The desperate plight of humankind highlights God’s gracious deliverance. The same power that raised Christ from the dead also raises sinners from spiritual death. The richness of God’s mercy flows from His redeeming love.

Our lives are filled with “but God” moments. Perhaps it was an addiction in which we were ensnared, but God delivered us. Maybe it was a place where we almost compromised our purity, but God restrained us. We may have thought a relationship was irreparable, but God restored it. Failures in parenting may have seemed unbearable, but God redeemed those moments and the gospel was magnified. But the greatest “but God” moment for the believer is when God brings us from death and darkness to life and light in Him. We should never cease to be amazed that the same power that raised Christ Jesus from the dead is also at work to raise the spiritually dead. One of the best places to learn about this amazing grace is in Ephesians 2:1-10.
The Depravity of Man
In the first chapter of Ephesians Paul emphasizes God’s immeasurable power toward His people, illustrating his point with the resurrection and exaltation of Christ (1:20-23). Then in Ephesians 2:1-3 he gives another powerful illustration—the resurrection of believers from spiritual death to life. Like the dry bones in Ezekiel’s vision that came to life by God’s power, Paul proclaims God raises His people from spiritual death to life. Before God saved us Paul states that we were happily walking in darkness, willingly following the course of this world, submissively bowing to the devil, readily indulging the passions of our flesh, and under God’s wrath. Since we “were dead in the trespasses and sins” (v. 1) there is nothing we can do to make ourselves alive. Sadly, many people don’t understand this truth and therefore do not have a proper view of God’s holiness and our need for His deliverance.
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Truly, nothing and no one can ever break this link because it is God who authors and accomplishes it all together. As you can notice, each sequence in this unbreakable link, are all acts of God. Indeed, this is what gives us assurance, that it is God who authored our salvation. And He is not just the Author, He is also the Accomplisher, the Sustainer, and the Finisher. 

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. (Romans 8:28-30)
This is the passage where the unbreakable link of salvation, or the golden chain of salvation, is found. It’s a comfort to know that God holds everything in our salvation – the beginning, the end, and everything in between. That is why this passage is worth memorizing and worth daily remembering because it points us to our great God who saved us. Kindly join me as I meditate upon God’s amazing grace when He foreknew, predestined, called, justified, and glorified us.
The first word to be mentioned in the unbreakable link is “foreknew”. The knowledge of God that is talked about here is not just God’s prior knowledge, meaning that God knows all things that will happen before it happens. It’s deeper than that. The level of knowledge used here is deeper than intellectual head knowledge, it is knowledge in an intimate sense. A knowledge that goes deeper than the intellect and has one’s loving affection. Just as it is used in other verses like in this passage: “Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain” (Gen. 4:1). This level of knowing is used to describe the consummation of a couple’s love and then the conception of the miracle of child-bearing. And God, our Husband, fully knows us deeply and intimately, that it is better to use “foreloved” instead of “foreknew”. Indeed, it is sweeter to know that before the foundation of the world, God chose to set His heart upon us.
The heartbeat of our salvation is grounded upon God’s love for us. A love that transcends time because it is given before time began. And this same eternal love has set our destiny toward Christlikeness as mentioned in this passage: “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son”. His eternal love governed our wonderful destiny: conformity to Christ. God, by His love, decided beforehand what will take place in the end for us. He wants to save us through Christ, for Christ, and to Christ. That is why our life’s ultimate end is Christlikeness because it is the only way that we would be a pleasing offering for our Savior, that our lives point to Him because our image reflects His image. Even though we could never fully reflect Christ in our sanctification, we will fully reflect Him in our glorification because sin will be no more. He is our Firstborn, and we have eternity to perfectly follow hard after Him to image His image.
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If have been brought into the kingdom of God and bowed the knee before Jesus Christ as our Lord, we are to conform our will to His, to follow His directives, and be grounded and growing in Him. 

As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught.Colossians 2:6–7, NKJV
What does adulthood look like? Likely most of us would agree on certain standards like physical development that comes with age, becoming responsible members of society, and establishment of a household of our own.
But what about spiritual adulthood, where we are no longer children? What are the hallmarks of that maturity?
Paul describes maturity as a goal under the shepherding supervision of pastors. Notice the flow of ministry he lays out for pastor/teachers: “to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Eph, 4:12–13, ESV).
The measures of spiritual adulthood are unity of the one faith, knowledge of Jesus, and Christ being formed in us.
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