In Him: Chosen
Notes
Transcript
3 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 the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons 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.
3 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,
Emphasize IN CHRIST for the rest of the study of 3-14
In him: Chosen (4-6)
In him: Redemption (7-10)
In him: Inheritance (11-12)
In him: Sealed (13-14)
Bob Ross Painter?
An isolated stroke of the brush can be beautiful of itself, but without a full context it loses the extent of the beauty
As you came to Christ and forsook your sin, it had a beauty to it of itself no doubt
But Paul is wanting to detail all spiritual blessings in Christ
And so the view is beyond the stroke of the particulars in your own life, but rather the full context
And this first part he focuses on the eternity past aspect of the salvation of those who will find themselves IN HIM
Ephesians 1:4 “4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.”
IN HIM
We were chosen (by God)
When viewing our salvation from our experience only, we remember a time that we were gripped with the truths of our sin, and God’s holiness, and the only way to be made right with this holy God despite our sin was to choose to believe in Jesus and turn away from our sins. And to continue in living with this choice of obedience to our savior
Second London Baptist Confession
Chapter 9: Free Will
God has endowed human will with natural liberty and power to act on choices so that it is neither forced nor inherently bound by nature to do good or evil.
And although our will is broken now because of sin, it does not take away from the fact that we are to still choose Christ
13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?
So since people must choose Christ over their sin, we proclaim Christ to all people and call on them to choose God in Christ
And to see someone go from choosing sin, to choosing to submit in faith to Jesus Christ is a wonderful stroke of the paint brush
But Paul has in mind a bigger picture of salvation that begins before any of us were around, before even the foundations of the world were created
What was before the foundation of the world?
What part of the house exists before the foundation is laid?
Nothing
Paul is adding context to the beauties of the spiritual blessings in Christ by going back before there was ever any physical creation
Before your mother existed
Before she gave birth to you
Before you realized your sin
Before you chose Christ
Before the foundation of the world, he chose us in Christ
Simply put, God chose a people, before that people chose God
The root of you choosing Christ is found in the fact that God chose you before time began
If we cut off the origin of how we chose God, we are cutting off the masterful stroke of God first choosing us
And the people chosen by God has always been intertwined with being in Christ
Council of Peace, Covenant of Redemption
In eternity past, God the Father, and God the Son had a plan, an agreement, of what they would do in creation
What happened in creation was never left to chance, but rather always has to do with the will of our triune God
And it was the will of the triune God for the Father to give the Son a chosen people
And for the Son to save this people and rule over them
John 17:1-9.
John 17:20-26.
And all those who would believe after
The beast
6 It opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God, blaspheming his name and his dwelling, that is, those who dwell in heaven. 7 Also it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them. And authority was given it over every tribe and people and language and nation, 8 and all who dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain.
And so, when someone chooses God in their life, it is evidence that they have been chosen by God in eternity past to be a people in Christ
The church, or saints, are a gift from the Father given to the Son, planned in eternity past
And so the spiritual blessing is filled with a wonderful color on the canvas as you behold someone choosing Christ over their sin
But the picture gains its fuller beauty as you see the greater spiritual blessing Paul lays out that they were first chosen by God in eternity past to be a people given to the Son by the Father.
Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world
The the painting is even more beautiful as we consider God’s election or choosing further
Choice denotes more than one option.
Imagine being a child and going to a party store and your mother telling you that you have a choice of only one candy, and all the candy before you were only Snickers. That would make no sense, instead she would say grab a candy.
God in choosing a people means that he had the choice of others but did not choose them
God chose a people, and he did not choose others.
Some people try to argue that God chose everyone but only those who choose Christ will be saved. That makes no sense, when choosing denotes a choice God had when he chose some people and not another
God chose to save a people in Christ, and he chose to leave the rest in their rebellion against him.
7 So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,” 8 and “A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.” They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do. 9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
21 Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? 22 What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23 in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory—
A good question here is why? Why did he only choose a certain people?
Some people are so haunted by this question that they deny the clear doctrine altogether.
Why does God have the contrast between those who he has created that are chosen to be a people in Christ, and those who are chosen to be left in their sin?
