How Deep The Father's Love For Us

Back in South Carolina, there is a phrase that the older folks use when someone is so excited they won’t stop talking. When someone is like that they’ll say, “Man, she was running 90 miles a minute.” And perhaps you’ve found yourself running 90 miles a minute before after receiving good news or, if you were a kid, you ran 90 miles a minute because you simply ate a lot of candy. Well, regardless, I want you to turn with me to Ephesians 1 because it is there that we will find Paul so excited that he is rambling “ninety miles a minute” as he explodes with a huge two-hundred and twenty word long sentence, though our English Bibles have periods to make it easier for us to read. The truth that we will find in this passage are life changing for us as believers.

The other day I heard the story of an old Navajo Indian who had become rich because oil had been found on his property. He took all the money and put it in a bank. His banker became familiar with the habits of this old gentleman and every once in a while the Indian would show up at the bank and say to the banker, "Grass all gone, sheep all sick, water holes dry." The banker wouldn't say a word -- he knew what needed to be done. He'd bring the old man inside and seat him in the vault. Then he'd bring out several bags of silver dollars and say, "These are yours." The old man would spend about an hour in there looking at his money, stacking up the dollars and counting them. Then he'd come out and say, "Grass all green, sheep all well, water holes all full." He was simply reviewing his resources, that's all. That is where encouragement is found -- when you and I look at the resources which are ours, the riches, the facts, we find our faith strengthened. Now one difference I hope we’ll find between us and the old native is that he would only go in to look at his wealth without ever drawing on it, but I hope that today, we will see just how rich we are and that we will draw on it to live on for the rest of our lives.

With this being said, I want us to read Ephesians 1:3-6 and it is here that we will find just a glimpse at how deep the Father’s love for us is.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.”

This morning, we are going to learn a bit about the doctrine of unconditional election and I want us to leave knowing that the Father has lovingly blessed us and He is worthy to be blessed. So, I’m going to break down these passages and hopefully we will see how beautiful and life altering they are. First, let’s look at:

The Blessed Father

As Paul opens up this paragraph, he shouts out, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ…” Paul isn’t just wishing that we would give some blessing to God the Father, rather he is telling us that God is worthy to be praised. Now, as Paul continues, he makes it clear that this God, the God of Israel, is the God and Father of Jesus Christ. But who is this Jesus? That was a common name of that time after all; but in verse twenty, Paul makes it clear as he writes, “He exercised this power in Christ by raising him from the dead and seating him at his right hand in the heavens—far above every ruler and authority, power and dominion, and every title given, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he subjected everything under his feet and appointed him as head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of the one who fills all things in every way.”

What Paul is doing as he writes this is making it clear that Jesus is divine and that God the Father, the very one that sent our blessed Lord Jesus, is worthy of praise but throughout the Bible we usually see a reason given. And here Paul continues and says, “who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” So, Paul is so excited because God has blessed us tremendously. Alexander McLaren said, “God blesses us by gifts, we bless Him with words.” And this theme of blessing is exploding here as Paul uses every sense of the word bless. God is blessed, God has blessed, and we have spiritual blessings. These blessings, as we will see later on, are the actions of the Father, Son and Spirit in redeeming us. And these blessings are in the heavenly places. What that means is that since we are in Christ, that means Christ represented us on this Earth and completed all the actions required for us as our great representative, we are blessed with these heavenly riches since the One who we are in is in Heaven. But what does that mean for us? Well, what we find is that these are truths for living. This is wealth for holding. We may not be physically in Heaven yet, but these blessings are for us today.

Now, I’ve hunted most of my life and I’ve really never been a huge fan of the dark, but when I was a kid, hunting in the dark really weirded me out because we were in the middle of nowhere. No lights, barely any cell-phone service, you get the deal. After my hunts as a kid, I would climb down from my hunting stand and begin walking through the dark woods. I remember being extremely nervous until I could see the lights from the front of my Dad’s four-wheeler in the distance. Now I wasn’t on the four-wheeler yet, but the assurance of it being there waiting for me gave me great peace in the midst of darkness and that’s what these blessings will do for us. But what are they? Well, there are two things for us to see in this second point which is:

The Beauty of God’s Blessings

The first is a teaching called, “Election”, listen to what Paul says in verse 4, “Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.”

