having predestined us for adoption as children through Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his desire, to the praise of the glory of his grace, by which he freely gave us favor in the Beloved, in whom we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he purposed in him
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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, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and without defect before him in love, having predestined us for adoption as children through Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his desire, to the praise of the glory of his grace, by which he freely gave us favor in the Beloved, in whom we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he purposed in him to an administration of the fullness of the times, to sum up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens and the things on the earth, in him. We were also assigned an inheritance in him, having been foreordained according to the purpose of him who does all things after the counsel of his will, to the end that we should be to the praise of his glory, we who had before hoped in Christ. In him you also, having heard the word of the truth, the Good News of your salvation—in whom, having also believed, you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is a pledge of our inheritance, to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of his glory.
Parallel Translations
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having predestined us for adoption as children through Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his desire,
to the praise of the glory of his grace, by which he freely gave us favor in the Beloved,
in whom we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,
which he made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence,
making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he purposed in him
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And ordeyned vs before thorow Iesus Christ to be heyres vnto him silfe accordinge to the pleasure of his will
to the prayse of the glorie of his grace where with he hath made vs accepted in the beloved.
By whom we have redemption thorow his bloude euen the forgevenes of synnes accordynge to the riches of his grace
which grace he shed on vs aboundantly in all wisdome and perceavaunce.
And hath openned vnto vs the mistery of his will accordinge to his pleasure and purposed the same in hym silfe
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Who hath predestinate vs, to be adopted through Iesus Christ in him selfe, according to the good pleasure of his will,
To the prayse of the glory of his grace, wherewith he hath made vs freely accepted in his beloued,
By whom we haue redemption through his blood, euen the forgiuenes of sinnes, according to his rich grace:
Whereby he hath bene aboundant toward vs in all wisedome and vnderstanding,
And hath opened vnto vs the mysterie of his will according to his good pleasure, which he had purposed in him,
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Contradictions (1)
Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
Cross-references (166)
- 1 Peter 2:24 (v7) He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live to righteousness. You were healed by his wounds.
- Romans 3:24 (v7) being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus;
- Romans 8:29-30 (v5) For whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. Whom…
- Colossians 1:14 (v7) in whom we have our redemption, the forgiveness of our sins.
- 1 John 1:7-9 (v7) But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanses…
Show all 100 cross-references
- 1 Peter 1:18-19 (v7) knowing that you were redeemed, not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, from the useless way of life handed down from your…
- Hebrews 9:22 (v7) According to the law, nearly everything is cleansed with blood, and apart from shedding of blood there is no remission.
- Ephesians 1:11 (vv5, 8, 9) We were also assigned an inheritance in him, having been foreordained according to the purpose of him who does all things after the counsel…
- Hebrews 9:12-15 (v7) nor yet through the blood of goats and calves, but through his own blood, entered in once for all into the Holy Place, having obtained…
- Galatians 4:5-6 (v5) that he might redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of children. And because you are children, God sent…
- Romans 3:22-26 (v6) even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all those who believe. For there is no distinction, for all have…
- Matthew 26:28 (v7) for this is my blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for many for the remission of sins.
- Colossians 1:13 (v6) who delivered us out of the power of darkness, and translated us into the Kingdom of the Son of his love,
- John 1:12 (v5) But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become God’s children, to those who believe in his name:
- Ephesians 1:12 (v6) to the end that we should be to the praise of his glory, we who had before hoped in Christ.
- 1 John 3:1 (v5) See how great a love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God! For this cause the world doesn’t know us,…
- Hebrews 10:4-12 (v7) For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins. Therefore when he comes into the world, he says, “You didn’t…
- Revelation 5:9 (v7) They sang a new song, saying, “You are worthy to take the book and to open its seals: for you were killed, and bought us for God with your…
- Philippians 4:19 (vv6–7) My God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
- Romans 8:14-17 (v5) For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are children of God. For you didn’t receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you…
- 1 John 2:12 (v7) I write to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name’s sake.
- Galatians 3:26 (v5) For you are all children of God, through faith in Christ Jesus.
- Colossians 1:26-28 (v9) the mystery which has been hidden for ages and generations. But now it has been revealed to his saints, to whom God was pleased to make…
- Romans 8:23 (v5) Not only so, but ourselves also, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for adoption,…
- Psalms 130:7 (v7) Israel, hope in Yahweh, for there is loving kindness with Yahweh. Abundant redemption is with him.
- 2 Corinthians 6:18 (v5) I will be to you a Father. You will be to me sons and daughters,’ says the Lord Almighty.”
- Matthew 3:17 (v6) Behold, a voice out of the heavens said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
- Romans 16:25-27 (v9)
- Ephesians 3:3-9 (v9) how that by revelation the mystery was made known to me, as I wrote before in few words, by which, when you read, you can perceive my…
- 1 Corinthians 1:30 (v7) Because of him, you are in Christ Jesus, who was made to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption:
- Ephesians 1:7-8 (v6) in whom we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he made to…
- Hosea 1:10 (v5) Yet the number of the children of Israel will be as the sand of the sea, which can’t be measured or counted; and it will come to pass that,…
- 2 Timothy 1:9 (v9) who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given to…
- Revelation 21:7 (v5) He who overcomes, I will give him these things. I will be his God, and he will be my son.
- Ephesians 2:7 (vv6–7) that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus;
- 2 Corinthians 8:9 (v7) For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that you through his poverty…
- Hebrews 10:17-18 (v7) “I will remember their sins and their iniquities no more.” Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.
- Jeremiah 3:19 (v5) “But I said, ‘How I desire to put you among the children, and give you a pleasant land, a goodly heritage of the armies of the nations!’…
- Micah 7:18 (v7) Who is a God like you, who pardons iniquity, and passes over the disobedience of the remnant of his heritage? He doesn’t retain his anger…
- Romans 2:4 (v7) Or do you despise the riches of his goodness, forbearance, and patience, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?
- Romans 9:11-16 (v5) For being not yet born, neither having done anything good or bad, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works,…
- Ephesians 1:9 (v5) making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he purposed in him
- Ephesians 3:16 (v7) that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, that you may be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner…
- 1 Peter 2:9 (v6) But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, that you may proclaim the excellence of…
- Job 33:24 (v7) then God is gracious to him, and says, ‘Deliver him from going down to the pit, I have found a ransom.’
- Jeremiah 31:34 (v7) They will no longer each teach his neighbor, and every man teach his brother, saying, ‘Know Yahweh;’ for they will all know me, from their…
- Daniel 9:9 (v7) To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgiveness; for we have rebelled against him.
- Matthew 20:28 (v7) even as the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
- Luke 10:21 (v5) In that same hour Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit, and said, “I thank you, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these…
- John 11:52 (v5) and not for the nation only, but that he might also gather together into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.
- Ephesians 1:14 (v6) who is a pledge of our inheritance, to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of his glory.
- Philippians 1:11 (v6) being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.
- 2 Thessalonians 1:11 (v5) To this end we also pray always for you, that our God may count you worthy of your calling, and fulfill every desire of goodness and work…
- Titus 2:14 (v7) who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for…
- Hebrews 2:10-15 (v5) For it became him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many children to glory, to make the author of…
- 1 John 2:2 (v7) And he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the whole world.
- Psalms 86:5 (v7) For you, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, abundant in loving kindness to all those who call on you.
- Isaiah 55:6-7 (v7) Seek Yahweh while he may be found. Call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let…
- Daniel 9:19 (v7) Lord, hear. Lord, forgive. Lord, listen and do. Don’t defer, for your own sake, my God, because your city and your people are called by…
- Daniel 9:24-26 (v7) “Seventy weeks are decreed on your people and on your holy city, to finish disobedience, and to make an end of sins, and to make…
- Zechariah 9:11 (v7) As for you also, because of the blood of your covenant, I have set free your prisoners from the pit in which is no water.
- Mark 14:24 (v7) He said to them, “This is my blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for many.
- Luke 7:47-50 (v7) Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But one to whom little is forgiven, loves little.” He…
- John 20:23 (v7) If you forgive anyone’s sins, they have been forgiven them. If you retain anyone’s sins, they have been retained.”
- Acts 2:38 (v7) Peter said to them, “Repent, and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and you will…
- Acts 10:43 (v7) All the prophets testify about him, that through his name everyone who believes in him will receive remission of sins.”
- Acts 13:38-39 (v7) Be it known to you therefore, brothers, that through this man is proclaimed to you remission of sins, and by him everyone who believes is…
- Acts 20:28 (v7) Take heed, therefore, to yourselves, and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the assembly of the…
- Romans 4:6-9 (v7) Even as David also pronounces blessing on the man to whom God counts righteousness apart from works, “Blessed are they whose iniquities are…
- Romans 8:28 (v9) We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, for those who are called according to his purpose.
- 1 Corinthians 1:21 (v5) For seeing that in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom didn’t know God, it was God’s good pleasure through the foolishness of…
- Ephesians 1:18 (v6) having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of his calling, and what are the riches of the glory of his…
- Ephesians 3:10-11 (v6) to the intent that now through the assembly the manifold wisdom of God might be made known to the principalities and the powers in the…
- Ephesians 3:11 (v9) according to the eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.
- Hebrews 12:5-9 (v5) You have forgotten the exhortation which reasons with you as with children, “My son, don’t take lightly the chastening of the Lord, nor…
- 1 Peter 4:11 (v6) If anyone speaks, let it be as it were the very words of God. If anyone serves, let it be as of the strength which God supplies, that in…
- 1 John 4:10 (v7) In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins.
- Exodus 34:7 (v7) keeping loving kindness for thousands, forgiving iniquity and disobedience and sin; and who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the…
- Psalms 32:1-2 (v7) Blessed is he whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom Yahweh doesn’t impute iniquity, in whose…
- Isaiah 43:21 (v6) the people which I formed for myself, that they might declare my praise.
- Isaiah 43:25 (v7) I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake; and I will not remember your sins.
- Luke 1:77 (v7) to give knowledge of salvation to his people by the remission of their sins,
- Luke 24:47 (v7) and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
- John 20:17 (v5) Jesus said to her, “Don’t hold me, for I haven’t yet ascended to my Father; but go to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my…
- Acts 3:19 (v7) “Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, so that there may come times of refreshing from the presence of the…
- Romans 9:23 (v7) and that he might make known the riches of his glory on vessels of mercy, which he prepared beforehand for glory,
- Galatians 1:12 (v9) For I didn’t receive it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came to me through revelation of Jesus Christ.
- Ephesians 2:4 (v7) But God, being rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us,
- Ephesians 3:8 (v7) To me, the very least of all saints, was this grace given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ,
- Colossians 1:27 (v7) to whom God was pleased to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope…
- Colossians 2:2 (v7) that their hearts may be comforted, they being knit together in love, and gaining all riches of the full assurance of understanding, that…
- Colossians 2:13 (v7) You were dead through your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh. He made you alive together with him, having forgiven us all our…
- 1 Timothy 2:6 (v7) who gave himself as a ransom for all, the testimony in its own times,
- 1 Peter 3:18 (v7) Because Christ also suffered for sins once, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring you to God, being put to death in the…
- Revelation 5:12 (v8) saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb who has been killed to receive the power, wealth, wisdom, strength, honor, glory, and…
- Psalms 130:4 (v7) But there is forgiveness with you, therefore you are feared.
- Isaiah 42:1 (v6) “Behold, my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights: I have put my Spirit on him. He will bring justice to the nations.
- Daniel 4:35 (v5) All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing; and he does according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants…
- Jonah 4:2 (v7) He prayed to Yahweh, and said, “Please, Yahweh, wasn’t this what I said when I was still in my own country? Therefore I hurried to flee to…
- Zechariah 13:1 (v7) “In that day there will be a spring opened to David’s house and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness.
100 distinct cross-references across this passage (166 total citations).
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (25 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv5, 7, 8, 9 5. Who hath predestinated us. What follows is intended…
5. Who hath predestinated us. What follows is intended still further to heighten the commendation of divine grace. The reason why Paul inculcated so earnestly on the Ephesians the doctrines of free adoption through Christ, and of the eternal election which preceded it, has been already considered. But as the mercy of God is nowhere acknowledged in more elevated language, this passage will deserve our careful attention. Three causes of our salvation are here mentioned, and a fourth is shortly afterwards added. The efficient cause is the good pleasure of the will of God, the material cause is, Jesus Christ, and the final cause is, the praise of the glory of his grace. Let us now see what he says respecting each.
