Ephesians 1:5

Having predestinated us— It was not by the observances of the law, but by faith alone in Jesus Christ, that God pre-determined to take the Gentiles into the state of sonship, or adoption. This was another particular for which St. Paul blesses God, in the name of the Gentiles; the consideration whereof was fit to raise the thoughts of the Ephesians above the Mosaic law, and keep them in a firm adherence to the liberty of the gospel. According to the good pleasure of his will, is spoken here in the same sense with what is said Romans 9:18; Romans 9:23. God, under the law, took the nation of Israel to be his people, without any merit in them; and so it is of his mere good pleasure that he even then purposed to enlarge his kingdom under the gospel, by admitting all, of every nation, to come in and submit themselves, not to the law of Moses, but to the rule and dominion of his Son, Jesus Christ; and this, as it is said in the next words, For the praise of the glory of his grace.