God's Word For You is a free Bible Study site committed to bringing you studies firmly grounded in the Bible – the Word of God. Holding a reformed, conservative, evangelical perspective this site affirms that God has provided in Jesus Christ his eternal Son, a way of salvation in which we can live in his presence guilt free, acquitted and at peace.

 
 

THOUGHTS FROM EPHESIANS

5 CHOSEN

A meditation on Ephesians 1:4-6

 

We read in Ephesians 1:4 and 5 that God 'chose us' in Christ before the creation of the world and that God 'predestined us' to be adopted as his children through Jesus Christ.

These words frequently stir up a negative reaction in our hearts and minds. We want to think that our relationship with God results from our choice and our action not God's. We accuse God of 'unfairness' and 'injustice'.

Yet these human problems, these issues that offend our human pride and our human sense of justice, are not in focus here at all.

Here this choosing and this predestining is presented as the foundation of the totality of spiritual blessedness that we have in Christ. This choice of God happened before the creation of the world; this predestination was motivated by God's love, God's pleasure and God's will. Its outcome is the confident praise of God's glorious grace, not criticism, not complaint, not fear and anxiety.

Whatever God did when he chose and predestined, it is motivated and measured by his love.

Whatever God did when he chose and predestined, it is in keeping with his 'pleasure', and the Scripture affirms that God is not pleased with injustice.

Whatever God did when he chose and predestined, it expresses and implements his grace.

Whatever God did when he chose and predestined, it is 'through Jesus Christ' and 'in him', and the Scripture affirms that whatever God does in Christ is an expression of his sheer goodness and graciousness towards us. In Jesus Christ we are guaranteed that God is for us.

This concept of God choosing and predestining is intended for our encouragement and our assurance, not for our despair. It is only our sin-warped human perceptions that make us shrink from it with criticism and fear.

 

Copyright Rosemary Bardsley 2006, 2010