3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love 5 He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will …
“Riches eternal and blessings supernal from His precious hand I received.” It’s true, as the hymn goes and as Paul outlines in verses 3-14. His praise is to God for what He has done through the Lord Jesus Christ. And what is that? Paul begins with the summary statement, “every spiritual blessing.” What an all-inclusive statement! There is not just one, but all heavenly blessings that we as His children possess. We may not always see the blessings in our earthly experience, but we apprehend them by faith as though they were ours now—and they are ours, we count on them, by faith as we look to our Lord.
Paul spells out some of the blessings for us. We are chosen in Him. This decision took place long before He created the cosmos (the literal rendition of the Greek word translated “world). You and I are wanted by the Creator of the Universe! He desired you and me. And His choosing us had a purpose, namely that we would live holy lives, apart from sin, as we live for Him.
This choice was not a sterile one calculated for profit as a commercial transaction for God’s benefit. It was not a choice designed to improve things in the spiritual realm, as though by adding us to His family, somehow God is trying to add some value to Himself. Nor is it God carrying out some sterilized unaffected decision in the bowels of the Godhead to fulfill the academic, doctrinal mandates of ecclesiastical theologians.
God was motivated by love. The phrase “in love” in the original language can go with either the preceding phrase or the following phrase. This whole section is actually one long run-on sentence, a thing Paul likes to do on occasion when he is on a roll with a thought. It is best taken as a reflection of the Lord’s love being the overriding motivation for blessing us.
This love includes a pre-determining. Calvinist and Armenian theologians have long argued over predestination vs. free will of men. Suffice it to say that both are true. God predestines and humans are responsible for our free choices, and somehow God has it all figured out without any contradiction. We rather rejoice, though, in being chosen and adopted, by God’s choice. How much more blessed can we be?!
Lord, what an amazing God You are for choosing to adopt me as Your child. That represents a blessing that surpasses them all. How kind of You!
The debate between the Calvinists and Armenians is settled when you consider paul’s instruction in Romans 8: 29,30. That is, predestination is based on foreknowledge as I understand it. This is why I appreciate Chuck’s comment that “suffice it to say both are true.”
Matt, Thanks. It’s a deep subject which we will spend eternity “chewing on” and appreciating.