I've been meditating on Ephesians 2. Rich passage detailing who I was ("dead in the trespasses in sins in which you once walked") but how God saved me because of His rich mercy and kindness.
Charles Spurgeon. First of all, I just love this man. Said it before: once I'm in Heaven, once I can get off my face (and will that even happen?), I'm looking for Charles. It is because of God's kindness that I know this man at all, that he has ministered in countless ways to me and my family. So God alone is to be praised for Charles Spurgeon. But I sure do want to hug his big ol' neck (are we still, um, large in Heaven? probably not, with the whole new glorified body thing)... anyway, I do know I'll know him, slender version or not. And I can't wait to weep tears of joy with him over how God chose to use him to draw people to Christ and then minister peace to their hearts as they began to travel Home.
So, Charles Spurgeon. I'm reading his commentaries on Ephesians 2, and God is just shredding the callouses off of my heart as I am understanding more of His love that is so far beyond my understanding.
Who I was before Christ was so incredibly ugly and sick and dead. I hated God and lived a life that blared that message to all who saw me. I despised the ways of the LORD and wanted only to be my own god. And I lived that "in-Your-face" rebelliousness for many years before God changed me.
But Ephesians 2 says this:
"But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love
with which He loved (me), even when (I) was dead
in (my) trespasses, made (me) alive together with Christ."
As a dead person, I spat in God's face with my life and drug His name in the mud as I confessed to "being a Christian."
"But God"... as someone else has already said, there are no sweeter words.
But God remained faithful to His choice of me. And here's what Spurgeon said:
"WHAT GOD DID FOR US, even when we were dead in our sins: Well, first of all, He remained faithful to His choice of us. He had chosen His people or ever the earth was, and He did not choose them in the dark. He knew right well what their nature would be, and also the practice which would grow out of their nature; so that nothing that has happened has ever surprised the Lord concerning any one of His people. [And I am blown away that He continued with me...] He was well aware beforehand of all their corruption and filthiness; so, when He saw them acting as I have described [referring to what Spurgeon had already written], He did not turn from His purpose to save them. Blessed be His name for this. It is one of the wonders of His grace, and proves the greatness of His love."
Knowing, remembering, who I was; being reminded that He always knew what I would be; hearing freshly that He chose to remain faithful to His choice of me and His love for me, because He is only and ever faithful...
What heart could not be stirred to love? And yet I remain convinced that my heart is stirred by His grace alone, even at the revelation of this incredible truth.
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