Ephesians 1:4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love
The pastors at our church recently began preaching through the letter of 1 Peter, and two sermons in, it is fantastic. (Is it a surprise that preaching through the Bible is encouraging?) And as we began looking at the first few verses of 1 Peter, we got a chance to look at the glorious phrase “elect exiles” (1:1). There are few things as encouraging as the doctrine of God’s sovereign choice and our heavenly citizenship. Seeing it smashed together in this one phrase led to worship in my own heart. But our pastor made a really important distinction while talking about our election: He said, “We are the chosen ones, but we are not the choice ones.” I want to unpack what he meant by that.
God’s choosing of us is a result of His sovereign goodness and love. In His total freedom, He “chose us in Him before the foundation of the world… In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will” (Eph 1:4-5). For anyone who is a Christian, you know that it is because God chose you. He has predestined you to be conformed to the image of Jesus (Rom 8:29). And by this choosing, His elect have a great confidence in the judgement. “Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies” (Rom 8:33). And we agree with Paul when he acknowledges that these things result in, “the praise of his glorious grace” (Eph 1:6).
And while we are chosen of God, we are not the choice ones. God chose us before the foundation of the world. This means that God chose us before we had done anything to commend ourselves to Him (See Rom 9:10-13). We had done nothing good or bad, yet we were chosen. And not only that, we were chosen despite ourselves. This is how God has always worked: “It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the LORD set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the LORD loves you” (Deut 7:7-8). God in His sovereign freedom set His love on an undeserving people. He did not fall in love with them because they were the choice ones in the land, rather He purposed to love a people. It is the same for us. There is nothing lovely in us, yet God sets His love on us in His freedom and grace. Ask God why He loves us; because we are great? No. Because He loves us. Yes we are chosen, but not because we are the choice ones.
Charles Spurgeon said it well:
“I believe the doctrine of election, because I am quite certain that, if God had not chosen me, I should never have chosen Him; and I am sure He chose me before I was born, or else He never would have chosen me afterwards; and He must have elected me for reasons unknown to me, for I never could find any reason in myself why He should have looked upon me with special love.”
Each one of us say the same thing. Praise God for His loving choice, and all glory to Him for choosing those who were not the choice ones.
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