Day 341/365- Ephesians 2:4

"But God"

But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, (Ephesians 2:4 NLT)

Some of the most important words in the Bible are small. All of the words in the Bible are important but it's easy to overlook the significance of the small ones.

This is most clearly seen here in Ephesians 2. The "but" here is a small word but has huge implications. It may be the most life-altering conjunction in the Bible.

The word "but" means contradiction. It begins to contradict with what has just come before.

In the first 3 verses of Ephesians we see what our state without Jesus really looks like & how God's grace contradicts it.

Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins. You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil—the commander of the powers in the unseen world. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature. By our very nature we were subject to God’s anger, just like everyone else. (Ephesians 2:1-3 NLT)

We were enemies of God, under his wrath, deserving of his anger, sinners, controlled by our sinful nature, & dead.

BUT.

There it is. Better yet, the Bible says, "But God." The first 3 verses are what we can accomplish, namely sin & death, but the next few verses are what he accomplished.

But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!) For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus. So God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of his grace and kindness toward us, as shown in all he has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus. God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. (Ephesians 2:4-10 NLT)

What a small word & what a huge Savior!