Praise God That You Can Be Certain
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The Word of God through which the Holy Spirit strengthens us to speak God’s Word faithfully is Ephesians 1:3-14
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will – to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. He made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment – to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.
In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession – to the praise of his glory. (Ephesians 1:3-14 NIV)
Dear friends, chosen by God’s grace in Christ:
A U.S. soldier walking the streets of Baghdad does not know when a sniper’s bullet could strike him down. Uncertainty clouds the day.
We, too, face uncertainties. What kind of yield will the fields produce? What will the market pay? Uncertainty clouds the day. We make plans for the weekend, but someone gets sick. We hope for home improvements, but the money doesn’t come in. We work hard at a personal relationship, but it falls apart. Uncertainty clouds the day.
How quickly uncertainty can block out the sunshine of happiness! Your day flows along fine. The phone rings. There’s been a family tragedy. Uncertainty clouds the day.
How are we to cope with the uncertainties in life? The world may cope by worrying or giving up. Or thinking that life is short, it may live indulge in wild living with an I-don’t-care attitude. The world may advise us to always be looking out for ourselves, since lives a gamble. Or it might cynically say like many colleges or universities do, “There is no sure truth.” None of this works.
How do we cope? Or better: How does God want us to cope with life’s uncertainties? He wants us to focus on his promises. His promises are sure. They do not fade or fail. His promises shine through the clouds of uncertainty. They are a certainty, and they bring us certainty. Praise God that you can be certain. That is the theme for today.
What can we be certain about? The Holy Spirit tells us through the words he gave the Apostle Paul to write to the Christians in Ephesus. We can be certain that 1) you are chosen by the Father, 2) you are ransomed by the Son, 3) and you are sealed with the Holy Spirit. Praise God that you can be certain because he has promised these things.
1) You are chosen by the Father
Paul himself faced uncertainties as he wrote this letter. He was in prison in Rome on trail for preaching about Jesus. The Christians in Ephesus faced uncertainties. They lived in a pagan city. While Paul had been doing mission work among them, craftsmen who made shrines for the idol Artemis had started a riot against Paul. Would more violence surface against them?
What is Paul’s response to these gloomy uncertainties? He praises God for what he has done: “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will – to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves” (Ephesians 1:3-6 NIV). He praises God that he can be certain. Paul was certain that in Christ God had chosen him and his fellow believer, including you. He chose us for adoption.
Why did God choose us? That’s a key question. The reason why God chose us determines how certain we can be. Why did God choose to adopt you? When a family adopts the future parents often look for specific qualities. They consider the age, sex, race, and health of the child. Our natural answer to why did God choose me is because of something in me – something that makes me special and different. That answer is dead wrong.
Nothing in you or me led God to choose us. Nothing that we have done or ever will do. Nothing about who we are or what we might be. In fact, God chose you before you ever even existed. That what Paul tell us: “He chose us in [Christ] before the creation of the world” (Ephesians 1:4 NIV). God’s choice is based on nothing in us.
But maybe someone wants to argue: “God knows all things. He could have foreseen something in me as a reason to choose me.” Yes, God does know all things. But what did God see in you and me apart from what his grace would work in us? He didn’t see cute, cuddly babies. In God’s sight we had nothing to attract him to us. We were his born enemies, like everyone else. Sin’s filth covered us from the moment we were conceived, just like everyone else. The Bible says in Isaiah 64:6 that even our righteous acts, the best that we do on our own, are only filthy rags, stained by our sin. We deserve to be rejected by God in hell, not chosen by him. Anything truly good in us is only there because God first chose us and then worked that good in us. Even our faith wouldn’t be ours if God hadn’t first chosen us. That’s why Paul made it clear that “[God] chose us in [Christ] before the creation of the world” (Ephesians 1:4 NIV). God’s choice comes first. God’s choice is the reason we believe and do good.
But that doesn’t answer the question of why did God choose you and me. Clearly his choice is based on nothing in us. No choice, no decision, no prayer, no work that we have done or every will do led God to choose us. And that’s good news. If God’s choice were to depend on something in us, then we could never be certain. We would always wonder whether we were good enough or whether our faith was strong enough. God’s choice depends on nothing in us.
Then why did choose you and me? God’s Word answers that: “In love he predestined us,” “in accordance with his pleasure and will,” “to the praise of his glorious grace” namely his Son, Jesus (Ephesians 1:4-6 NIV).
The motive for God’s choice lies in him alone. The motive is his love “In love he predestined us”. He loved you not because there was anything lovely in you. You and I were completely unlovable. But he loved you because he wanted to. This was his good pleasure. It wasn’t a passing fancy. This was his will.
One word summarizes all this: Grace. God’s grace is his undeserved love that loves us sinners and freely shows us that love even though we deserve his anger and punishment. God choose you not because of anything in you but because of his grace. We confessed that in the second hymn today: “Lord, ’tis not that I did choose you; / That I know, could never be, / For this heart would still refuse you / Had your grace not chosen me.” (“Lord, ’Tis Not that I Did Choose You,” Christian Worship 380:1) This grace is shown only in Jesus Christ. What certainty is yours! God’s choice does not depend on you, but on his grace! His grace can not fail. Praise him that you can be certain of this. You can be certain that he choose you.
