EPHESIANS: Chosen to be Blameless
EPHESIANS Number 5:
Chosen to be Blameless
We are blessed with all this in the same way that He has chosen and predestinated us.
“According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.” (Ephesians 1:4–6, KJV 1900)
Some of what we find here sounds dangerous. It almost seems like it’s too risky to tell people. It can feel like if people know this, there will be anarchy. Maybe I’m overstating the case but listen to what it says. First, God chose us before the foundation of the world. This seems unbelievable. What can the Spirit mean by this?
Some would say that this statement and others like it prove that God has chosen some for salvation and others for damnation, but that is inconsistent with what the Bible teaches us about God. Love, we read in Romans 13:10 does no wrong to a neighbor and is the fulfillment of the law. Surely the God who is love—and not just a familial or brotherly love, but self-giving agape’ love—cannot create some destined only for eternal death. He is not the author of death; He is the author of life.
He has chosen us before the foundation of the world, we are told, to be holy and without blame before Him. This is a key to understanding this passage. At the same time, it seems next-door to heresy to claim blameless holiness. Let’s look at another passage for help.
“And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:” (Colossians 1:21–22, KJV 1900)
Do you see it? Later in Ephesians Paul will say, “Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.” (Ephesians 2:3, KJV 1900)
We who are in Christ were just like all the others. We were alienated, enemies, and children of wrath by nature. These are the characteristics of every person who is not reconciled to God through Christ Jesus. It is because of the work the Lord Jesus finished at the cross that reconciliation with God is available. Even before the foundations of the world were laid, Father graciously planned that we would have a deep and personal relationship with Him. He knew that for any relationship to be based on love, the parties needed to be willing and eager participants. Love cannot be coerced. That meant that He needed to give us a real choice in the matter. We could choose to trust Him and live in loving relationship with Him, or we could choose to reject Him and attempt living with our own strength as our source. Being the all-knowing God that He is, He also knew that meant we would choose to reject Him and live apart from Him. Consequently, before He created the world, He had a plan to make it possible for us to be restored to the relationship He had designed us to have, but we had rebelliously rejected.
It’s laid out this way in 2 Corinthians: “And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.” (2 Corinthians 5:18–19, KJV 1900)
In so doing, He chose that all who would agree to be reconciled, would be forgiven of their sins and wickedness and placed into relationship with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. Our passage says that He “chose us in Him”, that is The Lord Jesus. All who are in Christ are those chosen to be holy and blameless.
