As he signs off, Paul gives us a good shake to make sure we were paying attention to what he’s written. He points us back to God’s grace. He points us back to Jesus’ undeserved goodness. This letter starts with grace. This letter ends with grace. This letter drips with grace. In a first century “Hello, McFly!” moment, the apostle grabs us by the ears and makes his point. “Grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with love incorruptible” (v24). Grace. Grace! GRACE!!!
Back in the opening lines of his letter, Paul works his tail off to get us to see God’s goodness toward us. God didn’t just “like” our status on Facebook. He didn’t just give us a retweet. He didn’t just drop us a card in the mail. He drenches us in His overwhelming goodness. Or in the words of the apostle, “According to the riches of His grace which he lavished upon us” (Eph 1:7-8). Paul’s purpose is to get us to stand under the waterfall of God’s grace. Only then can we have any clue about all that He has done, is doing and will do for us. Now at the end of this letter, the man from Tarsus doesn’t want us to experience the exhilaration just once. Don’t just stand under the flow for a moment. This is so much more than a vacation photo op. He wants us to stay there.
Get under the waterfall of God’s grace. And stay there!
In case you’re just jumping onto this Ephesian party wagon and are new to the story, let’s get you up to speed. Paul’s in a Roman slammer waiting for his appeal. The pastor over in Colossae hunted down the apostle for help. A group of spiritual hucksters have stirred up a truckload of trouble in his church. They’ve fooled Jesus’ followers into believing Christ might be good but He’s not God. In order to ensure our place in God’s kingdom, they say we need to follow a complicated list of religious rules and regs. And lookie there, they just happened to have it with them. Imagine that! After writing a letter to the Colossians in order to get them back on track, Paul fires off another to his friends in Ephesus. They’re just 100 miles up the road from Colossae. If his letter to the Colossians is treatment for the disease, Ephesians is an inoculation against it. The apostle knows that when we understand who Jesus is, what He’s done and who we are in Him, there’s very little chance we’ll buy any of this spiritual snake oil.
That means constantly realizing the scope of God’s grace. This is that great Greek word charis. It means an overwhelming and undeserved goodness. It’s unexpected pleasure. It’s unmerited favor. It’s kindness given for no reason. The Bible is a collection of letters and writings over the scope of 1,500 years that tell the story of God’s overflowing grace. He creates the universe out of His goodness. He creates people out His irrepressible love. And even after we jack it all up, He’s coming back to fix it all because of His crazy good kindness. Just as Ephesians is all about grace from beginning to end, so is the entire length of Scripture.
Get under the waterfall of God’s grace. And stay there!
Paul ends his letter with the phrase “Grace be with you all” (v24). Hmm. That seems familiar. VERY familiar. Flip back to the opening lines of this note from a Roman jail. The apostle kicks this thing off by wishing “Grace to you” (Eph 1:2). Similar. But different. He sends his wish of God’s grace at the beginning of his letter. Now at the end, he wants us to know and live in the light of God’s grace. Once we realize all that we really need we already have in Jesus, we can experience His grace. Take one long, last drink of God’s goodness that the apostle has gone to great lengths to explain in this letter. Start with the Tsunami of Blessings in Ephesians 1:3-14, that amazing run-on sentence where Paul bubbles over as he becomes so excited about all God has done for us. He blessed us, chose us, predestined us, adopted us, redeemed us, forgave us, lavished riches on us, made His will know to us, given us an inheritance, predestined us (just in case we missed it the first time!) and sealed us with His Holy Spirit. His entire purpose is that we would have “the eyes of our hearts enlightened” (Eph 1:18) to all that God has done for us. Live in light of God’s “grace with you” (v24)! His grace just doesn’t stop!
Get under the waterfall of God’s grace. And stay there!
And as they say in the infomercial, “but wait there’s more!” Paul reminds us of our situation BC: before Christ. We used to be stumbling around like spiritual zombies as members of the Walking Dead (Eph 2:1). But our gracious God came to our rescue and brought us to life in His Son Jesus (Eph 2:4). Just in case you might miss how good God and how little we deserved what He’s done, we read, “By grace (Gr. charis) you have been saved...For by grace (Gr. charis) you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works so that no one may boast” (Eph 2:5, 8-9). God has placed us under the waterfall of His grace so He could show off “the immeasurable riches of His grace (Gr. charis) in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (Eph 2:7). That’s because His grace just doesn’t stop.
Get under the waterfall of God’s grace. And stay there!
Later we see that Jesus has blasted down all the walls between race, religion and culture and invited everyone to the party (Eph 2:14). Through His death on the cross at Calvary, He brings both Jews and Gentiles together into one body we call His church (Eph 2:15-16). This is a HUGE deal! Jesus makes outsiders insiders (Eph 2:17-22). And He handpicked Paul specifically to spread the Word to non-Jews (Eph 3:1-13). If you’re not Jewish and Jesus has saved you, then you should be eternally grateful for this specific move of God. I know I am! The apostle goes on to tell his friends in Ephesus that God’s grace keeps on rolling. He’s given us unlimited and mind-blowing power through the Holy Spirit living in every believer (Eph 3:16, 20). That’s the only chance we have to wrap our brains around the massive scope of the love Jesus drenches on you and me (Eph 3:19). That’s because His grace just doesn’t stop.
Get under the waterfall of God’s grace. And stay there!
So is that all of His grace? Is that all He’s done for us? Absolutely not! Check this out. “Grace (Gr. charis) was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift” (Eph 4:8). In what Paul describes as the Grace Parade, Jesus gave a group of spiritually gifted people to His people in order to give them everything they would need to live in the fullness of His grace. These are “the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers” (Eph 4:11). Jesus puts them in place to teach us, lead us and build us up in God’s Word so that we’ll be grow into unity and Christ-like maturity (Eph 4:15-16). He gives. And He gives. And He gives. And He gives. His grace just doesn’t stop.
Get under the waterfall of God’s grace. And stay there!
Once we position ourselves in front of God’s fire hydrant of goodness, it changes everything. We become God imitators (Eph 5:1) who walk around loving others selflessly like Jesus did (Eph 5:2). We become shiners of God’s light (Eph 5:8-9). His grace impacts our marriages (Eph 5:22-33), our families (Eph 6:1-4) and our jobs (Eph 6:5-10). God’s goodness impacts every inch of our lives. Or as Paul tells the folks in Corinth, “His grace toward me was not in vain” (1Cor 15:10). God’s no grace waster.
Get under the waterfall of God’s grace. And stay there!
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