Ver. 3. Blessed be the God and Father.—The Hebrew form for “hallowing the Name” was, “The Holy One, blessed be He.” The Prayer Book version of Psalm c. gives, “Speak good of His name.” Who blessed us.—When old Isaac pronounces the blessing uttered on Jacob unwittingly to be irreversible, he depends on God for the carrying out of his dying blessing: the Divine blessing makes whilst pronouncing blest. In the heavenly places.—Lit. “in the heavenlies”—so, as A.V. margin says, either places or things. Perhaps the local signification is best; “relating to heaven and meant to draw us thither” (Blomfield).
Ver. 4. Even as He chose us in Him.—Whatever be the manifestation of the Divine goodness, it is “in Christ” that it is made. “This sentence traces back the state of grace and Christian piety to the eternal and independent electing love of God” (Cremer). There is always the connotation of some not chosen. Before the foundation of the world.—St. Paul, like Esaias, “is very bold.” His Master had only said “from,” not “before,” the foundation (Matt. xxv. 34), reserving the “before” for the dim eternity in which He was the sharer, with the eternal Spirit, of the Father’s love (John xvii. 24). Without blemish (R.V.), or, in one word, “immaculate.” A sacrificial term generally; used by St. Peter (1 Pet. i. 19) to describe that “Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world.” This word serves to guard “holy,” just before it; a separated (holy) people must also be a spotless people.
Ver. 5. Having predestinated us.—By pointing as the R.V. margin does, we get Love Divine as the basis on which our foreordination rests. “There is no respect of persons with God,” and so arrière pensée in the invitation, “All that labour and are heavy laden.” Unto adoption as sons.—The end, as regards man. Perhaps St. John’s word goes more deeply into the heart of the mystery, “That we should be called the children of God”—“born of God.” Through Jesus Christ.—Mediator of this and every implied blessing. According to the good pleasure of His will.—The word for “good pleasure” characterises the will as one whose intent is something good; the unhampered working of the will lies in the expression too. The measure of human privilege in the adoption is according to the Divine Graciousness.
Ver. 6. To the praise of the glory of His grace.—The ultimate end, “that God may be all in all.” Wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved.—The change in the R.V., considerable as it seems, turns on the rendering of one word, the meaning in the New Testament being “to bestow favour.” Compare Luke i. 28 and the A.V. marginal alternative “much-graced.” Chrysostom’s beautiful interpretation must not be lightly rejected, “to make love-worthy”—just as if one were to make a sick or famished man into a beautiful youth, so has God made our soul beautiful and love-worthy for the angels and all saints and for Himself.
Ver. 7. In whom we have redemption.—Release in consideration of a ransom paid—“deliverance effected through the death of Christ from the retributive wrath of a holy God and the merited penalty of sin” (Grimm). Through His blood.—St. Paul quite agrees with the author of Hebrews (Heb. ix. 22) that apart from the pouring out of blood, the putting away of sin cannot be brought about. The forgiveness of our trespasses.—Another way of stating in what the redemption consists. Notice the “forgiveness” as compared with the “passing over” (Rom. iii. 25, R.V.). The one is the remission of punishment; the other the omission to punish sin that has been observed, “leaving it open in the future either entirely to remit or else adequately to punish them as may seem good to Him” (Trench).
Ver. 8. In all wisdom and prudence.—“Wisdom embraces the collective activity of the mind as directed to Divine aims to be achieved by moral means. Prudence is the insight of practical reason regulating the dispositions” (Meyer).
Ver. 9. The mystery of His will.—“Mystery” is here to be taken not so much as a thing which baffles the intellect as the slow utterance of a long-kept secret, which “the fulness of time” brings to birth.
Ver. 10. The fulness of times.—The word for “times” denotes “time as brings forth its several births.” It is the “flood” in the “tide of affairs.” To sum up all things.—“To bring together again for Himself all things and all beings (hitherto disunited by sin) into one combined state of fellowship in Christ, the universal bond” (Grimm). “It is the mystery of God’s will to gather all together for Himself in Christ, to bring all to a unity, to put an end to the world’s discord wrought by sin, and to re-establish the original state of mutual dependence in fellowship with God” (Cremer). The things which are in heaven and which are on earth.
“The blood that did for us atone
Conferred on them some gift unknown.”
Ver. 11. In whom also we have obtained an inheritance.—R.V. “were made a heritage.” “The Lord’s portion is His people, Jacob is the lot of His inheritance,” sang dying Moses (Deut. xxxiii. 9). The verbal paradox between A.V. and R.V. is reconciled in fact. “All are yours, and ye are Christ’s” (1 Cor. iii. 22, 23). “Before the Parousia an ideal possession, therefore a real one“ (Meyer). After the counsel of His own will.—“The ‘counsel’ preceding the resolve, the ‘will’ urging on to action” (Cremer).