Ephesian 1:3-4

Ephesians 1:3-14

List of blessings in Christ from God
1. Blessed with every spiritual blessing, this is a blessing
2. We are chosen
3. Predestined
4. We are adopted as sons
5. Redemption
6. Forgiveness or our sins
7. Made known to us the mystery.
8. We have obtained an inheritance.
9. We are sealed with the H.S. as a pledge of our inheritance. (it’s a done deal)

Eph 1:3  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,

Here in verse 3 there are 5 things that need to be pointed out about these blessing
The Source is our “God and Father”
Recipients “US” Christians true believers.
Content “Spiritual” It a spiritual blessing
Location “in the heavenlies”
And the means “In Christ”

We have everything in Christ

Christ’s riches. Ours
His resources are. Ours
His righteousness
Power
His position
Where he is
His privilege
His possession
What he has
His practice
What he does we do.    We have what we have cause we are in Christ.

Eph 1:4  just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world

This text is speaking that God did indeed chose us ( born again believers) for Himself for salvation. Apart from any influence by men. Before the world was.

Jon 2:9 Salvation is from the Lord.

Free will VS Predestination.

Man is completely responsible for repenting and trusting in Christ and will be judged for not doing so.
A man is only saved because God chose him before the world was.

Both facts that the bible teaches.

Duet. 29:29

J.I. Packer.  In his book “Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God”

All Christian believe in divine sovereignty, but some are not aware that they do, and mistakenly imagine and insist that they reject it. What causes this odd state of affairs? The root cause is the same as in most cases of error in the Church-the intruding of rationalistic speculations, the passion for systematic consistency, a reluctance to recognize the existence of mystery and to let God be wiser that men, and a consequent subjection of Scripture to the supposed demands of human logic.
 People see the Bible teaches man’s responsibility for his actions; they do not see (man, indeed, cannot see) how this is consistent with the sovereign Lordship of God over those actions. They are not content to let the two truth live side by side, as they do in Scripture, but jump to the conclusion that , in order to uphold their biblical truth of human responsibility, they are bound to reject that equally biblical and equally true doctrine of divine sovereignty, and to explain away the great number of texts that teach it. The desire to over-simplify the Bible by cutting out the mysteries is a natural to our perverse minds, and it is not surprising that even godly men should fall victim to it. Hence this persistent and troublesome dispute. The irony of the situation, however, is that when we ask how the 2 sides pray it becomes apparent that those who

J Mac
Because we cannot stand the tension of mystery, paradox, or antinomy, we are inclined to adjust what the Bible teaches so that it will fit our own system of order and consistency. But that presumptuous approach is unfaithful to God’s word and leads to confused doctrine and weakened living. I.e. weak Christians.

It is not that God’s sovereign election, or predestination, eliminates man’s choice in faith. Divine sovereignty and human response are integral and inseparable parts of salvation- though exactly how they operate together only the infinite mind of God knows.

Why is this such a big issue? Why does this separate so many Christians?