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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, 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 Rom. 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. 8: 38, 39),
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 Eph. 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". Eph. 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 a
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.