Ephesians 1:4 “According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:”

Ephesians 1:5 “Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,”

Hello readers, today I am continuing in the book of Ephesians. For the first blog in this series, I talked about “my heavenly place”, and I do hope you have your heavenly place in Christ. If you are in Christ, you already have been seated in heaven. Your table is there, and dying is just taking your place. But if you are not in Christ, you have no place in heaven because no place has been made for you, and there will be no place when you die. So don’t think after a life of sin, you will die and magically end up in glory, it’s not going to happen.

The Bible teaches that you must believe in Jesus Christ. He is the only way to heaven. There is no heaven without him. This world makes up its own idea of heaven, and apparently everyone goes there when they die these days, no matter how sinful their live has been… even atheists deny God their whole lives and at their funeral we talk about how they’re in heaven now. Like, really? But that’s the tradition of men, not the teaching of the Bible. Be warned according to scripture, if you are not saved and in Christ, you are not going to heaven when you die.

But today I want to briefly deal with the two verses quoted above, and I called this blog “Pick me, pick me!” because I want to mostly think about the word “chosen”. When I think of being chosen, I think of being “selected from a number”, being “picked out”, being “taken in preference”, being “predestinated”, being “designated to office”… which is exactly what Websters 1828 dictionary defines it to be!

Hmm, “chosen” and “predestinated”, what is God teaching us here? Firstly, remember that this epistle is to believers, it is to the saints and faithful in Christ. These are people who had believed the gospel of Jesus Christ when Paul preached it to them. And in this epistle, after believing in Christ, Paul is going to show them the promises, and riches, and hope and glory of being “in Christ”!

I thought about “he hath chosen us in him”… and I related “chosen” to my own practical life. When I thought of being chosen, I thought of the old schoolyard days and the “schoolyard pick”! Hopefully you know what that is, because then “pick me, pick me” title should make sense! Because kids say that hoping to get chosen for the team. Pick me please, I’d be a great choice! If you don’t know, well, the schoolyard pick happens when a game or sport is going to be played, and the teams select two captains, and then those captains “choose” their players out of the bunch of kids hopeful of making the team.

Everyone hopes they get chosen! Nobody doesn’t like to be chosen. The more people that get chosen before you, the more your heart sinks. Not just “I want to play”, but it feels good when people value you enough to pick you. And nobody likes to be the reject. But kids are chosen for a reason, because in the mind of the captain, they pick players who are likely to perform well for the team based on ability, skill and proficiency at whatever they are playing. Sometimes, it’s just because they’re friends! But either way, we know that there is a criteria for being chosen. The better you meet the criteria, the more likely you are to be chosen. And so the tall kids, and the fast kids, and the big kids get selected first. While the little and the fat ones and maybe the girls (uh oh!) get left out.

Is this how God works? It doesn’t sound like him. Or does it? But doesn’t he use broken, weak, despised, humble things? He sure does. But I mentioned the word “criteria”, because like with a school yard pick criteria for selection, so there is a criteria for God’s selection. And in this verse in Ephesians we get a look at how God’s “schoolyard pick” works. Where the reward isn’t just being on his team, but enjoying all the benefits of belonging, role, success and glory of being in that team. God has a criteria for being chosen. And that criteria is “in Christ”. God doesn’t choose us on the basis of who we are or anything we can do or offer to him… no, God chooses us on the basis of his Son Jesus Christ. That’s it. We are chosen IN HIM. If you’re not in him, you’re not his chosen. It doesn’t matter who and what you are, the only thing that matters is believing on Jesus Christ. That is the criteria for God’s chosen.

Jesus Christ himself said at the end of one of his parables “many are called, but few are chosen”. Find that parable in Matthew and read it for yourself, but how many people are called! But how few are chosen! Because how few people are saved, how few people are in Christ! Many people don’t care about being God’s choice, many people try being God’s choice… but few are actually God’s choice.

These verses quoted above do not teach that God has decided who is going to be saved and who isn’t. Not at all. Otherwise why witness to anyone, seeing as the people God has chosen will be saved, and who hasn’t been chosen won’t be. Why would you bother praying, seeing as what will be will be? And why would Jesus have died for the sins of the whole world, why would he have tasted death for every man, and why would God say he is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance?

