BLESSED TO BE CHOSEN BY GOD PART 2

Eph 1:5-6

I want you think about this statement by A W Pink in his book “The Attributes Of God” as we continue in this letter by the Apostle Paul.

W Pink said “In the beginning, God” There was no Heaven, where His glory is now particularly manifested. There was no earth to engage His attention. There were no angels to hymn His praises; no universe to be upheld by the word of His power. There was nothing, no one, but God; and that, not for a day, a year, or an age, but “from everlasting.” During a past eternity, God was alone: self-contained, self-sufficient, self-satisfied; in need of nothing. Had a universe, had angels, had human beings been necessary to Him in any way, they also had been called into existence from all eternity. The creating of them when He did added nothing to God essentially. He changes not as Mal 3;6, therefore His essential glory can be neither augmented or diminished. God was under no constraint, no obligation, no necessity to create….He chose to do so was purely a sovereign act on His part, caused by nothing outside Himself, determined by nothing but His own mere good pleasure….He created for His manifestative glory.”isHoiH

  

What is A W Pink saying? God chose to create the universe, angels, human beings for His glory and splendor. God created you and me not because the Godhead was lonely and needed anything. God chose to create us for His good pleasure. (v11) As Paul said "For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?" "Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?" For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.” Rom 11:34-36

The natural response from God’s children should be this! "Stand up and bless the LORD your God from everlasting to everlasting. Blessed be your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise.” Neh 9:5. Everything God did and does is a display and extension of His love and charter of His sovereign grace. Encountering this doctrinal truth should cue us, the church, to start worshipping.

So, let’s continue the mystery and nature of our Election. As we’ve had seen we are chosen by God and that is a miracle and blessing all by itself. God the Creator of the Universe would consider, love to redeem a fallen human being like myself. WOW! To understand by faith the mystery/nature of our Election is sealed with these foundational truths as we continue in Paul’s letter. It is humbling to know that God did all this despite our sinfulness, our unrighteousness and unregenerate hearts apart from Christ and the gospel. Let this truth sink in this morning of your election.

  

He elected us to a position of holy and blameless.

“That we should be holy and blameless” (v4) This describes the purpose and result of God’s divine election. God takes what is sinful and declares him or her holy and blameless. God takes what is unrighteous and makes and declares us righteous. God takes someone who unworthy and makes/declares them worthy through salvation. This goal is not optional this is the main purpose of election. Holiness is moral purity and blamelessness expresses a freedom from guilty which the Christian formally walked. That is the plumb-line test to God’s saving grace. Through salvation we are elected to holiness and faith. Jesus gave Himself as “a Lamb unblemished and spotless” 1 Peter 1:19. We have been given His unblemished and spotless nature. Only in Christ are we holy positionally, we know that in our daily living we are far from the standard of God’s holiness. Yet in Him “We have been made complete.” Col 2:10. We are testimonies to our generation and generations to come to how God can love and save sinful people by elevating the lowest to the highest condition found only in God’s grace. And because God declares us to be holy and blameless, we should strive or to make it our aim every day to pursue holiness. Why? God took you and me, a people unworthy and made us worthy through the gospel of His Son. 

“but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.” Rom 5:8-9 

Did you catch that? “While we were still sinners” God’s extended hand of grace is not based upon our belief or goodness and works righteousness. It is the sole work of a self-sustaining and perfect/merciful God.

He elected us by predestinating us in love.

“In love (agape love, unconditional everlasting love) He predestined us” Scripture affirms that God, in His high sovereignty singled out certain ones to be recipients of His distinguishing favor. “And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.” Acts 13:48. Though the mystery of election God knew who were His before He laid the foundation of the world. It’s not something God learned over time by observing your life through works or morality. It is not that God determined to do it when it was actually done, but that he intended to do it beforehand. God KNEW whose are His, despite who you are were or what you’ve become and what you’ve done. I don’t know about you but for me I am eternally grateful to God who saw my substance and said I want that man in my family. Despite how I lived my life, before He sovereignly saved me. This word “predestination” should not scare you or make you made. This word should melt your heart to know God is love and you and I don’t deserve it, but yet God chose to love me first.

“Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down His life for His friends.” John 15:13. This is exactly what Jesus did on behalf of those God have chosen to be His. As we will see in the coming weeks “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 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,” Eph 2:5-6. He loved us, and will eternally continue to love us according to the kind intention of His will. 

He elected us by adopting us according to His perfect will.

“He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ.” When we are transformed by the gospel we become “God’s children” “So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, "Abba! Father!" The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,” Rom 8:12-16. “Abba” was an Aramaic word of endearment, somewhat equivalent to “daddy or papa.” What a privilege (not a right) to call God our Father or Daddy! 

What does it mean to be adopted? It means to have all the rights and privileges, resources that belong to the father’s children. It’s a beautiful thing for a child of any age to be adopted into a loving family that says “I want that person in my family. And I will do whatever it takes to get that person in my family.” Adoption goes deeper than that though! God’s grace has a horizontal aspect, not just a vertical aspect. We are brothers and sisters and this is your family. The church is a family of adopted brothers and sisters. He purposed you and me into this family before the foundations of the world. This indicates that God’s children are here on purpose, it’s part of God’s great redemptive work and plan. 

This adoption is so much greater than a human family adopting a child…which is beautiful by the way. See no human parent no matter how hard we try can impart our own distinct nature to an adopted son or daughter. They can reap the benefits of our love, resources and inheritance. Julie and I can love an adopted child as our own, as we do our six children, but we cannot impart our distinct nature into them. But here is the beautiful part! God miraculously does! He does this to every single person who He elected and who has trusted in Jesus through the gospel. God makes us sons just like His divine Son “adoption as sons of Jesus Christ.” He gives us not only the blessing and riches found in Christ, but also His very nature. Jesus said “No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.” John 15:15 

Jesus expressed this when He taught the disciples to pray! "When you pray, say: "Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come.” Luke 11:2. God lovingly draws redeemed sinners into the intimacy of His own family. Adopting us by His unmerited grace to call us His own…WOW! 

He elected us into a blessed union with the Beloved.

“to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.” (v6). See the ultimate purpose of God’s electing grace in salvation is answered in (v6)

“To the praise of His glorious grace.”

Look closely at the text. “Which He” This indicates divine grace which is undeserved love and favors by His divine nature/character that He has made available to sinners.

You might ask! Why did God do all that for us? Why did he want us to be His sons and daughters? Answer: We are saved and made sons and daughters to the praise of the glory of His grace. Again WOW! He chose to save us for His own glory. See! God wasn’t getting anything good when He got Mike Andrews. God wasn’t getting anything special that would add to Him or benefit Him in any shape or form. My only hope and your only hope is that God is relentless in His pursuit to save sinners. We can’t save ourselves and we sure can’t make ourselves better, this is why we desperately need Him to save us from ourselves. This is the beauty of God’s electing grace! God loves to save the most despicable kinds of people because that what He got when He saved me. And for that I’m eternally grateful with an expression of love that I cannot explain. 

What does that electing love and grace of God look like then? “For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. Isa 53:2-11

We live in a world that is oblivious to the Fathers Love for sinners like you and me. He gave us His Son so that we could live and taste the grace for the glory of God. The implications of God making us “holy” and making us adopted sons and daughters is that we have been chosen for a mission. That mission is Killaloe and the Ottawa Valley. We are and will imitate God as beloved children though the gospel message of redeeming grace. Our election is a privilege, but it also contains the responsibility of making Christ known in word and in deed. Why? He chose me before the foundation of the world and He sent His son to die and take my place so that I could be adopted by His grace and for His glory.