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Chosen in Christ

I had a chat with Graham Tomlin one time at New Wine after a seminar he led, and he really helped me regarding the New Testament teaching about predestination. His comment was this: that we are chosen in Christ.

So what does that actually mean?

In the Old Testament Israel was God's chosen people. You were saved in Israel  e.g. from the last and worst plague in Egypt, as long as your family had slaughtered a lamb and smeared the door jambs and lintel with its blood.

As followers of Jesus we are saved in Christ. This is an eternal salvation. This means we are part of God's chosen people, which consists of those who are in Christ. We (as a whole) are predestined to be saved in Christ. Read Ephesians. Two groups are in focus, Jews and gentiles. Those who follow Jesus from either background are saved by grace. Our salvation has been won by Jesus the Messiah/Christ (Christ is the Greek for Messiah). This means it is Jesus who is the chosen one, first and foremost. That's what Messiah means, anointed, chosen. Chosen to be what? Prophet, priest and king. We are chosen in association with him, not because we as individuals are in any way special. God loves us all, but he does not choose some individuals but not others. That teaching is not biblical. Neither is an emphasis on individual choice (though we do choose to serve and follow Jesus). We need to be careful not to let determinism or supermarket religion affect our understanding of the Bible.

The outcome of all of this is that we as chosen ones (note the plural) have good 'works' to do, not to earn our salvation, which is by grace, but to show that we are chosen, different. We fulfil the law of Christ. We are obedient and remain in Christ, serving one another in love.

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us[b] for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, 8 which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight 9 making known[c] to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
11 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, 12 so that we who were the first [i.e. Jews] to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. 13 In him you also [i.e. Gentiles], when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee[d] of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it,[e] to the praise of his glory. Eph. 1, ESV
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