October 5, 2025
Ephesians 1:3-6
Title: Embrace What’s Too Amazing to Grasp.
It’s interesting how our world changes so quickly these days.
I’ve thought before what a person from colonial America would think about us flying down the interstate
at 70 miles per hour.
What would someone from 100 years ago think about my grandsons telling the screens in their kitchens
to video call their cousins.
One of the least significant developments of the last 15 years is the emoji.
I mean, for the longest time, all we had was colon, dash, parentheses.
Isn’t it nice how, when it’s someone’s birthday, now you can add to your text an image of a gift, and a
confetti popper?
What would someone from 20 years ago say if you asked them about their favorite emojis
They’d just ask, “What are you talking about?”
One of my favorite emojis of surprise is the one that expresses a person having their mind-blown.
I reserve this one for when something surprises me.
Maybe I’m shaking my head in amazement at someone’s stupidity.
Or maybe I’m amazed at the goodness of God that someone shares with me.
?- So, why am I bringing up this emoji this morning?
Over these first few chapters of Ephesians, we’re going to feel like our minds are getting blown.
And we should.
We should feel like our minds are getting blown whenever we’re trying to wrap our finite minds around
the infinite God.
Our minds have boundaries in what they can comprehend.
God has no boundary on His knowledge, His presence, His ability, and many other of His attributes.
So, when we learn about the work that God did before the creation of the world to redeem a people for
Himself for the praise of His glorious grace, you’re going to feel like your head is gonna pop.
Welcome to the party.
This is all a part of how Paul approaches the Christian life in Ephesians.
We’re looking at this series as our opportunity to Learn & Live the Truth of Who You Are in Christ.
These are the steps that the letter to the Ephesians takes us through -learning & living the truth.
First, we’re learning a small slice of how amazing God’s saving grace truly is.
And it is mind-blowing.
This morning, I want to encourage you to Embrace What’s Too Amazing to Grasp .
We going to look at some doctrines that scare some people for some reason.
We’re dealing with election or God’s choosing people for salvation and predestination.
Too often Christians reject what God says in His word about these things because they can’t grasp them.
But even though we can’t grasp them, we should still embrace them and celebrate how they are
intended to the praise of his glorious grace
So let jump into the verses that we’re going to look at this week and next week as well.
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every
spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as
sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with
which he has blessed us in the Beloved.
7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the
riches of his grace, 8 which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight 9 making known to us the
mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 10 as a plan for the fullness of
time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
11 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him
who works all things according to the counsel of his will, 12 so that we who were the first to hope in
Christ might be to the praise of his glory. 13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the
gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the
guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.
Let me point something out before we get into the weeds this morning with verses 3-6.
There are two sides of the salvation coin.
There is God’s side and man’s side -God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility.
Notice how verse 13 lays out our responsibility -
In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him,
were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit
We’re going to get to this.
So, as you’re listening this morning, please do not think that I’m preaching some sort of fatalism where
the die is cast and people have no part in their salvation.
But we are going to let God strut His stuff with regard to the riches of His grace.
Pivot -
So, regarding the whole of this section, these verses are intended to give us great joy as
spiritual blessings are listed off for us.
They don’t seem given in an order of importance but more in a flow of thought as Paul writes.
They include:
God’s choosing those He’d redeem from before creation;
the believer being adopted into the family of God;
the believers’ redemption, which means forgiveness;
the believer being sealed by the Spirit, which is the guarantee of the final inheritance.
These are some of the blessings listed off in the whole passage.
Well, this morning, we’re looking at the first four verses of this section.
And while it’s too amazing for us to fully grasp, we should -
1. EMBRACE GOD’S SOVEREIGN GRACE OF SALVATION. (3-4)
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every
spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and blameless before him.
As we’re getting into this topic of God’s sovereign grace, it’s very important that you -
1a. SET YOUR HEART ON HEAVENLY BLESSINGS. (3)
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every
spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,
We’re called to BLESS God for these truths.
But one writer tells us about the difference between God blessing us and us blessing him -
“When God blesses believers, he bestows a certain favor upon them that they do not deserve. When
they bless him, it is an act of praise and adoration that he richly deserves. It is not an act of grace on
their part to give benediction or blessing to the Almighty.”
As Christians, we’ve been blessed with every spiritual blessing
And the rest of the book of Ephesians unpacks many of these blessings.
Here, in the first verse Paul begins to describe them.
And we see the whole Trinity is involved.
God the Father - choosing,
God the Son - sacrificing Himself for our redemption,
the Holy Spirt - sealing the believer for glory.
They’re spiritual in the sense that they aren’t of this earth and are administered by the Holy Spirit.
And our blessings exist in the heavenly places.
As one writer states, “Life now, if it is life in Christ, is in the heavenly realm.”
