Beloved, Ephesians 1:5 declares one of the most amazing truths in all Scripture: “he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ.” Before the foundation of the world, God sovereignly set His heart on certain sinners (you and me) and determined our destiny in advance. This was not a reaction to anything we would do or any foreseen choice we make; it was pure, sovereign grace. He chose specific people, not because we deserved it, but because He delighted to bring us into His family forever. Our names were already written on God’s heart long before we drew our first breath. This truth silences every fear of being unwanted and anchors us when doubt whispers that we don’t belong.
The eternal purpose of that decree is even more amazing: adoption—full, legal, and relational placement as sons and daughters in the Father’s household. Through Jesus Christ alone—the One who lived perfectly, died in our place, and rose from the dead in victory—we have been brought from being children of wrath to children who can cry “Abba! Father!” with complete confidence. There is no probation, no second-class status—just real belonging, full rights as heirs, and the Holy Spirit bearing witness inside us that we are truly God’s own. No longer do we live like orphans, trying to earn God’s love; we rest secure in the Father’s arms. Because God predestined us personally for this adoption (not just some abstract plan), we walk in humble confidence as His children and are compelled to tell others who feel like outsiders: God wants you too, and Jesus is the only way into His family.
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What you can’t see on the screen in the title is the first word: “predestined for adoption.” Praise the Lord for a church that cares about not skipping words to focus in on what God’s word actually teaches us. Once again, as I have the last couple of weeks as we come to verse five this morning, I want to say upfront these things are so far above my full understanding. We are finite feeble minds, and so when we go through these kinds of verses, we need to keep a humble attitude as we approach God’s word. This is God’s word; it’s not Mark’s word, it’s not your word. You don’t get to determine what God’s word says; I don’t get to determine what God’s word says. He does; it has already been set. It’s already here, and we don’t get to change it because we feel like it sounds like something that we don’t approve of personally.
When we come to this text, it is similar to what we did at the beginning of verse four with the election. We have to address the fact that it is here, and we cannot skip it. In fact, this is just another in the chain of this long sentence that is so good and wonderful. It is a promise and a fantastic reminder of the God who has saved us and how He has done so. It is not meant to be fodder for debate or meant to pit one Christian against another because they think that it means one thing and somebody else thinks it means another. The point is to bring assurance of salvation to God’s people, to know what God has done behind the scenes. It is not for us to use in our evangelism, but for the believer to have assurance that they are God’s. This morning, as we come to this passage, we are going to be talking about being predestined for adoption as sons. These concepts go together.
Honestly, just like anything else, we could dig deeper, and we have dug deeper in our Sunday nights as we went through predestination and fleshed out all that means from scripture. If you missed that, maybe in the next three or four years we’ll roll back around to it again. So just come and start learning all about these things as we come to the topics this morning. I want to open with a quick illustration to help put us in the right mindset for what we’re going to be talking about. Yes, we’re talking about predestination, but we’re talking about predestined for adoption. That idea of adoption is one that our church family knows well; we have multiple families who have adopted in our church. It is a concept that we get in our everyday life today in the current cultural context. However, we want to take this back because we want to understand these things in their proper context. Where Paul is talking about adoption is not the year 2026; it’s Rome in the first century.
It’s a little bit different, though some of the core concepts remain the same. You can picture a Roman citizen in the first century walking into the forum to legally adopt a child who was not born into his household. We know that to adopt someone is to take someone who was not a part of our home, wasn’t born into our home, and was not our biological child, but bring them in a legal sense before the forum to take him or her into our household. In that moment that this legal declaration was made, the one who is adopted is just as much a part of that family as if they were born into it. They receive a new name, full inheritance rights, the status of son or daughter, and an unbreakable family membership. Nothing about the adoptee earned this. It was the adopter’s sovereign loving choice to adopt this person into their home. Adoption is about the choice of the adopter to choose to adopt a child and bring him or her in. That is the image Paul presents here. Before the foundation of the world, God sovereignly determined to bring specific sinners—that is us—into His family, not as servants or second-class members, but as full sons and daughters through His only begotten son Jesus Christ. The doctrine of predestination and adoption is not as cold or abstract as people think it to be; it is warm, relational, and full of grace.
Will you stand with me for the reading of God’s word? I’ll begin in verse one and read through verse five. I want to make clear that chapter one, verse six goes together with it, but we are not there yet. Ephesians chapter 1, beginning in verse one: “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us for adoption to Himself as sons through Jesus Christ.” Father, this morning your word is so rich and deep. I can understand why Paul in his letters would just have to stop and say, “Oh the depth of the riches of your grace, mercy, and kindness.” Lord, as we see that your people were predestined for adoption, would you warm the hearts of your people? Would you bring a sense of gratefulness, humility, love, and gratitude? Teach us this morning through your word. For those of us who know these truths, Lord, bring the correction needed to make sure we’re still in line, but also train us and remind us so that your people may be complete and equipped for every good work. Do this by your Spirit and for the glory of Jesus Christ alone. Amen.
You may be seated. We are going to look at this one partial verse in four major points and then look at a couple of common misconceptions about this particular doctrine. First, He predestined us. If we back up even further, it says “in love.” Remember that the phrase “in love” connects to the previous verse, but also connects us to this next phrase: “In love He predestined us for adoption.” Those who are often opposed to this doctrine forget that it’s in love. God doesn’t predestine people and then not love people; He did it in His love. It all flows together. In love, God—the triune God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—predestined us. The “us” here is the church and the saints.
