Proper 10B, 2024
Text: Ephesians 1:3-14
Title: Chosen in Christ
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I didn’t get chosen much when I was growing up. I was never that strong or fast or coordinated, and so when it came to choosing sides for kickball or whatever the recess game was, I was usually one of the last chosen. The pain of getting cut from every sports team that I tried out for even in grade school has mostly subsided by now.
I wasn’t that confident or socially adept, so I didn’t get chosen much as a boyfriend, or even a best friend. I didn’t go on many dates. I didn’t’ go to many parties.
I did get chosen when it came time to do group projects in school, and my classmates thought that if I were in their group, they would have a good chance at getting a good grade. But that was about it.
How about you?
Are you chosen very often? Are you chosen for the top projects at work? Are you invited to all the social events? Are you chosen for the team?
Or do you find yourself, more often than not, rejected and alone?
Take heart. Rejoice. You have been chosen in the way that matters most, and in the only way that will last.
God has chosen you in Christ before the foundation of the world.
God has chosen you in Christ before the foundation of the world.
Before you were born, before your parents were born, before this nation was founded, even before the world was made, God chose you.
Before God spoke light into being on that very first day of days, you were in His mind and on His heart.
And way, way, back then, before even time itself, God knew you, and He chose you.
God knew what you would look like, every hair, every freckle, every wrinkle.
God knew your personality, what you would do with every second of every hour of every day of your life.
God knew all the good that you would do, and He knew the bad, too.
God knew every mistake that you would make, every poor choice, every hurtful word and action. God knew your complete record from beginning to end.
And still, God chose you. He said to you, “You are mine.”
God has chosen you in Christ before the foundation of the world.
He chose you in Christ.
Apart from Christ, He would never have chosen you. How could He?
Apart from Christ, you were dirty, disgusting, and dead. You were His enemy, opposed to His will, selfish, only caring about yourself.
But God chose you in Christ. You have redemption, forgiveness in His blood.
Jesus died to make you chooseable, to make you acceptable to God. Because of Christ you are holy and blameless in God’s eyes.
And if that’s how God sees you, that’s how you should see yourself. You are holy, made to be like God Himself. You are blameless, every last sin forgiven.
Don’t worry about what other people see in you. Don’t even worry about what you see in you.
All that matters is how God sees you, and when He looks at you through His Christ-colored glasses, all He sees is holiness and innocence.
And that’s why God has chosen you, because you are in Christ.
You are in Christ because He put His name on you with the water in Holy Baptism. You in Christ because you receive His body and blood in the Holy Supper. You are in Christ and Christ is in you.
His death and resurrection are yours.
That was God’s plan from the very beginning, from the foundation of the world.
The cross was not God’s plan B. The cross was not God’s way of fixing something that He had not anticipated, some sort of patch on the torn fabric of His creation.
God knew that sin would break His creation and tear people apart. God knew that sin would turn you against Him.
And yet He created all things, He created you, knowing of the sacrifice that would have to be made, knowing of the pain and suffering He would undergo, knowing that it would cost Him His life.
You are worth it. You are worth that ultimate sacrifice, because He loves you.
God has chosen you in Christ before the foundation of the world.
He has chosen you, not for His team, not for His business, but for His family.
You have been adopted as a son, as an heir of the heavenly blessings.
Not just a little. Not just barely enough. You have received “the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon” you. You are wealthy beyond imagination with the treasures of heaven, treasures that will last forever, treasures that no one can take away from you.
They are yours for free. They are yours by grace. They are God’s gift to you because you are His child.
You don’t possess them yet. You are still hoping for them. You are still waiting for them.
But as you wait, to help you wait, He has given you His Holy Spirit.
As you hear the gospel of your salvation, the Holy Spirit works in you to create faith.
The Holy Spirit is the promise, the guarantee of your inheritance. He gives you the faith to wait until that great and glorious day will come, when the Jesus returns and puts all things back together and makes His creation great and glorious once more, when He “unites all things in Him, things in heaven and things on earth.”
Sin tears things apart. Sin tears apart families through arguing and holding grudges. Sin tears apart friendship through selfishness and neglect. And ultimately, sin will tear you apart, tearing your body from your soul when you die.
But Jesus is coming to put everything back together, to make the world whole once more, and this happens “in Him.” The world is made whole as it is connected to Christ, as you receive life and breath, and love, and beauty, and goodness, and all that Christ is.
That is what is coming; that is what He has planned. And He has chosen you to be a part of it.
What a wonderful, amazing God we have who loves us in such a way. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! Everything that He does for me, for you, for all of His creation is for His praise and His glory forever and ever.
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