Look & Live: Ephesians 1:11-14

"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, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory."

Our position as a redeemed people in Christ has its genesis and is anchored in will of God in eternity past. As such, our position in Christ, our status as beloved children of God, is not contingent upon present circumstances that change with unrelenting frequency but upon the eternal will of God that is forever fixed and unchangeable. Yet our position in Christ is not merely a past reality. It does not remain static and distant in the past. Our position in Christ is also a future reality that waits to be realized. It is a future in which the final and perfect glorification of God’s people and His world will endure forever and ever to the praise of His glorious grace.

So the future predestined by God in eternity past converges on the present to offer an inexhaustible source of hope and certainty despite our present circumstances.

And this future is as sure and certain as the past. It is not a wishful or fanciful future. God has ordained in eternity past a future for His people that, though it is still yet to be realized in the future, He will surely bring to pass as He works all things according to the counsel of His eternally fixed and unchanging will. So the future predestined by God in eternity past converges on the present to offer an inexhaustible source of hope and certainty despite our present circumstances. There is a great rock upon which we can stand as the people of God as the world around us seems to come crashing down—God, in infinite wisdom and eternal goodness and perfect power, has ordained and will bring to pass the redemption of all things won by Christ. If we should ever doubt or question God’s commitment to do so, we shall find all our doubts dissolved knowing that God has granted to us His own Spirit, whom He shall certainly never forsake, until He at last brings His predestined plan to its completion—when all things have been united to and find their joyful end in God.