To the first belongs the whole of the following statement God hath predestinated us in himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, unto the adoption of sons, and hath made us accepted by his grace. In the word predestinate we must again attend to the order. We were not then in existence, and therefore there was no merit of ours. The cause of our salvation did not proceed from us, but from God alone. Yet Paul, not satisfied with these statements, adds in himself. The Greek phrase is, εἰς αὑτὸν, and has the same meaning with ἐν αὑτῷ. By this he means that God did not seek a cause out of himself, but predestinated us, because such was his will.
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But this is made still more clear by what follows, according to the good pleasure of his will. The word will was enough, for Paul very frequently contrasts it with all outward causes by which men are apt to imagine that the mind of God is influenced. But that no doubt may remain, he employs the word good pleasure, which expressly sets aside all merit. In adopting us, therefore, God does not inquire what we are, and is not reconciled to us by any personal worth. His single motive is the eternal good pleasure, by which he predestinated us. Why, then, are the sophists not ashamed to mingle with them other considerations, when Paul so strongly forbids us to look at anything else than the good pleasure of God?
Lest anything should still be wanting, he adds, ἐχαρίτωσεν ἐν χάριτι This intimates, that, in the freest manner, and on no mercenary grounds, does God bestow upon us his love and favor, just as, when we were not yet born, and when he was prompted by nothing but his own will, he fixed upon us his choice.
The material cause both of eternal election, and of the love which is now revealed, is Christ, the Beloved. This name is given, to remind us that by him the love of God is communicated to us. Thus he is the well-beloved, in order that we may be reconciled by him. The highest and last end is immediately added, the glorious praise of such abundant grace. Every man, therefore, who hides this glory, is endeavoring to overturn the everlasting purpose of God. Such is the doctrine of the sophists, which entirely overturns the doctrine of Christ, lest the whole glory of our salvation should be ascribed undividedly to God alone.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv5–9 God respecteth nothing, either that present is, or that…
God respecteth nothing, either that present is, or that is to come, but himself only.
Another plainer exposition of the efficient cause, and also of eternal election, whereby God is saith to have chosen us in Christ, to wit, because it pleased him to appoint us out when we were not yet born, whom he would make to be his children by Jesus Christ: so that there is no reason here of our election to be sought, but in the free mercy of God, neither is faith which God foresaw, the cause of predestination, but the effect.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv5–9 5 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children…
5 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,
Ver. 5. Having predestinated us] Interpreters have observed that this word that signifies to predestinate is but six times to be found in the New Testament (never in the Old), being referred but twice to things, Act 4:28; 1Co 2:7, four times to persons, Rom 8:29-30 Eph 1:5; Eph 1:11, and never applied to reprobates, but to elect persons only. Howbeit divines under predestination do usually consider the decree both of election and reprobation. The doctrine hereof men should not adventure to teach till they have well learned and digested it. In the year 1586, Jacobus Andreas, the Lutheran, and Theodore Beza, conferred and disputed for eight days’ time at Montpelier: the issue of which conference was unhappy, for from that time forward the doctrine of predestination was much misused and exagitated. (Alsted. Chron.)
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv5–9 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children; having…
Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children; having appointed us unto a state of sonship and right to glory. This seems to be more than the former, a greater thing to be the sons of God, and heirs of heaven, than to be holy.
By Jesus Christ; as Mediator, and Head of the elect, and the foundation of all spiritual blessings vouchsafed them, and so of this relation into which they are brought, by being united to him. The adopted children come into that state by the intervention of the natural Son.
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To himself; either:
1. In himself, i.e. looking no farther than to himself for the cause of and motive to his adopting them. Or:
2. To himself, (according to our translation), i.e. to God. Or, rather:
3. For himself (as the Syriac renders it); God would have the honour of having many adopted children that shall all call him Father.
According to the good pleasure of his will; his sovereign grace and good will, as the only spring from which predestination issued, God being moved to it by nothing out of himself.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On vv5, 7, 8 That is, "having predestinated us Gentiles, who in the…
That is, "having predestinated us Gentiles, who in the esteem of the Jews were accounted dogs, to be his adopted sons and daughters, in and by Jesus Christ, in whom he hath made us accepted, to the abundant praise and glory of his free grace and mercy."
Observe here, 1. That none are the children of God by nature: none are born sons, but made sons; not of their own, but God’s making; and in order to this glorious privilege, we were predestinated unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ.
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Observe, 2. The attribute mentioned here by the apostle, which moved God to predestinate us to the adoption of children: it was the glory of his grace, he mentions not the glory of his holiness, the glory of his justice, or the glory of his power, because the glory of his power is manifested in making of the world, the glory of his holiness in making of his law, the glory of his justice in turning the transgressors of that law into hell; but his grace he shows no where so much as in the predestination ofhis children, and in what he hath predestinated them unto; he showeth indeed all his attributes herein, but grace over and above all the rest.
Observe 3. The effect and fruit of this privilege, namely, of our being predestinated to the adoption of children, and that is, our being made accepted in Christ the Beloved; the word is properly rendered, He hath made us dear, precious, and delightful, to himself; or in one word, He hath ingratiated us.
Here note, That as Jesus Christ is in an eminent manner beloved of God and accepted with him, so in like manner all God’s adopted children do, and shall, find favour with God, and acceptance through Christ: He hath made us freely accepted in the Beloved.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv5–9 Having predestinated us,.... Predestination, taken in a large sense,…
Having predestinated us,.... Predestination, taken in a large sense, includes both election and reprobation, and even reaches to all affairs and occurrences in the world; to the persons, lives, and circumstances of men; to all mercies, temporal or spiritual; and to all afflictions, whether in love or in wrath: and indeed providence, or the dispensations of providence, are no other than the execution of divine predestination; but here it is the same with election, and is concerned with the same persons, and has regard to a special blessing, the elect are appointed to, as follows;
unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ unto himself; by which is meant, either the grace of adoption, which is an act of the Father's love, a blessing provided and secured in the covenant of grace; and is of persons to an inheritance, to which they have no legal right; and is entirely free, there being no need on the adopter's part, and no worth on the part of the adopted: or rather the inheritance they are adopted to; which exceeds all others, is incorruptible, undefiled, and fades not away; and lies among the saints in light, and belongs to all the children of God: and this they are predestinated unto by God the Father, who takes them into his family, puts them among the children, and gives them a goodly heritage: and that "by Jesus Christ"; or through him; for both the grace of adoption, and the kingdom and glory they are adopted to, come by and through him as Mediator; through his espousing their persons, assuming their nature, and redeeming them from under the law and its curses; through his giving them a power and privilege openly to be the sons of God; and through faith in him, whereby they are manifestly such: the phrase "unto himself", either refers to God the Father, who has chosen, set apart, formed and reserved his people and children for himself, for his peculiar treasure, and for his own glory; or to Jesus Christ, that he might have some brethren, and they be conformed to him, and he be the firstborn among them, and in all things have the pre-eminence; and that they might be with him, and behold his glory, and he be glorified in them: and this act of divine predestination was
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according to the good pleasure of his will: the will of God is the rule of all his actions, and of all his acts of grace and goodness; and the good pleasure of it appears in the predestination of men to grace and glory: and from hence it is manifest, that foreseen faith, holiness, and good works, are excluded from being the moving cases of predestinating grace; and that it is wholly to be resolved into the good will and pleasure of God; the view in it being entirely as follows,
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv5–9 Having predestinated us to the adoption of sons -…
Having predestinated us to the adoption of sons - Having foreordained that all who afterwards believed should enjoy the dignity of being sons of God, and joint-heirs with Christ. According to the good pleasure of his will - According to his free, fixed, unalterable purpose to confer this blessing on all those who should believe in Christ, and those only.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv5–9 Verse 5. Having predestinated us] προορισας. As the doctrine…
Verse 5. Having predestinated us] προορισας. As the doctrine of eternal predestination has produced much controversy in the Christian world, it may be necessary to examine the meaning of the term, that those who do use it may employ it according to the sense it has in the oracles of God. The verb προοπζω, from προ, before, and οριζω, I define, finish, bound, or terminate, whence ορος, a boundary or limit, signifies to define beforehand, and circumscribe by certain bounds or limits; and is originally a geographical term, but applied also to any thing concluded, or determined, or demonstrated. Here the word is used to point out God's fixed purpose or predetermination to bestow on the Gentiles the blessing of the adoption of sons by Jesus Christ, which adoption had been before granted to the Jewish people; and without circumcision, or any other Mosaic rite, to admit the Gentiles to all the privileges of his Church and people. And the apostle marks that all this was fore-determined by God, as he had fore-determined the bounds and precincts of the land which he gave them according to the promise made to their fathers; that the Jews had no reason to complain, for God had formed this purpose before he had given the law, or called them out of Egypt; (for it was before the foundation of the world, Eph 1:4;) and that, therefore, the conduct of God in calling the Gentiles now-bringing them into his Church, and conferring on them the gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit, was in pursuance of his original design; and, if he did not do so, his eternal purposes could not be fulfilled; and that, as the Jews were taken to be his peculiar people, not because they had any goodness or merit in themselves; so the Gentiles were called, not for any merit they had, but according to the good pleasure of his will; that is, according to his eternal benevolence, showing mercy and conferring privileges in this new creation, as he had done in the original creation; for as, in creating man, he drew every consideration from his own innate eternal benevolence, so now, in redeeming man, and sending the glad tidings of salvation both to the Jews and the Gentiles, be acted on the same principles, deriving all the reasons of his conduct from his own infinite goodness.
This argument was exceedingly conclusive, and must silence the Jews on the ground of their original, primitive, and exclusive rights, which they were ever ready to plead against all pretensions of the Gentiles. If therefore God, before the foundation of the Jewish economy, had determined that the Gentiles, in the fulness of time, should be called to and admitted into all the privileges of the Messiah's kingdom, then the exclusive salvation of the Jews was chimerical; and what God was doing now, by the preaching of the apostles in the Gentile world, was in pursuance of his original design. This same argument St. Paul repeatedly produces in his Epistle to the Romans; and a proper consideration of it unlocks many difficulties in that epistle. See the notes on Ro 8:29; Ro 8:30; and elsewhere, in the course of that epistle, where this subject is handled. But why is the word προορισας, fore-determined, limited, or circumscribed, used here? Merely in reference to the settlement of the Israelites in the promised land. God assigned to them the portions which they were to inherit; and these portions were described, and their bearings, boundaries, vicinities to other portions, extent and length, as exactly ascertained as they could be by the most correct geographical map. As God, therefore, had dealt with the Jews in making them his peculiar people, and when he divided the earth among the sons of Noah reserved to himself the twelve portions which he afterwards gave to the twelve tribes; (See Clarke on De 32:8;) and as his dealings with them were typical of what he intended to do in the calling and salvation of the Gentiles; so he uses the terms by which their allotment and settlement were pointed out to show that, what he had thus designed and typified, he had now fulfilled according to the original predetermination; the Gentiles having now the spiritual inheritance which God had pointed out by the grant made of the promised land to the children of Israel. This is the grand key by which this predestination business is unlocked. See Clarke on Eph 1:11.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv7, 9 Eph 1:7-8. In, or by, whom we have redemption…
Eph 1:7-8. In, or by, whom we have redemption — By price and by power, are bought and delivered from the guilt and dominion of sin, the tyranny of Satan, and the final displeasure and wrath of God. Through his blood — Shed for these purposes; or through what he hath done and suffered; having undertaken the great and awful work of making an atonement for us by the sacrifice of himself, by which we obtain, what is an introduction to all the other blessings here mentioned, the forgiveness of sins — For, being pardoned, God’s wrath is removed from us; we are taken into his favour; adopted into his family; born of his Spirit; love him who hath thus first loved us; and, through this love, become holy, and without blame before him. And by these blessings in heavenly things, we are qualified to receive blessings in heavenly places; according to the riches of his grace — According to the abundant overflowings of his free, undeserved mercy and favour, to such sinful and guilty creatures; wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom — Manifested by God in the whole scheme of our salvation; and prudence — Which he hath wrought in us, that we may know and do all his acceptable and perfect will.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv5–9 Having predestinated us - On the meaning of the…
Having predestinated us - On the meaning of the word here used, see the notes at Rom 1:4; Rom 8:29, note. The word used πρωρίζω prōrizō means properly “to set bounds before;” and then to “pre-determine.” There is the essential idea of setting bounds or limits, and of doing this beforehand. It is not that God determined to do it when it was actually done, but that he intended to do it beforehand. No language could express this more clearly, and I suppose this interpretation is generally admitted. Even by those who deny the doctrine of particular election, it is not denied that the word here used means to “pre-determine;” and they maintain that the sense is, that God had pre-determined to admit the Gentiles to the privileges of his people. Admitting then that the meaning is to predestinate in the proper sense, the only question is, “who” are predestinated? To whom does the expression apply? Is it to nations or to individuals? In reply to this, in addition to the remarks already made, I would observe,
(1)That there is no specification of “nations” here as such, no mention of the Gentiles in contradistinction from the Jews.
