Do you know what it’s like to be chosen? You may not fully appreciate it if you don’t know what it’s like to not be chosen.
When I was a kid, I was not very athletic, so when we chose teams to play baseball or something, I was always near the bottom of the list of “choosees”. I pretty much accepted that, believing that was the place I deserved and fit. When I was in the 7th grade something happened that showed me what it’s like to be chosen. In PE we boys were playing catch with a football. Our leader, the biggest kid, Calvin, would throw the ball to the rest of us all bunched together and we would compete to catch it. I never caught the ball. Suddenly I noticed Calvin looking right at me. He motioned with his hand for me to move away from the other boys. What – he’s kicking me out of PE? Then he threw the ball right at me! And I caught it! I tasted what it was like to be chosen.
Several years later I tasted what it’s like for the God of the universe to choose me. It is delicious! You can taste it, too. God has chosen you. Read Ephesians 1: 3-6, and we’ll unpack some of this abundant life which Jesus Christ wants us to have.
Paul is writing about God’s eternal activity for making us his own. God wants us.
God has chosen. He has predestined. He has foreordained, marked out ahead of time. God has decided what he is going to do.
God doesn’t go about things haphazardly or randomly. He sets goals. He formulates. He strategizes. He game-plans. God chooses and decides and works ahead to accomplish his intentions.
God has predestined. Some take that to mean that God chooses specific individuals to be saved, to become his children, and others are not chosen and will not be saved. That is one of the tenets of Calvinism, a system of theology which follows the teachings of John Calvin (1509-1564 – not the dude who threw the football to me). I think there are enough statements in the Bible that say something different to call that into question. For example: “God so loved the world… whoever believes will have eternal life” (John 3:16). And “God wants all to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:3-4). And “Christ is the atoning sacrifice…for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:2). I think those statements clearly contradict the idea that God chooses some for salvation and does not choose others.
So what does predestination mean then? Look at everything Paul said here. “He chose us in Him…” “He predestined us…through Jesus Christ…” The choosing and predestining are located in Jesus the Messiah. God decided that salvation be found in his Son. He planned ahead that anyone who comes to Christ will receive new life. Before the foundation of the world God designated Jesus to be the Savior, and through him he chose us.
Let me picture it this way. Imagine a small island off the mainland in the Gulf of Mexico owned by the state of Texas (or Louisiana or Florida or any state you want). This imaginary island is a good island; it’s pleasant; there’s plenty to do on the island: hike, fish, lay on the beach, swim in the coves; tourists would enjoy visiting it. It would even be a good place to live. But there’s no one on the island. The ocean currents are too dangerous for small boats and the water is too shallow 
for large boats. Due to hilly terrain there’s no place to safely land aircraft. So the Texas state government builds a bridge from the mainland to the island. But the state doesn’t choose certain people to go to the island and reject others. It opens up the bridge to anyone who wants to cross it. They predestine that whoever gets to that island has to cross that bridge.
God has chosen that Jesus be the bridge for all who believe in him. He is the only way possible for rebellious people to cross over into God’s Kingdom and receive eternal and abundant life. This is God’s strategy, his game plan: everyone who is in Christ by faith has been chosen.
Now, God does have a specific plan for us. There is a predestined outcome for everyone in Christ. Paul doesn’t say anything about going to heaven when you die; that does happen but it’s not all that happens, and it’s not the primary goal of predestination; it’s not God’s primary goal for us.
See, in verse 4: “He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him.”
Holy and blameless. Uh-oh. Everybody has to be a monk or a nun or a preacher or a missionary. No more fun and games. No more freedom. Holy and blameless. There goes the abundance out of life.
But wait. “Holy” doesn’t really mean being a religious fanatic. It certainly doesn’t mean giving up all joy in life. And “blameless” doesn’t mean trying to perfectly keep a monstrous list of strict religious and moral rules. Holy does mean set apart – belonging – to God. And blameless does mean no blemishes or no faults. But let’s explore this a little more.
In different places in the Bible we’re told that God said, “Be holy because I am holy.” Be holy like God. So this takes us back to God’s original plan for humans, his design “before the foundation of the world”: created in his image. According to Genesis 1:27, God made the first 2 humans to be like himself. 
That was their primary identity. They were set apart from the sun and moon and stars and earth and sky and ocean and plants and animals. They were the only things he made that were in his image. They were the only ones in the world who were like God. With the image of God they were able to reflect God’s glory, God’s character, God’s love, God’s power out to the rest of creation. They represented the Creator to his creation. Who they were showed who God was. Holy.
And Genesis 2:25 says: “Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.” I think they felt no shame because they were God’s image. They were who they were supposed to be so there was nothing to be ashamed of. What was showing was what God is like – truth and goodness and love and significance – you know, real beauty. No blemishes, no faults, no flaws. No need to cover up. Blameless.
And then they rebelled. They disobeyed. When they did, something drastically changed. Suddenly they weren’t what they were before, weren’t what they were created to be. They weren’t like God anymore. They weren’t holy. And they weren’t blameless anymore. They were blemished, marred, corrupted. And all of us, their children, have followed in their rebellion and hostility toward our Creator.
But God has chosen us in Christ to once again be holy and blameless. He has decided and planned and worked out that we will be restored and renewed. We will become what it really means to be human: the images of God.
(To be continued…)