Chosen in Him

The Face

Paul names a timeline here worth sitting with directly, before the foundation of the world, chosen before anything else existed, before any performance, any choice, any circumstance that might otherwise seem to explain why you were chosen. This choosing is located entirely outside your own history, before it even began.

This closes the second movement of this book with the deepest possible foundation for the identity this whole movement has explored, called by name, sons of God, new creature, his workmanship, hid with Christ, Abba’s child, all of it flowing from this prior, timeless choosing, before the foundation of the world.

Notice in love, the specific quality attached to this choosing, not cold, arbitrary selection, but love, named directly as the actual character of this pre-temporal decision. Whatever reason might otherwise be sought for why you specifically were chosen, this verse names love as the actual, sufficient answer.

As this movement closes, receive this deepest foundation as your own. Chosen in him, before the foundation of the world, in love, not because of anything you would eventually do, but before any of it, the same prior choosing that has been the actual, unshakable ground beneath everything this movement has explored.