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(2)Those referred to were those included in the word “us,” among whom Paul was one - but Paul was not a heathen.
(3)The same objection will lie against the doctrine of predestinating “nations” which will lie against predestinating “individuals.”
(4)Nations are made up of individuals, and the pre-determination must have had some reference to individuals.
What is a nation but a collection of individuals? There is no such abstract being or thing as a nation; and if there was any purpose in regard to a nation, it must have had some reference to the individuals composing it. He that would act on the ocean, must act on the drops of water that make up the ocean; for besides the collection of drops of water there is no ocean. He that would remove a mountain, must act on the particles of matter that compose that mountain; for there is no such thing as an abstract mountain. Perhaps there was never a greater illusion than to suppose that all difficulty is removed in regard to the doctrine of election and predestination, by saying that it refers to “nations.” What difficulty is lessened? What is gained by it? How does it make God appear more amiable and good?
Does it render him less “partial” to suppose that he has made a difference among nations, than to suppose that he has made a difference among individuals? Does it remove any difficulty about the offer of salvation, to suppose that he has granted the knowledge of his truth to some “nations,” and withheld it from others? The truth is, that all the reasoning which has been founded on this supposition, has been merely throwing dust in the eyes. If there is “any” well-founded objection to the doctrine of decrees or predestination, it is to the doctrine “at all,” alike in regard to nations and individuals, and there are just the same difficulties in the one case as in the other. But there is no real difficulty in either. Who could worship or honor a God who had no plan, or purpose, or intention in what he did? Who can believe that the universe was formed and is governed without design? Who can doubt that what God “does” he always meant to do?
When, therefore, he converts and saves a soul, it is clear that he always intended to do it. He has no new plan. It is not an afterthought. It is not the work of chance. If I can find out anything that God has “done,” I have the most certain conviction that he “always meant” to do it - and this is all that is intended by the doctrine of election or predestination. What God does, he always meant to do. What he permits, he always meant to permit. I may add further, that if it is right to “do” it, it was right to “intend” to do it. If there is no injustice or partiality in the act itself, there is no injustice or partiality in the intention to perform it. If it is right to save a soul, it was also right to intend to save it. If it is right to condemn a sinner to we, it was right to intend to do it. Let us then look “at the thing itself,” and if that is not wrong, we should not blame the purpose to do it, however long it has been cherished.
Unto the adoption ... - see Joh 1:12 note; Rom 8:15 note.
According to the good pleasure of his will - The word rendered “good pleasure” - (εὐδοκία eudokia) - means “a being well pleased;” delight in anything, favor, good-will, Luk 2:14; Phi 1:15; compare Luk 12:32. Then it denotes purpose, or will, the idea of benevolence being included - Robinson. Rosenmuller renders the phrase, “from his most benignant decree.” The evident object of the apostle is to state why God chose the heirs of salvation. It was done as it seemed good to him in the circumstances of the case. It was not that man had any control over him, or that man was consulted in the determination, or that it was based on the good works of man, real or foreseen. But we are not to suppose that there were no good reasons for what he has thus done. Convicts are frequently pardoned by an executive. He does it according to his own will, or as seems good in his sight.
He is to be the judge, and no one has a right to control him in doing it. It may seeM to be entirely arbitrary. The executive may not have communicated the reasons why he did it, either to those who are pardoned, or to the other prisoners, or to anyone else. But we are not to infer that there was no “reason” for doing it. If he is a wise magistrate, and worthy of his station, it is to be presumed that there were reasons which, if known, would be satisfactory to all. But those reasons he is under no obligations to make known. Indeed, it might be improper that they should be known. Of that he is the best judge. Meantime, however, we may see what would be the effect in those who were not forgiven. It would excite, very likely, their hatred, and they would charge him with partiality or with tyranny. But they should remember that whoever might be pardoned, and on whatever ground it might be done, they could not complain.
They would suffer no more than they deserve. But what if, when the act of pardon was made known to one part, it was offered to the others also on certain plain and easy conditions? Suppose it should appear that while the executive meant, for wise but concealed reasons, to forgive a part, he had also determined to offer forgiveness to all. And suppose that they were in fact disposed in the highest degree to neglect it, and that no inducements or arguments could prevail on them to accept of it. Who then could blame the executive? Now this is about the case in regard to God, and the doctrine of election. All people were guilty and condemned. For wise reasons, which God has not communicated to us, he determined to bring a portion at least of the human race to salvation. This he did not intend to leave to chance and hap-hazard. He saw that all would of themselves reject the offer, and that unless some efficient means were used, the blood of the atonement would be shed in vain.
He did not make known to people who they were that he meant to save, nor the reason why they particularly were to be brought to heaven. Meantime he meant to make the offer universal; to make the terms as easy as possible, and thus to take away every ground of complaint. If people will not accept of pardon; if they prefer their sins; if nothing can induce them to come and be saved, why should they complain? If the doors of a prison are open, and the chains of the prisoners are knocked off, and they will not come out, why should they complain that others are in fact willing to come out and be saved? Let it be borne in mind that the purposes of God correspond exactly to facts as they actually occur, and much of the difficulty is taken away. If in the facts there is no just ground of complaint, there can be none, because it was the “intention of God that the facts should be so.”
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv6, 8, 9 To the praise of the glory of his grace;…
To the praise of the glory of his grace; i.e. unto the glorious praise or commendation of his grace. (Witham)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv5–9 predestinated--more special in respect to the end and precise…
predestinated--more special in respect to the end and precise means, than "chosen" or elected. We are "chosen" out of the rest of the world; "predestinated" to all things that secure the inheritance for us (Eph 1:11; Rom 8:29). "Foreordained."
by Jesus--Greek, "through Jesus."
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to himself--the Father (Col 1:20). ALFORD explains, "adoption . . . into Himself," that is, so that we should be partakers of the divine nature (Pe2 1:4). LACHMANN reads, "unto Him." The context favors the explanation of CALVIN: God has regard to Himself and the glory of His grace (Eph 1:6, Eph 1:12, Eph 1:14) as His ultimate end. He had one only-begotten Son, and He was pleased for His own glory, to choose out of a lost world many to become His adopted sons. Translate, "unto Himself."
the good pleasure of his will--So the Greek (Mat 11:26; Luk 10:21). We cannot go beyond "the good pleasure of His will" in searching into the causes of our salvation, or of any of His works (Eph 1:9). (Job 33:13.) Why needest thou philosophize about an imaginary world of optimism? Thy concern is to take heed that thou be not bad. There was nothing in us which deserved His love (Eph 1:1, Eph 1:9, Eph 1:11) [BENGEL].
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv5–9 5. Having predestinated—That neither election nor predestination is identical…
5. Having predestinated—That neither election nor predestination is identical with foreknowledge, see shown in our note on Rom_8:29. Predestination here, as in that passage, is a destination to a particular thing—namely, to sonship in the image of Christ. If election is to be considered as preceding predestination, it does not follow (as Alford) that election and foreknowledge are to be identified; but that it is an intermediate step between foreknowledge and predestination. Unless we suppose the deity blindly to elect and predestinate, foreknowledge must lie in the divine nature as an attribute back of all acts. Election is the preference for the conditioned object, lying in the eternal divine nature; predestination, the specific direction of the object to its particular blessed destiny. It is the divinely established connexion between the conditioned object and his final salvation, never being affirmed of the wicked.
Adoption of children—The Greek word is simply sonship, and should have been so rendered. The phrase is parallel to conformed to the image of his Son, in Rom_8:29. It therefore more properly expresses regeneration than adoption; regeneration, in its fullest sense, including restoration to Christ’s glorified likeness in the resurrection.
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Good pleasure—The Greek word ευδοκια may signify either beneficence, or an absoluteness of purpose which must not be questioned. Thus, taking it in the latter sense, Bengel says, “Beyond this good pleasure it is lawful for us neither to go prying into the causes of our salvation nor into any other of the works of God.” But the very peremptoriness of such language is at entire discord with the flowing and joyous current of the apostle’s thought while reviewing the free grace of God in our salvation. His boast is not in God’s repressive reserve, but in his open revelation of the mystery of his will according to his beneficence, Eph_1:9-10. In regard to the two disputed meanings of the term, all the reasons seem to be for the former, but the majority of commentators favour the latter. 1. As to its philology, it is conceded that in the Septuagint it is used in the former sense in every case; in the New Testament clearly in every case but two. This settles the question, unless the present context excludes that meaning. But, 2. The context requires the meaning. The whole paragraph is almost a hymn of grateful rapture. Every adverse point, such as the reprobacy of the persistently impenitent, or the conditions of salvation, is omitted or postponed. An insertion, therefore, of the stern, repressive absolutism of the divine counsels is wholly out of time and tune. 3. As already intimated, the same term in Eph_1:9 must have the same meaning. This will clearly appear, we think, in our note upon this verse, showing that it designates the divine beneficence of God’s ideal of a universal restoration of all men, through Christ, to holiness and heaven. 4. The parallelism between this and the following clause requires this meaning: according to the beneficence of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace. Beneficence and grace here, are to be held as different, but cumulative, designations of the same thing.
4. Paul’s thanksgiving for the Ephesians, and prayer for their realization of Christ’s glorious headship, Eph_1:15-23.
15. Wherefore—In view of your thus being happily sealed to this inheritance, Eph_1:13-14.
I also—In response to ye, Eph_1:13. My prayers are for the sealing which is to result in possession, Eph_1:14.
Heard—He probably had not seen them in four or five years.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv5, 6, 8, 9 5. Having predestinated us] Again an aorist, not a…
5. Having predestinated us] Again an aorist, not a perfect, in the Greek; referring to a definite past act. For the same word, in the Greek, cp. Eph_1:11; Act_4:28 (E. V. “determined”); Rom_8:29-30; 1Co_2:7 (E. V. “ordained”). It is lit. “to define, mark out, set apart, beforehand.” All idea of blind destiny must be excluded; the “pre-ordination” is the act of the Living and Holy God. But while we can thus repose upon its justice, it is none the less sovereign. And it is a cause, not an effect, of good desires and holiness in the saints.
the adoption of children] For the (one) word rendered thus, cp. Rom_8:15; Rom_8:23; Rom_9:4; Gal_4:5. The sacred truth of the filial relation of the saints to their Lord’s Father (see above on Eph_1:2) comes out further Eph_3:15, Eph_4:6, Eph_5:1. This sonship has two aspects in the N. T.; the generative aspect, a change in the state of will, character, nature, a new birth; and, as here, the adoptive aspect, a divinely legal institution into filial position and privilege. In the eternal Idea this latter may be said to be first in order; and thus it stands here, in this account of the heavenly origin of our salvation.
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by Jesus Christ] Lit., through Jesus Christ; Representative and Mediator. As in the Old Creation (see e.g. Joh_1:3, “all things came into being through Him”; and cp. Heb_1:2) so in the New, the Father works through the Son, Whom He “gives,” “anoints,” “sanctifies,” “sends.”
to himself] As the Father is the Origin of the process of Redemption, so He is continually presented as its End. See the Lord’s discourses in St John’s Gospel, passim, and e.g. 1Co_15:28; Php_2:11. This fact makes it on the other hand the more deeply significant that the same language is used also with reference to the Son; e.g. below ch. Eph_5:27. And cp. “for Him,” Col_1:16.
according to the good pleasure &c.] The ultimate account of all Divine procedure, from the creature’s point of view. Nothing in that Will is capricious; all is supremely wise and good. But it enfolds an “unseen universe” of reasons and causes wholly beyond our discovery; and here precisely is one main field for the legitimate exercise of faith; personal confidence as to the unknown reasons for the revealed action of a Known God. Cp. Mat_11:26; 1Co_1:21. The word rendered “good pleasure” means specially (in N. T.) deliberate beneficent resolve.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv5–9 (5) Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children…
(5) Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself.—The idea of Election depends on the union of the sense of actual difference between men, as to privilege and spiritual life, with the conviction of God’s universal sovereignty. Hence, in all cases, it leads back to the idea of Predestination, that is, of the conception of the divine purpose in the mind of God, before its realisation in actual fact. On the doctrine of predestination see Romans 9. It will suffice to note that here (1) its source is placed in God’s love; (2) its meritorious cause is the mediation of the Lord Jesus Christ; (3) its result is adoption, so that He is (see Rom_8:29) “the firstborn of many brethren,” who are conformed to His image, and redeemed by Him from bondage to sonship (Gal_4:5). (It is clear that the adoption here is not the final adoption of Rom_8:23; but the present adoption into the Christian covenant, there called “the firstfruits of the Spirit;”) (4) it is in itself the expression of “the good pleasure of His will” on which all ultimately depends; and (5) its final purpose is to show forth God’s glory in the gift of His grace. In a few words the whole doctrine is summed up, with that absolute completeness, so eminently characteristic of this Epistle.
