<p>2:7 <i>His intention was that throughout the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus</i>- We note &quot;intention&quot;; for God will never force. His passionate desire is to lavish His grace upon us eternally; but many ignore or resist His love. The &quot;will&quot; of God should be read more as His &quot;intention&quot;, rather than a determinate force which shall make itself come true one way or another in the life of a person. That is the way of Islam, but it is not the God revealed in Christ.</p><p>Just as God must&rsquo;ve &lsquo;thought out&rsquo; His wonderful plan of lavishing grace upon us for &lsquo;the word&rsquo; existed first and then &lsquo;became flesh&rsquo;, we too will need to take time to think out our plans for showing grace to others. Eph. 2:5-8 speaks of God working with us now, so that He can lavish His grace upon us for eternity. This is what He is all about. And it&rsquo;s what we should be all about; taking a Divine joy in forgiving, being generous, caring, showing grace. God simply loves lavishing grace; there is no response to human goodness as deserving it. And so our showing of grace should be likewise. Being kind and gracious for the sake of it, rather than as some calculated response to behaviour.</p>