“But God had seen my wretched state / Before the world’s foundation,
And mindful of His mercies great, / He planned for my salvation.
He turned to me a father’s heart; He did not choose the easy part / But gave His dearest treasure.”
“Before the world’s foundation” God planned our salvation. This is a mind-stretcher! Saint Peter begins his first epistle in the following way, literally translated: “Peter, to those who are elect exiles… according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: grace and peace be multiplied to you.” Just as Moses had sprinkled the blood of the covenant upon the people of Israel whom God had delivered from slavery (Exodus 24:8), so God the Father foreknew, that is, loved us so dearly in eternity that He determined to consecrate us to be His holy, covenant people. Before creation, God’s had planned that His Son, obedient to His Father’s will, would become the covenant sacrifice and the Spirit sanctify us to be His holy covenant people. “He (Jesus) was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you” (1 Peter 1:1-2, 20).
Let this Gospel of God’s eternal love dominate your Lenten devotions. “Jesus, I will ponder now,” is often sung on Ash Wednesday, but ponder His holy passion in the greatness of the Father’s eternal love for us His Church. Yes, we enter a time of introspection and confession, a time when the Law of God convicts us. “God, be merciful to me a sinner” (Luke 18:13), but more awesome is the Bible’s truth that God, before He created the world, determined to consecrate us to be His covenant people. “Before the world’s foundation…He planned for my salvation.”
“The Son obeyed the Father’s will, / Was born of virgin mother;
And God’s good pleasure to fulfill, / He came to be my brother.
His royal pow’r disguised He bore; / A servant’s form, like mine, He wore
To lead the devil captive.” (Lutheran Service Book, 556, 4, 6)
Peter does not simply say, “Grace and peace to you,” but this Ash Wednesday, “Grace and peace be multiplied to you.”
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