According to the good pleasure of his will.—In our version, “good pleasure,” there is an ambiguity, reproducing the ambiguity of the original. The word used may signify (as in Mat_11:26; Luk_10:21; Php_2:13) simply God’s free will, to which this or that “seemeth good,” or (as in Luk_11:14; Rom_10:1; Php_1:15) “His good will towards us.” Even the old Greek interpreters were divided upon it, and either sense will suit this passage. But the close parallel in Eph_1:11, “according to the counsel (deliberate purpose) of His will,” turns the balance in favour of the former rendering.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv5–9 Having predestinated (or, foreordained) us to adoption through Jesus…
Having predestinated (or, foreordained) us to adoption through Jesus Christ unto himself. The same idea is denoted by proorisav in this verse and ejxelexato in ver. 3, but while in xelexato the idea of selection out from among others is prominent, in proorisav the special phase of thought is that of the time, pro, before before the foundation of the world. Both denote the exercise of Divine sovereignty. In ver. 4 we have the ultimate purpose of God"s decree the entire sanctification of the elect; here, in ver. 5, we find one of the intermediate steps of the process adoption. The apostle"s reason for speaking of adoption in this place, and of justification afterwards, is that be bad just referred to the restoration of a relation of lore between us and God as connected with our ultimate complete sanctification; thus it was natural for him to bring in our adoption as the preordained act in which this loving relation is formed. Our obedience is not the forced obedience of servants, but the loving obedience of sons. Adoption implies more than sentiment a real legal relation to God as his sons. (Rom_8:17) The adoption is "by Jesus Christ:" "As many as received him, to them gave he the right to become children of God". (Joh_1:12) And it is eijv aujton, unto or into himself denoting a movement towards God which terminates in union to Him. According to the good pleasure of his will. The spring or motive to the selection is solely in God, not in man. It is an act of sovereignty. It has been disputed whether "the good pleasure of his will" is equivalent to benevolentia or to bene placitum. Parallel passages like Mat_11:26 and Luk_10:21 lead us to prefer the latter. The idea of kindness is not excluded, but it is not what is affirmed. Kindness is always involved in the Divine will; but the point here is simply that it pleased God to choose and ordain the Ephesian believers to the privilege of adoption through Jesus Christ. This is presented as a ground of praise, a reason for their blessing God. The Divine sovereignty is not presented in Scripture to seekers, but to finders. It is apt to embarrass those that seek; and accordingly the aspect of God"s character presented to them is his good will to men, his free offer of mercy: "Look unto me, and be ye saved;" "Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out." But it is a ground of thanksgiving to those who hare accepted the offer; they see that before the foundation of the world God chose them in Christ. What an interest he must have had in them, and how thoroughly they may rely on his finishing the work he has begun! Divine sovereignty, human responsibility, and the free and universal offer of mercy are all found in Scripture, and, though we are unable to harmonize them by our logic, ought all to have a place in our minds.
Adoption.
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I In a certain sense, all men are children of God; (Mal_2:10) i.e. God has a fatherly interest in them and yearning towards them. But sinners have forfeited the rights and position of sons; they are like the prodigal son, "not worthy to be called thy son." Thus they have no claim on God. Nay, they are "children of wrath". (Eph_2:3)
II Sonship in God"s family is for sinners only the fruit of adoption. Adoption is solely by grace, through Jesus Christ. It is the result of Divine predestination. It belongs only to "as many as receive him". (Joh_1:12) It is the fruit of spiritual oneness with Christ. When we are by faith united to the eternal Son of God, we become, in a lower sense, sons of God ourselves.
III Sonship has many privileges; parallel between nature and grace. Sons have a right to a due provision, to protection and shelter, to education and training; they share their father"s house; they get the benefit of his experience, wisdom, counsel; they enjoy his fellowship, and are molded by his example and influence.
IV Sonship has many duties: obedience, honor, trust; gratitude, complacency, affection; co-operation with the father in his designs and aims.
V In Christ, sonship is indissoluble and everlasting.
The adoption.
"Having predestinated us to the adoption of sons by Jesus Christ to himself." "Adoption" in Scripture expresses more than a change of relation it includes the change of nature as well as the change of relation. It thuscombines the blessings of justification and sanctification, or represents the complex condition of the believer as at once the subject of both. In a word, it presents the new creature in his new relations. This passage teaches
I THAT ADOPTION ORIGINATES IN THE FREE GRACE OF GOD; for we are predestinated thereunto. By nature we have no claim to it. "It is not a natural but a constituted relationship." The idea is not of sonship merely, but of sonship by adoption. None can adopt into the family of God but God himself, and therefore it may be regarded as an act of pure grace and love. "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God!". (1Jn_3:1) He may ask the question, "How shall I put thee among the children?" but he has answered it graciously in the line of covenant promise: I will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord". (2Co_6:18)
II THAT ADOPTION IS IN CONNECTION WITH THE PERSON AND MEDIATION OF CHRIST. He is not merely the Pattern of sonship to which we are to be conformed, but the adoption is "by Jesus Christ." The apostle declares elsewhere that "we are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus", (Gal_3:26) and that "God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the Law, to redeem them that were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption of sons". (Gal_4:4, Gal_4:5) It is evident from these passages that we do not receive the adoption merely in virtue of Christ"s incarnation. Some modern divines hold that the adoption springs, not from the death, but from the birth of Christ; that its benefits are conferred upon every member of the human race by virtue of the Incarnation; that Christ being one with every man, the Root and Archetype of humanity, all men are in him adopted and saved, and that nothing remains for faith but to discern this oneness and his salvation as already belonging to us.
1. This theory makes Christ, and not Adam, the Head of humanity. Yet Scripture makes Adam the true head of humanity, and Christ the Head of the redeemed. Christ is no doubt called "the Head of every man", (1Co_11:9) in so far as he is "the Firstborn of every creature," and as "all things were created" by him and for him; but the allusion is not to the Incarnation at all, but to the pre-existent state of the Son, and to the fact that, according to the original state of things, the world was constituted in him. But the whole race of man is represented as in Adam. (Rom_5:12) How else can we understand the parallel between the two Adams? "That was not first which was spiritual, but that which was natural." "The first man was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit." Is it proper to regard Christ as the Archetype of fallen humanity alienated from God, and needing to be created anew in the Divine? (Col_3:10; Eph_4:24)
2. This theory is inconsistent with Scripture, which makes the Incarnation and the cross inseparable. They are both means to an end: the expiation of sin, the vindication of Divine justice the meritorious obedience to be rendered to the Law. Jesus was born that he might die. The event of Golgotha not only explains but completes the event of Bethlehem. Our Savior came to save the lost; (Mat_18:11) he came to give his life a ransom; (Mat_20:28) he came into the world to save sinners; (1Ti_1:15) he took part of flesh and blood to destroy death; (Heb_2:14) he was manifested to destroy the works of the devil; (1Jn_3:8) it was on the cross he triumphed over principalities and powers. (Col_2:15) There are a hundred passages in Scripture which ascribe our salvation to his death to one passage ascribing it to his birth. It is a suggestive circumstance that he should have appointed a festival to commemorate his death the Lord"s Supper and should have appointed no similar festival to commemorate his birth. The effect, if not the design, of this theory is to destroy the necessity for the atonement, and thus to avoid the offence of the cross. The Incarnation is presented to us as a remedial arrangement by virtue of its connection with the cross, and the connection of man with Christ is represented as corrective of his connection with Adam. Our primary connection is with the first Adam, and we only attain to connection with Christ by regeneration.
III THAT ADOPTION IS FOR THOSE WHO ARE UNITED TO CHRIST BY FAITH. Scripture is exceedingly plain in its testimony upon this point. "Ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus"; (Gal_3:26) "As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his Name"; (Joh_1:12) "As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God". (Rom_8:14) Yet it is said that faith does not make the sonship, but discerns it as already ours. The proper office of faith, however, is not to recognize the blessing of adoption as ours, but "to receive and rest upon Christ alone for salvation, as he is offered to us in the gospel." The blessings of salvation are not conferred on all men prior to their faith or without their faith. The union between Christ and believers, of which the Scripture is so full, is not accomplished by our Lord"s assumption of our common nature, but is only realized through an appropriating faith wrought in each of us by the grace of God.
IV THAT THE ISSUE OF THE ADOPTION" IS TO BRING BELIEVERS AT LAST INTO COMMUNION WITH GOD HIMSELF. "Ye are Christ"s, and Christ is God"s." We are brought into the Divine family family in heaven and in earth" (Eph_3:15) of which God is the Father; for "adoption finds its ultimate enjoyment and blessing in God." If we are thus brought to God and belong to God in virtue of our adoption, ought we not with a profound earnestness to aim at a high and spiritual tone of living? T.C.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv5–9 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by…
Eph_1:5
Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will.
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The predestination of believers
I. The benefit itself. Having predestinated.
1. God first loves us to life before the means bringing us to life are decreed.
2. God has not only chosen some, but ordained effectual means to bring them to the end to which they are chosen.
II. The persons who are predestinated. Those who have believed and are sanctified--of them we may say that they have been predestinated, and shall be glorified. A chain of four links, two of which are kept with God in heaven, and two let down to earth; this chain is so coupled, that whoever are within these mid]inks are within the two others also. How precious then is this faith which purifies the heart, and enables us even to read our names in Gods register of life.
III. The thing to which God has predestinated us. Unto the adoption of children.
1. The dignity of being sons of God.
2. The inheritance of light, or a Divine nature.
3. All the glory we look for in heaven is included.
IV. The cause. Through Jesus Christ.
V. The manner. To Himself, i.e., according to the good pleasure of His will.
1. Sending His Word.
2. Working by it with His Spirit.
VI. The end. To the praise of the glory of His grace. (Paul Bayne.)
Adoption
If the thing itself be right, it must be right that God intended to do the thing; if you find no fault with facts, as you see them in providence, you have no ground to complain of decrees as you find them in predestination, for the decrees and the facts are just the counterparts one of the other. I cannot see, if the fact itself is agreeable, why the decree should be objectionable. I can see no reason why you should find fault with Gods foreordination, if you do not find fault with what does actually happen as the effect of it. Let a man but agree to acknowledge an act of providence, and I want to know how he can, except he runs in the very teeth of providence, find any fault with the predestination or intention that God made concerning that providence. Will you blame me for preaching this morning? Suppose you answer, No. Then can you blame me that I formed a resolution last night that I would preach? Will you blame me for preaching on this particular subject? Do, if you please, then, and find me guilty for intending to do so; but if you say I am perfectly right in selecting such a subject, how can you say I was not perfectly right in intending to preach upon it? Assuredly you cannot find fault with Gods predestination, if you do not find fault with the effects that immediately spring from it. Now, we are taught in Scripture, I affirm again, that all things that God choseth to do in time were most certainly intended by Him to be done in eternity, and He predestined such things should be done. If I am called, I believe God intended before all worlds that I should be called; if in His mercy He has regenerated me, I believe that from all eternity He intended to regenerate me; and if, in His loving kindness, He shall at last perfect me and carry me to heaven, I believe it always was His intention to do so. If you cannot find fault with the thing itself that God does, in the name of reason, common sense, and Scripture, how dare you find fault with Gods intention to do it?
I. Adoption--the grace of it. No man can ever have a right in himself to become adopted. If a king should adopt any into his family, it would likely be the son of one of his lords--at any rate, some child of respectable parentage; he would scarce take the son of some common felon, or some gipsy child, to adopt him into his family; but God, in this case, has taken the very worst to be His children. The saints of God all confess that they are the last persons they should ever have dreamed He would have chosen. Again, let us think not only of our original lineage, but of our personal character. He who knows himself will never think that he had much to recommend him to God. In other cases of adoption there usually is some recommendation. A man, when he adopts a child, sometimes is moved thereto by its extraordinary beauty, or at other times by its intelligent manners and winning disposition. But no; He found a rebellious child, a filthy, frightful, ugly child; He took it to His bosom. I was passing lately by the seat of a nobleman, and someone in the railway carriage observed that he had no children, and he would give any price in the world if he could find someone who would renounce all claim to any son he might have, and the child was never to speak to his parents any more, nor to be acknowledged, and this lord would adopt him as his son, and leave him the whole of his estates, but that he had found great difficulty in procuring any parents who would forswear their relationship, and entirely give up their child. Whether this was correct or not, I cannot tell; but certainly this was not the case with God. His only-begotten and well-beloved Son was quite enough for Him; and, if He had needed a family, there were the angels, and His own omnipotence was adequate enough to have created a race of beings far superior to us; He stood in no need whatever of any to be His darlings. It was then, an act of simple, pure, gratuitous grace, and of nothing else, because He will have mercy on whom He will have mercy, and because He delights to show the marvellous character of His condescension.
