It is interesting to observe the variety of terms here employed to describe the source of all the blessings of salvation. It is no longer a question of power, as it was in the first chapter (Ephesians 1:19, 20), but of love, mercy, grace, and kindness.

I. OUR SALVATION IS OF GOD'S MERCY. "God who is rich in mercy." There is a distinction between mercy and love, for love is the foundation of mercy. God is called the "Father of mercies" (2 Corinthians 1:3); mercy is his delight, for "he delighteth in mercy" (Micah 7:18); he betrotheth us to himself in mercies (Hosea 2:19); he begets us again "according to his abundant mercy" (1 Peter 1:3); and we are led to pray, "Lord, according to the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions" (Psalm 51:1). Believers are therefore well described as "vessels of mercy" (Romans 9:23).

II. OUR SALVATION IS OF LOVE. "According to the great love wherewith he hath loved us." The apostolic saying, "God is love," supplies us with the best Christian idea of God, as welt as with the right key to explain all his actions. God's love is more than kindness, which is, indeed, one of his attributes, but love is, properly speaking, the nature of him who unites all these attributes in himself. The incarnation of the only begotten Son is the greatest fact of the Divine love, but is not disjoined from the deep humiliation and suffering to which it enabled him to descend. The love of God to sinners is

(1) a great love (Ephesians 2:4), "a love strong as death" (Song of Solomon 8:6, 7);

(2) an everlasting love (Jeremiah 31:3);

(3) an unchanging love (Malachi 3:6);

(4) an invincible love (Romans 8:39);

(5) it is like the Father's love to the Son, "As thou hast loved me" (John 17:23).

III. OUR SALVATION IS OF GRACE. "By grace ye are saved."

1. It is not of works, but of grace (Ephesians 2:8). It is "of faith, that it might be of grace" (Romans 4:16).

2. We are accepted by grace (Ephesians 1:6); our calling is by grace (2 Timothy 1:9).

3. We have a good hope through grace.

4. Our election is of grace (Romans 11:5).

5. The grace of God abounds in faith and love (1 Timothy 1:14).

6. We are under a reign of grace (Romans 6:14); we have our standing in grace (Romans 5:2).

7. It is the greatest of all concerns to establish men's hearts in "the true grace of God" (1 Peter 5:12).

IV. OUR SALVATION IS OF GOD'S KINDNESS. (Ver. 7.) "The word here," says an old writer, "implies all sweetness, and all candidness, and all friendliness, and all heartiness, and all goodness, and goodness of nature." Scripture speaks of God as kind (Psalm 36:5; Luke 6:35), and of his "loving-kindnesses" (Isaiah 64:7). It is made the root of mercy in God (Titus 3:4); for the apostle here speaks of his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. Thus our salvation, first and last, is attributed to nothing in ourselves, but to love, mercy, grace, and kindness in God. - T.C.

1. God is a God of rich mercies.(1) Let us acknowledge His mercy to us.(2) Let us imitate it in our dealings with others.

2. It is the love of God which procures His mercy toward us.(1) This may assure us of God's favour towards us. If a man out of love have sought the friendship of his enemy, and used means to be reconciled to him, is it not likely that he will be constant in his love to him to the end? However this may be with man, it is certain that God will not change (John 13:2; Malachi 3:7).(2) This teaches us our duty to God and man. He has loved us first, therefore must we love Him again, His love must constrain us; and our love is a reflection of His to us (1 John 4:19; 2 Corinthians 5:14; 1 John 4:11).

(Paul Bayne.)

I. THE MOTIVES OF THE DIVINE MERCY.

1. The promotion of His own glory. To show mercy is the most sublime work, and, emphatically, a Divine action.(1) Never despair of the boundless mercy of God; to doubt is to dishonour Him.(2) Show mercy also to others, that God's Spirit may be made manifest in you.

2. His holiness. God, by His love of all that is good, and by His hatred of all that is bad, is moved to extirpate what is morally bad. This design is best accomplished by the conversion of the sinner, because if he were to die a sinner, that which is bad would be and would remain permanent in him. Hence the long suffering of God, His attempts to save the sinner, His readiness to forgive, that sin may be abolished.

3. The love of the Father for His Son. Jesus has purchased and redeemed mankind by His death. By losing one soul, He loses a most dear property, the price of His own precious blood. Therefore, the Father is moved by love to save the redeemed and to recover the lost soul (John 6:39).

4. His infinite benevolence.

II. THE IMMENSE GREATNESS OF DIVINE MERCY.

1. Like all the Divine perfections, it is as great as God Himself. "Thy mercy is above the heavens."

2. It extends to all sins.(1) Despair not because of their number (Isaiah 1:18).(2) Nor on account of their hideousness (Romans 5:20). Have not the saintly penitents obtained forgiveness of the most hideous crimes? "A murderer is the first stone God made use of in establishing His eternal kingdom," says .

3. It embraces all sinners without exception.

4. It lasts till death.

III. THE WONDERFUL MANNER OF ITS MANIFESTATION.

1. Before the sinner is converted. This love is manifested(1) By graciously sparing him who, a criminal as he is, has forfeited every right to temporal and eternal life. When all nature is in arms against the sinner, God restrains it.(2) By incessantly seeking, inviting, urging, with such tender solicitude, as if the Shepherd had forgotten all His faithful sheep.(3) By ardently longing for Him.

2. Whilst the sinner is converted.(1) By receiving him kindly and meeting him graciously.(2) By forgiving and forgetting all offences.(3) By rejoicing exceedingly at finding again him who was lost.

3. After the sinner is converted.(1) By granting His efficacious graces.(2) By recalling to life the merits which in consequence of mortal sin had died away (Zechariah 10:6).(3) By admitting the penitent to a participation in the sacraments and ordinances of the Church.(4) By receiving him into His everlasting joy and happiness in heaven.

(Querico Rossi.)

Mercy is the aspect of God which the sinner first and most needs. Dare I approach His awful throne, all wretched and guilty as I am? The apostle answers, He is rich in mercy! But let us contemplate the riches of God a little more generally, and see how His bounty meets and supplies all our wants.

1. We are creatures who have test all — have nothing and need much; and to meet this God is rich in goodness (Romans 2:4). He is good — that is, He is God; for the name God is derived from His goodness. The earth and the heavens, the laws of the moral and physical worlds, are conceived and established out of pure goodness. His fulness overflows, and worlds and boundless systems of worlds arise to manifest and enjoy His goodness.

2. Are we impotent and incapable of procuring the Divine favour? Then, says Paul, He is rich in grace (Ephesians 2:7), which is the same nearly as "the rich in mercy" of my text. You need no merit — you require no preparation in coming to God.

3. But wherein is this riches of mercy seen? It is seen in the degradation and ruin from which it delivers us; it is seen in the glory and blessedness to which we are raised; it is seen in the number and heinousness of the sins which it forgives; and it is seen in the greatness of the number of the saved.

4. But there is still another aspect of the human character, which the riches of God meets. We long for power, for fame, for glory and immortality. We would be great, and the aspiration is not in itself wrong, but it is often misdirected. We find ourselves in this world bounded on every side by insurmountable barriers, baffling all our efforts of knowledge and of power. But are we satisfied? No, no; the soul longs for complete knowledge, pines for the possession of power, seeks to wing her flight through the sparkling stars and circumambient worlds, up to the empyrean throne itself, from whence proceed such manifestations of wisdom, beauty, and strength. And God meets this longing of the soul by that other word, "the riches of His glory" (Philippians 4:19). He is rich in goodness, He is rich in grace, He is rich in mercy, and He is rich in glory. Here, honourable ambition may expand itself; and the soul, enlarged and purified by the Spirit of God, may drink deeply and more deeply forever — may approach forever and for evermore, in love, wisdom, knowledge, and power, the character of Him who loved us, and whom we love.

5. Mercy is nearly allied to pain or misery, and the ideas are in most languages connected. It is not impossible that "eleos (mercy) may come from the Hebrew chil," to be in pain, as the English word is from misericordiae, the pain of the heart, the sorrow which goodness feels at the sight of wretchedness and woe. It is this feeling (if we may apply it so) in the heart of our heavenly Father which is the fountain of redemption.

(W. Graham, D. D.)

Not as the world loves doth God love. They love today and hate tomorrow; wearing their friends like flowers, which we may behold in their bosoms whilst they are fresh and sweet, but soon they begin to wither, and are laid aside. Whereas the love of God to His people is everlasting, and He wears them as a signet upon His right hand, which He will never part with.

(E. White.)

The signs and tokens of love are four.

1. We think of those whom we love. Love begins in the heart, and leads away the thoughts over seas, rivers, mountains, and all kinds of impediments, to its object. Such is the love of God. Its dwelling place is His own bosom; and before all worlds His delights were with the sons of men.

2. But love seeks fellowship with its object; and God visited us in the person of His Son that He might woo our fond hearts from the world to Himself.

