Christmas 2 –
Series C (January 3, 2016)
“Chosen in Christ”
(Ephesians 3:1-14)
What does the New Year have in store
for you? Is everything already planned
out for you by God? Is all that will
happen to you this year simply a matter of fate or destiny? Today’s Epistle lesson talks about
“predestination.” Is every choice we
make “predestined” for us, or do we have freedom in some of the choices we make
… and will make in 2016? As we will see,
we do have freedom in some areas of our life, but in spiritual matters, God is
the one who chooses us. Apart from God
the Holy Spirit working in faith in our hearts, we have no hope and no
spiritual life. And this should be a
great comfort as we face all the uncertainties of what the coming year has in
store for us.
Most people think that religion is a
matter of choice. They investigate all
the different belief systems that are out there, and then they choose the one
they think is most suitable and comfortable for them. Or, they pick and choose from the various
belief systems they have investigated and make up their own personal
religion. “Religion is a personal
matter, after all,” they conclude. “Why
should I have to confess a bunch of antique words from a creed that was written
hundreds of years ago?” But their
personal religion ends up looking nothing like Christianity, but more like a
smorgasbord of mysticism, pop psychology, and if you're lucky, maybe a little
dash of Bible thrown in.
The Bible doesn't leave us with that
option. Besides the fact that the name
of Jesus is the only name under heaven by which we are saved, the Bible also
teaches that apart from Christ, we are spiritually dead. That's exactly what the inspired Apostle Paul
teaches in the chapter following the one where today's Epistle is found. He says that we “were by nature children of
wrath.” Because of our disobedience to
God, his anger over our sin remained upon us and we deserved hell. Paul says that “you were dead in your
trespasses and sins in which you once walked.”
Dead. Without life. Oh sure, you may have been taking air into
your lungs. Your heart was beating. If someone pinched you, you would have said,
“Ouch!” But spiritually, you were
dead. And dead people cannot choose to
be alive. Spiritually dead people can
certainly make religious and moral choices.
But none of these decisions will cause the breath of God to enter them
and give them eternal life.
The Bible teaches that God chose us
to be saved, and then it makes it clear that this choice is always “in Christ,”
or “in connection with Christ.” St. Paul
writes, “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 in him.”
Paul also says clearly that we were “predestined.” Some people equate predestination with
fate. But fate is an impersonal
force. Predestination, on the other
hand, is personal. A personal God had us
on his mind even before time began. Even
before Adam and Eve fell into sin, bringing sin into the whole world, you and I
were on God's mind and wanted us to be his beloved, forgiven children. He had already planned to send his Son to be
our Savior. Some people also think that
predestination means that everything in our lives has already been decided for
us, that God even predestined that we would choose that Quarter Pounder at
McDonalds and that Rocky Road ice cream cone at Baskin-Robbins. To be sure, nothing escapes God's
foreknowledge. But what choices we make
in earthly matters has nothing to do with predestination. Predestination is entirely centered in God's
eternal, loving choice to save us from sin, death, and hell. It's all about his gracious election of us in
Christ, his choosing us in connection with Jesus our Lord and Savior.
Christians who are the spiritual
heirs of John Calvin believe in what is called “double predestination.” Calvin knew what the Bible had to say about
God choosing some to go to heaven. But
he needed an answer to the question, “Why some and not others?” He concluded that it must logically follow
that God must have chosen the rest to go to hell. Thus, the term, “double predestination.”
The trouble is, the Bible doesn't
teach this. It does teach that God has
chosen some to go to heaven. It is this
choice, this election, which is the divine cause of people coming to faith and
remaining in the faith until they die.
However, the Bible nowhere teaches that God chooses some to go to
hell. If people go there, it is because
of their own stubborn, sinful will that resists the work of the Holy Spirit on
their hearts. Lutherans don't try to
answer the question, “Why some and not others?”
We simply leave it a mystery.
It’s an unanswerable question.
And so when you ask yourself the
question “Am I one of God's elect? Am I
saved?” … be careful how you answer.
Your answer to that question has nothing to do with any decisions you
have made, whether you chose to believe or not.
It has nothing to do with how many times you have gone forward in an
altar call or recommitted your life to Christ.
It has nothing to do with your feelings, with any ecstatic experiences
you may have had. It has nothing to do
with any inner voices that you may have heard.
It has nothing to do with anything good in you or faithful in you that
God saw from his perspective in eternity.
Your answer to that question will depend simply upon this: “Am I in Christ? Am I connected to Christ?”
Are you baptized? Then you are “in Christ.” In Galatians 3:27, St. Paul says, “For as
many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.”