II. The privileges which come to us through adoption.
1. We are taken out of the family of Satan. The prince of this world has no more claim upon us.
2. We have Gods name put upon us.
3. We have the spirit as well as the name of children.
4. Access to the throne.
5. We are pitied by God. He pities thee, and that pity of God is one of the comforts that flow into thine heart by thine adoption.
6. In the next place, He protects thee. No father will allow his son to die without making some attempt to resist the adversary who would slay him, and God will never allow His children to perish while His omnipotence is able to guard them.
7. Once again, there is provision as well as protection. Every father will take care to the utmost of his ability to provide for his children.
8. And then you shall likewise have education. God will educate all His children till He makes them perfect men in Christ Jesus.
9. There is one thing perhaps you sometimes forget, which you are sure to have in the course of discipline if you are Gods sons, and that is, Gods rod.
10. Lastly, so sure as we are the children of God by adoption, we must inherit the promise that pertains to it--If children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. If we suffer with Him, we shall also be glorified together.
III. There are some duties which are connected with adoption. When the believer is adopted into the Lords family, there are many relationships which are broken off. The relationship with old Adam and the law ceases at once; but then he is under a new law, the law of grace--under new rules, and under a new covenant. And now I beg to admonish you of duties, children of God. It is this--if God be thy father, and thou art His son, thou art bound to trust Him. Oh! if He were only thy Master, and thou ever so poor a servant, thou wouldst be bound to trust Him. But, when thou knowest that He is thy Father, wilt thou ever doubt Him? (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Adoption and its privileges
After the battle of Austerlitz, Napoleon immediately adopted all the children of the soldiers who had fallen. They were supported and educated by the State, and, as belonging to the family of the emperor, they were permitted to attach the name of Napoleon to their own.
Adoption confers honour
It was at Vienna, in the year 1805, that Haydn, then seventy-three years of age, first met Cherubini, who, though not a young man, still must have appeared so to the veteran composer, being thirty years his junior, and not having then composed many of those works which have since made his name so famous. Bat the very fact of his own seniority was made use of by the old man to utter one of the most graceful compliments which could have been spoken for the encouragement of a younger worker. Handing to Cherubini one of his latest compositions, Haydn said, Permit me to style myself your musical father, and to call you my son, words which made such an impression on Cherubini that he could not keep back the tears when he parted with the aged Haydn.
Election and adoption into Gods family
I. God chose and predestined these ephesian Christians before the foundation of the world.
1. We must not so conceive of Gods election, and the influence of His grace, as to set aside our free agency and final accountableness.
2. Nor must we so explain away Gods sovereignty and grace as to exalt man to a state of independence.
II. They were chosen to be holy and without blame, before Him, in love. Holiness consists in the conformity of the soul to the Divine nature and will, and is opposed to all moral evil. In fallen creatures it begins in the renovation of the mind after the image of God. Love is a main branch of holiness.
III. The adoption to which believers are predestinated.
1. Adoption implies a state of freedom, in opposition to bondage.
2. Adoption brings us under the peculiar care of Gods providence.
3. Adoption includes a title to a glorious resurrection from the dead, and to an eternal inheritance in the heavens.
IV. All spiritual blessings are derived to us through Jesus Christ.
V. The season of Gods choosing believers in Christ, and predestinating them to adoption, is the good pleasure of His will. The original plan of salvation is from Him, not from us. The gospel is a Divine gift, not a human discovery; and our being in circumstances to enjoy it is not the effect of our previous choice, but of Gods sovereign goodness.
VI. The great purpose for which God has chosen and called us is the praise of the glory of His grace. Goodness is the glory of the Divine character; grace is the glory of the Divine goodness; the plan of salvation for sinners by Jesus Christ is the glory of Divine grace. (J. Lathrop, D. D.)
Regeneration and sonship in Christ
I. Christ is the unique son of God. From what we know of our Lord as He lived among men, nothing so perfectly represents the impression which His character, spirit, and history produce upon us as the title which describes Him as the Son of God. Other men had been Gods servants; He, too, was born under the law; but to speak of Him as a servant does not tell half the truth. He is a servant, and something more. There is an ease, a freedom, a grace about His doing of the will of God, which can belong only to a Son. About the Fathers love for Him He has never any doubt; and there is no sign that His perfect faith is the result of discipline, or that it had ever been less secure and tranquil than it was in the maturity of His strength. When He speaks of the glory which is to come to Him after His death and resurrection, He is still a Son anticipating the honour to which the Father has always destined Him, and which indeed had always been His.
II. Christians are the adopted sons of God. If we are in Christ we, according to Gods eternal purpose, have become Gods sons. The eternal relationship between Christ and the Father cannot belong to us; but all who are one with Christ share the blessedness, the security, and the honour of that relationship; and the life of Christ, which has its eternal fountains in the life of God, is theirs.
III. Christians are made Sons of God by a new and supernatural birth. Regeneration is sometimes described as though it were merely a change in a mans principles of conduct, character, taste, habits. If so, we should have to speak of a man as being more or less regenerate according to the extent of his moral reformation, which would be contrary to the idiom of New Testament thought. The simplest and most obvious account of regeneration is the truest. When a man is regenerated he receives a new life, and receives it from God. A higher nature comes to him than that which he inherited from his human parents; he is begotten of God, born of the Spirit.
IV. The incarnation of Christ effects our adoption and regeneration. The capacity for receiving the Divine life is native to us, but the actual realization of our sonship is possible only through Christ. Not until the Son of God became Man could men, either in this world or in worlds unseen, become the sons of God. The Incarnation raised human nature to a loftier level, lifted it nearer to God, fulfilled in a new and nobler manner the Divine idea of humanity.
V. These blessings are to be ascribed solely to Gods infinite love. We had no claim upon Him for gifts like these. Nor, in conferring them, did He act under the constraint of any law of His own nature which imposed upon Him either a necessity or an obligation to raise us to the dignity of Divine sonship. It is all the result of His free, unforced, spontaneous kindliness. What He has done for us is to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed upon us in the Beloved. (R. W. Dale, LL. D.)
Adoption
1. Wherein does the predestination of the fifth verse differ from the election of the fourth? Election only, and always, refers to the Church; predestination refers to the Church, and the world, and the whole universe. It is a general, all-embracing principle. He elected us that we should be holy, and to accomplish this He predestined us to the adoption of sons. Election is a mere passive preference of some rather than others, while predestination is active, and includes the ideas of ordering, defining, and controlling all things according to a settled purpose and plan. Election is the foundation of a Church, and predestination is the basis of providence.
2. But what is this adoption to which we are predestinated? It is the very first of the privileges which Paul ascribes to the Jewish nation--To whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law and the promises; whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed forever (Rom_9:4-5). In a wide sense, the Jews were nationally the children of God, and the principle of adoption was in their polity; for the Son of God, the Messiah, was the hope of the nation. They were His peculiar people (Deu_14:2). But the adoption is the peculiar privilege and glory of the New Testament Church, in which the incorruptible seed remains, because they are born of God.
3. This adoption into the family of God is by or through Jesus Christ.
4. The two words unto Himself has occasioned the commentators some trouble, and their sentiments are very various. But surely, looked at simply, the most common understanding can see no difficulty in this idea--God has predestinated us unto the adoption of children to or for Himself. Is it not a Scriptural idea that the Church is the peculiar treasure and property of God? (See Exo_19:5; Deu_14:2; Psa_135:4; Tit_2:14)
5. Note here, also, that this predestination and adoption are according to the good pleasure of His will. This is the mode and the measure of His working.
6. We see here the purpose in which all His working, before time and in time, ends--That we might be to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved (Eph_1:6). The phrase glory of His grace is a Hebraism which our translators have rendered literally, but which means His glorious grace. (For similar forms see Col_1:27; 2Th_1:9) The purpose of electing and redeeming love is to form from among the sinners of mankind a people to the praise and glory of God. The glorious grace of God shines forth in the struggling, wrestling Church more than anywhere else in the creation; for it is there put to the severest tests, and, like the rainbow in clouds and storms, it is enhanced by the contrast. As sure, and so far as God is the Ruler and Governor of the world, the great end of every creature must be His glory; and as grace is the form in which His glory has shone forth most brightly on this earth, the highest aim of the redeemed creature--in all states and conditions of being--should ever be to the praise of His glorious grace. (W. Graham, D. D.)
Adoption
I. The adoption of children to himself, unto which we are said to be predestinated. The adoption of children necessarily implies that those admitted or chosen to this honour are not naturally or legally children, but become so only by the will and act of Him who adopts them.
1. The adoption of children is the permanent restitution of sinners unto the favour, love, and enjoyment of God.
2. There is implied or included in this a participation in the Divine Glory, through the gift of the Holy Spirit. The third person in the Trinity receives the peculiar name of the Spirit of Adoption.
3. In the adoption of children, all is included whatsoever is embraced in the inheritance of the saints in light. It doth not yet appear what we shall be. The half hath not yet been told us concerning the dignity and blessedness of heaven.
II. God hath predestinated us unto the adoption of children. Now this predestination stands connected with the election spoken of in the previous verse. In respect of the purpose or design of God, it is not to be distinguished from that election--as if the one preceded the other in the order of time. When He elected or chose us in His love, He also predestinated us in His wisdom and power, and when He predestinated us He also in love chose us. But the term election has respect more to the affection of the Divine Heart, so to speak; whereas the term predestination has respect more to the plan and purpose of the Divine Mind. It leads us to consider a certain definite end, purposed, determined, and secured--which in the present case is the adoption of children to Himself. Infinite wisdom, and infinite power, can infallibly carry out the designs of infinite sovereignty; and He who hath chosen us out of love can easily, in His sovereign wisdom and power, bring us into the possession of all that infinite love would have us to enjoy.
III. The ground of this predestination, viz., According to the good pleasure of His will. The expression is to be understood of that sovereign will of God which acknowledges no superior beyond itself, and no cause whatsoever moving it from without.
IV. That Gods predestination and the good pleasure of His will are carried out by Jesus Christ--the Beloved--in whom we are accepted. The mystery of salvation is not perceived at all until we bring into account the necessity of such an atonement as could be effected only by the Son of God Himself.
V. The final end which God hath proposed in the salvation of the Church is the praise of the glory of His grace. He hath predestinated us unto the adoption of children … to the praise of the glory of His grace. God can accomplish no higher or better end than the manifestation of His own glory. Since, in and of Himself, He is infinitely and eternally blessed, therefore it was an act of pure goodness on the part of God to create a race of intelligent beings, who being endowed with freedom of will, might, in the right exercise of their powers and faculties, find their happiness in contemplating His glory and sharing His favour. This freedom having been abused by all, in departing from the true object of delight and satisfaction, it becomes an act of grace on the part of God to renew to any the favours of His love and friendship. Contemplating sinners lying in their guilt and pollution and misery, God found the highest motive for extending to them His goodness entirely in Himself. I, even I, am He that blotteth out thy transgressions for Mine own names sake. (W. Alves, M. A.)
