Ephesians 1:4-6 - God’s Chosen and Adopted

Well, turn with me, if you will, to the letter of Ephesians, chapter 1, the letter of Ephesians, chapter 1, and today we will be looking at verses 4 through 6.

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

Ephesians chapter 1, verses 4 through 6.

Ephesians 1:4–6

And today's message is all about how we have been chosen and adopted by God.

So if you remember from our last study in Ephesians, Paul begins this letter by blessing God.

In verse 3, he says, Blessed be the God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

That is the central theme of Ephesians chapter 1.

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

God is to be blessed.

And in the rest of this chapter, Paul gives us reasons why God deserves all of our praise.

And it's all centered on the nature of our salvation.

The thing that I love about Ephesians chapter 1 is it explains the way that salvation was applied to us.

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

So just take, for example, Joseph in Genesis chapter 41.

Genesis 41 · chapter mention

If you remember, Joseph was in prison, he was forgotten, he had no hope for the future.

Then, in a matter of hours, everything changed for Joseph.

The guards came, they cleaned him up, they gave him fresh clothes, they brought him before Pharaoh, they shaved him.

So not only was he released, but he was exalted, given one of the highest positions in the entire world, seated at the right hand of the most powerful king, with access to everything in the kingdom.

Now imagine a journalist interviewing Joseph the next day with a microphone, going up to him saying, Joseph, yesterday you were in prison.

Today you're living in royalty.

How did this happen?

Joseph probably would have said, Honestly, I don't know.

All I know is that I was in prison, but now I'm free.

I was suffering, but now I have abundance.

I had no purpose, but now I've been given one of the greatest callings in the world.

And in the same way, as Christians, we can have a difficult time explaining, articulating, or describing what's occurred in our lives.

Early on in my conversion, I remember people would come up to me and they're like, Jimmy, you're different.

Like, what happened to you?

And all I could say is, I'm not exactly sure.

All I know is that I was once dead, now I'm alive.

I was once lost, but now I'm found.

I love the God I once hated and I hate the sin I once loved.

And this is what makes Ephesians 1 so special.

It explains how salvation was applied to us.

It describes how God brought us from death to life.

It gives language and realities about our conversion.

And so we saw last time God should be blessed because in Christ He has given us every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms.

And we could spend a whole lot of time there just marveling in that reality, but Paul doesn't stop there.

He keeps going and revealing more reasons on why God is worthy of our praise.

So today we're going to look at two more reasons on why God should be blessed.

He has chosen us and he has adopted us.

So let's read Ephesians 1, verses 4 through 6 together.

Ephesians 1:4–6

Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.

In love, he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious name, with which he has blessed us in the beloved.

One of the first things that Paul wants these Christians to understand is that God chose them.

This is a common theme throughout Scripture.

Jesus says in John 15, 16, You didn't choose me, but I chose you, and I appointed you that you should go and bear fruit.

Paul speaking to the Thessalonians says, For we know, brothers, loved by God, that He has chosen you.

In Jeremiah chapter 1, verse 5, following this same theme, he says, Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.

Jeremiah 1:5

And before you were born, I consecrated you.

First John chapter 4, verse 19 says, We love, why?

1 John 4:19

Because God loved us first.

So contrary to Christian humanism, we are not saved because we chose God.

We hated God.

We were his enemy.

We were blind.

We were lost in darkness.

We were indulging sin, following the ways of this world, as Ephesians 2 puts it.

We didn't wake up one day and just say to ourselves, you know what?

I think I'm going to mature and do the right thing and choose God.

We don't have the power to scream at our heart and say, hey, heart, change your desires, heart.

Make right choices, stop having bad motivations and start having godly ones.

Who has that kind of power?

Scripture is very clear on this matter.

I am not the one who chose God.

He is the one that chose me.

If salvation was dependent upon my choice of God, I would have never chosen him.

I hated him.

I loved sin so much, I would have clung to it all the way to hell.

