predestination Archives - Redeeming God

What is the mystery that was hidden for generations, but is now revealed in Jesus? And what is salvation? Is salvation when we get eternal life so we can go to heaven when we die? These questions will be answered in this study of Ephesians 1:9-13. We will also address the current violence in the Middle East between Israel and Hamas, and answer a question from a reader about Jesus’ statement from the cross, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken me?”

Current Events: Israel and Palestine

Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist organization, recently started launching rockets into Israel this last week. In response, Israel started shooting the rockets down and returning fire. It has been shocking to see how many people have responded to these events. Rather than condemning Hamas for launching the rockets in the first place, many are condemning Israel for defending themselves and retaliating.

The idiocy of condemning Israel for defending itself is nicely summed up by a recent satirical Babylon Bee headline, which said: “Tensions Rise In Middle East As One Side Wants To Kill Jews And The Other Side Are Jews Who Don’t Want To Die And Neither Will Compromise” It’s satire, but like all good satire, it’s pretty close to the truth of what is actually being said by many leaders and politicians. “Why is Israel so mean in attacking the poor Palestinians?” they whine. “All the Palestinians want is to kill all the Jews.”

My stance is that Israel has a right to defend itself against the unprovoked attacks from Hamas.

But there’s the problem. Many on the left are saying that Hamas was provoked. And what did Israel do to provoke Hamas? Well … they defended themselves. I read one article this week in which the liberal journalist said that Hamas just wants the land back that Israel “stole” from them in the 1967 six-day war. But when you go back and look at what actually happened in 1967, some of the surrounding Arab nations decided to attack Israel. In preparation for this attack, they told the Arab people in Israel to temporarily leave so that they would not die in the attack.

Israel, of course, defended herself from the attack and was victorious. And to further protect herself from future attacks, they kept the land that they won in the war, which had been abandoned by the Arabs. Of course, now, most of the world condemns Israel for “illegally taking and occupying” Palestinian territory. But that is not what happened at all. Israel defended herself, and continues to do so, against Hamas, which has publicly declared that their primary goal is to obliterate and destroy Israel as a nation.

So Israel is simply defending herself against people who want to destroy her. Is that a crime? Of course not.

The other criticism we recently hear from various politicians and journalists is that Israel does not have a right to exist because it is an apartheid state, much like South Africa was. Members of “The Squad” in congress say that Israel is a racist country that dehumanizes the Arab citizens of Israel and keeps them from being elected or having power.

But this is a bald-faced lie.

Israel is a democracy. Is is the only democracy in the Middle East. Israel affords its Arab citizens full rights. Arab Israelis are full participants in Israeli society. They vote in elections and Arab parties sit in parliament. There are Arab justices on the Supreme Court. About 20% of doctors in Israel and about half of pharmacists are Arab. Only 20%! Such racism! Well, Arabs are a minority in Israel, representing 20% of the population, so 20% representation is exactly what you would expect.

The Palestinian territories, however, are the exact opposite. You cannot find an Arab-dominated country that affords Jews the same rights in Arab countries that Israel gives to Arab citizens in Israel. There is a complete lack of democracy among Arab nations. Jewish and Christian minorities are abused, mistreated, and given almost no voice at all in these other countries. Therefore, all Arab countries are more apartheid than Israel has ever been.

All this is to say that I stand by Israel in her right to defend herself against attacks. And I condemn the violent and unprovoked attacks by Hamas upon the Israeli people.

It should also be pointed out that none of this would be happening right now if President Trump had been re-elected. There was peace in the Middle-East during his years in office, largely due to his strong stance on foreign policy. The death and violence occurring right now in the Middle East can be laid squarely on Biden’s weak and incoherent foreign policy. I hope that all Christians can condemn the violence in Israel and call for Hamas to stop attacking Israel. We must pray and work for the peace of Israel.

Letter from a Listener

Here is a question I received from Joan Vitale:

I have a question regarding Jesus “My God My God why have you forsaken Me?”

Common beliefs are that God turned away from Jesus at the moment as He took upon the sins of the world. I am not convinced this is so. Why? Because God never leaves us never forsakes us. Why would He forsake His only Son?

Instead I feel that Jesus did not become sin for us, but rather He became the sacrifice for our sins just as the Old Testament sacrifices did not take away people’s sins but instead they were sacrificially offered (sin offering) and that is why Jesus is also known as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

What are your beliefs on this?

Joan, I like your thinking on this. Especially the fact that since God will never leave or forsake us, why would God leave or forsake Jesus? It doesn’t make sense.

I have answered this question previously, here is the link: Why Did Jesus say “My God, My God, Why Have You Forsaken Me?”

But here is a brief summary of what I wrote in that article:

Jesus came to this earth to fully identify with us as humans. However, how could Jesus do this if He never sinned? We live in a constant state of sinfulness, which is a large part of the fear, pain, and frustration we experience as humans. How can Jesus identify with us if He never experienced this pain and frustration of sin?

I believe Jesus did experience it when He took our sin upon Himself on the cross. It was only when the crushing despair of being separated from God came upon Him, that He finally felt what we humans have lived with since we were born. The pain and anguish we feel every day, the suffering of being separated from God that has so numbed our souls, the despair and fear that drives us to live as we do, was felt for the very first time by Jesus on the cross when sin came upon Him.

His cry, “My God, my God, Why have You forsaken Me?” (Matthew 17:46; Psalm 22:1) is not the cry of the God-forsaken God, but is the heart cry of every single human being on earth. It is the cry we have been voicing since the beginning when we fell into sin.

This is not just the cry of Jesus on the cross. This is the cry of every single person on earth.

It is our pain, our fear, our hurt, our despair, finally being given a voice. It is the cry of God fully entering into our broken condition and fully experiencing the sense of separation from God that sin causes, and crying out in anguish and despair over this sense of loss, “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?”

When we feel that God is ignoring us, or has abandoned us, Jesus knows what we feel, and He cries out to God on our behalf, “Why have You forsaken Me?”

When we experience fear in the night about our future, Jesus knows what we feel, and He cries out to God on our behalf, “Why have You forsaken Me?”

When bad things happen in this world, and we wonder what God is doing about them (if anything), Jesus knows what we feel, and He cries out to God on our behalf, “Why have You forsaken Me?”

When we feel despised and rejected, abused and slandered, misunderstood and forgotten, and we wonder why God seems to be doing nothing to protect and defend us, Jesus knows what we feel, and He cries out to God on our behalf, “Why have You forsaken Me?”

The separation from God that Jesus experienced on the cross is the separation from God that humans experience every day. Certainly, since He is God and since He bore every sin of every person, He experienced this separation to an infinite degree. But still, the cry of Jesus from the cross, “My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me?” is not just the cry of Jesus, but is our cry.

It is the cry of every single human being on earth. Jesus was giving voice to our pain and anguish.

Do you feel abandoned by God? Jesus knows what that feels like. Do you feel forsaken, neglected, forgotten, and overlooked? Jesus knows what that feels like. Do you feel like God has turned His back? Jesus knows what that feels like.

