Ⅳ
Our God and Father has “graced us in the Beloved”—Eph. 1:6b:
A
For God to grace us means that He has put us into the position of grace so that we may be the object of His grace and favor, that is, that we may enjoy all that God is to us—v. 6b:
１
Because we are in the position of grace and are the object of grace, God is pleased with us.
２
God's delight is in us, we are happy in Him, and eventually, there is mutual enjoyment; we enjoy Him, and He enjoys us.
B
The Beloved is God's beloved Son, in whom He delights—Matt. 3:17; 17:5:
１
In the Beloved we have been graced, made the object of God's favor and pleasure—Eph. 1:6b.
２
As such an object, we enjoy God, and God enjoys us in His grace in His Beloved, who is His delight; in His Beloved we too become His delight—Matt. 3:17; 17:5.
Morning Nourishment
Eph. 1:6 To the praise of the glory of His grace, with which He graced us in the Beloved.Matt. 3:17 And behold, a voice out of the heavens, saying, This is My Son, the Beloved, in whom I have found My delight.
God’s choosing and predestination are related to the grace of God…What is revealed in Ephesians 1:6 is the issue of predestination unto sonship mentioned in the preceding verse. This means that the praise of the glory of God’s grace is the result, the issue, of the sonship (v. 5). God’s predestinating us unto sonship is for the praise of His expression in His grace, that is, for the praise of the glory of His grace. Eventually, every positive thing in the universe will praise God for sonship (Rom. 8:19), thus fulfilling what is spoken in this verse. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 3338-3339)
Today’s Reading
Whatever God came to be to us and to do for us is God Himself as grace coming to us in His incarnation. This is clearly revealed in John 1, which tells us that God as the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us, full of grace and reality, and that grace and reality came through Jesus Christ (vv. 14, 16-17).Grace is what God is to us for our enjoyment, whereas glory is God expressed (Exo. 40:34). The glory of His grace [Eph. 1:6] indicates that God’s grace, which is God Himself as our enjoyment, expresses Him. God is expressed in His grace, and His predestination is for the praise of this expression. As we receive grace and enjoy God, we have the sense of glory. Grace is God Himself as our enjoyment, glory is God manifested, and the glory of God’s grace is God expressed in our enjoyment of Him.
Ephesians 1:6 says that God has graced us in the Beloved. For God to grace us means that He has put us into the position of grace that we may be the object of God’s grace and favor, that is, that we may enjoy all that God is. Because we are in the position of grace and are the object of grace, God is pleased with us, His delight is in us, and we are enjoying Him and becoming His enjoyment. Hence, there is a mutual enjoyment: we enjoy Him, and He enjoys us. Here, in grace, He is our joy and satisfaction, and we are His joy and satisfaction.
The Beloved in verse 6 is Christ, God’s beloved Son, in whom He delights (Matt. 3:17; 17:5). Hence, in gracing us God makes us an object in whom He delights. This is altogether a pleasure to God. In Christ we have been blessed by God with every blessing. In the Beloved we were graced, made the object of God’s favor and pleasure. As such an object we enjoy God, and God enjoys us in His grace in His Beloved, who is His delight. In His Beloved we, too, become His delight.
The phrase in the Beloved conveys the full delight, satisfaction, and enjoyment God the Father has in us because we have been made the object of His grace and delight. In this sense we should all appreciate ourselves and even esteem ourselves highly because we have been positioned in grace and made the object of God’s delight. We should have such a view about ourselves, not according to our natural state, but according to the fact that we have been chosen, predestinated, regenerated, and graced. God delights in us, not in ourselves, but in His Beloved. Having become the object of God’s grace, we have been favored in Christ.
Moreover, God’s rich grace has accomplished redemption for us and has applied forgiveness to us (Eph. 1:7). God’s grace is not only rich (v. 7) but also abounding (v. 8). The riches of God’s grace have been caused to abound to us, on the one hand, in all wisdom for God’s plan in eternity and, on the other hand, in all prudence for God’s execution of His plan in time. God’s abounding grace…accomplishes the heading up of all things in Christ (v. 10), makes us an inheritance to God (v. 11), and qualifies us to inherit all that God is (v. 14). (The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 3339-3340)
Further Reading: The Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 333