Two of the Greatest Words in the Bible

I am meeting with a young man and we are spending a few weeks studying the four components of the Gospel: God, sin, Christ, response.  This week we are spending our quiet times looking at what the Bible teaches on the topic of sin or the sinfulness of man.  This morning I was working my way through Ephesians 2:1-3 which says,

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience — among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

You gotta admit it's a pretty bleak picture.  But now this leads me to the title of this post.  Yes the state of humanity is horrendeous, but then you get to the first two words (at least in the English version) of verse 4, "But God."  But God.  There is no hope for mankind except in those two wonderful words - But God.

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved... (Ephesians 2:4-5)

Those two words are so glorious.  They introduce this amazing God who saves His rebellious enemies through His own plan and work in the life, death, burial, and resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ.  I pray you have seen the wonder and awesomeness of this God and respond to Him by turning from your own self-directed-way and placing your full hope in the Lord Jesus Christ.  And if you have already done this, that you would stand amazed again today.