BoldGrace

Riches of His Grace

From “Tableserver” a few months back…….

Continuing the theme that many “believers” have not seen the greatly abundant grace that has been lavished upon the undeserving I simply offer several of the writings of Paul.

Please, those who hate reading the bible and proof-texting, bare with me as it is only my desire to demonstrate what a vast, and unfortunately too often neglected, supply of grace is available to the world through the grace of God and the work of the cross and that the evidence of it is right there in the bible.

In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us. In all wisdom and insight He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth. In Him (Eph 1:7-10)

Here again we see how God has lavished His grace upon us and that it is called “the riches” of His grace.

I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, (Eph 1:18)

Here Paul prays for those at Ephesus, to whom he preached to have the eyes of their hearts see “the riches” of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.

But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. (Eph 2:4-7)

This again reaffirms that God is “rich in mercy” and points out that it applies “even when we were dead in our transgressions”. Also notice that His grace is not just riches but surpassing riches or as the KJV says, exceeding riches.

To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, (Eph 3:8)

Here Paul calls it ” the unfathomable riches of Christ”. The Greek word here for unfathomable means “not tracked out” or untraceable. We need to dig into the depths of this grace to truly see how abundant it really is, rather than devote so much time as to why people don’t deserve it. In doing so we will discover that it is untraceable and that we cannot come to the end of it.

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. Eph 3:14-19)

Again Paul describes the “riches of His glory” and prays for the Ephesians to “comprehend the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge”.

Of this church I was made a minister according to the stewardship from God bestowed on me for your benefit, so that I might fully carry out the preaching of the word of God, that is, the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but has now been manifested to His saints, to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ. (Col 1:25-28)

Paul here describes how “God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory”. Notice who he is admonishing, teaching and presenting as perfect in Christ…..every man.

Can you see how often Paul had to go beyond the word riches and add additional descriptive adjectives to get across what he wanted to say concerning God’s grace?

Oh how much the eyes of modern day believers need to be opened to the surpassing greatness of the power of God’s grace and be freed from the blindness of their own self-righteousness, a self-righteousness that, in their minds, deprives others of grace this untraceable, exceeding grace.