Recurring throughout the section is the phrase or concept, “in Him.” This was flagged in verse 3 where we discover that all spiritual blessings in heavenly places are “in Christ.” The outline of those blessings in this section won’t let us miss this emphasis due to the repetition. In Christ, in Him, before Him, in love,  through Christ, according to His will,  in the beloved, in Him. It’s all about the person of  our Lord Jesus Christ. Our blessings are intimately, intricately and irrevocably connected with our relationship to Him!

Here we see that our redemption happened “through His blood.” That involved forgiveness of those things which alienated us from God in the first place. To redeem means to buy back or to free from captivity by payment of a ransom, to release from debt or blame. It is a special kind of purchase. In our case, we belong to God by virtue of being created by Him. But through sin we have trespassed where we ought not to have gone, we have stepped over the bounds. God paid the ransom to free us from our alienated situation. Paul does not go into further detail here, sufficing to simply state the truth.

How much did this cost Him?  On the surface, it cost Him the blood of Christ, meaning His death. But notice Paul, continuing to use words of high praise, asserts that it was “according to the riches of His grace.”  He is still extolling God’s grace, which before was “freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.” His grace is “rich” beyond our comprehension. And out of His wealth He lavished grace on us! God was not miserly, as though reluctantly giving in to something that He was compelled to do. He was generous to the max.

One woman completely missed the point of God’s lavish grace when she said, “I may need God’s grace, but I don’t need it as much as that man over there.” Grace needed must be a lavish grace; there is no other grace. Partial grace or measured grace is not grace at all.

The last phrase of verse 8 can be taken either here or with the next verse, as reflected by the various translations. Paul in the original Greek text, as we mentioned before, wrote what some might call a run-on sentence. In actuality, all of what God has done in Christ reflects His wisdom and insight. His grace is not an emotional whim, but fits within His eternal master plan. He designed, before anything was created (vs. 4), a plan to demonstrate His grace. Young people today might call this crazy grace.  It’s all about Him and His crazy grace!