glory affords!  This rich mercy originates not in our misery, neither does it

arise out of any covenant with our `fathers', it is `For His great love

wherewith He loved us'.  The word agape `love' occurs ten times in Ephesians,

six of these references being used of the believer's love manifested to the

saints (Eph. 1:15; 4:2,15,16; 5:2; 6:23).  The phrase `in love' occurs six times

also, being used of God (Eph. 1:4) and of the believer (Eph. 3:17; 4:2,15,16 and

Reverting to Romans again for a comparison, we discover that the apostle

could traverse the whole story of redemption in Romans 1 to 4, without

mentioning the love of God once, this being reserved for Romans 5:1-5, where he

can say:

`Therefore being justified by faith ... the love of God is shed abroad'.

Again, we read right through the Gospel of Matthew, without reading once

that God loved the sinner or the saint.  The same is true of Mark and Luke,

unless we include the words of Mark 10:21 `Jesus beholding him loved him'.  We

must traverse the four Gospels up to John 3:16 before we come to the first

reference to the love of God to man.  The fact therefore that so early in

Ephesians, chapter 1:4, we read of the love of God, is all the more remarkable,

and further to realize that that love was in operation ages before we came into

existence makes it even more wonderful.  The love of God operating `before the

foundation of the world' (Eph. 1:4) prompted His choice of us in Christ; this

same love, in time, moves Him in great mercy to quicken us (Eph. 2:5), and sets

before us an endless yet ravishing quest, namely `to know the love of Christ,

which passeth knowledge' (Eph. 3:19).  If Paul, writing his triumphant

conclusion to Romans 8, could say:

`I am persuaded ... nor principalities, nor powers ... shall be able to

separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord' (Rom.

how much more we, whose destined sphere of glory is `far above all principality

and power', can rejoice in this unchanging everlasting love!

We come back again to Ephesians 2:4.  Because of the love that God had

towards us, manifesting itself in His choice before the foundation of the world,

persisting in spite of the advent of sin and death, enduring even though the

destined heirs of glory had become `children of wrath' even as others, loving so

much as to go to the extreme of the death of the cross on their account, this

love and rich mercy are seen in this passage to issue in life, life from the

dead, He `hath quickened us ... raised us'.  Ephesians 2:5 resumes after the

parenthesis, but with one slight difference kai humas `And you': kai hemas `And

we'.  It is a false interpretation that makes the pronoun `you' refer

exclusively to the Gentile and the `we' exclusively to the Jewish member of the

Body.  When the apostle says `we', he speaks of both Jew and Gentile together,

one in common need, one in common salvation, one in glory.  If this should be

doubted, the experiment should be made by the reader, segregating all that is

said of `us' and `we' from all that is said of `you'.  It will be found to yield

no intelligible result and is artificial in the extreme.  What is true of `you'

(Eph. 2:1) is true of `us' (Eph. 2:5), for `the both' and `the twain' of later

verses are already in view.