3. Then, again, true love willingly suffers for its object, if need be, and the affection which abides not this test is not genuine. God cannot suffer, but His incarnate Son did, and all the fountains of the great deep of Divine sorrow were broken up on the cross.

4. Love seeks to exalt its object; and so God, having taken our nature into union with His own, did exalt and glorify the Son of man, our Eider Brother and Head, with His own right hand, in heavenly places, far above all principality and power.

(W. Graham, D. D.)

I asked, in New Hampshire, how much it took to make a farmer rich there; and I was told that if a man was worth five thousand dollars he was considered rich. If a man had a good farm, and had ten thousand dollars out at interest, oh! he was very rich — passing rich. I dropped a little farther down, into Concord, where some magnates of railroads live (they are the aristocrats just now), and I found that the idea of riches was quite different there. A man there was not considered rich unless he had a hundred or a hundred and fifty thousand dollars, in pretty clear stuff. I go to New York, and ask men how much it takes to make one rich, and they say, "There never was a greater mistake made than that of supposing that five or six hundred thousand dollars make a man rich. What does that sum amount to?" I go into the upper circles of New York, where millionaires, or men worth a million dollars or over, used to be considered rich; and there, if a man is worth five or ten millions it is thought that he is coming on. It is said, "He will be rich one of these days." When a man's wealth amounts to fifty or a hundred millions he is very rich. Now if such is the idea of riches in material things, what must riches be when you rise above the highest men to angels, and above angels to God! What must be the circuit which makes riches when it reaches Him? And when yon apply this term, increscent, to the Divine nature, as it respects the qualities of love and mercy, what must riches be in God, the infinite, whose experiences are never less wide than infinity! What must be love and mercy, and their stores, when it is said that God is rich in them?

(H. W. Beecher.)

The Rev. John Davies says, "A certain man had a wayward son; his conduct brought down his father to a premature grave. On the day of the funeral the son was present, saw unmoved the pale face of his father in the coffin, and stood unmoved on the brink of the grave. The family retraced their steps. Their father's will was read; in that testament was the name of the undutiful son. As his name was read his heart heaved with emotion, his eyes were bedewed with tears, and he was heard to say, 'I did not think that my father would have so kindly thought of me in his will.' In the family of Christ some of us in reading His Testament, and thinking upon His great love and marvellous gifts, feel our unprofitableness and unworthiness, and are filled with love and wonder."

When Dr. Arnot was in this country — he is now in heaven — I heard him use in a sermon an illustration that impressed me. He said: "Have you not been in a home where the family were at dinner, and have you not seen the old family dog standing near and watching his master, and looking at every morsel of food as if he wished he had it? If his master drops a crumb he at once licks it up and devours it; but if his master were to set the dish of roast beef down and say, 'Come, come,' he would not touch it — it is too much for him. So with God's children; they are willing to take a crumb, but refuse when God wants them to take the whole platter." God wants you to come right to the throne of grace, and to come boldly.

(D. L. Moody.)

I have seen the lifebuoy spun out to a drowning man, and, amid the crowd on the pier that gazed in horror, there was none, as they watched its course over the roaring waves, but wished in his heart that it might reach its mark. Nor is it only that God is "willing that all should come to Him, and live." What mother but would open her door who heard the knocking, and recognized the well known voice of some poor, fallen child, that had sunk down there amid the winter drift, and cried, with failing breath, O mother, mother dear, open and let me in. And who thinks so ill of God as to believe that when He hears such a cry at the door of mercy, He will not rise to let us and to welcome us in!

(T. Guthrie, D. D.)

I. First, then, we are to notice THE RICHNESS OF GOD'S MERCY AND THE GREATNESS OF GOD'S LOVE. There appears to me to be a difference in the terms which are used here, and that this difference is intentional — that the mercy, in fact, refers to man in his fallen state, and that the love refers to the manner in which that mercy is manifested. And taking it in this point of view, it will be necessary to dwell upon the two expressions separately — the mercy which is called rich, the love which is called great.

1. This mercy appears to be called great on account of the amount of mercy which is dispensed. But when we look at the inspired Word of God, we see at once the amount of mercy which is being dispensed to the world, for God has been pleased to reveal Himself as "plenteous in mercy." "He keeps mercy for thousands." I put these two facts together, and I read that for backsliders there is a willingness on the part of God to manifest His rich mercy. I look at the history of Matthew the publican, sitting at the receipt of custom, one of a whole body famed for their extortion; and I look into the world, and I see the mammon hunters of the day, and feel myself privileged to press upon them also the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ; because I see that for the extorting Matthew there was converting grace, there was God's rich mercy.

