Ephesians: Blessings to God
Ephesians 1:3-4; Acts 1:7-8 - We are chosen, but we also need faith.
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love..”
Ephesians 1:3-4 NASB1995
According to Biblical scholars, Ephesians 1:3-14 is one long sentence in the original Greek. It has broken down into more verses for various translations, so this devotional starts with verses 3 and 4; verse 4 actually crosses into an unfinished thought (“In love”) before the rest of verse 5, which I will cover in the next devotional.
Paul begins this passage with a blessing towards God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. In turn, He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. Notice that the blessings from Him are spiritual, not material. Then this passage gets really interesting, noting that He chose us in Him before the foundations of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. Let’s look at commentary from Enduring Word:
a. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ: Paul called for a blessing upon the Father (in the sense of recognizing His glory and honor and goodness), because the Father has already blessed the believer with every spiritual blessing (who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing).
i. Moule wrote that the idea behind blessed is, “Praised with worshipping love.”
b. Who has blessed us: This blessing is ours. God’s resources are there for us always. This speaks of an attitude of certainty and assurance.
i. “We are not sitting here, and groaning, and crying, and fretting, and worrying, and questioning our own salvation. He has blessed us; and therefore we will bless him. If you think little of what God has done for you, you will do very little for him; but if you have a great notion of his great mercy to you, you will be greatly grateful to your gracious God.” (Spurgeon)
ii. The “us” includes both Jews and Gentiles in the church at Ephesus and beyond. It was important to point out that these blessings are for both Jewish and Gentile believers. First century Jews had a strong sense of being blessed, called, and predestined. Paul showed that these things are now given to Christians, be they Jew or Gentile.
c. With every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ: This describes both the kind of blessings and the location of those blessings. These are spiritual blessings, which are far better than material blessings. These blessings are ours in the heavenly places in Christ, they are higher, better, and more secure than earthly blessings.
i. “Our thanks are due to God for all temporal blessings; they are more than we deserve. But our thanks ought to go to God in thunders of hallelujahs for spiritual blessings. A new heart is better than a new coat. To feed on Christ is better than to have the best earthly food. To be an heir of God is better than being the heir of the greatest nobleman. To have God for our portion is blessed, infinitely more blessed than to own broad acres of land. God hath blessed us with spiritual blessings. These are the rarest, the richest, the most enduring of all blessings; they are priceless in value.” (Spurgeon)
ii. If we have no appreciation for spiritual blessing, then we live at the level of animals. Animals live only to eat, sleep, entertain themselves, and to reproduce. We are made in the image of God and He has something much higher for us, yet many choose to live at the level of animals. God wants us to know every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.
iii. We also note that this includes every spiritual blessing.
· This means that every blessing we receive, we receive in Christ.
· This means that God wants to bless us with every blessing available to us.
d. Just as He chose us in Him: Our possession of every spiritual blessing is as certain as our being chosen by Him, and chosen before the foundation of the world.
i. We dare not diminish what Paul writes here. Believers are chosen by God, and they are chosen before they have done anything or have been anything for God. The great light of this truth casts some shadows; namely, in trying to reconcile human responsibility with divine sovereignty. Yet the purpose of light is not to cast shadows but to guide our steps. The light of God’s selection gives us assurance to the permanence of His plan and His love towards us.
ii. The reasons for God’s choosing are not capricious, nor are they random. Though they are past our finding out, we know that they are altogether wise and good, but the reasons are all in Him, not in us. His choosing is according to the good pleasure of His will (Ephesians 1:5).
iii. We are chosen in Him. “For if we are chosen in Christ, it is outside ourselves. It is not from the sight of our deserving, but because our heavenly Father has engrafted us, through the blessing of adoption, into the Body of Christ. In short, the name of Christ excludes all merit, and everything which men have of themselves.” (Calvin)
e. That we should be holy and without blame before Him in love: We are chosen not only for salvation, but also for holiness. Any understanding of God’s sovereign choosing that diminishes our personal responsibility for personal holiness and sanctification falls far short of the whole counsel of God.
i. “The words [holy and without blame] are a metaphor taken from the perfect and immaculate sacrifices which the law required the people to bring to the altar of God.” (Clarke)
ii. We cannot forget the words in love. Holiness and blamelessness are nothing without love. “But as love is the fulfilling of the law, and love the fountain whence their salvation flowed, therefore love must fill their hearts towards God and each other.” (Clarke)
I think there are a few takeaways from this commentary:
Blessing God is praising God with worshipping love.
Spiritual blessings are better than any material blessing. Material blessings fade away, sometimes rather quickly when circumstances change. Spiritual blessings are for eternity!
Every blessing we receive, we receive in Christ.
God’s selection gives us the peace and assurance of the permanence of His plan.
This passage and an upcoming verse (verse 5) open up that old can of worms between Calvinism and Arminianism. Are we predestined to be believers and saved in Christ or are humans left to find their own way to God? How do we reconcile God’s sovereignty with human responsibility? Well, in either case, we are tasked with bringing the Gospel to all the ends of the Earth, as noted in Acts 1:
“He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.””
