“Behold, My Servant, whom I uphold; My chosen one in whom My soul delights. I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the nations.” (Isaiah 42:1)

Chosen One, or as the NKJV renders it, Elect One—what a beautiful description of Christ in the OT. Clearly Messianic, this passage shows that God has a favorite! And that one, as it turns out, is Christ. The term carries the connotation of “choice” or “best.” The focus is not so much on a theological concept of election as on the valuation God places on the one called “chosen.” Of course, God’s choosing Christ has eternal relevance to us believers in view of the fact that “He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him” (Eph 1:4). We are His choice possessions, and therefore we individually are God’s favorites. Is that not a beautiful thought?!

One remembers the psalmist’s exultation while contemplating God’s omniscience and omnipresence: “How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them!” (Ps 139:17). He was completely contented, even overwhelmed with amazement in contemplating that God had good thoughts about him. That goes for you and me as well. And it is not dependent on any moral superiority we fancy for ourselves, but rather on the grace of God!

How different this is than the person who, through unbelief, sees God only in judgmental terms and fears that God’s thoughts are primarily harsh and negative toward him. God’s proclamation to Jesus, “You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased” (Mark 1:11), is true now for believers in Christ, for we have been “blessed … with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ” (Eph 1:3). In fact, our being “in Christ” means we are adopted as sons, “according to the kind intention of His will” (Eph 1:5); we have been lavished with forgiveness “according to the riches of His grace” (Eph 1:7-8). That sounds like we are now God’s “choice” possessions, does it not?

Because Christ is God’s chosen one, we too, in Him, are likewise chosen. He was the first, but we also are included. We must remember that when we are feeling alone or abandoned, rejected or unloved. Our Savior is God’s choice, and so are we. We are His first round draft pick, to use a sports illustration. Because we are in Christ, the Chosen One, we are like the number one pick, along with Christ. God wants us, and His thoughts about us are fantastically good; we can be assured that He not only likes us, but deeply loves us.

Lord, “How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them!” (Ps 139:17). You really do love me!