July 28, 2013
Ephesian 1:5-6
Aaron Campbell
Opening Examples
- A couple dying of malnutrition with $40,000 cash in the closet.
- Hetty Green - worth $100-200 million (2-4 billion today) but
unwilling to heat her oatmeal or treat her son’s leg appropriately.
What we have is so much greater than the ability to bail out New
York City! We know that, right? Because of His love poured out for us at the
cross, we have the gospel of Jesus Christ - the power of God unto
salvation! We have the Spirit of God,
actively at work in our lives, empowering us for witness and growth in becoming
more like Him. We are recipients of
grace - one of the most mind-blowing ideas ever revealed to man.
Even though you may have heard or sung these truths in songs and
used words like grace and gospel and the cross in conversation, that doesn’t
necessarily mean the realities they represent were much more than a blip on
your radar screen over the last week or two. I personally recognize the reality
that even though I am very familiar with these words and ideas, they often
don’t impact my everyday life like they have power to do.
In verse 3 of the passage that Matt started us off with two weeks
ago, we saw that God has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing. That means every blessing of the Holy Spirit
has been given us by the Father if we are in the Son. No blessing has been withheld from us.
In love He predestined us
to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention
of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed
on us in the Beloved. - Ephesians 1:5-6
NAS
God’s Motive - In love...
God’s Action - He predestined us
God’s Success - to adoption as sons
God’s Means - through Jesus Christ to Himself
Reminder: God’s Motive - according to the kind intention
of His will
Our Response - to the praise of the glory of His grace
Reminder: God’s Means - which He freely bestowed on us in
the Beloved
God’s Action: He
predestined us
It’s important to acknowledge that election/predestination is a
divine revelation, not a human speculation. It was not invented by Augustine or
Calvin. As evidenced by passages like
this, it is without question the teaching of Scripture and therefore must not
be ignored.
According to the OT, God chose Israel out of all the nations of
the earth to be His special people. And
in the NT we see Him choosing an international community to be His saints, His
holy and special people. We must not
reject the notion of election as if it were a weird fantasy of men, but rather
humbly seek to understand it, and accept it as a truth which God Himself has
revealed - even if it is perplexing or mysterious to us!
“Although we cannot conceive either by argument or reason how God
has elected us before the creation of the world, yet we know it by His
declaring it to us; and experience itself vouches for it sufficiently.” - John
Calvin
Though we are not able to understand or explain the ins and outs
of HOW God predestines, can we deny that His sovereign hand is clearly at work
in the salvation of sinners? That doesn’t mean that God’s election or
predestination operates apart from or nullifies man’s responsibility to believe
in Jesus as Lord and Savior.
“Repent, for the kingdom of
heaven is at hand.”
John the Baptist - Matthew 3:1-2Jesus - Matthew 4:17
“You search the Scriptures
because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear
witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.” John 5:39-40
We have a will, and we will be held responsible for the choices and actions we make.
That we have a will we are accountable for, AND that God
predestines individuals for salvation, are both presented in Scripture. To God, they are not mutually exclusive. That doesn’t mean that it all adds up like a
tidy math equation in our minds, but just because our finite minds have trouble
grasping both truths at the same time doesn’t mean God has erred by presenting
both in His Word.
“Scripture nowhere dispels the mystery of election, and we should
beware of any who try to systematize it too precisely or rigidly. It is not likely that we shall discover a
simple solution to a problem which has baffled the best brains of Christendom
for centuries.”
-John Stott
Did you choose God? Yes,
you freely did. But you ultimately did
so because in eternity He first chose you.
I don’t know exactly how that works, but it is the clear teaching of
Scripture.
To the unbeliever the appeal is always an appeal to the
will. “Repent. Believe. Turn from your
sin and run to Jesus.” Never: “try and
figure out if you are elect...”
Election is a teaching for believers. It is meant to be a security and comfort for
those that God has redeemed. Reminding
us that our salvation is all the initiative of God - something He committed to
in eternity past, acted in time and space - first by sending His Son and
subsequently by revealing Himself to us as individuals, and will eventually
bring to its triumphant completion and fulfillment in eternity future.
It is for believers, but it should inform our faith and approach
with unbelievers. The elect are only
revealed as they respond to the gospel message - so we share with all without
discrimination knowing that God will save some. Far from being a deterrent to evangelism, it
should be an encouragement - knowing that God has chosen individuals from every
tribe, nation, and tongue. Every person
on earth is a candidate! Their response
is between them and God, but our job is to be faithful in proclaiming the good
news.
Our job is not to be preoccupied primarily with “how?” election
works, but “to what effect?” Why was it
important to God to reveal this to us?
These truths are meant to feed us.
They are meant to be nourishment for our souls.