And if salvation was kept by my ongoing choice of God, I would have lost it ten minutes ago.

No, my friends, we stand here today as children of God because God chose us.

He quickened us to Christ while we were his enemy, the scripture says.

While we were his enemy.

And when did he choose us?

Look at the text.

Before the foundation of the world.

Here's what this means: it means before creation, before anyone was born, God chose to save a remnant of people to be with him forever.

Now this verse implies a few things.

First, it implies that God already knew about the fall.

This shows his complete sovereignty and omniscience.

He already knew that we would forfeit our wills to Satan, that we would voluntarily enslave ourselves to sin, that we would be separated from him, totally incapable of ever wanting to choose him.

Yes, my friends, that is how bad sin is.

That is how bad the fall was.

Humanity is now condemned, unable to save themselves, and unable to create the desire to love or want God.

So apart from God's divine intervention, all humanity would be lost forever.

Secondly, this verse implies that he chose us based on his will.

And we'll see that the text actually tells us that later on.

In other words, God didn't look ahead and say, wow, Jimmy is just going to be such a wonderful, loving person.

I'm going to choose him because he's so precious.

His choosing of us wasn't based on human status, human effort, or human will.

It wasn't like a game of pick-up basketball, where we would naturally pick the tallest, the fittest, the most athletic person to be on our team.

God didn't choose you based on your merit, your obedience, or your appearance.

He didn't choose you because you're so lovable.

He chose you because he is love.

And he has a sovereign will and a plan.

Romans 9 so clearly illustrates this reality.

That's why it's good to use scripture to interpret scripture.

Paul gives the example of Jacob and Esau.

It says, Yet before the twins were born, before any of them had done anything good or bad, in order that God's purpose and election might stand, there it is, not by works, but by him who calls.

She was told, the older will serve the younger.

Just as it is written, Jacob I have loved, Esau I have neglected.

And then later in Romans chapter 9, verse 16, Paul supports his conclusion by saying, So then, closing argument, so then it does not depend on man's desire or man's effort, but on God's mercy.

Romans 9:16

God had a sovereign plan from the very beginning.

God's redemption plan, by the way, it wasn't like a plan B.

God didn't create us, and then in Genesis 3, when the fall occurred, he said, Oh no, oh no, my creation has rebelled.

They decided to follow Satan.

Hey, Jesus, what do we do about this?

Not at all.

Before the foundation of the world, God already chose to save a remnant of people.

That is what Paul wants us to understand here.

And what exactly did he choose us for?

Well, look at the verse to be holy, meaning pure, and blameless, meaning without defect, before him.

And so, church, God chose you specifically in the fullness of time to be pursued by the Holy Spirit, convicted of your sin, washed in the blood of Jesus Christ, transferred into the kingdom of light, so that when you die, you wouldn't go to hell forever.

But instead, for the glory of his name, you would stand before his permeating holiness in a perfect status.

That you would be holy as he is holy, that you would enjoy him forever.

Christians in the room, he chose you.

Despite your current sin, your constant instability, and your chaotic emotions, God has chosen you to be with him forever.

And what this implies is that salvation is in his hands.

It's in the hands of an omniscient, all-powerful God.

A God who chose you before creation.

Now I want to take a moment here and address the elephant in the room.

There are some in this room who I know are thinking, Jimmy, I don't find this comforting at all.

And I've I've been there.

In fact, I find this very disturbing.

And I can emphasize with that.

You hear doctrines like this and you think, where in the world is human free will?

Is God some tyrant?

He's some arbitrary, fatalistic deity who's just drawing names out of a hat?

Are we all just robots?

God's just going to neglect some but save others?

We naturally say the same exact objections that Paul brings up in Romans 9, which I would encourage you to read.

So I want to speak into this a little bit.

First, always deal with Scripture honestly and unbiasedly.

Don't try to fit Scripture into some theological framework.

I don't care if it's John Calvin or Jacobus Arminius.

