Day 70: You Are Chosen In Christ
James 1:18
By His will He [Father God] gave us bscripleftblueirth through the message of truth, that we would be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.
This week, we will focus on how Christ has set us free from condemnation. “In Adam” we were condemned. Now – In Christ Father God working in the Spirit has chosen you, sanctified you, given you a new spiritual birth and adopted you. All these blessings define who you are now in a new family.
The reality of Father-God’s love for us and choosing of us is displayed in His giving us New Spiritual Birth as well as being Adopted into His eternal family. This New Birth means that we have a new identity, a new inheritance, and a new destiny. This new birth is also described in terms of being adopted by Father-God. In both cases, we are now beloved children of Father-God. We need these truths to saturate our thinking, shape our desires and comfort our hearts and minds. Father is now pleased to call us His children and our “older brother” Jesus is not ashamed to call us His brothers and sisters. Until we are convinced how much Father-God loves us, we can make little progress in our growth in Christ.
You are Chosen in Christ.
WORDwork:
Ephesians 1:3-6
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in Him before the foundation of themtmwordwork world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved (Jesus Christ).
When were we chosen by Father-God in Christ?
For what purposes or results did Father-God choose us?
For what were we “predestined” by Father-God?
We all want to know that someone cares about us. We all need to know that we are loved. In Christ, we have been chosen by God. Our Father-God loved us enough to make the first move toward us to call us back to Himself. Father-God chose to initiate a meaningful and life-transforming relationship with us long before we ever thought about Him. Not only did God choose us, He has also set plans in motion that will guarantee that we end our journey exactly where He wants us to be – in His presence in complete fellowship with Him.
This passage contains some difficult words like “chosen” and “predestined.” Unfortunately, these concepts have caused many people grief when they should have caused great joy. It is going to be beyond the scope of this study to deal with these issues fully, particularly with all the controversy that surrounds them. Here, we just want you to begin to see what a blessing these truths are for you and how they can give you encouragement and security on your life journey. So let’s first simply hear what is here, accept it in faith and then wrestle with the truth.
You Were Chosen before the Foundation of the World
First, God set his mind and affections on us before the “foundation of the world.” God had set us in His purposes before He created this world!!! Even knowing all that would take place—all the sin, rebellion and chaos—He nevertheless loved us and set plans for us that would lead us to Him.
In the Bible, Father-God is always the one who takes the initiative with rebellious, helpless and hopeless humanity. In Adam’s rebellion, we were all made sinners. So when God saves, it is not out of an obligation He has to anyone, but on the basis of His grace (recall our definition of grace: The Father’s unearned favor that gives us access to His unlimited power in Christ through the Spirit). As we have already seen, God does all of this work “In love according to the purpose of his all wise will to the praise of his glorious grace.”
You Were Chosen to Be Holy and Blameless.
Paul also tells us the purposes for which God chose us: to be holy and blameless. We were all born into this World defiled by the corruption of sin. As a result, we all, by nature, rebelled and fought against God and His truth, goodness and glory. But even before all of this, God had set His mind and heart on us and determined that we would be holy—set apart uniquely for Him and His service. He has also chosen us to be blameless which means that we would be “without defect” or “without blemish” or “perfect” when we finally see Him face to face. We will explore this further tomorrow.
You Were Predestined for Adoption.
Predestination is another topic that has caused many people grief. This too is unfortunate. Remember, in this passage Paul is showing us why we are to praise God because of the many ways He has blessed us. One of the ways that He has blessed us is in predestining us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ.
The Greek word that is used in this verse for “predestine” simply means “to determine someone’s destiny beforehand.” In His great love for you, Father God not only chose you, but He also determined beforehand what your destiny—the final conclusion, destination of your life journey—would be. In fact, the grammar of this text seems to indicate that God chose us because He predestined us for certain conclusions. Father-God pre-determined that He wanted to adopt us as His sons and daughters and so to do that He chose us in order to make us holy and blameless.
Now, take a good look at why God does all of this for us an to us: His great love for us. God expresses His love for us in that He began to pursue us and set our course and destiny before the foundation of the world. God has done all of this for us because of His love for us, because of His desire for us, because He was willing to do whatever it would take to call us to Himself for the sake of His good pleasure.
Right here, at the beginning, we need to see what great implications all of these truths have for us: In Christ, your life-journey is secure. Your Heavenly Father has already decided and determined where you will end your present earthly journey: holy and blameless, perfect in His presence. This is the foundation of our Hope. This is the focus of our Faith. This is the reason for our Love. In the meantime, we cultivate our complete confidence in our Father working in Christ by the power of the Spirit to do in and through us what we cannot do for ourselves!
One of the most difficult things that we have to wrestle with as human beings is that our lives do not ultimately belong to us. Our lives have been granted to us by our Creator, Redeemer and King. Also, we must, at some point, come to the realization that we are not in control. We cannot control the circumstances of life, nor all the consequences and conclusions. Nevertheless, we do have the ability and responsibility to choose to live in accordance to the Lord-God’s truth, goodness and glory. Knowing that He has been working for us long before we entered the scene should be a comforting truth.
We have been created, redeemed and called to play a significant role in the reality that the One True God has begun and is moving along toward His wise and good conclusions. He has chosen us and set us apart for the role that He has prepared for us. Father-God working in Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit has set us free from the condemnation that we inherited “in Adam” and has accepted us as His beloved children.
As you think about what you have heard today, in what ways could these truths build and encourage your faith in the Father, Son and Spirit?
*You can find a complete list of all the MilktoMeat readings here.
