Jesus was god's expression of his kindness

JESUS WAS GOD'S EXPRESSION OF HIS KINDNESS
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
Ephesians 2:7 7
in order that in the coming ages he
might show the incomparableriches of his grace,
expressed in his kindness to us in ChristJesus.
BIBLEHUB RESOURCES
Pulpit Commentary Homiletics
The Design Of The Dispensation Of Mercy
Ephesians 2:7
T. Croskery The salvation of these Ephesians was to stand out as a remarkable
monument of "the exceeding riches of God's grace' to all succeeding generations.
It was in this sense that the apostle regarded himself "as a pattern to them which
should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting" (1 Timothy 1:16).
I. IT WAS TO ENCOURAGE THE GREATEST SINNERS TO HOPE IN GOD'S
MERCY THROUGH CHRIST. Sinners often, when pressed with the urgent calls
of the gospelplead that they are too wicked to be reached by it. The examples of
salvation in the Scriptures - those of the Ephesians, the dying thief, Lydia, the
Philippian jailor, the Apostle Paul himself - are all designed to meet the difficulties
that men interpose in the way of their receiving Christ, as if any worthiness could
attach to the persons thus described. It is a great comfortthat what God did then he
does now and will do till the end of the world. His mercy and grace are not
exhausted.
II. IT IS IMPLIED THAT SALVATION IS NOT OF WORKS, BUT BY GRACE.
This fact cuts up by the roots all theological systems which imply that man has any
power to save himself.

III. IT IS IMPLIED THAT THERE WILL BE A CHURCH ON EARTH
THROUGH "ALL THE AGES TO COME," in spite of all the malignity, the
ungodliness, the unbelief of men.
IV. IT IS IMPLIED THAT THE SCRIPTURES ARE TO CONVEY THE
RECORDS OF GOD'S GRACE DOWN TO THE LATEST GENERATIONS. We
could not know of God's gracious work at Ephesus but by the Scriptures. How
much we ought to prize such records!
V. THE HISTORYOF THE CHURCH SINCE THE DAYS OF THE APOSTLES
proves how God has fulfilled the design involved in the dispensation of mercy. The
stream of grace has flowed more or less freely and fully in every age.
VI. MARK THE TRUE SUBJECT OF PREACHING. Not mere moral counsels,
not mere philosophizings, but "the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness to
us in Jesus Christ." A noble text for the pulpit of all ages!
VII. THE ULTIMATE DESIGN OF GOD IS TO MANIFEST HIS OWN
GLORY. Not the mere glory of his power and wisdom, but of his abounding grace
and mercy.
VIII. IT IS IMPLIED IN THE TEXT THAT THE APOSTLEDID NOT EXPECT,
AS SOME AFFIRM, THAT THE END OF THE WORLD WAS AT HAND.
There were ages to come in which the exceeding riches of his grace could he
shown forth in the salvation of sinners. - T.C.
Biblical Illustrator
That in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His
kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
Ephesians 2:7
The riches of God's grace
Paul Bayne.1. The end of all God's graceand mercy towards believers in Christ, is
for the manifestation of His glory, and praise of His name. This must teach us, that
whatever good things God has bestowed upon us, we make God known by it.
2. All the saving graces of God are most worthy the consideration of all Christians
in all ages. If we be God's children, let us show it by bringing forth eternal and
immortal fruit to His glory.
3. The special favour of God consists in the giving of Christ. (1 John 4:9; Romans
5:6).

4. All God's kindness, and the fruit thereof, must come to us through Christ.
(1)No room for presumption.
(2)No room for despair.
5. All our blessings are treasured up in Christ.
6. In all things Christ hath the preeminence.
7. From hence note the stability of all the blessings given to the faithful. (2
Timothy 1:12).(1) This is full of comfort. If one had earthly treasure, we are glad
when it is so bestowed that we may be sure of it, and so be free from care. Well,
Christ is in heaven, our true treasure, where neither thief, nor moth, nor canker can
come; this is our happiness, that He keeps our treasure; it is out of the reach of
devils and men; were it in our own hand, we should soonbetray it; if we are set in
heaven with Christ, Christ may as soonbe pulled out of heaven, as we
disappointed of our inheritance.
(Paul Bayne.)
Salvation by grace
Essex Congregational Remembrancer.Salvation is a term inclusive of all the
benefits enjoyed by a penitent believing sinner through the mediation of Christ.
I. ILLUSTRATE IT UPON LEADING SCRIPTURALPRINCIPLES. The whole
scheme of redemption is traced up to its sourcein the Divine benevolence — "God
so loved the world," etc. It means a principle of love, proving its reality by gifts;
love to sinners, fraught with kindest volitions, costly blessings. This love was self-
moved, not necessarily excited by any external cause. There was no excellence to
provoke, but sin to prevent its exercise. Hence its freeness is made to appear
distinctly — "Not that we loved God, but that He loved us." Hence, too, the
sovereignty of this love appears. He has placed mankind under a dispensation of
forbearance.
II. ILLUSTRATE IT BY A REFERENCE TO FACTS AND DOCTRINES
BELONGING TO CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE.
1. The declared depravity of human nature.
2. The doctrine of justification by faith.
3. The blessing of sanctification.
4. The prospects ofthe Christian eminently involve the grace of his salvation.Let
us observe from these remarks —
1. How completely the gospelmeets the wants of sinners, their ignorance, their
guilt, their pollution, their destitution. It represents God to be full of compassion,

salvation to be an act of unqualified grace, while its proclamation is made to all,
not excepting the most guilty.
2. How awful to abuse this grace.
3. How dreadful the character and prospectsofunbelieving, ungodly men! They
not only break the law of God, but despise the grace of His gospel.
(Essex Congregational Remembrancer.)
Blessings in the ages to come
H. Foster, M. A.Two interpretations are given of this verse.
I. By ages to come, some understand the times that were to succeed the apostle to
the end of, the world. And then the sense of the verse is — That God poured out
the exceeding riches of His grace upon the. apostles and churches of old to be
encouraging examples to the end of the world. Which they are —
1. As to the characters of those whom He has saved. They were sinners. They were
the chief of them. "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation," etc. (1
Timothy 1:15, 16). They were all sorts. "And such were some of you," etc. (1
Corinthians 6:11). "Who will have all men to be saved," etc. (1 Timothy 2:4). "For
the Scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on Him shall not be ashamed," etc.
(Romans 10:11, etc.).
2. As to the blessings given to them. They were sought out. Quickened, justified,
adopted, sanctified, preserved, glorified.
3. As to the grace given them, suited to their trials. To Abraham, faith. Job,
patience. To Daniel, integrity. Paul, zeal.
II. By ages to come, some understand future glory (Hebrews 6:5). Then the sense is
— That God bestows various and inestimable blessings upon His people here, that
they may see them more perfectly in glory (1 Corinthians 13:9-12).
(H. Foster, M. A.)
God's kindness to manI. DESCRIBE GOD'S KINDNESS TO MAN IN CHRIST.
1. In the assumption of our nature (Hebrews 2:16).
2. In His obedience and sufferings for us (1 Peter 3:18).
3. In the resurrection of that nature (Romans 6:9),
4. In taking it up into glory (Psalm 68:18).
5. In His intercession for us (Hebrews 7:25).
6. In finally bringing us to glory (John 17:24).It is also further manifest that God's
kindness is experienced by the Christian in —

1. The personal remission of his sins (Ephesians 1:7).
2. In the donation of the Holy Ghost(Romans 8:16).
3. Uniting us to His person (John 17:21).
4. Bringing us into covenant relation with Himself (Genesis 17:7).
5. Justification of our persons (Psalm 32:1).
6. In the renewal of our nature (1 Peter 1:3).
7. In adopting us into His family (1 John 3:1).
8. In giving us victory over death (1 Corinthians 15:57).
9. In our final glorification (Psalm 73:24).
II. THE OBJECTS OF THIS GRACE OR KINDNESS. As creatures.
1. Frail creatures (Isaiah 40:6).
2. As worthless worms (Job 25:6).
3. As less than nothing (Isaiah 40:17).As fallen creatures.
1. As impotent creatures (Romans 5:6).
2. Impoverished creatures (Revelation 3:17).
3. As enemies to God (Colossians 1:21).
4. As dead to all good (Ephesians 2:1).
5. As being Satan's children (John 8:44).
III. How God's KINDNESS IS SHOWN IN CHRIST JESUS.
1. It is in Christ meritoriously (Ephesians 1:3).
2. God'skindness to us flows through His kindness to Christ (Ephesians 1:6).
3. Given to us through Christ (Romans 6:23).
4. Dispensed by Christ (Acts 5:31).
5. As Christ includes all God'skindnesses (Colossians 3:11).
IV. THE REASON FOR SHOWING THESE RICHES.
1. Because God'snature is love (1 John 4:8).
2. To exalt man, His chief creature (Titus 3:4).
3. And for His own glory (Psalm 106:8).Inferences:
1. There is no cause of boasting in ourselves (Romans 3:27).
2. Meditate frequently on God s kindness and grace (Isaiah 63:7).

3. Prize that gospel that reveals this great kindness (Romans 1:16).
4. Pray truly to believe it (Mark 16:16).
(T. B. Baker.)
The exceeding riches of grace
D. L. Moody.Thereis a story of Mithridates, a celebrated king in Asia, which
illustrates this part of our subject very well. This king became interested in an old
musician who had taken part in the music performed at a feast in the royal palace.
On awaking one morning, this old man saw the tables in his house covered with
vessels of silver and gold; a number of servants were standing by, who offered him
rich garments to put on, and told him there was a horse standing at the doorfor his
use, whenever he might wish to ride. The old man thought it was only a dream he
was having. But the servants said it was no dream at all. It was a reality. "What is
the meaning of it?" asked the astonished old man. "It means this," said the servant,
"the king has determined to make you a rich man at once. And these things that
you see are only a small part of what he has given you. So please use them as your
own." At last he believed what they told him. Then he put on the purple robe, and
mounted the horse; and as he rode along, he kept saying to himself, "All these are
mine! All these are mine!"
(D. L. Moody.)
Unappropriated riches
D. L. Moody.Men fail becausethey try to do too large a business on too small a
capital. So with Christians; but God has grace enough and capital enough. What
would you think of a man who had one million dollars in the bank, and only drew
out a penny a day? That is like you and me; and the sinner is even blinder than we
are. The throne of grace is established, and there we are to obtain all the grace we
need. Sin is not so strong as the arm of God. He will help and deliver you, if you
will come and procure the grace you need.
(D. L. Moody.)
Good things to come
D. L. Moody.Rowland Hill tells a story of a rich max and a poorman of his
congregation. The rich man came to Mr. Hill with a sum of money which he
wished to give to the poorman, and asked Mr. Hill to give it to him as he thought
best, either all at once or in small amounts. Mr. Hill sent the poorman a five pound
note with the endorsement — "More to follow." Every few months came the
remittance, with the same message — "More to follow." Now that is grace. "More
to follow" — yes, thank God, there is more to follow. Oh, wondrous grace!