That word chose means exactly what you would think it would mean, it means that God has picked us out from the rest, that God selected us for Himself, and this is the way we see it used in passages like John 15:16-19 which reads,

John 15:16–19 NKJV

16 You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. 17 These things I command you, that you love one another. 18 “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

I want us to notice a few things about this passage. First is the person, second is the time, third is the purpose and fourth is the passage. What we see here is that God the Father, before time even began, chose a specific people to be holy and blameless before Him.

Now, a lot of people consider this doctrine to be mean, but does this sound like a mean passage to you? That God would choose a bunch of rebel sinners to be redeemed? This isn’t a heartless teaching, even Paul says it was done in love! God has chosen to save us so that we will stand before Him as justified people who love Him and who love one another. So, if you ever doubt the love of God for you, remind yourself of this truth. But we need to ask ourselves a question here, and that question is, “Why?” Why did God choose to save us? And how do I know if I’m one of the elect?

First, God chose to save you because He loved you and He wanted to.

When I met Ragan, I immediately fell for her, but the thing was that I just knew she was so far out of my league I’d never have a chance. Well, by some act of wizardry, I fooled her into marrying me and all these years later I still don’t get how I got her to say yes. But the thing is that there was something in me that she saw worth marrying with. Something convinced her. And while that is the case with relationships, or choosing puppies, or even selecting your favorite ball teams. That is not how it is with the electing grace of God. His choosing of us is unconditional

You and I had nothing to offer Him. It wasn’t that we were smart, or special, or cute. Instead we were dead and we absolutely hated Him, as we saw last week. Yet He loved us. We see this to be the case in Romans 9:11-16

Romans 9:11–16 NKJV

11 (for the children not yet being born, nor having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but of Him who calls), 12 it was said to her, “The older shall serve the younger.” 13 As it is written, “Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.” 14 What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not! 15 For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.” 16 So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy.

Here, Paul is referring to the Old Testament story of Esau and Jacob and he makes mention to the fact that God did what was contrary to the custom of the time. Instead of choosing to bless Esau, the first born, He chose Jacob. And what Paul wants us to know about this electing, or choosing of God, is that it isn’t because we have anything to offer, but that God simply chooses to save some because He wants to! The difficult thing about this doctrine for many to swallow is that they struggle to understand how God is loving and then chooses some and not others. The reality is that God is holy and is not mandated to save anyone at all and that the people He leaves in their sin are forever happy in their hateful rebellion against Him. It’s not as though God has sinners come to Him and He says, “Nope, no room for you.” As a matter of fact, the only reason a single soul has ever come to Him is because He chose them and worked in them to come to Him.

Now, some say that God looked into the future, saw that we would believe, and then chose us because of that. So let’s take a look at Romans 8:29-30 to see if they’re right.

Romans 8:29–30 NKJV

29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30 Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.

The Arminians will say that this passage means that God looked into the future to learn the response of sinners who would hear the gospel and then chose them. But that’s not what the word “Foreknew” means at all. It comes from the Greek word, “Proginosko.” Pro means before and Ginosko means an intimate knowledge. This is the same word that is used in Genesis when Adam knew Eve and they conceived a son. What this word teaches us then is that God lovingly placed His love on us before the world began. Not because He learned we’d make a good decision, not because we had a lot to offer, but only because He loved us and wanted us.

Now, what convinced me of this doctrine is that the Arminian view seems to detract from the nature of God. If God had to look into the future to learn of my decision, then it makes God a reactionary God who doesn’t plan things out, but actually has to learn. To me, that would mean that God was ignorant and without knowledge at some point which is not what the rest of the Bible teaches.

