Day 464: Adoption – Ephesians 1 vs 3 – 6

3-4 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. 5- 6 In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through 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. Ephesians 1:3-6 From the English Standard Version

This is a letter for Christians. Paul is writing to those who had heard the gospel message concerning Jesus Christ and believed on Him for salvation from sin, and now served Him as their supreme Lord. So he starts by praising God who is the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. What does He say God had done for these believers who were not even from the Jewish nation? (vs 3-4)

Firstly, he tells them that Christians have been favoured with ‘spiritual blessings in heavenly places’. In other words, the things God has done for believers are not seen in a physical way. They are certainly invisible to unbelievers. Christians don't suddenly have glowing halo's above their heads. They still look the same as before and will still be in the same circumstances as they were before. That's why unbelievers can't understand the tremendous joy that Christians have. They think that happiness can only come through material things they can touch and see.

Secondly, Paul tells them that the new life they had received wasn't something that happened by chance. It was the result of God's plan from all eternity. In the Old Testament we read how Moses said to the people God had rescued out of Egypt: “You are a people 'set apart' to the Lord  your God. The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be His people, His treasured possession.” (Deuteronomy 7:6) Paul says that this is just as true of those who had become Christians. And he takes it even further in vs 5-6. What is the picture he uses there to describe a Christian’s relationship to God?

It’s the picture of someone who is adopted into a family. Think for a moment of someone in those days who was a young slave in a household. Imagine their joy if one day the father in the home told them that he wasn't only going to set them free from being a slave, but he was going to legally adopt them as his own son or daughter. Men and women are, by nature and behaviour, far from God and strangers towards Him. We’re also very much slaves to our sins and passions. But when men, women, and even children, come to faith in Jesus Christ, they become part of God's family.

Now while that's true of every individual believer, it could be that Paul also had in mind the fact that God's plan of salvation had extended to include even the gentiles. Previously it had looked as if God's sons and daughters could only be those who were born as Israelites. But in the various letters Paul wrote he points out that both Jews and Gentiles needed this process of adoption to be true children of God. Being born in Jerusalem, Rome or Canterbury doesn't make anyone a holy child of God. We need to be born again by the Spirit, and adopted through Christ to be part of God's family.

This part of the gospel message that speaks of God having predestined people to be adopted has led to fierce arguments among Christians. It opens the door to so many questions. But it must have done the same for the apostle Paul. He must also have had many questions with regard to God's dealings with mankind. Yet what did he focus on in vs 3-4.?

Whatever else predestination may involve, we see that God's purpose for Christians is that we should be holy and blameless before him. And in vs 5-6 he says that our lives should be for the praise of God's glorious grace. A Christian's desire should be to always live in a way that pleases the One who so kindly adopted them, and with constant gratitude that gives praise for all God has done through the Lord Jesus Christ.