Ephesians 1:3-6 says,...
Today's verses are Ephesians 1:3-6, which read,
v.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,...
We many times ask for the blessings of God or we say "God bless America" but do we give blessings to God? The God who has blessed us so completely through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, His blessing to us has transformed and is continuing to transform our lives to be more Christ-like. His blessing even extents into the future and heaven as our home. His blessings upon us very much dwarf any blessing that we can give back but it is now our life to spent blessing or praising His name.
v.4 - ...just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him.
Paul is writing to the saints in Ephesus. He is writing to believers of Jesus Christ. These are people who have experienced conversion. As Christians, we see Jesus for who He is because He has allowed us the faith and orchestrated all the events leading up to this point that we agree with Him.
The concept of God choosing is a hard thing to grasp. We choose all the time but when we contemplate God choosing His people before they choose then we get a little uneasy and many have referred to us as just being puppets of God at that point.
Since we are created in the image of God, we are patterned after Him who was first, who chose us to see Jesus for who He is as Savior of the world, that we would also have that ability to make the same type of choice? Our choice comes after His choice. God's choice doesn't negate our human responsibility to respond in faith to Him but rather it shows His creation acting upon what was given to them.
There are some things that God knows that we do not but we do not operate on what we do not know but what we do know. We do not know all who God has chosen but we do know that we are to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with the world. As we do what we know, we will see some of what God already knew before we knew it. Our very salvation is a revelation to us of what He already knew about us because He specifically guided us to see Him.
That choice of God is to lead us in a direction and that is to live holy and blameless lives before Him. It is not to be viewed as an excuse of a "free ride" to heaven and so I am able to "mess up" without any consequences. The purpose of your life when you see Jesus Christ for who He is is to follow after Him abiding by the terms and conditions of denying yourself, taking up your cross, and following Him completely. To be chosen by God changes you following your own will to following His will for your life.
v.5 - In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will,..
That choice of God was made out of love and kindness. That choice was God's will to bring you into His family who were once not in position. You were adopted in and given the family name and all rights of being a part of the family. This adoption, like any other adoption, has a process that you have to go through. The process of God's adoption of you was through the cross of Christ and His resurrection. To be adopted into the family of God requires us seeing Jesus as the Savior of our sins. This choice of God was not with a cold-heart or arbitrary but with a decisive decision on His part with the sacrifice of His only Son to fulfill the requirement for You to see and believe in.
Some parents decide, or choose to adopt a child into their family. It is their decision to do so. They will also choose which child. Many factors might come into play of that decision. But we know that the decision on the picking of the child is backed up with a decision already made to provide all that the child needs. The decision of adoption would not be a complete decision if this precondition of the love and will and provision of the parents wasn't already made before ever seeing the child. The to be adopted child doesn't know it yet, but there are some parents out there who are making a decision that is more complete than they know but they will come to realize the love that these parents have for them before they knew of them.
v.6 - ...to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.
We who are chosen are living witnesses of God's grace to the world. We are to give praise of God who of His will granted us the faith through a series of events to see His Son Jesus on the cross dying for our sins so that we might have eternal life. God sent His loving Son out of love for us who He has chosen and we now live lives of praise of that grace to the world around us.
I am and will continue to try to understand this concept of God choosing and me choosing. One has come before the other and I rest in that His ability to choose came before mine and rightfully so. We want the option to choose but I think we don't want God to have that option when it comes to Him having the ability to choose us because it might diminish our ability to be in total control of our choice. I think that is the reality of God, God is in control and not you.
"Lord, hard concepts to grasp this morning because some of the things of You are so beyond us. What we do know is that You love us and You put things in motion through Your Son Jesus Christ's death on the cross for us to see Him as our Savior. We do know that our lives are to be beacons of You. We do know that the choice You made has a direct bearing on the choice that we made when we agreed with You about everything because You are God. Amen."
Pastor Adam
v.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,...
We many times ask for the blessings of God or we say "God bless America" but do we give blessings to God? The God who has blessed us so completely through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, His blessing to us has transformed and is continuing to transform our lives to be more Christ-like. His blessing even extents into the future and heaven as our home. His blessings upon us very much dwarf any blessing that we can give back but it is now our life to spent blessing or praising His name.
v.4 - ...just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him.
Paul is writing to the saints in Ephesus. He is writing to believers of Jesus Christ. These are people who have experienced conversion. As Christians, we see Jesus for who He is because He has allowed us the faith and orchestrated all the events leading up to this point that we agree with Him.
The concept of God choosing is a hard thing to grasp. We choose all the time but when we contemplate God choosing His people before they choose then we get a little uneasy and many have referred to us as just being puppets of God at that point.
Since we are created in the image of God, we are patterned after Him who was first, who chose us to see Jesus for who He is as Savior of the world, that we would also have that ability to make the same type of choice? Our choice comes after His choice. God's choice doesn't negate our human responsibility to respond in faith to Him but rather it shows His creation acting upon what was given to them.
There are some things that God knows that we do not but we do not operate on what we do not know but what we do know. We do not know all who God has chosen but we do know that we are to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with the world. As we do what we know, we will see some of what God already knew before we knew it. Our very salvation is a revelation to us of what He already knew about us because He specifically guided us to see Him.
That choice of God is to lead us in a direction and that is to live holy and blameless lives before Him. It is not to be viewed as an excuse of a "free ride" to heaven and so I am able to "mess up" without any consequences. The purpose of your life when you see Jesus Christ for who He is is to follow after Him abiding by the terms and conditions of denying yourself, taking up your cross, and following Him completely. To be chosen by God changes you following your own will to following His will for your life.
v.5 - In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will,..
That choice of God was made out of love and kindness. That choice was God's will to bring you into His family who were once not in position. You were adopted in and given the family name and all rights of being a part of the family. This adoption, like any other adoption, has a process that you have to go through. The process of God's adoption of you was through the cross of Christ and His resurrection. To be adopted into the family of God requires us seeing Jesus as the Savior of our sins. This choice of God was not with a cold-heart or arbitrary but with a decisive decision on His part with the sacrifice of His only Son to fulfill the requirement for You to see and believe in.
Some parents decide, or choose to adopt a child into their family. It is their decision to do so. They will also choose which child. Many factors might come into play of that decision. But we know that the decision on the picking of the child is backed up with a decision already made to provide all that the child needs. The decision of adoption would not be a complete decision if this precondition of the love and will and provision of the parents wasn't already made before ever seeing the child. The to be adopted child doesn't know it yet, but there are some parents out there who are making a decision that is more complete than they know but they will come to realize the love that these parents have for them before they knew of them.
v.6 - ...to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.
We who are chosen are living witnesses of God's grace to the world. We are to give praise of God who of His will granted us the faith through a series of events to see His Son Jesus on the cross dying for our sins so that we might have eternal life. God sent His loving Son out of love for us who He has chosen and we now live lives of praise of that grace to the world around us.
I am and will continue to try to understand this concept of God choosing and me choosing. One has come before the other and I rest in that His ability to choose came before mine and rightfully so. We want the option to choose but I think we don't want God to have that option when it comes to Him having the ability to choose us because it might diminish our ability to be in total control of our choice. I think that is the reality of God, God is in control and not you.
"Lord, hard concepts to grasp this morning because some of the things of You are so beyond us. What we do know is that You love us and You put things in motion through Your Son Jesus Christ's death on the cross for us to see Him as our Savior. We do know that our lives are to be beacons of You. We do know that the choice You made has a direct bearing on the choice that we made when we agreed with You about everything because You are God. Amen."
Pastor Adam
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