Always use the literal, historical, grammatical method of interpretation because I believe that allows God to speak for himself.

And don't read things into the text that are not there.

But honestly extract what's there using scripture to interpret scripture.

Secondly, don't allow human emotions to get in the way.

Look, there are doctrines, I'm going to be the first one to raise my hand, that I just I don't like.

Doctrines that I don't, it doesn't go with my human logic.

I don't like it, it gives me bad feelings.

But the goal of scripture isn't for it to fit my emotions, but that I would align myself to what God has said.

And don't allow human emotion to take over.

I hear people say all the time, well, if that's true, I refuse to believe in a God like that.

That's not a very teachable spirit.

And thirdly, don't accuse God or mischaracterize what's being said here.

I hear people say all the time, well, this diminishes human responsibility.

This promotes fatalism, this encourages licentiousness.

Who's saying that?

You're saying that.

Because the text or the passage doesn't.

And this doctrine is perfectly consistent with human responsibility, the call to repentance and personal holiness.

Don't make accusations or assumptions against a doctrine that you may not fully understand.

And lastly, realize, and this is the most important, church, that this doctrine wasn't revealed to us so that we could throw our hands up and accuse God.

The very context of this verse is a precious reason to bless God.

This doctrine wasn't revealed to us so that we could debate it as a controversy.

It was revealed to us that we might appreciate and worship our Creator.

That this would cause us to look to God and say, God, thank you that you chose me.

Thank you, Lord, for your sovereignty.

J.I.

Packer once said that people so often treat God's sovereignty as a matter of controversy, but in Scripture, it is a matter of worship.

What an amazing reality, church.

What a restful truth that we can hold on to.

That although you chose sin, although you chose Satan, although you chose to follow the ways of this world, God chose to intervene and make you clean through Jesus Christ.

And even now, as a Christian, you continue to give God countless reasons to retract his choice from you, but he doesn't.

Because it's based off the choice of his sovereign will.

God planned it all, Jesus paid it all, and the Holy Spirit applies it all.

Next, Paul gives us even further insight into the divine application of our salvation.

We are told in verse 5 that in love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ.

So God's driving motivation for saving us was what?

Love.

This doesn't mean that God looked at us and said, Wow, you're just so lovable.

Therefore I'm going to save you.

No, it means that God, because he is love, chose to save us, even though we would be sinful, useless, broken, lost.

So from a motivation of love, he predestined, that Greek word means predetermined, preordained, us for what?

Adoption.

Adoption theologically is the idea that God adopts believers into his family.

It's a biblical teaching that emphasizes that people aren't born into God's family, but they must be adopted into it.

Jesus tells us this in John 3, he says, you must be born again.

So in the fall, in Genesis 3, when sin entered the world, we lost all status with God.

We became, as a whole, his enemy, objects of wrath, children of the devil.

And the only way to get back to God is through some kind of supernatural plan to adopt us back into his family.

Adoption, then, is a gift.

It's not something that can be initiated by men.

Adoption is a result of Jesus' work.

That is what the verse says here.

It came through Jesus Christ, through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

He made it possible for God to legally and literally adopt people into his family.

He made it possible for us to become children, heirs to his kingdom with full privileges.

J.I.

Packer says adoption is the highest privilege of the gospel.

The traitor is forgiven, brought in for supper, and given the family name.

To be right with God the judge is a great thing, but to be loved and cared for by God the Father is greater.

This adds a whole new layer to our salvation.

You're not just spared from judgment.

You're not just forgiven.

You have been recreated from being a lost sinner into a precious, adopted son or daughter of God.

Your name is not just cleared from the prosecutor's office.

Your name is written into the family will, the Lamb's Book of Life, as a child of the living God.

And God doesn't just legally declare you a child, but he treats you as one.

You know, in Roman law during this time, the person who had been adopted had all the rights of a legitimate son and completely lost rights of his old family.

