Ephesian 1:3-10
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="2"><tbody><tr class="contents" valign="top"><td class="verselabel">3</td><td>Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:</td></tr><tr class="contents" valign="top"><td class="verselabel">4</td><td>According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:</td></tr><tr class="contents" valign="top"><td class="verselabel">5</td><td>Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,</td></tr><tr class="contents" valign="top"><td class="verselabel">6</td><td>To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.</td></tr><tr class="contents" valign="top"><td class="verselabel">7</td><td>In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;</td></tr><tr class="contents" valign="top"><td class="verselabel">8</td><td>Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence;</td></tr><tr class="contents" valign="top"><td class="verselabel">9</td><td>Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:</td></tr><tr class="contents" valign="top"><td class="verselabel">10</td><td>That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:</td></tr></tbody></table>
Geneva Study Notes
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3) The efficient cause of our salvation is God, not considered generally, but as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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4) The next final cause, and in respect of us, is our salvation, all things being bestowed upon us which are necessary to our salvation, which type of blessings is heavenly and proper to the elect.
(b) With every type of gracious and bountiful goodness which is heavenly indeed, and from God alone.
(c) Which God our Father gave us from his high throne from above: or because the saints have those gifts bestowed on them, which belong properly to the citizens of heaven.
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5) The matter of our salvation is Christ, in whom alone we are endued with spiritual blessing and that to salvation.
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6) He declares the efficient cause, or by what means God the Father saves us in his Son: because, he says, he chose us from everlasting in his Son.
(d) To be adopted in him.
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7) He expounds the next final cause which is twofold, that is, sanctification and justification, of which he will speak later. And by this also two things are to be noted, that is, that holiness of life cannot be separated from the grace of election: and again, whatever pureness is in us, is the gift of God who has freely of his mercy chosen us.
(e) God then, did not choose us because we were, or otherwise would have been holy, but to the end we should be holy.
(f) Being clothed with Christ’s righteousness.
(g) Truly and sincerely.
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8) Another plainer exposition of the efficient cause, and also of eternal election, by which God is said to have chosen us in Christ, that is, because it pleased him to appoint us when we were not yet born, whom he would make to be his children by Jesus Christ. So that there is no reason for our election to be looked for here, except in the free mercy of God. And neither is faith which God foresaw the cause of our predestination, but the effect.
(h) God respects nothing, either anything that is present, or anything that is to come, but himself only.
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9) The uttermost and chiefest final cause is the glory of God the Father, who saves us freely in his Son.
(i) That as his bountiful goodness deserves all praise, so also it should be set forth and proclaimed.
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10) Another final cause more near is our justification, in that he freely accounted us as being righteous in his Son.
