A 3.
Blessing.
B 4.
Purpose `According
as He chose us'.
A 5.
Predestination and
Sonship.
B 5-8.
Purpose `According
to the good pleasure of His will'.
A 9.
Revelation.
B 9,10.
Purpose `According
to His good pleasure'.
A 11.
Predestination and
Inheritance.
B 11-14.
Purpose `According
to purpose ... will'.
This fourfold revelation of blessing beyond compare is interlinked with
four statements of purpose:
Immutable grace (4). `According as He hath chosen us in Him before the
foundation of the world'.
Irreversible will (5). `According to the good pleasure of His will'.
Unfaltering counsel (9). `According to His good pleasure which He hath
purposed in Himself'.
Unalterable purpose (11). `According to the purpose of Him Who worketh all
things after the counsel of His own will'.
The word `according' could be translated `in harmony with' or `in accord'.
Viewed externally, the promises of God appear to be baulked by evil and
threatened with extinction; viewed from the Divine standpoint there is complete
`accord'. He rules and overrules.
We read in the Old Testament that Jacob and his mother `believed God', but
they attempted to help God fulfil His purposes by using the despicable means of
fraud and deceit. What Jacob received from Isaac by deceit he never enjoyed.
Isaac pronounced the words `plenty of corn and wine' (Gen. 27:28), but what an
hollow mockery this promise must have sounded when Jacob was obliged to send his
sons down to Egypt to buy corn! Nevertheless, in God's own time and way the
original promise made to Jacob was given freely and without constraint
(Gen. 28:3,4). While this alternation of `blessing' and `purpose' is useful, it
does not fully present the structure
of this passage.
Upon reading carefully it will be perceived that Ephesians 1:3-14 is
punctuated three times with the refrain:
`To the praise of the glory of His grace' (1:6).
`To the praise of His glory' (1:12).
`To the praise of His glory' (1:14).
On one occasion we remember likening this passage to a hymn of three
verses, and a refrain, and made the suggestion that someone in the congregation
might be led to write such a hymn for our use. A fellow believer and reader of
The Berean Expositor who was present, the next week handed to us the following
hymn, which is incorporated in the Hymn Book used at the Chapel of the Opened
Book and in use at many meetings up and down the country:
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