By Mark Grace, CCCNZ Ambassador
I runga i te tikanga i whiriwhiria ai tatou e ia i roto i a ia i mua i te orokohanganga o te ao, hei hunga tapu, kahakore i tona aroaro, i runga i te aroha...
A o le‘i foafoaina le lalolagi, na filifilia e ia i tatou ‘ona o Keriso, ‘ina ‘ia pa‘ia i tatou, ma ‘ia lē mata‘uleagaina i ona luma...
For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love...
Ephesians 1:4
It’s AD 62 and Paul is under house arrest in Rome. He’s surrounded by his friends, Onesimus and Tychicus, who delivered a letter to Ephesus.
He loves the Ephesians. He spent three years preaching and teaching at the lecture hall of Tyrannus in that city. He led many of them to faith in Christ. They're like the children he never had.
Paul wrote this to the church in Ephesus: For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.
Ephesus was like Amsterdam—a bustling commercial city. It was also known for its sex industry. Ephesus was famous for the temple dedicated to Diana, the Roman goddess of fertility and sexuality. The temple held hundreds of priestesses of Diana who served as cult prostitutes. Any number of sects, religions, practitioners of magic, and alternative gods could be found in the city.
Paul was like a parent; his children, the Ephesians, were living new lives in a city like Amsterdam.
He writes to them: “Don’t forget who you are, or whose you are. Don’t forget the grace that grounds you.”
For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.
God chose us, in Christ, before the creation of the world.
Before the land mass that is New Zealand burst up through the earth's crust, before our unique flora and fauna would come to cover these islands, before the tectonic plates across the planet cooled, before our planet existed, before the universe exploded out of nothing, God chose us.
God, the triune God, existing from eternity past, knew you, loved you, and chose you then.
Note the emphasis that God chose you in Christ.
God chose us in Christ, through Christ’s death, for Christ and his glory, all before time began.
God knew in eternity past he would send his Son for us, to live for us, to die for us, and to rise again for us.
In our busy lives, surrounded by a culture at odds with Christianity, filled with things that clamour for our attention and time, the grace of God grounds us. This reminder of who we are—chosen from eternity to be Christ’s—gives us purpose and hope in a broken world.