But here is the thing…

The original question was “How can Jesus say ‘Why have you forsaken me?’ when God did not actually forsake Him?”

Just as Jesus felt what we all feel to be forsaken, so also, none of us have been forsaken, just as Jesus Himself was not.

Though you may feel abandoned by God, you are no more abandoned than was Jesus. Though you may feel forsaken, forgotten, neglected, and overlooked, these things are no more true of you than they were of Jesus. Though you may feel unloved, this is no more true of you than it was for Jesus.

Though Jesus cried out, “Why have you forsaken me?” He was NOT forsaken. And neither are we.

This is a feeling that Jesus experienced, which is a feeling we ALL experience.

And this feeling does not come because we are forsaken, but because of sin. Sin has separated us from God; it has not separated God from us. This is why God had to reconcile the world to Himself (1 Cor 5:19). He didn’t need to reconcile Himself to the world, for He never left or abandoned us.

Though we may feel forsaken, we are not forsaken any more than Jesus was forsaken.

God did not forsake Jesus, and God does not forsake us. The presence of sin in our lives makes us feel like we are forsaken, like God has abandoned us, forgotten us, or left us alone to suffer and die, when in fact, God is right there all the time, holding us, loving us, and crying with us over our pain.

It is sin that makes us feel separated from God, and this is the feeling Jesus expressed on the cross, and is one reason Jesus went to the cross – to take our sin and bear it away into death so that we can see that God has not left us, has not abandoned us, and has not forsaken us, but has fully entered into our pain, our suffering, and even into our sin, so that He might show us how much He loves and cares for us. This truth is explained in more detail in my book, The Atonement of God.

Hope that helps a bit!

Salvation in the Son (Ephesians 1:9-13)

This study is drawn from my sermon on Ephesians 1:7-13.

Ephesians 1:9-10. And he made known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment—to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.

In Ephesians 1:9, Paul says that for many years, God had a secret, a mystery, which He has just now made known to the world.

The fact that it is a mystery does not mean it was hard to understand, but simply that it was something previously unknown. There were clues and hints about this mystery throughout the Old Testament, but now God has made it plain as day and wants the whole world to know.

Paul says this was a mystery of God’s will, according to his good pleasure and that it primarily involved Christ, and that the accomplishment of this mystery of God’s will would not be completed until the end of time.

And what is that mystery? It is that God was going to unite all the people of the world into one family in Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 1:9-10 says that God’s goal was to to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ. This is a reference to the church as the body of Christ. The Church is the key to world peace.

We previously discussed the ongoing violence in the Middle East between the Jews and the Arabs. According to Paul, the key to peace between warring people groups is not more violence, but to see that we are not two different people groups, but are rather one people under Jesus Christ. We are not enemies, but brothers, with one another.

This truth will be unpacked in great detail in Ephesians 2. Ephesians 2 is all about how to bring peace to warring groups of people.

Now when Paul says that everything is brought together into one head, Jesus Christ, Paul is not teaching that everyone will become a Christian here—or that Satan and his demons will be united to Christ. No, this is unbiblical. This verse is saying that Christ will rule over all—will have dominion over all. The kingdom of God has come upon the earth in Jesus Christ, and everyone and everything is under the rule of this kingdom, but the power and plans are still not accepted or followed everywhere, which is why the church is supposed to go forward in the name of Jesus to show the world how to live at peace with each other.

Again, this is foreshadowing of Ephesians 2, where Paul will show how Jesus did all this, and how we can call the world to peace as well.

Ephesians 1:11-12 summarize the blessings of God in Christ that we have so far been given, so I’m not going to spend much time on these verses because they are simply reiterating and repeating what Paul has already said.

Ephesians 1:11. In him we were also [made heirs], having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will,

Again, Paul is just reiterating the fact that our predestination was not to eternal life, but to the adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies, the giving of an inheritance to His children. The inheritance, the riches, the blessings, is what Paul is describing in these first three chapters of Ephesians.

Ephesians 1:12. … in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory.

The first to hope in Christ were simply Paul and the first believers in Ephesus. But this still applies to us as well. It says that all of this that is done is for God’s glory. It is not for our glory, or our praise, but for the praise of God’s glory alone. The truth of these verses then is that as Christians, we have incredible riches in Christ. We are spiritual multi-billionaires.

Finally, the first part of Ephesians 1:13 summarizes all of the riches we have in Jesus Christ by including them as elements within the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation.

Ephesians 1:13a. And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation.

The word of truth and the gospel of your salvation are different terms for the same message. This message is simply the good news of salvation.

Understanding the word salvation is going to be very important as we continue to work our way through Ephesians, especially when we get to Ephesians 2:8-9. So let us pause briefly here in Ephesians 1:13 to point out once again that the word salvation does not refer to going to heaven when you die. Instead, the word means “deliverance” and the context reveals what we are delivered from. I will explain this word in great detail in my Gospel Dictionary online course.

In Ephesians 1:13, the word salvation does not refer to escaping hell and going to heaven when we die. It does not refer to receiving eternal life. Instead, it refers to being liberated from the devastating and destructive consequences of sin in our lives so that we can live now, in this life, the way God wants us to live. How? By recognizing the vast storehouse of riches that we have in Jesus Christ, and then learning to live in light of those now. By starting to draw on our inheritance now.

This is what the word salvation means in Ephesians. It is not talking about where we go when we die, but rather, how our life is to be lived now in light of the riches we have in Jesus Christ. This is also how Paul refers to salvation in Ephesians 2, which, again, we will discuss further when we get there.

The concept of salvation in Paul’s writings is very close to the concept of the Kingdom of God in the teaching of Jesus. Just as the Kingdom of God does not refer to going to heaven when we die, and just as the Kingdom of God refers to God’s rule and reign in our lives right now, so also, salvation does not refer to going to heaven when we die, but refers to the redemption and release from our captivity to sin so that we can live lives of freedom, grace, glory, and joy within God’s family here in this life and for all eternity.

So we have seen two great riches in Ephesians 1. The great riches we have in Jesus include the resources to break free from patterns of sin and to live in our lives as God wants, calls, and desires us to live. In this way, we can rule and reign with Jesus in the Kingdom of God on this earth and for all eternity. As we live this way, we show the world how to live in peace with God and with one another.

But if this seems like a difficult task, there is another great blessing God has given to us, which gives us the power to live as God wants and desires. We will look at this next great blessing next time when we consider the rest of Ephesians 1:13.

What is the Adoption as Sons in Ephesians 1:5-6?

By Jeremy Myers

Current Event: The Fault Lines in Critical Race Theory

Critical Race Theory (CRT) and the Social Justice (SJ) movement are causing intense damage to the world, and to Christianity. Those who hold to CRT and SJ say they are trying to bring an end to racism, but their ideas actually do the exact opposite. And sadly, many Christians are falling prey to the ideas of CRT and SJ, which destroys the peace-bringing message of the gospel.

