God Stacks the Deck--October 10, 2025

God Stacks the Deck--October 10, 2025

"Do not be ashamed, then, of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel, in the power of God, who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace, and this grace was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel." (2 Timothy 1:8-10)

To hear the Bible itself tell it, before the beginning of everything, there were aces already dealt from up God's sleeve right into our hands.  Even before the words "Let there be light" brought the universe banging into existence, God had stacked the deck in our favor. Before we were born, before we did a thing good or bad, and even before we even came to faith in Jesus, walked into a church, or read the Bible, God lavished grace on us.  And, as these verses that many of us heard this past Sunday in worship remind us, "this grace was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages began."

What an astonishing claim. Before we brought anything to the equation--and apart from the number of points racked up, gold stars earned, or A-pluses noted on our permanent record--God claimed us, saved us, and called us. It sounds unfair to some ears, or at least it sounds scandalously different from our usual way of talking about Respectable Religion.  Much more popular in American Christianity is a version of the gospel that says, "If you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior first, then you will have you name added to the list for heaven." or "If you have shown yourself to be a sufficiently moral, adequately attending churchgoer, you will get eternal life when you die."  You've got to do your part first.  You've got to measure up as a prerequisite for being deemed acceptable.  You've got to earn your spot, basically. But these verses from what we call Second Timothy (along with much of the New Testament, mind you) turn the tables--they don't start with "what WE do," but rather with "what GOD has done."  

More to the point, these verses say that my hope is not so much that I made a good decision to choose Jesus to be my Savior, so much as God in Christ chose, saved, and called me.  Salvation isn't a reward for me making the smart choice of accepting Jesus; it's the gift that comes because God made the gracious choice to accept me through Jesus.  I might not have realized what God has done already for me until some other point in my life (however early or late that might be), but from God's perspective, the deck has been stacked from before the cards were dealt in the first place. Grace sought us out. Any seeking and finding of God that I do is made possible because God already sought and found me first.  And it's God's finding of me that matters, ultimately, not my proficiency at impressing God.

And of course, that gracious seeking and finding on God's part isn't just for me in the singular.  As these words first written to Timothy remind us, they are spoken in the plural: to "us" not just "to me." In other words, I don't get to say, "I must be God's favorite because God chose me before I did anything good or bad." But rather, that's the only way any of us find that we belong.  For all of us, it's nothing but grace, baby. There is nobody who earns their way in, and there is nobody who pulls themselves up by their own bootstraps from God's perspective.  Neither the worst thing we've ever done, nor our best and brightest accomplishment tipped the scales to determine whether God loves us. There has only ever been God's choice, simply because of who God is and how God loves, to call us precisely that: "beloved."

That realization is really quite odd in a culture obsessed with achieving, accomplishing, and comparing ourselves to everybody else.  We are used to hearing that there's a limited number of spots on the team, and therefore you have to distinguish yourself by being better than all the rest--you earn your place by outperforming or outcompeting everyone else.   We are used to thinking that there has to be a catch or a task or a way of proving our value in order to access God's goodness and favor, because honestly just about every other voice around us talks like that--that there are only transactions of earning or acquiring scarce resources and a limited supply of perks.  How else, they ask, would we be able to tell who is worthy of the good things or preferred status?  

And then along comes the gospel which sounds like a crazy idea from out in left field out on the margins: it's not about me finding Jesus, but about Jesus having found us.  It's not about me choosing God but about God having chosen us.  It's not about me accepting Christ into my heart, but about Christ having accepted me into his--and all of it without depending on my pedigree, my resume, my behavior, or my shows of piety.  It has only ever been by grace.  That sort of deck-stacking is wonderfully scandalous. And that's what we've been entrusted to share with the world.

That's right: we aren't sent to be Jesus' salvation salesforce, peddling some religious to-do list that will make us worthy of grace.  We are sent to announce that it's already a free gift, and there are no strings, conditions, or hoops to jump through first.  We are sent to tell the world that God has already declared us home-free before the universe began, and that if it sounds unfair, it's not cheating because this isn't a game and we aren't competing with everyone else for a limited number of spots in some celestial winner's circle.  Instead, it's like we have all been declared members of God's family before we start the day and head out into the world, and there is nothing that can take that belonging away.  You don't say it's "cheating" or "unfair" when you tell everyone in the family "I love you" as they head out to school or work at the start of the day, because you know already: family is not a competition, and love is not a game.  So the same is true, Second Timothy tells us, with God and all of us.  In Christ, God has already abolished death, and it cannot get the last word over us anymore.  In Christ, God has already chosen us, called us, and saved us, before we did a thing, and before the universe began. Or, if you like, in Christ, God has already declared us "home safe" like an umpire before we've even gotten up to bat. Because our being "safe" or "saved" was never up to our ability or dependent on our swinging.  It has always and only been a gift of grace.

Now, go and tell that news to someone--and just see if they don't at first stare at you like you are a space alien with three heads or a nutcase from out in left field... and then watch as it dawns on them that the news is true after all, and their skeptical looks melt into delicious smiles of joy as they realize they are beloved already, too.

Lord Jesus, give us the courage to share the news of your surprising and scandalous love with everyone we meet.