211. Kindness
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.
This promise of great kindness toward us is a future promise, as it is meant for the “ages to come.”We know about the present age, and we know about the next age after this present one. But what are the plural ages? There should be only one age to come, the eternal state in which we dwell with God in righteousness forever. It could mean there are several “ages” in the coming eternal future; we don’t know any more about that. It could also mean there are still to come several “ages” during this present age. We are living in the New Testament Age, which exists alongside the present age of the evil world. Perhaps there are divisions of ages within this present age.
At any rate, in the ages to come He will show us the riches of His grace. It takes a lifetime to search all the riches of grace; these riches are unfolding every day since “His mercies are new every morning.” We receive new experiences, little tokens, fresh insights and revelations into the depths of grace. We will never exhaust those riches in one lifetime of studying God’s Revelation; so the Lord extends our lifetime into eternity so that He can show us these vast riches earned by Jesus and granted to those in Christ Jesus.
One way of expressing grace, and our experiencing of it, is kindness. God is the kindest person we will ever know. He is kind toward us every day, and He continually shows us new kindnesses. We can understand kindness, while we cannot fully comprehend grace with the human mind. God shows us kindness daily, although we miss it very often; we miss it partly because it usually comes through ordinary people and ordinary circumstances in life, and so it doesn’t look like God. To aid us in seeing what God is showing we need to look for “God sightings.” Once we start looking we will see God’s kindness everywhere. He is rich in kindness; in eternity we will be overwhelmed; but in this age also we can be bowled over by kindnesswhen the eyes of faith are enlightened. Prepare for a “God sighting” soon.