The Most Important Election of Your Life

Dear friends in Christ,

"This is the most important election of your lifetime." Both sides are saying it and nearly everyone seems to agree. This Tuesday will be the most important election of our lives. Call me skeptical, but I'm old enough to remember when everyone also said it back in 2020 and 2016, too. And, I'm sure, if we looked back further in history, we'd quickly discover it was said long before then and a lot more often than we realize.

I will concur that it does seem to coming up more regularly now than it did 20-30 years ago, and I could give you a number of reasons as to why that is, but that's not the point of my writing this. If God wills it, Tuesday's election will come and go and you will wake up Wednesday morning largely unchanged and unaffected. Sure, the stock market might spike or take a dip, but it does that anyway. Regardless of the result, sadly, there will probably be some protesting and property damage. But that's happened in the past. Four years down the road you might look back and see a number of things changed. But that will be true no matter who the next President is. 

Most of us will wake up Wednesday morning and go back to work. We'll drop our kids off at school. We'll make dinner plans and go on with our lives. And do you know why we'll do that? Because this is not the most important election of your life. That election already happened. In fact, it happened before you or I were born, even before the creation of the world--which means you didn't even get a vote! 

The Apostle Paul makes this point in numerous passages throughout the New Testament. The most important election of your life happened when God in His grace and on account of His Son, Jesus Christ, elected you to be His very own. Paul preaches this again and again: God chose, God elected you in Christ! You are a Christian... you are saved... you are forgiven and set free... you are righteous in God's sight... you are destined for heaven... you are loved by God... because God elected you. 

Here's one of the ways Paul said it: "But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters loved by the Lord, because from the beginning God chose you to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth. He called you to this through our gospel, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ" (2 Thess. 2:13–14). From the beginning God chose you! Beginning, as in, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth" (Gen. 1:1). Long before you could do anything to convince God to love you or hate you, God chose you. He called you to this faith, to this salvation through the hearing of the gospel message--that Jesus Christ lived, died, and rose again for YOU!

St. Paul says to the Ephesians: "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will--to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves" (Eph 1:3–7). Praise be to God, indeed! He chose us "in [Christ] before the creation of the world." Even before God said "Let there be light," He said "Let [insert your name here] be mine." He adopted you into His family simply because it pleases Him to call you His very own. God be praised. 

This is the election of your lifetime. It is the election that gave you life, real life, eternal life. But because God has chosen and elected you to be His son, His daughter, your life has radically changed. It has changed to such a degree that you can be confident regardless of what happens next Tuesday, everything will be okay. Your election has been tallied by the blood of Jesus and you are safe and secure today, tomorrow, and into eternity. Please remember this, friends, and take comfort in it in the coming days and weeks. It really is going to be okay. God be praised. 

In Christ our Eternal King,

Pastor Bater

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The Mystery of Marriage