(D. L. Moody.)
The ages to come
H. W. Beecher.There is something very impressive and admirable in that long look
ahead which distinguished the worthies of old. None ever lived so sympathetically
in the present as they did. None ever lived so far away from the present, and so far
ahead of it, as they did. They fed their Souls upon the visions of ages to come.
1. We need just such a forelooking. The condition of the human race as it now
exists is not a theme for pleasurable meditation. To those who believe in the moral
government of God and in the active administration of affairs in this world and in
nature by the Divine mind, the actual condition of the race seems inexplicable.
2. The condition of the Church itself leads one to rebound from the present, and to
seek comfort in looking into "the ages to come."
3. Our knowledge of God in the present state of things, with all that has been done
to winnow the wheat from the chaff, is exceedingly incomplete and unsatisfying.
4. The "ages to come," will reveal a personal experience in us of which now we
have but the very faintest trace in analogy.
(H. W. Beecher.)
The believer's future
C. H. Spurgeon.Weare quite certain that what we are cannot be the end of God's
design. When I see a block of marble half chiselled with just perhaps a hand
peeping out from the rock, no man can make me believe that that is what the artist
means it should be. And I know I am not what God would have me to be, because I
feel yearnings and longings within myself to be infinitely better, infinitely holier
and purer, than I am now. And so it is with you; you are not what God means you
to be; you have only just begun to be what He wants you to be. He will go on with
His chisel of affliction, using wisdom and the graving tooltogether, till by and by
it shall appear what you shall be for; you shall be like Him, and you shall see Him
as He is. Oh! what comfort this is for our faith, that from the fact of our vitality and
the tact that God is at work with us, it is clear, and true and certain, that our latter
end shall be increased. I do not think that any man yet has ever got an idea of what
a man is to be. We are only the chalk crayon, rough drawings of men; yet when we
come to be filled up in eternity, we shall be marvellous pictures, and our latter end
indeed shall be greatly increased.
(C. H. Spurgeon.)
Unexpected developments

H. W. Beecher.We cannot at present form a conception of perfection in the
elements which constitute character. You never can tell what the ripe is from
looking at the green. If an unknown seed be brought to you, and you plant it in the
ground, and it sprout, and grow for five years, only throwing out leaves, and for
five years more, still only throwing out leaves, can you tell how its blossoms are
going to look? You never saw them. The tree is a new one. You have seen the root,
the leaves, and the bark, and you have cut into the wood;you know its habits for
the first ten years; you know when its leaves appear in the spring, and when they
fall off in the autumn; you know everything about it as far as it has gone during
those ten years; but you cannot guess whether its blossoms are white or yellow.
You cannot tell whether they will hang in racemes, or rise up in circles. You
cannot tell whether they will stand out in spikes, or be pendant. You cannot tell
whether they will be early or late. You cannot, if the shrub or tree be unknown,
find out the prophecyof the blossoms. But at last the blossomcomes out. Now tell
me what that blossomis going to produce. Lookat it. Is it going to put forth a pod,
or is it going to be a fruit? Is it going to be a seed, or luscious food?You cannot
tell from a blossomwhat the fruit is going to be, except by analogues; and I am
now supposinga new plant of which there has been no congener within your
knowledge, and that you are attempting, from a lower state, to conceive of the
higher. Now, in regard to human beings, there is nothing in the unripe state of the
mind which is a fair interpretation of what ripeness in it is going to be. You could
never have told, except by seeing it, what the human reason was competent to do.
Consider the force of reason, by which the whole physical universe is being now
unbarred; by which the most distant orbs are being searched, weighed, analyzed;
by which we are unwrapping the sun, and taking off coatafter coat; by which we
know more about the sun itself than oftentimes men do of the province in which
they live on earth. What an education! What an outstretch of thought! What
development of the reasoning, searching power of the mind! Who Could have
suspected it in the days of barbarism? No man could then have told that. And who
now can fortell what new development the human reason is capable of? As from
the lower stages you could not suspectthe higher, so from the present stages you
cannot anticipate those which are yet to come. Now we think; but in the higher
forms of thinking there is the intuition, the jump, as it were, the flash of thought,
with which our present thinking is not to be compared. We call it intuition, we call
it inspiration, we call it names; but names are not things. There is evidently the hint
of a wondrous disclosure of power in the direction of reason "in the ages to come."
We do not see it here. We cannot know it. We can only know what is the perpetual
suggestion of it. Says the apostle St. John: "We are the sons of God;but it doth not
yet appear what we shall be."

(H. W. Beecher.)
How grace operates
J. Eadie, D. D.The kindness of God in Christ Jesus is a phrase expressive of the
manner in which grace operates. His grace is in His kindness. Grace may be shown
among men in a very ungracious way, but God's graceclothes itself in kindness, as
well in the time as in the mode of its bestowment. What kindness in sending His
grace so early to Ephesus, and in converting such men as now formed its Church!
Oh! He is so kind in giving grace, and such grace, to so many men, and of such
spiritual demerit and degradation; so kind as not only to forgive sin, but even to
forget it (Hebrews 8:12); so kind, in short, us not only by His grace to quicken us,
but in the riches of His grace to raise us up, and in its exceeding riches to enthrone
us in the heavenly places in Christ! And all the grace in this kindness shown in the
first century is a lesson even to the nineteenth century. What God did then, He can
do now and will do now; and one reason why He did it then was to teach the men
of the present age His ability and desire to repeat in them the same blessed process
of salvation and life.
(J. Eadie, D. D.)
Restraining graceDuring the ministry of the Rev. Ralph Erskine at Dunfermline a
man was executed for robbery, whom he repeatedly visited in prison, and whom he
attended on the scaffold. Mr. Erskine addressed boththe spectators and the
criminal, and after concluding his speech he laid his hands on his breast, uttering
these words — "But for restraining grace I had been brought, by this corrupt heart,
to the same condition with this unhappy man."
COMMENTARIES
EXPOSITORY(ENGLISH BIBLE)
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(7) In the ages to come.—Properly, the
ages which are coming on—the ages both of time and of eternity, looked upon in
one great continuity. Here, again, the manifestation of the riches of God’s grace is
looked upon as His special delight, and as His chosenway of manifesting His own
self to His creatures.
In his kindness.—The word “kindness” (properly, facility, or readiness to serve
another) is applied to that phase of God’s mercy in which it shows Him as “ready
to receive, and most willing to pardon.”Thus we find it in Luke 6:35 used for His
goodness “to the unthankful and evil”; in Romans 2:4 it is joined with “long-
suffering and patience”; in Romans 11:22 opposed to abrupt “severity”; in Titus

3:4, connected with love to man, “philanthropy”; and it is also used in similar
connections when attributed to man (1Corinthians 13:4; 2Corinthians 6:6;
Galatians 5:22; Colossians 3:12). Hence in this passage it is especially appropriate,
because so much stress has been laid on the former sinfulness and godlessness of
those to whom God’smercy waited to be gracious. There is a similar
appropriateness in the repetition of the name of our Lord “through Christ Jesus,”
for this gentle patience and readiness to receive sinners was so marked a feature of
His ministry that to the Pharisees it seemed an over-facility, weakly condoning sin.
“Through Him,” therefore, the kindness of God was both shown and given.
MacLaren's ExpositionsEPHESIANS
‘THE RICHES OF GRACE’
Ephesians 2:7One very striking characteristic of this epistle is its frequent
reference to God’s purposes, and what, for want of a better word, we must call His
motives, in giving us Jesus Christ. The Apostle seems to rise even higher than his
ordinary height, while he gazes up to the inaccessible light, and with calm certainty
proclaims not only what God has done, but why He has done it. Through all the
earlier portions of this letter, the things on earth are contemplated in the light of the
things in heaven. The great work of redemption is illuminated by the thought of the
will and meaning of God therein; for example, we read in Chapter i. that He ‘hath
blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Christ, according as He hath chosen us in
Him,’ and immediately after we read that He ‘has predestinated us unto the
adoption of children by Jesus Christ according to the good pleasure of His will.’
Soonafter, we hear that ‘He hath revealed to us the mystery of His will, according
to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself’; and that our predestination to
an inheritance in Christ is ‘accordingto the purposeof Him who worketh all things
after the counsel of His own will.’
Not only so, but the motive or reason for the divine action in the gift of Christ is
brought out in a rich variety of expression as being ‘the praise of the glory of His
grace’ {1-6}, or ‘that He might gather together in one all things in Christ’ {1-10},
or that ‘we should be to the praise of His glory’ {1-12}, or that ‘unto the
principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the Church the
manifold wisdom of God.’
In like manner our text follows a sublime statement of what has been bestowed
upon men in Jesus, with an equally sublime insight into the divine purposeof
thereby showing ‘the exceeding riches of His grace.’ Such heights are not for our

unaided traversing; it is neither reverent nor safe to speculate, and still less to
dogmatise, concerning the meaning of the divine acts, but here, at all events, we
have, as I believe, not a man making unwarranted assertions about God’s purposes,
but God Himself by a man, letting us see so far into the depths of Deity as to know
the very deepest meaning of His very greatest acts, and when God speaks, it is
neither reverent nor safe to refuse to listen.
I. The purposeof God in Christ is the display of His grace.
Of course we cannot speak of motives in the divine mind as in ours; they imply a
previous state of indecision and an act of choice, from which comes the slow
emerging of a resolve like that of the moon from the sea. A given end being
considered by us desirable, we then cast about for means to secure it, which again
implies limitation of power. Still we can speak of God’s motives, if only we
understand, as this epistle puts it so profoundly, that His ‘is an eternal purpose
which He purposed in Himself,’ which never began to be formed, and was not
formed by reason of anything external.
With that caution Paul would have us think that God’s chiefest purposein all the
wondrous facts which make up the Gospelis the setting forth of Himself, and that
the chiefest part of Himself, which He desires that all men should come to know, is
the glory of His grace. Of coursevery many and various reasons for these acts may
be alleged, but this is the deepest of them all. It has often been misunderstood and
made into a very hard and horrible doctrine, which really means little else than all-
mighty selfishness, but it is really a most blessed one; it is the proclamation in
tenderest, most heart-melting fashion of the truth that God is Love, and therefore
delights in imparting that which is His creatures’ life and blessedness;it bids us
think that He, too, amidst the blessedness of His infinite Being, knows the joy of
communicating which makes so large a part of the blessedness of our finite selves,
and that He, too, is capable of being touched and gladdened by the joy of
expression. As an artist in his noblest work paints or chisels simply for love of
pouring out his soul, so, but in infinitely loftier fashion, the great Artist delights to
manifest Himself, and in manifesting to communicate somewhat of Himself.
Creation is divine self-revelation, and we might say, with all reverence, that God
acts as birds sing, and fountains leap, and stars shine.
But our text leads us still farther into mysteries of glory, when it defines what it is
in God that he most desires to set forth. It is the ‘exceeding riches of Grace,’ in
which wonderful expression we note the Apostle’s passionate accumulation of
epithets which he yet feels to be altogether inadequate to his theme. It would carry

