In Christ: Know It, Live It - 9 (Chosen Choosers)

"...Even as He chose us in Him [Christ] before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him." Ephesians 1:4

The wonderful biblical doctrine of ELECTION is taught so plainly in this verse. Election means that God has chosen some, by His mysterious and marvellous grace, from eternity past, to be redeemed from sin and destruction to Himself.

Here are some glorious elements in this CHOICE of God:

• God choses people to salvation IN CHRIST. Once again we see all that God has for His people comes to them IN CHRIST. Christ is the eternal Son who became also man...Christ lived a sinless life in obedience to the Father...Christ sacrificed Himself upon the cross, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring us to God (1Peter 3:18)...Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, overcoming sin and death and hell ALL ON OUR BEHALF! Hallelujah! The Father could NOT choose anyone apart from His Son. However, in the Son, by the Son's merit, the Father chooses all that His love and grace delight and will to choose.
• This choice of the Father is BEFORE THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD. I.e. before creation, before matter and time and space, i.e. in ETERNITY. God's choice of us in Christ is an ETERNAL choice...a choice with no beginning (in time) and which can have no ending or expiration. Before Adam's sin, the Father chose us. Before His promise to bless the whole earth through Abraham's seed, the Father chose us. Before the eternal Son became also man, the Father chose us. Before we were born, before we exhibited a life of sin and rebellion, before we heard the gospel and responded...the Father chose us in Christ. What this means, of course, is that God's choice of us, His election, is based SOLEY UPON GOD's WILL and DELIGHT and LOVE and MERCY and GRACE and NOT upon anything we would be or do or think nor upon any association we would have with any person or family or church. God chose us because He chose us (see Deuteronomy 7:6-8 for the OT picture of this). The CAUSE of the choice is IN GOD, not in US. Again, HALLELUJAH! to our graciously choosing God. For had His choice been based on us, we would yet be lost and facing His eternal wrath and judgment.

Friends, we are God's because of FREE GRACE. God's choice of us is the CAUSE of our choice of Him. We are CHOSEN CHOOSERS. And that gives us NO ROOM to boast in ourselves. "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord." 1Corinthians 1:31.