Chosen In Love and Made a Family

He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God. 1 Peter 1:20-21

In the vastness of eternity God chose to create the world. Other things existed at that time. Angels have a point in history when they were created. Ezekiel 28 describes Lucifer in heaven and says of him “on the day you were created”. For a man to presume he knows all of God’s purposes in creation is foolishness. However we know some. We know that creation is an expression of his love. “God is Love” We know that creation is an expression of his character. Psalm 19:1 reads “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge.” Meditating on and in creation is divine in its own right. It would have, should have, but never could have been sufficient for men to know God. But our love was not His love. Love can only be expressed freely and men freely chose not to love God. That is what sin is. It is a choice to not love God. Yet, while we were sinners Christ Jesus died for us.

Ephesians 1:4 read, “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 for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will.” God did not just redeem us but he made us part of his family. This could only happen through Jesus Christ the creator who entered the world as a man. “All things were made by him and for him.” Yet it pleased him to make us part of his family. The creator became a child and the Emanuel, or God with us. It was not an afterthought for God. He knew we would fail in our love for Him. “When we are faithless, he is faithful” How the divine mind of the trinity conceived of man causes a psalm to ring through my spirit, “what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him.” The novel Shack, captures the nature of God’s relationship in the Godhead and with man very well. I would recommend it to my readers.

Jesus becoming a man was not sufficient to redeem us. Then we would have only had an example to follow. Jesus, being scourged with a whip was not sufficient to redeem us. It only provided healing for our infirmities. Jesus dying on the cross was sufficient to redeem us but it only granted us forgiveness of sins. The wage was paid, but the victory was not won until he rose again. When Jesus rose from the dead, we took on the form of a man for all of eternity. He was forever identified with his creation and we became his brothers or sisters.

The Father’s lost family was found. Adam is described as the son of God. “Seth (was) the son of Adam, the son of God.” Luke 3:37. John 1:10-13 says of Jesus, “He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.” Peter says it is through him that we believe. God does all the work, we simply have to believe. John 6:29. “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”

The scripture that exalts the incarnation of Jesus and sings loudest for me is found in Philippians chapter 2. Verses 6-10

Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

If you believe this then your faith and hope is in God your Father. If you don’t have faith in God, then talk to your brother Jesus. He will reveal the Father to you. He will do this for you with many undisputable proofs in a way that only you can appreciate. You will grow to Love him and carry his character within you. You will become part of my family too and then we can share the Love of the Father together.