1:5-6 - he predestined us to be adopted as his sons
. . . in the One he loves.
This fore-ordination [predestination] is not to be regarded as a divine activity prior to election. It is the latter�s synonym, a further elucidation of its purpose. The Father is described as having pre-horizoned or pre-encircled his chosen ones. In his boundless love, motivated by nothing outside of himself, he set them apart to be his own sons.
William Hendricksen, Ephesians (New Testament Commentary; London: Banner of Truth Trust, 1972), 79.
The words he predestined us . . . do not imply that God picked some in order to condemn others. Rather, they show that God did not act in a purposeless way but has a destiny in mind for us.
Walter L. Liefeld, Ephesians (IVP New Testament Commentary; Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1997), 34.
The term Paul uses for �adoption��huiothesian�is unique to him in the NT, and appears only here and in Gal 4:5 and Rom 8:15, 23, and 9:4. Though the term is not used elsewhere in the NT, the idea is ubiquitous to it; whenever the New Testament speaks of �children of God,� it always has the idea of adoption that is in mind. John, especially, affirms it as a primary blessing for those who believe in Jesus:
John 1:12 - To all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.
It is the blessing that permits us, by the enabling of the Holy Spirit, to turn to God and call him, "Father."
Adoption was a common practice in the Greco-Roman world. Whereas nowadays we usually adopt our children while they are infants, it was the Roman custom for a man to adopt an adult male to carry on the family name and to serve as heir. The apostles and their audience would have been well-familiar with the two famous adoptions that formed the background to the New Testament. There was, first, the adoption of the 19-year old Gaius Octavian (b.63 BC, d.14 AD) by Julius Caesar. Octavian — better known by his later name Caesar Augustus — was the Roman Emperor who made Herod the Great king over Judea, and during whose reign Jesus was born. Octavian was succeeded, in turn, by his adopted son, Tiberius (b.42 BC, d.37 AD) (It was in honour of these two emperors that Herod the Great founded, and named after them, the cities of Caesarea — where Paul was imprisoned for a short while before being sent on to Rome (Acts 23:2326:32) — and Tiberius, the city on shore of the Sea of Galilee.) Against this background it is little surprising that the New Testament speaks of the blessing of adoption with little explanation.
While adoption has its privileges and responsibilities, Paul does not spell them out here, where he is interested to name it as one of God�s gracious blessing to us:
Ephesians emphasizes that by God�s free predestining choice he adopts believers, taking them into his family and intimate fellowship, establishing them as his children and heirs. It stresses that this privileged relationship of knowing God as Father for those who at one time were �sons of disobedience,� �children of wrath� (cf.2:2, 3) is through the agency of Christ . . .
Andrew Lincoln, Ephesians (Word Biblical Commentary, 42; Dallas, TX; Word Books, 1990), 25.
. . . adoption as God�s sons and daughters brings both a plus and a minus, an immense gain and a necessary loss. We gain access to him as our Father through redemption or forgiveness. But we lose our blemishes, beginning at once by the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit, until we are finally made perfect in heaven. The words which seem to unite the privilege and the responsibility of our adoption are the expression before him (verse 4), meaning �in his sight� or �in his presence�. For to live our life in the conscious presence of our Father is both an immeasurable privilege and a constant challenge to please him.
John R. W. Stott, The Message of Ephesians: God�s New Society (The Bible Speaks Today; Leicester: Inter-Varsity Press, 1979), 40-41.
Caught up in the circle of small things as we so often are, it is good to be reminded that God blesses us and works in accordance with his pleasure and will, that:
He enjoys imparting his riches to many children.
J. P. Louw and E. A. Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domain (New York: United Bible Societies, 1988/9), �30.59.
When the Father chose a people for himself, deciding to adopt them as his own children, he was motivated by love alone. Hence, what he did was a result notof sheer determination but of supreme delight. A person may be fully determined to submit to a very serious operation. Again, he may be just as fully determined to plant a beautiful rose garden. Both are matters of the will. However, the latter alone is a matter of delight, that is, of his will�s good pleasure. Thus, God . . . delights in the salvation of sinners . . .
William Hendricksen, Ephesians (New Testament Commentary; London: Banner of Truth Trust, 1972), 79.
This is the first of three occurrences of this expression (see also v12 & 14). It serves as a refrain to round off the first part of the benediction before Paul picks up the tempo with another round of praise.
The string of genitive nouns and pronouns that Paul uses to express this thought is typical of the letter�s style in its first half. Where they occur, these genitive strings slow the discourse and emphasize the grandeur or gravity of thought (1:18b, 19b; 2:2b, 20b; 3:7; 4:13 [2x]). Here the phrase ( . . . of his glorious grace, which . . .) reins in the discourse of benediction and allows the reader, or those hearing the letter read aloud, to savor this final thought of the benediction�s first major part. God took pleasure in his primordial decision to adopt believers as his children, and he did this so that they might praise him for the magnificence of his grace.
Frank Thielman, Ephesians (Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament; Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2010), 53.
But what does the expression mean?
To say . . . that God�s grace is truly glorious means that it reflects his glory, his revealed character, and is therefore worthy of our praise. If God�s choice of men and women to be his sons and daughters arises from his grace, then the final goal of this divine predestination is that it might resound to the praise of that glorious grace.
Peter T. O�Brien, The Letter to the Ephesians (Pillar New Testament Commentary; Leicester: Apollos, 1999), 104.
God�s grace has extended to his people and enfolded them: he has �be-graced� them, says Paul (using a verb derived from the Greek word for �grace�). But, like every other phase of God�s dealings with them, this �be-gracing� is received by them not in their own right but in Christ: God�s grace is freely bestowed on them �in the Beloved One.� This designation marks Christ out as the supreme object of the Father�s love��the Son of his love,� as he is called in Col. 1:13.
F. F. Bruce, The Epistles to the Colossians, to Philemon, and to the Ephesians (New International Commentary on the New Testament; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1984), 258.
. . . not only is grace the only means of salvation . . . but since God is gracious, it is impossible to approach him on any other grounds. The whole section on God�s purposes makes it clear that God takes the initiative in his world, and this includes his bestowal of salvation. We must not picture God as deliberating over several possible means of salvation and deciding on grace. The very nature and purposes of God preclude any other way.
Walter L. Liefeld, Ephesians (IVP New Testament Commentary; Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1997), 39.
Low Chai Hok
©Alberith, 2014