Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,
5. Who hath predestinated us. What follows is intended still further to heighten the commendation of divine grace. The reason why Paul inculcated so earnestly on the Ephesians the doctrines of free adoption through Christ, and of the eternal election which preceded it, has been already considered. But as the mercy of God is nowhere acknowledged in more elevated language, this passage will deserve our careful attention.
God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ blesses us with all spiritual blessings in and through Him. No good can come from a righteous God to sinful creatures except through His mediation. Where God blesses with spiritual blessings, He blesses with all of them; to whom He gives Christ, He freely gives all these things.
AI summary
Commenting on Ephesians 1:3-14
Having predestinated us,.... Predestination, taken in a large sense, includes both election and reprobation, and even reaches to all affairs and occurrences in the world; to the persons, lives, and circumstances of men; to all mercies, temporal or spiritual; and to all afflictions, whether in love or in wrath: and indeed providence, or the dispensations of providence, are no other than the execution of divine...