Holy and blameless before Him; adopted now and fully in the future; allotted as an inheritance for Him; redeemed now and fully one day as God’s own possession…what a day it will be when God has us perfectly unto Himself and what it will mean for us!

The riches that we have in Christ are too many to count, but God is pleased to list out a few of them for us in Ephesians 1. Paul calls them “every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ” (Eph 1:3).

One such blessing that Paul emphasizes five times is that God wants us as Christians for Himself, all for the praise of His glorious grace (cf. Eph 1:6, 12, 14). This concept comes up four times in Paul’s doxology in Eph 1:3–14 (Eph 1:4, 5, 11, 14) and again in his prayer in Eph 1:15–23 (Eph 1:18).

What follows below is a simple run through each of these instances to encourage us with how God wants us for Himself, both now and especially in the future. What an encouraging thought!

Ephesians 1:4

God’s choice of us in Him has as its goal for us to “be holy and blameless before Him.” Many verses in Eph 1:3–14 jump from God’s role in eternity past to encourage us further with what is in store for our future. Thanks to faith in Christ, God has presently declared us holy, and one day, as we see in this verse, we will be perfectly “holy and blameless”—not just for us to see, but “before Him.” He will make us stand before His presence blameless and with great joy (cf. Jude 24)!

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