Heavenly spiritual blessing; holy before him; adoption and Beloved (Eph 1:3–7)

—blessings of God) toward his having given them spiritually to his own blessed ones. Not only is every blessing with which Paul and those like him have been blessed spiritual, and none of them bodily, but it is also in the heavenly places. For it was fitting for those whose commonwealth is in heaven, who store up treasure in heaven and keep their heart where their treasure is, also to obtain the spiritual blessings in the heavenly places. How God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ has already blessed us in every spiritual blessing and in the heavenly places is worth examining; for it does not say “who will bless” us. And see whether “in the heavenly places” can stand for “in the intelligible things and outside the senses”; for in that way someone also stores treasure in heaven and no longer keeps the heart on earth—that is, in material and bodily things—but in heaven, always conversing with intelligible nature. And for us to see more precisely, both things are said about the blessing: that it is spiritual and that it is in the heavenly places; and besides these, that it is in Christ, as in the Word and the Wisdom and the Truth and the Power.

Ephesians 1:4b: “that we should be holy and blameless before him.” Origen says: someone might ask, toward some being holy and blameless before God, whether the prophetic word contradicts this when it says, “No living thing will be justified before you.” And if before God no living thing will be justified, how will they be holy before him? For if they will be holy and blameless, they will also be justified. Fleeing to the ambiguity of the prophetic word, someone will say that “no living thing is justified before God” means something like this: not wholly and for the whole of his time will anyone be justified before God, because he has certainly sinned at some point; and if that is so, it does not prevent some from being holy and blameless before him, having become such by correction; or else, if not every living thing, still some are justified.

Ephesians 1:5: “in love having predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ unto himself.” Either “in love” is to be joined with “having predestined,” or “he chose us in him in love before the foundation of the world, having predestined us in adoption through Jesus Christ unto himself,” so that we should be holy and blameless before him. The name “adoption” shows that those predestined by him are not sons of God by nature; the name of adoption would not be ranked of the Savior, but of those who, having received the spirit of slavery unto fear and then put fear away, become worthy of freedom and of hearing “I no longer call you slaves,” and who for that reason receive the spirit of adoption. And when someone receives the Son whom he did not have before, then the spirit of adoption has also made room; for thus adoption enters us through Christ. Yet with a view to arriving at him, he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him, having predestined us in love in adoption through Christ; for to these words is added “unto himself.”

Ephesians 1:5b: “according to the good pleasure of his will.” I think the name “good pleasure” (εὐδοκία) is not very worn in Greek custom, but was coined by the translators; for they used the word in the prophetic books, as in Psalm 84, “Lord, you were well pleased with your land,” and in Psalm 105, “Remember us, Lord, in the good pleasure of your people,” and in Habakkuk, “and if he draws back, my soul is not well pleased in him.” Still, good pleasure shows the “well” and the “seeming,” so that it would not be said of things that seem to us not good, but only of things that seem praiseworthily. So we must ask how, having predestined in love for adoption those whom God predestined, he predestined according to the good pleasure of his will; and we must find a demonstration that there is good pleasure of his will upon these; for his will was also well pleased that the glory of his grace toward the saved should be praised.

Ephesians 1:6: “in the Beloved.” Origen says: the Savior is called “Beloved” simply; for even if people wander about grasping righteousness and truth and wisdom, still all would confess that they “love” wisdom and truth and righteousness. For this reason the Only-begotten of God is called “Beloved,” since all love the things conceived of him, whether they miss the mark or hit it—just as all are struck with awe at God, yet those who fall away from the sound notion about God go astray. Ephesians 1:7: in