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.
This passage in Ephesians 1 (above) is simply soaked with grace and running over on at points with the riches and glory of His grace. This is not a passage where the history is important and it is not a passage where there are intricate details to draw out in order to get to a meaning. This passage proclaims the glory of God in what He has done in saving sinners by grace and His grace alone.
The thought of a justification or some form of salvation that was a mixture of human effort and/or works is foreign to this text. The specific Actors (those doing actions) in all things in this text is God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. All that they did and do comes to human beings by grace and grace alone. All that human beings do in this text is have grace shown them and have that grace poured out upon them in super abundance. There are no works mentioned or alluded to regarding salvation and all is about the glory of God and His grace. What is on display in this passage is the grace and glory of God rather than the worth, dignity, and ability of men. It is all about God and His initiative, His works, His glory, and His works.
We see nothing in this passage about man making a choice for God, but we do see God making a choice of men and doing that before the foundation of the world. This is to say that before the world came into being and then man came into being, God chose according to His good pleasure. He did not wait to see what man would do, but instead He chose Himself and did so in order to exalt His glory and His grace. The so-called free-will of man is not mentioned and no room for it is left in the far greater glory of His will and grace.
We don’t see man’s ability to love God or to love men here, but instead we see the love of God on display. It was God who took sinners and His enemies and predestined them to adoption. But again, we don’t see these things depending on the will of man and the love of man, we see these things resting entirely on God alone. It was God who chose men through Christ to Himself and He did this according to His good pleasure. This is to say that it is not up to men to be saved at the time of their good pleasure, but it is all according to the good pleasure of God.
This passage of Holy Writ sets out all things in accordance with the glory of God and His grace. The Gospel is all about God freely bestowing grace on sinners quite apart from their merit, worth, and works. If we had spiritual eyes to see this with clarity it would put us on our faces in awe and reverence for God who saves sinners despite their enmity and despite their being children of the devil and takes their sins upon Himself by grace and delivers them from their bondage by grace. This great grace is exalted high about their wickedness and what they are by nature. This great grace glorifies God more than the sin of man was opposite to His glory. The sins of men are forgiven in accordance with the riches of His grace and not on account with who they are or what they have done.
It is common in the modern day to focus on morality, family issues, and societal problems rather than the grace of God in the Gospel. In doing so, men have brought works and conditions to the Gospel rather than exalt the Gospel of grace alone. Men have brought conditions to the Gospel and conditions that they are to meet and can meet. In this they are like the Pharisees who did what they did to the honor of themselves and also lowered the law in order that they would be able to keep it. There are no conditions that men can keep in order to move God to save them. There are no works that men can do so that God will save them. Men are dead in sins and trespasses and they must have God make them alive in Christ and the only way He will do this is by grace alone. In this sinners are to find great hope as they have no hope in themselves in reality. Sinners must learn to die to self and their own ability that they will then look to grace alone. Instead of looking to self and the will of self to come up with faith and repentance, sinners need to look to Christ for faith and repentance. The glory of the Gospel is that it is all of grace from eternity past to eternity future. That means it is all about the glory of God. All should bow in worship.
God Loves... Himself 
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