Eph. 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, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved."
This is one of my favorite passages in all of Scripture. If you are a follower of Christ, I hope it is one of your favorites as well. These two sentences are so rich with the blessings of salvation. These two sentences show the child of God that God's inclusion of them into his family was no accident, but rather part of his master plan from the beginning of time.
As finite beings we have to acquiesce that there are some questions that we will never have answered by God in this time of redemptive history. If we don't come to grips with that truth, we will allow anxiety, fear, and anger to over take our lives. Deut. 29:29 says, "The secret things belong to the Lord our God..."
In Bible College I would often ask the question, WHY? God, why in the world would you choose to save me by having your son die? Isn't there a better way? I mean, you are God, you are all powerful, you know all things, you hold all of time in your hand. Why this?
Now I know that there are some great theological answers to that question above, but when I asked that question, I wasn't looking for a reason to thank God for his rich love for me, I was trying to figure out why in the world would God institute a law of redemption that necessitated death as the means of being redeemed. When I am with the Lord, maybe I will have my answer, but I have a sneaking suspicion that I won't really care at that point.
And so it is with predestination...
God, WHY? I don't understand.
Did you know the death of Christ was predestined in the book of Genesis? Gen. 3:15 is the first prophecy of the death of Christ. - "...he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel."
The Greek word for predestine in the passage is proorizo and it means exactly what you think it means, to decide beforehand or predetermine. It fits the context perfectly as in verses 1-2 and the beginning of verse 3 Paul uses the term kyrois (decision maker) for Christ when he calls him Lord. So we see that Jesus is the decision maker and he made an amazing, gracious decision before the world began.
This is such a rich text, so yes, I will go through it phrase by phrase in the coming weeks, but this is what the Lord is bringing to my mind as I read this morning:
Thought #1
Notice that we were chosen to be HOLY and BLAMELESS before God. Immediately my mind races to justification and Christ's imputed righteousness. Paul is explaining to the Christian that your standing before God is one of righteousness, not condemnation. Romans 8:33 says, "Who can bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies."
We should respond with gratitude, because we will NEVER be able to pay him back for the debt he literally canceled out. Col. 2:13-14 says, "And you who were dead in your trespasses and and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross."
Thought #2
Predestination was done in a certain way to accomplish a specific purpose. It was done in love.
I know what you're thinking..."how is this love?" Well take into consideration the purpose: ADOPTION!
Here is an illustration: If you adopt a little new born baby, you have no idea what that baby is going to do some day. He or she could be the next Disney CEO or develop the iPhone 84S and then they can support you, right? Isn't that what being a parent is all about...getting a return on your investment?
Adoption is a selfless act. It is something done because someone else is choosing to take someone who is not your child and make them your heir, and this is what God did for you and me because of his amazing love.
We should respond by loving people. We don't know who God has chosen to adopt, but we do know that he adopts people from every nation (Matt. 28:19), so we are to love people from every walk of life. God's amazing grace to us is the catalyst for how we respond to the people he places in our life.
Fill your heart with gratitude this weekend and go out and give away the amazing love of our adopter.
Be edified!
No comments:
Post a Comment