Ephesians 1
3Praise 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. 4For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— 6to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. (Ephesians 1:3-6, NIV)
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Paul’s letter to the Ephesians is chock full of important doctrinal truths that are foundational to the Christian faith.
In the opening verses of his letter, Paul outlines a number of spiritual blessings that are all true for believers the very moment they come to faith in Christ.
The first major blessing that Paul mentions is that we’ve been adopted into God’s family as his sons (and daughters). We experience this new relationship with God the moment we put our faith in Him.
Paul mentions two things about this adoption.
The first thing that Paul says is that we were chosen.
I know a little bit about what it means to be chosen.
When I was in grade school and it came time for teams to be picked at recess, I was usually one of the last ones chosen. I was extremely small for my age and I wasn’t particularly athletic. Because I didn’t stand out, I was usually the last person available when teams were formed, which means I often ended up on a team only by default.
My early childhood experience of not being chosen created negative feelings of self-worth as I was keenly aware that being chosen was often based on characteristics that I simply did not possess.
A few years after my wife and I got married, the opportunity to be “chosen” came about in a different context.
My wife and I struggled with infertility and so we decided that the best option to start a family was to pursue adoption. After some research, we decided to apply to become adoptive parents though an adoption agency known as Bethany Christian Services. They promote what is known as open adoption, which means that there is a negotiated relationship between the birth mom and the adoptive parents.
The way this agency works is that birth moms who come into Bethany Christian Services wanting to make an adoption plan for their child look through a binder of profiles that represent the many different couples who are seeking to adopt. When they find couples that interest them, a meeting is arranged to get to know one another. After the meeting, if both the birth mom and the adoptive couple like each other, then a match is made.
In short, the birth mothers “choose” the families they want to meet who will potentially become adoptive parents to their child.
When my wife and I were navigating the process of adoption, we eventually got to a point where we needed to create a profile of ourselves to place in this binder.
We had jumped through all of the hoops, including filling out our application, undergoing a vigorous background check, getting references and having an in-home inspection to ensure our apartment was baby-proofed.
Once we had passed all of these checkpoints, we then had to create a profile of ourselves so that when birth mothers looked through the binder of couples, they would see our profile and possibly “choose” us.
I remember our social worker giving us a binder to look at so we could see samples of how other couples had presented themselves. Our task was to create 4-6 pages to introduce ourselves and market ourselves to the birth moms. The hope was to stand out in such a way that at least one birth mom would notice us and seek a meeting.
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As I looked through the many profiles, I couldn’t help but think to myself that “these other couples are my competition.” I also noticed that many of the couples had nice homes and seemed to be better off financially than we were. We were living in an apartment at the time and, as missionaries, we certainly did not have lucrative jobs financially.
The thought that crossed my mind was, “what birth mother is ever going to pick our profile out of this binder? We have nothing to offer from a worldly perspective.”
The thing is that this is NOT how God chooses. He didn’t choose you from a book of resumes or a binder of profiles. You weren’t chosen based on your stellar achievements or amazing accomplishments.
The text says that we were chosen “before the creation of the world”, which is the second truth about adoption in this passage.
This means that God chose before any of us were born. Therefore, His choice could not have been based on anything we did because we weren’t alive yet to do anything that might merit God choosing us.
If you’ve placed your faith in Jesus, Scripture says that you now have a new relationship with God. You’ve been adopted into God’s family by His choice. He didn’t choose you (or me) because we were the best athletes, the smartest students, the funniest people, the most well-adjusted or the best-dressed. His choice wasn’t based on our success, our belief in ourselves or our family name.
His choice wasn’t based on any of the things that we tend to think of when we think about qualities that are necessary to be chosen. God’s choice is based simply, and only on His love, which is unconditional.
This is a hard concept to imagine because for most of us, we operate in a world and a culture where merit is everything. Think about it. If you want a good job you have to stand out. You have to have a good pedigree. You need good grades and a degree from a good school. You need a proven track record and stellar references. The ultimate trump card is knowing someone who has an in – someone who can use their influence on your behalf.
That’s the worldly understanding of choice. Fortunately for us, that is NOT how God operates. If it was, I’m certain that I’d still be on the sidelines, having been excluded from the fun because I wasn’t good enough to get picked.
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Reflection
Growing up, were you the kind of kid who usually got selected or the kind of kid who didn’t get selected? How did that impact your view of yourself and others?
What are some common things we tend to get chosen for? What kinds of qualities or characteristics are generally necessary to be chosen for those things?
I often have asked people this question: How do you think God chooses who makes it into heaven and who doesn’t? What do you think is His criteria?
What do you think it means that God’s only choice for adopting you, choosing you, was love?
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