So that the people who are chosen to be in Christ would see the contrast, and marvel at the spiritual blessings found in Christ
God has allowed man to fall in sin and stay in their rebellion for the sake of the people he has chosen for salvation to see just what they have been saved from
As you watch someone paint, you may notice that a few strokes of his paintbrush might produce something that is ugly, without the context of the entire painting
God, with the canvas of his creation and all that has happened in it has allowed for ugly things
Sin—a people that hate him that refuse to turn from their sins against God
But once the ugliness of sin and the community of sinners are found within the context of the chosen of God to be found in Christ and his righteousness, the entire thing becomes beautiful
The sin is still not beautiful of itself, but as it shows what it means to be chosen of God out of that system, the spiritual blessing becomes all the more magnified
From eternity past, God had a plan to create a beautiful work of art.
And that included for his Son to receive a people from the Father that would be saved from their sin and shine in the righteousness provided by the Son.
Such spiritual blessing is only possible if there are a people left to their sin to be contrasted with.
22 What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23 in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory—
Romans 9:24 “24 even us whom he has called…
If this is hard for you to swallow. Let me challenge you to have the same greatest desire for all creation that God does
God’s greatest desire, the very purpose why he created was to glorify himself
And the greatest glory is received when he allows sin to take place, and he saves a people from it
In which the people saved see the contrast and marvel at such spiritual blessings that flow from Christ, as they witness a people that don’t receive such blessing
You may have a hard time understanding this because you think God’s greatest desire in creation is for everyone to be saved
If that were true then everyone would be saved, because all that God desires to do he does
But instead, his greatest desire is for Christ to be glorified over sin, and so he allows it for the sake of his own glory.
So once you have the glory of Christ being the greatest aim of God, then God’s choosing a people for salvation and not choosing another group makes sense.
Because it is in this way that we
Bless the Father who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places
Even as he chose us in him from before the foundation of the world
We can’t just stop here though
All spiritual blessings in Jesus is not just realized in being chosen before time began
But in what the initial end is in that choosing (initial because we will see what the final end is in verse 6)
Ephesians 1:4 “4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.”
he chose us in Jesus that we should be holy and blameless before the Father
To be holy means to be set apart
God is holy holy holy
He is unlike his creation
To be holy means to be perfectly pure
Thus God is set apart from creation as a perfectly pure being
Any purity found in creation is a reflection of his holiness, not one that has holiness of itself
God has chosen us to be holy
Set apart from the rest of creation in purity
Reflecting his holiness, he has called us into holiness
Blameless is similar
It has the meaning of being unblemished—as the sacrifices of old were to be, as Jesus was
It means to be without any moral blemish
We were chosen to be set apart in moral virtue
From a world that is in total moral decay
And so our good works in Christ is a fruit, not a root of God choosing us
Jesus provides that to us in our justification—we are declared righteous
And then works in us to reflect that right standing in our actions as we walk this world (sanctification)
And it is this latter meaning that Paul has in mind.
Paul’s doctrine of sovereign grace caused his enemies to say that if God is so gracious to save us not by a work of ours, and to have the plan for salvation before we were even born, that means we can sin all we want
Romans 3:8 “8 And why not do evil that good may come?—as some people slanderously charge us with saying. Their condemnation is just.”
Romans 6:1 “1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?”
Romans 6:2 “2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?”
God’s plan to choose a people before time began to be in Christ includes to cause them to walk in holiness and blamelessness
To go from alive in sin, to dead to sin because of the blessing of Christ in our lives
Do people abuse this doctrine to excuse their living in sin? Yes.
But the doctrine as it is, does not allow for living in sin but instead God chose us for the purpose to cause us to walk in holiness not sin.
