<p>1:5 <i>Having foreordained us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will- </i>The idea of adoption is also used in Romans 8, and is in the context of the gift of the Spirit. By being &quot;in Christ&quot;, we have His righteousness imputed to us; but the Spirit works within us to make us in reality how and what we are counted as by status. Hence Rom. 8:15 speaks of the Spirit of Christ as &quot;the spirit of adoption&quot;. Those who receive the adoption of sons therefore have the Spirit of God's Son sent forth into their hearts, by which they relate to God as Jesus did: &quot;Abba, Father&quot; (Gal. 4:5,6). And here in Eph. 1 the context is the same; for 1:3 has spoken of the blessings of the Spirit received by believers, and the whole process of adoption results in the praise of His grace, His <i>charis</i> or &quot;gift&quot;- that of the Spirit (:6). All this was according to His &quot;will&quot;, which might seem axiomatic until we allow Romans 8 to fill out the idea. Our choosing to be given the Spirit was His choice, His will- and not our own. This therefore is the parade example of His grace.</p><p>An understanding of predestination helps us towards true humility and appreciation of grace; see on :4. This is the very context in which Paul introduces the idea in Romans; he wished his readers to appreciate grace by reflecting upon how predestination involves something far over and above anything we could &lsquo;do&rsquo; or &lsquo;be&rsquo; in our own rights. Paul speaks here of predestination as a sign of God&rsquo;s grace- and thus we are &ldquo;predestinated&hellip; to the praise of the glory of His grace&rdquo;. Predestination brings with it an appreciation of grace, and real praise for it. Predestination by grace doesn&rsquo;t motivate to lethargy and fatalism- if it&rsquo;s properly understood. When the Lord speaks of how we have been chosen, above and beyond any effort on our part, He goes on to teach that exactly because of this, we have a responsibility to produce fruit, to pray, to love one another (Jn. 15:16,17). Despite predestination, there are countless thousands of freewill decisions for us to make each day. Try to bear that in mind some mornings as you wake up. Whatever situation we&rsquo;re in, life takes on an excitement and meaning and challenge. The simple fact of predestination, of having been chosen by grace, should radically inspire us in every one of those freewill decisions. The true Biblical idea of predestination mustn&rsquo;t be confused with non-Biblical ones. The Romans, Greeks, Egyptians etc. all believed that they had been elected by the gods, predestined to be the special race that alone had true connection with the divine&hellip; but they assumed this predestination was because of their natural superiority. Biblical predestination is radically different- that the weak are chosen and the strong rejected, not because they are smart, beautiful, hard working, successful, lucky&hellip; but exactly because they are weak and just who they are. This is the grace of true predestination. And it&rsquo;s so wonderful that nobody can be passive to it. On this very basis, Paul urges Euodia and Syntyche to resolve their differences because their names were written in the book of life (Phil. 4:2,3). That book was written from the foundation of the world, and the fact our names are written in it is a reference to the concept of predestination. This reality means that in practice we simply shouldn't be at loggerheads with others who share in that same grace of predestination</p>