Ephesians 1:1-7

Introduction..... Celebration of Election

Ephesians 1:3–6†

We are indeed seated with Christ in the heavenly realms. Why? We are his people. How? He chose us!

Commentators agree that verses 4–14 amplify the thoughts of verse 3, and this being so, the first thing Paul wants to expand is the truth of divine election.

THE FACT OF ELECTION (v. 4)

He does this with very specific statements in verses 4–6. “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world” (v. 4a). Later in that long sentence, verse 11, he neatly summarizes it again: “In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will.” From these statements we cull several points.

First, the choosing was before time as we know it — “before the creation of the world,” to use Paul’s words. God’s choosing antedated human need — indeed, human existence! As Calvin says, “The very time of election shows it to be free; for what could we have deserved, or in what did our merit consist, before the world was made?”1 (Cf. Romans 9:11.)

Second, the reasons for God’s choosing were only in himself. Verses 4, 5 reveal that it was “In love he predestined us.” His choosing cannot be separated from love. God did not do his choosing with a roulette wheel or a throw of celestial dice, because “Where love is supreme there is no place for fate or caprice.”2 Verse 5 expands on this by stating that this was “in accordance with his pleasure and will.” “His pleasure” bears the idea of his good pleasure or good desire. Marcus Barth says, “Far from any idea of arbitrariness it has warm and personal connotations. When God’s good pleasure is mentioned, his willingness and joy in doing good are indicated.”3

God’s eternal choice is warm and smiling — far from the dispassionate stereotype so often thought of. Again, the ground of his choice is his love and good pleasure, not man’s or woman’s goodness.

Third, the choice was made “in him” — that is, in Jesus. How absolutely fitting this is, for creation itself exists in him, as is taught so beautifully in the great Colossian Hymn of the Incarnation:

For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities — all things have been created by Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the first-born from the dead; so that He Himself might come to have first place in everything. (Colossians 1:16–18, NASB)

THE PURPOSES OF ELECTION (vv. 4–6)

Sanctification. The first purpose of election which Paul notes is sanctification: “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight” (v. 4). One of the false charges made against the doctrine of election is that it is morally debilitating — “If we are chosen, then we can do as we like.” Nothing could be further from the truth! Rather, election is morally elevating because it is election to a dynamic two-sided sanctification. Positively it is “to be holy” — that is, set apart from the world, separate, different. And negatively it is to be “blameless” — literally, without spot or blemish, a sacrifice to be presented to God. Election demands and promotes the radical moral excellence of Romans 12 — the offering of believers’ “bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God” (Romans 12:1).

That is why the telltale evidence of one’s election is holiness. Harold Ockenga, pastor of Park Street Church and founding president of Fuller Seminary and Gordon-Conwell Seminary, put it in no uncertain terms:

If God has elected us He has not elected us to remain sinners but to become holy. It is an anomaly or an error to speak of the elect living in sin. God never chose us to continue in sin. We are created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Therefore, the test of our election is the holiness of our lives. Christ “gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.” We ought not to delude ourselves into believing that we belong to the elect of God if we are not living holy lives before Him.… The proof of this is that we become holy, that we approximate the character of our Lord Jesus Christ. Thus John was able to say, “Whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him.… He that committeth sin is of the devil.… Whosoever is born of God doth not commit [practice] sin.”6

I cannot agree more! If your life is characterized by a pattern of conscious sin, you very likely are not a Christian. If some of your most cherished thoughts are hatreds, if you are determined not to forgive, you may not be a true believer. If you are a committed materialist who finds that your greatest joys are self-indulgence — clothing your body with lavish outfits, having all your waking thoughts devoted to house, cars, clothing, and comforts — you may not be a Christian. If you are a sensualist who is addicted to pornography, if your mind is a twenty-four-hour bordello — and you think it’s okay — you may very well not be a Christian, regardless of how many times you have “gone forward” and mouthed the evangelical shibboleths. Election ultimately results in holiness, but the process begins now. Are you concerned for holiness? Are you growing in holiness?

Adoption. The next grand purpose of election which the apostle celebrates is adoption — “he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will,” sings Paul (v. 5). This is an especially lyrical chord — and for good reason. The writers of the Old Testament only referred to God as Father fourteen times in the huge corpus of its thirty-nine books — and these rather impersonally. In those fourteen occurrences of “Father,” the term was always used with reference to the nation and not individuals. But when Jesus came on the scene, he addressed God only as Father. The Gospels record Jesus using “Father” more than sixty times in reference to God. He never used any other term except when quoting Psalm 22 on the cross. No one in the entire history of Israel had spoken or prayed like Jesus. No one! But this amazing fact is only part of the story, because the word Jesus used for Father was not a formal word. It was the common Aramaic word with which a child would address his or her father — “Abba.” This was astounding!

Even more astounding, it became the subconscious and conscious refrain of the elect, who were “adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ.” Paul says of this, “For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children” (Romans 8:15, 16). “Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, ‘Abba, Father.’ So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir” (Galatians 4:6, 7).

Do we have a “spirit of adoption”? Do we sense that God is our Father? Do we think of him and address him as our “Dear Father”? If we cannot answer in the affirmative, it may be because he is not our spiritual Father, and therefore we need to heed the words of Scripture and receive him. “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12).

Dr. J. I. Packer considers our grasp of God’s Fatherhood and our adoption as sons or daughters as of essential importance to our spiritual life. He says:

If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God’s child, and having God as his father. If this is not the thought that prompts and controls his worship and prayers and his whole outlook on life, it means that he does not understand Christianity very well at all. For everything that Christ taught, everything that makes the New Testament new, and better than the Old, everything that is distinctively Christian as opposed to merely Jewish, is summed up in the knowledge of the Fatherhood of God. “Father” is the Christian name for God.7

That name testifies to the reality of our adoption. The richness of our adoption will also be revealed in a future public recognition. Paul says, “The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed” (Romans 8:19). The day of our investiture as sons and daughters is coming, and he is our loving Father right now.

A young mother wrote:

“I stayed with my parents for several days after the birth of our first child. One afternoon, I remarked to my mother that it was surprising our baby had dark hair, since both my husband and I are fair.

“She said, ‘Well, your daddy has black hair.’

“‘But, Mama, that doesn’t matter because I’m adopted.’

“With an embarrassed smile, she said the most wonderful words I’ve ever heard: ‘I always forget.’”8

Our adoption is complete, and we are eternally God’s sons and daughters. We were predestined for this before the foundation of the world, “In love … in accordance with his pleasure and will.” This ought to be the the melody of our hearts continually.

Praise. The last stated purpose of our election is praise — “to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves” (v. 6). His “glorious grace” is the undeserved riches which are ours in Christ. The emphasis here is on the bounty of it, for the words “which he has freely given” are literally “begraced.”9 So Paul’s words memorably read, “to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has begraced us with, in the One he loves.” This is an abundant overflow of grace, like the “fullness of his grace” of John 1:16.10

Paul has let himself go, throwing his heart into grand jubilation over the greatness of salvation. Clause tumbles after clause in his grand poem of praise. We are actually seated “in the heavenly realms” in Christ. Our position in the heavenlies opens us to “every spiritual blessing in Christ.” We have been chosen before time began because of his love and good pleasure. The choice was not due to anything in us, but because of Jesus. He is everything.

This choice gives us great reason to rejoice, for it brings: sanctification — a holiness in conformity with that of God; adoption — we become the actual sons and daughters of God, so that we cry in our heart of hearts, “Abba, Father”; and praise in our hearts for “his glorious grace with which he has begraced us” — “fullness of grace.”

† Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will — to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. (1:3–6)