Remember, Paul’s main point of laying out the blessings found in Jesus
It would be no blessing to be chosen by God but not for holiness
Or to be chosen by God because of what we have done in good works
Living in sin is death, living in righteousness is life and blessing
In Christ we are chosen, in Christ we live for holiness
So that we praise him for such spiritual blessing
And now in verse 5, Paul underlines the same point of being chosen before time began for holy living but in a different way
And he sandwiches it with God’s motivation for doing so
Ephesians 1:4-5 In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose (good pleasure: εὐδοκία) of his will,”
First lets see how Paul reiterates being chosen for holiness
predestined—to determine beforehand
Connected with choosing before the foundation of the world
And instead of saying to be holy and blameless, he says
for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ
In our natural state we inherited from Adam, we were born children, not of God but of wrath
1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
Everyone born in this life is born by nature a child of God’s wrath
Thus, it is not accurate to say all people are children of God
There’s an aspect where that is true
29 Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man.
γένος: offspring, descendant
But that denotes simple origin, not familial ties
But the word child in Ephesians 2 is
τέκνον: child of like kind
All mankind is born after Adam in his fall into sin
Therefore they are certainly created by God, but are children of wrath
And so their lifestyle reflects one of being fallen in sin, and receiving God’s wrath
But all spiritual blessings come from God through Christ in that the Father predestined for a people to go from being a child of wrath, to a child of God through adoption through Jesus Christ
We once had Satan as our Father
44 You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—
Like a child born to parents that are addicted to drugs and had not their children’s interest in mind
So the devil is not a good father, but only wishes harm on all God’s creation
Ephesians 2:4-5 “4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—”
God brings you from being a child of wrath to being his own son and daughter through adoption by the forgiveness of sins found in Jesus
11 And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”
And through Jesus the same declaration is made about those who are in Jesus
And remember, a child in this sense is another in kind....we act like the one we are a child of
As we were chosen in Christ before time began to be holy and blameless
So we are predestined to be adopted through Jesus to be sons and daughters
And that is one in the same kind
Holy and blameless as Jesus is
So again, it is a beautiful stroke of the paint brush
to see someone choose Christ
to see someone live a life of holiness and blamelessness
But the full canvas of its beauty is seen when you have the doctrine of
God choosing that person before time began
God predestining for that person to go from a child of wrath to a child of God through the adoption in Jesus Christ
But it gets even richer when Paul lays out the motive God had for doing such thing in eternity past
Ephesians 1:4-5 In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,”
In love (some people think it belongs to what came before (walking holy and blameless, we do so in love. Some people think it belongs to what comes after, being predestined to be adopted to God. Since it is one sentence it can refer to one or the other. It is theologically sound to put it to both so the consequence is the same.)
according to the purpose of his will
purpose is not wrong, but other translations have it as good pleasure--εὐδοκία
It’s not JUST that God’s choosing and predestination was not according to our purpose but God’s
But also his purpose was driven by his good pleasure to do so
“Hence, what he did was a result not of sheer determination but of supreme delight.”
When I send my kids out to weed the garden, they do it out of determination to get the chore done
It is my job to train them up to do it for supreme delight in God’s creation and enjoying him in different ways including gardening
God’s plan to elect and predestined a people was not driven by an impersonal force, of sheer determination
But a God who takes supreme joy, delight, and love in choosing his people for great spiritual blessing in Jesus
God has chosen and predestined you with a desire to receive his love
A child has joy in receiving the love of his parents
An adolescent enjoys the love of his friends
An adult finds extreme delight in the love of their spouse
The greatest expression of this is the love we receive in God
The great spiritual blessing of being chosen and predestined is found in
knowing that my choice of Jesus is rooted in his choice of me
so that I can walk in holiness
And so I can use this doctrine to experience the perfect love God has for his people
The immediate of being chosen and predestined is to be holy and blameless
The ultimate end Paul labels here
Ephesians 1:6 “6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.”
Another words, the blessings given in Jesus
Is so that we would bless God
Conclusion
All the spiritual blessings of Jesus in the heavenlies begins with the fact that there is a people chosen from eternity to be holy and blameless
There is a people that have been predestined to be adopted out of being a child of wrath, to being a child of God
And such blessings burst forth as the contrast of not being chosen, or being left to be a child of wrath is viewed in light of the spiritual blessing of being chosen
This is meant to lead to holy living, and to glorify God
Or, our holy life is fueled by our glorifying God