When Paul exulted in our predestination by God, he wasn't thinking about some decision of God's to arbitrarily choose one person and not another to salvation without any revealed basis for that choice - rather, Paul was glorying in the truth that it had been God's plan all along to take-out a people for His Name, by grace, and on the basis of faith alone, rather than on the basis of the works of the Law or on the basis of Jewish nationality.
The Church - inclusive of Jews and Gentiles - saved by grace through faith, not through the works of the Law - had been God's pet plan ever since before the plan was revealed, and had now become His pet prize.
That's what Paul gloried in! He used the word 'predestined' in order to boast in the solid Scriptural basis for the existence of the Church in the plan of God, according to his Gospel.
If therefore you are part of His Church (by God's grace and through faith), then you also were predestined by God to all His wonderful, eternal plans since before the world began!
(Because God ordained it, not only in the Scriptures, but also before the world began, to save people by His grace through faith, without the works of the Law and irrespective of their nationality).
God foreknew a people whom He would take out of the world, by grace through faith, to be His Church, His building, His house, His temple, His vineyard, His people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His bride.
By using the word 'predestined', Paul was asserting the legitimacy of the Church in the plan and Scriptures of God.
And it legitimizes you as a believer in Jesus. Hallelujah!
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