Ephesians 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love 5 He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. 7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace 8 which He lavished on us.
If the mind of the believer could be removed from a worldly way of looking at things that is focused on self and the senses, spiritual things would take the life and focus of the mind and the person would be like an alien in this world. The believer would love different things, live for different things, and the world would not hold any charms for him. Spiritual blessings would take the mind of the believer rather than worldly things. The thought of the blessings of God would be primarily spiritual. The believer would think of the doctrine of election is such a privilege and of such grace that his heart would be taken with God instead of the things of the world.
The idea that the standing of human beings is not of works and not all about the efforts of human choice is rather radical in most places, but then that God Himself would choose people in Christ before the foundation of the world is astounding if one really thinks about it. Not only did God choose people, He chose them to be holy and blameless in His presence. Now this is a spiritual blessing beyond compare! God takes people who are nothing but sin in and of themselves by nature and practice, but instead of casting them into hell for all eternity He sends His Son to die for them and earn for them a perfect righteousness and in that they are considered holy and blameless before God in His Son. One can think of this only in a doctrinal way, but even then this is a great doctrine. But when one thinks of it in the context of an infinite God doing this for His enemies, His grace stands out and is exalted. This is a God worthy of complete adoration and total submission.
But this taking sinners and giving them a standing before Him of being holy and blameless in His presence is not where the wonder and glory of His grace stops, because He takes those people and in great love He predestines them to adoption as sons. Indeed and most assuredly this adoption as sons is in Christ Jesus because all blessings are in Christ Jesus. But it should not be missed that this adoption was done in love. God has taken His enemies, children of the devil, and He loved them and sent His Son to die for those enemies that His love would dwell in them. He took away the chains of their bondage and He took away their nature which was to be children of the devil. Out of love He adopts them as His sons and He makes them heirs of Christ and gives them eternal life rather than what they deserve which is eternal death in hell.
What shines in this glorious reality? It is the grace of God in Christ Jesus. While there is all the talk in the modern day of this universal love of God where He saves all people because He loves all in the same way, this text knows nothing of nonsense like that. This text teaches with great clarity that God chooses some and He loves some. Those whom He sets His love on He adopts as His children. Not all are His children but instead they remain children of the devil and are in bondage to self, the devil, and their sin. The children of God are freed from their bondage and slavery to those things and are now in the Beloved of God and are loved of God. The grace of God shines in this ever so brightly. What distinguishes one lost sinner from another is not the will of man or the works of man, but instead it is the grace of God.
In this great grace of God sinners can rejoice with an everlasting joy. In this great grace of God those who see that they are still sinners and really bad ones at that can rejoice in the grace of God. No, grace does not excuse our sin and is not a motivation to continue in sin, but grace gives comfort to sinners who fight with sin day in and day out. Their hearts accuse them because their motives are not perfect and they know that they have little love and little faith, but God in His great grace has given them a perfect standing in His presence in Christ. These sinners know that they are not perfectly faithful each hour much less all the time, but they have grace in Christ. These sinners know that they can do nothing good unless it comes from Christ first, and yet they would have it no other way. These sinners live by grace and want nothing but grace. The honor and glory is all His and that is exactly what these adopted children want. They want to do all for His glory though they fall far short. But these people have the strength of grace and that is all they need. The God of glory is their God and He is so by grace alone.
God Loves... Himself 
Leave a comment