If you don’t know what Critical Race Theory is, or why it is so destructive to the gospel, I highly encourage you to read (#AmazonAdLink) FaultLines, the new book by Voddie Baucham Jr. It’s currently a best seller in numerous categories and is on the USA Today Bestseller list, but if you search Amazon for “Faultline,” it won’t show up on the first 10 pages of search results because Amazon and the proponents of CRT are trying to silence the information that Dr. Baucham includes in his book. So you can click the link above or search Amazon for “Faultlines by Voddie Baucham.”

(#AmazonAdLink)

The book is so important, I’m going to use the “Current Events” section of the next couple podcasts to talk about it.

Dr. Baucham begins the book by defining the key characteristics of Critical Race Theory. He points out that CRT is based on the theories of Karl Marx and class warfare (p. xii). So at it’s root, CRT is a form of Marxism. And Marxism has killed more people in the history of the world than any other political perspective. Marxism is inherently violent.

Due to this, proponents of Critical Race Theory are not interested in reforming culture and society. They want a revolution (p. xiii). This is why they are not interested in reforming the police. They want to defund the police.

The reason proponents of CRT want a revolution is because they believe that society is inherently racist … or is systemically racist … and so it cannot be fixed or redeemed; it must be destroyed. According to CRT, everything is based on white privilege and white supremacy (p. xv), including politics, education, economics, and business. So it all must be torn down. They even claim that things like logic and math are inherently racist. They say that minorities don’t primarily use logic and reason to make decisions and gain knowledge, but instead use stories, emotions, and experience (p. xvi-xvii). Therefore, any structure or society which is based on the sciences (which depend on logic and reason) is inherently racist because it favors white people.

This is why, by the way, if you ever try to use logical arguments and reason against Critical Race Theory, you get accused of being a racist, because logic is racist.

Now, a lot more could be said to explain CRT, and Dr. Baucham does in his book. But here is why Critical Race Theory is so destructive to society in general and to the gospel of Jesus Christ. According to numerous texts in the Bible, one of the things Jesus came to do was to tear down and destroy the divisions between the races. Proponents of CRT want to do the same thing, so that’s good. But proponents of CRT go about trying to destroy racism in exactly the opposite way as Jesus. As we will see when we study Ephesians 2, Jesus brought healing and reconciliation through forgiveness and grace. He killed the hostility between races, not by requiring others to die for Him, but by dying for the others.

The gospel does not call everyone to act the same and think the same, but rather to celebrate and enjoy our differences, because our differences are exactly how God made us to be. And where we are hurt or wronged, we are not to seek vengeance, retaliation, or the destruction of others, but instead are to love and forgive. If justice can be achieved, this is the only way to do it.

Dr. Baucham is extremely concerned about racism and justice. I am too. All Christians who truly follow Jesus want to see peace and reconciliation. But Critical Race Theory accomplishes nothing of the sort. If you want to learn more about this, I highly recommend you read (#AmazonAdLink) FaultLines: The Social Justice Movement and Evangelicalism’s Looming Crisis by Voddie Baucham, Jr.

I will discuss his book a bit more in future podcasts.

Letter from a Listener

I received this email from Michael Spina:

Hi Jeremy! I’ve been a member of your Redeeming God website and absolutely love everything you teach. I love your courses and books because I can tell you’re very practical and truthful to what you say. Your judgements are very sound and don’t favor any extreme views. It’s people like you who I seek out for assurance that I’m on the right track. In my personal opinion, your take on the Gospel is the most clearest and convicting, and is the most comparable to that of the Apostle Paul. I hope you’re encouraged by that.

Now I do have a theological question. It is the story of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts. I’m sure you know the story. Did they commit the unforgivable sin? Because if not, why did they die? Why not be given the chance to repent?

Thanks for the encouraging email. That’s a great question!

I have struggled with this very question quite a bit, and plan to try to address it in a future book.

Here are my “notes” on this text … which are only theories at this point … sort of “leads” for me to follow when I get around to studying the passage in more detail:

—————————

First, it is important to note that the text does not say God killed them. But this is the way it is often preached. All it says is that they fell down and died. Something very strange is going on here.

Note as well the result of these actions: Great fear fell upon all. Fear? If this was God’s actions, how could fear be the result?

One way to read the book of Acts is to see it has the two themes of “Filled with fear vs. filled with the Holy Spirit” or maybe we could say “Law vs. Love.” Acts shows a series of mistakes (based on the law resulting in fear) mixed with a series of miracles (based on the Holy Spirit resulting in love, joy, wonder, amazement, and awe). Luke tells us which it is by how he summarizes the response of the people. But in this case, great fear fell up on the people (Acts 5:5, 11) which hints that the Holy Spirit had nothing to do with these events.

But there is more. If crime scene investigators looked into these deaths, Peter would be the prime suspect. Peter had a violent streak, and his violence was always “justified” by blaming it on God. In the Garden of Gethsemane, he tried to protect Jesus by attempting to behead Malchus, the servant of the High Priest. But Peter only got an ear, which Jesus then healed.

Has Peter changed? Well, he is changing, but he has not yet fully changed. He is zealous for God and for the law. He still thinks some Jews and Gentiles are outside of God’s grace (cf. Acts 10 and Galatians 1). Then there are Peter’s words in Acts 5. Can a man lie to God? No. Despite what Peter says in Acts 5, the lie was directed at man (and specifically Peter); not at God.

What am I saying? Though it cannot be proven, the evidence leads one to believe that Peter had more to do with the death of Ananias and Sapphira than did God. Luke might have hinted at the use of poison when he noted that both Ananias and Sapphira fell down and breathed their last.

This is a very difficult text, so we must be careful to hold our conclusions lightly. One thing is for sure though … God did not kill Ananias and Sapphira, and He does not kill people today, no matter how greedy or deceptive they are. And no matter what, they did not commit the unforgivable sin, and we can be sure to see both of them in eternity with the rest of the saints.

What is the Adoption as Sons in Ephesians 1:5-6?

In previous studies we have learned that election is not to eternal life, but to service, and the predestination is similar; it also is not to eternal life but is God’s predetermined plan about what He will do for believers. The theme of adoption in Ephesians 1:5-6 wraps these twin ideas together. If you are part of my discipleship group, you have access to an entire lesson on adoption in the Gospel Dictionary Online Course.

In Ephesians 1:5, Paul writes that God predestined us to be adopted as his sons.

Now, most people think of adoption the way adoption occurs today.

In the modern concept of adoption, only orphans are adopted. No one ever adopts their own children. But at the time of Paul, adoption was something altogether different.

In the Roman world, fathers had what was known as patria potestas, or the father’s power. It meant that a father had absolute power over his children as long as he lived and as long as they lived. If he was in financial need, he could sell his children into slavery. If he was angered by his children, he could legally kill them, imprison them, or make them his slaves. The father maintained this right even when his son became old enough to have a family of his own, even if the son held political office, and even if he was honored by all men. There are instances in Roman history of all of these things happening.[4]

It was also Roman law that a child could never possess anything, no matter how old they became. If you were a father, and your son was the age of 30 years old, and became very rich, all that the son owned was considered to be the property of the father until the father died.