First, notice God’s sovereign/eternal initiative. The word predestined literally means to mark out the boundaries beforehand or to determine in advance. When you build a house, you have to survey the lot and mark out where the house is going to go beforehand. Paul uses this term five other times in the New Testament, and every single time it is used, it refers to God’s sovereign decree. He determined beforehand what He was going to do. Before the foundation of the world, before anything existed, you were marked out beforehand, Christian. He had already determined and destined you. Listen to Romans 8: “For those whom He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son.” Those whom He predestined He also called, justified, and glorified. This is the unbreakable golden chain of salvation that began before time and ends in eternity in glory. In Acts 13:48, “as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.” As we preach the gospel, we know God has already appointed those whom He is going to save. He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, and then predestined us. The choice and destiny were both settled before time began. This was God sovereignly setting His love upon a specific people and marking out our destiny to belong to Him forever.
Beloved Christian, when you fear insignificance or feel like God doesn’t really care, take those thoughts captive to the word of Christ which says God predestined you. He did it before you did any of these things, before you messed it up, and before you took your first breath. He wanted you before you existed, and He doesn’t want to lose you now. We’ve got to replace untrue thoughts with the truth of scripture that casts out fear and doubt. Secondly, He predestined us for adoption. This is God’s glorious purpose. Adoption is a technical legal term from the Roman world meaning a formal public act of placing someone who was not born into the family into the full rights and privileges of a son or daughter. This includes a new name, inheritance, legal protection, and equal status. Romans 8 says we received the spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry “Abba, Father.” If children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ. Jesus is the only begotten son, and we are the adopted ones receiving the inheritance and rights of sonship that He enjoys. Galatians 4 says God sent forth His Son to redeem those under the law so we might receive adoption as sons. You are no longer a slave but a son.
You and I know what we were: children of wrath and sons of disobedience. We were outsiders not part of God’s family. We were not all God’s children. God says we were children of wrath until we trusted in Christ and He regenerated and adopted us. God could have saved us and then kept us at a distance, but He adopts us. The purpose of saving us is to call us back into a relationship with Him. We are not slaves or second-class citizens; God’s eternal purpose was to give us the full legal and relational status of sons and daughters. It is a permanent family placement. Beloved Christian, stop living like an orphan trying to earn God’s love. We may come to Jesus humbly like the prodigal son, but the Father doesn’t receive us back as slaves. He puts the robe and ring on us and throws a party. Heaven is not just barely getting in; you belong because you are a beloved son or daughter. Next time you are tempted to perform for God’s acceptance, thank Him that you are already adopted. Then, extend that same unearned acceptance to another fellow believer who feels like an outsider.
Point three is “to Himself as sons.” This is God’s fatherly or personal intimacy. Notice the direction of the adoption: it is to Himself. This is not adoption into a program, religion, or institution, but into relationship with the Father. It is intensely intimate and personal. 1 John 3 says we should be called children of God. We are granted the same relational intimacy that the eternal Son of God enjoys with the Father. We are invited to cry out “Abba, Father.” Abba means “Daddy.” While you shouldn’t walk around saying “Daddy God,” it reflects how you relate to the Father personally as your actual Father. We should come to Him anticipating He will listen because He is our Father. There is no probation period for sonship; once He says you’re His, you’re His forever regardless of how you act. We should pursue holiness, but when we fall short, we come back to the Father who will forgive us and cleanse us. There is no fear of being disowned.
Fourth, notice God’s explicit exclusivity: “through Jesus Christ.” This isn’t just because He likes us; it’s through Jesus. He has to deal with our sinfulness, and none of this is possible apart from Jesus Christ. He is the mediator and the reason why this is possible. We become children of God by and through Christ. He redeemed those under the law so we might receive adoption. He delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son. Jesus is not just an example; He is the mediator of that sonship. We are adopted because the eternal Son became a man, lived perfectly, died in our place, and rose again. Every blessing of adoption flows through Jesus Christ. We must keep Jesus at the center of salvation. When you share the gospel, you say, “Here is how God loves you: He sent His only Son to die for your sins so you can become His child by faith.” When you feel the Father is distant, go back to Jesus. The same Father who said “This is my beloved Son” now says it over you because you are in Jesus.
Let’s clear up a couple of common misconceptions. Some say we are predestined according to foreknowledge, thinking God looked through time to see who would believe and then predestined them on that basis. This turns the biblical order upside down. If God predestines because He foresees faith, then faith becomes the cause of election rather than the result. Scripture is clear that faith itself is a gift from God. It also contradicts the teaching on regeneration. Jesus told Nicodemus we must be born again to see the kingdom of God. The Holy Spirit sovereignly regenerates first, and only then can a spiritually dead sinner exercise the gift of faith. Regeneration precedes faith. Biblical foreknowledge does not mean mere foresight of future events; it refers to setting saving love upon someone from eternity. He gave us faith because He had already chosen us in love.
Secondly, some argue God predestined adoption for us, rather than us for adoption, as if it is a general program believers step into. This makes predestination feel impersonal and sounds like works-based salvation. The text literally means “having predestined us for adoption as sons.” God marked out specific people to be full sons in His family. He did not just predestine a vague concept; He predestined individuals chosen in love. This preserves the relational warmth of the passage. Paul is not describing a policy, but blessing a Father who has eternally chosen specific sinners to bring home as His children through Jesus Christ. Predestination is not cold and mechanical; it is the most personal thing imaginable. Before anything else existed, God set His love on you and determined to make you His son or daughter with full rights and security. If you’ve trusted in Christ, live like a child of God. Rest in His predestined plan. If you’ve never trusted in Christ, know that He will never reject anyone who comes to Him in faith. Trust in Jesus Christ even right now. Amen.