God wills our salvation
When the Crusaders heard the voice of Peter the Hermit, as he bade them go to Jerusalem to take it from the hands of the invaders, they cried out at once, Deus vult; God wills it; God wills it; and every man plucked his sword from its scabbard, and set out to reach the holy sepulchre, for God willed it. So come and drink, sinner; God wills it. Trust Jesus; God wills it. Father, Thy will be done on earth even as it is in heaven. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Adoption defined and illustrated
Adoption is that act of God whereby men who were by nature the children of wrath even as others, are, entirely of the pure grace of God, translated out of the evil and black family of Satan, and brought actually and virtually into the family of God, so that they take His Name, share the privileges of sons, and are to all intents and purposes the actual offspring and children of God. Did you ever think what a high honour it is to be called a son of God? Suppose a judge of the land should have before him some traitor who was about to be condemned to die. Suppose that equity and law demanded this, but suppose it were possible for the judge to step from his throne and to say, Rebel as thou air, I have found out a way whereby I can forgive thy rebellions. Man, thou art pardoned! There is a flush of joy upon his cheek. Man, thou art made rich; see, there is wealth! Another smile passes over the countenance. Man, thou art made so strong that; thou shalt be able to resist all thine enemies! He rejoices again. Man, saith the judge at last, thou art adopted into the Royal Family, and thou shalt one day wear a crown! Thou art now as much the Son of God as thou art the son of thine own father. You can conceive the poor creature fainting with joy at such a thought. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v6 Chapter 3
Chapter 3
THE BESTOWMENT OF GRACE
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Eph_1:6-12
THE blessedness of men in Christ is not matter of purpose only, but of reality and experience. With the word grace in the middle of the sixth verse the apostles thought begins a new movement. We have seen Grace hidden in the depths of eternity in the form of sovereign and fatherly election, lodging its purpose in the foundation of the world. From those mysterious depths we turn to the living world in our own breast. There, too, Grace dwells and reigns: "which grace He imparted to us, in the Beloved, -in whom we have redemption through His blood." The leading word of this clause we can only paraphrase; it has no English equivalent. St. Paul perforce turns grace into a verb; this verb occurs in the New Testament but once besides, in Luk_1:28, the angels salutation to Mary: "Hail thou that art highly favoured (made-an-object-ofgrace)." If we could employ our Verb to grace in a sense corresponding to that of the noun grace in the apostles dialect and nearly the opposite of to disgrace, then graced would signify what he means here, viz., treated with grace, made its recipients.
God "showed us grace in the Beloved"-or, to render the phrase with full emphasis, "in that Beloved One"-even as He "chose us in Him before the worlds foundation" and "in love predestined us for adoption." The grace is conveyed upon the basis of our relationship to Christ: on that ground it was conceived in the counsels of eternity. The Voice from heaven which said at the baptism of Jesus and again at the transfiguration, "This is My Son, the Beloved," uttered Gods eternal thought regarding Christ. And that regard of God toward the Son of His love is the fountain of His love and grace to men.
Christ is the Beloved not of the Father alone, but of the created universe. All that know the Lord Jesus must needs love and adore Him-unless their hearts are eaten out by sin. Not to love Him is to be anathema. "If any man love Me," said Jesus, "My Father will love him." Nothing so much pleases God and brings us into fellowship with God so direct and joyous, as our love to Jesus Christ. About this at least heaven and earth may agree, that He is the altogether lovely and loveworthy. Agreement in this will bring about agreement in everything. The love of Christ will tune the jarring universe into harmony.
I. of grace bestowed, the first manifestation, in the experience of Paul and his readers, was "the forgiveness of their trespasses". {comp. Eph_2:13-18} This is "the redemption" that "we have." And it comes "through His blood." The epistles to the Galatians and Romans expound at length the apostles doctrine touching the remission of sin and the relation of Christs death to human transgression. To "redemption" we shall return in considering Eph_1:4, where the word is used, as again in Eph_4:30, in its further application.
Rom_3:22-26 "the redemption that is in Christ Jesus" is declared to be the means by which we are acquitted in the judgment of God from the guilt of past transgressions. And this redemption consists in the "propitiatory sacrifice" which Christ offered in shedding His blood-a sacrifice wherein we participate "through faith." The language of this verse contains by implication all that is affirmed there. In this connection, and according to the full intent of the word, redemption is "release by ransom." The life-blood of Jesus Christ was the "price" that He paid in order to secure our lawful release from the penalties entailed by our trespasses. This Jesus Christ implied beforehand, when He spoke of "giving His life a ransom for many"; and when He said, in handing to His disciples the cup of the Last Supper: "This is My blood, the blood of the covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins." Using another synonymous term, St. Paul tells us that "Christ bought us out of the curse of the law"; and he bases on this expression a strong practical appeal: "You are not your own, for ye were bought with a price." These sayings, and others like them, point unmistakably to the fact that our trespasses as men against Gods inflexible law, apart from Christs intervention, must have issued in our eternal ruin. By His death on the cross Christ has made such amends to the law, that the awful sentence is averted, and our complete release from the power of sin is rendered possible.
On rising from the dead our Saviour commissioned the apostles to "proclaim in His name repentance and remission of sins to all nations." {Luk_24:47} It was thus He proposed to save the world. This proclamation is the "good news" of the gospel. The announcement meets the first need of the serious and awakened human spirit. It answers the question which arises in the breast of every man who thinks earnestly about his personal relations to God and to the laws of his being. We cannot wonder that St. Paul sets the remission of sins first amongst the bestowments of Gods grace, and makes it the foundation of all the rest.
Does it occupy the like position in modern Christian teaching? Do we realise the criminality of sin, the fearfulness of Gods displeasure, the infinite worth of His forgiveness, and the obligations under which it places us, as St. Paul and his converts did? or even as our fathers did a few generations ago. "It is my impression," writes Dr. R. W. Dale, "that both religious people and those who do not profess to be religious must be conscious that Gods Forgiveness, if they ever think of it at all, does not create any deep and strong emotion The difference between the way in which we think of the Divine Forgiveness and the way in which it was thought of by David and Isaiah, by Christ Himself, by Peter, Paul, and John; by the saints of all Christian Churches in past times, both in the East and in the West; by the leaders of the Evangelical Revival in the last century-the difference, I say, between the way in which the Forgiveness of sins was thought of by them, and the way in which we think of it, is very startling. The difference is so great, it affects so seriously the whole system of the religious thought and life, that we may be said to have invented a new religion The difference between our religion and the religion of other times is this-that we do not believe that God has any strong resentment against sin or against those who are guilty of sin: And since His resentment has gone, His mercy has gone with it. We have not a God who is more merciful than the God of our fathers, but a God who is less righteous; and a God who is not righteous, a God who does not glow with fiery indignation against sin, is no God at all."
These are solemn words, to be deeply pondered. They come from one of the most sagacious observers and justly revered teachers of our time. We have made a real advance in breadth and human sympathy; and there has been throughout our Churches a genuine and much-needed awakening of philanthropic activity. But if we are "departing from the living God," what will this avail us? If "the redemption through Christs blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses," is no longer to us the momentous and glorious fact that it was to the apostles, then it is time to ask whether our God is in truth the same as theirs, whether He is still the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ-whether we are not, haply, fabricating for ourselves another gospel. Without a piercing sense of the shame and ruin involved in human sin, we shall not put its remission where St. Paul does, at the foundation of Gods benefits to men. Without this sentiment, we can only wonder at the passionate gratitude with which he receives the atonement and measures by its completeness the riches of Gods grace.
II. Along with this chief blessing of forgiveness, there came another to the apostolic Church. With the heart the mind, with the conscience the intellect, was quickened and endowed: "which (grace) He shed abundantly upon us in all wisdom and intelligence."
This sequel to Eph_1:7 is somewhat of a surprise. The reader is apt to slur over Eph_1:8, half sensible of some jar and incongruity between it and the context. It scarcely occurs to us to associate wisdom and good sense with the pardon of sin, as kindred bestowments of the gospel. Minds of the evangelical order are often supposed, indeed, to be wanting in intellectual excellences and indifferent to their value. Is it not true that "not many wise after the flesh were called"? Do we not glory above everything in preaching a "simple gospel"?
But there is another side to all this. "Christ was made of God unto us wisdom." This attribute the apostle even sets first when he writes to the wisdom-seeking Greeks, mocked by their worn-out and confused philosophies. {1Co_1:30} To a close observer of the primitive Christian societies few things must have been more noticeable than the powerful mental stimulus imparted by the new faith. These epistles are a witness to the fact. That such letters could be addressed to communities gathered mainly from the lower ranks of society-consisting of slaves, common artisans, poor women-shows that the moral regeneration effected in St. Pauls converts was accompanied by an extraordinary excitement and activity of thought. In this the apostle recognised the work of the Holy Spirit, a mark of Gods special favour and blessing. "I give thanks always for you," he writes to the Corinthians, "for the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, that in everything you were enriched by Him, in all word and all knowledge." The leaders of the apostolic Church were the profoundest thinkers of their day; though at the time the world held them for babblers, because their dialect was not in its schools. They drew from stores of wisdom and knowledge hidden in Christ, which none of the princes of this world knew. Of such wisdom our epistle is full, and God "has made it to abound" to the readers in these inspired pages. Pauls "understanding in the mystery of Christ" was always deepening. In his lonely prison musings the length and breadth of the Divine counsels are disclosed to him as never before. He sees the course of the ages and of the universe being illuminated by the light of the knowledge of Christ. And what he sees, all men are to see through him. {Eph_3:9} Blessed be God who has given to His Church through His apostles, and through the great Christian teachers of every age, His precious gifts of wisdom and prudence, and made His grace richly to overflow from the heart into the mind and understanding of men!
This intellectual gift is twofold: phronesis as well as sophia, -the bestowment not only of deep spiritual thought, but of moral sagacity, good sense, and thoughtfulness: This is a choice charism - a mercy of the Lord. For want of it how sadly is the fruit of other graces spoilt and wasted. How brightly it shines in St. Paul himself! What luminous and wholesome views of life, what a fund of practical sense, there is in the teaching of this letter.
St. Paul rejoices in these gifts of the understanding and claims them for the Church, having in his view the false knowledge, the "philosophy and vain deceit" that was making its appearance in the Asian Churches. {Col_2:4,Col_2:8, etc.} Our safeguard against intellectual perils lies not in ignorance, but in deeper heart-knowledge. When the grace that bestows redemption through Christs blood adds its concomitant blessing of enlightenment, when it elevates the mind as it cleanses the heart, and abounds to. us in all wisdom and prudence, the winds of doctrine and the waves of speculation blow and beat in vain; they can but bring health to a Church thus established in its faith.
Eph_1:9-10 describe the object of this. new knowledge. They state the doctrine which gave this powerful mental impulse to the apostolic Church, disclosing to it a vast field of view, and supplying the most fertile and vigorous principles of moral wisdom. This impulse lay in the revelation of Gods purpose to reconstitute the universe in Christ. The declaration of "the mystery of His will" comes in at this point episodically, and by the way; and we reserve it for consideration to the end of the present chapter.
But let us observe here that our wisdom and prudence lie in the knowledge of Gods will. Truth is not to be found in any system of logical notions, in schemes and syntheses of the laws of nature or of thought. The human mind can never rest for long in abstractions. It will not accept for its basis of thought that which is less real and positive than itself. By its rational instincts it is compelled to seek a Reason and a Conscience at the centre of things, -a living God. It craves to know "the mystery of His will."
III. Eph_1:2 fills up the measure of the bestowment of grace on sinful men. The present anticipates the future; faith and love are lifted to a glorious hope. "In whom also (i.e., in Christ) we received our heritage, predestinated to it, according to His purpose who works all things according to the counsel of His will."
Following Meyer and other great interpreters, we prefer in this passage the rendering of the English Authorised Version ("we obtained an inheritance") to that of the Revised ("we were made a heritage"). "Fore-ordained" carries us back to Eph_1:5 - to the phrase "foreordained to sonship." The believer cannot be predestinated to sonship without being predestinated to an inheritance. "If children, then heirs". {Rom_8:17} But while in the parallel passage we are designated heirs "with" Christ, we appear in this place, according to the tenor of the context, as heirs "in" Him. Christ is Himself the believers wealth, both in possession and hope: all his desire is to gain Christ. {Php_3:8} The apostle gives thanks here in the same strain as in Col_1:12-14, "to the Father who qualified us (by making us His sons) to partake of the inheritance of the saints in the light." In that thanksgiving we observe the same connection as in this between our "forgiveness" (Eph_1:7) and our "enfeoffment," or investment with the forfeited rights of sons of God (Eph_1:5, Eph_1:11).
The heritage of the saints in Christ is theirs already, by actual investiture. The liberty of sons of God, access to the Father, the treasures of Christs wisdom and knowledge, the sanctifying Spirit and the moral strength and joy that He imparts, these form a rich estate of which ancient saints had but foretastes and promises. In the all-controlling "counsel of His will," God wrought throughout the course of history to convey this heritage to us. We are children of "the fulness of the times," heirs of all the past. For us God has been working from eternity, on us the ends of the world have come. Thus from the summit of our exaltation in Christ the apostle looks backward to the beginning of Divine history.
