The central theme of the passage is that our blessings and salvation are in Christ Jesus. This is clear because the phrase “in Christ” (or equivalent expression) takes place a dozen times in verse 1-14. Redemption is an important aspect of salvation, but there are many other aspects of salvation. Christ is not just the basis of redemption but of salvation in its entirety, including God’s eternal plan.
Christ was established as the head of salvation and Savior of those in Him. Christ is central from creation to glory. Those that are united to Christ, are united by grace through faith (2:8) and are considered now as they will be in glory (2:6). God’s plan from eternity to save those that are in Christ is certain and unchanging, therefore those that are in Him are already considered as they will be in eternity.
Ephesians 1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of
God, to the saints which are at
15 Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord
Jesus, and love unto all the saints, 16 Cease not to give thanks for you,
making mention of you in my prayers; 17 That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in
the knowledge of him: 18 The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that
ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory
of his inheritance in the saints, 19 And what is the exceeding greatness of his
power to us-ward who believe, according to the
working of his mighty power, 20 Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him
from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, 21 Far
above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that
is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: 22 And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be
the head over all things to the church, 23 Which is his body, the fullness of
him that filleth all in all.
Ephesians 2:1 And you hath
he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; 2 Wherein in time past ye
walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the
power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
3 Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our
flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature
the children of wrath, even as others.
4 But God, who is rich in
mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, 5 Even when we were dead in
sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) 6 And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in
heavenly places in Christ Jesus: 7 That
in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his
kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that
not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should
boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in
Christ Jesus unto good works, which God
hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ:
God the Father is truly the
Father of Christ. He is the ontological
source of Christ, yet Christ is no less eternal or God.
The phrase “heavenly
places” is in Ephesians 5 times and nowhere else in the New Testament. (Eph 1:20; Eph 2:6; Eph 3:10;
Eph 6:12). In Ephesians 2:6 the believer
is already seated with Christ.
Eph 2:6 “and
raised us up with him, and made us to sit with him in the heavenly places, in
Christ Jesus”
This could be taken as future or now but spiritually.
Based on the next two verses, the future seems
to be the correct understanding.
We are blessed in Christ
Jesus. Our blessings are from and
through and in Him. God the Father’s
purpose of salvation was in Him. Only through
union with Him is the Church blessed.
The “us” Paul refers to is
the Church. Paul, a Jew, is uniting
himself with his Gentile audience. In
Christ, they are united.
4 According as he hath chosen us in him before the
foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in
love:
God’s choice, from eternity
past, was to save the Church, those united to Christ, through Christ’s
work. Election is in Christ. Christ is not simply the means to save those
the Father elects. Rather, Christ is
eternal and the very foundation of election.
We will be holy (positive)
and without blame (negative). God will
completely forgive those that are in Christ Jesus. God has decided to save those united to Christ. The phrase holy and without blame appears
also in Colossians 1:22-23:
Col 1:23 if so
be that ye continue in the faith, grounded and stedfast, and not moved away
from the hope of the gospel which ye heard, which was preached in all creation
under heaven; whereof I Paul was made a minister.
Here in Ephesians ending up holy and without blame is
certain, unconditional and determined by God alone. In Colossians ending up holy and without
blame is contingent and conditional based on our continuing in the faith. Here in Ephesians the Church is being
addressed as a body. In Colossians, the
individuals are addressed. The Church
will never fail, but individuals may or may not be joined with or remain within
the Church.
5 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of
children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his
will,
God pre-arranged that the
Church would become His children, through Christ. His plan is certain, and even though we are
still on earth, we might as well be in heaven seated with Christ.
Was it necessary for Christ to come and redeem us? Were the incarnation and atonement simply means of accomplishing God’s preexisting plan? This passage teaches that Christ’s role is both instrumental and all-inclusive in election.
