When Were We Chosen?

I appreciate I haven’t done justice to the reality that those united by faith to the Lord Jesus Christ are actually God’s possession.  I do think it’s time to move on, to consider the next part of this verse.

Things I have posted have already alluded to this, but I haven’t yet delved into an unpacking of this verse and the concepts triggered by the words in this passage.

One of the ways we can do this is by employing some journalistic questions.

These questions don’t necessarily find their answer in Colossians.  One thing this demonstrates is that the concepts embedded in this verse resonate throughout the body of Scripture.

The first question relates to when, and its object/subject relates to the word chosen, and/or the concept that those united by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, as God’s possession, are chosen by God.

To be more specific, let’s ask the question is “When were God’s possession chosen?”

We find an answer in another of Paul’s letter, his letter to the Ephesians.

To the church in Ephesus, Paul writes:

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.  (Ephesians 1:2-4)

It’s the first part of verse four that gives us the answer to our question “he chose us in him before the foundation of the world…”  God’s choosing us is pre and supra-historical.  It is before history, before the creation of the world.  It is above (or outside) history, independent of historical events.  The first historical event in the history of the world is it’s creation (or foundation).  God’s choice comes before the first events that the bible records.  We don’t get an insight into how or when or where this divine counsel took place.  But somehow God decided upon a people to be His own possession.