“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of THE GLORY OF HIS GRACE, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved” (Ephesians 1:3-6).
In Greek, the word “glory” in this verse means “very apparent … dignity, honor, praise, worship.” It has its root in the idea of “to think … be of reputation” (James Strong [1391 & 1380]). The word “grace” in this verse means “the divine influence upon the heart, and its reflection in the life; including gratitude … benefit, favor, gift” (James Strong [5485]).
If we were to rewrite this small snippet of scripture using these two word meanings it would read something like this: “The very apparent dignity, honor, praise and worship of the Lord’s thoughtful reputation that divinely influences our hearts—and which reflects and emanates from our changed hearts—is the cause of our deep gratitude, benefit and favor; what a precious gift we have been given!”
This is the reason we are “accepted in the Beloved”; because our Father blessed us “with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.” “THE GLORY OF HIS GRACE” is the glory of His very Person, and what gratitude ought we to reflect by acknowledging that incomparable gift of the Lord Himself (not merely that He graces us with material and “spiritual blessings”—which He no doubt does—but that the very grace of His own life is given to us, making us look like Him and reflecting His glory rather than our own corrupted glory).
The weightiness—in Hebrew, “kabod”—of His Presence is implied in these verses of scripture; the “good pleasure of His will” is to manifest the weightiness of God in and through His people wherever they go, to deeply influence people wherever we are. It is Christ Himself, the Savior of all mankind, that is the heaviest and most influential moment in everyone’s life; and we are uniquely designed to be as Christ in the world. We are called to rightly represent Him wherever we grace; if His Presence does not go with us, we are but clanging symbols, making noise without distinction, cacophony rather than harmonious symphony. “THE GLORY OF HIS GRACE” is that He goes with us wherever we roam.
