Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons [and daughters] through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. Ephesians 1:3-6This morning God graciously overwhelmed me with His love and presence. I have been thinking about how God chose me to be His more and more lately. I think the relationship I’m currently in has prompted this. Even though dating/marriage relationships are finite, they do mirror God’s relationship to us in some respects, and this relationship has helped me to better understand God’s choosing and loving pursuit of me. I didn’t really do anything to earn the attention and pursuit of the man I’m dating (though, unlike God, he must have seen something attractive in me). He chose to pursue me and, for some reason, keeps choosing to do so. God, on the other hand, saw me before I was created, saw that I was a rebellious sinner in whom there is nothing good (Romans 7:18), and still chose to make me His, to pursue me and save me and love me. It was not because He saw anything in me worth saving or that I did anything to earn His favor or that He even looked into the future and saw that I would follow Him (because I wouldn’t have without His initiative first – 1 John 4:19). No. There was nothing in me that prompted Him choosing me to be His. He just chose to. That is called free grace – God giving me what I do not deserve at no cost whatsoever to me. I couldn’t earn it and didn’t even know I needed it or wanted it. But He gave it and He gave it freely. I do not even pretend to get or understand this.
For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:6-8God shows His love for us in that WHILE we were STILL sinners, He sent His Son to die for us. We are not good in and of ourselves. This is what this passage is saying. We might be willing to die for the people we love or for someone who is a good person, but the love of Christ is deeper than that. He gave His life not only for those who aren’t good (Romans 3:10-11), but for His enemies (Romans 5:10), for those who deserved His punishment and anger (John 3:36). This is like giving your live to save an Adolf Hitler or a Timothy McVey. We wouldn't do that. But the love of Christ is radical.
I realize more and more the truth that there is nothing good in me apart from Christ (Romans 7:18); that there is nothing in me to commend me to God. But the love of Christ is deep. It is deep enough to cover the deep crevices of sin that lurk in my heart (sin that I don’t even know exists). It is deep enough to cover my limited view of His grace and love. It is deep enough to cover the entirety of my life: from my first breath to my last; all my fears and failures…to cover all of me. Whatever may be my trial or temptation or lot, Christ love is deeper still. He interrupted the darkness that was my life and spoke His light into it (2 Corinthians 4:6). He specializes in such interruptions. I once was dead in my sins, following the course of this world, being ruled by the prince of the power of the air (Ephesians 2:1-2). I once was not on a path that would inherit God’s kingdom (1 Corinthians 6:9-10). I once was one who did not believe in God and disobeyed His Word (1 Peter 2:7-8). Then come the great “buts” of Scripture:
- But God, because of His great love and mercy, made me alive in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2:5)
- But God washed me clean of sin and sanctified me and justified me in Christ by the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:11)
- But God chose me as His own possession, to be a part of His chosen race (1 Peter 2:9)
- But God shows His love for me in that while I was still a sinner, Christ died for me (Romans 5:8)
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father…that according to the riches of his glory, he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Ephesians 3:14, 16-19
No comments:
Post a Comment