The Doctrines of Grace in Scripture: Ephesians 1:3-6

The Text

Ephesians 1:3-6 – “Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms in Christ. For he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world that we may be holy and unblemished in his sight in love.  He did this by predestining us to adoption as his sons through Jesus Christ, according to the pleasure of his will –  to the praise of the glory of his grace that he has freely bestowed on us in his dearly loved Son.” – Paul (NET Bible)

Relevance

The significance of this text in relation to the Doctrines of Grace is that this passage shows us God’s electing grace wherein believers were chosen before the foundation of the world, a predestination which is conditioned upon the pleasure of his will, and nothing in the believers themselves.    It relates very directly to the U in TULIP.

Historical Comments On It

• “If or so long as God lets us alone in our own natural state we can do nothing but all manner of wickedness, because there is such great corruption and perversity in man s nature that all that men ever think of doing is contrary to God’s righteousness. Therefore there is no other way but to be changed by God. And whence comes this change but only through the grace that we spoke of, namely, that he elected and chose us for his children before we were born into the world. .” – John Calvin (1509-1564)
• “a blessing provided and secured in the covenant of grace; and is of persons to an inheritance, to which they have no legal right; and is entirely free, there being no need on the adopter’s part, and no worth on the part of the adopted: or rather the inheritance they are adopted to; which exceeds all others, is incorruptible, undefiled, and fades not away; and lies among the saints in light, and belongs to all the children of God: and this they are predestinated unto by God the Father, who takes them into his family, puts them among the children….the will of God is the rule of all his actions, and of all his acts of grace and goodness; and the good pleasure of it appears in the predestination of men to grace and glory: and from hence it is manifest, that foreseen faith, holiness, and good works, are excluded from being the moving cases of predestinating grace; and that it is wholly to be resolved into the good will and pleasure of God” – John Gill (1697 -1771)
• “By sovereign will, by sovereign decree He chose thosewho were to be the member of His body totally apart from the will of any man, totally apart from any human consideration and purelyon the basis of His own will. Notice at the end of verse 5, according again to the good pleasure of what? His will. His will…[further quotes from Eph 1.]….God freely, independently, unaffected by any human work, or any human choice, chose us to be included in His body. ” -  John MacArthur (1939-Present)
• “What this text says very clearly is that God chose particular kinds of people to be in the church. He did not just choose the church and leave its composition to man. He chose foolish individuals and called them into Christ. He chose some weak individuals and called them into Christ. He chose some low and despised individuals and called them into Christ. So that no one might boast in anyone but the Lord….Before the creation of the universe God thought of me. He fixed his gaze on me and chose me for himself. He did not choose me because I was already in Christ of my own doing, but that I might be in Christ. He did not choose me because he saw me as a believer, but so that I might become a believer. He did not choose me because I chose him, but so that I might choose him. He did not choose me because I was holy or good but so that I might become holy and good. ” – John Piper (1946-Present)