28th October 2024
Pray (ACts) Read (Ephesians 1:4 & 2:1-12) Message (Alan Burke) I’m taking this week off so I thought I’d do something a little different. You’ve been getting these devotions for more than four years and part of that is the Westminster Shorter Catechism question and answer at the bottom. The Catechism is a succinct summary of the Christian Faith and Scott and I both believe that in the day and age we live in it is one of the best discipleship tools available for you to grow in your knowledge and love of the Lord. So this week I’m doing devotions on the three questions and answers that in God’s providence are at the bottom of this devotion. Today is Q20 and we think the doctrine of Election. Doctrine when we think of scripture means what is taught by scripture, and this teaching of scripture is all about God’s Election, his choosing some to everlasting life. I’ll try to keep this succinct otherwise you might be sitting all day reading this devotion. The bible is a covenantal story, that Paul describes as “the covenant of promise” in Ephesians 2:12. This covenant is unfolded in a series of successive covenants with Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, and Christ, and it is assumed in the post-fall narrative. In essence God’s covenant of Grace is the same throughout the Old and New Testaments—God saves sinners by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. This covenant of grace was first announced in the midst of the fall. Genesis 3:15 tells us how God would send one to crush the head of the serpent. Some translations use bruise but the emphasis is that the sergeant will be defeated, a crushing blow in my view is a better translation. The serpent ie Satan, the Devil, the father of lies, the god of this world what ever name you put on him God promised one who would come who would inflict a crushing blow whereas the one who gave it to him would only receive a glancing blow to his heal, it is the promise of the incarnation, of someone who would come to deal with the consequences of the fall and the sin that was its result. Sin has made us the enemies of God, unable to come before him, what we needed was a Redeemer, the serpent crusher, the fulfilment of the covenant of grace. Ephesians 2 reminds us how we were dead in our transgression and sins, reminding us the truth of who we are, how our whole nature is corrupted by sin. Yet Paul as he writes is explains to us the great truth of what we were we are no longer, for those who come before God who know the salvation through the Redeemer Jesus Christ. Although we were once spiritually dead because of sin, in his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy made us alive with Christ. This is was God has done and is doing in us, what was impossible for us to do, God has done, we who were dead in our transgression have been made alive. What makes this even more wonderful is the knowledge that we were chosen before the foundation of the world, before the mountains were formed, before the fall, before we were even a twinkle in our father’s eye. God choose it not because we deserve it, it is not because of what we have done that God loves us, it is not because of who we are that God loves us, it is not because of anything we can hope to do that God loves us it is because of the amazing grace that God himself has shown to sinners though the Lord Jesus Christ. This is not our own work. This is not the result of a choice we made. Rather, this is the sovereign will of God being worked out in our lives. In a wonderful act of grace and mercy, has chosen some to everlasting life. We are given faith. We are given eyes to see and ears to understand. We are given a new heart. We are raised from the dead (Eph. 2:4), made alive in Christ, brought into his covenant family. I could say much more on this but if you love the Lord then it is because he first loved you, choose you before the foundation of the world and that should amaze you, leaving you filled with praise for our God. Pray (acTS) Sing WSC Q 20. Did God leave all mankind to perish in the estate of sin and misery? A. God having, out of his mere good pleasure, from all eternity, elected some to everlasting life, did enter into a covenant of grace, to deliver them out of the estate of sin and misery, and to bring them into an estate of salvation by a Redeemer.
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