When you think about your salvation, beloved, there's only one direction you can go with your thanksgiving and that's toward God.

He chose us in Christ before the world was made, so it's all of His will, it's all of His purpose, it has nothing to do with us, and it's all for His glory.

Welcome to Grace To You with John MacArthur. I'm your host, Phil Johnson. You probably know about the doctrine of salvation by grace alone, the principle that sinners are saved only by God's unmerited favor, not by anything they may do.

But what about when you first believed in Christ, when you first turned to Him in faith? Didn't that depend on you?

It's an important question and it affects how you view the nature of your faith in Christ.

Today John MacArthur helps you understand this foundational truth from the teachings of the Lord Himself, showing you the gospel according to Jesus.

That's the title of John's study, and now turn to Ephesians and follow along with John MacArthur.

Ephesians chapter 1, and I invite you to turn there in your Bible if you will, Ephesians chapter 1, and I want to read in your hearing verses 3 through 14.

This great pay-on of praise from the heart of the Apostle Paul is not a cool documentation of some theological argument, it is the passion and overflow of His own thankful heart.

It appears in the original as if there's no break at all, and while some of the translators have chosen to put commas and periods, it doesn't seem in the original that there's any stopping point from verse 3 through 14.

He just continues to allow His heart under the inspiration of the Spirit of God to gush out praise for the God who has saved Him.

And as I read it in your hearing, would you listen for those things which assign our salvation wholly to God, verse 3.

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 blameless before Him.

In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace which He freely bestowed on us in the beloved.

In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of His grace which He lavished upon us.

In all wisdom and insight He made known to us the mystery of His will according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him.

With a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times that is the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things upon the earth.

In Him also we have obtained an inheritance having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.

In Him you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise who is given as a pledge of our inheritance with a view to the redemption of God's own possession to the praise of His glory.

What dominates this wonderful section of Scripture is the idea that God has brought about salvation by His own will and His own purpose and His own design and to the praise of His own glory.

In verses 5, 9 and 11, salvation is described to His will.

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