Daily Devotional Wednesday 2nd September 2020
by William Moody
Ephesians 1:3–6
Spiritual Blessings in Christ
3 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, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us1 for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.
Footnotes
[1] 1:5
Or before him in love, 5 having predestined us(ESV)
Paul is excited and full of praise because God brings wonderful spiritual blessings into His people’s lives. But how does this happen?
This begins not in this world but before the world began with God choosing particular people to be saved and blessed (v4). We’re coming here to the often controversial subject of predestination. The key to approaching this subject is with child-like faith accepting there will be mystery. We also need to approach this subject with an open mind, a mind open to what God says about this in His Word.
Blessing begins with God choosing people and choosing them to become a holy and blameless people (v4). Christian are chosen to be different from the people of the world around us. Is this true of you?
In love God predestined (pre-designs) for people to be brought into His family through Jesus. Predestination is not about the harsh actions of a hard God, predestination is about the tender and gracious actions of an amazingly loving God. This is done for us to praise the greatness of God’s grace (v6).
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