It is also true that most fathers had many children by many different women. They were not polygamists; for the most part, they only had one wife. But many households also had slave women with whom the father often conceived children. These children were his children, they were not orphans, but—and this is the key—they were not heirs.

So imagine the scene. A father could have multiple sons. He could have multiple sons by his wife, and he could have multiple sons by slave women. By default, the oldest son of the wife was considered the heir. But if the father didn’t like the oldest son, and he liked a younger son of his wife, or even a son of one of the slave women, the father could adopt one of his own sons as his heir, thereby disinheriting the eldest son. It was even a common practice for a father to adopt the son of some other family as his heir. This was a way to form alliance between rich and powerful families.

One of the most famous examples of Roman adoption is when Julius Caesar named his grand-nephew, Octavian (who became Caesar Augustus), to be his heir. Some believe Julius Caesar already had a biological son with Cleopatra, named Caesarion, but who was never named as Caesar’s heir. But Caesar Augustus was not the only one who was adopted this way. Almost every Roman family used adoption as a way to create political ties with other rich and powerful Roman families. During the Roman Empire’s first 200 years, this adoption tradition became quite common, with Tiberius, Caligula, Nero, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius, and Lucius Verus all becoming Emperor through adoption.

So in biblical times, adoption had nothing to do with welcoming an orphan into your family and making them your son or daughter. Instead, it was a way to declare one of your sons as an heir, or even the son of someone else as your heir. It had nothing to do with becoming a son in the family, and everything to do with being named the heir of the family wealth, power, and position. The adopt a son was to legally give them the right to the family inheritance. The legal ceremony of adoption was quite impressive and it gave the adopted the child the title of “heir.”

Paul, of course, was a Roman citizen, and the letters in which he mentions adoption were written to other Roman citizens, so it makes sense that Paul’s language about adoption matches the way it was practiced in Roman culture at that time.

So when Paul says that God has predestined us to be adopted as sons, he is saying that God promises to make us His heirs. As long as the child remained unadopted, he was considered to be slave, even though he was a child born of the Father.

Again, Paul talks about this exact idea over in Galatians 4:7: “So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.”

We are sons by birth when we placed faith in Jesus Christ, yet, though sons, it is as if we were still slaves. But because of our Father’s great love for us, He has decided that He will adopt us as heirs. We get into God’s family by regeneration—or the new birth, but we become heirs of God through adoption. And while we are adopted now, we don’t receive the full inheritance of our adoption until we enter into the eternal kingdom after death.

That is what Paul says God is promising to us here. God has named us heirs. We are heirs of God and co-heirs with Jesus Christ. This promise of predestination is not about God deciding who gets to heaven and who goes to hell; it is about God decided that rather than just one son getting all of His inheritance, all of His children get to share in the inheritance of His family. What a wonderful promise and blessing for His children!

3. Reasons for Predestination (Ephesians 1:5b-6)

The rest of Ephesians 1:5 and on into Ephesians 1:6 tells us why God has decided to do this for us. We see it is because it pleases him. God does this out of His good pleasure.

We see next he wants to adopts us because it is his will to do so. It is not our will. Romans 9:16 tells us that these things are not because of man’s will, man’s desire or man’s effort. It is all due to God’s will and God’s mercy.

In Ephesians 1:6, we see that God does this because it will be to the praise of his glorious grace. Everything that God does, He does for His own glory and for His own praise. And here, it is all because of his grace.

This grace is not earned, it is not merited, it is not worked for. This grace is freely given us in the One he loves. It is freely given. There are no strings attached to this gift. It is freely given. It is not something we worked for, or else it would be given to us as pay.

If you remember back to Ephesians 1:3, Paul wrote that he was going to tell us about all the riches and blessings we have in Jesus Christ. This theme of blessings and riches dominates the first three chapters of Ephesians, but so far, in Ephesians 1:4-6, we have already seen several of these blessings.

We have been chosen (elected) to be on God’s team for His plans and purposes in this world (Ephesians 1:4)
We have been predestined so that no matter what, we will be glorified with God in eternity (Ephesians 1:5a)
We have been adopted into God’s family so that we have all the rights and privileges of ruling with Him (Ephesians 1:5b)
And in all three, He has poured out His love and grace upon us, both of which are infinite and free (Ephesians 1:4, 6).

What blessing will Paul talk about next? We will see when we consider Ephesians 1:7 next time.

What is Predestination? (Ephesians 1:5a)

By Jeremy Myers

1 Comment

Have you ever struggled with the topic of predestination? This study of Ephesians 1:5 will define predestination and will help you find great encouragement in the truth of predestination. We will also look at the current event topic of racism in a Bible College, and answer a question from a reader about the Parable of the Ten Talents.

Current Event: Theology Professor Asks God to Help her Hate White People

Chanequa Walker-Barnes is a theology professor at Mercer University, and she recently published a book titled A Rhythm of Prayer: A Collection of Meditations for Renewal. One chapter includes a prayer in which she says this:

Dear God, Please help me to hate White people. I want to stop caring about them, individually and collectively. I want to stop caring about their misguided, racist souls, to stop believing that they can be better, that they can stop being racist.

Later she writes:

Grant me a Get Out of Judgement Free card if I make White people the exception to your commandment to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.

And she is not alone. I see these sorts of statements and desires all over the internet from Liberals and Democrats who feel that white people and Trump voters are all racists who need to be wiped off the face of the earth. A Stanford university student recently called for the extermination of all white people.

Now, thankfully, Dr. Walker-Barnes recognizes that what she is praying for is sinful and is a complete violation of the instructions of Jesus to love your enemies (see my sermon on Luke 6:27), and so she prays that God will not condemn her to hell for such a desire. And of course, God does forgive her. There’s no question about that.

But what troubles me is that this sort of racist hate-speech is becoming more and more common from liberal leaders, and even from some pastors and Bible college professors. Worse yet, I have not heard a single liberal pastor or Christian denounce such hate speech. They either agree with such racist sentiments or explain them away as “understandable.”

I was recently having a conversation with a friend of mine who is a pastor and democrat, and who is also a strong believer in non-violence. But he shocked me in our conversation by saying that he would like to punch Nazis in the face and beat them until they can’t get up. I asked him who the Nazis were, and he said, “Anyone who voted for Trump.”

This is what many liberals believe, including may liberal Christians. This sort of thinking is not only destructive to our country and the world, but also to the cause of the gospel.

Look, racism is evil. I condemn and denounce all racism, wherever it is found, and from whomever it comes, because God is against racism as well. Those Christians who condemn racism from white people, but excuse racism from others do not understand the gospel and do not understand why Jesus came to this earth. Jesus came to show us how to love, forgive, and accept all people … including our enemies … and if we do not follow Jesus in these ways, then we are not following Jesus at all.

I am currently reading a fantastic book on these issues, and I highly encourage everyone to read it. It’s by Voddie Baucham, Jr. and is titled (#AmazonAdLink) Fault Lines. I love this book so much, I will be talking about it next time in the “Current Events” portion of this podcast.

