EPHESIANS: Rich in Mercy
EPHESIANS Number 22:
Rich in Mercy
Ephesians 2:4–6 (KJV 1900)
“But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”
God is rich in mercy. Mercy is kindness or concern expressed for someone in need. (BDAG) Mercy is compassion, clemency, lenience. If this does not sound like the god you have been told about, the god you have been told about is foreign to the Bible.
We are told that if we see Jesus, we see God. Colossians 1:15 tells us He is the exact image of God. Hebrews 1:3 says that Jesus is the exact representation, or express image, of God.
When we look at Jesus, we find things like Matthew 9:36 “But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd.” (KJV 1900) We encounter Mark 1:41 “And Jesus, moved with compassion, put forth his hand, and touched him, and saith unto him, I will; be thou clean.” (KJV 1900)
In Titus 3:5 we read, “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost” (KJV 1900). Soon we will see the same thought expressed in verses 8 and 9. We are saved by grace through faith. That Father has made this the way for us to be reconciled and experience His great Love is mercy beyond compare.
Father’s mercy as expressed in the person and work of the Lord Jesus is previewed in shadow in Exodus 25:21 “And thou shalt put the mercy seat above upon the ark; and in the ark thou shalt put the testimony that I shall give thee.” (KJV 1900)
From the Mercy Seat, God would talk with the people through the mediator, the High Priest. The Mercy Seat is also called the Seat of Atonement. In the Hebrew scriptures, the word used is from the same root as the pitch used to seal Noah in the Ark. It’s also used to celebrate the day of atonement, Yom Kippur.
Jesus is the Ark
Jesus is the Testimony
Jesus is the Word of God
Jesus is the Atonement and Propitiation
Jesus is the Mercy of God, full of grace and truth.
Mercifully, by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, God has “quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”
Saints, we are in Christ. In the spiritual realm, only what happens to Christ can happen to us. We suffer tribulation in this temporal realm because we are appointed as ambassadors here, but as Paul wrote so eloquently in Romans 8:18 “I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” (KJV 1900)
