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A frightening number of our loved ones and neighbors cannot put into words why it is a good thing that they are alive in the world. The apostle Paul minces no words: God knew that we were coming. In love, he prepared the circumstances of lives. As incredible as it sounds, our own purpose and God’s eternal purposes are inextricably bound together – just as God always intended.

 

Expedition Ephesians: Chosen by God
Alive for a Reason 
May 8-9, 2010: Mother’s Day Weekend
Glenn McDonald
Ephesians 1:11-14

It’s astonishing, but true: A single Sunday edition of the New York Times carries more information than an average citizen of the 19th century would access during his or her entire lifetime. Our world is on information overload. But what the world needs now is not more data. What all of us need is a great deal more wisdom, and the courage to put it into practice.

Welcome back to the book of Ephesians, the apostle Paul’s short but penetrating letter that for millions of people has provided a radical re-education. We know so much. Yet we know so little about things that really matter. Citizens of the richest, most well-fed, best-educated, and most widely-traveled nation in human history remain deeply confused about the purpose of life. Why are we here? Did we come into the world by accident or according to a purpose beyond ourselves that we can actually put into words?  

In the midst of our confusion, God speaks. In the first chapter of Ephesians Paul provides a masterpiece of theology. What we have come to know as verses 3-14 is actually a single run-on sentence in the original Greek – Paul’s attempt to burst the boundaries of human language to communicate how incredible it is to be known and loved by God.

Our challenge during our eight-month study of the book of Ephesians has been that all of us might memorize all 155 verses of this book. Now we can make any number of arguments concerning the value of such a project – and there are many – but frankly most of us are going to roll over and play dead unless we can break such a task into bite-sized pieces. Therefore make it your aim to start with twelve key verses. Memorize and reflect, day by day, on Ephesians 1:3-14. Let just these words sink deeply into your mind, and by God’s grace you will experience a significant growth in your awareness of God’s presence and power.

Today we turn the spotlight on verses 11-14. Let’s speak them aloud together – either by reading from our own copy of Scripture, by looking up at the screens, or reciting them from memory. Let’s stand together:

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.

Several of us heard John Ortberg the other day suggest that the Bible’s bottom line is very simple: There is a God, and it is not you. Your life is not your project. Your life is God’s project. What jumps out of these verses is that God knew we were coming. And he delights in the fact that we are in this world. We are alive for a reason. And that reason is all about him.

The verbs tell the story. We have been chosen by God. We were predestined to be part of his grand plan for human history. We have been included in Christ. And he marked us with his own seal so we can know he is going to deliver on every one of his promises. It’s worth looking at how the Bible version known as The Message renders verses 11-12:

It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone.

Now all of this is just commentary on what Paul wrote back in verse 3: “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.” That phrase “in Christ” is really the key. It is used 164 times in the New Testament; 36 of them are in the book of Ephesians. To be “in Christ” is like living in a different country even as we maintain our citizenship here in Indiana.

Now how should our awareness that we are “in Christ” affect us moment-by-moment? The other day I rode for two hours in someone’s Toyota. I was “in Toyota” for two hours. Do you think that my awareness of how the accelerator was working (or not working) was unusually elevated because I happened to be in a Toyota as opposed to being in a Pontiac or maybe in a Corvair? According to Paul, being “in Christ” should radically affect my awareness of reality. By God’s grace I can live every moment in the joyful awareness of God’s presence. Being “in Christ” means that I know I am blessed all the time.

But this is where a number of us begin to struggle. The problem is that we don’t feel particularly blessed. Instead we feel sympathetic towards Jack Benny, who, when he received an award on a particular occasion, said, “I don’t deserve this. But I also have arthritis, and I don’t deserve that, either.” If life isn’t going particularly well, why should we conclude that we are blessed?

Paul’s answer is a hard one for modern people to hear. Regardless of your circumstances – regardless of your parentage, or your DNA, or your bank account, or your love life – if you are “in Christ,” then you have everything you need, even if in the moment life feels like a struggle. Verses 3-14 describe the eternal spiritual realities that shape the life of every person who trusts in Jesus. Let’s look more specifically at what this means for us.  

