Our identity as a follower of Jesus is based on God the Father’s choice of us to be His children...

This week, we are looking at the opening section of a letter that is recorded for us in the New Testament of our Bibles called the book of Ephesians. Yesterday, we saw a man named Paul reveal for us a timeless truth in that our identity as a follower of Jesus is the basis of our spiritual blessings. Paul wanted the members of the church at Ephesus, and followers of Jesus throughout history, to clearly understand what their identity was.

Paul wanted followers of Jesus to clearly understand that our identity was to be grounded in God’s activity through His Son Jesus Christ that resulted in our relationship with Christ. And Paul wanted followers of Jesus to recognize and worship God for the reality that God has already provided us with every Divine blessing and benefit that we will ever need in Heaven as a result of His activity through His Son Jesus Christ that resulted in our relationship with Christ. Today, we see Paul reveal for us these Divine blessings and benefits beginning in Ephesians 1:4:

 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.

In these verses, we see Paul reveal for us the first way that our identity as a follower of Jesus is the basis for our spiritual blessings. And that first way is that our identity is based on God the Father’s choice of us to be His children. Now, to fully understand what Paul is communicating here, we first need to understand some church mumbo jumbo talk terms. When Paul uses the phrase, just as He chose us in Him, he is revealing that the means that God the Father used to choose us was through His activity through Christ. In other words, it was Jesus who was the vehicle that was used to choose us to be His children.

Now the word chose, in the language that this letter was originally written in, literally means to choose. Paul then explains that God chose us to be His children from the foundation of the world. So, before He created the world, God chose you to be a part of His family. Paul then reveals that the reason why God the Father chose us to be His children was so that we would be holy and blameless before Him. This phrase simply means that God chose us to be His children so that we would be set apart to Him and would be without fault before Him. And what drove God the Father to choose us, Paul explains was His love for us.

Then in verse 5, Paul reinforces God’s the Father’s choice of us to be His children by stating that He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself. Now the word predestined is a big fancy 50 cent theological word that simply means to decide upon beforehand. In other words God the Father decided beforehand that in spite of you He would choose to adopt you as His child.

You see, it is not your performance for God that resulted in His choice of you. Instead, it was God’s choice of you in spite of your performance that led to your adoption. Paul reinforces this reality by explaining that God the Father’s choice was according to the kind intention of His will. In other words, God the Father chose you according to His pleasure and His desires. God’s adoption of you as His child was according to His desires and His adoption of you brings Him pleasure.

Then in verse 6, Paul explains that God’s the Father’s choice of us to be His children was decided on beforehand to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. Paul’s point here is that God’s the Father’s choice of us to be His children was so that He would receive admiration for His transformational intervention and activity in our lives.

God the Father would receive admiration because His transformational intervention and activity was a free gift to us. And God the Father would receive admiration because His transformational intervention and activity was through His Son Jesus Christ’s activity in the world.

Tomorrow, we will look at the Son’s activity in the world that impacts our identity…