Ephesians 1:3-6 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the Beloved. The leading subject of these words is the redemptive predestination of God a reason for man's exultant gratitude. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ," etc. We say redemptive predestination, for there is predestination in every department of Divine operation; from the most microscopic objects to the massive systems of immensity. Before we go on to notice the reasons suggested in the passage why man should adore the Eternal for his redemptive predestination, it may be well, in order to remove much of erroneous sentiment and terrible feeling that exist in the minds of some men in relation to this great subject, to state the following things. 1. The predestination of God contemplates good, and good only. (1) The benevolence of his nature proves this. He is Love, and it is eternally antagonistic to love to plan for misery. (2) The structure of the universe proves this. True science sees a Divine plan in every part of nature, from the minutest to the largest objects. Yet it has never discovered, as Archbishop Paley has well said, any contrivance for suffering. Not a single "vessel" has been discovered that has been "made for dishonor." (3) The declarations of the Bible prove this. The Bible only reveals God's will concerning man, and it tells us that his will is that we shall all be saved. (4) Consciousness proves this. All men feel that God intends their happiness. If they did not, moral sense would be an impossibility. 2. The predestination of God never interferes with the free agency of moral beings. It is true that no philosophy has yet harmonized, to the satisfaction of the human understanding, the doctrine of free agency with the doctrine of eternal predestination. This is the great intellectual puzzle of the ages. But that the one interferes not with the other in the slightest degree is attested: (1) By history. Amongst the many examples that might be selected, take one - the crucifixion of Christ. That stupendous evil was predetermined. Yet were not his crucifiers free? "Him being delivered," etc. (2) By Scripture. The Bible everywhere appeals to men as responsible beings - appeals to their choice, and warns them of a judgment, when every one "must give an account of himself." (3) By consciousness. Men feel that they are free. This feeling defies all logic. It is the ultimate argument. Beyond its decisions there is no appeal. 3. The predestination of God is not exclusively confined to human redemptions. This we have already intimated. It does not follow, because Paul refers God's predestinating agency in man's salvation to an eternal plan, that he would not have referred it in any other department to an eternal plan. It is a characteristic of a pious man that he traces all that is good to God; and of a truly intelligent man, he would trace everything to the Divine plan. Had Paul been writing on botany, he would have traced every blade and flower and plant that grew to the predestination of God. Had he been writing on anatomy, he would have traced every organ, limb, joint, vein, nerve, and sinew to the predestination of God. But he was writing of man's salvation, and it was only to his purpose to refer to predestination in connection with that. Predestination is not a dream of the schoolman, or a dogma of Calvin, but an eternal law of the universe. 4. The predestination of God is revealed in Scripture according to forms of human thought. As no finite being can comprehend the Infinite, no finite mind can give a representation of his acts that is absolutely correct. What, for example, in the predestination of God, is there answering to our ideas of that act? The ideas of commencement, observation, resolve, enter into our conceptions of it. But these are foreign to the subject. What is there, too, in God's choice, answering to our ideas of choice? The ideas of beginning, comparison, rejection, acceptance, enter into our conception of choice; but in God's choice there was no beginning, no comparison, etc. What conception can we have of the processes and the workings of a mind that knows no succession, to whom all the future is as the past, who has but one eternal thought? Alas! that men should be so impious as to dogmatize upon a subject like this! "Who by searching can find out God?" We now pass on to the question - Why should we exultingly adore the Eternal on account of his redemptive predestination? Paul suggests three reasons in the text. I. HAPPINESS IS ITS EXCLUSIVE AIM. What are the "spiritual blessings in heavenly places," which the apostle in the text traces to it? 1. Moral excellence. "That we should be holy and without blame." The two words represent spiritual excellence. (1) Negatively. "Without blame." Perfectly free from all that is wrong in thought, feeling, and practice. Appearing before God "without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing." (2) Positively. "Holy." Consecrated to the will and service of God. 2. Spiritual elevation. "Heavenly places." A truly Christian man is now in heavenly regions. Though on the earth, he is not of the earth, he is of heaven. His fellowships, ideas, services, aspirations, are heavenly. He is come to an "innumerable company of angels." "Our citizenship is in heaven," etc. 3. Divine sonship. "The adoption of children." All men are the offspring of God, but none are his true children but those who have the true filial spirit. To possess this involves man's highest blessedness. This is the work of Christ. "As many as received him to them gave he power to become the sons of God" - the true sons - "heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ." These are some of the "spiritual" blessings which flow to man through God's redemptive predestination. Paul does not refer to a single evil or woe as coming to man from that source. Good, and good only, he saw flowing from that fountain. The inhuman, the blasphemous dogma of reprobation never entered his mind in connection with this grand subject. What reason for exultant thankfulness is here! Well may we exclaim, "Blessed be God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." II. JESUS CHRIST IS ITS MEDIUM. Predestination, which in nature makes the sun the medium of lighting, quickening, and beautifying the earth, in redemption makes Christ the Medium of conveying all those spiritual blessings which constitute the happiness and dignity of man. The "heavenly places" to which we are raised are "in Christ Jesus." The adoption of children is "through Jesus Christ." All the Divine grace - favor - bestowed on man is through "Christ Jesus, the Beloved." What a Medium is this! This is the great gift of predestination. God's only begotten, well-beloved Son: "He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? "' What reason for exultant thankfulness is here! Well may Paul exclaim, "Blessed be God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ," etc. III. ETERNAL LOVE IS ITS SPRING. "In love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ." 1. This love existed before the objects of it came into actual being. Millions of ages before mankind came into existence, before the "foundation of the world," he loved them. His love created them, organized them for happiness as creatures, and provided for their spiritual recovery as sinners. The uncreated, those that are to be, are as real to God as the created that are. 2. This love is the happiness of his own nature. Its manifestations are the "good pleasure" of his own will. The good pleasure of malevolence is misery; the good pleasure of love is happiness. Are not the reasons suggested by Paul for gratefully exulting in God's redemptive predestination abundant? "Predestination," "choice," "counsel," "purpose," "decree"! The more ignorant men are, the more they profess to have fathomed the meaning of these terms, as representing the mental acts of the Eternal; and the more flippant they are in their use. But what do they stand for when applied to God? Volition - will, nothing more. "God is love," and his will must be happiness. He is "of one mind," and his will must be unalterable. A certain theology, which, thank God, is dying out, has invested these grand old words with attributes of hideousness, before which weak souls in all ages have trembled with horror. But they only indicate the will of infinite love to flood immensity with bliss. "Love is the root of creation, God's essence; worlds without number Lie in his bosom like children; he made them for this purpose only, Only to love and to be loved again; he breathed forth his Spirit Into the slumbering dust, and upright standing, it laid its Hand on its heart, and felt it was warmed with a flame out of heaven." - D.T. Parallel Verses KJV: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: |
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