Charles Spurgeon Commentary Ephesians 2:4-5

"but God, being rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace have ye been saved)," — Ephesians 2:4-5 (ASV)

But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved; )

This is a wondrous truth, that God loves the sinner even while he is dead in sin. This love is not caused by any goodness in him, for he is dead, he is wrapped up in the shroud of his sins. There is nothing lovable about him; yet God, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ.

But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, has quickened us together with Christ.

Again let us praise the Lord with all our hearts for what he has done for us. It is truly wonderful that he should have loved us when we were dead in trespasses and sins, with no feeling, no holy desire, no repentance; while indifference, heartlessness, powerlessness covered everything. We were dead in sin, yet he loved us, and therefore it was that he quickened us together with Christ,.

But 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,

Wonder! The life that quickens. Christ quickens all the members of his mystical body, and this has come to us through the riches of God's mercy. Whatever God has, he has in abundance, but of his mercy we read that he has riches of it; and truly all those riches of mercy he has shown in our case. We cannot but have riches of gratitude for such riches of mercy.

But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, has quickened us together with Christ, (by grace you are saved; )

By grace you are saved. I know that you feel that it is so. Our quickening out of our death in sin must have been by grace; and as God has done it, to him must be ascribed all the glory of it.

There can be no merit in those who are dead in sin that they should be quickened out of their sin; this must be the work of the Lord alone, and to him be all the praise.

He has quickened us together with Christ, so that our life is mystically linked with the life of Christ, as he said to his disciples, Because I live, you shall live also. Until he can die, those who are one with him cannot die.