CHOSEN IN LOVE
Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on July 17, 2022 under 2022 |
Bethany Bible Church Sermon Message; July 17, 2022 from Ephesians 1:4-6
Theme: We who are in Christ have been given, by the heavenly Father, infinite value, significance, and belonging.
(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).
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What do people need in order to be able to live a happy and fulfilled life?
I suppose that there are lots of things that people could mistakenly point to—things that seem to give a temporary experience of happiness and fulfillment—such things as wealth and possessions; fame and applause; a list of good accomplishments; a sense of power and influence over others; even the doing of sacrificial acts for other people. But those things are only external sources of happiness and fulfillment. They don’t reach our inner-most being. If the circumstances of life change, they can easily be lost to us. And when you look at the lives of others who have those things in abundance, you plainly see that those things cannot really give genuine, lasting happiness and fulfillment.
Psychologists, philosophers, and even physicians have told us that there are certain things that people need—deeper things—in order to experience a truly fulfilled and happy life. Among them is a sense of value. People have to have a sense that they are genuinely worth something—even if they can’t do anything at all to make themselves worthy. They also need a sense of true significance—the knowledge that they aren’t just meaningless specks of dust in the universe; but that they genuinely matter and that their existence has purpose. And they also need a sense of belonging. They need to know that they don’t always have to ‘earn their keep’; but that they have a place in the heart of someone else—a place they can call ‘home, where they are always welcomed and accepted and safe and loved no matter what.
True value, significance and, belonging. I don’t know if it can be said that this is a list of everything that we need to have a happy and fulfilled life. But I think you’ll agree with me that no one can be happy and fulfilled—in any deep and lasting way—without them.
And that brings us to this morning’s passage of Scripture. It declares something wonderful to those of us who have a relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ. You find that passage in Ephesians 1:4-6. It tells about the rich, eternal blessings with which the heavenly Father has blessed us in His Son Jesus 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 (Ephesians 1:4-6).
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ; in these words, we find those essential elements that we all need. This passage assures us that we who are in Christ have been given, by the Father, infinite value, significance, and belonging. The basic fundamentals of everything we need for lasting happiness and the well-being of our souls are already ours—in unlimited supply—through Jesus Christ. All that we need to do is take conscious possession of them by faith, and live whole-heartedly before Him in the truth of them.
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Now; to catch the full significance of this passage, let’s start at the beginning. The apostle Paul had written this letter to convince his believing brothers and sisters of a great truth. We talked about this great truth last week. It’s the one that’s stated in Ephesians 1:3;
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 … (v. 3).
Paul used the phrase “in Christ”; and that’s a phrase that he uses throughout this letter. It’s a major theme in all his letters; but it’s an especially important theme in this letter. It’s telling us that we who have believed on the Lord Jesus as our Savior, and place our trust in His cross for our salvation, have been placed by God “in Christ”. All that happened to Jesus is now true of us. He died on the cross; and we died to the old life of sin “in” Him. He rose from the grave; and we now live a new life before the Father “in” Him. He ascended and sits at the right hand of God the Father in glory; and we are now seated together in heavenly places “in” Him—destined to be glorified with Him. All that the Father does for us is “in Christ”; and all that we do for the Father in return is “in Christ”.
That’s what it means to be “in Christ”. We have been brought into that relationship by God’s gracious work toward us through faith. And now, in this passage, the Holy Spirit is letting us know that every spiritual blessing that we will ever need is already ours—in the full—through that relationship of being “in Christ” by faith.
The apostle Paul then goes on, in this letter, to tell us what those blessings are. He doesn’t name them all; but the ones that he identifies for us are truly marvelous. In verses 4-6—in the passage we just read a moment ago—he told us about the blessings in Christ we have from the Father:
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 (vv. 4-6).
Then, in verses 7-12, Paul goes on to tell us about the blessings that the Father has given us through Jesus Christ Himself that bring us into His favor:
In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him. In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory (vv. 7-12).
And finally, in verses 13-14, Paul tells us about the spiritual blessings that the heavenly Father gives us through the Holy Spirit to keep us in His favor in Christ;
In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory (vv. 13-14).
You can sum it up this way: the heavenly Father has chosen us and adopted us as His own children; the Lord Jesus has atoned for our sins on the cross and has shared His own eternal inheritance with us; and the Holy Spirit has sealed us in Christ and serves as the guarantee that we will be glorified in heaven with Jesus forever. And do you notice that in each case—after telling us what it is that each divine Person of the Trinity does for our salvation—we’re told that the heavenly Father has done it all for us “to the praise of His glory”?
