Introduction: Try-outs can be nerve-racking times. The attempt to be the best or among the best. Whether it is try-outs for basketball, try-outs for the spring play, Or a "try-out" for a new job with an interview. What emotions does one usually exhibit when he or she makes the cut and gets the cherished position? Is it not elation and joy? Maybe the person jumps up and down shouting with joy, or perhaps a smile simply breaks across his or her face. Do you remember how Jesse Ventura reveled when he found out that he had been chosen by the people of Minnesota to be their next governor? It feels good to be chosen for something special, doesn’t it?
As exciting and thrilling as being chosen for a team or a position can be, the Apostle Paul talks about a much more exhilarating election which we have received. He contemplates how we have been chosen for the most unlikely of positions. We have been Chosen to praise God. God reveals this to us and assures us of it, since he predestined us to be his children through Jesus Christ and since he enlightened us to know our inheritance.
I. since he predestined us to be his children through Jesus Christ
Paul starts his letter his friends and fellow believers in Ephesus, by praising God for the many spiritual blessings which God had given them. One of those blessings is how God chose them to be holy and blameless in Christ. This is important when you consider that they were not able to be holy and blameless by their power or willing. For they, like you and I and all people born into this world, were born with a corrupt and sinful nature. In fact, Scripture says that all people are born unholy and desire only that which is unholy. Like the Ephesians, we were not blameless, but stood accused and condemned for our sins.
But praise be to God, for like the Ephesians, you and I were blessed by God with every spiritual blessings in Christ! What blessings are those? We have been saved from our sin by Christ. We have been given faith and the hope of eternal life in Christ! Yes, praise be to God for these blessings!
But Paul didn’t stop with those blessings. In fact, he expounds on how our Lord ensured that we would receive those blessings. He says we were “predestined” for adoption. How exactly are we to take the word "predestined"? Some claim that God chose some for salvation and others for damnation. But is that taught in Scripture? No. Not at all. In fact, when you look at the rest of Scripture, that would be a contradiction. God is serious when he says he “wants all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth”. Realize that Paul wrote we were “predestined in Christ”. As the God who knows all things, God knew that Christ would accomplish salvation for all people. He knew this even before he created the world. God “chose” us as believers and reveals this to us only to affirm our salvation and make us certain that we have been adopted as his children through Christ.
Why did God predestine us to be his children? Is it because he saw that we would believe and be his children? No. He predestined us for adoption in Christ purely because of his grace not because of anything in us. We became children of God because we were adopted through Jesus Christ. Unlike an earthly adoption, we were chosen by God long before we were conceived. We were predestined to receive forgiveness and mercy as his adopted children because our Lord abounds in mercy and forgiveness.
Application: God wants us to understand predestination in the way that he explains it here. Not that he chose some to be blessed and chose some for damnation. Scripture nowhere teaches this. Inferior human logic might dictate this, but God in his wisdom never does. In fact, he teaches quite the opposite. Those who are damned have earned their condemnation by hardening their hearts against God. Instead the Lord reveals that he predestined believers in Christ, he chose us in Jesus, and that this is to be a great comfort. For if salvation were left to us, certainly we would have lost it long ago.
The Lord does not teach us about predestination so that we have a license to sin. God says he chose us that we might live holy and blameless. However, when you do sin, you should not question whether or not you have been chosen by God, whether you are part of the elect. God says that you and I were hand picked by him before he created the world. He picked us to be saved by Jesus his Son and to be given the rights of God’s own children. We were not chosen by our merits, but by Christ’s merits. It is essential to remember this whenever one talks about election or predestination. God predestined us in Christ. Even when we sin, this does not change the fact that God has chosen us to live for him. Rather, his grace and free forgiveness encourage us to live holy lives to his praise.
Transition: Our election to be children of God is a great comfort in our daily lives. It points to the many blessings which we receive as God’s own children. Paul goes on to contemplate how we learn of those blessings. We can be certain that we have been chosen to sing God’s praise... since he enlightened us to know our inheritance.
When I was in school, try-outs always ended with “the list.” This list revealed who was chosen to be on the team. God has a similar list. It is called the book of life. In this book are written all the names of those who are predestined to be God’s children. How do we know if we have made the list? God tells us that we can be sure that we have been chosen by him since he has opened our eyes to spiritual wisdom and revelation. A more common name for this wisdom and revelation is faith, faith in Christ as our Savior. How did we receive this faith? Paul wrote in verse 13, “you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation” (vs. 13).
If we believe what the Bible teaches us about Jesus our Savior, we can be sure that God has chosen us and placed our name in the Book of Life. This faith which we receive from God is accompanied by the Holy Spirit who enables us to trust God and the mystery of his will. As children hand-picked by God, we can be sure that he is working all things for our good, not only in the good times but also and especially in the hard times. Martin Luther, talking about why God reveals to us that we have been predestined and why he allows bad things to happen to us, said, “He saves us in this way and exposes His elect to as many rapacious forces... in order to show that He saves not by our own merits, but purely by His own election and immutable will, in the very face of so many rapacious and terrifying adversaries who try in vain to harm us” (LW, vol. 25, 371). As we learn to trust the Lord more and more, we bring him praise before others. Think where Paul was when he wrote this letter. He was a prisoner in Rome awaiting judgment, which possibly included being beheaded. Yet even in that adversity, Paul praises God!
Our faith in Christ not only trusts God but also seeks to know God better. Paul, prayed for the Ephesian believers that they might receive the “Spirit of wisdom and revelation, that they might know him, the Lord, better. So we also by faith seek spiritual wisdom which lead us to know our Lord better.
As we grow in our understanding of the Lord through his Word, we begin to live our lives differently. Paul wrote later in Ephesians that knowledge of the Lord and his ways leads us to follow. “Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love... among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people. Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving”(5:1-4). Our knowledge of the Lord and what he has done for us leads us to praise him by how we live our lives.
The Lord not only wants us to pray that we might grow in the knowledge of him, but also to pray that the Lord grant spiritual wisdom for other believers as well. Take Paul’s example of praying for the Ephesians. Paul said “I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better”. On Maundy Thursday, Christ himself prayed for all people that would believe in him, “Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” (John 17:21-23) The Lord wants us to pray for each other, that we might all mature spiritually.
As we grow in knowledge, our praise for God comes automatically. He has enlightened us that we might encourage others. Encouragement which alone comes from the faith established in Christ. Encouraging others with His Word and with good works which brings praise to God. He has enlightened us to our election that we might praise him by showing love to him and to others.
Application: Indeed, the Lord has enlightened us to know our inheritance. The Lord has given us the Holy Spirit to lead us to know him better. As we grow in the knowledge of the Lord and what he has done for us, we appreciate more and more what he has done for us. He planned from the very beginning of time, before he even created this world, that he was going to save us from our sins through Jesus. He pours his Word into our hearts and reveals to us our glorious inheritance with the saints. As we ponder the grace of our Lord, our love and gratefulness grow more and more, which leads us to praise him for the many spiritual blessings that he has given us.
Conclusion: Since God has blessed us with forgiveness of sins and faith in Christ, we can be confident that he will see us through to the time when he calls us out of this world into his glorious presence. This is the hope to which he has called us, the inheritance that waits for us, eternal glory, where we can praise him forevermore. He has called us out of darkness into his light that we might be blessed with every spiritual blessing. God has chosen us in Christ so that we might praise him. We are chosen to be part of that glorious company of saints who will enjoy singing his praise in his glorious presence forever in heaven. Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
