Good Monday morning to you my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
Have you ever experienced the great joy of being “chosen”? Perhaps you were among many applicants for a job you really wanted, or maybe you were chosen to be on a team you highly esteemed, or you were voted to a position you had prepared for? But maybe you had the unusual experience of being chosen despite your lack of qualifications or your unpreparedness or maybe you even were chosen in spite of not seeking the position? There is great power in the word and experience of being “CHOSEN” isn’t there?
Come again with me to the great city of Rome, about 65ad. We’re with the famous apostle Peter and he’s beginning to write a very important letter to Christians throughout the known world, during a time of great turmoil. Fear is the predominant emotion and so Peter’s first words are intended to bring a great wave of HOPE and encouragement: “…you have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit, to be obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled by His blood!” (1 Peter 1:2)
Oh, my what a statement! And I imagine these words felt like an enormous embrace from God in all the little clusters of beleaguered Christians all across the frightening world in the first century. Look at the power of the words, and did you notice all three members of the Trinity Godhead are mentioned in this verse, along with some of their divine work in our salvation? “…you have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father...” The ‘you‘ here is both plural, including ALL Christians everywhere, as well as personal, individual. Peter wants us to understand something amazing which Paul wrote to the Christians in Ephesus… “God chose us in Christ before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love God predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ in accordance with His pleasure and will…” (Eph. 1:4,5)
What does it mean? Among other things, it means Almighty God, in His perfect, omniscient foreknowledge, even before He created the world, knew the humanity He would create in His image, would turn away from God and invite Satan into the world which God created perfect for us. God then had an important decision to make: Should God leave us to our own choices and let humanity self-destruct and spend eternity with Satan OR did God love His human creation so much that He would make a way for us to escape the domination of sin and Satan’s power? Should God provide a way for us to live in the wonderful relationship with God He designed humanity for, and then live eternally in heaven with God, and all the holy angels, and all those who would choose the salvation God offers? I have no idea how long God pondered those options, nor do I know if God imagined many other possible scenarios. What I do know is that in God’s limitless love, in His holiness, God decided the best thing for humanity would be that God would provide a way for each person to make their own choice. We could choose to be rescued from our sin enslavement and our condemnation to hell OR we could choose to remain in our sin and refuse God’s rescue offer! Our rescue would require a Savior powerful enough to defeat the stronghold of sin and the domination of Satan in our world, something we humans would have no hope of ever achieving on our own! Are you amazed by that CHOICE God made my friends? His choice to develop a rescue plan for us. His choice to offer His own Son Jesus to be our Savior! God’s choice that as part of our rescue He would adopt us into a love relationship with Him! And are you amazed that God then gives to every human person the right to choose their own destiny? Oh, what a wonderful, Almighty God!
Please notice, my friends, Peter’s next very powerful statement: “…through the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit…” This means that God’s remarkable CHOICE to offer a plan of rescue to humanity, required a STRATEGY, an action plan, to accomplish God’s desire that humans would have a pathway to deliverance from their sin. God the Holy Spirit’s role in this miracle is called ‘regeneration’. Jesus used the phrase ‘born again’. The Holy Spirit births a new, pure, spiritual nature in every person who chooses to place their full faith in God’s rescue plan! The Holy Spirit also cleanses, purifies, sanctifies the person in whom God is doing the work of rescue from sin bondage and sin condemnation! Sin leaves us defiled, shamed, guilty, wounded. We all know those despicable feelings that reflect the reality of the darkness taking root in us when we sin. The Spirit of God, in His unlimited power defeats the demonic forces trying to turn footholds into strongholds of darkness in our lives. The Holy Spirit in His unlimited Holiness cleans us up from every and any defilement and turns our shame into celebration as we are forgiven by God of our sin! The Holy Spirit takes up residence in us and from that day on serves as our resident Counselor guiding us in living a God honoring life! Oh my, the wonderful, sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit available to every person who chooses God’s amazing rescue plan!
Finally, we see Peter wrote this powerful phrase: “…to be obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled by His blood.” Yes, as we know it is the sacrificial, atonement death of Jesus on the cross, His shed blood, which made the full death payment for our sin. As we confess our sin to God and in repentance turn to Jesus, trusting that His sacrifice is enough to save us, God applies Jesus’ blood to our sin debt and forgives us of our sin, for the sin penalty has been paid by Jesus! We then have the great privilege to live obedient to the teachings of Jesus as our guiding truth in life. Do you see my friends how Peter wants us to understand that God the Father and God the Holy Spirit and God the Son Jesus all work together to accomplish God’s redemption, rescue plan of our salvation? Does that amaze you? Have you fully experienced this remarkable God plan accomplished by God in you? Are you living this new life in Christ to the fullest as God designed it? That’s what Peter is going to write about tomorrow. For today, let’s join the Christians in the first century who were the first to hear this great news and celebrate the miracle of God’s work in transforming us! Thank God the Father for the plan! Thank the Holy Spirit for His sanctifying work if you’ve experienced it? Thank Jesus for shedding His blood to make it possible! No other religious system in the world has such a remarkable, God designed salvation plan! And here’s a worship song to help us celebrate my friends…
Today’s Scripture is 1 Peter 1:2.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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