I know there are people who believe that God has made his choices and that’s that, and maybe he has, he is God after all. But what I believe is being taught here is that God decided some things before creation. God made some choices. He chose how man would be saved and on what basis. And he chose to place everything on Christ and in Christ. When you believe in Christ, and you are in Christ, you enter into a destiny that has been predetermined by God. Like this world is on a course, a course for disaster, so there is a course for Christ, preordained by God. We find out God’s plan from the start was Christ. It was all Christ, it is all Christ. And in the end, Christ wins. God has put everything under his feet… “But now we see not yet all things put under him.” Because it will be, that’s his destiny. So you can believe in Christ, and enter into God’s blessed plan in Christ… or you can stay on the Titanic of your sinful life.

Your destiny is based on what you do with Christ. Christ’s destiny is not changing, yours must be changed. If you believe on him, he will save you… and that changes your destiny. When you get saved you enter into God’s predestination for all those that believe, which is that God would adopt you into his family by Jesus Christ. You can enter that by faith, or you can reject that. Whatever you choose, you don’t make your destiny, and you don’t control destiny, God does. Yes you may make choices, but you do not choose the consequences of your choices. For instance, you can choose to do sin and reject Jesus Christ your whole life, but you will not be able to choose not to go to hell as a result.

And so destiny is on the line. You can tie your destiny to Christ’s destiny… or you can try your hand and do it “my own way” thinking you can outGod God. But through the eyes of scripture, we already know the future, and God isn’t changing it. We already know who the future belongs to, Jesus Christ, and that will not change. And you already have your destiny clearly laid out based on what you have done with Christ. If you unsaved, your destiny is damnation. Noone has ever rejected Christ and got any other outcome, nor will they. Because God has predestined consequences associated with our choices in life. He will never decide to save us another way, he will never accept us on any other basis. And so we better get in Christ, and if we are in Christ, enjoy it!

God’s grace is on full display in this wonderful book, because how gracious he has been to us, all he has done for us and what he has given us. All just because we … believed? That’s a pretty good deal. He didn’t make us voyage to the end of the world and back, he gave us his Son, just believe on my Son and be saved. What grace. Because God’s grace isn’t that he is making irresistible choices which null and void the whole point of creating human beings in his image, God’s grace is that he made a way for us to be saved. He made a way for us to be adopted, accepted, redeemed, forgiven… and it’s all in Christ. There’s so much more to our simple salvation than we realize, oh what great things he hath done for us, which we haven’t even touched the hem of the garment of yet.

I mentioned “criteria” for being chosen earlier. And we know that only criteria to be chosen is being in Jesus Christ. We are chosen on that basis alone. It doesn’t matter your skin colour, it doesn’t matter your culture, it doesn’t matter your personal and family history, it does not matter what language you speak, it does not matter your social status, it does not matter your job, it does not matter your achievements in life… it doesn’t matter how good or bad you think you are, it doesn’t matter how near or how far… God chooses you and only chooses you in Jesus Christ.

By the way, just think about it, what a privilege to be chosen by God. Think about being “chosen by God”. And we are in Christ. To think that the God of all creation, would choose… me? And he chooses us to represent his Son Jesus Christ, he chooses us to tell others the gospel, he chooses us to shine his light in this dark world. He chooses to give us all things in his Son, he chooses to call us sons and daughters, and we get to call him Father. Man, that is such a privilege. He’s chosen to bless us, to give us an eternal purpose, and eternal inheritance, and we have all things in Christ. We have been given so much, we’ve been given everything… God chose to do that. He’s chosen me, of all the people of the world, he’s chosen me in Christ. I choose him, you can choose him… he’s calling you. Going to hell won’t be God’s fault he didn’t choose you, because he is choosing you in Christ dear reader. But if you’re not in Christ you will not be chosen. That won’t be God’s failure and his irresistible will and grace not letting you be saved, it’ll be on you and your head. I don’t want that to be me. My choice is Christ. And I hope Christ is your choice too. Why wouldn’t you choose his Son? Why wouldn’t you choose truth and light? God freely extends forgiveness and eternal life to you through Christ… how can you blame him and believers when you have equal access and opportunity if you would just believe?

So how good and kind is God that he would decide he would adopt us into his family, how good and kind is God that he would give us a heavenly place? These verses shine a spotlight on just how good God has been to us all. But it is in Christ, and in Christ alone. These verses are not teaching us that God is pulling his divine and sovereign levers up there somewhere… it’s giving us a glimpse into glory, so may we give him his glory, and may we glorify him through his Son Jesus Christ, who loved us, and would die for us, who would make us part of the family and give us a home in heaven, just because we trust him. So in these verses we learn that when we get saved, we are chosen and predestinated and accepted by God… in Christ, that’s how good Christ is, he is everything the Bible cracks him up to be. So dear reader, God has chosen you in Christ… will you choose God in Christ?

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