anything you are, think, say or do. God has shown you his good favor. Otherwise it wouldn’t be grace. There are no strings attached. It is based solely on the work of Jesus Christ by his innocent, suffering and death. Will there be changes in us as a result of this grace? Most certainly, but they are signs we have received this grace. They should not be confused with the grace and mercy of God in Christ Jesus. So rejoice, today God has been merciful to you and given you eternal life in Jesus Christ the Lord.

 

Eteranal God and merciful Father, grant us always this grace that we may be alive in Christ unto death and the resurrection of our bodies on the Last Day. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.