us too far to attempt to bring out the whole wealth contained in these words which
glide so easily over unthinking lips, but we may lovingly dwell for a few moments
upon them. Grace, in Paul’s language, means love lavished upon the undeserving
and sinful, a love which is not drawn forth by the perception of any excellence in
its objects, but wells up and out like a fountain, by reason of the impulse in its
subject, and which in itself contains and bestows all good and blessing. There may
be, as this very letter shows, other aspects of the divine nature which God is glad
that man should know. His power and His wisdom have their noblest illustration in
the work of Jesus, and are less conspicuously manifested in all His work; but His
grace is shrined in Christ alone, and from Him flows forth into a thirsty world.
That love, ‘unmerited and free,’ holds in solution power, wisdom and all the other
physical or metaphysical perfections belonging to God with all their energies. It is
the elixir in which they are all contained, the molten splendour into which have
been dissolved gold and jewels and all precious things. When we look at Christ, we
see the divinest thing in God, and that is His grace. The Christ who shows us and
certifies to us the grace of God must surely be more than man. Men look at Him
and see it; He shows us that grace because He was full of grace and truth.
But Paul is here not propounding theological dogmas, but pouring out a heart full
of personal experience, and so adds yet other words to express what he himself has
found in the Divine Grace, and speaks of its riches. He has learned fully to trust its
fulness, and in his own daily life has had the witness of its inexhaustible
abundance, which remains the same after all its gifts. It ‘operates unspent.’ That
continually self-communicating love pours out in no narrower stream to its last
recipient than to its first. All ‘eat and are filled,’ and after they are satisfied, twelve
baskets full of fragments are taken up. These riches are exceeding; they surpass all
human conception, all parallel, all human needs; they are properly transcendent.
This, then, is what God would have us know of Himself. So His love is at oncethe
motive of His great message to us in Jesus Christ, and is the whole contents of the
message, like some fountain, the force of whose pellucid waters cleanses the earth,
and rushes into the sunshine, being at once the reason for the flow and that which
flows. God reveals because He loves, and His love is that which He reveals.
II. The great manifestation of grace is God’s kindness to us in Christ.
All the revelation of God in Creation and Providence carries the same message, but
it is often there hard to decipher, like some half-obliterated inscription in a strange
tongue. In Jesus the writing is legible, continuous, and needs no elaborate
commentary to make its meaning intelligible. But we may note that what the

Apostle founds on here is not so much Christ in Himself, as that which men
receive in Christ. As he puts it in another part of this epistle, it is ‘through the
Church’ that ‘principalities and powers in heavenly places’ are made to ‘know the
manifold wisdom of God.’ It is ‘His kindness towards us’ by which ‘to the ages to
come,’ is made known the exceeding riches of grace, and that kindness can be best
estimated by thinking what we were, namely, dead in trespasses and sins; what we
are, namely, quickened together in Christ; raised up with Him, and with Him made
to sit in heavenly places, as the immediately preceding clauses express it. All this
marvellous transformation of conditions and of self is realised ‘in Christ Jesus.’
These three words recur over and over again in this profound epistle, and may be
taken as its very keynote. It would carry us beyond all limits to deal with the
various uses and profound meanings of this phrase in this letter, but we may at
least point out how intimately and inseparably it is intertwined with the other
aspectof our relations to Christ in which He is mainly regarded as dying for us,
and may press upon you that these two are not, as they have sometimes been taken
to be, antagonistic but complementary. We shall never understand the depths of the
one Apostolic conception unless we bring it into closest connection with the other.
Christ is for us only if we are in Christ; we are in Christ only because He died for
us.
God’s kindness is all ‘in Christ Jesus’;in Him is the great channel through which
His love comes to men, the river of God which is full of water. And that kindness
is realised by us when we are ‘in Christ.’ Separated from Him we do not possess it;
joined to Him as we may be by true faith in Him, it is ours, and with it all the
blessings which it brings into our else empty and thirsting hearts. Now all this sets
in strong light the dignity and work of Christian men; the profundity and clearness
of their religious character is the great sign to the world of the love of God. The
message of Christ to man lacks one chief evidence of its worth if they who profess
to have received it do not, in their lives, show its value. The characters of Christian
people are in every age the clearest and most effectual witnesses of the power of
the Gospel. God’shonour is in their hands. The starry heavens are best seen by
reflecting telescopes, which, in their field, mirror the brightness above.
III. The manifestation of God through men ‘in Christ’ is for all ages.
In our text the ages to come open up into a vista of undefined duration, and, just as
in another place in this epistle, Paul regards the Church as witnessing to the
principalities and powers in heavenly places, so here he regards it as the perennial
evidence to all generations of the ever-flowing riches of God’sgrace. Whatever
may have been the Apostle’s earlier expectations of the speedy coming of the day

of the Lord, here he obviously expects the world to last through a long stretch of
undefined time, and for all its changing epochs to have an unchanging light. That
standing witness, borne by men in Christ, of the grace which has been so kind to
them, is not to be antiquated nor superseded, but is as valid to-day as when these
words gushed from the heart of Paul. Eyes which cannot look upon the sun can see
it as a golden glory, tinging the clouds which lie cradled around it. And as long as
the world lasts, so long will Christian men be God’s witnesses to it.
There are then two questions of infinite importance to us-do we show in character
and conductthe grace which we have received by reverently submitting ourselves
to its transforming energy? We need to be very close to Him for ourselves if we
would worthily witness to others of what we have found Him to be. We have but
too sadly marred our witness, and have been like dim reflectors round a lamp
which have received but little light from it, and have communicated even less than
we have received. Do we see the grace that shines so brightly in Jesus Christ? God
longs that we should so see; He calls us by all endearments and by loving threats to
look to that Incarnation of Himself. And when we lift our eyes to behold, what is it
that meets our gaze? Intolerable light? The blaze of the white throne? Power that
crushes our puny might? No! the ‘exceeding riches of grace.’ The voice cries,
‘Behold your God!’ and what we see is, ‘In the midst of the throne a lamb as it had
been slain.’
Benson CommentaryHYPERLINK "/context/ephesians/2-7.htm"Ephesians 2:7-9.
That in the ages to come — As if he had said, His great design in doing all this for
us is, that in all succeeding ages, under the dispensation of the gospel, he might
show — Might demonstrate and display, (as the word ενδειξηται implies,) for the
instruction and encouragement of others; the exceeding riches of his grace —
Manifested both to Jews and Gentiles; in his kindness — His benignity and bounty;
toward us — In pardoning, adopting, regenerating, and finally saving us; through
Christ Jesus — Forwe have received the whole blessing by him, and are partakers
of it as connected with him, whom God hath appointed our head and Saviour, and
taught us to regard as our great representative. For (to repeat the important truth
before asserted) by grace are ye saved through faith — Grace, as signifying the
free mercy, or unmerited goodness of God, without any respectto human
worthiness, confers the glorious gift of salvation; and grace, in the other sense of
the expression, namely, the influence of the Spirit, prepares us for the reception of
the blessed gift, and conveys it to us; and faith in the Lord Jesus as our Redeemer
and Saviour, our Governor and Judge, and in the truths and promises of his holy
gospel, with an empty hand, and without any pretence to personal desert; faith,
productive of unfeigned love and obedience, receives the heavenly blessing. And

that not of yourselves — This refers to the whole preceding clause, and means, 1st,
Your salvation is not of yourselves, is not of your own power, nor of your own
merit; strictly speaking, you can neither save yourselves, nor deserve that God
should save you; your salvation, in all its branches, present and eternal, is from
God, to whom alone it belongs to enlighten, justify, sanctify, and glorify you, and
it is from him as a free, undeserved gift. Just Song of Solomon , 2 d, Your faith,
whereby you receive salvation, is not of yourselves, not of your own power, nor of
your own merit; you can neither believe of yourselves, without supernatural light
from the word and Spirit of truth, wisdom, and revelation; and divine grace
inclining and enabling you to apply to and rely on Christ for salvation, and on the
truths and promises of God through him; nor can you, by works done while you are
yourselves in unbelief and unrenewed, deserve that God should give you faith. But
your faith, as well as your salvation, is the gift of God;is of his operation,
Colossians 2:12; from his light shining into your hearts, 2 Corinthians 4:6; and is
from him as a free gift, asked indeed of him, and obtained from him, in and by
prayer, but utterly unmerited on your part. “God, bythe gracious influence of his
Spirit, fixes our attention to the great objects of faith, subdues our prejudices
against it, awakens holy affections in our souls, and, on the whole, enables us to
believe, and to persevere in believing, till we receive the great end of our faith in
the complete salvation of our souls.” — Doddridge. Not of works — Neither this
faith, nor this salvation, is merited by, or is owing to, any works you ever
performed, will or can perform, whether in obedience to the law of Moses,
ceremonial or moral, or any other law whatever; much less is it merited by, or
owing to, any works done previous to your conversion. Lest any man should boast
— As if he had, by his own works of righteousness, procured salvation, and so
should ascribe the glory of it to himself, rather than to God.
Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary2:1-10 Sin is the death of the soul. A man
dead in trespasses and sins has no desire for spiritual pleasures. When we look
upon a corpse, it gives an awful feeling. A never-dying spirit is now fled, and has
left nothing but the ruins of a man. But if we viewed things aright, we should be far
more affected by the thought of a dead soul, a lost, fallen spirit. A state of sin is a
state of conformity to this world. Wicked men are slaves to Satan. Satan is the
author of that proud, carnal disposition which there is in ungodly men; he rules in
the hearts of men. From Scripture it is clear, that whether men have been most
prone to sensual or to spiritual wickedness, all men, being naturally children of
disobedience, are also by nature children of wrath. What reason have sinners, then,
to seek earnestly for that grace which will make them, of children of wrath,
children of God and heirs of glory! God's eternal love or good-will toward his
creatures, is the fountain whence all his mercies flow to us; and that love of God is