Q&A: Is Jesus the Master in the Parable of Talents or not?

A super alert reader recently sent me this question:

Thank you so much for sharing your heart and truths you have studied-it has helped me on my journey!

So the other day I was reading your post about the parable of the 10 Talents and how the master was NOT Jesus.

Yet, today I was reading in Luke about Jesus’ triumphal” entry and read your post in which you state that Jesus IS the master going to the far off country.

Which is it? Thanks for clearing this up for me in advance!

GREAT question! (And very impressive that you found this!)

The Triumphal Entry sermon was first taught nearly twenty years ago … and the explanation on the ten talents was within the last year, so the contradiction here just shows a progression in my thinking…

I would argue now that in the Triumphal Entry, Jesus didn’t go to a far country, but just to Jerusalem. And there, we see how the kingdoms of this world treat people who do not play by their rules. So the Triumphal Entry does show an example of the parable of the ten talents, but it is an example of the third servant who is condemned by the earthly master…

(I have updated the older sermon to match this… thanks for pointing it out!)

What is Predestination? (Ephesians 1:5a)

The first time I preached a sermon on Ephesians 1:5 was over 20 years ago. I was a young pastor in my first church. As I began to explain what I am going to share with you in this study, one of the elders in my church stood up and loudly said to his family, “Come on. We’re leaving!” He and his family filed out of their row, out the back of the church, and never returned. I later called him to find out why he left, and he accused me of being a heretic.

The reason he thought I was a heretic was because he was a Calvinist and he disagreed with what I was saying about predestination.

If you don’t know what Calvinism is, that’s okay. But if you do know, then you know that certain views of election and predestination are central to the doctrines of Calvinism. I used to be a 5-point Calvinist, but then I started really studying the issues from a biblical perspective, and ended up rejecting all five points of Calvinism. The sermon I preached on Ephesians 1:5 was near the beginning of that process. The elder in my church did not like what I said, and so he left the church and never came back.

So now you get to hear what I taught, and I encourage you to study the Scripture for yourself to see what they have to say about predestination. Here is the part of Ephesians 1:5 we are looking at in this study:

Epehsians 1:5a. In love He predestined us …

Ephesians 1:4 was a key verse on election. Ephesians 1:5 is a key verse on predestination. They are similar ideas, but with one key difference.

Election has to do with God’s people, predestination deals with God’s purposes. Election is the who; predestination is the what, and specifically, what God is going to do for believers in eternity.

Now, a lot of people get pretty nervous about predestination. They are afraid about it, because they wonder if they are predestined or not. But this fear just shows that they have a misunderstanding about election, for we see right from the start of Ephesians 1:5 that although some people are scared of predestination, they should not be – for whatever predestination is, it begins with the love of God. And since predestination is founded upon the love of God, when it is properly understood, it will not lead anyone to fear.

So what is predestination? Let us begin with defining it. To define it, you can take the word and cut it in two. Pre means “before” or “previously” and destined means “to decide.” So the word predestined means to previously decide, or to decide beforehand.

From the Greek, it literally means “to mark out beforehand.”

All of us predestine things every day. If we are thinking ahead, we are king of deciding beforehand what we will do in a certain situation. Have you ever thought about what you would do if you won a million dollars? If so, you have predestined the million dollars. Have you ever thought about what you might do when you retire? If so, you have predestined your retirement.

As young parents begin to have children, they often predestine certain things about their child. If they learn the sex of the baby, they predestine the child’s name. They might also predestine the room the baby sleeps in, the clothes the baby wears, and what sort of schedule they will try to keep with the new baby.

Of course, with humans, even though we decide things, that does not guarantee that it will happen, because we are not in control of everything. But God is all wise and all powerful. So when God predestines something, it is guaranteed to happen.

So what is it that God has predestined?

I have taught about predestination in numerous locations previously. Here is one example of how I answered a question from a reader about predestination.

What Did God Predestine?

I’ll be as blunt and straightforward as I know how: I do not believe that God predestines some people to go to heaven.

I definitely do not believe in double predestination. If you don’t know what double predestination is, it is the view that God predestines some people to go to heaven and predestines others to go to hell. Although I used to believe this (that’s part of the “hyper” in hyper Calvinism), but no longer.

I believe that predestination does not refer to God’s choice of which people get to go to heaven, but refers instead to God’s determination to bring into glory all those who receive eternal life by faith in Jesus. In other words, predestination teaches us about who gets glorified, not who gets justified.

God’s predetermined (this is a synonym for predestination) plan was that He would bring into glory everyone who believed in Jesus for eternal life, that is, for justification. All who are justified will be glorified. As such, there is absolutely nothing in predestination about God’s choice of which people will get justified and which people will not. Predestination has nothing to do with that, and it is a categorical mistake to think it does.

To put it another way, predestination is about the destiny of believers (all will be glorified), not about the destiny of unbelievers (some will get justified and some will get damned).

Or to put it another way again, discussion about God’s predestination should not fall under the category of justification, but under the categories of sanctification and glorification. Predestination is a discipleship issue; not an evangelism issue.

Romans 8:28-30 and Predestination

Two of the key passages about predestination are Romans 8:29-30 and Ephesians 1:4-11. In both cases, Paul is pretty clear that predestination is about God bringing people to be conformed to the image of His Son (Romans 8:29), and that election and predestination are most properly understood in connection with being made holy and blameless before God (Ephesians 1:4-5).

God does not choose some to be in Christ while passing over the rest. No, God chooses, elects, predestines, predetermines, decides, foreordains, commits Himself to make sure that every person who believes in Jesus for eternal life, will finally and ultimately be glorified into the image and likeness of Jesus Christ.

So predestination of the saints is about God’s commitment to the preservation of the saints.

This is why no one can snatch us out of the Father’s hand (John 10:29), why nothing can separate us from the love of God (Romans 8:38-39), and why God has given us the Holy Spirit as a promise and guarantee of our inheritance (Ephesians 1:13-14).

Predestination is a controversial topic, but it need not be. The Bible teaches that predestination is about our glorification and sanctification; not about justification. Therefore, if we fight about predestination, we are not living according to what we were predestined for, namely, to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ.

Predestination and Romans 8:28-30

I taught about this previously in a study on Romans 8:28-30 and the Golden Chain of Salvation, which you can go read for yourself. But here are a few key points from what I wrote there:

In Romans 8:28-30, Paul is emphasizing God’s role while ignoring man’s role, but this does not mean that mankind has no role.

Note that key elements of the process of redemption are left out, such as faith and sanctification. Why? Because these are partly the responsibility of humans. Paul does not mention these other elements of redemption, because he is focusing solely on God’s role in redemption.

