A doxology is a short hymn or phrase of praise repeated in services.
There are three very similar phrases that appear in this long sentence of our blessings in Christ. They appear after the first two blessings, after the next three and then after the final two.
The phrases (i call them doxologies) are "To the praise of His glorious grace" and "to the praise of His glory" (which appears twice). The first time the phrase appears it is in its fullest form, the other two repetitions are shorter, because they act as abbreviations of the first. They bring the full impact of the first doxology to mind.
What these phrases do is to divide the seven blessings into our past, our present and our future. The first doxology is a response to the blessings of our past.
According to Paul, our past looks like this:
1. Before the creation of the world, God knew that it would cost the blood of Christ to make us holy and blameless, but He made us and chose us anyway!
2. It was His pleasure and will to predestine us to be adopted as His children - in other words He loved us even though we have done nothing to deserve it.
What does this lead Paul to do?
He spontaneously praises God because there is one word that dominates our past: GRACE.
And grace is best defined as _G_od's _R_iches _A_t _C_hrist's _E_xpense.
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Theo Groeneveld theo@emmanuel.org.za
You can see past EmmDevs at http://emmdev.blogspot.com/