great love, and that mercy is rich mercy. And every converted sinner is a saved
sinner; delivered from sin and wrath. The grace that saves is the free, undeserved
goodness and favour of God;and he saves, not by the works of the law, but
through faith in Christ Jesus. Grace in the soul is a new life in the soul. A
regenerated sinner becomes a living soul; he lives a life of holiness, being born of
God:he lives, being delivered from the guilt of sin, by pardoning and justifying
grace. Sinners roll themselves in the dust; sanctified souls sit in heavenly places,
are raised above this world, by Christ's grace. The goodness of God in converting
and saving sinners heretofore, encourages others in after-time, to hope in his grace
and mercy. Our faith, our conversion, and our eternal salvation, are not of works,
lest any man should boast. These things are not brought to pass by any thing done
by us, therefore all boasting is shut out. All is the free gift of God, and the effect of
being quickened by his power. It was his purpose, to which he prepared us, by
blessing us with the knowledge of his will, and his Holy Spirit producing such a
change in us, that we should glorify God by our good conversation, and
perseverance in holiness. None can from Scripture abuse this doctrine, or accuse it
of any tendency to evil. All who do so, are without excuse.
Barnes' Notes on the BibleThat in the ages to come - In all future times. The sense
is, that the riches of divine grace, and the divine benignity, would be shown in the
conversion of Christians and their salvation, to all future times. Such was his love
to those who were lost, that it would be an everlasting monument of his mercy, a
perpetual and unchanging proofthat he was good. The sense is, we are raised up
with Christ, and are made to partake of his honor and glory in order that others
may forever be impressed wish a sense of the divine goodness and mercy to us.
The exceeding riches of his grace - The "abounding, overflowing" riches of grace;
compare the notes, Ephesians 1:7. This is Paul's favorite expression - an expression
so beautiful and so full of meaning that it will bear often to be repeated. We may
learn from this verse:
(1) That one object of the conversion and salvation of sinners, is to furnish a
"proof" of the mercy and goodness ofGod.
(2) another object is, that their conversion may be an "encouragement" to others.
The fact that such sinners as the Ephesians had been, were pardoned and saved,
affords encouragement also to others to come and lay hold on life. And so of all
other sinners who are saved. Their conversion is a standing encouragement to all
others to come in like manner; and now the history of the church for more than
eighteen hundred years furnishes all the encouragement which we could desire.

(3) the conversion of "great" sinners is a special proofof the divine benignity. So
Paul argues in the case before us; and so he often argued from his own case;
compare the notes at 1 Timothy 1:16.
(4) heaven, the home of the redeemed, will exhibit the most impressive proofof
the goodness of God that the universe furnishes. There will be a countless host who
were once polluted and lost; who were dead in sins; who were under the power of
Satan, and who have been saved by the riches of the divine grace - a host now
happy and pure, and free from sin, sorrow, and death - the living and eternal
monuments of the grace of God.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary7. Greek, "That He might show forth
(middle reflexive voice; for His own glory, Eph 1:6, 12, 14) in the ages which are
coming on," that is, the blessed ages of the Gospelwhich supersede "the age
(Greek, for 'course')ofthis world" (Eph 2:2), and the past "ages" from which the
mystery was hidden (Col 1:26, 27). These good ages, though beginning with the
first preaching of the Gospel, and thenceforth continually succeeding one another,
are not consummated till the Lord's coming again (compare Eph 1:21; Heb 6:5).
The words, "coming on," do not exclude the time then present, but imply simply
the ages following upon Christ's "raising them up together" spiritually (Eph 2:6).
kindness—"benignity."
through Christ—rather, as Greek, "in Christ"; the same expression as is so often
repeated, to mark that all our blessings center "IN Him."
Matthew Poole's CommentaryThat in the ages to come; in all succeeding
generations while the world continues.
He might show, &c.; as in an instance or specimen, 1 Timothy 1:16: q.d. God’s
kindness to us believers in this age, since Christ’s coming, is such an instance of
the exceeding riches of his grace, as may be an encouragement to future
generations to embrace the same Christ in whom we have believed.
Through Christ Jesus; by and through whom God conveys all saving benefits to us.
Gill's Exposition of the Entire BibleThat in the ages to come,.... This is the end of
God's permitting sin, in which men are morally dead; and of his suffering them to
go on in sin, in a state of unregeneracy; and of his quickening them with Christ,
and raising them up, and causing them to sit together with him: namely, that
he might show the exceeding riches of his grace: riches being added to grace,
denote the valuableness of it, as well as its plenty and abundance; and also the
freeness and liberality of God in giving it; and likewise the enriching nature of it:

and these riches are exceeding; they exceed the riches of this world, in the
immenseness of them, being unsearchable; and in the inexhaustibleness of them,
for though such large treasures have been expended upon such numbers of persons,
yet there is still the same quantity; and in the duration of them, they last forever;
and in the profit and satisfaction they yield, when other riches fade away, are not
profitable nor satisfying; and they exceed the conception, knowledge, and
comprehension of men; and intend the utmost stretch of the grace of God:and
which are evidently and remarkably displayed,
in his kindness towards us through Christ Jesus; in providing him as a Saviour for
his people; in the mission of him into this world; in not sparing, but giving him up
as a sacrifice to justice for their sins; and blessing them with all spiritual blessings
in him: all which God designed to show forth, in the ages to come; meaning either
the ages following to the end of time, in distinction from the ages that were past:
hence it appears, that the world was not expected to be immediately at an end; and
that the writings of the New Testament were to be continued, and the Gospel
preached unto the end of time, in which the riches of divine grace are held forth to
view; and that these ages to come, are seasons and days of grace; for a day of grace
will never be over, as long as the Gospelof grace is preached; and that the
instances of grace through Christ, and in the times of the apostles, are encouraging
to men in ages succeeding; and that the same grace that was displayed then, is
shown forth in these: or else the world to come is meant, which will take place at
the end of this; and may lead us to observe, that there will be ages in the other
world; and that God has not only prepared a great deal of grace and glory for his
people, but he has appointed ages enough for them to enjoy it in; and that their
riches lie in another world, and are in some measure hid; and that these are the
produceof the grace of God;and that the exceeding riches of that will be then
manifested, when it will also appear that God's giving grace to men, is not only
with a view to his own glory, but is an act of kindness to them; and that eternal
happiness will be heartily and freely bestowed upon them, and that through Jesus
Christ their Lord: the Syriac version renders it, "that unto ages to come he might
show", &c. that is, to men in ages to come; the sense is much the same.
Geneva Study BibleThat in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches
of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)
Meyer's NT CommentaryHYPERLINK "/ephesians/2-7.htm"Ephesians 2:7. Aim
of God in connection with what is said, Ephesians 2:5-6.
ἵνα ἐνδείξηται]prefixed with emphasis: in order—not to leave concealed and
unknown, but—to exhibit and make manifest, etc. Comp. Romans 9:23.

ἐν τοῖς αἰῶσι τοῖς ἐπερχ.]in the ages coming on, i.e. in the times after the Parousia,
as being already on the approach(comp. LXX. Isaiah 44:7; Isaiah 45:11; Jdt 9:5;
3Ma 5:2; Luke 21:26; Jam 5:1; Hom. Od. xxiv. 142; Thuc. i. 126; Plat. Soph. p.
234 D; Aesch. Prom. 98: τὸ παρὸν τό τʼ ἐπερχόμενον, Pind. Ol. x. 11: ἕκαθεν γὰρ
ἐπελθὼν ὁ μέλλων χρόνος). In the times from the Parousia (conceived as near at
hand) onward, the manifestation designed by God of His grace towards believers
was to take place, because not before, but only after the Parousia, would the
making alive of the believers, etc., implicitly contained in the making alive of
Christ, be actually accomplished in the subjects. Incorrect, seeing that the apostle
was previously speaking, not of the spiritual, but of the real resurrection, etc., is the
rendering of Morus: “per omne vestrum tempus reliquum quum in hac vita tum in
futura quoque,” as well as that of Wolf (comp. Calvin, Piscator, Boyd, Estius,
Calixtus, Michaelis, Zachariae, Meier, Matthies, Baumgarten-Crusius, Bleek):
“tempora inde ab apostolicis illis ad finem mundi secutura.” Koppe brings out, “ut
aeternum duraturum argumentum extaret,” which is quite mistaken, since, while it
is true that the αἰῶνες οἱ ἐπερχόμενοι are eternal times, the words do not signify
tempora aeternum futura. Respecting the plural τοῖς αἰῶσι, comp. on Ephesians
3:21. To infer from this that the setting in of the Messianic period will not be
accomplished suddenly, but by way of successive development (Schenkel), is at
variance with the whole N.T. The future αἰών sets in through the Parousia very
suddenly and in an instant, Matthew 24:27; 1 Corinthians 15:52, al. Hence we have
not mentally to supply with ἐνδείξ. anything like: “ever more completely” (Flatt),
or “ever more effectively” (Schenkel), which is sheer caprice.
The form τὸ πλοῦτοςis here also decisively attested. See on Ephesians 1:7.
ἐν χρηστότητι ἐφʼἡμᾶς ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ]is to be taken together, and the
instrumental ἐν indicates by what God will manifest the exceeding great riches of
His grace in the ages to come, by kindness towards us in Christ Jesus, i.e. by
means of the fact that He shows Himself gracious towards us, of which the ground
lies in Christ (not in us, see Ephesians 2:8). The article was not at all requisite
before ἐφʼ ἡμᾶς, since χρηστότητι is anarthrous, and besides χρηστότηςἐφʼ ἡμᾶς,
like χρηστὸν εἶναι ἐφʼ ἡμᾶς (Luke 6:35), can be closely joined together in thought.
Comp. on Ephesians 1:15.
The χάρις is the sourceof the χρηστότης, which latter displays itself in forgiving
(comp. Prayer of Manass. 11; Titus 3:4; Romans 2:4) and in benefiting, and
therefore is the evidence of the former, the oppositeof ἀποτομία, Romans 11:22.
Comp. Tittmann, Synon. p. 195; van Hengel, ad Rom. II. p. 682.

