“…knowing, beloved brothers, your election of God….” 1 Thessalonians 1:4 (Read v. 1-10)
God’s gracious election of the believers in Thessalonica – His gracious choosing of them before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:3ff.) – was made known in their response to the Gospel message preached among them.
When they heard the good news that for the sake of Christ Jesus’ holy life and innocent sufferings and death for the sins of the world, God was gracious to them, forgave their sins and offered them eternal life in His everlasting kingdom, the Holy Spirit worked mightily and raised them up from spiritual darkness and death to faith in the risen Christ, the Son of God and their Savior. And that faith in Christ was evident in their lives and a witness to the world as others heard how they had turned form serving idols to the living God.
We too can know our election by God. No, we cannot look into the mind of the Almighty and determine who His elect are and are not – and to ever attempt to do so is a perversion of this Scriptural doctrine of comfort – but we can see the evidence of God’s divine election in our lives; for we, who were dead in our trespasses and sins, have been raised to spiritual life by the Spirit of God and brought to know and trust that in Jesus – for the sake of His death and resurrection – we have forgiveness for all our sins and everlasting life.
God did not choose us because of any goodness in us, but entirely of His grace and mercy. He “has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the eternal times” (2 Tim. 1:9; cf. Titus 3:4-7; Eph. 1:3ff.; Rom. 8:28ff.).
The fact that we have been raised up from spiritual darkness and death through Word and Sacrament and now trust that God accepts us and forgives us, that we are through faith in Christ Jesus God’s own dear children (Gal. 3:26ff.), is evidence of God’s gracious working in our lives. It is evidence of His divine and gracious election. And it brings such comfort to know that “He who has begun a good work in [us] will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 1:6).
O eternal God, thank you for Your grace bestowed upon me before You had ever created the world. Thank You for raising me up from spiritual darkness and death to life everlasting in Christ Jesus. Amen.