These verses in Romans 8:28-30 are sort of like the passage in Genesis 15 where God performs a “cutting of the covenant” ceremony with Abraham, but God walks through the severed animals all by Himself. Usually, both parties of the covenant walked through the blood of the divided animals together, essentially saying, “If I break the terms of this covenant, may I become like one of these animals.” But in Genesis 15, God puts Abraham to sleep and walks through the animals alone. He is saying that the terms of the covenant are unconditional. That Abraham and his descendants don’t have to do anything for God to fulfil the terms of the covenant.

This is exactly what Romans 8:28-20 is saying as well. All the terms mentioned in these verses are aspects of redemption that God takes care of all by Himself. They require no human involvement.

In the overall scheme of redemption, God alone is the one who foreknows what He will do, takes steps to make sure it happens, calls believers to a greater purpose in service to Him, justifies those who believe, and glorifies for eternity all whom He justified.

In Romans 8:28-30, Paul is not talking about an eternal decree from eternity past about to whom He would give eternal life, but rather, God’s plan from eternity past to bring those who believe in Jesus into conformity to the image of Jesus Christ, which does not fully occur until glorification (cf. Eph 1:4; 4:1; 5:27; Col 1:22-23).

In Romans 8:28-30, Paul is saying nothing about God’s predestination of some to eternal life.

Instead, Paul is saying that God decided in eternity past to make sure that everyone and anyone who joins His family by faith will finally and ultimately be brought into conformity to Jesus Christ at their glorification.

Foreknowledge is not God’s plan from all eternity about whom to give eternal life. It is simply God’s plan about what to do with those who believed.

In the Context of Romans 8:28-30, Paul is writing to Christians who are facing severe testing and trials as a result of their faith in Jesus (cf. Romans 8:17-18).

But Paul wants to encourage his readers by telling them that the suffering they face will result in glory, and that absolutely nothing can separate them from God’s love or God’s purpose in their lives (Romans 8:31-39).

Many of the people to whom he is writing (just like many people today), were struggling with feelings of inadequacy, guilt, failure, fear, and doubt. Paul wanted them to know that God knew all about these things from eternity past, and it didn’t stop Him from initiating His plan to rescue and redeem the world, and since God predestined such a plan, He will take care of everything necessary to bring it to completion, which will result in our glorification (cf. Romans 8:31-39).

Paul’s point in writing Romans 8:28-30 is to encourage Christians that no matter what happens to them, God is with them, will not abandon them, and just as He has had them in mind since before the foundation of the world, He will not abandon them to the trials and testing they are facing.

If God is the only one who could bring a charge against them, but He will not do so, and instead, delivered His own Son up for us all (Romans 8:31-34), then we can be sure that absolutely nothing will separate us from the love of God (Romans 8:35-39). If God is for us, who can condemn us? Jesus could. But rather than condemn us, Jesus intercedes for us!

This is the beautiful truth of predestination. It is a promise of safety and security in the arms of God. It is a promise of eternal security. It is a promise of final and ultimate glorification with God and the saints in eternity. Predestination is the promise of God to His children that He will bring them through to the end. He promises to make us holy, and He promises to make us heirs. And that which God promises, He is able to keep. We are eternally secure in the hands of God because of his election and predestination.

So what is predestination? It is not God’s choice in eternity past about who would receive eternal life and who would not. Rather, it is God’s plan from eternity past to make sure that everyone who believed in Jesus for eternal life, would keep that eternal life forever and would finally and ultimately be glorified with Him in eternity. Predestination is God’s promise to you that no matter what you have gone through, no matter what you are going through, no matter what you have done or will do, God will always love you, accept you, forgive you, and is always at work to bring you into eternity to be with Him forever.

That’s an encouraging truth, right? And we will see more of this encouraging truth when we look at the rest of Ephesians 1:5 next time, as well as Ephesians 1:6. That study will focus on the word adoption in Ephesians 1:5 as further proof that predestination is not to eternal life, but rather concerns God’s promise that those who are justified will be glorified in Jesus Christ.

Why are some people Elect (Ephesians 1:4)?

By Jeremy Myers

2 Comments

What is election? Who are the elect? Why are they elect? How can you know if you are one of the elect? These are some of the questions we answer in this podcast study of Ephesians 1:4. We will also look at the Democrat effort to pack the Supreme Court and answer a letter from a listener about televangelists who don’t believe in eternal security.

Democrats Want to Pack the Supreme Court

The podcast begins with a brief discussion about the Democrat efforts to pack the Supreme Court. Listen to the podcast to hear my thoughts on the subject.

Letter from a Listener

Hello again Jeremy… I’m about to begin to read one of your books plus I’m still thinking about joining your discipleship group … I have some questions that I want to run by you… There are a lot of tv evangelists and prophecy teachers that do not believe in the security of the believer… They have all kinds of education yet they distort the message of life… Why is that Jeremy??

Brad

Brad also had a question about an author named Dr. Thomas Horn. I have never heard of him or any of his book, so I can’t say anything about him.

Listen to the podcast to hear my answer to Brad’s question.

Why are some people elect (Ephesians 1:4).

Ephesians 1:4 provides us with the the who, what, and why of election. This podcast is a summary of what I wrote elsewhere on my website about Ephesians 1:3-4, and I have also written a book on election titled (#AmazonAdLink) The Re-Justification of God, and have a entire lesson in my Online Discipleship group about election. Also, here is an article I wrote titled “Election is to Service.” But let us see what we can learn from Ephesians 1:4.

Ephesians 1:4. just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.

The term election in not even in this verse. In fact, the word election is not found in the entire letter of Ephesians. But since “to elect” simply means “to choose,” I believe we can take this passage as a key text on election and predestination, because the term “he chose us” is found in this verse.

Since being chosen is in view, there are three questions we can ask which will help us understand the text – and all texts similar to it. First, who is chosen, and second when are they chosen, and third, why are they chosen? Let’s answer them one by one.

1. Who is chosen? (And what is election?)

The text says he chose us in Him. The phrase “in Him” tells us that this blessing of being chosen is something that we have in Christ. Jesus Christ is the first chosen person. Christ is the choice servant of God (cf. Luke 9:35; 23:35; 1 Peter 2:4, 6).

The traditional view of election is that election was a choice God made in eternity past about which unregenerate sinners He would regenerate to spend eternity with Himself.

But right away, we see problems with this from Ephesians 1:4, because Paul writes that God chose Jesus. Yet was Jesus an unregenerate sinner? No, of course not. But if election is God’s choice of which sinners He spend eternity with Him, then how can Jesus be an elect person?

In response to this, people say “Well, Jesus was a special case. Jesus is elect, but He was not a sinner. He was chosen by God to perform a special task or purpose.”

Okay. So in the case of Jesus, the definition of election changes? Maybe it would be better to use the same definition of election across the board for everybody, so that if, for Jesus, election means “choose Him to perform a certain task or function,” then election for other people could also mean “choosing people to perform a certain task or function.”

Do you see the logic here? If we are going to say Jesus was elect, and that this means that He was chosen by God to perform a certain task, then the same meaning of election should apply to others also. And indeed, this is exactly what Scripture reveals when we study all the other passages on election in Scripture.