Second is, “How do I know if I’m one of the elect?”

This is a question that a lot of people struggle with, but I hope this answer will give you some help. The way to know if you’re one of the elect is if you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of your life and soul. In 1 Thessalonians 1:4-6

1 Thessalonians 1:4–6 NKJV

4 knowing, beloved brethren, your election by God. 5 For our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit and in much assurance, as you know what kind of men we were among you for your sake. 6 And you became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Spirit,

This, as well as Romans 10:13 are wonderfully assuring passages here. Guys, If you heard the gospel and truly believed that’s because you’re one of the elect. You didn’t believe because you were smarter than everyone else, you believed because God worked in your heart.

Isaac Watts wrote,

Who shall the Lord's elect condemn? 'Tis God that justifies their souls, And mercy like a mighty stream O'er all their sins divinely rolls.

Next we see verse 5, which reads, “He predestined us to be adopted as sons through Jesus Christ for himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,”

This has to be one of the most beautiful truths in the Bible. O’Brien writes, “Believer’s praise God the Father because His purpose in choosing them was to bring them into a personal relationship with Himself as His children.” (O’Brien 102). Predestination is an interesting term that we don’t use very often, but the New Testament uses it a few times. We see it in Acts 4:27-28

Acts 4:27–28 ESV

27 for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, 28 to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.

We also see it in Romans 8:29-30

Romans 8:29–30 NKJV

29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30 Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.

As well as 1 Corinthians 2:7

1 Corinthians 2:7 CSB

7 On the contrary, we speak God’s hidden wisdom in a mystery, a wisdom God predestined before the ages for our glory.

So, what we gather from the New Testament use of those words is that God has planned before time to accomplish, in the context, our adoption as sons through Christ Jesus. In my notes I wrote that God has, in love, chosen to redeem us in Christ; to forgive us of our sins and declare us as righteous. But this is the work of a judge, this mention of adoption takes the work of a father. This work of salvation and adoption go hand in hand. We see them in John 1:12-13

John 1:12–13 NKJV

12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: 13 who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

But what does this mean for us? Well, there are two possibilities of what Paul is pulling from here. He could be pulling from the Old Testament accounts of God’s work amongst Israel, but I agree with one writer that this is probably Paul referring to the Romans custom of adoption. You see, in Rome at this time there was this law called, “Partria Potestas” which meant the father of the home had absolute power over everything. As a matter of fact, if he wanted to kill his family members he could without any problems. The father had total ownership over his family and for adoption at that time, the son had to be released from the control of his birth dad and how this worked was that the birth father had to sell him as a slave to a new man 3 times. So he’d sell him once and the buyer would free him and he’d go back to the father’s possession, but the third time he was sold he became the son of the adopter and the son now had no more responsibilities to his birth father, he was now under the care of a new father.

And this is what happened when the Father redeemed us. We were once children of wrath and slaves to sin, but God has redeemed us and now we are His forever! We have a new status and new privileges! We were once under the control of an evil slave master, but now we have a Father who is unselfish, loving, and caring. We were once His enemies and now He looks at us and His banner of us is love and He calls us to come before Him to enjoy Him, to love Him, and to spend time with Him. And this isn’t it, one day we will be fully adopted as Romans 8 tells us, and we will no longer be tempted by Satan to return to him, but we will be free from all sin and temptation and we will fully enjoy the love of our Father forever and this is all because He chose to place us in Christ Jesus and He did it, Paul says, because He wanted to.

And in verse 6, we find that God did all of this for us, He made us acceptable to Him by choosing us in His Beloved, that is Jesus Christ . And He did that that we might praise Him for His glorious grace to you and to me.

Lessons

Let us marvel at the love of the Father, who has loved us long before the beginning of time.

We can rest knowing that our redemption was planned while God was fully aware of our fallen condition.

We can have assurance that God has adopted us as one of His own and with that adoption we lose all ties to our past life as rebels and should yearn to grow more like the One who saved us.