0365. THE KINDNESS OF GOD.

THE KINDNESS OF GOD.

"That in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Jesus Christ" (Eph_2:7).

Here the fountain of the great deep of the goodness of our God is opened up. "Come ye to the waters." Here is a river that maketh glad the city of God.

I. The Character of God’s Grace. "The exceeding riches of His grace." He is gracious, and His grace contains exceeding riches. He is rich in power and in wisdom, but He is exceeding rich in grace, so that he can abundantly pardon. All the needs of this great perishing world could not exhaust the riches of His grace. "Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound."

II. The Merciful Purpose of God. "That He might show," etc. So exceeding rich was this grace that filled the infinite heart of God that it could not remain unseen or unfelt, but had to burst forth in overflowing floods of blessing. The exceeding riches of this grace is shown first of all in creation, then in the making of man in His own image, in the salvation of Noah, in the call of Abraham, of Moses, and of the prophets, and most of all in the gift of His Son (Joh_1:17; Eph_2:8; 2Ti_1:9).

III. The Special Manner in which this Grace was shown. "That He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness towards us." Let us bless His Name that He should be pleased to make an exhibition of the riches of His grace in showing kindness to us who "were by nature the children of wrath" (Luk_11:3). He has not been pleased to show such kindness to the angels who kept not their first estate. This kindness toward us is seen in the laying of our sins on His own Son (Isa. 53), in the forgiving of all who believe (Act_13:38-39), in making us sons and daughters, in giving us the Holy Spirit to serve Him now, and in preparing a place for us in the Father’s house.

IV. The Channel through which this Kindness flows. "Through Jesus Christ." So that now "the kindness and love of God our Saviour towards man hath appeared" (Tit_3:4). There is but one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus. That Man whom God hath filled with all His own fulness (unsearchable riches), that through Him His kindness might be shown to needy, miserable men.

V. The Time and Duration of this Kindness. "In the ages to come." These ages or dispensations embrace the present, and stretch on through all the countless epochs that are yet to follow. The exceeding riches of that grace that has come to us in His kindness through Jesus Christ will be continued to us as an ever-abiding revelation through all the ever coming eternity.

Autor: James Smith