In the New Testament book of Ephesians, chapter two, we catch a glimpse in the first three verses of our fallen condition: dead in our offenses and sins, walking according to the age of this world, according to the ruler of the authority of the air, of the spirit which is now operating in the sons of disobedience, conducting ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the thoughts, and by nature being children of wrath. This is quite a bleak picture as a background displaying the damage caused by God’s enemy Satan to us, the vessels originally made in the image and likeness of God for His purpose (Genesis 1:26). However, the next two words, which begin verse four, change the entire negative scene into a gloriously positive scene—“But God!” Verses four through nine say, “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,/ Even when we were dead in offenses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)/ And raised us up together with Him and seated us together with Him in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus,/ That He might display in the ages to come the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus./ For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not of yourselves; it is the gift of God;/ Not of works that no one should boast.” Although Satan did step in to damage God’s work (so he thought), his interference only provided more opportunity for God to display His multifarious wisdom. To Satan and to us these two words change everything—But God!