#DailyDevotion In Christ, In Love, In Him, The Father Chose You

Ephesians 1:3–9a ³ Let us praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who in Christ has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in heaven. ⁴He has done what in His kindness He planned to do: Before He made the world, He Who loved us ⁵appointed us to be made His sons by Jesus Christ. In Him He chose us to be holy and blameless before Him ⁶ in order to praise the glory of the love He gave us in His dear Son, ⁷Who bought us with His blood to forgive our sins and set us free. So ⁸He poured out the riches of His grace on us, ⁹giving us every kind of wisdom and understanding as He told us the hidden meaning of His will.

This section and the following through verse fourteen in the original Greek are all one sentence. It appears to be in a form of a Jewish blessing of God. So Paul here is blessing, i.e. thanking God for all his goodness to us, in particular all his spiritual blessing he blessed us with in heaven.

The LORD God has blessed us in his kindness with a plan. You see Jesus is not plan b. In his infinite wisdom the Father knew what was going to happen when he made man and gave him a free will. Yet, he created us anyway because he wanted you to be with him forever. So before he made the world, the Father who loved us, appointed us to be made his sons by Jesus Christ. Yes, he chose you in eternity, in Love to be his children and to save you from the sin he knew would ensue when he created us. Jesus is that Love. For it is love to offer yourself as a sacrifice for sin. That is what Jesus did, according to the will and plan of the Father.

Now we have already had two “ins”, in Christ, in Love, now “in him.” In is very important word here in this section of Ephesians for all the ‘ins’ are in Christ Jesus. This ‘in Jesus’ is key to understanding the whole letter to the Ephesians. But I regress, you were chosen in him (Jesus) to be holy and blameless before the Father. It is this choosing, God’s choosing, in Christ Jesus that makes you holy and blameless, not anything you do. Paul picks up on this in chapter five when he writes, ²⁶“to make it holy by washing it clean with water by the Word, ²⁷to have the church stand before Him as something wonderful, without a spot or a wrinkle or anything like that; yes, it should be holy and without a fault.” In Col. 1 he also writes, ²²“but now by dying in His human body He has made you friends in order to have you stand before Him without sin or fault or blame…”

Colossians here focuses in on what Paul does here in Ephesians, “by dying in his human body” and now here in verse 7, “who bought us with his blood to forgive our sins and set us free.” You see, it is only by paying the penalty of death and by shedding his blood for the forgiveness of our sins, can you and I stand before the Father holy and blameless. Yet in his great love for us in Christ Jesus, he sacrifices his only begotten son so he may bring us before in great joy to live before him as is plan from all eternity. He has poured out the richness of his grace upon us so we may believe this work of Christ and receive all its benefits. He has revealed to us, to you, the hidden meaning of his will in Christ Jesus. Let us join then with Paul in blessing our heavenly Father in Christ Jesus for all he has done for us.

Heavenly Father, we give you thanks that you had prepared our salvation even before the world was created so we may be saved and live before you forever in Christ Jesus. Ever preserve us in this faith so we may indeed stand before you holy and blameless on the day of Christ. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

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