"He hath chosen us in Him [that is, in Christ] before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love; having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will" (Eph. 1:4,5).

God’s choice of us was before the foundation of the world when God alone was. Man had no voice nor choice in the matter. It was purely God acting from Himself. It was a matter of God’s own choice that He would have others to be in heaven besides Himself. But if they were to be near Him and before Him, how could they be so with sin upon them? Impossible. How could God sanction souls, even in the most distant part of His dominion, with sin upon them? It was the positive necessity of His character and nature that if He chose to have any with Himself in heaven, they must be there "holy and without blame before Him."

But that is far from being all:it must be "in love," because nothing could be more miserable than that they should not be able to enter into His own affections. Merely to be in the most blessed place of creatures without taint, without anything that could sully the presence of God, would not be enough. He will give them a nature not only capable of being before Him without reproach and fear, but also answering to His own love. "We love Him, because He first loved us" (1 John 4:19).

Here we have God’s choice of us personally. For it is not merely to have a people, as if it were some vague thing, a certain number of niches in heaven to be filled up with so many souls. There is no such notion in the Bible. It is persons He chooses. There cannot be such love without a person distinctly before it. God loves us individually. Hence He has chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world, to show how entirely it is a choice independent of our character and ways.

"Holy and without blame before Him in love." This does not refer to what we have been. If we examine any person we may find grievous faults in him. Even as a Christian, he is very far indeed from being what is due to God. He is ashamed of himself, grieving over the little his heart responds to the favor God has shown him. Now, will God be satisfied with that which even a Christian finds fault with? In the saint now there is that which is very unsaintly indeed, unlike God and His beloved Son. But for all this, are they not saints? And He has chosen us in Christ that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. How can that be? The answer is because God looks at us here according to that which He gives us in Christ, and nothing less. All is based on that new nature which flows from His grace to the objects of His choice.

But even this is not all. Blessed as it is to answer to the holy character and nature of God, yet this is not enough. We might be there holy and without blame before Him in love, yet simply as servants. But such is the wonder of God’s grace, He has formed a positive relationship, and that relationship is nothing less than His redeemed ones being sons according to the pattern of the risen Son of God. Christ was pleased to call us His brethren when He rose from the dead. God has predestinated us unto the adoption of sons by Jesus Christ unto Himself. We now find the special privilege and glorious relationship of sons before God in His presence by Jesus Christ. He might not have done it, but it was "according to the good pleasure of His will."

(From Lectures on Ephesians.)