Are you sorry for your sins and do
you trust in Christ for the forgiveness of your sins? Then you are “in Christ.” Listen again to St. Paul in the verse
previous to the one just read: “For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God,
through faith.” And remember, this faith
is a gift of God's grace to you as well, given by the Holy Spirit through the
means of grace, through the Gospel and the Sacraments … given because you are
one of God's chosen ones.
Are you receiving the Lord's Supper
often while believing the words, “given and shed for you for the forgiveness
sins”? Then you are “in Christ.” 1
Corinthians 10:16 tells us plainly that in the Lord's Supper we are connected
to Christ because we partake of his true body and true blood: “The cup of
blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a
participation in the body of Christ?”
You see, the doctrine of
predestination and election was not given to us to keep us guessing and
wondering what our status is before God.
It was given to us as a great comfort.
When you and I look into our hearts, we will find sin and unbelief and
begin to doubt our election. But when we
look outside of ourselves to Christ and his cross and the means whereby the
benefits of the cross have been given to us – Baptism, the Gospel, Absolution,
the Lord's Supper – then we receive comfort and assurance.
Today's Epistle reading teaches us
that “in Christ” we are blessed, chosen, redeemed, given an everlasting
inheritance, and sealed with the Holy Spirit.
We are blessed “with every spiritual
blessing in the heavenly places.” God
has blessed us with material goods, but these things will fade, break, rust,
and rot. Our spiritual blessings are
heavenly, eternal blessings … life, forgiveness, salvation, joy, peace, relief
from sin and suffering, bliss forever in the presence of God.
God the Father “chose us in [Christ]
before the foundation of the world.”
Long before you or I were born … long before God ever spoke those words,
“Let there be light” … his intention was to include you in his plan of
salvation and to call you to faith through hearing the Good News of Jesus. In Adam, you were in sin and in the devil's
kingdom. In Christ, you were adopted in
love and became a beloved child of God.
All this so that you might be “holy and blameless before him.” In Christ, you are declared to be holy and
blameless. In Christ, you are empowered
to live a holy and blameless life as the fruit of faith and the forgiveness you
have been granted through the death and resurrection of your Savior Jesus.
In Christ, you are redeemed. You have been purchased, blood-bought, saved
from the clutches of sin, death, and the devil.
You have been forgiven of all your sins and brought into God's plan for
the world. This is what Paul calls “the
mystery of his will.” In the Old
Testament, it was a mystery as to when exactly the Messiah would arrive on the
scene. But in Jesus, that mystery is
revealed. It was “according to [God's]
purpose, which he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to
unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.” God's plan was to unite all believers in Christ,
both in heaven and on earth, into one holy body, the Body of Christ. We still await that great and glorious day
when the veil on this side will be taken away, and the Church on earth will be
united with the Church in heaven.
In Christ, “we have obtained an
inheritance.” That inheritance is what
was just described. A place reserved for
us in heaven. The promise of a future
resurrection. The joy of eternal life. It's called an inheritance because we don't
have it yet in all its fullness. But it
will be ours, there's no doubt about that, just like the children of wealthy
parents fully expect to receive their inheritance (hopefully they appreciate
that fact and act kind and loving accordingly toward their parents). Our inheritance is the infinite wealth of our
Creator and Redeemer, the glory of heaven itself. And he has
given us a down-payment, a guarantee on that inheritance, the Holy
Spirit who has sealed us.
In days gone by, kings and other
rulers wore signet rings. Engraved upon
their ring would be their coat of arms.
They would use this to place their seal upon important documents. A small ball of wax would be placed on the
paper, and they would press the face of the ring into the wax. In this way, the authenticity of the document
and its contents were guaranteed.
You have the seal of the Holy Spirit
upon you. You can't see it. But it's
real. It's in the shape of a cross and
has the name of the Triune God … Father, Son, and Holy Spirit … placed on you
in Baptism. This seal marks you as God's
own and guarantees the authenticity of your calling. It gives you something to cling to and return
to daily when you begin to doubt your election.
It reminds you of the glorious plan of salvation that was carried out in
Christ who died and rose for your sins.
God's choice of you and me, this
predestination and election we have been hearing about, gives him all the
glory, and that's as it should be. Three
times in our text Paul repeats a similar phrase: “to the praise of his glorious
grace” … “to the praise of his glory” … “to the praise of his glory.” God gets all the glory in this. It's all about what he has done for us in
Christ. If it was up to us, even just
one percent, we would forever be in doubt as to whether that one percent was
good enough. But it's not up to us. God has chosen you in Christ. One hundred percent. Take comfort in God's glorious grace in
Christ today … throughout the coming year … and for the rest of your life.
Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment