It is all too easy to forget the ugliness of our sin before God; that the One who is too holy to look upon sin (Hab 1:13) yet set His loving gaze upon us in the misery of our impurity and willful profaning of all that is good and right in order to make us a new creation. He adopted us unto holiness even thought we were unholy, for as many commentators note, the fact that God chose us to be holy and blameless presupposes that we are, in and of ourselves, no different from the rest of the fallen human race. What motivated Him to love only some in this way and not every man, woman and child who will ever live? This is a great mystery indeed, but we know that it is certainly not because we are inherently better than those who have not been chosen in love for holiness and adoption. Scripture only states that His choice to love His people is according to the purpose of His will.
Calvin speak of Adoption this way, "God does not inquire what we are, and is not reconciled to us by any personal worth. His single motive is the eternal good pleasure, by which He predestinated us."
The wonder of Divine Election is not that God loves us because we are lovely but that He loves us even though there is nothing lovely in us. But in choosing us, He loves us in order to make us holy in His sight. Those whom He chooses will certainly become more lovely over the course of their walk with Christ, and will be completely pure only in glory (Glorification- in heaven). May we humbly remember that there is nothing in us to make God love us.
Eph 1:5-6
In love He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace, with which He has blessed us in the Beloved.
No comments:
Post a Comment