When was the last time you took the time to meditate on and marinate in the fact that God delights in you?I am convinced that the more we hold this Gospel truth up before the eyes of our faith, the better we will rest in our redemption.
He chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s gracethat he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. (Ephesians 1:4-8)
Do you see the divine delight poured out on you in this passage of Scripture?You were chosen in Jesus before the creation of the world.That means before you got cleaned up, did good works, or “got right with God,”He came after you can picked you to be on His team.And if that isn’t enough to get you smiling, you have, through Jesus Christ, been adopted as children of God.You have the privilege of being in the family of God.
WOW!We are the objects of God’s divine delight, in spite of who we were, what we are, and even in spite of what we will do!The love of God is above and outside of us.It rains down from heaven in accordance with His pleasure and will.It does not flow to us because we are deserving of it.In fact, just the opposite is true.We don’t deserve the love of God.We deserve His wrath and judgment.But instead of making us pay the penalty for our sin, God the Father sent God the Son and graciously gave us redemption through His blood.Because of what God in Christ has done on our behalf, all of our sins have been forgiven and we have been adopted as children of God.And all of this is given to us freely simply because of what Jesus has done for us.
You see, to recognize our true condition is to see a fallen, broken, corrupted sinner who is in desperate need of a Savior.When we take a deep, honest look into our black hearts we find nothing—absolutely nothing—that would cause God to accept us in the Beloved.And that is such a wonderful comfort for those who truly embrace its truth!
Because there was nothing in us that gave God reason to save us, we can rest assured that there is nothing in us as that gives God reason to keep us.And thus it is wholly and solely because of what Jesus accomplished on the cross that keeps us utterly and eternally secure in our place in the family of faith.We have received “an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade — kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Peter 1:4-5).
Being in Christ means we have been released from both the penalty of sin and the power of sin.Yet you and I still sin!In those times we mustagain remember whose we are and what God in Christ has done for us.Those who have already completed their pilgrimage in this world and noware in Christ’s presence in heaven are no more accepted or secure than you are!Once we are His we are always His.Nothing can separate you from the love of God that is ours in Christ (Romans 8:38-39).Those who are already in heaven live each moment in the fullness of God’s divine delight . . . and so do you!There may very well be times when you don’t feel like this is true, and this is when you must remember that this divine delight is not based on how you feel . . . but rather how God feels about you.
This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
Grace for the Race 