And I need to ask you something.
?- Are you disappointed by the idea of God blessing you with SPIRITUAL blessings in the HEAVENLY places?
I think we can tend to be like a child that’s experiencing their transition Christmas.
You know what I’m talking about.
They don’t want toys, but they don’t want clothes yet either.
That transition Christmas is the one that seems like it lost its joy.
But as they mature, they find themselves appreciating more mature gifts.
Similarly, immature Christians find themselves disappointed with spiritual blessings in the heavenly
places.
They want God to do or give them something here and now.
I’m convinced that our enjoyment of our spiritual blessings in the heavenly places requires what
Galatians calls “walking by the Spirit” or being “in step with the Spirit.”
Our enjoying them is dependent on our faith and is limited by our minds being set on earthly things.
This is why Paul encourages the Colossians to set their minds on heavenly things.
* Colossians 3:1–3 1 If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are
above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that
are above, not on things that are on earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden
with Christ in God.
I was grieved this week thinking on how I may be missing out on enjoying many of the spiritual
blessings I have in the heavenly places because my mind gets entrenched on worldly things.
?- What habits or activities might be stealing your enjoyment of God’s heavenly blessings because these
habits or activities train your affections for earthly pleasures?
I think this is very important to remind ourselves about.
If you know Christ as your Savior, God’s given you all you need.
?- Is there a problem with what you want?
Pivot -
Moving-on in this section, we come to the first of these spiritual blessings
And it has to do with how & when a relationship with God was initiated.
1b. SET YOUR HEART ON GOD’S GLORY AND GOAL IN SALVATION. (4)
4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless
before him.
The foundational spiritual blessing that the believer has in Christ is that God chose them for redemption.
And it took place in eternity past.
It is foundational in that it’s the first-cause of our relationship with God.
It’s reflected in our 4-arrow Cross
It reflects the summary idea of * 1 John 4:19 -“We love because he first loved us.”
God choosing those He will redeem is also foundational in that it defines the grace-based relationship
with God that we can experience.
As a Christian, the more you fight the idea that God chose you without you doing anything to deserve it,
the less you will be able to embrace your grace-filled relationship with God as it’s intended.
Or as Warren Wiersbe writes, “This is the wonderful doctrine of election, a doctrine that we cannot fully
explain but one we can fully enjoy. Do not try to explain away the mystery of grace.”
We see the grace of God choosing those He’d redeem in different aspects in these verses.
The first aspect is that God the Father chose us in Christ not in ourselves.
His choice was based on the sacrifice that Christ would make for us.
The second aspect that shows God’s grace is that He communicates complete separation of his selection
from any merit we might show.
He does this by making His selection before the universe was even created.
RC Sproul writes, “Salvation is not an afterthought of God. The redemption of his people, the salvation of
his church, my eternal salvation, these actions are not a postscript to the Divine activity. Instead, from
the very foundation of the world, God had a sovereign plan to save a significant portion of the human
race, and he moves heaven and earth to bring it to pass.
The third aspect I point out that we’ve been chosen for the purpose of being holy and blameless before
him
This is definitely talking about the fact that believers are seen in the righteousness of Christ.
God sees Christ’s holiness rather than our sin.
But this is also talking about the growth in holiness that we should be experiencing
The term “blameless” can refer to the spotless lamb that was required for a sacrifice for sins in the OT.
So, we’re blessed with being able to be in relationship with God by being covered in Christ’s holiness.
We’re also able to worship God in holiness as we live out what God also chose us for -growing in
holiness.
These are elements that describe the nature and purpose of our salvation.
They are in the heavenly places
And they are for the purpose that we should be holy and blameless before God.
But they also describe the keys to enjoying the spiritual blessings that we’ve received.
With our hearts set on heaven and our resolve set on holiness, we’ll enjoy God’s blessings much more.
Illus -[parents manipulated out of money vs parents planning a gift for their child]
So, in thinking about how God has chosen to show his grace to us before we could ever earn it.
Compare with me two ways that parents might choose to bless their children financially.
They might have the resources available and wait for their child to come and ask them for money.
In this situation, they might weigh the child’s need/want.
The child might manipulate or present a well-thought argument for the parents to part with their cash.
In this situation, the child plays a part in the parent’s gifting them with the finances they want.
Let’s compare this with parents that give their child money in a different way.
These parents plan for decades to bless their child at a milestone in his/her life.
They bless their child in a way that the child never even fathomed.
If they child asks them “why?” they respond that it’s because they love him.
Or they tell her they foresee the needs that the child will soon have that she doesn’t even know about.
I’m not knocking on parents granting their child’s request.
But I hope you can see from this illustration how God’s sovereign work in salvation is evidence of His
intentional loving grace for those He’s chosen to redeem.