From the same point his gaze sweeps onward to the end. Gods purpose embraces the ages to come with those of the past. His working will not cease till the whole counsel is fulfilled. What we have of our inheritance, though rich and real, holds in it the promise of infinitely more; and the Holy Spirit is the "earnest of our inheritance" (Eph_1:14). God intends "that we should be to the praise of His glory." As things are, His glory is but obscurely visible in His saints. "It doth not yet appear what we shall be," - and will not appear until the unveiling of the sons of God. {Rom_8:18-25} One day Gods glory in us will burst forth in its splendour. All beholders in heaven and earth will then sing "to the praise of His glory," when it is seen in His redeemed and godlike sons. Eph_1:9-10 ("which He purposed upon the earth") are, as we have said, a parenthesis or episode in the passage just reviewed. Neither in structure nor in sense would the paragraph be defective, had this clause been wanting. With the "in Him" repeated at the end of Eph_1:10, St. Paul resumes the main current of his thanksgiving, arrested for a moment while he dwells on "the mystery of Gods will."
This last expression (Eph_1:9), notwithstanding what he has said in Eph_1:4 and Eph_1:5, still needs elucidation. He will pause for an instant to set forth once more the eternal purpose, to the knowledge of which the Church is now admitted. The communication of this mystery is, he says, "according to Gods good pleasure which he purposed in Christ (comp. Eph_1:4), for a dispensation of the fulness of the times, intending to gather up again all things in the Christ-the things in the heavens, and the things upon the earth."
God formed in Christ the purpose, by the dispensation of His grace, in due time to re-unite the universe under the headship of Christ. This mysterious design, hitherto kept secret, He has made known unto us. Its manifestation imparts a wisdom that surpasses all the wisdom of former ages. Such is the drift of this profound deliverance.
The first clause of Eph_1:10 supplies a datum for its interpretation. "The fulness of the times," in St. Pauls dialect, can only be the time of Christ. The dispensation which God designed of old is that in which the apostle himself is now engaged; it is the dispensation, or administration ("economy"), of the grace and truth that came by Jesus Christ, whether God be conceived as Himself the Dispenser, or through the stewards of His mysteries. The Messianic end was to Pauls Jewish thought the denouement of antecedent history. How long this age would continue, into what epochs it might unfold itself, he knew riot; but for him the fulness of the times had arrived. The Son of God was come; the kingdom of God was amongst men. It was the beginning of the end. It is a mistake to relegate this text to the dim and distant future, to some far-off consummation. We are in the midst of the Christian reconstruction of things, and are taking part in it. The decisive epoch fell when "God sent forth His Son." All that has followed, and will follow, is the result of this mission. Christ is all things, and in all; and we are already complete in Him.
What, then, signifies this "gathering-into-one" or "summing-up" of all things in Christ? Our "recapitulate" is the nearest equivalent of the Greek verb, in its etymological sense. In Rom_13:8-9 the same word is used, where the several commands of the second table of the Decalogue are said to be "comprehended in this word, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." This summing up is not a generalisation or compendious statement of the commands of God; it signifies their reduction to a fundamental principle. They are unified by the discovery of a law that underlies them all. And while thus theoretically explained, they are made practically effective: "For love is the fulfilling of the law."
Similarly, St. Paul finds in Christ the fundamental principle of the creation. For those who think with him, God has by the Christian revelation already brought all things to their unity. This summing up-the Christian inventory and recapitulation of the universe-the apostle has formally stated in Col_1:15-20 : "Christ is Gods image and creations firstborn. In Him, through Him, for Him all things were made. He is before them all; and in Him they have their basis and uniting bond. He is equally the Head of the Church and the new creation, the firstborn out of the dead, that He might hold a universal presidence-charged with all the fulness, so that in Him is the ground of the reconciliation no less than of the creation of all things in heaven and earth." What can we desire more comprehensive than this? It is the theory and programme of the world revealed to Gods holy apostles and prophets.
The "gathering into one" of this text includes the "reconciliation" of Col_1:20, and more. It signifies, beside the removal of the enmities which are the effect of sin, {Eph_2:14-16} the subjection of all powers in heaven and earth to the rule of Christ (Eph_2:21-22), the enlightenment of the angelic magnates as to Gods dealings with men, {Eph_3:9-10} -in fine, the rectification and adjustment of the several parts of the great whole of things, bringing them into full accord with each other and with their Creators will. What St. Paul looks forward to is, in a word, the organisation of the universe upon a Christian basis. This reconstitution of things is provided for and is being effected "in the Christ." He is the rallying point of the forces of peace and blessing. The organic principle, the organising Head, the creative nucleus of the new creation is there. The potent germ of life eternal has been introduced into the worlds chaos; and its victory over the elements of disorder and death is assured.
Observe that the apostle says "in the Christ." He is not speaking of Christ in the abstract, considered in His own Person or as He dwells in heaven, but in His relations to men and to time. The Christ manifest in Jesus, {Eph_4:20-21} the Christ of prophets and apostles, the Messiah of the ages, the Husband of the Church, {Eph_5:23} is the author and finisher of this grand restoration.
Christs work is essentially a work of "restoration." We must insist, with Meyer, upon the significance of the Greek preposition in Pauls compound verb (ana-, equal to re-in "restore" or "resume"). The Christ is not simply the climax of the past-the Son of man and the recapitulation of humanity, as man is of the creatures below him, summing up human development and lifting it to a higher stage-though He is all that. Christ "rehabilitates" man and the world. He re-asserts the original ground of our being, as that exists in God. He carries us and the world forward out of sin and death, by carrying us back to Gods ideal. The new world is the old world repaired, and in its reparation infinitely enhanced-rich in the memories of redemption, in the fruit of penitence and the discipline of suffering, in the lessons of the cross. "All things" in heaven and earth it was Gods good pleasure in the Christ to gather again into one. Is this a general assertion concerning the universe as a whole, or may we apply it with distributive exactness to each particular thing? Is there to be, as we fain would hope, no single exception to the "all things"-no wanderer lost, no exile finally shut out from the Holy City and tree of life? Are all evil men and demons, willing or against their will, to be embraced somehow and at last-at last-in the universal peace of God?
It is impossible that the first readers should have so construed Pauls words. {Eph_5:5} He has not forgotten the "unquenchable fire," the "eternal punishment," nor dare we. "If any thing is certain about the teaching of Christ and His apostles, it is that they warned men not to reject the Divine mercy, and so to incur irrevocable exile from Gods presence and joy. They assumed that some men would be guilty of this supreme crime, and would be doomed to this supreme woe" (Dale). There is nothing in this text to warrant any man in presuming on the mercy or the sovereignty of God, nothing to justify us in supposing that, deliberately refusing to be reconciled to God in Christ, we shall yet be reconciled in the end despite ourselves.
St. Paul assures us that God and the world will be reunited, and that peace will reign through all realms and orders of existence. He does not, and he could not, say that none will exclude themselves from the eternal kingdom. Making men free, God has made it possible for them to contradict Him, so long as they have any being. The apostles words have their note of warning, along with their boundless promise. There is no place in the future order of things for aught that is out of Christ. There is no standing-ground anywhere for the unclean and the unjust, for the irreconcilable rebel against God. "The Son of man shall send forth His angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all things that offend and them that do iniquity."
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv5–9 5. Having predestinated us. Foreordained that we, the church…
5. Having predestinated us. Foreordained that we, the church of Jesus Christ, should be adopted as his children. The whole line of argument is general instead of particular. God foreordained a church which should be composed of those adopted as his children. According to the pleasure of his will. The act of predestination was due simply to God's sovereign will. His will was the cause.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain On v5 5-8. “In love having predestinated us unto sonship in…
5-8. “In love having predestinated us unto sonship in himself through Jesus Christ.” Here is a beautiful allusion to the Father’s love, which moved him to interpose the wonderful redemptive scheme.
“O for this love let rocks and hills Their lasting silence break, And all harmonious human tongues Their Savior’s praises speak.
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Angels, assist our mighty joys; Strike all your harps of gold;
But when you reach your highest notes, His love can ne’er be told.”
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On vv5, 7 Eph 1:5; Eph 1:7.
EPHESIANS
ACCORDING TO’-I.
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Eph 1:5; Eph 1:7.
That phrase, ‘according to,’ is one of the key-words of this profound epistle, which occurs over and over again, like a refrain. I reckon twelve instances of it in three chapters of the letter, and they all introduce one or other of the two thoughts which appear in the two fragments that I have taken for my text. They either point out how the great blessings of Christ’s mission have underlying them the divine purpose, or they point out how the process of the Christian life in the individual has for its source and measure the abundances, the wealth of the grace and the power of God. So in both aspects the facts of earth are traced up to, and declared to be, the outcome of the heavenly depths, and that gives solemnity, grandeur, elevation, to this epistle all its own. We are carried, as it were, away up into the recesses of the mountains of God, and we look down upon the unruffled, mysterious, deep lake, from which come the rivers that water all the plains beneath.
Now of these two types of reference to the divine will and the divine wealth, I should like to gather together the instances, as they occur in this letter, in so far as I can, in the course of a sermon, touching them, it must be, very imperfectly. But I fear that it is impossible to deal with both the phases of this ‘according to,’ in one discourse. So I confine myself to that which is suggested by the first of our two texts, in the hope that some other day we may be able to overtake the other. So then, we have set before us here the Christian thought of the divine will which underlies, and therefore is manifest by, the work of Jesus Christ, in its whole sweep and breadth. And I just take up the various instances in which this expression occurs in a great variety of forms, but all retaining substantially the same meaning.
I. Note that that divine will which underlies and is operative in, and therefore is certified to us by the whole work of Jesus Christ, in its facts and its consequences, is a ‘good pleasure.’
Now there are few thoughts which the history of the world has shown to be more productive of iron and steel in the human character than that of the sovereign will of God. That made Islam, and is the secret of its power to-day, amidst its many corruptions. Because these wild desert tribes were all stiffened, or I might say inflamed, by that profound conviction, the sovereign will of God, they came down like a hammer upon that corrupt so-called Christian Church, and swept it off the face of the earth, as it deserved to be swept. And the same thought of the sovereign will, of which we are but instruments-pawns on its chessboard-made the grand seventeenth century Puritanism in England, and its sister type of men and of religion in Holland. For this is a historically proved thesis, that there is nothing which so contributes to the formation, and valuation of, and the readiness to die for, civil liberty, as the firm grasp of that thought of the divine sovereignty. Just because a man realises that the will of God is supreme over all the earth, he rebels against all forms of human despotism.
But with all the good that is in that great thought-and the Christianity of this day sorely wants the strength that might be given it by the exhibition of that steel medicine-it wants another, ‘the good pleasure of His will.’ And that word, ‘good pleasure,’ does not express, as I think, in Paul’s usage of it, the simple notion of sovereignty, but always the notion of a benevolent sovereignty. It is ‘the good pleasure’-as it is put in another place by the same Apostle-’of His goodness.’ And that thought, let in upon the solemnity and severity of the other one, is all that it needs in order to make the man who grasps it not only a hero in conflict, and a patient martyr in endurance, but a child in his Father’s house, rejoicing in the love of his Father everywhere and always.
Paul would have us believe that if we will take the work of Jesus Christ in the facts of His life, and its results upon humanity, as our horn-book and lesson, we shall draw from that some conceptions of the great thing that underlies it, ‘the good pleasure of His will.’ We stand in front of this complex universe, and some of us say: ‘Law’; and some of us say: ‘A Lawgiver behind the law; a Person at the heart of all things’; but unless we can say: ‘And in the heart of the Person a will, which is the expression of a steadfast, omnipotent love,’ then the world seems to me to be a place of unsolvable riddles and a torture-house. There goes the great steam-roller along the road. Everybody can see that it crushes down, and makes its own path. Who drives it? The steam in the boiler, or is there a hand on the lever? And what drives the hand? Christianity answers, and answers with unfaltering lip, rising clear above contradictions apparent and difficulties real, ‘The good pleasure of His will,’ and there men can rest.
Then there is another step. Another form in which this ‘according to’ appears in this letter is, if we adopt the rendering, which I am disposed to do in the present case, of the Authorised Version rather than of the Revised, ‘according to His good pleasure ... which He hath purposed in Himself.’ The Revised Version says, ‘Which He hath purposed in Him,’ and that is a perfectly possible rendering. But to me the old one is not only more eloquent, but more in accordance with the connection. So I venture to accept it without further ado-’His good pleasure which He hath purposed in Himself.’
That brings us into the presence of that same great thought, which in another aspect is expressed in saying ‘His name is Jehovah,’ and in yet another aspect is expressed in saying ‘God is love,’ viz. the thought which sounds familiar, but which has in it depths of strength and illumination and joy, if we rightly ponder it, that, to use human words, the motive of the divine action is all found within the divine nature.