We begin with the certainty that God delights in us. Our existence is not an accident. Paul lived in a century when human life was precarious at best, especially for little ones. During the Roman Empire, one third of all children failed to survive as long as one year, and half never reached their tenth birthday. In Roman circles a newborn child was not even regarded as a human being or as a member of the household unless it was accepted by the father. If the father looked upon that baby and then turned away, it was thrown onto the local trash heap. There was no recourse or discussion. But if the father welcomed the child, he would take that little boy or girl into his arms and run with it in a circle around the household hearth. This was the public signal of his love and acceptance.

Paul is saying, “This is what God the Father has done for each of you! He has taken you into his arms and run with celebration around the hearth of heaven. He is glad you are in the world! You are a chosen one. You are here for a reason.”

Do you believe that? Or do find yourself anxious or weary or skeptical that the promises of Scripture are probably nothing more than Yes, But? Yes, God has lovingly chosen sons and daughters to be in his forever family – but he was probably talking about other people, not me. Yes, God’s heart overflows with grace – but I have done things to disqualify myself from receiving such grace.

Church, unfortunately, is often a place where people fall prey to impression management. Doesn’t it appear that virtually everyone else in this room is doing just great? So much of contemporary life has become so busy, and so distracting, and so loud that we no longer find places that are safe enough – even in the midst of other Christians – to acknowledge our huge hunger to be certain of God’s love and our need to know that our lives actually mean something.

What can we do? As an act of faith we must say yes to God’s love – his love for us – even when we do not feel it.

Everyone who takes an introductory course on philosophy comes to know the ponderings of Rene Descartes. Descartes asked, “What is the one thing I can always know for sure, upon which I can base my entire existence?” His conclusion is that he could always know for sure that he was thinking. Therefore his foundational philosophical premise was expressed in three Latin words: Cogito ergo sum. “I think, therefore I am.”

Did you hear about the time that Descartes walked into a bar? The bartender asked, “Would you like a drink?” Descartes answered, “I think not,” and immediately he vanished. Trust me, philosophers think that is hilarious.

The apostle Paul proposes a fundamentally different premise for human existence: Amor ergo sum. “I am loved, therefore I am!” Notice this isn’t, “I love God, therefore I deserve a place at his table.” No, this is all about God. He loves me. This is in fact the bedrock of all spiritual understanding. God loves us beyond all reason. And there is nothing we can do about it. We can either run away from this idea, or we can receive it with all our heart. The shape of our life is entirely dependent on which option we choose.

How can we express this more personally? In your bulletin today you’ll find an insert called God’s Assurances on which we have written out verses 3-14. There is a blank wherever Paul originally used a pronoun. Write your own name into each of those blanks. “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed Glenn…” Pray over your own name embedded within these promises. These words aren’t a treasure reserved for somebody else. By God’s grace, they are also for you.

We are alive because God takes delight in us. And we are also alive for a specific reason.  What reason? Look at verse 12: “In order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory.” And look at the second half of verse 14: “the redemption of those who are God’s possession – to the praise of his glory.” What does God care about more than anything else in all creation? God is most passionately committed to his own glory. Everything that God does and everything God is concerned with has to do with God’s glory.

Where else do we find this in Scripture? We read in Isaiah 43:6-7: “Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth – everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.” People were created to bring glory to God. Here is what Jesus prayed concerning his disciples at the Last Supper, as reported in John chapter 17: “I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one… Father, I want those you have you given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world” (17:22, 24).

What kind of life brings glory to God? Paul writes this about Jesus in 2 Corinthians 5:15: “And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.” My life is not my project. My life is God’s project. Intentionally living for God – not just to download his gifts and his blessings but to know and to love God for whom he really is – is the only strategy that will bring about my deepest satisfaction and greater glory for God.  