Election has nothing whatsoever to do with God choosing which people get to be regenerated and receive eternal life so that they can spend eternity with Him. Instead, election occurs when God chooses certain people to perform certain tasks in world history.

Election is not God’s choice of who gets eternal life; election is God’s choice of who will serve His purposes and how they will do it.

Election is not to eternal life; election is to service.

Note that if it was true that election refers to God’s choice to give eternal life to just certain people out of all the mass of unregenerate sinners, then Ephesians 1:4 would read “He chose us to be in Him.” But that is not what the verse says. It says, “He chose us in Him” not “He chose us to be in Him.”

This is one of the points I argue in my book (#AmazonAdLink) The Re-Justification of God, and there is another great book on the topic from Shawn Lazar titled (#AmazonAdLink) Chosen to Serve. I also have a previous podcast episode on this topic also. The episode is titled “Election is to Service.”

With this definition in mind, it helps us understand what Paul means in Ephesians 1:4 when it says that God chose us in Jesus Christ. Who is the “us” that Paul is referring to?

From Ephesians 1:1-2, it refers to Paul and the believers to whom he was writing. In verse 3 the word “us” refers to those who are blessed in the heavenly realms. In verses 6, 7 and 8, “us” refers to those who have received the riches of God’s grace. So whom does the “us” refer to? In the context here, it refers to those who are already Christians.

So here we see exactly the same thing we saw with Christ. Christ is the eternally begotten Son of God, and God chose Him for a special task. But in choosing Christ, God also chose those who are in Christ—in other words, Christians. This verse does not teach that God chose unregenerate people to become Christians. This verse teaches that God chose Christians. And just as God chose Jesus to perform a certain task, God also chose Christians to perform a certain task.

Jesus ultimately is the chosen one, and by nature of being in Christ, we were chosen because He is chosen.

God’s choice has nothing do with who will go to heaven and who will be sent to hell, of who has eternal life and who does not. His choice in Ephesians 1:4 and He chooses them to perform tasks while we are here on earth. God chooses Christian men and women to perform a task. A study of God’s choosing and election throughout Scripture will reveal the same truth. God does choose. He does elect. But never to eternal life or eternal death; He chooses groups or individuals for certain tasks.

Now, it needs to be said that even though the in the context here, only Christians are in view, this does not mean that God cannot choose unbelievers to fulfil certain tasks. In fact, other passages show that God can and does sometimes choose unbelievers to perform certain tasks. This means that even unbelievers can be elect. Indeed, Scripture reveals that people like Pharaoh, King Cyrus, and Judas, were all chosen, or elect, even if they never received eternal life. They were chosen by God to fulfil a certain task or function in God’s plan for human history.

So once again, we see that the definition of election holds true when we think of it as being chosen to serve.

Paul goes on in verse 4 to state when Jesus Christ was chosen. This is the next question we want to ask the text to help us understand what election is.

2. When Did the Choice Occur?

The next phrase in Ephesians 1:4 is before the foundation of the world. Since the primary chosen one is Christ, the primary focus of this phrase is also Christ. It is Christ who was chosen before the foundation of the world.

This means that before the world was ever created, Jesus Christ was chosen, and by inference, all who would eventually be placed “in Christ” by faith in Him were therefore also chosen. So this choice took place in eternity past, before the foundation of the world.

This then leads to the third question about election, which is the most important of all.

3. Why Were They Chosen?

This is the missing piece of the puzzle that fits everything together. If you’ve ever been confused about election – here is the key. The question we are asking now is: “Why did God choose all those who have placed faith in Christ?”

He chose them, according to the end of Ephesians 1:4, so that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. This is a task believers are to strive for and a future that God guarantees.

Notice that there is nothing in this verse about God choosing some to receive eternal life, while leaving all others to be damned—as some teach. Neither is there anything about God looking ahead in time to see who would believe in Him for eternal life and then choosing them—as others teach.

Instead, Paul writes that those who are chosen are those who are in Christ. In other words, believers are not chosen to receive eternal life—they are chosen to fulfill a task or purpose. As Paul describes it here, they are chosen to be holy and blameless!

Here again we see the truth of election.

Election is never to eternal life. God chooses certain individuals for a task, not for eternal life.

The people of Israel are the perfect example. God chose Abraham, and in choosing Abraham, God also chose all the people who could come from Abraham, namely, all the people of Israel.

So let me ask you, were all Israelites the chosen people of God? Yes, they were. But did all Israelites have eternal life? No, they did not. So you see that even with the people of Israel, election does not mean that God decides to give eternal life to some people. All Israel was elect, but not all Israelites had eternal life. What this means is that election has nothing to do with who has eternal life and who does not, and everything to do with God’s choice of certain people and nations to perform certain tasks and purposes in He plan for the world.

Judas is another example. Did you know that Judas was chosen (John 6:70)? But most believe that Judas did not have eternal life. Therefore, how can we say that Judas is chosen? We must say that he was chosen, not to eternal life, but to fulfil a certain purpose or task. And that makes perfect sense with what we see Judas do in the Gospels.
Both Abraham’s election and Christ’s election and all those who were in Abraham and all those who are in Christ are chosen, not to salvation, but to a task.

So when it comes to election, you should not be asking yourself whether or not you are elect. Instead, if you are a believer, you should be asking yourself why you are elect. Because you ARE elect. God has chosen you to complete a certain task and job in this world. You are part of God’s team on planet earth, and He has a role for you to play on the team.

Do you remember in grade school at recess or gym class standing in a line while two team captains picked who they wanted to be on their team? You never wanted to be chosen last. You wanted to be chosen first, right? Well, here in Ephesians 1:4, we see that God has chosen you first. You are on His team.

And in those grade school settings, why were certain kids chosen first? Because they were among the best. They were chosen because they were fastest, tallest, strongest, the most athletic, or whatever. The same is true with God choosing you. You are chosen because God thinks you are the best at doing something. God has something for you to do with His team that only you can do. That’s why He chose you. Because He wants His team to win, and He needs you to help out.

So if you have been chosen by God to be on His team, this means that you need to find out why God has chosen you to be on His team. You need to find out what role He wants you to play. What task He wants you to complete. What function He wants you to fulfil.

And how can you do that?

Well, that is what the rest of Ephesians is all about.

The first three chapters of Ephesians are all about the blessings and privileges we have as members of Team God and then the last three chapters of Ephesians are all about what God wants you to do with those blessings and privileges. How you are supposed to contribute to the team effort of winning the battle on this earth. We will continue to learn more about this next time when we look at Ephesians 1:5.

Did God choose who would be Christians before the foundation of the world? (Ephesians 1:4-5)

By Jeremy Myers

13 Comments

Many people believe that in eternity past, before the foundation of the world, God chose (or elected) certain individuals to receive eternal life. Everybody else remains in a state of eternal condemnation. We looked at Romans 9 last week, and Ephesians 1:4-5 is another text that some people use to support the idea of God choosing who becomes a Christian. The verse says this:

… just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will …

In this study, we are going to briefly consider Ephesians 1:4-5, showing that while God has elected and predestined us, this does not mean that He chose whom to give eternal life to, and whom to condemn. Election is not to eternal life, but to service in the plan and purposes of God.

