The apostle Paul begins his circular letter to the churches around Ephesus with an extended doxology - verses 3 through 14 are one extended sentence in Greek. It is a recitation of what God has done for us in Christ. He praises God for all his spiritual blessings in Christ. In a world in which there are so many problems, and a tendency to focus on all the trials and troubles we experience, it is a relief to be reminded of all the blessings we enjoy. The key to health is not just to fight infections but also to build up our strengths. And we have so many of them for which to be thankful. In a day when negativities crowd the headlines we need to magnify the positive good news that the resurrection of Christ brings to us.

The first item Paul brings to our attention is that God has chosen us before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. We were chosen in God's mind before time came to be. The unbelieving world of atheistic secularism scoffs at such an assertion. Materialists do not believe that there is any eternal significance in human life, and that we are just a momentary, recent blimp in four and half billion years of evolutionary development.

How can we merit any divine dignity if we are reduced to being but biological survival machines? To the contrary, the Bible maintains that God created this universe for us. We have come recently to the universe because God has taken much time and care to create an environment in which we can flourish.

The whole creative enterprise was planned before the world began in the mind of God. We were chosen to fulfill God's purpose before the creation of the world. That makes us more, not less, significant. As David sang, "What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You made him ruler over the works of your hands." (Psalm 8:5, 6)

Our creation in the image of God gives all human beings dignity and worth. This is the source of our understanding of the value of human life. Without this understanding we are valued only in economic terms, and can be disposed of when we are no longer useful.

Not only did he choose us to be the pinnacle of creation, he loved us and predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will. We are not just another species in nature, but the object of his love, which is a relationship virtue. This desire for a loving relationship with us extends to his adopting us as his sons and daughters in his family. This is possible through Jesus Christ. As he is supremely the chosen Son, and we are in him by faith and God's predestinating love, we also become God's chosen sons and daughters.

This language of being chosen and predestined is called, in theology, the doctrine of election. It tells us that God had a purpose and plan and took the initiative in creating the world, and in coming in Christ, to save us. He chose us before the creation of the world, and came for us in Christ to adopt us into his family of love. That is how adoption works. When Antoinette and I adopted our two daughters, we took the initiative to do so. They were incapable of making such a choice for themselves. Before their birth we chose them to be our daughters. We loved them and we legally adopted them at birth, to become part of our family. If we had not taken that action, loved them and chose them, they would not have become part of our family. When they became adults they could choose whether or not to stay in our family.

"God so loved the world..." He has chosen us to fulfill the purpose of being holy and blameless in his sight. He has adopted us into his family. We are sons and daughters of God according to his pleasure and will. We are persons of immense dignity and value due to his adoption of us. We come from a great family inheritance. We are part of the "chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God" (1 Peter 2:9).

Just as Adam and Eve were chosen to bear God's image and likeness, so also have we. Just as Abraham and Sarah were chosen by God to become the founders of a great nation, so we have been chosen to become their children by faith. Moses was chosen by God to fulfill a particular and heroic purpose. Ruth was chosen so that David could be chosen by God through Samuel. Mary was chosen to be the mother of Jesus. The twelve disciples were chosen by Jesus. Paul was chosen on the road to Damascus. All these were predestined to be chosen. He predestined us. We have been chosen in Christ according to his pleasure and will to fulfill his purpose of love. We have been chosen for a reason. Each one of us has been chosen to play a part in the fulfillment of God's purpose.

God has created me to do him some definite service.
He has committed some work to me
Which he has not committed to another.
I have my mission.
I may never know it in this life
But I shall be told it in the next.
I am a link in a chain.
A bond of connection between persons.
He has not connected me for naught.
I shall do good - I shall do his work.
(John Henry Newman)

This is the foundation of our significance as followers of Christ. We either have this understanding of our identity as believers, or we have to construct some other way to make sense of our lives. We have been given a high calling, a noble inheritance. It has been freely given to us by God in the One he loves. Being in Christ, we have been blessed in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing. We have so much for which we can be thankful. Is it no wonder that we can praise our God and Father, and face with confidence the world with all its problems, and life with all its trials and troubles?

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