2. On this verse, then, we may speak of the mercy of God being rich; but you will perceive the apostle speaks also of the love of God, of the "great love" of God. And why should not that epithet be used, when we remember that it is the love of a great God to great sinners?

II. But we must pass on to inquire, in the second place, HOW THIS LOVE IS MANIFESTED. And keeping to the text before me, I read that it is by quickening us, by giving us of His spiritual life — "God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses and sins, hath quickened us" — hath given us spiritual life. But this is connected, indeed, with the next expression in the text, which speaks of God having "raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." Here, of course, reference is made to the resurrection and the glorified state, when there shall be rest from our labours, when there shall be eternal pleasure, and when we shall enter into the joy of our Lord. But notice, in the next place, when this mercy was manifested. The Scripture describes the manifestation of this mercy to have been "when we were dead," when we were dead in our sins.

(M. Villiers, D. D.)

Ephesians, PaulEphesusBestowed, Full, Intense, Kindness, Love, Loved, Mercy, Rich, Wherewith1. By comparing what we were by nature, with what we are by grace,
10. he declares that we are made for good works: and being brought near by Christ,
19. should not live as Gentiles and foreigners, but as citizens with the saints, and the family of God.

Ephesians 2:4

     1060   God, greatness of
     5762   attitudes, God to people
     6025   sin, and God's character
     6687   mercy, God's
     8203   character
     8296   love, nature of
     8813   riches, spiritual

Ephesians 2:1-4

     4027   world, fallen

Ephesians 2:1-5

     6660   freedom, through Christ
     7024   church, nature of
     9024   death, spiritual

Ephesians 2:1-10

     6512   salvation, necessity and basis

Ephesians 2:3-9

     6710   privileges

Ephesians 2:4-5

     1085   God, love of
     2027   Christ, grace and mercy
     2048   Christ, love of
     4018   life, spiritual
     5005   human race, and redemption
     5036   mind, of God
     5698   guardian
     6028   sin, deliverance from
     6139   deadness, spiritual
     6647   eternal life, experience
     6668   grace, and Christ
     6688   mercy, demonstration of God's
     6728   regeneration
     8297   love, for God

Ephesians 2:4-6

     8217   conformity
     9313   resurrection, spiritual

Ephesians 2:4-7

     2560   Christ, resurrection

Ephesians 2:4-9

     1055   God, grace and mercy
     5110   Paul, teaching of
     6617   atonement, in NT
     6669   grace, and salvation

March 14. "We are his Workmanship" (Eph. Ii. 10).
"We are His workmanship" (Eph. ii. 10). Christ sends us to serve Him, not in our own strength, but in His resources and might. "We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath prepared that we should walk in them." We do not have to prepare them; but to wear them as garments, made to order for every occasion of our life. We must receive them by faith and go forth in His work, believing that He is with us, and in us, as our all sufficiency for wisdom, faith, love, prayer, …
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

July 2. "And Hath Raised us up Together" (Eph. Ii. 6).
"And hath raised us up together" (Eph. ii. 6). Ascension is more than resurrection. Much is said of it in the New Testament. Christ riseth above all things. We see Him in the very act of ascending as we do not in the actual resurrection, as, with hands and lips engaged in blessing, He gently parts from their side, so simply, so unostentatiously, with so little imposing ceremony as to make heaven so near to our common life that we can just whisper through. And we, too, must ascend, even here. "If …
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

October 1. "That in the Ages to Come He Might Show the Exceeding Riches of his Grace" (Eph. Ii. 7).
"That in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace" (Eph. ii. 7). Christ's great purpose for His people is to train them up to know the hope of their calling, and the riches of the glory of their inheritance and what the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe. Let us prove, in all our varied walks of life, and scenes of conflict, the fulness of His power and grace and thus shall we know "In the ages to come the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness to …
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

God's Workmanship and Our Works
'We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.'--Eph. ii. 10. The metal is molten as it runs out of the blast furnace, but it soon cools and hardens. Paul's teaching about salvation by grace and by faith came in a hot stream from his heart, but to this generation his words are apt to sound coldly, and hardly theological. But they only need to be reflected upon in connection with our own experience, to become vivid and …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture Ephesians, Peter,John