Over the next several Sundays that we spend together, we’ll be looking very carefully and deeply through this passage. We’ll try not to rush through it; but will take enough time to savor the wonderful truths it reveals to us—and to let those truths sink in and change the way we live.
And so; let’s start by carefully considering the foundation of it all—what we’re told that the Father has already done for us that now gives us the basics for a truly happy and meaningful life “in Christ”.
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Now; look first at verse 4. It tells us; that God the Father has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in 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 …”
And here, we’re told that—as a present possession from the Father …
1. WE HAVE INFINITE VALUE BECAUSE HE CHOSE US BEFORE CREATION IN CHRIST.
Think of that, dear fellow believer! Because we are only created beings, we would never have known this amazing fact about ourselves—that the Father had chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world—unless He had graciously revealed this fact to us. But it is true!
First of all, notice what it was that He did. He “chose” us—which means that He intentionally and purposefully “picked us out” from fallen, sinful humanity to be “holy and blameless” before Him. And please be careful how you understand that. The apostle Paul is not telling us that God the Father looked down the corridors of time, and saw that we would one day be “holy and blameless” before Him, and then “chose” us because of what He saw. It’s not telling us that at all. And let’s face it; if He were to have looked down the corridors of time into the future to see us, He definitely would not have seen holiness and blamelessness. He would have seen what we’re told about at the beginning of Ephesians 2—that we were dead in our trespasses and sins. Instead, this passage is telling us that God the Father chose us before we ever were—before anything else in creation ever was; before the foundation of the world itself; and completely apart from anything we could have done to make ourselves worthy—and “picked us out” from out of fallen humanity for the unspeakably great gift of making us “holy and blameless in His sight” in Christ.
Does that seem astonishing to you? Of course, it does. But dear brothers and sisters in Christ; it’s nevertheless a truth that is testified elsewhere in Scripture. Think of what it says in a passage that may already be familiar to you; and that is Romans 8:28-30. There, Paul wrote;
And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. 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. Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified (Romans 8:28-30).
When it says that the Father “foreknew” us, it means that He knew us in His love before we ever were. But do you see, in those words, a single mention of anything that we could have done to make ourselves worthy of that foreknowledge and calling? No! It was all God the Father’s doing. He foreknew us in it; He called us to it; He predestined us for it; and all the glory goes to Him.
Or think of what we’re told in 2 Thessalonians 2:13-14;
But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth, to which He called you by our gospel, for the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Thessalonians 2:13-14).
Paul said that he was bound to thank God for the Thessalonian believers. But who is Paul bound to thank for what God did for them? The Thessalonians themselves? No! All the thanks goes to God the Father who chose them—and us—“from the beginning” for salvation.
Or think of 1 Peter 1:1-2. The apostle Peter began his letter with these words:
To the pilgrims of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ (1 Peter 1:1-2).
Who did the ‘electing’? It was the Father. And what did He ‘elect’ us to? It was to “sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.” None of it was because we were worthy of being chosen by the Father. None of it was because we first chose to be saved. Instead, we were made worthy by the Father having first chosen us for it in Christ.
You and I may look at that and say, “But I remember hearing the gospel and believing. Didn’t I do that? Didn’t I make a choice?” And the answer is that, yes, you did. You absolutely did! As an act of your will, you heard the gospel, believed, and were saved. But the wonderful truth is that you only heard and believed and chose Jesus at a point of time in history because the Father first chose you for it in eternity past. Like it tells us in Acts 13:48;
And as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed (Acts 13:48).
And dear brothers and sisters; don’t let the questions and theological debates about this rob you of the wonderful thing it is telling us. It is affirming to us how immeasurably and infinitely valuable we are to the Father. At a time when there was absolutely nothing worthy about us at all—at a point in eternity before the world itself was created—the Father already loved us, and already knew us, and had already chosen us for faith in Jesus Christ. He chose us in Jesus before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love; and then—in time—sent His Son for us to make it so.
I will admit—this involves a tremendous mystery. But what a foundation this great mystery gives us for infinite happiness and meaningfulness in life! And I’m not going to let the mystery of it rob me of the joy of it, or of the opportunity to grab hold of it, or of resting my confidence for eternity in it! Will you?
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Now; a second blessing we have from the Father in Christ is told to us in verse 5. It says that He chose us in Christ; “having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will …” And this shows us that …
2. WE HAVE INFINITE SIGNIFICANCE BECAUSE HE WILLINGLY ADOPTED US THROUGH CHRIST.
People need a sense of significance. But they can’t give true significance to themselves. They are only significant because of what they are. And here, we’re told how significant we are. We are official sons and daughters of the heavenly Father through Jesus Christ.
