Ephesians 1:7 “In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;”

Hello readers, back with a new blog today, and continuing in the book of Ephesians. “In Christ” is the theme of this book. You must be in Christ. You get “in Christ” by believing “in Christ”, and may God give you the grace to do so. And if you do and are, then continue to abide in Christ, because our purpose, blessing and life is in Christ.

What we are talking about today is God’s grace, inspired from the phrase from the verse quoted above… “the riches of his grace”. Notice how “the riches of his grace” immediately follows the words “redemption” and “forgiveness”. Because the salvation of man is entirely based on the grace of God. In Jesus Christ, you’ll find God’s grace to man so gloriously illustrated and proven to us.

This book will later say “for by grace are ye saved through faith”. That’s a liberating truth, because it wipes away all the works and earning acceptance based religious systems of the world for approaching God. God saved us because he chose to, and he chose to in Christ. He wasn’t obligated to, he didn’t have to, but he did. That’s grace.

The Bible teaches that you can fail of that grace, or you can be saved by that grace… but be sure of this, that God’s grace is extended to you today. God’s grace is rich toward man, don’t despise it while he shows it to you. So may you start in grace today if you are unsaved, but if you are saved, continue in that grace.

One thing that God’s grace does is it “elects us”. When you believe you become the elect of God. Because the very first mention of elect is in a reference to Jesus Christ, and we are elect “in him”. You know how when a president is voted in, and they call him the “president elect”. It’s because although he hasn’t taken power yet, he is elect to do so.

As the elect of God, we are entitled and elected to the blessing, inheritance and future glory that God has predestined for us. God’s not progressively deciding what he’s going to do, he already had salvation and glorification mapped out before the world began. So I’m not guessing about my destiny, I already know my destiny in Christ. I know my election. I won’t get any surprises. And by the grace of God, my prayer is that as he is, so am I in this world.

I was thinking about how superior God really proves himself through his grace. The wisdom and prudence he has shown in the redemption of man does abound just like the Bible says. Compare Biblical Christianity to the religions of this world, and all those religions of the world lack grace. They cannot and do not extend grace to their followers. But the Bible says that “grace and truth came by Jesus Christ”.

No other religion in this world extends grace from the divine. All other religions of this world are merit based systems where you work to earn “acceptance” with your idea of “God”. But our God wants a relationship with us based on grace. Think of how superior that is. I’m sure you like when people are gracious to you, and when you are gracious to others, there is a lot of power in that. Grace has moving power, and God’s grace moves alright, and hopefully it has moved you saving faith in Jesus Christ.

If you’re looking for God’s grace, you will find it only in his Son. God’s grace is not extended towards us in any other way. As said “grace and truth came by Jesus Christ”.

I thought about how gracious God has really been to us. We take forgiveness of sins and eternal life for granted. But these are no small things. What about how gracious God is to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. What about how gracious God is to plan and provide for our salvation before we even needed or wanted it. God really wants to save us, and as many receive his Son, that’s as many as he will save “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.”

So for the believer, it is all grace, grace, grace. Thank God for his grace. But God’s grace is also hugely misrepresented and misunderstood. Nowadays, it seems that to many professing Christians, “God’s grace” is just a license to sin. The worldly Christian view of God’s grace is an idea of unmerited favour no matter what they do. But if you have ever truly received God’s grace, that does not permit sin, but gives power over sin. Many people claiming to live by God’s grace show a mindset, spirit and life that is utterly destitute of God’s grace.

Maybe to help understand grace, just think for a moment about your relationships to other people, particularly the one you love above all else. Would you rather a relationship with them based on grace or obligation? And we tend to find it easy to show grace to people that we love. But when we hate people, they don’t have much grace from us at all. They do one wrong thing and we get angry, upset, resentful, bitter and unforgiving towards them. But then think of God’s grace, which he showed to us while we were yet sinners.

Maybe while we are talking about grace, we should actually define it. Webster’s 1828 dictionary defines grace as “Favor; good will; kindness; disposition to oblige another” and “the free unmerited love and favor of God, the spring and source of all the benefits men receive from him.” Hopefully that helps.

