“And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth.” (Exodus 34:6)
God is good and kind to sinful men. Jesus Christ is the fountain from which all God’s blessings flow to us. We do not deserve the smallest of God’s blessings, but because our Lord is gracious, He freely blesses and shows kindnesses to us.
Before the Earth was formed, the gracious God freely chose to display this grace upon a people who did not deserve it. Through the good pleasure of His will, God freely chose to adopt men in Christ. It was the Lord’s will that these people would love Him and enjoy His presence forever. God desired that these vessels of mercy would stand and live before Him forever as His holy children.
Here’s the catch. These people are not holy. They are not clean and pure. They are not seeking God and do not enjoy His presence, but spend their lives hiding from Him and ignoring Him. In God’s mercy, He ordained His plan of redemption. The Father, being gracious, freely elected, from among men, individuals to show His kindness. The Son, being gracious, freely choose to enter into His own creation, and be the sin bearer and take upon Himself all the sin of all His people, and be their substitute. The Son would die in their place, pay their sin debt, and freely justifying them before God. The Spirit, being gracious, freely draws men to Christ and gives them life by the same power that raised Christ from the dead. The Spirit seals them, indwells them, and guides them all the days of their life. Because God is gracious, He saves sinners all the way to the end.
God won’t ever stop being gracious.
Ephesians 2:7 “That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.” In heaven, we will be objects of the great riches of His kindness and trophies of His amazing grace.
He saved us and will show us, through all eternity, how gracious and kind He is to us through Jesus. God has already shown you more mercy and kindness than we can comprehend and yet the storehouse of His goodness will never empty. We will never get to the bottom of the treasure house of Grace. We will never see the end of God’s kindness.
In the ages to come, God will still be showing us how good He is through Christ Jesus. Christian, you have this eternal joy waiting for you. God will show you forever how awesome He is and how much He loved you and how kind He will be to you. This grace is received, not by works, but by faith. By coming to Christ by faith, you receive the grace of an eternally kind God and will enjoy His graciousness forever.