“God Chose Us in Christ”

(Ephesians 1:3-4)

I. Introduction.
A. Review.
1. The Catechism told us about the Covenant of Works.
a. It was a special act of Providence, a special relationship God had with man.
b. But it was also a test to see if man would obey.
c. In it, Adam represented the whole human race, except for one person.
d. If he passed, he would bring eternal life to himself and his children.
e. If he failed, he would die and all with him.

2. And we saw the results of that test: Adam failed.

a. He sinned and brought condemnation on all, except for one.
b. Adam’s sin not only resulted in condemnation, but also corruption for all.
c. With that guilt and corruption came loss of communion with God, God’s
wrath, all the miseries of this life, death, and hell forever.
d. Not a pretty picture.

B. But that’s not the end of the story.

1. God’s plan not only included the Fall, but also redemption.
2. He had determined from all eternity not to allow everyone to perish.
a. He chose some to everlasting life.
b. He entered into another covenant with them, called the Covenant of Grace.
c. That covenant included the sending of a Redeemer to save His elect from
their sins.

II. Sermon.
A. First of all, the Bible tells us that it was not God’s plan that everyone perish in
their sins. God chose some to save.
1. This is what our text tells us: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in
Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we
would be holy and blameless before Him” (Eph. 1:3-4).
a. God chose to make some holy and blameless.
b. He chose to give them heaven instead of hell, joy instead of sorrow,
everlasting happiness instead of everlasting misery.

2. Notice that this was His choice, not ours: “He chose us.”
a. It was not a choice based on what He saw we would be like or do.
b. Remember, the consequences of the Fall: guilt and corruption. We saw in
Romans that no one does good or seeks for God (Romans 3:10-12).
c. As we saw this morning, Paul says in Romans 8 that “the mind set on the
flesh is hostile towards God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God,
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for it is not even able to do so; and those who are in the flesh cannot please
God” (vv. 7-8).
d. Jesus tells us in John 6:63 that “the flesh profits nothing.”
e. And He tells us in John 3:19-20, “And this is the judgment, that the light is
come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for
their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light, and does
not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.”
f. If this is our condition, how could He ever choose us because of what we
were like? All He would see in us would be evil. If this is so, what could He
see in us that would distinguish us?
g. It can’t be because He saw we would choose Him, because left to ourselves,
we wouldn’t.
h. If we could have chosen Him, the flesh would have profited a great deal.
i. But Jesus tells us, “No one can come to Me, unless the Father who sent Me
draws him” (John 6:44).
j. Paul says the choice is God’s: “And not only this, but there was Rebekah
also, when she had conceived twins by one man, our father Isaac; for though
the twins were not yet born, and had not done anything good or bad, in order
that God's purpose according to His choice might stand, not because of
works, but because of Him who calls, it was said to her, ‘The older will serve
the younger.’ Just as it is written, ‘Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated’” (Romans
9:10-13).
k. God said to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will
have compassion on whom I have compassion” (v. 15).
l. Paul’s conclusion is, “So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the
man who runs, but on God who has mercy” (Rom. 9:16).
m. There are those who believe that it is really our choice:
(i) God chooses those who choose Him.
(ii) We come to Christ to receive His righteousness to become holy, and
seeing that we would be holy, God chooses us to be His children, to save
us.
(iii) But God did not choose us because we would be holy; He chose us that
we might be holy.
(iv) “Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we
would be holy and blameless before Him” (Eph. 1:4).
(v) It’s His choice that makes us holy, not our holiness that makes His
choice.
(vi) It was strictly of His good pleasure that He chose us in the first place.

3. And notice when this choice was made.

a. It was made “before the foundation of the world” (v. 4).
b. This was a choice made in eternity, before God began to work out His plan.
c. This is an eternal choice, based on God’s sovereign good pleasure.
d. Consider Romans 8:29-30, “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to
become conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born
among many brethren; and whom He predestined, these He also called; and
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whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He

also glorified.”
(i) Foreknowing has the idea of loving someone beforehand. It can’t mean
simply knowing about them, because God knows everyone perfectly from
all eternity.
(ii) These He foreloved, He predestined – He determined their destination –
to be conformed to the image of His Son: He did not choose them because
they were like His Son, but that they might become like Him.
(iii) These He predestined, He called by His Word and Spirit, and these only.
(iv) Those He called, He justified – declared just by the righteousness of His
Son – and these only.
(v) And these He justified, He brought to glory, and these only.
(vi) These verses tell us that the choice God made in eternity is the choice
He will carry out. No one drops out or gets left behind.

4. And so God chose some from all eternity, to deliver them from hell and bring
them safely to heaven, not because they would choose Him, but because it
pleased Him to do so. The basis of His choice was in Himself.

B. Secondly – and briefly, since this is what the Catechism will go on to tell us about
– the way God planned to save man was through a second covenant – the Covenant
of Grace.
1. In this covenant, we have a head, like in the first.
a. In the first covenant, a perfect man was our head: Adam.
b. In this covenant, a perfect man who is also God is our head: Christ.

2. In this covenant, our salvation is based on works, like the first.

a. The first covenant was based on the works of Adam, who failed.
b. The second covenant is based on the perfect works of the God-man , who
cannot fail: His perfect obedience and His atoning death.
c. Thankfully, our salvation is not based on our works.
d. Works are the effect of our salvation, not the cause of it.

3. Our passage tells us that God “chose us in Him” (v. 4).

a. He chose us to be in Christ.
b. He chose us to have His righteousness and our sins removed.
c. He chose us to inherit all that Christ earned.
d. Christ becomes our guarantee that the covenant promise will be ours.
e. Next week, we will begin to look at who this Christ is and what He did.

III. Application.
A. First, be thankful that God is a merciful God.
1. Remember, He didn’t need to show mercy to any.
a. He is merciful, but also just.
b. He might have shown justice to all.
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2. He planned to be merciful, not because He needed to, but because He wanted to

glorify His mercy and grace.
a. His plan to reveal Himself means that He would also show this side of
Himself.
b. And in doing so, He chose some to show that mercy through Christ.

B. Second, if you’re a Christian here this evening, be thankful He had mercy on you.
1. Realize that He didn’t choose you because of who you are.
2. He chose you because it pleased Him to do so.
3. His choice was purely sovereign, but also purely gracious.

C. Lastly, realize that even though God has sovereignly elected who will be saved and
who not, His salvation is to be offered to all and no one will be saved apart from
the Gospel message.
1. The Gospel is to be offered to all men without distinction. The elect will receive
Him at some point, the non-elect will not.
2. The elect will ordinarily not be saved except through the Gospel message.
a. There are some exceptions: elect infants dying in infancy, elect mentally
retarded individuals.
b. But for all others, they must hear the Gospel.
c. If they are to hear it, it must be from someone who knows it.
d. We must get it out to them by word, life or literature.
e. So pray for opportunity; pray for evangelism; pray for Missions; pray that
God’s kingdom would come.
f. His elect will be saved, because God will raise up a Gospel witness. Amen.