Expositor's Greek TestamentHYPERLINK "/ephesians/2-7.htm"Ephesians 2:7. ἵνα
ἐνδείξηται ἐν τοῖς αἰῶσιν τοῖς ἐπερχομένοιςτὸν ὑπερβάλλοντα πλοῦτοντῆς
χάριτος αὐτοῦ:that He might shew forth in the ages that are coming the exceeding
riches of His grace. Forthe τὸν ὑπερβάλλοντα πλοῦτονofthe TR the neuter form
τὸ ὑπερβάλλον πλοῦτος is preferred by most editors (LTTrWHRV). The
satisfaction of His love was God’s motive in quickening and raising them. The
manifestation of His glory in its surpassing wealth is His final purposein the same.
The verb ἐνδείκνυσθαι occurs eleven times in the Pauline Epistles and Hebrews,
and nowhere else in the NT. The active is very rare even in the classics, and is
never found in the NT. Hence the ἐνδείξηται is to be taken as a simple active (not
as = shew forth for Himself), all the more by reason of the αὐτοῦ. What is meant
by the τοῖς αἰῶσιν τοῖς ἐπερχομένοις?Somegive it the widest possible sense, e.g.,
per omne vestrum tempus reliquum quum in hac vita tum in futura quoque
(Morus), “the successively arriving ages and generations from that time to the
second coming of Christ” (Ell.). But it is rather another form of the αἰὼν ὁ μέλλων
(Harl., Olsh., Mey., Haupt, etc.), the part. ἐπερχόμενος being used of the future
(e.g., Jer. 47:11; Isaiah 41:4; Isaiah 41:22-23; Isaiah 42:23; Luke 21:26; Jam 5:1,
etc.), and the future being conceived of as made up of an undefined series of
periods. In other cases reduplicated expressions, αἰῶνες τῶν αἰώνων,etc., are used
to express the idea of eternity. God’spurpose, therefore, is that in the eternal
future, the future which opens with Christ’s Parousia, and in all the continuing
length of that future, the grace of His ways with those once dead in sins should be
declared and understood in all the grandeur of its exceeding riches.—ἐν χρηστότητι
ἐφʼ ἡμᾶς:in kindness toward us. The ἐν is taken by some (Mey., etc.) as the
instrumental ἐν, “bymeans of kindness”. It is more natural to give it the proper
force of “in,” as defining the way in which the grace showed itself in its surpassing
riches. It was in the form of kindness directed towards us. The χρηστότης, which
means moral goodness in Romans 3:12, has here the more usual sense of benignity
(cf. Romans 2:4; Romans 11:12; 2 Corinthians 6:6; Galatians 5:22; Colossians
3:12; Titus 3:4).—ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ:in Christ Jesus. Again is Paul careful to
remind his readers that all this grace and the manifestation of it in its riches have
their ground and reason in Christ.
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges7. the ages to come] All future periods
of development in His Kingdom. The phrase must not be restricted to the future
history of the Church on earth; it is akin rather to the frequent formula for the
eternal future, “unto the ages of the ages,” and cp. esp. Jude 25, “bothnow and
unto all the ages”. “TheKing of the Ages” (1 Timothy 1:17) alone knows what
great “dispensations” are included in the one Eternity.

shew] to other orders of being, angelic or other. Cp. Ephesians 3:10, and note.
exceeding riches] A phrase intensely Pauline. See on Ephesians 1:7.
through Christ Jesus] Lit., and better, in. Vital union with the Lord is the never
silent key-note of the passage.
Bengel's GnomenHYPERLINK "/ephesians/2-7.htm"Ephesians 2:7. Ἐν τοῖς αἰῶσι
τοῖς ἐπερχομένοις, in the ages to come) The plural, in opposition to the one bad age
[τὸν αἰῶνα τούτουκόσμου], Ephesians 2:2, which blessed ages effectually succeed
[upon which the blessed ages come unexpectedly with power]. This expression is
in accordancewith Paul’s idea regarding the last day, the approachof which he
believed not to be immediate [2 Thessalonians 2:2].—ὑπερβάλλοντα, the
exceeding) Romans 5:20.
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 7. - That in the ages to come he might show forth the
riches of his grace. A special purposeserved by God's free grace bestowed on such
persons as the Ephesians. It was intended as a lesson for future ages. "The ages to
come" denotes eras to begin from that time, running on now, and to continue
hereafter. It would be a profitable lesson for the people of these ages to think of the
Ephesians, far as they were by nature from God, receiving his blessing so
abundantly. From this they would learn how great are the riches of God'sgrace. In
kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. The particular channel in which the riches of
his grace flows is kindness shown to us in Christ Jesus. Kindness in the matter of
the blessing, forgiving us freely, and accepting and adopting us in him; kindness in
the manner of the blessing, dealing with us as Jesus dealt with the woman that was
a sinner, or with the thief on the cross, orwith Peter after he had fallen, or with
Saul of Tarsus; kindness in the extent of the blessing, providing amply for every
want; kindness in the duration of the blessing - for evermore. But again, the
Medium or Mediator of blessing is specified - "in Christ Jesus." It is not the
kindness of providence, not the natural bountifulness of God, but that kindness and
bountifulness which are specially connected with the atoning work of Christ: "God
was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself."
Vincent's Word StudiesThe ages to come (τοῖς αἰῶσιν τοῖς ἐπερχομένοις)
Lit., the ages, those which are coming on. Which are successively arriving until
Christ's second coming.
He might show (ἐνδείξηται)
The middle voice denotes for His own glory. See on Colossians 1:6.
In kindness (ἐν χρηστότητι)

See on easy, Matthew 11:30. The grace of God is to be displayed in His actual
benefits.
PRECEPTAUSTIN RESOURCES
BRUCE HURT MD
Ephesians 2:6 and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly
places in Christ Jesus, (NASB: Lockman)
Greek:kai sunegeiren (3SAAI) kai sunekathisen (3SAAI) en
toiHYPERLINK "http://studylight.org/lex/grk/view.cgi?number=3588"s
epouranioiHYPERLINK
"http://studylight.org/lex/grk/view.cgi?number=2032"s en ChHYPERLINK
"http://studylight.org/lex/grk/view.cgi?number=5547"ristHYPERLINK
"http://studylight.org/lex/grk/view.cgi?number=5547"o Iesou,
Amplified: And He raised us up together with Him and made us sit down
together [giving us joint seating with Him] in the heavenly sphere [by virtue
of our being] in Christ Jesus (the Messiah, the Anointed One) (Amplified
Bible - Lockman)
NLT: For he raised us from the dead along with Christ, and we are seated
with him in the heavenly realms--all because we are one with Christ Jesus.
(NLT - Tyndale House)
Phillips: and has lifted us right out of the old life to take our place with him
in Christ in the Heavens (Phillips: Touchstone)
Wuest: and raised us with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly
places in Christ Jesus,
Young's Literal: and did raise us up together, and did seat us together in the
heavenly places in Christ Jesus
AND RAISED US UP WITH HIM: kai sunegeiren(3SAAI):
• Ep 1:19,20; Romans 6:4,5; Colossians 1:18; 2:12,13; 3:1-3
• Ephesians 2 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries
• Ephesians 2:4-7 Salvation is Totally of God - Steven Cole
• Ephesians 2:8,9 Salvation by Grace through Faith Alone - Steven Cole
• Ephesians 2:1-10: Coming Alive in Christ - John MacArthur

• Ephesians 2:1-10: Coming Alive in Christ - Study Guide (see dropdown
menu) - John MacArthur
• Ephesians 2:1-10 Exchanging Living Death for Dying Life - John
MacArthur
Paul speaks here of our spiritual resurrection with Christ (our blessed hope is of a
bodily bodily is yet future) (See related topic Order of Resurrection). In
Colossians Paul repeats this truth at the beginning of his charge to walk in the light
of the truth in the first two chapters…
If (since = fulfilled condition) then you have been raised up with Christ,
keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of
God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.
(Col 3:1, 2-See notes Colossians 3:1; 3:2)
Raisedup with Him - Believers are in a solemn, binding, indissoluble covenant
with Christ and so are eternally in union with Him and identified with Him. When
He died, we died. When He was buried, we were buried. When he was raised up,
we were raised up. When He was seated at the right hand of His Father, we were
seated at the right hand of our Father in heaven. These great truths of the believer's
identification with Christ are more thoroughly expounded by Paul in Romans 6,
using the figure of baptism (not speaking of water but of identification)…
Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ
Jesus have been baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we have been
buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was
raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk
in newness of life. 5 Forif we have become united with Him in the
likeness ofHis death, certainly we shall be also in the likeness ofHis
resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, that
our bodyof sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves
to sin; 7 for he who has died is freed from sin. 8 Now if we have died with
Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ,
having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is
master over Him. 10 For the death that He died, He died to sin, onc0e for all;
but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11 Even so consider yourselves to
be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. (See notes Romans 6:3; 6:4;
6:5; 6:6; 6:7; 6:8; 6:9; 6:10; 6:11) (See parallel discussion in Colossians
2:11-13)
Raisedup with (4891) (sungeiro from sun/syn = with, speaking of an intimate
relationship or intimate union + egeiro = raise) is more literally "raised up
together", the pronoun "Him" being added to indicate it was with Jesus we were

raised up. Obviously this is a spiritual resurrection that follows our crucifixion with
Christ and our entombment with Christ. Christ's resurrection was physical while
ours was a spiritual resurrection. On the basis of the believer's past spiritual
resurrection, there is the guarantee of a future physical resurrection and
transformation (glorification = future redemption = "the day of redemption" in
Eph 4:30-note) when
we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last
trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised
imperishable, and we shall be changed. Forthis perishable (earthly body)
must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. (1
Cor 15:51, 52, 53)
Sunegeiro means to be roused (from sleep but here used figuratively as a reference
to death) in company with and figuratively as used by Paul means to revivify
spiritually. Plutarch has a writing which uses sunegeiro in a secular sense meaning
"waking up together".
Believers don'tjust receive life (Ep 2:5-note), but experience resurrectionlife in
Christ (and it is something we should pray for to be fully realized - see verse 20 of
Paul's great prayer in Eph 1:18-20-note! Practically this truth means that we now
can walk in His resurrection power as discussed more below. The aoristtense
indicates that this co-resurrection is a past completed event.
John Brown - Christ rose again, but our sins did not; they are buried forever in his
grave.
It bears re-emphasizing that each of the verbs made alive with, raised with,
seatedwith has the identical prepositional prefix "sun/syn" which means within
Greek but is significantly different than the other Greek word for with(meta)
which conveys the of beside, whereas sun speaks of an intimate, indissoluble
union. Let's illustrate using a well known event, the crucifixion. Two criminals
were punished with Jesus and both were crucified with (metá) Him, i.e., in His
company, but only one was spiritually crucified with (sún/syn) Christ, i.e., bound
up or in union with Him while the other thief was not. The first thief entered
paradise, while the second entered hell. And so we get a glimpse of the
significance of Paul's three combination verbs used to explain our salvation.
Clearly, he is driving home not only these basic truths of our salvation but also
emphasizing with the use of sun- that this salvation is irrevocable. You cannot lose
your salvation. The believer who has been made alive with Christ, raised with
Christ and seated with Christ is eternally secure in Christ (see Eternal security)!
Christ is our covenant partner and the "covenant Head" of the redeemed family.
What Christ does, He does for us. What we do is done because we are in union

