Full life - Chosen in Christ
Author
Faustino de Jesús Zamora Vargas
Summary: Being chosen by God is a privilege and a reason for celebration. We are chosen in Christ from before the foundation of the world, and our response should be gratitude and a redeemed life that yearns for the glory of God. Paul, who was once a sinner who persecuted the church, was also chosen by God and called by His grace. The fullness of life in Christ breaks down excesses and builds the walls of holiness. We are blessed to be chosen and to dwell in the house of the Lord.
It is beautiful to wake up and feel in the arms of the Lord, hidden in his love, rescued from exhibitionist religiosity, chosen to be part of his alliance for eternity. We will have to go under his rod (Ezekiel 20.37) but it will be worth it if we have been chosen.
If you want to hear a beautiful hymn of praise authored by God and sung by Paul especially for you, take a little time to read Ephesians 1.3-14. Remember that only to those who ardently desire to know God will truth and justice be revealed through his Word (Ro 1.17).
Interpret praise as celebration. God celebrates us even though we are imperfect and fragile. He saw us from eternity and chose us for eternity and in his sovereignty he blessed us in Christ and affirmed us in him to be part of his assembly, of his church, a separate people for his glory. "He chose us in him from before the foundation of the world" (Ephesians 1. 4). All of God's blessings for his children begin with that choice. The beginning of enjoying the benefits of that choice is part of salvation in Christ. Isn't it a privilege to be part of God's people?
Did you know that you were a chosen one of God in Christ? Do not be surprised. Celebrate that undeserved condition that the Lord gave you since you let him into your home. Don't boast. Your merits were not the reason for your choice, but rather his divine sovereignty and the blood of the Lamb of God "who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). The elect must respond in gratitude, and gratitude must be reflected in the testimony of a redeemed life that yearns only for the glory of God.
So did Paul. When I meditate on the matter of divine election in Christ, I cannot leave Paul out. The sinner who ravaged the church, the convinced Pharisee, the heart that approved the lynching of Stephen stoned by the crowd (Acts 8: 1-3). Or Migdalia, a sister of faith, who spat on the ground in disgust every time she passed the front of the church and loudly blasphemed Christ. Both were reborn by the grace of God with the difference of two thousand years, because He has not changed his criteria of choice. "... God had separated me from my mother's womb and called me by his grace ..." (Galatians 1:15).
The fullness of life in Christ breaks down excesses and builds the walls of holiness. We are happy and we have promises of a beautiful beatitude: “How blessed is he whom You choose, and draw near to You, so that he may dwell in Your courts. We will be satisfied with the good of Your house, Your holy temple ”(Ps 65.4).
God bless you!