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 should be holy and without blame before Him in love, (5) having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, (6) to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved. (7) In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace (8) which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, (9) having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, (10) that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth – in Him

The letter to the Ephesians was written by the apostle Paul. Central to the apostle’s thinking in our verses, is that before the creation of the world, God chose us and predestined us to His amazing blessings. The Bible is clear that God decreed beforehand what will happen in history. God is sovereign, yet at the same time God is not the author of evil. He does not determine His plan based on anything outside of Himself. God did not make up His plan after He saw who would choose Him. He did not base His choice on any merit or worthiness He foresaw in us. Paul here is laying the theological foundation of what God ultimately plans to do – to reunite in Christ everything alienated through sin. If we are saved because of any merit on our part we are on shaky ground because we never know if we have enough of whatever it is to qualify us for salvation.

”Predestination” does not imply impersonal deterministic fate but refers to God’s plan for the ages and the power to carry it out. The kind intention and good pleasure of God means that God chose us and predestined us to be His children apart from any cause in us but rather because it pleased Him. And we know that God has elected us by our believing in Jesus Christ. Our salvation is entirely due to GOD’s extravagant grace in Christ. Man is unable – with our sinful nature in Adam – to come to Christ by themselves. No one is able to come to the Lord unless it is granted by the Father. “He chose us” is not ambiguous – all of the spiritual blessings we receive center in Christ. Paul is distinguishing those on whom God set His purpose to save from the rest of humanity and we are to be holy and blameless before Him in faith in Christ. Paul does not debate the matter of election or tip toe around it. When we are entirely willing that God should be God, election is no longer a problem. It is God who purposed salvation this way. When we consider God’s electing grace and predestinating love we should remember Isaiah’s words, chapter 55: 8-9, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither your ways My ways, saith the Lord.” Before sin came in, God chose us in Christ. Sin did not alter God’s purpose.

If men are lost, they are lost because they do not come to Christ. Those who do come to Christ learn that God has known that from all eternity. It was settled before the world came into existence. If you trust in Christ, you are chosen by God. God’s determination to create men/women who would choose to give Him loyal obedience necessitated the creation of man/women to turn away from God if they wanted to. God has every right to show mercy to whomever He chooses. If we accept Christ with our free will then God guarantees we will be secure. We don’t know why God chose us – not our merit or good works – but because He loved us. This is a watershed teaching, that we will be in heaven because God chose us.