What does it mean that God chose us in Him?
“God chose us in Him…” This statement from Ephesians 1 is personal, not impersonal. The us refers to Paul and his audience, and the ‘in Him’ refers to Christ. Christ is the locus of the choice, not apart from him, not in the abstract, not merely in the mind of God but ‘in Christ’. Now what exactly does that mean? If the choice is personal and of person, and in the context of a person namely Christ, who exactly existed before the creation of the universe to be chosen? Only Christ. He was there, and even participated in the creation of the universe. We were certainly not there. Paul does not believe in the notion of pre-existent or immortal souls or a well of souls in heaven that at some point are placed into human bodies. Election happens ‘in Christ’ because he is the Chosen of God, as the recent movie series’ title suggests. Now since it is Christ who has been chosen to redeem humanity, it should be obvious that election is one thing, and salvation another. Christ himsel