All debts or obligations connected with his previous family were abolished as if they never existed.

That is how the original audience would have understood this.

So Jesus made this possible for us.

When he died on the cross, he paid our debt, he bridged the gap between God and man.

In salvation, God planned for us to become his children.

Jesus made it possible for us to become his children.

And the Holy Spirit literally transforms us into God's children.

This is so vital, church, to understand this doctrine.

Because without it, we really have no confidence before God.

Without it, we will be seeking love and approval from this broken world.

And trust me, this world will make you feel like an orphan.

How much misery in our Christian life stems from a lack of this identity.

If you think you're an orphan, if you think you're a sinner, then you will act like one.

Recent psychologists came out with a study of how children will behave.

If they think that their parents don't love them.

And here are the top results, you ready?

Number one, they develop fears and anxieties.

Number two, they become impulsive, unable to manage their emotions.

Number three, they become unstable.

Number four, they isolate and they try to become invisible.

Number five, they develop a negative self-image hating themselves.

Maybe my parents don't love me because I'm such a mess up.

In the same way, church, when we doubt our divine adoption or we lack assurance of God's love towards us as his children, do we not manifest some of these very same behaviors?

If I don't think God loves me, then I will reinforce that lie by giving him reasons not to.

If I'm not convinced of my identity as a son of God, then I'm going to search around society and culture to try to find one.

If I don't believe that God has adopted me, then I'm going to live my life trying to earn my adoption, striving for approval, living in perfectionism, which is impossible.

If I am not convinced that I am a son of God, then why act like one?

And on those days, I am secure.

No matter what comes my way, I'm spiritually productive because I know who I am.

I resist temptation because I know whose I am.

When I am confident that I am a dearly loved Son of God, sin is bitter and Christ is sweet.

So many people are seeking answers to their moral failures, their addictions, their anxieties, their worries.

And the world's secular advice and counsel and models have let them down.

At the very least, it's offered them maybe some temporary management.

But our problem as Christians is defined this way: the reason we sin and the reason we chase after idols is because we have forgotten in those moments who we are in Christ.

We have forgotten that we are children of God.

The reason you have unconfessed sin that you refuse to admit, or the reason you have unrepentant sin that you refuse to let go of is because you are not in this season understanding who you are in Christ.

You do not believe it in this moment, and thus you are not rejoicing and walking in it.

Neil T.

Anderson, an author I really like, he says the most important belief that we possess is a true knowledge of who God is.

The second most important belief is who we are as children of God, because we cannot consistently behave in a way that is inconsistent with how we perceive ourselves.

So if you are here this morning, church, you're wearied by life, maybe you've made some very terrible choices recently, your spiritual disciplines are lacking, you're not sure how to get back in the groove, your assurance of salvation is in question, you're in the middle of a spiritual identity crisis right now.

The answer is not the moral gospel.

The answer is not just do better, stop being bad, try harder.

No.

The solution is regaining afresh who you are in Christ.

And so I want to encourage you by asking you a question this morning.

Probably one of the most important questions we could ever ask ourselves.

Have you, answer this to yourself, have you placed genuine faith in the person and in the work of Jesus Christ?

Have you?

Okay.

If you can confidently say yes to that question, then with biblical authority, let me remind you of who you are right now.

You are God's child, John 1.12.

You are a member of Christ's body, 1 Corinthians 12.

You are a citizen of heaven, Philippians 3.20.

You are secure in God, Ephesians 2.20.

You are a dwelling place for God's spirit, 1 Corinthians 6.

You are a justified, being sanctified, soon-to-be glorified saint, whom God loves, and there is nothing that can separate you from his love.

Romans 8.

This is your identity.

So dust your shoes off.

Repent if you need to, get back up, stop believing the lies of the enemy.

Don't let sin cloud your judgment.

Stop acting like an orphan and start enjoying afresh your sonship and your adoption.

Enjoy afresh your fellowship, your communion with God.

