Commentaries:
"Having predestined us" - see Romans 8:29.
John W. Ritenbaugh
The Covenants, Grace, and Law (Part One)
God has predestined us from the beginning! What deep meaning is contained within this! Did God have us planned even before He created Adam and Eve? He might have! It can mean that. Predestination may not be general at all but very specific - that the great Mind that created everything had us in mind so long ago.
John W. Ritenbaugh
Unity (Part 3): Ephesians 4 (A)
He could have invited billions of other people, yet He did not—He invited us. This "adoption as sons" is another thing that He has invited us to.
John W. Ritenbaugh
Unity (Part 6): Ephesians 4 (C)
What the Father is doing has nothing to do with the way we are or were. It has everything to do with His initiating and choosing us because He wants us, not because of anything that we may have done.
John W. Ritenbaugh
The Awesome Cost of Salvation
His Word declares that in His love He predestined us "according to the good pleasure of His will." It does not say that He predestined us according to what He foresaw we would become, that He chose us because we were from a particular ethnic group, or that He picked us because of some mark of intelligence, character, looks, ability, or any other quality. Just as in Deuteronomy 7:7-8, His calling of us occurred out of the good pleasure of His will. He gave to us the same privileges and opportunities as He did to Jacob rather than Esau, and they were extended on the same basis - by God's election following the counsel of His own will and not by our works.
John W. Ritenbaugh
The Sovereignty of God: Part Three
Other Forerunner Commentary entries containing Ephesians 1:5:
Acts 13:48
Acts 15:14-18
Romans 8:28-29
Romans 9:16
Hebrews 10:11-14
1 John 5:19-20