with Him. We are eternally identified with Him. While unconfessed sin can disrupt
our communion with Him, it cannot break the infinitely omnipotent bonds ofour
union with Him. We are one with Christ in time and eternity and nothing,
absolutely nothing can negate or reverse that glorious truth beloved!
On the basis of our past resurrection with Christ, we have the sure "hopeof our
calling", of a future physical resurrection and transformation of our bodies into
conformity with His glorious body. (See related topics The Two Resurrections -
"First" and "Second" - on a timeline and Order of Resurrection)
J Vernon McGee -"Lord Lyndhurst was the Lord Chancellor of Great Britain and
possessed asharp legal mind. He made this statement: “I know pretty well what
evidence is; and I tell you, such evidence as that for the Resurrection has never
broken down yet.” The death and resurrection of Christ is an historical fact. When
Christ died you and I died with Him; He tookour place. And when He was raised,
we were raised in Him, and we are now joined to a living Christ. It is so important
for us to see that we are joined to a living Savior. (Ed note: italics mine) It is so
important to keep in mind that no outward ceremony brings us to Christ. The issue
is whether or not we are born again, whether we really know Christ as Savior. If
we do know Him, we are identified with Him. Identification with Christ is “putting
off the bodyof the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ,” which is a
spiritual circumcision. When you put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy
Spirit baptizes you into the bodyof Christ. It is by this baptism that we are
identified with Christ, and we are also “risen with him”—joined to the living
Christ." (McGee, J V: Thru the Bible Commentary: Thomas Nelson)
In the epistle to the Colossians Paul explained to the saints the grand truth that they
had
been buried with Him (Christ) in baptism (a spiritual baptism, an
identification and union with His death), in which you were also raised up
with (sunegeiro) Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him
from the dead. (Col 2:12- note)
Paul emphasizes this truth of our co-resurrection as he begins his exhortation to
live a new style of life, a supernatural life enabled by resurrection power…
If then (since) you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things
above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the
things above, not on the things that are on earth. (Col 3:1, 2-see note Col
3:1; 3:2)
MacDonaldhas some interesting thoughts:

"Baptism is burial, the burial of all that we were as children of Adam. In
baptism we acknowledge that nothing in ourselves could ever please God,
and so we are putting the flesh out of God’ssight forever. But it does not
end with burial. Not only have we been crucified with Christ and buried with
Him, but we have also risen with Him to walk in newness of life. All of this
takes place at the time of conversion." (MacDonald, W & Farstad, A.
Believer's Bible Commentary: Thomas Nelson)
Earlier Paul had explained to the saints that he was praying for them to experience
the "surpassing greatness of His power" (Eph 1:19-note) and that this power was…
in accordancewith the working of the strength of His might (i.e., that power was
the same mighty power) which He (God the Father) brought about in Christ, when
He raised Him from the dead, and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly
places.
It follows that we too were raised with "resurrectionpower" and in Romans 6 we
now have the privilege to life our daily life enabled by that same inestimable
resource, Paul asking…
Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized (he is not speaking of
water baptism but of a spiritual baptism, an identification with) into Christ Jesus
have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him
through baptism into death (this cannot refer to water baptism, but has to be a
figurative usage, reflecting our spiritual emersion so to speak with Christ when He
experienced the "baptism of death" on the Cross), in order that as Christ was raised
from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of
life. (Ro 6:3, 4-see notes Romans 6:3; 6:4)
Let me ask you, beloved of the Father, would you say that your life is a living
testimony to His supernatural resurrection power? Repeatedly in the New
Testament, the writes emphasize that this is every believer's potential in Christ
because of the fact that the Father has raised us up with Him.
Wuest explains that
we were not only placed in Christ by God the Holy Spirit in order that we might
share His death and thus be separated from the evil nature, but we were placed in
Him in order that we might share His resurrection and thus have divine life
imparted to us. (2Pe 1:4-note)… The newness oflife does not refer to a new
quality of experience or conductbut to a new quality of life imparted to the
individual. Romans 6 does not deal with the Christian’s experience or behavior.
Paul treats that in Romans 12-16. In this chapter the key word is machinery, the
"mechanics" of the Spirit-filled life being Paul’s subject. The newness of life
therefore refers, not to a new kind of life the believer is to live, but to a new Source

of ethical and spiritual energy imparted to him by God by which he is enabled to
live the life to which Paul exhorts in Romans 12-16… we shared Christ’s
resurrection in order that we may order our behavior in the power of a new life
imparted.
Here we have then the two-fold result of the major surgical operation God
performs in the inner being of the sinner when he places his trust in the Saviour.
He is disengaged from the evil nature, separated from it, no longer compelled to
obey it. He has imparted to him the divine nature (2Pe 1:4-note) which becomes in
him the new Source of ethical, moral, and spiritual life, which causes him to hate
sin and love righteousness, and which gives him both the desire and the power to
do God’s will. Paul, speaking of the same thing in (Php 2:12, 13-see notes Php
2:12; 2:13). The Christian’s will has been made absolutely free. Before salvation it
was not free so far as choosing between good and evil is concerned. It was
enslaved to the evil nature. But now, it stands poised between the evil nature and
the divine nature, with the responsibility to reject the behests of the former and
obey the exhortations of the latter. To constantly say no to the former and yes to
the latter becomes a habit, and then the victorious life has been reached. (Ro 6:12,
13-notes) (Wuest, K. S. Wuest's Word Studies from the Greek New Testament:
Eerdmans)
AND SEATED US WITH HIM IN THE HEAVENLY PLACES IN CHRIST
JESUS:kai sunekathisen(3SAAI) en tois epouraniois en Christo Iesou:
• Matthew 26:29; Luke 12:37; 22:29,30; John 12:26; 14:3; 17:21, 22, 23, 24,
25, 26; Revelation 3:20,21
• Eph 1:3
MacArthur
ANOTHER FACET OF GOD'S MARVELOUS GRACE
Seatedus with (4776) (sugkathizo from sun/syn = with speaking of an intimate
union + kathízo = to set or sit down) means to cause to sit down with. Paul uses
the aorist tense, which here speaks of a past completed action. Paul is so certain of

this grand truth, that he records it as if it has already occurred!So certain is every
word of God, every promise! Why are we so often, so prone to wonder, so little in
our faith? And so with the eyes of faith we see that this seating with Christ has
occurred, even if we from our finite human perspective cannot fully comprehend
its practical import. Will it is humanly inexplicable, our union with Him in
covenant, this mystical union helps give us a sense of how we are seated with Him.
Just as we were crucified and resurrected, so too in the immutable bond of
covenant, we are just as truly seated with Him (see more on this below). And this
should elicit a heart-felt "Hallelujah!"
Three great uses of the prefix sun/syn = we are… made alive, raised, seated - all
with Christ.
How incredible the contrast with the only other NT use of sugkathizo in the
context of Peter sitting among those who sat down together just prior to denying
His Lord…
And after they (those who had seized Christ) had kindled a fire in the middle
of the courtyard and had sat down together (sugkathizo - remembering how
"sun-" speaks of intimacy, these men were all of one mind, determined to
kill Christ), Peter was sitting among them. (Luke 22:55-note)
Earlier Paul had mention the heavenly places…
(speaking of the "surpassing greatness of His power" and the "strength of
His might") which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the
dead, and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, (Eph 1:20-
note)
We don'tsit in the heavenly places with Christ Jesus (yet) but we do sit in the
heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Since our life and identity is in Christ, as He sits
in the heavenly places, so do we. And even though we are not yet in possessionof
all the inheritance that God has for us in Christ, to be in the heavenly places is to
be in God’s domain instead of Satan’s ("For He delivered us from the domain of
darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son" Col 1:13 [note]
and we were turned "from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to
God" Acts 26:18). Now, we are in the sphere of spiritual life instead of the sphere
of spiritual death. "In the heavenly places" is where our blessings are (Ep 1:3-
note) and where we have fellowship with the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, and
with all the saints who have gone before us and will come after us. "In the
heavenly places" is where all our commands come from and where all our praise
and petitions go.
The practical import of our new position as recipients of grace is that our
"heavenly status" gives us "heavenly power" to overcome the power of sin and

death (Daily! Daily we are being saved by the Gospel!) Our unbreakable union
with Christ affords us eternal access to the heavenly places and His heavenly
power (every spiritual blessing in the heavenly place in Christ - Eph 1:3-note) to
live as more than conquerors through Him Who loved us and continues to love us,
even when we are not very "lovable!" Seated with Christ is our present positional
reality, even though it is not yet fully realized eschatology. This now-then (present-
future) tension is similar to other NT doctrines, such as our adoption as sons (Ro
8:15-note), but our eager awaiting for the fulfillment of our adoption coinciding
with the redemption of our bodies (Ro 8:23-note).
Sugkathizo is used 4x in the non-apocryphal Septuagint (Lxx) - First use of
sugkathizo in context of grace = Ge 15:11 ("Abram sat down by" the carcasses
when God cut the covenant with him), Second use of sugkathizo in context of
Law! = Ex 18:13 ("Moses sat to judge the people"); Nu 22:27 describes what
happened when the donkey saw the Angel of the LORD - "she lay down under
Balaam"); Jer 16:8 - where the prophetwas instructed not to sit down and feast
with those who mourn over deaths in Judah.
Let us not miss the wonder and awe of a chapter that began with us dead in our
sins, but now alive in the heavenlies with Christ! Is this not truly Amazing Grace!
Warren Wiersbe gives an illustration writing…
While attending a convention in Washington, D.C., I watched a Senate
committee hearing over television. I believe they were considering a new
ambassadorto the United Nations. The late Senator Hubert Humphrey was
making a comment as I turned on the television set:
“You must remember that in politics, how you stand depends on
where you sit.”
He was referring, of course, to the political party seating arrangement in the
Senate, but I immediately applied it to my position in Christ. How I stand—
and walk—depends on where I sit; and I am seated with Christ in the
heavenlies!
The Queen of England exercises certain powers and privileges because she
sits on the throne. The President of the United States has privileges and
powers becausehe sits behind the desk in the oval office of the White
House. The believer is seated on the throne with Christ. We must constantly
keep our affection and our attention fixed on the things of heaven, through
the Word and prayer, as well as through worship and service. We can enjoy
“days of heaven upon the earth” (Deut. 11:21) if we will keep our hearts and
minds in the heavenlies. (Wiersbe, W: Bible Exposition Commentary. 1989.
Victor)