Moving into verses 5-6, while it’s too amazing for us to fully grasp, we should also –
2. EMBRACE GOD’S SOVEREIGN PROCESS & GLORY IN SALVATION. (5-6)
In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the
purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.
In looking closely at these phrases -
In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the
purpose of his will,
Verse 6 is telling us that “predestination” is the action God took in choosing His redeemed children.
The term “predestine” literally means to “mark out beforehand.”
And it simply means that it was from eternity past that God established those He chose to save.
Simple for God… mind-blowing for us, right?
And the destiny that God predetermined was to be His adopted sons through work of Jesus Christ.
Having adopted to sons from Liberia, I know a little bit about the planning and effort and circumstance
that goes into adoption, especially internationally.
Knowing Christ as your Savior, God marked out the whole destiny and individual process of your
adoption.
And adoption is the appropriate description because those who are saved are given full-fledged rights as
God’s children and co-heirs with Christ
As Wiersbe writes, Adoption “means that even the youngest Christian has everything that Christ has and
is rich in grace.”
And we’re told that our predestined adoption is to allow us to live without fear of rejection in -
* Romans 8:15 15 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!”
Question for you:
?- Knowing Christ, do you see yourself as being adopted as a full-fledged member of God’s family?
And what’s the purpose of God’s predestining those He’s redeemed?
6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.
It’s for the praise of his glorious grace
The ESV Study Bible tells us, “God’s ultimate purpose is not redemption as such but the praise of his
glorious name through redemption.”
Catch this, when it comes to the idea of God’s glory, you can’t separate it from God showing His glory.
So, what we can take God to mean is that saving us this way is for the praise of his glorious grace is that
God is showing Himself as the gracious God that He is by saving us in this way.
?- Why does God’s predestination to adoption result in the praise of His glorious grace?
It does so because God’s PRE-destining work proves that His blessings to us are all of grace and not
earned.
Pivot -
And once again, the statement ends glorifying Christ as our medium of salvation.
And this is what is meant when God’s grace is described as having blessed us in THE Beloved, which is
Christ.
This is similar to what Paul writes of our salvation.
* Colossians 1:13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to
the kingdom of his beloved Son,
God the Father loves God the Son and with the Holy Spirit, the triune God planned a salvation process
that would result in their maximum glory.
Having been saved in Christ, you’re a beneficiary of that love given from God the Father to the Beloved.
Or as the Bible Knowledge Commentary puts it,
“God the Father loves His Son; and believers, being in the Son, are also the object of God’s love.”
Some of you came from big families and you had a great experience as a child and love your siblings.
But we have a lot of bad examples of parents with big families that want to receive glory for it.
Some of you might think of the Reality TV disasters “19 Kids & Counting” or “John and Kate Plus 8.”
It seems like for us as created beings, we need to stay far from glorifying ourselves through our kids.
Those of us who’ve adopted will tell you that it’s easy to think of yourself as somebody’s savior.
And it’s easy to set expectations on them of appreciation or achievement because it might bring glory to
you.
I guess all parents can do this as well.
But for God on the other hand, His perfect plan IS to glorify Himself by adopting people from every
nation and tribe and language.
And He’s chosen to glorify Himself by doing so in a way that none of us can say,
“I made the cut!” or “God saw that I was smart enough!”
Actually, 1 Corinthians 1:27 tells us that “God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise.”
So, what’s that say about us who are saved?
We make God look good because we’re not the brightest bulbs on the tree.
And How did God know that we were the perfect people to make Him look good?
Romans tells us that God’s saving work is based on the fact that He foreknew us in an intimate way.
Think of how a grandma might see and love the adult that she used to bounce on their her as a baby.
Like this, I think God looks at someone newly born that He plans to save, and maybe thinks,
“I’ve known and loved you for forever.”
Before we close, I want to also say something.
This might’ve come to your mind with the term “foreknew.”
God doesn’t base His predestination on looking at the future to see those who will choose to follow Him.
As I said, God’s foreknowledge is intimate rather than like He’s using a crystal ball.
I look forward to addressing this idea in the coming weeks.
I think it’ll be most appropriate when we look at chapter 2 and how we were quadruply dead in our sins,
requiring God to make us alive in Christ Jesus.
But for now, I want to point out how you might be reaching for unbiblical concepts to explain how
God’s predestination is somehow directed by the will of those He saves.
And in doing so, you might be missing the enjoyment of these spiritual blessings we have in Christ.
A key blessing we’ve looked at today is God’s gracious work of predestination for adoption.
I’m not saying you should be comfortable with having your mind blown.
But you should embrace what God says.
And these are the question that I want to leave you with -
?- Are you willing to embrace whatever God says about Himself?
? -If not, what enjoyment of His spiritual blessings in the heavenly places are
