Today’s reading is Ephesians 1:1-2:22.

Ephesians 1:3-14 gives me all kinds of hope. Sadly, many people misinterpret it and provide themselves with false hope. Others misinterpret it and have absolutely no hope, just fear. 

Some misinterpret this passage claiming the predestination mentioned means God has chosen before time who would be saved and they will be saved no matter what. Of course, the only people I’ve ever met that believe this all believe they are part of that chosen elect few. How convenient. I think this provides some false hope. That is not what the text is saying.

However, others, in order to combat the above false hope have almost sucked all the hope out of the passage completely. They hone in on words like “holy and blameless” and act as if we have accomplished that through our own perfect obedience then we don’t actually have the hope. We are striving for that holiness and blamelessness and if we reach it, we’ll be adopted and saved, but we just can’t really be sure if we’ve done enough to reach that. What hope is there in that? We all know ourselves too well to deceive ourselves into thinking we’ve really attained true holiness and blamelessness by our own righteous deeds.

So what is the truth that lies in between these two extremes of false hope and no hope?

The text does not say God has predestined who will be in Christ. Rather, it says He has predestined those who are in Christ to be holy and blameless. Before the world began, He chose those who are in Christ to be adopted as sons, to be to the praise of His glorious grace, to have forgiveness and redemption. 

Do you see what this means? The passage does not say if we are holy and blameless then we get to be in Christ. It says if we are in Christ, then God makes us holy and blameless. No doubt, this does not mean that I get to have a moment of mental assent, now I’m in Christ and what I do doesn’t matter. Of course not. When we truly hope in Christ and believe in Him, then our lives change. But the point is, I don’t have to fret my days away wondering if I’m being holy and blameless enough to get into Christ in the end. Rather, I can get into Christ and have confidence that God has predestined that I will be holy and blameless. As Romans 8:29 says, those whom God foreknew, He predestined to be conformed to the image of Jesus. Maybe today I’m still struggling, but I can have confidence that as long as I stay in Christ, God will work in my life to conform me to Jesus. It is a path of progress not perfection, but we are not working alone. God has placed His stamp on us to grow us to the image of Christ. 

What is the take away? Instead of spending today worrying if I’m good enough, I’m just going to abandon myself to Jesus and let Him have His way with me, conforming me to His image.

***Question: Why do you think we so readily try to establish our own righteousness instead of relying on the righteousness of God? (This ties in with our previous readings in Galatians 3 and Romans 10)

Keep the faith and keep reading,

ELC