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Who We Are - Sermon, Sunday, August 17th, 2003
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Ephesians 1:3-7 as follows —
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. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will — to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace.
GOD BE PRAISED FOR HIS GLORIOUS GRACE
There have already been, no doubt, thousands of jokes made about the upcoming election in California. It's not a laughing matter, however, for the citizens of that state, who are going to be affected by that election. As you know, because of the fiscal crisis that California is facing, the current governor just might lose his job in a recall. If so, then the voters will have to choose a new governor — be it Arnold Schwarzenegger or one of the other 200 or so candidates.
It should be interesting, to say the least — but then, elections usually are interesting. That's because it is a human process, it's an imperfect way of many people choosing one person to be governor or president or mayor or whatever. With so many people involved, there's a lot of room for things to go wrong in the process -error or manipulation or just plain cheating. And, when many choose one, the results aren't always what people expected, and there often are some unhappy people when it's all over.
Turn it around, though, and the results are nothing short of spectacular. When election is not a matter of many choosing one, but rather a matter of One choosing many, and when the One who does the choosing is God himself, then there is no room for error. There are no mistakes, no confusion, no unhappiness — nothing but blessings. Today, for your comfort and for God's glory, let's take a look at our eternal election, at its results for us, and especially at what's behind it: God's glorious grace!
It is a fact, Paul declares, that we have already been "blessed with every spiritual blessing." The apostle traces all these blessings to their source. Blessings that are spiritual in nature, blessings for the spiritual part of the human being do not come from just anywhere. They don't come from just any "god" that a person might believe in, or from within the person himself. No, real spiritual blessings come only from the real God, "the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." And he, God's Son, Jesus Christ, is central to any discussion about spiritual blessings because apart from him, there is no spiritual blessing. Not one!
But in him, God has given us every spiritual blessing; there is not one that is missing! Well, not only does Paul trace these blessings to their source but he also tells us when God began to bless us: "For he chose us before the creation of the world." Beyond the mists of time, before galaxies or guppies sprang from the mind of God, before "he spoke, and it came to be"— that's when your spiritual blessings originated "in the heavenly places."
Dear Christian, God chose you in eternity. He elected you, along with many others, out of the sum total of all the people who will ever be born on this planet. So what do you think? He chose you because he liked what he saw? because he knew you had lots of potential? because he could tell what kind of person you would turn out to be? NO! He chose you "in him," in Jesus Christ. God elected you not in connection with what you would ever be or do, but in connection with your Savior and what he would do for you.
God chose you not because he saw something better in you than in the other guy, nor because he saw less bad in you than in someone else, but because he decided to choose you. This was, after all, God's election, when the One who existed chose the many who did not yet exist. God be praised for his glorious grace! For what else could it be? Clearly it was grace at work, God's love directed to us before we ever were — the love that knew what we would be as sons and daughters of fallen Adam, sinful, corrupt, rebellious, lost — the love that moved him to devise a plan to rescue us through his Son. By that grace we were chosen, in HIM, before the world began.
In our elections, when many choose one, it is with the hope that this one will serve them well and please as many of them as possible. Sometimes it turns out that way and sometimes it doesn't. In God's election, when the One chose the many, his intent was this, that these chosen ones would "be holy and blameless in his sight." In eternity, God decided that sinful children of Adam would be able to stand before him as sinless individuals, as people whom he could judge to be completely blameless.
God accomplished his intent, and you know that he didn't do it by being soft on sin. That's the world's preferred kind of god, isn't it? One who is soft on sin, a god who looks the other way, doesn't really expect too much from people? But the true God is not soft on sin; he simply chose to act on behalf of sinners. He chose to deal with sin himself. He chose to do what it would take to remove the blame from us. It was all planned then, in eternity, that his Son would take the blame for our sins. God had it all worked out so that in Christ, we would be so cleaned up that even God would not be able to see one single sin to hold against us. It was his plan to have us become his "sons," as pleasing to him as his own Son!
Paul wrote: "In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ." The very word "adoption" speaks of grace. It speaks of one-sided love, the love that takes you, the spiritual orphan, the homeless sinner, and puts the Father's name on you and calls you his child, his son (that's Bible talk for the one who gets the inheritance). God be praised for his glorious grace! By grace, we've been adopted as his sons; God himself has placed us into the most privileged position there is!
California governor Gray Davis is facing a recall, which is kind of a reverse election. Apparently, many people feel that he has done a bad job as governor and blame him for their state's woes. He could lose his privileged position because of his bad performance. Do you think that could ever happen to us? Do you think you might face a recall? Might we lose our privileged position as God's sons because of our poor performance? I mean, it's true: although we are children of God, we still manage to sin every day. We stumble and fall into some of the very sins which are pinpointed here in Ephesians. Whether in desire or act, we might become guilty of lying, or stealing, or filthy talk, sexual immorality, rage, malice, greed, drunkenness. We might also fail to be completely humble, gentle, patient; we fail to love, to forgive, to submit, to obey, to serve.
Should we fear a recall? Will the God who elected us at some point reject us because of our poor performance? NO! Not as long as we are living in repentance, that is, in penitent faith in Jesus Christ. Not as long as we hate the sins we see in our hearts and lives, and confess them to our God and flee to him for his grace in our Savior. God's Word comforts us with this: "In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins." We have redemption because the God of grace succeeded in his plan. He sent his Son, and through him ransomed the world.
Jesus by his sacrificial death, effectively and totally paid for the world's sins, past, present and future. In him, crucified and risen, we have "the forgiveness of the transgressions." For every single time you or I cross the line into sin (in weakness, that is — stubborn continuing in sin is another story), we have the forgiveness purchased with his blood. God be praised for his glorious grace! By grace, we possess redemption — we have forgiveness, constantly, through faith in Jesus. And do you see the chain of cause and effect? We have faith in Jesus because God adopted us, calling us into his family. We were adopted because God predestined us to be adopted. God, in eternity, elected us — chose us to belong to him forever...by grace!
Again, in our human elections, when many choose one, there's always room for trouble in the process and disappointment in the results. In God's eternal election, there's no room for any of that. When the One chose the many, the results were nothing less than spectacular! As St. Paul said, "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." God be praised for his glorious grace, "which he has freely given us in the One he loves!" Amen.