Ⅲ
According to the good pleasure of His will, God predestinated us unto sonship—Eph. 1:5:
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God has a will, in which is His good pleasure; God's good pleasure is of His will and is embodied in His will, so His will comes first—vv. 5, 9, 11.
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God's good pleasure is what makes God happy—it is the desire of His heart; the living, loving, and purposeful God surely has a heart's desire—v. 5.
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God predestinated us to be His sons according to His pleasure, according to the desire of His heart—v. 5:
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Before the foundation of the world, God chose us to be holy; to be made holy—to be sanctified by God through His dispensing Himself into us and then mingling His nature with us—is the process, the procedure—v. 4.
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To be sons of God is the aim, the goal, and is a matter of our being joined to the Son of God and conformed to the image of the firstborn Son of God so that our whole being may be "sonized" by God—v. 5; Rom. 8:29; Col. 1:15.
Ⅳ
We have been "predestinated according to the purpose of the One who works all things according to the counsel of His will"—Eph. 1:11:
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God's will is His intention, and God's counsel is His consideration of the way to accomplish His will, His intention.
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According to His will, a council was held by the Trinity before the foundation of the world to make a counsel, a decision, which is His determined will—1 Pet. 1:20; Rev. 13:8; Eph. 1:11.
Ⅴ
God's will was hidden in Him as a mystery, so Ephesians 1:9 speaks of "the mystery of His will":
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In eternity God had a will, but this will was hidden in Him; hence, it was a mystery—v. 9; 3:3-5, 9.
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In the pleasure of His heart and in His wisdom and prudence, God made this hidden mystery known to us through His revelation in Christ, that is, through Christ's incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension—1:9; John 1:14; Rom. 1:3-4; 4:25; 8:3, 34.
Morning Nourishment
Eph. 1:4-5 Even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world to be holy and without blemish before Him in love, predestinating us unto sonship through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will.God predestinated us unto sonship according to the good pleasure of His will, which is His purpose. This reveals that God has a will in which is His good pleasure. God predestinated us to be His sons according to this pleasure, according to the desire of His heart. In Ephesians 1:4 we see that God has chosen us to be holy. However, to be holy is the procedure, not the goal. The goal is sonship. We have been predestinated unto sonship. In other words, God has chosen us to be holy so that we might be His sons. Thus, to be holy is the process, the procedure, whereas to be sons of God is the goal. God does not merely want a group of holy people; He desires many sons. (Life-study of Ephesians, pp. 36-37)
Today’s Reading
To be holy is to be mingled with God. God sanctifies us by putting Himself into us and then mingling us with His nature. This is a matter of nature, of having our nature transformed with His. We were born human, natural, but God wants us to be divine. The only way this can take place is through having the divine nature put into our being and mingled with it. In this way, God makes us holy. Thus, sanctification is a procedure to transform our nature. This, however, is not the goal. The goal is related to being formed or shaped. This is the reason that along with God’s choosing us to be holy, there is the need of His predestinating us to be sons [Eph. 1:5]. To be holy is a matter of nature, but to be sons is a matter of being formed. God’s sons are people conformed to a particular form or shape.Although so many believe in the Lord Jesus, have been washed in the blood, and have been regenerated by the Spirit, they are still worldly and common, with no mark of holiness in their living. They are absolutely the same as their neighbors, friends, and relatives. Nevertheless, they talk about being the church. What a shame to God, and what a shame to the church! The church is constituted as a collective people who have been separated unto God and who are saturated with the nature of God and fully sanctified to live like sons of God. The church certainly should not be a group of worldly Christians living like the sons of sinners. It is a shame to say that such a group is the church.
At the time we believed in the Lord Jesus and were regenerated, the Spirit of God came into us as the Spirit of the Son of God…. Before we were regenerated, we could say at most, “O, God, help me.” But after we were saved, we spontaneously began to cry, with tender, intimate feeling, “O, Abba, Father.”
We have been predestinated unto sonship, not only by the Spirit of the Son of God, but also in the life of the Son of God…. We actually have the life of the Son of God [cf. 1 John 5:12]….We have two beings: the first is the natural being that was born of our parents, and the second is the spiritual being that is born of God…. According to our second being, we have not only the Spirit moving and working within us, but also the life that has become our… spiritual self. Sometimes we not only rebel against the Spirit, but also against ourselves, against our being.
Because the life within every child rejects bitter things, there is no need to have regulations about bitterness. In addition to having the Spirit of the Son of God, we have the life of the Son of God. If we taste something that is bitter to the Son’s life, we cannot pretend to be happy with it. Although we may pretend to be happy, we are not happy in the depths of our being, for we know that we are acting against the life of the Son of God. If we call, “Abba, Father,” and live according to the life of the Son of God, we shall have joy in the depths of our being. In fact, our whole being will be filled with joy. (Life-study of Ephesians, pp. 37-41)
Further Reading: Life-study of Ephesians, msg. 4