Years ago I heard about an obituary that summed up the life of an eccentric Englishman. As a young man this fellow had received such a colossal inheritance that he was freed up to do whatever he wanted with his life – to pursue any dream, to follow virtually any heroic path. What did he do with this astonishing privilege? According to the obituary he had dedicated his life to the breeding of the perfect spotted mouse.

Imagine coming into the presence of God and being asked, “What did you do with the gift of life that I entrusted to you?” and saying, “Lord, look at these perfect mice.” What are you doing with your one-and-only life? Are you on a track whereby you’re going to end up saying, “Lord, look at this perfect sales record, and look at my perfect muscle tone, and check out my perfect kids”? Good luck with that last one, by the way.

If my life is all about me, I am working against the very reason I was created. Life’s true goal is that we might live every moment in joyful awareness of the presence of God – so that God himself might be glorified – and that his work in us might bless the whole world.

Mother’s Day is an opportunity every year to thank God for who we are and for whose we are. The details of our lives, as we learn in verse 11, are engineered “according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will…” If we offer ourselves to God we will find that everything is working for “the praise of his glory.”

Let’s turn our attention now to verses 13-14. Paul says that followers of Jesus have been “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.” Seals were crucial in the ancient world. Important letters were sealed to authenticate their authorship. Cargo was sealed to ensure that no one had tampered with the contents. God has put the seal of his Holy Spirit on every Christian as if to say, “You are mine, and no one else can mess with you.”

The Spirit is also described here as a “deposit.” That’s a translation of the Greek word arrabon, which indicated a down payment or a first installment. The Spirit is thus our appetizer – the first taste of God’s grace. The rest of the meal, so to speak – the fullness of what God has in store for us – is coming in the future. In the meantime, in this present moment, the Holy Spirit is the single biggest difference-maker in our spiritual lives – something that we’ll explore in detail when we get to Ephesians chapter five.

Notice here how Paul describes who owns what. We are among “those who are God’s possession.” He possesses us. Now when you get out that old Stevie Wonder album you can sing with total spiritual conviction to the Lord, “Here I am – signed, sealed, delivered, I’m yours.” That’s what it means to be blessed with the gift of God’s Holy Spirit.

So how exactly do we get in on all of this? We’ve noted before that almost all the verbs in this section of Scripture denote the actions of God. Almost. Here at last we find three verbs that are in our court. Paul speaks of those who hope in Christ, who heard the word of truth, and who therefore came to believe. God does all the work – the creating, the choosing, and the adopting. God offers all the blessing – the forgiveness, the love, and the grace. Our response is to hope, to hear, and to believe. The Bible affirms that that “salvation is entirely a work of God in which humans are totally involved” (Klyne Snodgrass).

The result is something so radical that the Bible calls it new birth. When we put our trust in Christ – when we come to believe that God loves us so much that he sent his Son to rescue us – we start over. We receive a new life. A new family. A new beginning. We are alive for a reason. No matter who we are, and no matter what our circumstances, we are here to bring glory to God.  

Ravi Zacharias recounts the story of a young American couple who went to an orphanage in Romania to adopt a little boy who was born without arms. As they visited him, they noticed that nobody would even look in little George’s direction because his handicap was seen as an ill omen and a curse upon the family. This couple, however, kept looking at this little boy. They were determined to bring him back to the United States and raise him as their son – if his mother, who had placed him in the orphanage, would release him to them.

The mother, when contacted, asked why they wanted this child. “I have heard,” she said through a translator, “that in America the use babies for genetic experimentation. Is that why you want to take my son?” Caught in the limitations of language, the young couple opened a Romanian Bible they had brought along to Psalm 139. The woman took the Bible into her hands and began to read, just as we read earlier:

O Lord, you have searched me and you know me…
For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made…
My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
Your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me were written in your book
Before one of them came to be.

Zacharias writes, “The mother wept through her reading of this passage and clutched the Bible to her heart. Then she gave her armless son into the arms of one who saw his outstretched being, not the absence of his outstretched arms.” That is the one to whom we can commit ourselves today. For we have a father who dances around the hearth of heaven in joyful celebration of our life. We are alive for a reason. We are here for the praise of his glory.