3 - Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,
4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love
5 He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will,
6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.
V. 3 - “Blessed be the God and Father” - Paul offering up praise to God. We have so much to be thankful for, so much for which to praise God, so much for which to give blessing to the Lord. We orthodox Christians don’t do it much - a few songs maybe, but not much more - not just outbursts of gratitude to God.
“Who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing...” - Note through whom we receive these blessings - Jesus Christ. He is the source of every good thing! (See: Heb. 1:2; Col. 2:8)
V. 4 - This verse is a continuation of the thought in verse 3 (blessed us with every spiritual blessing) because: the “choosing in Christ” and the “blessed with” accomplished by God the Father are for the purpose that “we should be holy and blameless before Him.” God wants our fellowship! Ponder that! The only way that we can come into the presence of God is if we are as pure as He. Only in Christ, washed by His blood, is our condition made acceptable to God.
“Chose us in Him” - An interesting phrase. Does this mean God actually singled each one of us, or that we are “chosen”, special because we have come to Him through Christ? Perhaps both. Note: the Bible (New Testament) speaks both of God’s sovereignty and man’s free will. I don’t think it is all that important to worry oneself about predestination. Often spending time on some topics, like "chosen", is "going down a rabbit trail.
Why? Two thoughts:
(1) Believe that Jesus is Lord. He died for our sin, and He rose from the dead. Those three things are central: the Lord God Almighty did this, not we ourselves. The Lord Jesus paid the penalty when we could do nothing to save ourselves. His resurrected life is proof and guarantee that all our sin is forgiven and we will live with Him.
(2) Believe that we are commanded to spread this Gospel to all men. With these thoughts preeminent, the ‘worry’ about ‘election’, etc., pales.
V. 5 - “Predestined us” - Ah! A second interesting phrase! What’s the difference between the “chosen” of verse 4 and “predestined” of verse 5? Not much really. Note that in verse 4 the choosing was done long ago, before the earth was formed. That’s also the kind of meaning of “predestined.”
Were we predestined to accept salvation? No, I don’t think so. We were predestined to be God’s sons by believing in His Son, Jesus. The reason (impetus, driving force) behind our gift of sonship is God’s love. Because He loved us! (1 John 4:10, Rom. 5:8). We are His sons, because of Christ, through Christ, and in Christ.
It was His pleasure to do this. It was His purpose to do this.
Sometimes people misconstrue “chosen” and “predestined” to be an arbitrary selection (God walking down a line, tapping certain ones, “You, you and you. Not you or you.”) And neither the chosen nor the unchosen have any part in the decision. That is not what the Bible teaches.
Note: We are not natural sons. Only Christ is that; but we are sons, adopted sons, heirs of God.
V. 6 - “ to the praise of the glory of His grace” - The GNMM says it best, “Let us praise God for His glorious grace” - “Grace” is one of those key words - like a combination of mercy and love. It is keyed by God’s love, because He is a God of mercy, grace has been bestowed on us. Grace is both an attitude or nature and a gift. Note the grace is ours in Christ.
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