Heavenly places (2032) (epouranios from epí = upon, in sense of pertaining to
above + ouranos = heaven) encompasses the entire supernatural realm of God, His
complete domain (it is the supernatural sphere where God rules) and the full extent
of His divine operation. The true citizenship of every saint is not this present earth
(which is passing away) but is heaven, Paul explaining to the saints at Philippi
that…
our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait (Are you eagerly
waiting for Him?) for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ who will transform the body
of our humble state into conformity with the bodyof His glory, by the exertion of
the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself. (Php 3:20, 21-note)
Because our new citizenship through Christ is in heaven, God seats us with Him in
the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus. We are no longer of this present world or in its
sphere of sinfulness and rebellion. We have been rescued from spiritual death and
given spiritual life in order to be in Christ Jesus in the heavenly places.
Spurgeononce said…
Little faith will bring your soul to heaven; great faith will bring heaven to your
soul.
In Christ Jesus - all of the glorious truths are predicated on this powerful phrase
"in Christ Jesus". Marvin Vincent agrees writing that "in Christ Jesus" is to be
connected with…
raised up, made us sit, and in heavenly places. Resurrection, enthronement, heaven,
all are in Christ.
John Piper has some interesting thoughts on what "seatedwith Him in heavenly
places" means writing…
Now what does that mean? We are all right here in this room, aren't we. Or are we?
What did Tony Bennet mean twenty years ago when he sang, "I left my heart in
San Francisco"?Well, he meant that San Francisco still holds his affections. San
Francisco is always pulling him back. San Francisco governs his tastes. He may
look like he is in Chicago. But Chicago has no claim on his affections. It's a
foreign land. He is not interested in being like the natives of the windy city. That is
the way it is with us when we are converted. God takes our heart and puts it in
heaven with Christ. Colossians 3:3 says, "Foryou have died, and your life is hid
with Christ in God." So just like it is with Tony Bennet and San Francisco, so it is
with us and heaven. It's heaven that holds our affections. It's heaven that's always
pulling us upwards, its heaven that governs our tastes. We may look like we are in

the world. But the world has no claim on our affections. It's a foreign land. We are
exiles and aliens.
In a word, when we are converted God frees us from the spirit of the age and the
god of the age. It's as though we had been kidnapped and brainwashed and made to
think we were really citizens of the enemy territory. And then the king's
intelligence finds you and shocks you out of your stupor, and you suddenly realize
that what the enemy has to offer would never satisfy the deepestlongings of your
heart. Your heart is in the homeland. But the king says stay for now, and, though it
may be dangerous, live like an alien in love with the homeland, and when you
come home bring as many with you as you can. Don't you really want to be FREE
from the spirit of the age. Why would anybody want to be jelly fish carried around
by currents in the sea of secularism? You can be a dolphin, and swim against the
currents and against the tide. Jelly fish aren't free. Dolphins are free. (Full sermon
Ephesians 2:4 But God… )
F B Meyer once said…
THE PSALM OF ASCENSION - "But God, being rich in mercy, for His great love
wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses,
quickened us together with Christ, and raised us up with Him, and made us to sit
with Him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus."-- Eph 2:4-6.
THIS 24th Psalm is apparently in two parts, and yet there is one theme, the ascent
of the holy souland the triumphant Saviour into the presence of God. Forus, the
ascension of our Lord precedes our own; but in the days of the Psalmist that order
was reversed.
Our Lord's Ascension. In an outburst of poetry, kindled by the Divine Spirit, the
Psalmist anticipates the coming of the King of Glory to the doors of the Eternal
City--that ideal City which through the ages has beckoned forward the hearts of
saints and patriots, and which in Rev. 21. is seen descending to our earth. It was as
though the doors ofthe Unseen barred His entrance. They had opened to God, but
never before to "God manifest in the flesh." It was a new thing that He should take
our nature with Him into the unseen and eternal world.
The soul's ascension (Ps 24:3, 4, 5, 6). In Christ we have ascended and are seated
at God's right hand. No change in your emotions, not even the being overtaken by a
fault can alter that. But we have to make our calling sure. What is ours in the
divine purposemust be claimed and appropriated as a living daily experience.
There are certain qualities of character which are requisite to those who should be

accounted worthy to stand before the Son of Man, not hereafter only, but now and
here and always (Lk 21:36).
We must have clean hands. The money that we earn must be clean money. If we
are writers, artists, mechanics, professional or commercial men or women, we must
never produceanything which would defile the imagination or heart. We must
have a pure heart. In Isa 33:14, 15, 16, 17, which is a parallel passage, the Holy
Spirit is compared to a devouring fire, in the presence of which no evil thing can
five. Let us ask Him so to possessus, and to cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by
His inspiration. We must not lift up our soul to vanity, i.e., we must not allow
ourselves to be inflated with the applause or rewards of the world. Many sell their
souls for these, and only at the end of life awaken to discover how worthless they
are. We must not swear deceitfully, i.e., we must be absolutely transparent and
sincere, for only the true can stand in the presence of the King of Truth.
PRAYER - May we live as those who have been raised with Christ, and who are
seated with Him. AMEN. (Meyer, F B. Our Daily Walk)
And hath raised us up together A. B. Simpson
Ascension is more than resurrection. Much is said of it in the New Testament.
Christ rises above all things. We see Him in the very act of ascending, as we do not
in the actual resurrection. With hands and lips engaged in blessing, He gently parts
from His disciples. So simply, so unostentatiously, He has brought heaven near to
our common life. We, too, must ascend, even here. If ye then be risen with Christ,
seek those things which are above (Colossians 3:1). We must learn to live on the
heavenly side and look at things from above. To contemplate all things as God sees
them, as Christ beholds them, overcomes sin, defies Satan, dissolves perplexities,
lifts us above trials, separates us from the world and conquers fear of death. Such a
perspective enables us to view them as we shall one day look back upon them from
His glory, and as if we were now really seated with Him, as indeed we are, in
heavenly places (Ephesians 2:6). Let us arise with His resurrection and, in
fellowship with His glorious ascension, learn to live above.
A devotional from Our Daily Bread-entitled "Heavenly People"
If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above (Colossians
3:1).
Christians are a "heavenly" people. That's what Paul meant when he told the
Ephesians that God has "raised us up together, and made us sit together in the

heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Eph 2:6). We live on earth, but "our citizenship is
in heaven" (Php 3:20-note). We should therefore "seek those things which are
above," and store up treasures in heaven.
We see a graphic difference between an earthly minded person and a heavenly
minded personwhen we look at two Middle Eastern tombs. The first is the burial
place of King Tut in Egypt. Inside, precious metal and blue porcelain cover the
walls. The mummy of the king is en-closed in a beautifully inscribed, gold-covered
sarcophagus. Although King Tut apparently believed in an afterlife, he thought of
it in terms of this world's possessions, which he wanted to take with him.
The other tomb, in Palestine, is a simple rock-hewn cave believed by many to be
Jesus' burial site. Inside, there is no gold, no earthly trea-sure, and no body. Jesus
had no reason to store up this world's trea-sures. His goal was to fulfill all
righteousness by doing His Father's will. His was a spiritual kingdom of truth and
love.
The treasures we store up on earth will all stay behind when this life ends. But the
treasures we store up in heaven we'll have for eternity. When we seek to be
Christlike in thought, word, and deed, we will live like "heavenly" people. —P R
Van Gorder. (Our Daily Bread, Copyright RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, MI.
Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved)
Wise are those who geartheir goals to heavenly gains.
A devotional from Our Daily Bread-
As Charles Simeon (Click John Piper's deeply convicting overview of Simeon's
life and work), the great nineteenth century English preacher, lay mortally ill in his
Cambridge home, he realized that his time on earth was fast slipping away. He
turned to those at his bedside and asked, "Do you know what comforts me just
now? I find infinite consolation in the fact that in the beginning God created the
heaven and the earth." His friends asked how that thought could give solace as he
faced death. He answered with the confidence of one about to meet the Lord,
"Why, if God can bring all the wonder of the worlds out of nothing, He may still
make something out of me!"
To think of the glory that awaits God's children—to have a spirit perfectly pure and
a resurrected bodythat will enable us to enjoy eternity to its fullest—staggers the
imagination. The great changes we will experience in glory are beyond our
understanding.

Even now God's transforming power is at work in us. At conversion we became
children of God and were made "alive together with Christ" (Ep 2:5-note). But that
is not all. Paul said that in the future God will "show the exceeding riches of His
grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2:7). No wonder the
apostle John exclaimed with astonishment, "It has not yet been revealed what we
shall be."
Glorious prospects await those who have trusted Christ for salva-tion. God is not
done with us yet. The best is yet to be. —P R Van Gorder (Ibid)
While you prepare a place for us, Lord,
prepare us for that place.
Ephesians 2:7 so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches
of His grace in kindness towardus in Christ Jesus. (NASB: Lockman)
Greek:hina endeixetai (3SAMS) en tois aiosin tois eperchomenois
(PMPMPD) to huperballon (PAPNSA) ploutoHYPERLINK
"http://studylight.org/lex/grk/view.cgi?number=4149"s tHYPERLINK
"http://studylight.org/lex/grk/view.cgi?number=3588"es
charitoHYPERLINK "http://studylight.org/lex/grk/view.cgi?number=5485"s
autou en chrestoteti eph' hemaHYPERLINK
"http://studylight.org/lex/grk/view.cgi?number=2248"s en
ChristHYPERLINK "http://studylight.org/lex/grk/view.cgi?number=5547"o
Iesou.
Amplified: He did this that He might clearly demonstrate through the ages
to come the immeasurable (limitless, surpassing) riches of His free grace
(His unmerited favor) in [His] kindness and goodness of heart toward us in
Christ Jesus. (Amplified Bible - Lockman)
NLT: And so God can always point to us as examples of the incredible
wealth of his favor and kindness toward us, as shown in all he has done for
us through Christ Jesus. (NLT - Tyndale House)
Phillips: Thus he shows for all time the tremendous generosity of the grace
and kindness he has expressed towards us in Christ Jesus. (Phillips:
Touchstone)
Wuest: in order that He might exhibit for His own glory in the ages that will
pile themselves one upon another in continuous succession, the surpassing
wealth of His grace in kindness to us in Christ Jesus.

