Ephesians 1:4–5

But in blessing us in this wonderful way God has acted in keeping with something His mind did in a past eternity. Before the foundation of the world He chose us in Christ. Note those two words, "in Him," for they, or their equivalents, occur again and again in this chapter. As a matter of history each of us was in Adam before we were in Christ. But before Adam was created, God saw us as in Christ, and on that basis He chose us.

You say, I am not holy. But look — is not He holy, and without blame, and in love before God? Oh yes. Well, I am in Him, that is the point.

"From" the world's founding does not mean the same as "before" it. Let us respect and learn from the very words of God. Think of the saints who are kept from yielding to the Beast at the close of the age. Their names were written from the foundation of the world in the slain Lamb's book of life… But the phrase used in Eph. 1:4, as in 1 Peter 1:20, is pointedly different.

God's choosing us before the foundation of the world is not what proves the sovereignty of grace by the time of the choosing. Suppose God were to choose us now — it would be just as sovereign an act as doing it then. The practical truth brought out in His choosing us before the foundation of the world is this: it proves we have nothing whatever to do with the world. Before its very foundation He chose us. We have nothing to do with the world but to get through it… God settled our living place with Himself before the world ever existed.

If we are to be before God, we must have a suited nature. Could the natural man be at home with God, and find pleasure where all is holy? Impossible, it is opposed to his very being. And supposing it were possible to be before Him with a conscience not at rest, where would be the joy? How blessed, then, that we are to be "holy and without blame before Him in love!" "Holy," because we have His nature, a nature that finds its only portion in God. "Without blame," because of Christ's work; for who shall lay anything to our charge? "In love," because His love flows always into our hearts, and back again to Him its source.

It is wonderful that these three things should be said of us — that we should be "holy and without blame before Him in love." For these three things mark the blessed God Himself. Holy in His character; blameless in His ways; and love in His nature.

"Before Him" — what an expression of His delight. Just as a mother puts her child out before her eyes so she may gaze on it and be satisfied in her love, so has He set us before Him in Christ.

Thus the blessing of verse 5 surpasses the blessing of verse 4. There it was sovereign choice that by grace makes us suited to Himself: here it is God's good pleasure that predestines believers to the relationship of sons.

In the saint now there is much that is very unsaintly indeed, unlike God and His beloved Son. There is pride, vanity, foolishness, and all kinds of evil ways and thoughts that never flow from Christ… But for all this, are they not saints? God forbid they should not be. And yet this is the steady thought of God. How can that be? Because God looks at us here according to what He gives us in Christ, and nothing less.

To predestine is to mark out beforehand, to decide in advance. Election is God's choice of people; predestination is to a blessing. In Ephesians 1:5, 11, God predestines believers to the adoption of sons, according to His purpose. Predestination does not, as some insist, imply that others are marked out for wrath.

The apostle John is the one who dwells on our being "children" of God. Why? Because we are born into the family of God. Born of the Spirit, we are children of God, children of His family… But when it is a question of being "sons," predestination is what puts us into this place of relation… Adoption is never of children; it is always of sons. One must be by new birth a "child" of God. But God also predestined to adopt the Christian into the position of a "son" by Christ Jesus to Himself… Believers in Old Testament times were all "children," as we who believe now are also. But they were not adopted "sons." Sonship is one of the new privileges of the gospel.

Christ is Son of God under two aspects. As the only begotten Son in the bosom of the Father He has a relationship which is not and never will be ours; but as Man He is called Son of God (Psalm 2; Luke 1:35). He sets us in that same relationship. Only one difference remains between Him and us: the place is His because of His personal dignity and worth… while we are sons only because of His work. But it is marvellous to think that our relationship is absolutely the same as His. "My Father, and your Father; My God, and your God."

Would we ever have conceived that a relationship like the angels' was possible? It would not do for God. He had countless angels, strong and always doing what pleased Him — but they were only servants. He wanted sons: sons to surround Him in His home of light and love with the cry of Abba, Father… Sweet thought: He planned this for His own indescribable joy. It was not only for our blessing, but according to the good pleasure of His will.

"The good pleasure of His will" is not simply sovereignty — it is the good pleasure of His will. God is acting in His love and showing the will of His grace. He takes up poor, wretched, vile sinners, and pours out on these objects of His mercy all the riches of His own goodness. "The good pleasure of His will," that which God takes delight in, is the ministering of the fulness of His blessing to us. Here the soul finds solid ground… the measure of His goodness can never be the measure of what we deserve from Him.

God will not rest till He displays us before all in the position of sons… We shall stand before God, holy and without blame. But God desires more for us than that. He would have us before Him as sons, and He tells us about it as part of what He has called us to… So He gives us the Holy Spirit as the spirit of adoption (Rom. 8:15), while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our body (Rom. 8:23).