According to His purpose

who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began, - 2 Timothy 1.9

God saved us and called us to serve Him, plain and simple. He did it not because I am good enough to deserve it, but because He acted in His grace and purposed in His heart to do it.

I find this amazing. Despite the fact that man was going to sin and reject God He still purposed in His heart to exercise grace and saved us through the gift of His Son.

When I think about it lows my mind – before ‘Let there be light’ God purposed that those who accept His gift of grace could have the penalty for sin paid and we could spend eternity with Him.

Jesus died according to His purpose. We went to the cross according to His plan. He hung there because it was designed before the foundation of the world. Our works had nothing to do with it – nothing!

But there is a key word here. Jesus did all this according to His purpose and He did it by His grace alone! It was a holy calling. God wants all men everywhere to repent and He purposed to provide for a way to achieve it through His amazing grace.