The Father’s gracious purpose
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. 4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.
This section begins a doxology, a song of praise to God, which continues through verse 14. In the Greek it is all one sentence—some two hundred words. The NIV translators have broken it down into shorter sentences, but it’s still fairly complex. Therefore, we have highlighted these main concepts. Keep an eye out for them.
1. From eternity God has had a plan of salvation.
2. This plan is fulfilled in and through Christ.
3. God’s plan gives us unspeakably great and precious blessings and is our reason for praising him.
Verse 3 literally says, “Blessed be God . . . who has blessed us . . . with every spiritual blessing.” The author speaks to and for people who realize how very fortunate they are. What makes them so fortunate is that they have received “every spiritual blessing.” Not one good thing is missing. Everything connected with “the heavenly realms” is theirs. Precisely what those blessings are will be indicated later.
From whom did the recipients receive those blessings? Paul identifies the giver as “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,” who has blessed us “in Christ.” Everything from God comes in Christ and only in Christ.
How important Christ is in the equation becomes evident when Paul declares, “He [the Father] chose us in him [Christ] before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.” We have noted that God had a plan that existed already in his mind “before the creation of the world.” In Christ, God chose us to be holy and blameless. It is not that we were holy and blameless to begin with, and for that reason God took a liking to us and chose us. No, far from it! He chose us when we had no righteousness to offer. In fact, he chose us before we were born, before the world even existed. God chose us, Paul says, not because we were holy and blameless, but he chose us “to be holy and blameless.” He chose us— sinners that we are—in order to make us righteous in Christ. Every spiritual blessing rests on Christ and his saving merit.
God’s choosing us from eternity is often referred to as election. It can also be called predestination, as Paul does when he continues, “In love he [the Father] predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will.”
Election and predestination are not two separate, unrelated things. In fact, Paul connects them here. We have called attention to the fact that this whole opening section is actually one long sentence. Instead of having two separate sentences here, in the Greek Paul puts the two expressions together in a way that might well be translated, “God chose us by predestining us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ.” Note the same combination in verse 11.
Think of what that says! From eternity, before time existed, God’s plan was to make us members of his family, to bring us into his household as his sons and daughters. Hence, he is our Father and we are his children, in line for a full inheritance. Everything that God has is even now being used for our good and blessing, and it will visibly and tangibly become our personal possession in heaven.
Why does God do all that? “In love he predestined us,” Paul says, “in accordance with his pleasure and will.” We might simply say that he did it because he wanted to do it. And what he wanted was delightful. It was “his pleasure and will,” prompted by his great love for us.
But Paul answers our question in yet another way. Recall that he began this section by directing the reader’s attention to the God “who has blessed us . . . with every spiritual blessing in Christ.” As we have seen, these spiritual blessings, which culminate in our adoption as God’s sons and daughters, are totally undeserved. They come as a pure gift of God’s grace. Why does God give them? So that we may be led to thank and praise him, or as Paul says, “to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves [Christ].” Note again, everything comes through Christ, the one whom the Father loves and with whom he is well pleased (Matthew 3:17).