This passage tells us that we have been ‘adopted’ by the Father—officially made into His own children. To be ‘adopted’ is a remarkable expression of love. When a child is born naturally to a mother and father, the relationship involves an obligation of love. If I may put it crudely, whenever a mother or father gives birth, they have no choice but to love and care for that child. But when they adopt a child, they are committing themselves to love a child that is not naturally theirs—a child for whom they don’t have a natural obligation. It is the highest form of love that someone can show to a child. All other children are born to their parents; but an adopted child is ‘picked’. This means that—as the highest expression of love He can show us—the heavenly Father “adopted” us and made us His own children—with all the rights and privileges that come from being His full, natural-born daughter or His full, natural-born son.
Do you notice when this happened? We’re told that the Father “predestined” us to it. That means that He ‘destinated’ us to it ‘beforehand’—before there was anything that we could have done to make ourselves worthy of becoming His children. It’s true that it says, in John 1:12, that “as many as received Him”—that is, received Christ—“to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name”. But it goes on to say in verse 13 that they are those “who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God”.
And do you notice how this happened? We’re told that God adopted us as His own children “by Jesus Christ”. It was through the cross of Jesus that our adoption was made possible. He sent Jesus to die for us so that He could remove all the barriers and fully adopt us. After Jesus was crucified, after He was raised from the dead, He appeared to Mary Magdalene. He gave her a message to give to His disciples. John 20:17 says;
Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God’” (John 20:17).
And do you notice how Paul made a point of saying that the Father has adopted us “to Himself”? We are sons and daughters of the heavenly Father—having been predestined to adoption through Jesus Christ to Himself. We can now come confidently to the Father, at any time, and ask anything of Him freely in Jesus’ name—not as strangers who have no business coming to Him; but as beloved children with all the rights and privileges that Jesus Himself enjoys in His relationship with the Father.
What a great significance we have in this world! What an identity we have! What significance we have in this universe! We matter greatly!
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And a third thing that we have from the Father is told to us in verse 6. It tells us that we have been chosen by the Father for salvation from before time in Christ, predestined to adoption by Jesus Christ to Himself; and all “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 tells us that …
3. WE HAVE INFINITE BELONGING BECAUSE HE NOW ALWAYS WELCOMES US IN CHRIST.
We see the welcoming love of the Father in the fact that this was all done “according to the good pleasure of His will. People sometimes have a very unworthy idea in their mind about the Father. They think that all He wanted to do was pour His wrath out on sinners. They think that the Lord Jesus—His beloved Son—was the one who truly loved us; and that He stood between the Father and us to stop Him from destroying us. But no! It’s certainly true that Jesus willingly showed His love toward us in dying for us. But His doing so was in obedience to the will and plan of His Father. The Father Himself took the initiative of love, and put into motion the plan to save us! He was not in any way compelled to do so. He did all of this for us “according to the good pleasure of His will”. As John 3:16-17 tells us;
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved (John 3:16-17).
And notice that the Father did all of this for us to the praise of the glory of His grace, “by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.” The “Beloved” is His own precious Son Jesus; and it is in Him—and in Him alone—that we are now 100% acceptable in His sight; made holy and blameless before Him in love. We are as accepted by the Father, and are as welcomed to come into the Father’s presence, as Jesus Himself. Just before He went to the cross for us, Jesus told His disciples;
“These things I have spoken to you in figurative language; but the time is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figurative language, but I will tell you plainly about the Father. In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I shall pray the Father for you; for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came forth from God” (John 16:25-27).
Dear brothers and sisters; just think of how deeply the Father accepts us in His Son Jesus. Jesus Himself even prayed to the Father for His apostles—and also for us—and said;
“I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me” (John 17:20-23).
The Father now loves us as much as He loves His own Son Jesus! Can we have any deeper experience of acceptance than that?
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Dear brothers and sisters in Jesus; we all need these things. We all need value, and significance, and belonging. We can’t live fulfilled and happy lives without these things. But we can’t find them—in any lasting and deep way—through the things of this world. Don’t behave like the people of this world—desperately searching for these things in outward, temporal, unsatisfying ways that won’t last. You don’t need to look for them. You already have them in Christ.
Always remember—and fully believe—and wholeheartedly embrace it as fact—that the Father has given us these things infinitely in Jesus. He has given us infinite value, because He chose us in Christ before Creation. He has given us infinite significance, because He has willingly adopted us as His own children through Christ. And He has given us infinite belonging, because He now always welcomes us in Christ.
And He did it all to the praise of the glory of His grace!
AE
