Ephesians 1:6

to the praise of the glory of his grace that he has freely bestowed on us in his dearly loved Son.

Let's talk about what motivates God to do all these

1. God's blessing us is a blessing to Him 

Ephesians 1:3: Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms in Christ.

Imagine you giving to someone who does not have. You know that enriches you, right? Jesus saying that it is more blessed to give than to receive is not just a throwaway line (Acts 20:35). He himself gave his life, and He is blessed with all of us who are believers (Hebrews 2:13). 

He gave himself and He gained a bride (Revelation 19:7-8). Do you get? So blessed be God, according to verse 3. It is not just that He is to be praised, but that praise itself is a blessing to him. It adds to him; he becomes the one who gets the praise. 

Some people have the doctrine that God does not need anything, and that is true. Just as the leper saying thank you to Jesus does not make him more or less (Luke 17:11-17). 

Would we say that was something he needed or not? Number one, he is not indifferent to it. He even demands it as we see first in the sacrificial system in the Old Testament. 

Do you need what you require. Yes you do. God needs man. That is the evidence of scriptures, without having to tie ourselves up in any theological quagmire. 

By creating man and imposing certain requirements on him, God became the one who requires obedience. Obedience is a blessing to Him, and he responds with more grace. And that grace leads us to obey him more, giving him more blessings. When Abraham moved to sacrifice Isaac, that was a blessing to him (2 Samuel 12:14). To have a God is only moved by sin and not by what we do in the positive, who is only grieved and does not have delight is an unbalanced view of God that Jesus came to correct and Paul is helping us to see in this passage, where he uses the phrase the "pleasure of his will" (Ephesians 1:5) to describe God's motivation for blessing us.

When David sinned, God said it tarnished his public image; it was not a blessing, and that necessitated God's retribution. Satan told God Job would curse him to his face, and that was like a wager. God is glorified, which is another way of saying God is blessed. He is not diminished or improved, but he is glorified, and that is a good thing. Blessed be God. God is praiseworthy. 

1. Verse 5 (which spills into this verse) tells us that God blessing us is because He decided to do so.

The outcome that we seek is praise to Himself, and that is good for us since we are connected to Him. 

Paul said it gives God pleasure to do that before mentioning praise, glory, and grace. 

• Praise to Him 
• Glory to both Him and us, based on the amazing nature of what happened. 
• Grace to us. 

There is something about the grace of God, the glory of the grace of God that is specially displayed with the background of sinful humanity.

Paul said we have this treasure in earthen jars so that excellency of the power will not be of us (2 Corinthians 4:7). The point is, when God, who is holy, displays such grace, it adds to His glory, the display of who He is to many witnesses, including angelic beings.

Peter said our salvation is something that is amazing to angels (1 Peter 1:10-12). Which means there is something about God that was unknown to even them before the incarnation, the hanging on the tree. It might amaze them that God who dwells in inapproachable light will become man and dwell among us, then in us. 

Maybe that is why we read, "What is man that you think of him (Hebrews 2:6)?" This is one whose throne is in heaven, and for him the earth is like a footstool (Isaiah 66:1), the grand one that became flesh. The one who created all. 

Yes, it is to "the praise of the glory of His grace" that He blessed us. Christ (note that all these are done in the Father's dearly beloved Son) condescended to be like us to bring many sons into glory (Hebrews 2:10). 

The grace was freely bestowed on us in Christ Jesus. And its as free as free can get. That is how he displayed His generosity, that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). Who He is, - since we can't see Him - is revealed in what He has done. And we are amazed at his grace.

This removes the idea that God was motivated by anything else apart from love, apart from just that he made the choice, not for anything we have done or would do. 

In that sense we can say He does not need us. He does not need to do it, hence the word freely here. 

That means He was free not to do it, and even by human measure, may has reasons not to do it. But He did it. And that is another show of his glory, that He is not compelled by anything or anyone, but he is self-sufficient in himself. Again, he freely chose us, he freely poured out His grace on us.

***

We are six verses into this chapter and "Jesus" has been mentioned 6 times and "Christ" 8 times and now we have Him referred to as God's dearly beloved Son. Paul wants to impress Him on us, fill us with his thought, as much as He can. 

Let's list how Paul connects Jesus Christ to various things in Ephesians 1:1-6:

1. Paul is the apostle of Jesus Christ.
2. The saints are the faithful in Christ Jesus.
3. Grace and Peace comes from Him as well as from the Father.
4. We have been blessed with every spiritual blessings in heavenly realms in Christ.
5. God chose us in Christ Jesus before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before Him in love.
6. God predestined us for as His legal heirs through Jesus Christ 
7. God freely bestowed grace upon us in his dearly beloved son.

Notice those prepositions: of; in; from; in; in; through; in

OF tells us Jesus is the Leader

IN tells us Jesus is the incubator, and its communicating things that are expressions of and connected or benefits from who he is.

THROUGH tells us Jesus is the divine channel to deliver divine goodies to us.

There is no escaping the Son. He is the stone that the builders rejected that has become the cornerstone (Acts 4:11). What an amazing grace. 

Verse 5 tells us that God did not hold His nose to choose you. It was not random. He was deliberate and felt pleasure going it. He loves the surprise, the gasp of amazement, the exclamation of blessed be God, Hallelujah! It is to the glory of His infinite name. Hallelujah!

Rejecting Money-For-Blessings Schemes in the Church

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