EPHESIANS 1:5-6 having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.
First off, to go back a bit slightly expanding on the last study a bit. In the Calvinistic view of election, that theology approaches it like this. Through Christ, a way has been made for all who believe to be elected or "chosen" into God's family. "Chose us in Him" would seem to indicate that God is not willing that any should perish, but rather that they would turn to Christ. However, God has always known who would and who would not accept Christ taking into accordance, the laws of free will.
--My commentary. I think the key here is focusing in on being prepared to meet God and not getting caught up in picking a theology in this case. Yes, theology is important, but salvation is far more important, so it is best for us to make sure we are walking with God and accepting Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.
Adoption - (John 1:12) But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name:
This verse seems to back up the Calvinistic view of election. I get that this may be a subject for debate, but the main idea is that Christ is essential in being chosen of God as I alluded to earlier.
According - (1 Cor. 1-21) For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.
Here we get the idea that it pleases God when we are saved.
Getting to Verse 6 - to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.
Glory Of His Grace; It is by God's grace that He has adopted us, and in doing so it has caused Him great pleasure. A pleasure and praise to be returned to Him by us in thanks.
Accepted - (Refer to John 1:12) It has the idea of "highly favored".
Beloved - In this context is directly referring to Jesus Christ. (Matt 3:17) And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” This verse also fulfills the prophecy of Isaiah 42:1. Beloved can also be translated as "the One He Loves". In Col. 1:13 Paul uses a pretty similar title "the Son of His love" The Beloved is a messianic title. Jesus Christ is "the beloved Son".
This wraps up this week's study, but in case you ever wanted to see a representation of how "hyperlinked" the Bible is, this is the most recent representation below. Each line is a reference to another part of scripture. What we don't want to do is take one verse and strip it from the context of the others to come up with a wrong conclusion or read into it something that is not there.
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