#DailyDevotion In Love God Has Chosen You In Christ Jesus To Be His Children
Eph. 1: In love 5 he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.
Some people get hung up on election. Know this, “In love” God chose you. It was in his great mercy and love for Christ Jesus God chose you to be his very own. He chose you to be adopted by him through Christ Jesus. How do you know God chose you? Well let us start with this, God so loved the world he sent his son to the atoning sacrifice to take the world’s sin away. You are part of the world, so this applies to you. God has sent the message of this salvation and God gives faith to believe and receive this salvation through this word. God has also given his name to baptism wherein he put his name on you and says, “mine!” And God continues to have you persevere in this faith by provided for the preaching of the Word and the administration of the Lord’s Supper to preserve you in this faith. So if you have heard the word, believe, are baptized and are regularly where he gives his word and sacraments, you should consider yourselves one of the elect.
Again you can be certain God adopted you has his own child in baptism, in love, through Christ. Paul writes, Tit 3:4-7 ESV “But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, (5) he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, (6) whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, (7) so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” Through this washing of regeneration, i.e. baptism, you have been made heirs of God, the Holy Spirit being poured out upon us.
As heirs of God with the Holy Spirit we are therefore his children as St. Paul writes, Rom 8:15 ESV “For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’” and again, Gal 4:5-6 ESV “to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. (6) And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’”
This is to the praise of his glorious grace. Your salvation is not based on what you did or didn’t do. It is based on God’s choice, his love in Christ Jesus for you, and his grace for you, before you did anything good or bad, before the foundation of the world. Thanks be to God for the grace bestowed upon us to reveal his will to us, to have us hear his word, to give us the sign and seal of baptism in which we are sealed with the Holy Spirit as a guarantee of our salvation. And this he has blessed with in the beloved, i.e. Jesus. Not sure you are in Christ Jesus and one of God’s elect? What has God said through his servant St. Paul? Rom 6:3-4 ESV “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? (4) We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” Are you baptized with the baptism our Lord Jesus Christ has given? Then you are in Christ. Believe his word.
Heavenly Father, gracious God, you have chosen us to be your children and have given us the sign of our adoption of grace in the waters of Holy Baptism. Ever keep us in your Church where we are fed your word and sacraments to preserve in this faith unto life everlasting. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.