should be holy and without blame before Him in love". The word `chosen' is the word

`to elect', and so we have election in the forefront of Ephesians. We need not be puzzled

by this, for, as we have stressed many times, God is working out a great redemptive plan

for heaven and earth, and what could be more reasonable than that He has chosen the

channels or the means through which He will work His will out. He certainly has not left

this to chance or human volition. Israel was a Divinely elected people, not because they

merited it, or were in any way in themselves better than the surrounding nations, but

simply that they were the means that God willed to use to reach and bless the whole

world.

Likewise He has chosen the Body of Christ for some great heavenly purpose that for

the moment He has not fully revealed. Before such a Divine choice or predestination,

comes God's ability to foreknow everything, as Rom. 8: 29 and I Pet. 1: 2 make clear.

If we do not put God's foreknowledge before election as the Bible does, problems will be

raised in our minds that we cannot solve. In past eternity our heavenly Father knew who

would be faithful and who would not, and we are in no position to query His methods,

choice or acts, but, on the contrary, to gratefully accept His great condescension and

graciousness, and fully respond to Him in return. This election was "in Christ", and in

this section (verses 3-14), nothing is seen apart from Him. All has its centre in the Lord

Jesus. The time of the Father's choice was "before the foundation (or overthrow) of the

world". As far as the redeemed are concerned, this time is unique. No other company of

God's children reaches back, as it were, before creation. This phrase elsewhere is

reserved for the Son of God alone (John 17: 24; I Pet. 1: 20). Other phases of God's

redemptive purpose are stated to be "from or since the foundation of the world"

(Matt. 25: 34), and if words mean anything, these are two distinctive time periods that

must not be confused, and therefore two distinct companies of the redeemed must be

related to them.

We shall find, as we further consider the new calling of Ephesians, that it has other

unique features which only serve to emphasize the riches of grace that have overflowed

to every member of the Body from God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Verse 4

continues with the Father's object: "that we should be holy and without blame before

Him in love". What an aim to have in view! The words `holy' and `holiness' are so far

removed from human experience that they are never used in ordinary conversation

concerning human beings and human affairs. Holiness belongs to God alone, and yet He

wills us to be as Himself--holy! We surely do not need anyone to tell us that this is one

thing that we definitely have not got, no matter what our abilities or attainments are. Nor

can we procure it for ourselves or get any other created being to do so for us. Unless God

Himself shall work it out on our behalf and give it to us as a free gift, we shall certainly

never experience it. But this is exactly what He has done, by the redemptive work of the

Son: as Eph. 5: 25-27 states, ". . . . . Christ also loved the church, and gave Himself for

it . . . . . that He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle,

or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish", (same words as 1: 4).

What the Father willed and chose us to be in past eternity, the Son has made possible for

us sinner by His great redemptive work on the Cross. Truly all this must have originated

from love, love that transcends all our thinking. Such overwhelming love cost the Father