BLESSED IN CHRIST ACCORDING TO THE RICHES OF HIS GRACE

Ephesians 1:5-6

Every Spiritual Blessings that we have from the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ deserve Him to be
blessed by us as commanded by His Word through Apostle Paul. And every spiritual blessing were
unfolded to us by our loving Father. He wants us, the church, to understand His eternal purpose
through Christ Jesus His beloved Son, the Chosen One. When we understand that God chose us and
predestined us to be His children, we will be caught up in wonder, love and praise.

So, once again, I would like to invite you to pay careful attention to every words that you will be
hearing about for they are so precious than any gold and sweeter than honeycomb that a man so
desired, the infinite riches of His grace in Christ Jesus the Lord.

His words is more than enough to fill your hearts in complete satisfaction but it will continue to
crave for more in such a way that your hearts overflows with great joy to love Him more and more and
to live closer to Him every day honoring His holy Name to the praise of his glorious grace.

Two big words that start in the letter of Paul that amazed all believers in Christ of every spiritual
blessing they had by the heavenly Father through Jesus Christ our Lord.

These two words are Election and Predestination, words that are essential to understanding,
central to the rest of the letter.

In verses three and four, God choose believers in Christ, as more than important than anything
else before the foundation of the world for the task of being holy and blameless in His sight. Being
conform to the likeness of Christ and being holy as God is holy, are goals that could not be fully reached
in this life or something that ultimately will not be accomplished until we become sinless and perfect in
heaven. God promises to make sure that this happens. And we believe that his promises are good as
done, every spiritual blessings in the heavenly realms.

I know that in this fallen world because of sin, there are sickness and pain, death and sorrows,
loneliness and sorrows, sufferings and persecutions, trials and temptations. For I know, I can endure any
amount of all of these because “He who began a good work in me will be faithful to complete it until the
day appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ” and that He will preserve me to the end.

For I know very well, the He who choose and called me is faithful and will always forever be.
During this brief life of mine, I know that when I die, I will spend eternity with the One who blessed me
with all spiritual blessings in Christ. In His presence, all those who are with Him, “He will wipe away
every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor
pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” Revelation 21:4
 This morning, I will talk another spiritual blessing in Christ as we are blessed by God, the Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ and our loving Father also through Him.

II- PREDESTINED FOR ADOPTION AS SONS THROUGH JESUS CHRIST

Let us look first at the meaning of the word Predestination (1:5a) “In love He
predestined us…” To understand the word predestined, let us cut the word into two. “Pre”
means “Before” or “Previously” and “Destined” means “To decide”. So, we got the meaning of
the word predestined. It means to “Previously decide” or “To decide beforehand.”

From the Greek, it literally means, “To mark out beforehand” or “To mark out the
boundaries or limits. It refers to God’s plan for the ages or eternity. God had a plan in mind
before He created the universe. He has the inherent ability or power to carry out His plans.

All of us predestined things every day. If we are thinking ahead, we are king deciding
beforehand what we will do in a certain situation. Have you ever thought about what you
would do after the COVID 19 (Pandemic crisis)? Have you ever thought about what you might
do when you retire? If so, you have predestined your retirement or whatever are your plans
ahead of time.

Of course, as humans, even though we decide things, it does not guarantee that it will
happen, because we are not in control of everything. But God is in control. He does have all
the power! So, when He predestines something, it is guaranteed to happen.

So, what God has predetermined? He predestined, he decided beforehand, not that
some would receive eternal life and others be condemned to eternal death, but those who
placed faith in Jesus Christ would be adopted as God’s sons, would be eternally secure, would
finally make it to heaven, and would be conformed to the image of his Son. “See what kind of
love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The
reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know Him. Beloved, we are God’s
children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when He appears
we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who does hopes in Him
purifies himself as He is pure.” 1 John 3:1-4

With this understanding of predestination in mind, let us consider what the word of God
says about predestination.

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 - WHAT LIES AHEAD OF THE PREDESTINED (Future)

Ephesians 1:5a, (God) “He predestines us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ”

Well, here we see that are predestined for adoption (to be adopted as sons).

Again, many will teach from this verse that God has chosen from the world of the
unregenerate those whom He wants to receive eternal life.

But notice that eternal life is not mentioned here. Adoption is. And if we do a careful
study of what it means to be adopted as sons, we learn that it is a future event of glorification
where we receive new bodies that are completely free of sin and all of sin’s effects.

If we read Romans 8:23, and it says, “we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the
redemption of our bodies.” All Christians are predestined by God, and is something that has yet
to happen.

God predestined, or decided that those who believe in Jesus for eternal life, the same
people would be adopted into His family, that is, He would save them fully and give tham new
and perfect bodies that will last for eternity! That is what it means to be adopted as sons
according to the Scripture.

But many would ask, “But don’t we become children of God when we are born again?
When we place faith in Christ for eternal life, doesn’t this also make us children of God? The
answer is yes! It does. So, if we are already children, what is the adoption?

Let me clarify these two truths by showing to you the distinction between “children of
God and adopted sons of God”. We become God’s children by being born again or born
spiritually into his family (John 1:12-13; 3:1-8). This is called “regeneration”, of the “new birth”.
Yet, at the same time, we are also God’s adopted children.

The emphasis on regeneration is that we received new life from God. The emphasis on
adoption is that we received a new legal standing and relationship with God because He chose
us to be full members of His family.

In the Philippines, only orphans are adopted or by permission of the parents maybe. No
one will ever adopt their own children. But at the time of Apostle Paul, adoption was
something altogether different.

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 God predestined us to be adopted as sons are a guarantee to make us His heirs. As long
as the child remained not adopted, he was considered to be slave, even though he was a child
born to the father.

Let us read Galatians 4:7, “So you are no longer a slave, but a son, God has made you
also an heir.”

- IN LOVE HE PREDESTINED US

We are sons by birth when we place faith in Jesus Christ, yet, though sons, it is as if we were still
slaves. But because of our gracious Father’s great love for us, He has decided beforehand that, He
will adopt us as heirs, co-heirs with Christ. We get into God’s family by regeneration or the new
birth, but we become heirs of God through adoption. And, while we are adopted now, we don’t
receive the full inheritance of our adoption until we enter into the eternal kingdom after death.

God has named us heirs. We are heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ. This promise of
predestination is not about God deciding who sets to heaven and who goes to hell. It is about God
decided rather than just one son getting all of His inheritance but all His children get to share in the
inheritance of the family. What a wonderful promise and spiritual blessing for His children.

Romans 8:15-17, confirms about the present reality of our adoption. “For you did not receive
the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons by
whom we cry, “Abba Father!” The Spirit himself bear witness with our spirit that we are children of
God. And if children, then heirs – heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with
Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him.”

Paul had the concept in mind of the Roman culture when he talks about Christians as having
received the Spirit of adoption. Unlike their previous life as slaves of sin, in their new life as adopted
sons and daughters, washed/cleansed by the blood of the Lamb, of all that once defined them, they
are treasured by the Father as His own beloved ones, and are marked as it were – with His own
Name beforehand.

An awesome concept. . . and that we will be “going into” for all eternity. As Paul makes clear
when he says that we are already adopted now, and yet awaiting an (apparently fuller experience
of) adoption yet to come.

Romans 8:23, “And not only the creation but we ourselves who have the first fruit of the Spirit,
groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.”

This is the divine purpose of the Sovereign Lord from eternity to eternity for all his adopted sons
through Jesus Christ in love. Chosen and Predestined according to the riches of God’s grace. Amen!