Look at what he choose you for! He choose you “to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 1:5 NIV). As a child of God, you can be certain that God hears your prayers for through Jesus he is your merciful Father. You can be certain that your heavenly Father is protecting you and providing for you. As a child of God, you are an heir of everlasting life. Praise him that you can be certain that you have all these privileges of his adopted child.
What is more, he choose you “to be holy and blameless in his sight” (Ephesians 1:4 NIV)? How can that be since we are still sinners? Your heavenly Father dresses you, his child, with the clean clothes of his beloved Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus’ perfect life covers up your sins and filthy rags. Through faith in Jesus, you stand before the holy God with the certainty that he counts you holy and blameless because of Jesus. Praise God that you can be certain of this.
How is all this possible? It is possible only because of Jesus in whom God gracious choice takes place.
2) You are ransomed by the Son.
The Apostle Paul now focuses us directly on Jesus. “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace ” (Ephesians 1:7, 8 NIV). God’s gracious choice is possible only because of Jesus.
Your sin and mine is no small matter. We began life as slaves to sin. A payment had to be made to set us free. But none of us could pay God enough for even one of our sins. So God himself made the payment in our place. God the Son came to this earth to be your substitute and mine. With his own blood, Jesus paid the full price for all the sins of the world. He paid the ransom price for us.
Since Jesus’ blood has made the full payment for you, your sins are forgiven. Your guilt is sent away as far as the east is from the west. Your every misstep is buried in the oceans’ depths. God’s forgiving grace is so rich that it never runs out. There’s no doubt about it because the payment has already been made and accepted when Jesus died and rose from the dead. Praise God for that you can be certain. Jesus has ransomed you. You are forgiven.
Yet what good would this do us if we didn’t know about it? For instance, if you were a POW and there was a secret escape route but you didn’t know about it, you would remain a prisoner. No amount or human reasoning or research is able to figure out God’s saving plan. It is a mystery to human thought. But God in his grace, not only sent his Son to be our Savior he made sure that this Good News was made known to us. He revealed the mystery of his saving will. That was all part of his plan and purpose. In fact, he directs the times of the world for this saving purpose. Paul tell us “He made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment – to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ” (Ephesians 1:9, 10 NIV)
What certainty that gives us! The world is not out of control. God has directed and is directing all things according to his saving purpose. He arranged the times and then sent his Son to ransom you. He arranged the times so that his saving plan has been made known to you. He arranged the times to bring all things are under Christ. Praise God that you can be certain. Everything is under Jesus who has ransomed you with his blood.
3) You are sealed with the Holy Spirit
And yet all this would give us no certainty at all, if we didn’t believe it. And why should we believe it? God’s saving plan doesn’t make sense to our human thinking. Our natural minds are dark and blind. How could we ever believe it? Listen to what Paul writes, “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit” (Ephesians 1:13 NIV). Through God’s Word, which is the truth, God gave you his Holy Spirit. Through the Gospel, the Good News of what Jesus has done to save you, the Holy Spirit called you. He created faith in your heart and enlightened your mind to see God’s saving truth.
Why did he do this for you? Not because anything in us, as we’ve clearly talked about in the first part. God gave you the Holy Spirit because in Christ Jesus he chose you by grace alone from before the creation of the world.
The Holy Spirit gives you the blessing both now and for the future. Right now you are sealed with the Holy Spirit. In Paul’s day, a seal showed who the owner was. Today we place our name on something to show ownership. You were baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. God placed his name on you. He gave you his Holy Spirit to seal you as his very own. Praise God that you can be certain the you belong to him.
Paul continues and reminds us of a future blessing we have because of the Holy Spirit. Talking about the Holy Spirit, Paul writes: “[he] is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance” (Ephesians 1: 14 NIV). You have an inheritance in heaven. On earth we don’t yet enjoy the full inheritance. We still suffer sin and its consequences. But we look to the future, to heaven. That fact that Holy Spirit is living in you right now, is a guarantee that you have an inheritance in heaven. The Holy Spirit is like the down payment. When someone makes a down payment, it is a guarantee that he will pay the rest. God, who does not fail or go back on his word, has given you the Holy Spirit as a down payment. Praise God that you can be certain. Heaven is your inheritance.
Of course, if any of us turn our backs on the Holy Spirit and return to a life that loves sin, or if we become self-confident so that we no longer rely on God’s strength and forgiveness, or if we let the Holy Spirit slowly fade from our hearts because we neglect God’s Word and sacrament, then that like returning the down payment. We’ve lost everything. Rather, hold on to God’s promises in Jesus as your only certainty.
Life is still filled with uncertainties, but these need not cloud our day. Look to the certainties that God promises. In Christ he has chosen you by grace to be his child. Praise him for this certainty. Live as his child, feasting on his word and sacrament and saying no to sin. He has ransomed you . Praise him for this certainty. Don’t return to sin’s slavery. Serve your Lord who purchased you with his life-blood. Serve him freely and gladly in the joy of forgiveness. He has sealed you with the Holy Spirit. Praise him for this certainty. Live in the confidence that you belong to him and live with your focus on your heavenly inheritance. Praise God for the certainty that his promises give you.
