Verse: Ephesians 1:4-6
4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.
Devotion
You are not an accident. You are not some random occurrence of molecules that just happened to become you. That may be the impersonal, inspiration-less, hopeless view of secular society, but it is not the view of Christianity. You were thought of, known, and chosen before the world was even created. I wonder if God was like, “I have all these people in my heart, I guess we should make that world we’ve been talking about for so long…”
Not only are you not an accident, but you were chosen, and therefore invited into, three things:
SALVATION – God invites you into salvation. We are chosen “in him” – it is all about him and his free gift of salvation. He invites us to receive that gift. To know the fullness of life and the freedom from darkness (which he’ll talk about later in this letter). This is the ultimate gift that Jesus bought on the cross. A new life, free from the bondage of sin and darkness.
TRANSFORMATION – Not only does he invite us to a saving relationship with him, he offers us transformation from the person we used to be, into the person we were always meant to be! We were chosen to be holy. Think about that. Holy is a word normally reserved for God and things that belong to God. He offers to make us holy. To be holy is to be set apart. We are not of this world anymore, we are not driven by the desires of this world, or tempted by the delights of this world, or broken by the destruction of this world. No. We are set apart. We are something different. We belong to a different Kingdom, a different way of thinking, and a radically different way of living our lives.
RELATIONSHIP – The greatest of these three, arguably, is this one. He invites us into his family as adopted children. You and I are welcomed as sons and daughters of the living God. We are no longer slaves to this world, or even servants in his house, but we become heirs (Romans 8:17) with Christ. In other words, God esteems us as he esteems Christ. When he sees you he doesn’t see your sin, your fear, or even your rebellious heart. He sees Jesus. Jesus covered all of that for us, so we can “come boldly before” (Hebrews 4:16) Jesus in prayer and relationship, never to be ashamed or hindered again by our sin and brokenness.
These verses are literally a life altering miracle that Jesus offers to you and me. What an amazing and hard to comprehend truth! What a gift! Take a moment this morning to thank God for this indescribable gift, and to appreciate all he has done for you!
Prayer
Thank you Jesus for welcoming me into your family, scars and all. I am so grateful. I pray I would begin to see myself the way you see me Lord.
Author: Christian Dunn
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