1:5 Having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will.
1:6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He has made us accepted in the Beloved.
In this first chapter of Ephesians, long before Paul calls us to any action, or activities, or response, what he does is to explain in wonderful detail the many, many blessings of God given to us in Christ Jesus. You may even want to read through the first chapter and try to count them up. There are many.
Today, I wanted to deal with one of them, and that is, His having "adopted" us as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself.
First of all, Paul says, "having predestined us to adoption as sons etc. The word predestined, speaks of God's planning things out in advance, according to His own perfect will. The word "predestined" or determine beforehand, or ordain, means to predetermine, or decide beforehand, or of God making a decree from eternity past, and to appoint beforehand.
This is thrilling to me. Before the world was created, long ago, ( and of course, I did not exist then nor did anyone, or anything ) but, long ago, God determined, that He was going to make me His child. He was going to adopt me into His family.
He adopted me as a son, and did this by Jesus Christ. We can see how important Jesus Christ is in all of these blessings. For it's through Him, and by Him, and in Him that all these blessings come to us. So, through or by Christ, God adopted me as His son.
Also, we see that this adoption was "according to the good pleasure of His will" In other words, God has a will, or that which pleases Him, that which He does, or wants to do if you will. Paul says, "the good pleasure of His will". He planned in love to do this. He has revealed His plan to us through Jesus Christ. All of this was in accordance with the purpose of His will, ( because it pleased Him and was His kind intent )
He wanted us to be to the praise of His glory and His mercy. Which by the way, He has so freely bestowed on us in Christ.
Some thoughts in reflection, for further explanation and application.
1. God did this for us.
2. God did this for us when we did not even exist.
3. God did this for us because it pleased Him to do so.
4. God did this through His Son Jesus Christ.
5. God has made us His own children.
6. God has joined us to His family.
7. God's only begotten son, now has brothers and sisters in us as christians.
8. God's will and pleasure are one and the same thing.
9. God wanted to do this, He wanted to adopt you as His child.
More thoughts for reflection, application and explanation.
1. We now wind up praising God for what He has done for us.
2. We praise God's glory.
3. We praise God's grace ( His unmerited favor and blessing to us )
4. We are now accepted in Jesus Christ.
5. Accepted means, be highly favored, to honor with blessings.
6. This blessing, is not the end of the line, Paul will mention more also.
7. We can call Him Father, and do so with confidence.
8. We have been brought into His family.
9. All Christians have this blessing as theirs.
10. This blessing is a reason to be very happy today.
11. God's children, also have an inheritance.
12. We will one day be given our full inheritance.
13. When we get to heaven, we will see and understand our inheritance.
14. Our God has been so good to us.
15. We love you Lord.
Pastor Bob Grenier
Calvary Chapel Visalia