'The Chief Corner-Stone'
'Built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the chief corner-stone.'--Eph. ii. 20 (R.V.). The Roman Empire had in Paul's time gathered into a great unity the Asiatics of Ephesus, the Greeks of Corinth, the Jews of Palestine, and men of many another race, but grand and imposing as that great unity was, it was to Paul a poor thing compared with the oneness of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ. Asiatics of Ephesus, Greeks of Corinth, Jews of Palestine and members of …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture Ephesians, Peter,John

'The Riches of Grace'
'That in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.'--Eph. ii. 7. One very striking characteristic of this epistle is its frequent reference to God's purposes, and what, for want of a better word, we must call His motives, in giving us Jesus Christ. The Apostle seems to rise even higher than his ordinary height, while he gazes up to the inaccessible light, and with calm certainty proclaims not only what God has done, but why He has done …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture Ephesians, Peter,John

Salvation: Grace: Faith
'By grace have ye been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.'--Eph. ii. 8 (R.V.). Here are three of the key-words of the New Testament--'grace,' 'saved,' 'faith.' Once these terms were strange and new; now they are old and threadbare. Once they were like lava, glowing and cast up from the central depths; but it is a long while since the eruption, and the blocks have got cold, and the corners have been rubbed off them. I am afraid that some people, when they read …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture Ephesians, Peter,John

The Resurrection of Dead Souls
'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.'--Eph. ii. 4, 5. Scripture paints man as he is, in darker tints, and man as he may become, in brighter ones, than are elsewhere found. The range of this portrait painter's palette is from pitchiest black to most dazzling white, as of snow smitten by sunlight. Nowhere else are there such sad, stern words about the actualities of human nature; nowhere else such …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture Ephesians, Peter,John

The Scripture Way of Salvation
"Ye are saved through faith." Ephesians 2:8. 1. Nothing can be more intricate, complex, and hard to be understood, than religion, as it has been often described. And this is not only true concerning the religion of the Heathens, even many of the wisest of them, but concerning the religion of those also who were, in some sense, Christians; yea, and men of great name in the Christian world; men who seemed to be pillars thereof. Yet how easy to be understood, how plain and simple a thing, is the genuine …
John Wesley—Sermons on Several Occasions

Spiritual Resurrection
The apostle is here speaking, you will observe, of the church at Ephesus, and, indeed, of all those who were chosen in Christ Jesus, accepted in him, and redeemed with his blood; and he says of them, "You hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins." What a solemn sight is presented to us by a dead body! When last evening trying to realize the thought, it utterly overcame me. The thought is overwhelming, that soon this body of mine must be a carnival for worms; that in and out of these …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 3: 1857

The Agreement of Salvation by Grace with Walking in Good Works
I shall call your attention to the near neighborhood of these two phrases, "Not of works," and "Created in Christ Jesus unto good works." The text reads with a singular sound; for it seems strange to the ear that good works should be negatived as the cause of salvation, and then should be spoken of as the great end of it. You may put it down among what the Puritans called "Orthodox Paradoxes," if you please; though it is hardly so difficult a matter as to deserve the name. Not long ago, I tried …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 37: 1891

Life from the Dead
"And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins."--Ephesians 2:1. OUR TRANSLATORS, as you observe, have put in the words "hath he quickened", because Paul had thrown the sense a little farther on, and it was possible for the reader not to catch it. The have but anticipated the statement of the fourth and fifth verses: "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." Here is the point. God …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 38: 1892

The Tabernacle of the Most High
When men talk of holy places they seem to be ignorant of the use of language. Can holiness dwell in bricks and mortar? Can there be such a thing as a sanctified steeple? Can it possibly happen that there can be such a thing in the world as a moral window or a godly door post? I am lost in amazement, utterly lost, when I think how addled men's brains must be when they impute moral virtues to bricks and mortar, and stones, and stained glass. Pray how deep Doth this consecration go, and how high? Is …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 5: 1859

A Solemn Deprival
WE SHALL have two things to consider this evening--the misery of our past estate, and the great deliverance which God has wrought for us. As for:-- I. THE MISERY OF OUR PAST ESTATE, be it known unto you that, in common with the rest of mankind, believers were once without Christ. No tongue can tell the depth of wretchedness that lies in those two words. There is no poverty like it, no want like it, and for those who die so, there is no ruin like that it will bring. Without Christ! If this be the …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 61: 1915

All of Grace
OF THE THINGS which I have spoken unto you these many years, this is the sum. Within the circle of these words my theology is contained, so far as it refers to the salvation of men. I rejoice also to remember that those of my family who were ministers of Christ before me preached this doctrine, and none other. My father, who is still able to bear his personal testimony for his Lord, knows no other doctrine, neither did his father before him. I am led to remember this by the fact that a somewhat singular …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 61: 1915

