Monday, October 4, 2010
Ephesians 2:1 And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins.
AND YOU
With these words everything "comes down to me." That is an odd phrase. We usually use it to mean we are bearing all the pressure, all the weight. All the burden is on us. We are the focal point upon which the entire project or performance is balanced. Everything is dependent upon me.
Used in connection with this verse, however, it is completely weightless. With these words "And you" Paul takes the entirety of world history, the entirety of God's plan of salvation, and gives YOU the fullness of its blessings without a single bit of its weight.
This plan, this mystery of God, Paul has described with great wonder and in great detail in chapter one of Ephesians. He has put the full responsibility and the full weight of its accomplishment on Christ. That is, all the Father's plan was accomplished through Christ. Yet all the benefits of this plan slide down through the ages to the "and you" of Ephesians 2:1.
You might think of the cartoons, where one character lifts up a table loaded down with every type of food imaginable and that food slides down the table into his ridiculously large mouth. It's your mouth and the table is covered with the banquet feast of God's victory for us in Christ.
