The riches of God's grace

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. (Ephesians 1:7, 8)

I was really blessed to go to Chicago last month. And while I was there I visited the Chicago Art Institute. This is an amazing place, with so many rooms filled with beautiful works of art. They have the biggest collection of impressionist art outside of Europe, so I heard. But there were also pieces by Picasso, Van Gogh, Andy Warhol, Rodin, and Matisse. You could easily spend all day in this place.

And there is a guide that they give you when you enter the building. It has a map on it and some information about the different sections in the gallery. But it also has an edited highlights tour. This is for people who are too busy and who don’t have enough time, so they just want to see the famous pieces of art.

So if you follow this highlight map, you can go to see Van Gogh’s Bedroom,Nighthawks, American Gothicand lots of other excellent works. And so in a very short space of time, you can see all these tremendous artworks. Which I guess is one way to view the gallery. Especially if you’re busy, right. I mean, Chicago is an awesome city. There’s so much to see and do. You can’t hang around in art gallery all day, can you?

And if someone had done it this way, they could then come up to you and say, “You know, last month I went to Chicago, and I saw American Gothic.” And you could ask that person, “Really? … Have you really seen American Gothic? Have you looked deep into that picture, and allowed all the meanings, and ideas, and emotions behind that scene to wash over you?”

And that goes for any great work of art. The longer you look at it, think about it, meditate on it, the deeper you can understand the message that the artist wanted to convey, and appreciate the ideas and the passion that went into making it.

The bible is very similar to that. Very often we are tempted to zoom through at a fast rate, and just stop briefly on this verse or that verse, before moving on to something different. And so we get to have a broad understanding of the bible. But often that understanding is shallow.

What we need to do sometimes is slow down. And pause. And look deeply into one book. Or one chapter. Or even one verse. To go down deep into what is actually being said. It’s a wonderful thing to go deep down into one book, and search for all the treasures that are in there. And two of the most profound verses in the bible are verses 7 and 8 of Ephesians chapter 1. These two verses are among the most profound and the most awesome of any verses found anywhere in scripture.

In fact, the whole essence of Christianity is contained in these verses. Imagine someone came to you tomorrow, someone who had no idea what Christianity was about and why anyone would ever want to be a Christian. He might ask you, “What is so great about following Christ? Why should anyone want to believe in Jesus?”

There are many ways that you could answer that question. But one of the best ways, would be to read these two verses in Ephesians., and explain what they mean.

If you took everything that God has done for us, everything that we believe, the whole foundation of the church, and condensed it down and packed it as tightly as you could into a few words, these could be the words here.

So if you find some time this week, read these verses, close your eyes, and just think about all they mean. Soak up the beauty and the wisdom and the grace that’s found here.