Eph. 1:4 Savoring the Riches of Selection part 3

Communicate to us Our Riches

   In Our Sovereign Father v.3-6

Amplify Your Purposes   v.4

Connect For Us Our Past Election      

            According as he hath chosen us in him

            before the foundation of the world,

Certify Our Present Encouragement  

             that we should be holy and

             without blame before him

The factional aspects of the doctrine of election where people split and divide are one the most annoying disruptions of the Christian community.  They are the freaky verbal puffing of a finite brain attempting to polarize these beautiful truths and privileges from an infinite God.

Knowledge puffs the brain but only love builds the body.  The first phrase in Eph. 1:4 is the most incredible truth imaginable.  He chose us, how cool is that?  Why fight over that and get so weird with it.

God chose us in Christ, the most perfect person and the only complete provision known in all eternity.  When the wealthiest person of the entire universe selects us to share in His riches and closeness of relationship how can we not be pumped in His privileges.

Next He made us His preference and selection before anything had been created.  That’s when He decided on us and picked us out.  We were elected to experience the limitless infiniteness of His love and grace.

Choice has to do with a big word called foreordaining.  To foreordain means to determine an event or conclusion in advance of its happening.

I have to repeat the thought again, why debate this truth?  If an infinitely rich and powerful person determines to pick me to have his riches and power in a relationship with him how can I not be elated and ecstatic?  But if I don’t believe it, misunderstand or reject it, then I can excuse my disappointment by conducting my existence with a paltry dismal participation of depressive life experiences.

First we have the person who does the selecting, who is our God and Father.  Then we have the perfect God/man we are chosen in who is the Lord Jesus Christ.

Next we have the period of the selection, which is before the foundation of the earth.

Finally we see the purpose of the selecting, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.

Certify Our Present Encouragement 

                                                  that we should be holy and

                                                   without blame before him

All credit goes to God for our selecting, all confidence is in God for our salvation and all character is from God for our sanctification.  What a wonderful privilege to realize the perfections of our position.  We are viewed as holy and without blame before God in the deepest love imaginable.

This truth that we are holy means we’re set apart for special dealings to reveal God’s purity and transparent spotlessness.

The phrase without blame means that there are no blemishes; there is not one mark against us before Him.

Before Him speaks of a piercing stare that sees right down into a thing. It refers here to the penetrating look of the Spirit as He sees right down into our secret being, through all of the superficialities, duplicity, and pretentiousness of human treachery and feeble weakness. This refers to a present, searching gaze of God into the inner character of the saint.  Our God and Father sees no faults, He’s satisfied, with the spotlessness of the Lord Jesus as the positional viewed character of His set apart ones.

Alford says; it implies a special nearness and dearness to Him—as bearing a foretaste of the time when the elect shall be before the throne of God.

A paradox is something that is peppered with irony; on the surface we think it’s inconsistent, contradictory and maybe even absurd.

The teaching of Election is a paradox and the two side of this irony are that God’s choice of us does not eliminate our responsibility to believe in Christ by faith.

Our position in Christ of being set apart and blameless doesn’t reduce our duty to discipline ourselves for the purpose of Godliness.

We are accountable to persevere to the end.  We are to live in total commitment to Christ and yet it is all done by God’s Spirit in our life.

We can’t explain election and the opposing issues that whosoever wills is saved.  It’s a paradox, which needs to stay in balance with its two sides.  Don’t intellectualize and philosophize it to the point of getting all puffed up about it.  We have the invisible aspects of salvation and the visible aspects, God’s sovereignty and men and women’s human responsibility.

H.A. Ironside illustrates the human and the divine side in the following story:

Here is a vast host of people hurrying down the broad road with their minds fixed upon their sins, and one stands calling attention to yonder door, the entrance into the narrow way that leads to life eternal. On it is plainly depicted the text,

“Whosoever will let him come.”

Every man is invited, and no one need hesitate. Some may say, “Well, I may not be of the elect, and so it would be useless for me to endeavor to come, for the door will not open for me.” But God’s invitation is absolutely sincere: it is addressed to every man,

Whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely Rev. 22:17

If men refuse to come, if they pursue their own godless way down to the pit, whom can they blame but themselves for their eternal judgment? The messenger addressed himself to all, the call came to all, the door could be entered by all, but many refused to come and perished in their sins. Such men can never blame God for their eternal destruction. The door was open; the invitation was given, they refused, and He says to them sorrowfully,

“Ye will not come unto Me, that ye might have life.”

But see, as the invitation goes forth, every minute someone stops and says, “What is that?”

“The way to life,” is the reply, “Ah, that I might find the way to life! I have found no satisfaction in this poor world.” We read,

“She that lives in pleasure is dead while she lives.”

“I should like to know how to be free from my sin, how to be made fit for the presence of God.” And such a one draws near and listens, and the Spirit of God impresses the message upon his heart and conscience and he says, “I am going inside: I will accept the invitation; I will enter that door,” and he presses his way in and it shuts behind him. Then, as he turns around, he finds written on the inside of the door the words, “Chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world.” “What!” he says, “Had God His heart fixed on me before ever the world came into being?” Yes, but he could not find it out until he got inside. You see, you can pass the door if you will, you can trample the love of God beneath your feet, you can spurn His grace if you are determined to do it, but you will go down to the pit and you will be responsible for your own doom.