By Ephesians 1:3-6 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.
Salvation is quite an amazing work of sovereign grace. In a moment of time, it looked like a man attending church trying to understand who Jesus was and what it meant to be a Christian. It looked like a personal conviction to read the Bible every day until I understood what was true. It looked like being worn out trying to work full time and build my family a house to live in. It looked like a closing date on a house and my daughter needing to be in the ER for two weeks. It looked like 10 Christian men coming to my house while my daughter was in the hospital and selflessly serving me so that all the minor odds and ends could be completed for the final inspection of the house. It looked like an 80 year old woman coming to our house and sharing the gospel with my wife and me though the teaching of John MacArthur on Luke 9:23-24. It looked like a flood of conviction pouring out of my heart as memories of 30 years of past sin dumped out at Calvary. It looked like unearned and undeserved kindness. It looked like me wanting to follow Jesus.
Salvation is also an amazing work of sovereign grace when I see things before time began. It looks like a triune God standing before time, and before earthly foundations making some decisions. It looked like God the Father choosing to adopt a 30 year old man who would be born 6000 plus years later in a small town in Minnesota. This God knew the first man Adam would fall, and that I would be born depraved and destined for destruction. He knew I would have no hope and would be without God in this world. Yet for the purpose of himself being glorified, he choose to adopt me though his son Jesus Christ. He predestined me for adoption so that I would have a new father. He would do this, not because he foresaw I would do anything good or evil (Romans 9:11), but simply because he was pleased to. He wanted to, and that was that.
Salvation is quite an astounding work of amazing grace. It blesses my heart this morning to think the gospel came to me and my wife, the gospel was believed upon by us, simply because it pleased the Lord make it so. He wanted to, and that was that.
Leading Family Devotions 