Read:
Ephesians 1:4-6 (NIV)“3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ ... 4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.”
Relate:
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| Mesilla Elementary School |
During recess, all the kids would gather on the playground. The boys would play in one area and the girls in another. Then came the dreaded “line up” of the boys as they began choosing their teams. Inevitably, I would always be the last to get chosen! You see, as a young boy, I was overweight, clumsy and slow. So, with “good reason”, I was the last to be picked. I hated getting picked last and dreaded the feelings that followed. Day after day after day the process continued.
Scripture says “... he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.”
God chose us first! Some of you may be thinking, “That’s great, so when is that going to happen? When do I start being this holy and blameless thing?” It already happened if you’ve given your life to Christ. Remember these are things we’re already been blessed with according to verse 3.
When did God choose us? “he chose us in him before the creation of the world ...” Do you think it really means that? I do! That means that before the world was ever created, God knew. He already had you in mind and He knew that you were going to ask Christ into your life. He knew all that in advance! God knew that someday He was going to look at you as a holy and blameless person. Not because of your own performance, but because of Christ’s performance.
This is a tremendous truth! It tells me that God thinks about me. It tells me that He has always thought of me. Our salvation wasn’t just an afterthought with God. It was intentional! It was planned! Back to my playground story: someone would eventually choose me because they felt sorry for me. In essence, I was an afterthought. But not with God!
The second part of our text for this week says, “ ... he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ ...”
In brief, what is predestination? How does it work? Some people may think if my life is all predestined, if God planned it all out, do I have to make any decisions? Then there’s other people who may say, “No, it’s all us. God made us free moral agents. We get to choose.”
Which is it then? How does this predestination or election work? How do we balance these two truths: the fact that God is sovereign, He gets to do whatever He wills. But it’s just as true that God has given us a free will. Jesus says, “Come to Me, all of you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.” If He chose everybody and we didn’t have a choice, why would He even have said that? He’d said, “All of you who are chosen will come to Me so I don’t even have to call you. You’ll just come to me automatically.”
Honestly, there are some things in scripture that we may continue to struggle with in this life such as predestination or even the trinity. That’s where our faith comes in.
The second part of this verse says, “... to be adopted as his sons.” I love the fact that I have been adopted by Christ.
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| Our son Matthew & grandson Issac |
Issac now legally bears our family name: Ortega. A few days after his legal ceremony, we held a family ceremony in our backyard where all the members of our family participated in this intimate induction as an “Ortega”.
If you are a Christian, you have been adopted by God. It’s significant that Paul wrote the book of Ephesians from a Roman prison. In Roman society, it was serious if you were adopted. That was the law at that time that the father of the household had absolute power over the children. Not just while they were in his household, but all their lives until he died. In fact, he had the power of life or death over his children. In Roman society, a father could legally condemn one of his own children to death if he wanted to and a child couldn’t possess anything. When I say absolute power it includes the power of ownership. For instance, if someone gives me a business, they are not giving it to me, but giving it to my father since he’s still alive. Even though I am a 54 yr. old adult, my father still control everything as long as he is alive! Everything comes from the father. In that society, as soon as a child was adopted, they immediately inherited all the rights of their adopted family, losing all the rights of their biological family. When adopted into a new family, you were no longer liable for the old debts acquired by your former family.
The human race has had a debt building up with God for a long time. It started back in the Garden of Eden. This debt is called sin. Because of Jesus Christ, God took us out of one family, and adopted us into another family. The debt is forgiven, wiped out, cleared and all these blessings are now ours by simply asking for it. If that doesn’t make you feel a little good, you may not have a pulse!
Praise God that we have been chosen by Him to be holy and blameless in his sight and that He has selected us to be adopted into His family!
Reflect:
Reflect:
- Do you know anyone who has been adopted? What stands out to you about their relationship with their new family?
Respond:
- Why did God choose us? Are you living up to those expectations? If not, what needs to change?
- How is your relationship with your adopted Father? Why? What needs to change?
Request:
- Take a moment to thank the Lord for choosing you and loving you enough to adopt you as His own child.
what if we are predestined to have freewill...........just saying:)
ReplyDeleteI like the idea Jake.
ReplyDelete