Acts 1:7-8 NASB1995
Being chosen in Him is outside of ourselves and the reasons are His, not ours, but we also have to have faith. The more I study Scripture, I guess you could say I lean towards the Reformed viewpoint in Protestantism. I also saw a comment that came from Charles Spurgeon that this predestination absolutely does not absolve us of evangelism, because those who were chosen before the foundations of the world are not marked with yellow paint crosses on their backs.
According to Gotquestions.org, Ephesians seems to walk somewhere between both viewpoints:
Historically, there have been two major interpretations of the concept of God’s choosing us. Behind Door #1, Calvinism teaches that God’s choosing means the believer has nothing to do with his own salvation: even the faith of the believer is itself a gift. Behind Door #2, Arminian teaching emphasizes the believer’s choice and suggests that God’s choice was based on God’s knowledge of what the believer would choose. If we simply take Paul’s words at face value, it would seem that neither of these theological conclusions is adequate. Paul asserts that God chose us before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4), and Paul doesn’t even discuss God’s foreknowledge in Ephesians 1. Paul does reference God’s foreknowledge in Romans 8:29 as preceding predestination, but he does not discuss choosing (or election) in the Romans 8 context. It would seem that God’s choice is “according to the kind intention of His will” (Ephesians 1:5b, NASB 1995) and that His purpose is according to His choice (Romans 9:11) and not based on what we might or might not do. At the same time, we have been saved by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8), and the faith is necessary.
Jesus’ explanation of salvation makes it conditional only upon belief in Him (e.g., John 3:15–16; 6:47), and He puts the responsibility on the one who is to believe. So there is a third door. Door #1 suggests God is sovereign, and man is not involved; Door #2 suggests that God is not expressing His sovereignty, and the choice is entirely up to the person. Door #3 suggests that God has expressed His sovereignty—He chose us before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4)—and He places the responsibility of faith upon the individual (Ephesians 2:8). Both the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of humanity are evident in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians and in his explanation of how we came to be so greatly blessed.
Here’s one more commentary that is food for thought, from the late John MacArthur, quoted in Precept Austin on election:
(1) One is God’s theocratic election of Israel. “You are a holy people to the Lord your God,” Moses told Israel in the desert of Sinai; “the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth” (Deut 7:6). That election had no bearing on personal salvation. “They are not all Israel who are descended from Israel,” Paul explains; “neither are they all children because they are Abraham’s descendants” (Ro 9:6, 7-notes). Racial descent from Abraham as father of the Hebrew people did not mean spiritual descent from him as father of the faithful (Ro 4:11-note).
(2) A second kind of election is vocational. The Lord called out the tribe of Levi to be His priests, but Levites were not thereby guaranteed salvation. Jesus called twelve men to be apostles but only eleven of them to salvation. After Paul came to Christ because of God’s election to salvation, God then chose him in another way to be His special apostle to the Gentiles (Acts 9:15+; Ro 1:5-note).
(3) The third kind of election is salvational, the kind of which Paul is speaking in our present text. “No one can come to Me,” Jesus said, “unless the Father who sent Me draws him” (John 6:44). Helkuō (draws - 1670) carries the idea of an irresistible force and was used in ancient Greek literature of a desperately hungry man being drawn to food and of demonic forces being drawn to animals when they were not able to possess men.
Salvage yards use giant electromagnets to lift and partially sort scrap metal. When the magnet is turned on, a tremendous magnetic force draws all the ferrous metals that are near it, but has no effect on other metals such as aluminum and brass. In a similar way, God’s elective will irresistibly draws to Himself those whom He has predetermined to love and forgive, while having no effect on those whom He has not. (MacArthur, J: Ephesians. Chicago: Moody Press) (Bolding and numbering added for emphasis by Precept Austin).
The idea of a powerful magnetic force is irresistible (no pun intended), knowing our own salvation story (see this post here). He is sovereign, He loves us and we are transformed by His love into those who are holy and blameless.
My next devotional examines Ephesians 1:5-6 - Adoption as Sons of Jesus
Heaven on Wheels Daily Prayer:
Dear Lord - You came to me many years ago and told me that You would be with me. I responded and asked for Your forgiveness and accepted the gift of salvation, which You had reserved for me before the stars appeared. I love You! Amen.
Credits and Citations:
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.Lockman.org.
Precept Austin was accessed on 03/17/2026 to review commentary for Ephesians 1:3-4. Within the Precept Austin commentary was a link to Gotquestions.org: Gotquestions.org was accessed to answer this question: What does it mean that God chose us before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4)? Gotquestions.org Copyright © 2026 all rights reserved.
Commentary from Enduring Word is used with written permission and without any alteration. ©1996-present The Enduring Word Bible Commentary by David Guzik – enduringword.com. Within the Enduring Word commentary:
Moule, Handley C. G. Ephesian Studies (London: Pickering and Inglis, ?)
Spurgeon, Charles Haddon The New Park Street Pulpit, Volumes 1-6and The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Volumes 7-63 (Pasadena, Texas: Pilgrim Publications, 1990).
Clarke, Adam The New Testament with A Commentary and Critical Notes, Volume II (New York: Eaton & Mains, 1831)