Start resting in the realities mentioned here in Ephesians chapter 1.

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

That is what we need.

Now, how do we know, church, that I am interpreting these verses accurately?

In other words, how do we know for sure that our holy status is all of God?

And how do we know for sure that our adoption was all of God?

Well, look at the next few verses.

It actually interprets it for us.

God did all of this according to the working principle, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace with which he has blessed us in the beloved.

This statement reveals the working principles of what we just read in verses four and five.

Who is responsible for all of this?

Who did all this?

Who gets the credit?

Was God's choosing kind of a mixture, a joint effort?

Did we get adopted because of something we did or something that God did?

So this verse gives us indisputable clarity.

God's choice of you, his adoption of you, was according to one will.

God's.

God's will, meaning it was his idea, his choice, his plan, his purpose.

And if that's the case, who then gets all the glory?

He does.

Look at the verse.

To the praise of his glorious name, God knew, because of our sin, that if we had any reason to boast, we would.

We are all about us.

We are constantly pointing to ourselves, saying, look at me, look at me, look at me.

But all boasting is destroyed here.

The gospel destroys any ounce of human pride.

That's why it's so offensive.

God chose me.

He pursued me.

He forgave me.

He regenerated me.

He adopted me.

And yes, I had to respond.

Yes, I had to surrender.

But even in those things, Scripture reveals that God was the one granting us the ability and the desire to do so.

Even my faith and my repentance, according to Ephesians 2, was a gift from God.

He was behind the scenes, poking and prodding, intervening and transforming, unveiling and revealing, convicting and changing.

And therefore, not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto you be all glory, honor, and fame.

And Paul ends this sentence by saying, with which he has blessed us in the beloved, meaning Christ, he took your mess of a life when you deserved nothing but wrath, when you had absolutely nothing to offer God.

He took your empty, meaningless, degrading life, and out of his nature of love, out of his sovereign will, out of his good pleasure and purpose, he placed you in Jesus Christ.

He blessed you in which you now stand.

Here you are.

Church, marvel in this reality today, that before the universe was created, God personally chose you.

From a motivation of love, from his sovereign will and choice, God chose you to be placed in Christ so that you would be reconciled to him, that you would enjoy him, that you would know him forever as holy, dearly, loved, a child of God, knowing that all of this is for his glory, for his name.

And so, Proclamation Church, what is our application to all of this?

How does this reality affect our lives?

Well, for the believer in the room, I ask, are you clinging to this identity?

When you think of yourself, do you think, or do you truly believe that you are a blood-bought, dearly loved, chosen, predestined, adopted child of God?

Like, is that your primary identity?

Is that how you view yourself?

Are you rejoicing in, marveling in this blessed reality?

And if not, I ask, why?

What other identity in this world could be more important?

Your title of father or mother, husband, wife, director, case manager, volunteer, minister, all of those are secondary.

Those are all sub-identities, temporary identities that will pass away.

But being a child of God, that will last forever.

And maybe you're struggling right now, you're having an identity crisis.

Sin has slipped into your life, it's clouded your judgment, and you're confused right now.

You're saying, man, maybe I'm not a child of God because I'm surely not acting like it.

And now you think maybe I am just a loser, a failure, a wretch.

Or adversity has struck, life has been tough for you, and the enemy has whispered in your ear, look at all the tragedy and pain in your life.

Is this how God treats his children?

Are you sure you're one of his children?

God would never allow this to happen to one of his kids.

And you've believed the lie.

Friends, it is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ that we are children of God.

It is a gift from God.

Your adoption was based on God's will, not your effort.

Failure then cannot change your identity.

The enemy cannot change your identity.

The only thing the enemy can do is make you doubt that reality.

If you are a born-again believer in Jesus Christ, your identity is secure.

Stop believing the lies.

Stop reinforcing these lies by indulging in sin and come back to your true identity, your eternal title, a child of God.

Church, let us pray this morning.