August 9
“(God) 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 to us in Christ Jesus before time began, but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel,” 2 Timothy 1:9-10.
For our salvation we give all glory to God. “(God) has saved us and called us with a holy calling.” God has saved us. “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved,” John 3:16-17. The plan of salvation originated with God “before time began” – that is, from eternity.
God has called us into His family. We are called by the Holy Spirit through the Gospel, as St. Paul writes: “He called you by our Gospel,” 2 Thessalonians 2:14. Whenever and wherever the Gospel is heard, read, or meditated upon, the Holy Spirit touches the heart and invites each individual to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as God’s Son and the Savior from sin, death, and the devil. “No one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit,” 1 Corinthians 12:3.
We are God’s own chosen people. As Peter writes: “You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light,” 1 Peter 2:9. By nature, we are in the dark. The Holy Spirit enlightens us through the Gospel.
God saved us; God calls us, “not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began.” We are not the children of God because we have lived or are living such a wonderful life that God is highly impressed by our good works. Scripture says, “A man is not justified by the works of the Law but by faith in Jesus Christ,” Galatians 2:16.
We are called by God “according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus.” Paul wrote to the Ephesians: “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. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace,” Ephesians 1:4-7. From eternity, God has chosen people in Christ to be saved. Here in time, He calls them to faith in Jesus, and He assures them that they have been declared forgiven and justified. To the Romans, Paul wrote, “Whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified,” Romans 8:30.
God’s grace has “been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel.” Jesus Christ has gained for us the forgiveness of sins and the victory over death and the devil. We have the promise of everlasting life through faith in Him. The Savior gives us the assurance, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand,” John 10:27-28.
“From eternity, O God,
In Thy Son Thou didst elect me;
Therefore, Father, on life’s road,
Graciously to heav’n direct me.
Send to me Thy Holy Spirit,
That His gifts I may inherit.” Amen.