Ephesians 2:4-5

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

A long time ago, I remember hearing a pastor talk about boiling down the gospel.  He went on to say that the gospel in four words is, "Jesus in my place" and the gospel in two words is "substitutionary atonement".  Now, after doing a quick google search, there are different people who have come up with different answers or possibilities for this.  Another one that I've come across was: "but God".  I think that this attempt to boil down the gospel to two words comes from Paul's words here in Ephesians 2.  Verses one to three are directed to his readers about their condition or situation before being saved.  This comes to an immediate halt at the words "but God".  There is a path we walk or a course we follow in our state apart from God.  It is only when God steps in that we can have a hope in the midst of our dark state described in verses one to three.

So what did God do?  "but God... made us alive together with Christ".  We were dead, but he made us alive with Christ.  God is the one who raised Jesus from the dead and he is also the one who makes us alive.

Why did God do what he did?  He did what he did "because of the great love with which he loved us".  In Romans we read of this as well.

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

-Romans 5:6-8

It was love that caused the God of all creation to step in and save us from our deadness.  It wasn't because of obligation or boredom, but because of love.  It is because of God that we know the greatest love there is.  We read in 1 John, "we love because he first loved us".  He saved me.  He saved me because of his love for me.  What more do you need?  I was dead but now I am alive.  All praise be to God.