“because of His great love”

Ephesians 2:4

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One of the things I love to discover in Scripture is God’s motivation.  We’re not given God’s reasons often enough, if you ask me, so when we are, I feel so rewarded.  I have an analytical personality, and a sense of curiosity that is not easily satisfied, and I need to remind myself frequently that I am not always privy to God’s logic.  He is perfectly justified in saying, “because I said so.”  Or as my mother used to tell me, “Yours is not to question why; yours is but to do or die.”  Loosely translated from Tennyson, of course, but she made her point.

But He does occasionally reveal His motives to us.  When Moses spoke to Pharaoh on God’s behalf, he let Pharaoh know what was going to happen and why: “that you may know that the earth is the Lord’s.”  In Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, he tells us we have received the Spirit of God, and then he tells us God’s reason: “that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.”

But this verse in Ephesians illustrates what is God’s ultimate, underlying motivation for all He does.  The complete verse speaks of our being made alive in Christ, despite our sins ~ despite our being dead in sin.  But we are made alive in Christ through the richness of God’s mercy.  And why?  “Because of His great love with which He loved us.”

Oh, the comfort and reassurance that truth brings!  Every trial God allows in my life He allows because of His great love.  Every blessing He rains down on me, He gives because of His great love.  All the times He says, “yes,” and all the times He says, “no,” and every time He tells me, “wait”.  I can rest in the knowledge that His will for my life is anchored by His great love for me.

And that’s even better than “Because I said so.”

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