We love one another because we discern, or think we discern, lovable qualities in the being on whom our love falls. God loves because He is God. That great artesian fountain wells up from the depths, by its own sweet impulse, and pours itself out; and ‘the good pleasure of His goodness’ has no other explanation than that it is His nature and property to be merciful. And so, dear brethren, we get clean past what has sometimes been the misapprehension of good people, and has oftener been the caricatured representation of Evangelical truth which its enemies have put forth-that God was made to love and pity by reason of the sacrifice of the Son, whereas the very opposite is the case. God loves, therefore He sent His Son, ‘that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life,’ and the notion of the Cross of Christ as changing the divine heart is as far away from Evangelical truth as it is from the natural conceptions that men form of the divine nature. We shake hands with our so-called antagonists and say, ‘Yes! we believe as much as you do that God does not love us because Christ died, but we believe what perhaps you do not, that Christ died because God loves us, and would save us.’ ‘The good pleasure which He hath purposed in Himself.’
Then, still further, there is another aspect of this same divine will brought out in other parts of this letter, of which this is a specimen, ‘Having made known unto us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He hath purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fulness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ,’ which, being turned into more modern phraseology, is just this-that the great aim of that divine sovereign will, self-originated, full of loving-kindness to the world, is to manifest to all men what God is, that all men may know Him for what He is, and thereby be drawn back again, and grouped in peaceful unity round His Son, Jesus Christ. That is the intention which is deepest in the divine heart, the desire which God has most for every one of us. And when the Old Testament tells us that the great motive of the divine action is for ‘My own Name’s sake,’ that expression might be so regarded as to disclose an ugly despot, who only wants to be reverenced by abject and submissive subjects. But what it really means is this, that the divine love which hovers over its poor, prodigal children because it is love, and, therefore, lovingly delights in a loving recognition and response, desires most of all that all the wanderers should see the light, and that every soul of man should be able to whisper, with loving heart, the name, ‘Abba! Father!’ Is not that an uplifting thought as being the dominant motive which puts in action the whole of the divine activity? God created in order that He might fling His light upon creatures, who should thereby be glad. And God has redeemed in order that in Jesus Christ we might see Him, and, seeing Him, be at rest, and begin to grow like Him. This is the aim, ‘That they might know Thee, the only true God ... whom to know is eternal life.’ And so self-communication and self-revelation is the very central mystery of the will.
But that is not all. Another of the forms in which this phrase occurs tells us that that great purpose, the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord, was that, ‘Now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known’ by the Church ‘the manifold wisdom of God.’ And so we get another thought, that that whole work of redemption, operated by the Incarnation, and culminating in the Crucifixion and Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus Christ, stands as being the means by which other orders of creatures, besides ourselves, learn to know ‘the manifold wisdom of God.’ According to the grand old saying, at Creation the ‘morning stars sang together for joy.’ All spiritual creatures, be they ‘higher’ or ‘lower,’ can only know God by the observation of His acts.
‘‘Twas great to speak a world from nought,
‘Tis greater to redeem,’
and the same angelic lips that sang these praises on the morning of Creation have learnt a new song that they sing; ‘Glory and honour and dominion and power be unto the Lamb that was slain.’
Thus to principalities and powers, a diviner height in the loftiness, and a diviner depth in the condescension, and a diviner tenderness in the love, and a diviner energy in the power, of the redeeming God have been made known, and this is the thought of His eternal purpose. And that brings me to another point which is involved in the words that I have just quoted, which stand in connection with those that I have previously referred to. The phrase ‘eternal purpose’ literally rendered is, ‘the purpose of the ages,’ and that, no doubt, may mean ‘eternal’ in the sense of running on through all the ages; or it may mean, perhaps, that which we usually attach to the word ‘eternal,’ viz. unbeginning and unending. I take the former meaning as the more probable one, that the Apostle contemplates that great will of God which culminates in Jesus Christ, as coming solemnly sweeping through all the epochs of time from the beginning. In a deeper sense than the poet meant it, ‘Through the ages an increasing purpose runs,’ and that binds the epochs of humanity together-’the purpose of God in Christ Jesus.’ The philosophy of history lies there, and it is a true instinct that makes the cradle at Bethlehem the pivot around which the world’s chronology revolves. For the deepest thing about all the ages on the further side of it is that they are ‘Before Christ,’ and the formative fact for all the ages after it is that they are Anno Domini.
And now the last thing that is suggested by yet another of these eloquent expressions is deduced from another part of the same phrase. The purpose of the ages is described as that which ‘He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord.’ Now the word ‘purposed’ literally is ‘made.’ And it may be a question whether ‘purposed’ or ‘accomplished’ is the special meaning to be attached to the general word ‘made.’ Either is legitimate. I take it that what the Apostle means here is that the purpose of God, which we have thus seen as sovereign, self-originated, having for its great aim the communication to all His creatures of the knowledge of Himself, and running through the ages, and binding them into a unity, reaches its entire accomplishment in the Cradle, and the Cross, and the Throne of Jesus Christ our Lord.
He fulfils the divine intention. There is that one life, and in that life alone of humanity you have a character which is in entire sympathy with the divine mind, which is in full possession of the divine truth, which never diverges or deviates by a hair’s-breadth from the divine will, which is the complete and perfect exponent to man of the divine heart and character; and that Christ is the fulfilment of all that God desired in the depths of eternity, and the abysses of His being. Did He will that men should know Him? Christ has declared Him. Did He will that men should be drawn back to Him? Christ lifted on the Cross draws all men unto Him. Was it ‘according to the good pleasure of His goodness’ that we men should attain to the adoption of sons? By that Son we too became sons. Was it the purpose of His will that we should obtain an ‘inheritance’? We obtain it in Jesus Christ, ‘being heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ.’ All that God willed to do is done. And when we look, on the one hand, up to that infinite purpose, and on the other, to the Cross, we hear from the dying lips, ‘It is finished!’ The purpose of the ages is accomplished in Christ Jesus.
Is it accomplished with you? I have been speaking about the divine counsel which is a ‘good pleasure,’ which runs through the whole history of mankind. But it is a divine purpose that you can thwart as far as you are concerned. ‘How often would I have gathered ... and ye would not,’ and your ‘would not’ neutralises His ‘would.’ Do not stand in the way of the steam-roller. You cannot stop it, but it can crush you. Do not have Him say about you, ‘In vain have I smitten, in vain have I loved.’ Bow, accept, recognise that all God’s armoury is brought to bear upon each of us in that great Cross and Passion, in that great Incarnation and human life. And I beseech you, in your hearts, let the will of God be done even as for a world it has been done by the sacrifice of Calvary.
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv5, 7, 9 Predestination is that effective exercise of the will of…
predestinated
Predestination is that effective exercise of the will of God by which things before determined by Him are brought to pass. See Election,
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(See Scofield "1Pe 1:2")
Foreknowledge, (See Scofield "1Pe 1:20")
adoption
Adoption (huiothesia, "placing as a son") is not so much a word of relationship as of position. The believer’s relation to God as a child results from the new birth Joh 1:12; Joh 1:13 whereas adoption is the act of God whereby one already a child is, through redemption from the law, placed in the position of an adult son. Gal 4:1-5.
The indwelling Spirit gives the realization of this in the believer’s present experience Gal 4:6 but the full manifestation of the believer’s sonship awaits the resurrection, change, and translation of saints, which is called "the redemption of the body"; Rom 8:23; 1Th 4:14-17; Eph 1:14; 1Jn 3:2.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v6 The manifestation of God’s grace according to His counsel:
The manifestation of God’s grace according to His counsel:
v. 6. Wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved,
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v. 7. in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace;
v. 8. wherein He hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence;
v. 9. having made known unto us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure, which He hath purposed in Himself;
v. 10. that in the dispensation of the fullness of times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth, even in Him.
The apostle here resumes the thought of v. 3, concerning the blessings which have been given to us in Christ: With which He has graced us in the Beloved. That is the historic unfolding of the grace of God in time: He has freely bestowed upon us His grace. All merit and worthiness on our part is excluded: the bestowal of God’s grace and favor is a measure of His merciful goodness alone, in His Beloved, in and with Christ Himself, Col 1:13; Mat 3:17. Through the grace of God in Jesus, whose entire work is an expression of the love of God toward us, we become both the objects and the recipients of His love.
How the eternal decree was put into execution, Paul explains: in whom we have the redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace. In Christ me have that redemption which had long been promised and expected. He paid the ransom for the sins of all men, and the believers have accepted His vicarious activity; they know that His blood paid the guilt of all men’s sins, that it has expiated the guilt, that it has borne the punishment. The result is a permanent possession of the Christians, the forgiveness of sins. In Christ, once and for always, there is complete redemption, perfect forgiveness of sins, for all men; in Him their trespasses are no longer charged to their account. In Christ all believers have forgiveness and therefore salvation, and that not in small measure, leaving a doubt as to the sufficiency of the substitute ransom, but according to the wealth of His grace. The entire fullness of His gracious riches has been poured down upon us. "Plenteous grace with Thee is found."
Lest anyone still have misgivings as to the limitless wealth of God’s loving favor, the apostle adds: Which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and discernment. When God dispenses spiritual gifts, He does not observe an anxious restriction, but furnishes them in such rich abundance that there is much more than enough. Upon us and into us His grace flows in a superabundant stream, teaching us the right wisdom and understanding, enabling us to find that path, to follow that course which is in accordance with the will of God. Such enlightened intelligence to know the will of God is found where the grace of God has been active in the heart of a man. The sequence of thought, therefore, is the following. The possession of the redemption through the blood of Christ is coincident with our adoption into the sonship of God. Our sins and trespasses, which separated between us and God, have been forgiven, the Lord will remember them no more. As children of God we cheerfully and confidently lift up our eyes to our heavenly Father and expect from Him all the spiritual gifts for a life according to His good pleasure. And the wisdom and discernment given to us by God make us ready and perfect for a holy, blameless conduct in love. All these gifts, everything that we are and possess in spiritual matters, we owe entirely and alone to the free grace of God, to the election of grace.
The apostle now takes up the thought of v. 5. thus adding a new moment to the entire preceding section: In that He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure, which He determined in Himself for the dispensation of the fullness of the times, to place everything under one head in Christ that in the heavens and also that on the earth, in Him. God revealed to all Christians, all believers, the secret to show us why He bestowed on us the full riches of spiritual gifts. It is a secret concerning His will, His good pleasure, for in the matter of His choice God had in no manner been influenced by anything outside of Himself. God determined upon His course in and by Himself; His own free determination originated in His own gracious mind. And what He thus planned, His course of action, looked forward to the dispensation of the fullness of the times, all the periods of the earth’s existence and history being taken together in the figure of a vessel which is filled. When God sent His Son, born of a woman, then the last period had begun, the period which is to perfect and fulfill the times of the world. The eternal counsel of God, therefore, although ever present in prophecy and type, is brought out in its glorious beauty in God’s management in the time of the New Testament, the time in which we now live. It is now that the intention of God is being carried out to bring together under one heading, under one Head, all things in Christ, heavenly as well as earthly, to sum up the aggregate of heavenly and earthly things. The totality of the children of God, all those that have been chosen unto the adoption of sons, God brings together in Christ, to form His body, with all its members and organs. That was God’s eternal loving thought: a holy family of His children, united in Christ, the first-born Son, in whom He, the Father, might be well pleased—the one holy Christian Church, the communion of saints. See Col 1:18-20.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv5, 7, 9 General Information:
General Information:
The words "his," "He," and "he" refer to God.
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God chose us beforehand for adoption
The word "us" refers to Paul, the Ephesian church, and all believers in Christ. AT: "God planned long ago to adopt us" (See: Inclusive "We")
God chose us beforehand
"God chose us ahead of time" or "God chose us long ago"
for adoption as sons
Here "adoption" refers to becoming part of God's family. Here the word "sons" refers to males and females. AT: "to be adopted as his children" (See: When Masculine Words Include Women)
through Jesus Christ
God brought believers into his family by the work of Jesus Christ.
he has freely given us in the One he loves.
"he has kindly given to us by means of the One he loves"
the One he loves
"the One he loves, Jesus Christ" or "his Son, whom he loves"
translationWords
predestine
adoption
praise
glory
grace
beloved
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv5–8 1:5 God decided in advance to adopt us into…
1:5 God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family: By his sovereign initiative, God embraces and blesses as his children those who trust in Christ. They become heirs to all the promises God has made to his people (see 1:11, 14; 2:19; Rom 8:15-17, 29-30; Gal 4:5).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.