The Blacksmith's Blueprint: Understanding God's Election by Pastor Paul Becker

Ephesians 1:4-5, Titus 1:2

Ever feel like you’re just drifting along in a holding pattern, or unsure of where you stand with God? Have you ever needed assurance about God’s grace to save and keep you in His grace? This is why Christians need to read and learn from scripture, through teaching and preaching that is biblically sound. 

Scripture reveals God’s mind, and God has much to say when you need assurance of your salvation. In the current sermon series, "The Work of God in Salvation,” you will learn that God works out your salvation. The overarching image of the series is a blacksmith working on a piece of iron from beginning to end. You are in God's hands, by His choice, and He is conforming you to the image of Jesus. When God is done working His salvation throughout your life, you will become the glorious creation that the Triune God had in mind since before the foundation of the world! Be assured that God had a blueprint for how to do this in your life, through various and ongoing means.

You were elected before the world was made.  In Ephesians 1:4-5, you read:

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us IN CHRIST with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us IN HIM  BEFORE THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love, he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons THROUGH JESUS CHRIST according to the purpose of his will…”

Imagine a blacksmith going to scrap yards to find iron tools and implements corrupted by misuse, rust, or broken. This represents humanity after the Fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Because of sin, the image of God in which we were created, both male and female, is broken. The blacksmith chooses broken and rusted implements that cannot be used according to their original design and efficiency. God in His sovereignty chose you, not because of your goodness or potential, but by His mercy.

God’s choice to save you from sin was an act of mercy.  In Romans 9:15-16, Paul quotes God saying to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” Paul continues by saying, “So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.”  In Titus 3:5, Paul writes that God saved us “not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy.”

Your salvation is a gift of God’s unmerited grace, and it is done for His purposes. Like a blacksmith who has a blueprint in his mind to reclaim and restore corrupted and broken implements, God has a blueprint to reclaim and restore you to fulfill His purpose.  And what is that purpose? In Romans 8:29 and Ephesians 1:6, Paul tells us, “For those whom he foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son… to the praise of His glorious grace.”

You are the iron in the hands of the Master Blacksmith. His blueprint is saving you from sin, and God is doing the same with many others He has chosen. You, along with others, are being forged by fire, shaped by hammering against the anvil of truth, and hardened into the image of Christ by cooling in water. This is a lifetime process for all He has chosen and completed when His blueprint finally reveals that we are conformed to the glory of His Son, Jesus Christ.

Brothers and sisters, be assured that you are in the hands of the Master Blacksmith who proves your election by His sovereign choice, mercy, grace, and power.  Hear what the Holy Spirit reveals in the Order of Salvation through what will be revealed in His order of salvation through the power of the Gospel Call, your Justification in Christ, your Sanctification in being made holy as Jesus is holy, the Spirit’s power to Persevere in faith, and your ultimate Glorification in Christ!