Our Glorious Transforming
"But now in Christ Jesus, ye, who sometimes were far off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ."--Ephesians 2:13. I DO not want you to feel at this time as if you were listening to a sermon, or to any sort of set discourse, but rather I should like, if it were possible, that you should feel as if you were alone with the Saviour, and were engaged in calm and quiet meditation; and I will try to be the prompter, standing at the elbow of your contemplation, suggesting one thought and then another; and …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 62: 1916

"There is Therefore Now no Condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus,
Rom. viii. 1.--"There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, &c." All the promises are yea and amen in Christ Jesus; they meet all in him and from him are derived unto us. When man was in integrity, he was with God, and in God, and that immediately, without the intervention of a Mediator. But our falling from God hath made us without God, and the distance is so great, as Abraham speaks to the rich man, that neither can those above go down to him, nor he come up to them. …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

"Who Walk not after the Flesh, but after the Spirit. "
Rom. viii. 1.--"Who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." It is no wonder that we cannot speak any thing to purpose of this subject, and that you do not bear with fruit, because it is indeed a mystery to our judgments, and a great stranger to our practice. There is so little of the Spirit, both in teachers and those that come to be taught, that we can but speak of it as an unknown thing, and cannot make you to conceive it, in the living notion of it as it is. Only we may say in general,--it …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

"For the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus Hath Made Me Free from the Law of Sin and Death. "
Rom. viii. 2.--"For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." That whereabout the thoughts and discourses of men now run, is freedom and liberty, or bondage and slavery. All men are afraid to lose their liberties, and be made servants to strangers. And indeed liberty, whether national or personal, even in civil respects, is a great mercy and privilege. But alas! men know not, neither do they consider, what is the ground and reason of such changes, …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

The Scriptures Reveal Eternal Life through Jesus Christ
John v. 39--"Search the scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of me." Eph. ii. 20--"And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets." As in darkness there is need of a lantern without and the light of the eyes within--for neither can we see in darkness without some lamp though we have never so good eyes, nor yet see without eyes, though in never so clear a sunshine--so there is absolute need for the guiding of our feet in the dangerous …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

"For what the Law could not Do, in that it was Weak through the Flesh, God Sending his Own Son in the Likeness of Sinful Flesh,
Rom. viii. 3.--"For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin condemned sin in the flesh." For what purpose do we meet thus together? I would we knew it,--then it might be to some better purpose. In all other things we are rational, and do nothing of moment without some end and purpose. But, alas! in this matter of greatest moment, our going about divine ordinances, we have scarce any distinct or deliberate …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners Or, a Brief Relation of the Exceeding Mercy of God in Christ, to his Poor Servant, John Bunyan
In this my relation of the merciful working of God upon my soul, it will not be amiss, if in the first place, I do in a few words give you a hint of my pedigree, and manner of bringing up; that thereby the goodness and bounty of God towards me, may be the more advanced and magnified before the sons of men. 2. For my descent then, it was, as is well known by many, of a low and inconsiderable generation; my father's house being of that rank that is meanest, and most despised of all the families in …
John Bunyan—Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners

Sovereign Grace
Sovereign Grace Its Source, Its Nature and Its Effects By D. L. Moody "By Grace are ye saved."--Ephesians ii. 8 With Three Gospel Dialogues Chicago New York Toronto FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY London and Edinburgh Copyrighted 1891 by Fleming H. Revell Company. …
Dwight L. Moody—Sovereign Grace

Our Death.
"You who were dead in trespasses and sin."--Ephes. ii. 1. Next in order comes the discussion of death. There is sin, which is deviation from and resistance against the law. There is guilt, which is withholding from God that which, as the Giver and Upholder of that law, is due to Him. But there is also punishment, which is the Lawgiver's act of upholding His law against the lawbreaker. The Sacred Scripture calls this punishment "death." To understand what death is, we must first ask: "What is life?" …
Abraham Kuyper—The Work of the Holy Spirit

Ephesians 2:4 NIV
Ephesians 2:4 NLT
Ephesians 2:4 ESV
Ephesians 2:4 NASB
Ephesians 2:4 KJV

Ephesians 2:4 Bible Apps
Ephesians 2:4 Parallel
Ephesians 2:4 Biblia Paralela
Ephesians 2:4 Chinese Bible
Ephesians 2:4 French Bible
Ephesians 2:4 German Bible

Ephesians 2:4 Commentaries

Bible Hub