“God loves us when we are unlovable.”
Thoughts from daily Bible reading for today – February 22, 2025
But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), Ephesians 2:4-5, NKJV
Ephesians 2 contains several of Paul’s most memorable phrases, with “by grace you have been saved” sitting toward the very top of the list. Yet today, I want to reflect on the words that come immediately before this wonderful phrase. Today, we remember that God loves us when we are unlovable. His love is so great that he looked upon us “when we were dead in trespasses,” not with judgment or anger or condemnation in his eyes, but with the burning fire of perfect love. He sees life when all that can be discerned is death.
If this is true of our Lord’s posture toward us, how does it change our posture toward the world around us?
It isn’t overstating things to say that this truth should transform everything. The 24-hour news cycle thrives on anxiety and fear. Social media thrives on fanning into flame the seeds of discontent and envy that lie deep within your heart. It’s for good reason that it’s called “doom scrolling!” Yet you and I, as men and women filled with the Spirit of God, are meant to look for life when all we see is death. We are invited to see the good in the world, the signs of God’s kingdom breaking in, often subtly and discreetly. As those who have been brought to life from death, we are meant to live lives that reflect this great truth, pursuing meaningful relationships that bring life into the world and giving ourselves to vocations and hobbies that point to the truth that God is always in the business of bringing life where death once reigned.
Similarly, the truth that we are loved when we are dead in sin and unlovable is meant to transform how we relate to others, especially those we struggle to love. If God can love you at your worst and see in you a good and beautiful future, are you able to do the same for those you struggle to love? Each of us has people in our lives who are a source of pain or conflict. Perhaps you’ve spent years saying something along the lines of, “They’ll just never change.” Left to ourselves, this is absolutely true. Dead people don’t live. That is, they don’t live unless the author of life looks upon them in love and breathes his life into their lungs.
Can you hold to the hope in this very moment that the Lord longs to do this work today, just as he did in ages past?
Prayer
Father, give us eyes to see the life of your kingdom, in our world and in our closest relationships, believing you continue to bring new life where there was once only death, through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Application
In what relationship might the Lord be asking you to see the potential for life when you are tempted to see only death?
Related Reading
Ezekiel 37:5-6; John 11:25-26; Romans 6:4
Worship Resource
Shane & Shane: Psalm 46
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