were chosen to be holy before the world’s foundations were laid; we are merely passing through it to another world. We might fail to practice holi ness here, but the eternal purpose of God will be fulfilled when our Lord returns and “we shall be like Him” (I John 3:2). God has selected a people to be His Holy habitation. Are you in that com pany, my friend? You are, if you are "SUPPOSE" Suppose that Christ had not been born That far-away Judean morn. Suppose that God, whose mighty hand Created worlds, had never planned A way for man to be redeemed. Suppose the Wise Men only dreamed That guiding star whose light still glows Down through the centuries. Suppose Christ never walked here in men's sight, Our blessed Way, and Truth, and Light. Suppose He counted all the cost, And never cared that we were lost, And never died for you and me, Nor shed His blood on Calvary Upon a shameful cross. Suppose That having died, He never rose. And there was none with power to save Our souls from death beyond the grave! As far as piteous heathen know. These things that I've supposed — are so! Martha Snell Nicholson “in Christ.” If you are not, you may this very day join that holy band by trusting Him as your Saviour. Then you, too, will be a part of the true Church of God’s creation and design which, on the great presentation day, will be presented a glorious Church, “holy and without blemish” (Eph. 5: 23-27). Strauss writes, “The ultimate purpose of God’s choice is not salvation but sanctification.” John Calvin stated that it is wrong to say that any of us may attain perfection in this life; neverthe
Ephesians (conf.) “in Christ,” and are delivered to us by the Holy Spirit, The lasting joy that God bestows upon us is not in the things of this world, but rather in “heavenly places” or better still, “in the heavenlies.” Ours are heavenly ex periences and heavenly privileges con ferred upon us by God in Christ. They originate among the eternal and un seen things. The first of the believer’s possessions for which Paul praises God follows: “According as He hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love (1:4). We must see at the outset that all that God had done for us in Christ is “according to the eternal purpose which he pur posed in Christ Jesus our Lord” (3:11). “In eternity past, God had certain settled purposes which He accomplished at various times during the dispensa tions of human history, and here we are carried back into the remotest ages of past eternity where, says Paul, God was loving us and planning that all who are in Christ . . . should be holy and without blame before Him,” states Hogg. He further declares that “God’s eternal choice, then, was that all who are in Christ should be a holy people.” The phrase “chosen us in Him” could be rendered “chose us for Himself.” Chose us for what? Not to everlasting life, but that we should be spotless for Himself! The election. in the divine Mind was that all those in Christ should be “holy ones,” free from every de filement of sin. It is not difficult to see how God should purpose in His heart, before the world came into existence, that He was going to have a holy people who would be to the praise of His glory and grace. To that end God created Adam, and in spite of the fall of man, God is still going to carry out His purpose in Christ. The divine choice will find its consummation when Christ returns for His bride “to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy (Jude 24). Temporarily we are in this world, but not of it. We
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