So in Ephesians, the Bible talks about the “riches” of his grace particularly, meaning that there’s a lot found in God’s grace to us. Riches means “Wealth; opulence; affluence; possessions of land, good or money in abundance” And “In Scripture, an abundance of spiritual blessings.” True riches are found in God’s grace. A life saved and lived by God’s grace is a truly rich life. God’s grace is the one thing you do not want to be poor on… it’s what we need above all else. God’s grace is the true riches.

And as I thought about “the riches of his grace”, I actually thought of Boaz in the book of Ruth. Because in Ruth 2:1 we are introduced to a man who is going to love and redeem Ruth the Moabitess, a man called Boaz who the Bible describes as “a mighty man of wealth”. He was a rich man. For some reason “riches of his grace” and Boaz just became linked in my mind. I’d never seen it before, but Boaz is an incredible portrayal of God’s grace, he’s pictures God’s grace toward us.

There’s so much there. But Boaz to Ruth is like God’s grace to us. Did you know that Boaz was the only person both willing and able to redeem Ruth? You know that the only way you will ever be redeemed is by God’s grace? Nothing else can redeem you. Nothing you can do or not do. No amount of self reformation, new leaves, trying harder, doing better, sincerity, dedication, zeal… nothing. The redemptive power is in God’s grace, which has come through Jesus Christ. Come under his wings! Come under the wings of God’s grace.

Boaz was qualified to redeem Ruth. He had power to do so. God’s grace has power to save you. And what qualified Boaz was the fact he was a kinsman. You know Jesus Christ is our kinsman redeemer? He was born into this world as a man, he called himself the Son of man. And as our kinsman, he can redeem us. The Levitical law stated that the shedding of blood alone makes atonement, and so he became a partaker of flesh and blood to make the atonement for the sin of man. Amazing grace.

But And as I thought about Boaz and God’s grace, one thing struck me above all else. Boaz said to Ruth “Hearest thou not, my daughter? Go not to glean in another field, neither go from hence, but abide here fast by my maidens:” And it hit me, because how easy it is to go to glean from other barren fields instead of staying in the field of God’s grace. Hearest thou not? And you read a book like Galatians, which is essentially about a whole bunch of Christians who went into another field. They left the field of God’s grace for the field of circumcision. Christianity turned into a works based system relationship with God, rather than a relationship with God based on his good grace.

Stay in the field! Don’t stray from the field of God’s grace to any other field. There are a lot of other fields out there. But their owner cannot redeem you. If she went into another field, that wasn’t Boaz’s field, and had no redemption. I’ve spent time in different fields, and it is barren, fruitless effort with no redemptive power. There’s redemptive power in God’s grace alone. Remember, Boaz as a portrait of God’s grace shows that only God’s grace has the power to redeem you.

The word “abide” is in there, because abiding in Christ is abiding in the grace of God. Let’s just stay there. Let’s live our lives serving Jesus Christ there. Let’s stay in God’s grace. Stay in the field! Because you look at the relationship Boaz had with Ruth, and it’s an incredible relationship they had. It was a relationship of grace. As Ruth said to Boaz “Why have I found grace in thine eyes, that thou shouldest take knowledge of me, seeing I am a stranger?” You know Ephesians talks about us being strangers before Christ? Man, this Bible is incredible. But may this Bible teach us that a relationship and walk based on grace is the best kind of relationship. SO when you do what you do, do it because of grace and by grace, not because you’re trying to earn what Jesus Christ already gave you, or because you’re trying to prove the worthiness of your flesh which has already been disproven.

So if you can, it would be great to read Ruth and think about “the riches of his grace”. You’ll see there’s so much more there. Such as she was an accursed Moabiteess… of whom the law said “An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord“… yet Boaz took her in! God’s grace will take you where you cannot go. Boaz is a picture of God’s grace, as he was an incredibly wealthy and powerful man, so there is an abundance and quality of life in God’s grace which is unmatched, unrivalled and impossible anywhere else. So why go to any other field? There’s nothing better than the field of God’s grace… let’s stay there and glean in that field. And as Paul wrote at the start of so many of his letters “Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.”

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