#DailyDevotion The Lord Chose You To Be Saved & Share His Glory

2 Thess. 2¹³But we always have to thank God for you, my fellow Christians, whom the Lord loves, because in the beginning God chose you to be made holy by the Spirit, to believe the truth, and so to be saved. ^14“For this purpose He called you by the good news we tell; He wants you to have the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.” ¹⁵Stand then, fellow Christians, and cling to the instructions we gave you when we spoke to you or wrote to you. ¹⁶Now our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, Who loved us and by His grace gave us an everlasting comfort and a good hope, ^l7inwardly comfort and strengthen you to do and say everything that is good.

What wonderful comfort St. Paul gives us here as he gives thanks for the Thessalonians. Why does he give thanks for them? From the beginning God chose them to be holy by the Spirit, to believe the truth and to be saved. The beginning here is the before the foundation of the world as he says in Ephesians 1^4“He has done what in His kindness He planned to do: Before He made the world, He Who loved us ⁵appointed us to be made His sons by Jesus Christ…” God knowing what would happen when he created man had made a recovering plan. In that plan he chose you in Christ Jesus to be saved by believing the truth of Christ Jesus and to be made holy. Indeed St. John hears in Revelation 13⁹“the Lamb Who was slain from the beginning of the world.” Such is the planning of your salvation by your heavenly Father.

So now the Holy Spirit has made you holy by baptism, separating apart from the rest of humanity. He has chosen you to believe truth—Jesus has died for your sins and has been raised from the dead for your justification. Through this faith in Jesus you have been saved i.e. God’s righteousness has been credited to your account. Now all this sounds pretty good when you know what the alternative is, Luke 19^23“Being tormented in hell, he looked up, and though far away, he saw Abraham, and Lazarus at his side. ²⁴‘Father Abraham,’ he called, ‘have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue, because I’m suffering in this fire.’” And this, Luke 13^28“Then you will cry and grind your teeth when you see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets in God’s kingdom but you yourselves thrown out.”

Yet your heavenly Father has even greater plans for you. St. Paul says here, “He wants you to have the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.”  The LORD says in Isaiah 43^8“I am the LORD; that is My name. I will not give My glory to anyone else nor the praise I deserve to idols.” No one can arrogate God’s glory to himself or give it to idols. He may share though with whom he will. It is his intention to share his glory with his children who trust in Jesus Christ. So St. Peter writes 2 Peter 1⁴ “you might by these promises share in the divine nature.” Paul again says elsewhere, ^18“And all of us, reflecting the Lord’s glory in our unveiled faces, are changed from glory to glory to be like Him, as we expect it from the Lord, Who is the Spirit.” (2 Cor. 4) and again, 2 Cor. 4^17“The light trouble of this moment is preparing for us an everlasting weight of glory, greater than anything we can imagine.”

This the comfort of an everlasting hope comfort Paul gives to the Thessalonians and now he gives it to you. By this comfort and hope we are to be inwardly strengthened to do everything and say everything that is good. Now please not this, the good we say and do emanates from the good news and now from the law. If you would do and say more good, it isn’t the law you are to be focused on but rather what has Jesus promised to do for you. That is the way of the Spirit Paul talks about in Romans 8.

Heavenly Father, we give you thanks you chose us in Christ Jesus to be holy and saved  before the foundation of the world. Keep us in this salvation through the good news of your Son that we may participate in his glory when he is revealed and now say and do all good things. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.