Praize Blogs

Ephesians 1, verse 3 told us we have every spiritual blessing God has created. We are made righteous in His sight by the Blood of Jesus, and all other spiritual blessings were added to us when we accepted the sacrifice He made.

“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” (Ephesians 1:4).  God chose them to pour His blessings out upon. "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain; that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you" (John 15:16). But they were not chosen as Israel was. Israel was a nation of people chosen as God’s special ones. The people chosen here were individuals. God did not call Ephesus or Corinth to be a new nation.  His Spirit called each person from within those nations to accept Christ as Savior. This letter is directed to all believers, no matter where they came from. If they were in Ephesus when this letter arrived, and they were faithful in their love for Jesus, they were included in this letter. Paul even included himself. (Look at verse 3, “the father who has blessed US.”) So, Paul is telling them he is blessed just as they are, or vice versa, so not one of them is better than another. He also told them they were selected, chosen ones. Does that mean God hand-picked some to salvation and some to destruction? No, it does not. It means that all humans were created by God to have fellowship with Him.  Sin separated us from God and Jesus had to make a way for us to reconnect, and that is through salvation.  God made salvation available to all His people creation, but free will is what makes the final choice. Scripture says that God wants none to perish.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). 

“And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand” (John 10:28).

“Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing” (I Peter 3:9). 

We were chosen, as they were, to be holy, blameless before God even before He formed the earth! Let’s look at I Peter 1:2, "Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied."; Romans 8:29 "For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren", and II Timothy 2:19 "Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity." God knew we were going to need a Savior, and He elected Jesus to fulfill that need. It seems like such a long time ago that we were chosen, but let’s put it into perspective. A house fly is said to be able to live 60 - 70 days, but its average is 14 days. That means it must be born, go through infancy and puberty, have children, retire, and die in that short span of time. To us that seems a very short lifetime; to them it is a lifetime. The same goes for us. We may live seventy, or one hundred-twenty plus years, but to God that’s a small increment of time on His eternal watch.  If one thousand years is as a day to God, how long do we really live according to that time frame? I tried to figure it out, but am not good with math, so could not. But you get the idea. We are here for a blip of time, and have to accomplish much before we leave the earth to return to our Maker. Another consideration is we don’t know our lifespan. God assigns us each a certain number of days, so we must be vigilant in getting things done.

“Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,” (Verse 5)  I don't believe in the opinion that predestination means God hand-picked only certain people to be saved, and the rest go to hell.  He would not be a very merciful God if that truly was His agenda.  What I do believe is that we are the only one of His creations predestined, or foreordained to receive the blood of a Savior. (Angels in Heaven can’t be saved because they are not fallen beings, and devils won’t be saved because they are too blinded to see the truth.) If we believe that God hand-picked people before they were born, and predestined only certain people for salvation, why would He tell us to go out and preach the gospel in all the world and disciple all the nations? Why would He say that all who believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ will be saved?  Why would He make the claim that He wants none to perish? Why would He call people to leadership offices within the church for the purpose of training new disciples? He would just have a list of those He wanted to share eternity with, and they would be the only ones ever to enter the kingdom. Read Matthew 7:13, 14. "Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it."  Why would God advertise a way into heaven if He didn't want us all to find that narrow gate? It is my opinion then, that we are not called, or predestined as individuals, but as a segment of creation, IE fallen man, to be saved and secure our eternity.

We are predestined to be adopted as sons by God through Jesus. Please read John 1:12; Galatians 3:26-29 and Romans 8:16,17. As sons of God, and joint heirs with Christ, we have access to all that God made available to us through Jesus. We are called, sanctified, redeemed, made holy, and filled with the power of the Spirit of God. We are made the righteousness of God on earth. That’s what God had in mind, and that’s what these Scriptures are telling us. Jesus came to earth as a human, suffered, died, and became our way of salvation. And because He did, we are able to share in the eternal inheritance with Jesus that God has made available to us. Predestination is God’s provision of a way of salvation for all man, Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female.    

God’s will is His actions. In this case it is His desire for us to be saved. So this is telling us God gets great pleasure from fulfilling His will for our lives. He made a way for us to be saved and adopted because He loves us and wants us to be with Him for all time. That is what will give Him true joy and satisfaction.

“To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved“ (verse 6).  To praise the glory of God’s grace is to express our gratitude to Him for making a way that we can be accepted.  As we raise our hands to praise God for His mercy and grace, we should also thank Him for sending Jesus as our way to be accepted. Accepted is said to mean grace with grace. God has the perfect Son already, and doesn’t need us, but He loves us, so He bestowed on us unearned favor (grace), and that should lead to rejoicing, and to praising God. 

We are accepted, “In the Beloved.” Read Matthew 12:18. "Behold my servant, whom I have chosen; my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased: I will put my Spirit upon him, and he shall show judgment to the Gentiles."  Jesus is God’s Own beloved Son. He is the only One who has ever completely pleased God. And God has made us accepted (righteous) because of Him and through Him only. None of it comes from anything we do.

So, God chose us as the species to be saved before He formed the earth, and He gave us Jesus for our redemption, and He gave us every Spiritual blessing. God made us adopted sons and daughters for His own pleasure, praise His name, and praise Him for His grace bestowed upon us. Why? It is so that we can stand holy and blameless in His presence one day. We were not chosen because we are holy, but because Christ is holy, and we are in Christ as believers.

This earth is our proving ground. If we accept Christ, we become sanctified by the Spirit and become holy and without fault forever. So now, if we believe this, John 3:16 makes more sense than ever. “For God so loved the world (His people creation, even before He formed it) that He gave His only begotten Son (that’s God’s love come to life) that whosoever believes in Him (accepts that love and takes it into their hearts) shall not perish (for God wants none to perish) but have everlasting life (to live eternally with God, sanctified, holy and righteous before Him).

More studies at http://www.newbeginmin1.org/BIBLESTUDYOPENING.html