FAITH: Adopted by God
FAITH: A Celebration of the Canons of Dort • Sermon • Submitted
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This morning we continue our study of the five points of grace that make up the five points of the Canons of Dort. This 400 year-old document reminds us of God’s amazing love and amazing grace.
God has several characteristics that are unique to him. He is eternal. He has always existed and will always exist. He is omnipotent. He is all powerful. He is omniscient. He is all knowing. This means that God knew everything about creation, even before he created it. He knew your name. He knew your heart, your personality, who you’d grow up to be, where you’d work, everything, even before he said, “Let there be light.”
This presents us with a conundrum. Since God knows everything, he knows who is saved and who isn’t. Remember the reality of the situation. All have sinned and have fallen short of God’s glory. All deserve death.
The reality is, God didn’t have to save anyone. God chose to save some. God chose to save many, most, almost all? We don’t know. From our perspective, we don’t know whom God has chosen. All I know is that God has chosen me. I can’t figure out why, there’s nothing particularly good about me.
And that’s the greatest thing. God chose me, and I believe he has chosen you. You’re here this morning, so that tells me that God is at work in you. He wants you to know that he chose you.
That’s what the apostle Paul wrote in his letter to the church in Ephesus. He could have just as easily written to the church in Lethbridge, meeting in the building on McGill Boulevard. “For 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.
God chose us. He adopted us. He predestined us. These are words of scripture. It is necessary for us to wrestle with them. Our focus is on understanding, not on calling out one kind of teaching over another. I subscribe to this teaching, even though I don’t totally understand it. I don’t understand how God looks at a person’s heart and knows their character. I do know that God is good, perfect, loving, gracious, just, righteous, holy and many more. This tells me that God’s judgement is sound, right, true and perfect. I simply have to accept it, and accept that he graciously accepted me. And if he has accepted me, I can totally believe that he has accepted you, and the people living down the block, the people attending Westside Community Church, St Martha’s Parish. Indeed, I can’t think of anyone in Lethbridge who couldn’t be loved by God!
Sometimes, when we think of predestination, we might look at it from the perspective of who isn’t predestined, who isn’t chosen, who isn’t adopted. But our passage in Ephesians focuses on who is chosen, adopted and predestined.
And there are many such passages. In speaking to the Israelites, God says, “For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession. The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your forefathers that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt ().
Or consider Jesus’ words: “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty. But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day” ().
There are many other passages that we could look at. Here are the facts. God knew who he would save, before creation. He made a way of salvation through his Son, Jesus Christ, our redeemer. Jesus is the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. By faith, we trust that Jesus’ death on the cross paid for our sins. By faith we trust that he is the resurrection and the life.
Now all this happened before we believed. The very act of believing, of faith, is God’s gift to us, otherwise we could boast in that. Instead, it is all of God, so that God gets all the glory.
Now here’s the thing, and this is where I understand and appreciate my brothers and sisters in Christ who subscribe to the doctrine of free will, or in the language of theology, Arminianism. Look at verse 13: “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.”
“You were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit.” Now, is it just me or does there seem to be a sense of time, a sense of one thing happening, and then there follows another thing. Doesn’t it sound like the marking in Christ, the presence of the Holy Spirit is contingent, or at the very least, follows belief, which follows hearing? Doesn’t it sound like, from other passages, like, “repent, believe and be baptised”, that there is some free will, freedom to choose here?”
I believe that the simplest answer is yes. Free will is the other side of the coin of predestination. It depends which side your perspective is. From God’s perspective, he’s all knowing, he predestines. From our side, we’re not all knowing, we choose. Jesus called the twelve disciples, they decided to follow him. Did he only call those whom he predestined to follow him, even though one of them would betray him, or did the call go out to others who said, no? We do know of other disciples, apart from the 12 who asked to look after some other things before they could leave everything and follow him.
We have to decide. Every day, we face the choice, do I follow Jesus or do I follow my own inclinations, desires and passions which may or may not be aligned with Christ.
Let me put it this way. Does the sun rise in the east, move across the sky and set in the west? No, it doesn’t. The sun doesn’t move, the earth spins. But even though we know this is true, check your weather app on your phone, or look up the weather on your computer, or look in the paper. What does it tell you each day? Today it said, “Sunrise is at 8:24am and sunset is at 4:56pm.” Why do they still use these terms? Because, from our perspective, it looks like the sun rises and sets, moving across the sky every day.
I believe the same applies theologically. It seems like I sought the Lord, I believed, took hold of him. But then I realise that I did all these things because God first sought me. God first took hold of me. I love God because he first loved me!
It is very important that we understand this in our minds. We also must understand this in our hearts. That’s why God speaks to both. To me, at the beginning of our passage, predestination speaks to my mind, my intellect. But adoption, that speaks to my heart, my soul, my being. God loves me. God loves you. He chose you. He adopted you into his family. And that’s gets at the heart.
To illustrate the power of adoption, please watch this video with me: Caleb.
Let’s pray. Lord, whether we look at all this from our perspective or yours, teach us the important thing we need to know this day. You love us. Christ died for us. You chose to adopt us, and we choose to be adopted by you. Just as in the video we just saw, it was your love that moves us to be adopted by you. Thank you. Thank you for adopting us. Thank you for seeking us, holding us and loving us. Amen.