The gift of salvation that was purchased for us on the cross, and freely offered to us in response to our faith, is a present so wonderful it will take the far reaches of eternity to explore its greatness. Following his time alone with Christ in solitude after his transformation on the road to Damascus, Paul emerged filled with truth of the gospel.

The Lord Jesus had personally taken Paul through a crash course in the purpose behind his death, burial, and resurrection. As a result of that blessed experience, Paul expressed much of his exciting truth in his letter to the Ephesians. In speaking of his redemption in Christ, he wrote in…

Ephesians 1:7 In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;
8 Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence;

The beginning of his letter is filled with doctrinal truth revealing the glories of his new relationship in Christ. He glorified the Lord for his redemption, emphasizing the necessity of Christ’s shed blood. He thrilled in the forgiveness he had received, realizing all of his past, present, and future sins were covered by His blood. And, he mused on the basis for Christ’s offer of salvation being the ‘riches of His grace.’ The whole package of redemption was because of His glorious grace, His undeserved goodness to us.

In the next verse Paul revealed some of what made Christ’s gift so remarkable, and so incomprehensible. He said that Christ ‘abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence.’ The thought is that His gift of salvation was a gift which was richly overflowing to us. It was so great, and so abundant, it couldn’t be contained; it overflowed.

That which was overflowing our way was ‘in all wisdom and prudence.’ In other words, the process of making a way for sinful man to be reconciled to his offended God was a work that drew from all of His wisdom, and done with His rich reservoir of moral insight. It is significant that Paul quantified God’s wisdom here; he said He abounded toward us in all wisdom.

Suggested in this word is the difficulty that sin caused in God’s creation. When God looked at His creation after the sixth remarkable day, He admired His work and said, ‘It is good.’ Everything He had done was perfect, and created to seamlessly work together to His glory. Everything was according to His masterful plan and was truly remarkable, until man, God’s ultimate creation, chose to forsake God and go his own way. All of a sudden, God’s perfect work was thrown in disarray.

Reaching deep into His storehouse of Divine wisdom, He devised a plan that could restore what man had broken, God’s relationship with man. Summoning His vast supply of wisdom and prudence, God sent His only Son to pay for man’s selfish sin, and provide for man the means of entering once again into fellowship with His Creator.

Thank God for His wisdom and prudence!