These verses introduce to us the catalogue of blessings which are ours in Christ Jesus.
Carefully note the first of these blessings. It is predestination.
The source of the blessings referred to in verse 3, is the electing love of God. We were cursed but we have been chosen that we might be blessed. We were of the devil but we have been chosen to be adopted into God's family.
It is in keeping with man's perverse nature that this doctrine is so opposed, even by those who profess the name of Christ.
1. God has chosen a people for Himself. As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. . . I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word, John 17:2, 6. The word predestination is used in Acts 4:28. For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done.
2. He chose His people before the foundations of the world. Predestination is God determining in eternity what is to come to pass. It is Him working all things according to the counsel of His own will, verse 11. There is a people who are known to God and He listed them in His Book of Life, Rev 17:8. 2 Thess 2:13, Matt 25:34, 2 Tim 1:9. How this assures us of the final victory and triumph of Christ and His cause.
3. God made His choice of a people according to His own good pleasure. Having predestinated us . . . . according to the good pleasure of his will,verse 5. It was not because He saw anything in us or that we were capable of anything. It was merely His good pleasure to choose those He did. Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, John 15:16. He chose some and passed others. There was absolutely nothing in the elect that distinguished them from any other. John 5:1-9.
4. The purpose of His choosing us was to make us holy. . . . that we should be holy and without blame before him in love, verse 4. Clearly, we were not chosen for our holiness if God plan to make us holy. Our utter perfection is what God plans through the death of the Lord Jesus, 5:27 (without blame = without blemish). Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works, Titus 2:14. Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father, Gal 1:4. This holiness will be wrought out in us through the adopting us as children, 5. We would become partakers of the divine nature, 2 Peter 1:4.
5. Ultimately, predestination is to the praise of the glory of God's grace. Verse 6. The teaching of man's meritorious works is obviously opposed to the glory of God's grace. The design of redemption is to set forth the grace of God in such a manner as to fill our hearts with wonder and praise.