“...that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”                --Ephesians 2:7

        According to John MacArthur, as well as J. Vernon McGee, two very competent Bible scholars, “the ages to come” is a reference to eternity. So this verse could be worded, “…that throughout all eternity He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”

        The question this raises in my mind is, “To whom will He show the exceeding riches of His grace?” And the answer that immediately comes to my mind is that He will show the riches of His grace to all those who are in heaven. He will show the riches of His grace to us, the saints who have been saved by His grace. And He will show them also to the angels in heaven.

        This reminds me of I Peter 1:12, which tells us that the angels desire to look into the things of God’s grace. You know, there is one great advantage we have over the angels. We are the recipients of God’s grace. We are the ones for whom Christ died. We are the ones who, after committing gross sin against God, have been offered the gift of salvation. The angels in heaven cannot lay claim to this same privilege. The obvious reason is that they are guilty of no sin and therefore have no need for the grace of God.

        Still, there seems to be some desire on the part of angels to gain some understanding of the grace of God. As residents of heaven, they are witnesses to all of God’s attributes, save one. They behold His glory. They behold His holiness. They can testify to His sovereignty and His power. But they have no firsthand knowledge of His grace. In this, they are lacking.

        The angels will never actually experience the grace of God. However, Ephesians 2:7 seems to indicate that throughout eternity, they will receive some knowledge of it. If this statement is a bit confusing, consider that we will never know what it was truly like to witness the crucifixion. We were not there. However, movies like “The Passion of the Christ” depict it in powerful ways and can give us some sense of what it may have been like.

        God’s grace is demonstrated in His kindness toward us. God is a kind God. He is not a wimp, or a sissy. But He is kind. And His kindness has been made evident in all He has done for us—in the fact that He has blessed us with all the spiritual blessings that are named in the book of Ephesians and that we have been discussing in these daily devotions.