A longer version of this study can be found in two of my sermons on Ephesians:

Ephesians 1:3-4 – Security from the Father: Election
Ephesians 1:5-6 – Security from the Father: Predestination

Ephesians 1:4-5 is not teaching how God chose, predestined, or elected some people to receive eternal life (while condemning or passing over all the rest).

A careful reading of the text reveals the same truth we have seen elsewhere, that election is to service. These verses teach that it was God’s plan from eternity past to adopt all who believe in Jesus as His heirs so that we will become holy and without blame before Him.

This is seen in two main ways.

We were Elected to be Holy and Blameless (Ephesians 1:4)

First, in Ephesians 1:4, Paul writes that God “chose us in Him before the foundation of the world.”

Note that the text does not say that we were chosen “to be” in Him (Christ), but rather that we were chosen “in Him.” This means that Jesus Christ is the primary elect one, and believers are chosen, or elect, because of our connection with Jesus.

We are among the elect because we are in Christ, and He is elect.

It should be obvious as well, that God did not choose Jesus so that Jesus could have eternal life. Eternal life is in God and is in Jesus Christ (John 17:3), and therefore, God did not elect Jesus to eternal life, but to serve a particular role and function within His sovereign plan for this world.

Therefore, just as the election of Jesus is to a specific task and purpose, so also, all those who are elect “in Christ” share the same task and purpose as Jesus. Jesus came to be a blessing, to serve others, to reconcile the world to God, and to reveal God to the world (cf. Luke 4:17-19).

Since are in Jesus, then we are to do similar things. As the elect in Christ, we must follow Jesus Christ wherever He leads and in whatever He does.

Since we are to do what Jesus does and to follow Him wherever He leads, there is a danger to the evangelical proclamation that “Jesus has done it all.”

While it is absolutely true that He has “done it all” in regard to what is necessary for making eternal life available to all humanity, He has not “done it all” in regard to God’s plan and purpose for this world. All that Jesus still intends to do, He does through His elect followers, the church.

Through us, Jesus does greater things than He did during His ministry (John 14:12).

The fact that we were chosen in Jesus for service is further supported by the fact that Paul goes on to write that we were chosen in Him to be holy and blameless (Ephesians 1:4).

We were not chosen to receive eternal life, but to a way of living that reflects God’s holiness and righteousness to the world.

We were not elected to eternal life, but to a way of living life. We are to live holy and blameless lives before a watching world.

We were Predestined to the Adoption as Sons (Ephesians 1:5)

Paul states much the same thing in Ephesians 1:5 when he writes about predestination. He says that God “predestined us to adoption as sons.” Predestination is about God’s goals for His people; “not the selection of who will become His people.”[2]

Predestination is about the benefits, privileges, and blessings that God determines to give to all those who become His children by faith in Jesus Christ. Some of these blessings include adoption into God’s family (Eph 1:5), future glory (1 Thess 5:9, Rom 8:29-30; 9:33; 1 Cor 2:7), and the opportunity to do good (Eph 2:10).

One reason many people think that predestination refers to God’s choice about who receives eternal life is because they misunderstand Paul’s use of the word “adoption” here in Ephesians 1:5. The word “adoption” was defined earlier in this dictionary (see Adoption), but a brief summary of what this word means will help us better understand Paul’s point here.

Typically, when people read about adoption in Paul’s writings, they think of the modern practice of adoption where a mother and father, through legal processes, make a child their own who was not biologically their own. They find an orphan who has no mother and father and adopt this child into their family.

But this is not how adoption worked in biblical times.

In the Roman world of Paul’s day, adoption was not about making a child your own, but was instead about naming a child as an heir. While the firstborn son was usually the heir, a father might adopt one of his other biological children as his heir, or the child of some other family so that the two families could become one through adoption.

One famous example is when Julius Caesar adopted Octavian (who became Caesar Augustus) to be his heir, even though Octavian was not Caesar’s son. Caesar had a biological son with Cleopatra named Caesarion, but he was not named as heir.[3]

So biblical adoption has very little to do with picking a parentless child to join your family, and has more to do with choosing someone as an heir. In other words, adoption is not about bringing someone into your family, but with giving a child privilege and position within the family.

While God did predestine from eternity past that there would be a people whom He would adopt as His heirs, this does not mean that God individually selected which people would become those heirs.

Instead, He set in motion a series of events which would bring about the creation of this family of God called out from among all the people of the earth.

When viewed this way, we see that Ephesians 1 is in agreement with multiple other passages in Scripture that election is to service in God’s Kingdom.

Election is to Service in God’s Kingdom

We see that elect people are not “in Christ” before the foundation of the world, but rather, it is Christ Himself, as the ultimate Servant of God, who was chosen before the foundations of the world to perform a service to God in redeeming the world and revealing God to the world.[4]

Paul’s point in Ephesians 1:4-5 is that when we join with Christ by faith in Him (Eph 2:8-9), we automatically become connected with the eternal and divine purpose of God in Jesus Christ so that we can perform the good works He has prepared in advance for us to do (Eph 2:10).

Jesus is the one was chosen before the foundations of the world, and so all who join with Jesus in faith will be caught up together with Him in His purpose to love, serve, and redeem the world.

[NOTES]

[1] See my book God’s Blueprints for Church Growth (Forthcoming) for more on this way of understanding Ephesians.

[2] William W. Klein, (#AmazonAdLink) The New Chosen People: A Corporate View of Election (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 1990), 279.

[3] There is some dispute about whether or not Caesarion was actually Caesar’s son. During the tense period of time when Mark Antony and Cleopatra ruled in Egypt while Octavius Caesar Augustus ruled in Italy, Mark Antony declared that Caesarion was “the son of God” the “king of kings” and the rightful heir to Rome. This led to a war, which Octavius Caesar eventually won, after which time, Octavius took the titles of divinity for himself, along with Augustus (Most High) and Prince of Peace, for now there was peace in Rome (Pax Romana). As they say, history is written by the victors, and so the stories about Caesarion being illegitimate were spread and encouraged, thereby supporting Octavian’s claim to the throne.

[4] Some have noted that the term “the foundation of the world” does not refer to the creation of the world, but rather to the foundational principles and values of this world, that is, the values and activities that make human civilization possible. See, for example, Brian Zahnd, Sinners in the Hands of a Loving God (New York: Waterbrook, 2017), 113. According to Scripture, the foundation of civilization is accusatory scapegoating violence (Listen to my podcast episodes on Genesis 3–4).

So when biblical writers talk about something “before the foundation of the world,” they are not saying “before the world was created” but “before we fell into our habits of blame, accusation, scapegoating, and violence. In this view, the preposition “before” does not necessarily mean “before in time” but might mean “before in location.” Jesus did die “in front of” or “before the face of” the founding principalities and powers of this world, and in this way, exposed and humiliated them by showing the world a better way to live (Col 2:14).

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[NOTES]

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