p. 5 | Studies in Ephesians

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Jan 21, 1913

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 40, No. 3.

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Studies in Ephesians

Chapter 1, Verses 5, 6, A.R.V.

Questioning the Text

1. How has God ordained us?

“In love having foreordained us.” Verse 5. Note 1.

2. Unto what has He ordained us?

“Unto adoption as sons.” Verse 5. Note 2.

3. Through whom is this ordination carried out?

“Through Jesus Christ unto Himself.” Verse 5. Note 3.

4. According to what were we ordained?

“According to the good pleasure of His will.” Verse 5. Note 4.

5. To the praise of what?

“To the praise of the glory of His grace.” Verse 6. Note 5.

6. How has this grace been bestowed?

“Which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.” Verse 6. Note 6.

Note 1.—“In love having foreordained us.”— We have taken the marginal reading of the last of verse 4 and the first of verse 5. It is true that we should be holy and without blemish before Him in love, but it seems to us that it is more necessary of emphasis to say, as the margin reads, that “in love” He has “foreordained us.” It has been with no hate, or indifference even, that God has marked out, or predestinated, His children. God is love, and all that He has wrought for us, or marked out for us, or marked us out for, has been in love.

“Never careless hand, and vain, Smiles these cheeks of joy and pain; No immortal selfishness Plays the game of curse and bless: Heaven and earth are witnesses That Thy glory goodness is.”

Note 2.—“Unto adoption as sons.”— This tells us the object of His love. It gives the lie to the old black theology born in the despair of heathenism, that God foreordained men to destruction. His foreordination only takes in that which is good; His call, His invitation, is broad enough to include every soul who will, and those who will not, take themselves out of God’s great plan. God foreordained, predestinated, marked us out, to be sons of the Most High. There can be no higher call, no greater station, and it is eternal. How gladly we ought to submit to such a foreordination as that to which He calls every soul who is capable of responding to a call.

3. “Through Jesus Christ unto Himself.”— We have the channel, or agent; we have the ultimate object. The ultimate object of His foreordination is to bring us “unto Himself,” children “unto Himself” in character, in holiness, without blemish, “unto Himself” “in love,” “unto Himself” in the giving out of that love to all around us on every side. We could not be God’s children and be selfish. We can not be the effectual recipients of His love without giving that love in return. In other words, we can not receive that love into our lives without bestowing love upon others, and love does not diminish by the giving; it grows in its bestowing. And Jesus Christ, the eternal Word, is the One through whom the Father gathers to Himself the children of earth. It is not Father against Son, nor Son against Father, it is both working together for the good of earth’s children.

4. “According to the good pleasure of His will.”— If mere deity should say that it is according to the pleasure of his will, the deities which men have worshiped have had evil pleasure. Some of them are pleased to devote men to destruction, but it is not simply the pleasure of the will of a deity,—it is the good pleasure of the will of Him who is love; and so God’s pleasure it is that has marked us out and adopted us through Jesus Christ. God’s will is expressed in His holy law; His holy law is the standard of character which He requires, and in His own choice and by His own pleasure He will bring all those who will yield to His ordination to that character where they will rejoice in the will of God, and will say, like the Psalmist of old, “O how love I Thy law! it is my meditation all the day.”

5. “To the praise of the glory of His grace.”— We have looked upon some of the marvelous paintings of the world. They were to the praise of Titian, of Raphael, of West, of Bonheur. As long as they remain, they will be to the praise of these artists. We witness some of the noble structures of the world. They are to the praise of the architect who planned them. Yet God is building things more precious than all the structures of this earth. All their beauty combined is not equal to that of one holy character. We can fancy that when the Taj Mahal was built as a tomb for a sleeping queen, the choicest, whitest marble that could be procured in India was chosen for it. But God takes the unpromising material of earth, characters that seem to be utterly ruined by sin, and will make them “to the praise of the glory of His grace,” through love. So that wherever these children of earth shall be seen throughout all eternity, they in their very characters shall tell of God’s goodness, of the influence of His love, and the power of His grace. The devil would have us believe that God does not love us, but we can tell him that He proposes to take us and make us lovable characters through the power of His wondrous grace.

6. “Freely bestowed.”— God’s grace is not something which is doled out stingily; it is not something which we must buy by wealth, or toil, or sacrifice. It does not demand that we should walk hundreds of miles on our hands and blistered and bleeding knees, nor that we should lie for days, or weeks, upon numerous spikes, or wear hair-shirts, or torture ourselves in a thousand imaginable ways. God’s grace is not so purchased. It comes to us because God is love, and it comes freely. He freely bestows it, sinner. We may say that we are unworthy; we are. It is not our unworthiness that moves Him to give us His love. He sees the possibility through His grace of what we may be, and He freely bestows it, bestows it even while we are in sin, in order that He may win us to Himself; and when that time comes that the heart is won, He bestows it even more abundantly, that the old life of sin may be cleansed away, and His own character, holy and without blemish, may shine out in us. Let us carry the thought of the study through the week.