Young's Literal: that He might show, in the ages that are coming, the
exceeding riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus
SO THAT IN THE AGES TO COME:hina endeixetai(3SAMS) en tois aiosin
tois eperchomenois (PMPMPD):
• Ep 3:5,21; Psalms 41:13; 106:48; Isaiah 60:15; 1Timothy 1:17
MacArthur
Wuest: in order that He might exhibit for His own glory in the ages that will
pile themselves one upon another in continuous succession, the surpassing
wealth of His grace in kindness to us in Christ Jesus.
So that (in order that) (2443) (hina) expresses purposeof something (marking the
end), the cause for or on account of which anything is done ("toward that end"). "It
may also be used simply to indicate a happening, event or result of anything, or
that in which the action terminates." (Zodhiates) Here it introduces a purpose
clause (Always pause to ponderthis term of conclusion) explaining why believers
have been made alive, raised and seated with Christ. The reason God accomplished
these three aspects of our salvation, is that He might demonstrate His grace in the
coming ages.
ETERNALLIFE DEPENDSON ETERNALGRACE!
Ages (165) (aion [word study]) in this context refers to a period of time and thus
denotes duration or continuance of time. Aion can refer to an indefinitely long
period or lapse of time (perpetuity, forever, eternity) or as in this verse to an "age"
of time and spacein which people now live and have lived since the world was
drastically changed by the Flood in the days of Noah.
What are the ages to come? The first age in which we will see some of these
"surpassing riches" is the present age in which we live. The next age is the
Messianic age (cf Heb 6:5 "powers of the age to come"). Then Christ will deliver
up the kingdom to His Father (1Cor 15:24) which would begin another "age" with
a New Heaven and a New Earth (Rev 21:1ff). Could there be still other "ages"?Let
us not speculate but set our mind on the things above, seeking first His Kingdom

and His righteousness (Col3:1-2-see notes Colossians 3:1; 3:2, Mt 6:33-note)
knowing with confidence what Paul writes to the saints at Corinth…
For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part,
but then I shall know fully just as I also have been fully known. But now
abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love. (1Cor
13:12-13).
To come (1904) (eperchomai from epí = upon, to + érchomai = come) literally
means to go or come upon or over a person or place. Literally this verb describes
the indescribable wonder of "the ages that are coming one upon another". The
present tense pictures these ages as already (continually) approaching. Dearset
apart saved sinner are you living with this "other age, world to come"
mindset in this present evil age which is passing awayeven along with its
wickedlusts?
HE MIGHT SHOW THE SURPASSING RICHES OF HIS GRACE: to
huperballon (PAPNSA) ploutos tes charitos autou:
• Eph 2:4; 2Thessalonians 1:12; 1Timothy 1:16; 1Peter 1:12; Revelation 5:9,
10, 11, 12, 13, 14
MacArthur
He might show (1731) (endeíknumi [word study] from en = in, to, this prefix
suggesting "complete demonstration" + deíknumi = show) means to show forth, to
display, to cause to be made known, to point out. The idea is that of giving outward
proof(Heb 6:10) or as "perpetrating something openly against someone" (used
once this way - 2Ti 4:14). This is a verb of striking contrast for in Ro 9:22 we it
speaks of the demonstration of God's wrathand here in Eph 2:7 it is a
demonstration of God's grace!Hallelujah!
In the Greek papyri endeiknumi could have a quasi-legal sense of proving a
petition or charge or of proving that a charge was wrong. Josephus used the word
to describe Herod Agrippa's display of generosity to those of other nations
(Josephus Antiquities, 19:30)

Paul uses the middle voice which is significant as it indicates that the subject of
the verb acts in his own interest. God is the subject and He will exhibit His
kindness to the saints for His own glory, in order that He may be glorified. The
middle voice signifies that God demonstrates for Himself to His cosmic audience
the wonders of His gracious generosity. Spectators will be the angels and saints
will be the objects of this ineffably sublime kindness and will be on eternal display,
basking in the sunshine of God’ssmile, enjoying the riches of His blessings, all, in
order that He might be glorified by the angelic hosts and indeed by all heaven. As
we ponder these truly transcendent truths, may the Spirit of the Living God prompt
us to pause and proclaim with all our heart that All Heavens Declares.
Endeíknumi - 11x in 11v - Usage: demonstrate(4), did(1), show(4), showing(2),
shown(1).
Romans 2:15-note in that they show the work of the Law written in their
hearts, their consciencebearing witness and their thoughts alternately
accusing or else defending them,
Romans 9:17-note For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, "FOR THIS VERY
PURPOSEI RAISED YOU UP, TO DEMONSTRATE MY POWER IN
YOU, AND THAT MY NAME MIGHT BE PROCLAIMED
THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE EARTH."
Comment: As practicalapplication, God still uses weak vesselsto
display His mighty power. May He strengtheneachus so that we might
fully accomplishthis high and holy purpose during our short stay on
terra firma! Amen
Romans 9:22-note What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath
and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath
prepared for destruction?
2 Corinthians 8:24 Therefore openly before the churches, show them the
proofof your love and of our reason for boasting about you.
Ephesians 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.
1 Timothy 1:16 Yet for this reason I found mercy, so that in me as the
foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience as an
example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life.
2 Timothy 4:14-note Alexander the coppersmith did me much harm
("showedme much evil"); the Lord will repay him according to his deeds.
Titus 2:10-note not pilfering, but showing all good faith so that they will
adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in every respect.

Titus 3:2-note to malign no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing every
consideration for all men.
Hebrews 6:10-note For God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the
love which you have showntoward His name, in having ministered and in
still ministering to the saints. 11 And we desire that each one of you show
the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end,
Endeíknumi - 7x in non-apocryphal Septuagint(Lxx) - Gen 50:15, 17; Ex 9:16;
Josh 7:15, 16, 17;
The Life Application Bible Commentary - There is an expression: “When you
see a turtle on a fence post, you know he didn’tget there by himself.” It’s obvious
that someone had to put the turtle up there. In a very real sense, Christians are
turtles sitting atop fence posts, putthere by the grace of God. It’s as if someone
asked God, “How can I be sure you’re as loving and gracious as you say you are?”
His responseis simply to display the church—flawed, sinful, capable of stupidity
and faithlessness—as Exhibit A, demonstrating his infinite patience and mercy.
How else would a group of such obviously fallen men and women get together and
do anything for the glory of God?Who else but God would use people like us?
You are a display case for the grace of God. Demonstrate his great kindness to you
by sharing it with others. Use his patience with you to witness to others. (Barton,
B, et al: The NIV Life Application Commentary Series: Tyndale)
William MacDonaldexplains that the "miracle of transforming grace will be the
subject of eternal revelation. Throughout the endless ages God will be unveiling to
the heavenly throng what it costHim to send His Son to this jungle of sin, and
what it costthe Lord Jesus to bear our sins at the cross." (Believer's Bible
Commentary)
The KJV Bible Commentary agrees writing that "God delights to show great
grace to great sinners. God will display the trophies of His grace throughout the
endless ages of eternity. Saints will be concrete demonstrations of the overflowing
wealth of His grace." (Dobson, E G, Charles Feinberg, E Hindson, Woodrow
Kroll, H L. Wilmington: KJV Bible Commentary)
Surpassing (5235) (huperballo from hupér = above + bállo = cast, put) literally
means to throw beyond the usual mark and was used in this way in secular Greek
in a description of a spear throwing contest. All the NT uses are by Paul, and all
are figurative uses expressing a degree which exceeds extraordinary. It means to
attain a degree that extraordinarily exceeds a point on a scale of extent. To be
surpassing, extraordinary, outstanding, exceeding, highly eminent.
Huperballo - 5x in 5v - Usage: surpasses(2), surpassing(3).

2 Corinthians 3:10 Forindeed what had glory, in this case has no glory
because of the glory that surpasses it.
2 Corinthians 9:14 while they also, by prayer on your behalf, yearn for you
because of the surpassing grace of God in you.
Ephesians 1:19 and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us
who believe. These are in accordancewith the working of the strength of His
might
Ephesians 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.
Ephesians 3:19 and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge,
that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.
Huperballo is used 6x in the apocryphaand none in the Non-apocryphal
Septuagint - 2 Macc 4:13, 24; 7:42; 3 Macc 2:23; Sir 5:7; 25:11;
In a word, God's riches are immeasurable, extraordinary, outstanding! We need to
recall this great truth to our minds (and turn it into a praise in prayer) when we are
tempted to think otherwise and be pulled down into the miry clay of this present
world ruled by the Evil One. The Fortune 500 list of the World's Wealthiest, pales
in comparison to the inestimable, inexhaustible wealth of our very own dear
Heavenly Father!
Riches (4149) (ploutos from pletho = fill) defines a plentiful supply, a wealth, an
abundance, plentitude.
A Roman matron was once asked, “Where are your jewels?” She responded by
calling her two sons and, pointing to them, said, “These are my jewels.” So it is
with Christ and his Church. He is going to show the all-surpassing riches of his
grace to his children in the what F F Bruce referred to as the “limitless future, as
age succeeds age."
F B Meyer writes that WE ARE MONUMENTS OF GOD'S WEALTH
(Ephesians 2:4-8)
That He could love us when we were dead like Lazarus, in trespasses and
sins; that He has linked us in the bonds ofindissoluble union with his Son;
that He had made it possible for us to share his Resurrection, his Triumph,
and his Throne; that we, the poorchildren of earth and sin, should be
admitted into the inner circle of Deity--this will be, to all eternity, the
mightiest proofof the exceeding riches of his grace.
The word "exceeding" might be rendered "beyond throwing distance." Fling
your thoughts forward as far as you can, and there will always be an

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