Eph. 1:11, 12

11 In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will.

In him we were all chosen. My eyes fall on the huge small word, all. This covenant, the new covenant in Christ’s blood, is for all. This was God’s choosing, not ours.

This is the way I view predestination – it is not a matter of choosing whom to bless and whom not to bless, depending on the whim of God, but the essential meaning, according to Paul, is that God predestinated that we Gentiles will have the same access to salvation and all the blessings of God as those Jews had under the Abrahamic Covenant. God predestinated that we Gentiles should have the same spiritual privileges as the Jews.

The Jews had difficulty seeing it that way. They viewed the Abrahamic Covenant as including only them, the Jews, not the Gentiles. I believe they killed Jesus, in part, because they thought he despised their culture and they thought he was as eager to bless Gentiles as he was the Jews, if not more. This seemed, to them, to be contrary to the Abrahamic Covenant that had the Jews as the chosen ones.

As I see it, the chosen is not a promise for the future, only, but a reality because in him is now a reality. He lives and he is alive in us.

For the Jews, the Covenant was words – for me it is a present reality. Because it is in him. Now.


12 In order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory.

God’s plans is that the Jews, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. And us Gentiles are now included in Christ when we heard and believed. We join in glorifying God, a chorus of Jews and Gentiles alike.

That is the mystery or the plan that Paul is so excited about, all in Christ, Christ in all! And all in fellowship with one another in the atoning blessings of Jesus Christ. This as at the heart of the message of the Gospel and the centerpiece of our faith.

This is not theoretical, or rhetorical, but is practical and observable. We are all, those who are in Christ, marked with the seal of the Holy Spirit who was promised – now, here.

As we get around the world we experience this unity of the Spirit. It is uncanny and marvelous. The Holy Spirit has the same effect in my life as in the lives of all who believe. I am melded into that mysterious but absolutely real Body of Christ. I, too, am a believer. Glorious thought!

God chooses my spiritual family and gives me mercy, in line with his own plenteousness in mercy, to live in glorious unity with them all, so that God might be glorified.