He chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy & blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption thru Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.
Here is Commentary by John Stott.
Paul reaches back in his mind *before the foundation of the world*
(verse 4), before creation, before time began, into a past eternity in
which only God himself existed in the perfection of his being.
In that pre-creation eternity God did something. He formed a
purpose in his mind. This purpose concerned both *Christ* (his only
begotten Son) and *us* (whom he proposed to make his adopted sons and
indeed daughters, for of course the word embraces both sexes). Mark
well the statement: *he chose us in him*. The juxtaposition of the
three pronouns is emphatic. God put us and Christ together in his
mind. He determined to make us (who did not yet exist) his own
children through the redeeming work of Christ (which had not yet taken
place). It was a definite decision, for the verb *he chose
(exelexato)* is another aorist. It also arose from his entirely
unmerited favour, since he chose us *that we should holy and blameless
before him*, which indicates that we, when in his mind he chose us,
were unholy and blameworthy, and therefore deserving not of adoption
but of judgment. Further (Paul repeats the same truth in different
words), *he destined us in love (1) to be his sons through Jesus
Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his
glorious grace which he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved (verses
5-6).
Now everybody finds the doctrine of election difficult. 'Didn't I
choose God?' someone asks indignantly; to which we must answer 'Yes,
indeed you did, and freely, but only because in eternity God had first
chosen you.' 'Didn't I decide for Christ?' asks somebody else; to
which we must reply 'Yes, indeed you did, and freely, but only because
in eternity God had first decided for you.'
Scripture nowhere dispels the mystery of election, and we should
beware of any who try to systematize it too precisely or rigidly. It
is not likely that we shall discover a simple solution to a problem
which has baffled the best brains of Christendom for centuries. But
here at least in our text are three important truths to grasp and
remember:
a). The doctrine of election is a divine revelation, not a human speculation.
It was not invented by Augustine of Hippo or Calvin of Geneva. On
the contrary, it is without question a biblical doctrine, and no
biblical Christian can ignore it. According to the Old Testament, God
chose Israel out of all the nations of the world to be his special
people (e.g. 'you shall be my own possession among all peoples.
Ex.19:4-6; cf.Dt.7:6ff.; Is.42:1 and 43:1). According to the New
Testament he is choosing an international community to be his 'saints'
(verse 1), his holy or special people (cf. 1 Pet.2:9-10). So we must
not reject the notion of election as if it were a weird fantasy of
men, but rather humbly accept it (even though we do not fully
understand it)as a truth which God himself has revealed. It seems
natural that at this point we should seek help from Calvin. He
preached through Ephesians, from the pulpit of St Peter's church,
Geneva, in forty-eight sermons beginning on 1 May 1558. Here is one of
his comments: 'Although we cannot conceive either by argument or
reason how God has elected us before the creation of the world, yet we
know it by his declaring it to us; and experience itself vouches for
it sufficiently, when we are enlightened in the faith'.
----------------------------- Note -------------------------
(1). AV, RV, and NEB put the expression 'in love' immediately after
'holy and blameless before him', because they understand it as
referring to the love which God wants to see in us. Thus holiness is
defined in terms of love. This may well be the correct translation
since the words 'in love' occur in five more contexts of Ephesians and
in each case describe Christian people (3:17; 4:2, 15, 16; 5:2). RSV,
however, attaches the words to the verb 'destined us' because it
understands them as referring to God's love, not ours. I myself favour
this interpretation because the context appears to be emphasizing love
as the source rather than the result of our election.
--John Stott, in his commentary on Ephesians
(The other 2 truths in the text will be posted later)
