We Are God’s Family

From: September 11 – 17, 2012 TOPIC: “We Are God’s Family” Ephesians 1:4-6

The reason for being chosen is for us to be holy and not blemished before Him in love. God chose us; we are in Him; that is our position: that we are in Him. We no longer belong to this world or to the devil or to our wild passions. It is in the person and work of the Lord Jesus where all the purposes are carried out within His people. The timing of God’s election remains indicated with the expression: “before the foundation of the world”. The purpose of all this is for us to be holy and unblemished before Him in love. This purpose will not be accomplished completely until we join Him in Heaven (1 John 3:2), but the process of sanctification and perfection should proceed continually in our lives here. Let us correspond God in His so glorious pledge and love for us. God makes us His family. This is called predestination or pre-ordination. God’s first blessing for us is the ELECTION and the second spiritual blessing of the treasure of divine grace is the PREDESTINATION. The election is when God elects people for salvation to deliver them from Hell, from the eternal condemnation. But, the predestination is an advance over the election, it goes a step further; ;it means that God decided in advance that all those saved would also be ADOPTED IN HIS FAMILY AS HIS CHILDREN! (Ephesians 1:5 “… in love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will”.) He could have saved us without making us His children, but He chose to do both, by predestinating us in His love to adopted children. That spirit of adoption implants in the believer the instinct of pointing at God as the Father. (Romans 8:15) “For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry “Abba Father.” We cry out Abba Father! Our adoption is thru Jesus Christ! Now he is our Father by law. No one can go against what God has wanted for us. (Only and solely we can reject this gift of the divine love, only if we turn away from Him and not love Him. As Demas, Paul’s companion did, who loved more the world than God who had offered him all these privileges of a son and rejected it. 2 Timothy 4:10 “…For Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica….”) God could have never introduced us in this position of intimacy and love with Him as long as we were in sin. The sinner without repentance, not converted, or redeemed, cannot enter to dwell with God. Their sins do not allow them to be with the God who is three times holy. That is why Jesus came to earth and thru His death, burial, and resurrection solved the matter of death for God’s satisfaction. He made us acceptable before the Beloved! The Father accepted us as His children for the price paid by the son! It is the infinite value of His sacrifice at the Calvary that provides a just basis upon which God can adopt us as His children. And all that is in accordance with the consent of His will. This is the sovereign motive behind our predestination. Why did He do it? Simply because of His good will. He loved us! John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. The Father could not remain satisfied until He was surrounded by children in accordance with the image of His only Son with Him and like Him forever. Ephesians 1:6 “To the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.” While contemplating Paul the grace of God, first by electing us and later to

predestine us to become His children, he interrupts his meditation with this chorus which is at the same time an exclamation, an explanation and an exhortation. It is an exclamation, a holy expression of amazement before the transcendental glories of such grace. It is an explanation, the object and result of all God’s treatments in grace for us in His own glory. Since His glory He has provided us with such great salvation for all our lives. Paul understands that eternal worship is due for that favor so incomparable. Let us observe the conditions of His grace. He has made us freely accepted. We are the receivers of His grace, mine and yours, us. The canal of His grace is the Beloved, Jesus Christ! This is an exhortation to worship; it is as if Paul were telling us: “Let us worship the Lord for His glorious grace”! Let us do so before proceeding. Hallelujah, blessed and good is God! Let us do this in these days who have received His grace thru our Beloved Lord Jesus! Now we are also an integral part of the family of faith. We are adopted children by God thru the merits of Jesus. We live the present and later the eternal future with all the privileges of the children and with the love of a unique and glorious Father. It is to honor Him and praise Him continually, making an effort each day to correspond properly as faithful children. Amen.