You Were Chosen
Day 2 Who Are You — REALLY?: Ephesians 1:3–6
Introduction
There was a stretch of years when I was applying for Senior Pastor positions. I had the packet: magna cum laude from seminary, ordained minister of the Gospel, years of real ministry behind me. On paper, a good candidate.
But underneath the hoping was something else. I wanted them to choose me, and I was afraid of what would happen if they did — because they’d be choosing the packet, and the packet wasn’t the whole of me. Sooner or later they’d meet the rest.
Here’s what I didn’t expect: the better the credentials got, the worse that feeling got. A thinner packet would have had less to hide behind.
You’ve had your own version of that room. Maybe not a search committee. But somewhere you handed over your best material, hoped they’d pick you, and quietly wondered whether they’d like their choice once they got to know you.
Paul is about to tell you when God’s choosing happened. Not what he saw when he made it. When. It’s the one detail that takes the question apart.
Scripture
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 for adoption to sonship 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
Reflection
What’s Happening in the Text
In Greek, everything from verse 3 through verse 14 is one sentence. Paul starts blessing God and doesn’t stop for a period for twelve verses. Whatever this is, it isn’t a carefully built argument. It’s coming faster than he can get it down.
The first thing he tells you about the choosing is when. Before the creation of the world. There was no track record to consult, because there was no world yet to have one in. And notice where: he chose us in him. Not chose us and then placed us in Christ. Chose us in him, the same place he put you in the greeting.
Then comes the phrase most of us read straight past. He predestined us for adoption “in accordance with his pleasure and will,” and gave us grace “in the One he loves.” Both of those come from the same scene. A river, a voice out of heaven, and a Father saying over his Son: this is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. The pleasure is the same word. The love is the same word. Paul has taken the sentence the Father spoke over Jesus at his baptism and built your adoption out of it.
What This Means for You
Here’s what the timing does. If he chose you before the creation of the world, he wasn’t working from information. No résumé. No track record. No best day and no worst one. Nothing had happened yet, including you.
So the fear has nowhere to stand. He cannot find something out about you that changes the choice, because the choice was never made on the basis of what he’d find. You can’t be un-chosen by being discovered. There was nothing yet to discover.
And “holy and blameless” isn’t the entrance requirement. Read it again slowly: he chose you to be holy and blameless. That’s where the choosing is going. It isn’t what the choosing was waiting for.
Yesterday Paul told you where you live. Today he tells you the page was there before the first line was ever written. Before there was a hand to write it.
And the delight underneath all of it isn’t new either. It’s the same delight that rested on Jesus at the river — before he had preached a sermon, healed anyone, or done a single thing the Gospels thought worth recording. The Father wasn’t pleased with him for his track record. He didn’t have one yet.
You were not chosen for the person you are still trying to become. You were chosen before there was a person to look at — which means there is nothing left for him to find out.
Grace Note
The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” — Romans 8:15
A slave works to keep his place. A child already has one. And the word Paul reaches for here isn’t a title or a formal address. It’s what a child says without thinking about it.
Prayer Prompt
Father, I’ve spent a lot of my life waiting to be found out. Not about anything in particular. Just the low, steady sense that if you looked closer, something would change.
I don’t know what to do with the idea that you decided about me before there was anything to look at. Part of me wants to argue with it. It would honestly be easier if I’d earned it — then at least I’d know what I was supposed to keep doing to hold onto it.
But you’re not asking me to hold onto anything. You’re telling me I’m your child. I did nothing to arrange that, and there’s nothing left for me to arrange now.
Most days I don’t feel chosen. I feel like someone who’s managing. Help me stop bracing for the day you change your mind.
I don’t know how to live like someone who was already wanted. But I’d like to find out.
Amen.
Response
1. Connective: Yesterday you noticed which line of your profile you reach for first. Today, when you catch yourself reaching for it again, say four words under your breath: chosen before all this. Not to replace the line. To remember what it’s written on.
2. Contemplative: Sit for five minutes with the phrase “before the creation of the world.” Don’t try to picture it. You can’t. Just let the sentence be older than everything you’re carrying into today.
3. Kinesthetic: Go outside if you can, and pick up a small stone — something ordinary you can close your hand around. Then walk, and talk to God in your own words. No script. While you talk, feel the stone shift in your hand, and remember it was already here long before you were. And the choosing Paul is describing is older still — older than the ground you’re walking on, older than the world that made the stone. Let its weight stay in your hand the whole way. (Can’t get outside? Hold anything solid that’s older than you and do the same.)
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© Steve Peschke / This Is The Way