God’s Motive: In love
This is why God predestined. So many times election is viewed as
a calculated act by an unfeeling deity.
“If He chooses, why doesn’t He just save everybody?” The ideas of “Love” and “Predestined” in many
people’s minds simply don’t belong together - each is assumed to be mutually
exclusive of the other. But God’s word
declares in black and white it was “IN LOVE” that God predestined us!
In the cosmic courtroom, we all stand guilty and deserving of His
wrath. We all, both by nature and
action, have set our courses for Hell.
He is perfect and blameless, holy and pure. His ways are good and just and He deserves
our loyalty, love, and obedience. He has
every right to be angry with our rebellion, which is fully deserving of His
just punishment.
In that context, the question of “Why doesn’t God save everyone?”
is wholly out of place. The more fitting
question in such circumstances is “Why would God save anyone?”
None of us deserve to be saved - we have earned His anger and
punishment. Add on top of that the only
way for us to be saved is for the offended, righteous God to send His only Son
to be punished in our place, and it really does beg the question: “Why would he
save any of us?!”
He wasn’t obligated to do so.
He didn’t owe us anything! When
the angels fell, there was no redemption offered to them. Why would He CHOOSE to rescue us, who were
headed by our own choices straight to the Hell we deserved? IN LOVE HE PREDESTINED US... The fact that He
would choose to rescue anyone is a marvelous miracle of His love and
grace.
The Lord is not slow to
fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not
wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
2 Peter 3:9
God’s Motive: In love
God’s Action: He
predestined us
God’s Success: to adoption
as sons
This is what His loving choosing of individuals produced - sons
and daughters adopted into His family!
This is the point of predestination - relationship!
He is no cold, calculating God callously keeping people from
heaven - quite the opposite! In love, He
graciously plucks Hell-bound sinners from their chosen fate and adopts them
into His family. There is no greater
rescue operation needed, and no more wonderful fate imaginable.
His adoption of us means that He can’t love us any more than He
already does - and He won’t love us any less.
Much more than just a legal declaration by a judge saying we are not
guilty, Him adopting us reveals His intense affection and commitment to
intimate relationship with us.
We’re not just forgiven and then forgotten - we are brought near
to Him as our Father. We have access to
Him and fellowship with Him. And because
we are sons, we share the inheritance that our elder brother Jesus has won on
our behalf.
The righteousness He accrued through His sinless life and perfect
obedience in fulfilling the law was credited to our account when He exchanged
His record for our own taking our sin upon Himself at the cross. Because He was treated at Calvary as we
deserved, we will be treated forever as He deserves.
That is why it says two verses before that we are the recipients
of EVERY SPIRITUAL BLESSING in Christ Jesus.
We inherited it all when He brought us into His family.
God’s Means: through Jesus
Christ to Himself
Reminders: God’s Motive -
according to the kind intention of His will
God’s Means - which He
freely bestowed on us in the Beloved
Our response: to the
praise of the glory of His grace
Some people think that to believe oneself one of God’s chosen
people is about the most arrogant thought anybody could entertain. And it would be if we imagined God had chosen
us for any merit of our own. But there
is no room for merit in the biblical doctrine of election.
The Lord your God has
chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples
who are on the face of the earth. It was not because you were more in number
than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you
were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the Lord loves you and is
keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you
out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the
hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
Deuteronomy 7:6-8
The doctrine of election is a stimulus to humility, never a
ground for boasting.
God’s grace must not be just a buzzword to us. May we not confuse knowing rich words and
truths with satisfying our souls with their realities. Let us not allow
familiarity with concepts to dull our hearts or ears to listening and ingesting
them afresh.
Brothers and sisters, we need nourishment day by day. But we are not paupers - we have wealth and
resources far beyond what any of us have begun to imagine or plumb the depths
of.
If the idea that you are spiritually malnourished struck a chord with you, it would be a big misapplication of this message to go away discouraged. If that is something that God is revealing to you, do not see it as a sign of failure, but an invitation to the banquet table.
Your Father is lovingly bringing your condition to your attention not to condemn you but to care for you and remind you of the grandness of your inheritance. You are His child and there is no need for you to go hungry. Because God has chosen to make us His sons and daughters, every spiritual blessing is ours in Christ - and He wants us to enjoy the feast!
Application Questions
- In your daily walk and discipleship, do you feel malnourished
or well fed? What contributes to this?
- What are some of the specific “blessings” God has given to
nourish your soul? How can others be used in encouraging you in this? How can you be an encouragement to those
around you?
- When it comes to a teaching like “God predestining us”, do you
find yourself more occupied with the “how” or “what effect does God want this
to have on me”?
- How does God’s motive (“In love”) and success/accomplishment in
predestining us (adoption as sons) effect your understanding and/or
appreciation of this doctrine?