The incarnation and redemption were indeed necessary. God’s very character of justice requires that sin cannot be ignored or go unpunished. There could not have been any salvation without redemption through Christ’s blood, which provides the forgiveness of sins. God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself (2 Corinthians 5:19-21). God loved the world so much that He gave his only begotten Son (John 3:16), He spared not His Son but delivered Him up for us all (Romans 8:32) and Christ’s death was foreordained before the foundation of the world (1 Peter 1:20).
With that in mind, God’s election was based on Christ and His work. Election could not have been otherwise. God could not have chosen to save sinners apart from redemption in Christ Jesus. God’s holiness would not allow salvation through other means.
Christ was established by God’s choice to be the foundation of salvation. By His blood, sinners would be saved. But in the establishment of Christ as the Savior the Church is implicitly chosen. Those that are in Christ and united to Him have been established by God’s plan. All in Christ are elected to salvation and apart from Christ, no one is elected to salvation.
The election is not of certain individuals whether or not they are united to Christ. It is all those and only those who are united to Christ. The election does not unite people to Christ. Rather it adopts them to God through their union to Christ. We are united to Christ by grace through faith.
Ephesians 2:8-9 “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.”
Faith is a gift from God
and through this gift, we are united to Christ and thereby saved. [1] A
gift implies a giver and a receiver. If
the receiver does not want the gifts, they may be rejected and returned. Gifts
are never earned or deserved. They are
given freely.
So in what sense is faith a
gift? First we must understand what
faith is. In Hebrews 11 we read that:
Hebrews 11:1-3 Now faith is assurance of things hoped
for, a conviction of things not seen. For therein the elders had witness borne
to them. By faith we understand that the worlds have been framed by the word of
God, so that what is seen hath not been made out of things which appear.
Normally we assent to truth
as soon as we see and understand the proof.
That’s the difference between a belief and an opinion. The proof is the evidence of the truth. Often the truth is its own proof or rather it
is self evident. In faith, we hold a
conviction of something not seen. Faith
itself is the assurance. Faith itself is
the evidence. Faith acts as the proof in
convicting us of a truth we have no other proof for.
Once we understand basic
math, believing that 1 + 1 = 2 is not really a choice. Once it’s understood, it can not be rejected.
The evidence forbids it. Believing or
not believing is not volitional. The
evidence, not our will, moves us to assent to the truth.
Faith is like opinion in
that we don’t have evidence moving our mind to hold a conviction. Rather, we choose to do so, voluntarily. In contrast to the math equation example
where the evidence moves our mind to hold a conviction, our will moves our mind
to hold a conviction. Faith differs from
opinion in that faith is the substance or assurance. Faith itself causes us to accept the truth.
So faith is a gift from
God, in that He moves our wills to assent to the truth of the Gospel, which we
have no other proof of. He starts our
will moving towards believing the truth, and as long as we don’t resist His
grace, He carries us through to fully assent to the truth of the Gospel.
By way of example, let’s
say a dog is stuck in a house, unconscious and the house is on fire. Rubble falls on the dog and breaks its
legs. The dog will certainly die. A man runs into the house and wakes up the
dog. The dog gets scared, but doesn’t
know how to escape. The man shows the
dog the way out, but the dog can’t follow because of its broken legs. The man picks up the dog and runs to
safety.
If the dog had bitten the
man when he ran for safety, the man may have dropped the dog and it would have
died. But if the dog doesn’t resist, we
still wouldn’t say that it saved itself.
In the same way God carries
our wills to assent to the truth of the Gospel.
Based on this passage three
arguments in favor of unconditional election have been asserted:
Argument 1: He chose us to be holy, not because we were holy
Argument 2: The choice happened before the foundation of
the world and not at the moment individuals come to faith
Argument 3: No further reason was given other than the
good pleasure of His will
The Calvinist view breaks
down into two major varieties. The first
called supra-lapsarian states that God predestined some for glory, others for
destruction before considering man as fallen or in Christ. The second, infra-lapsarian states that God
predestined some for eternal life and passed by the rest after considering man
as fallen and in sin.
The first argument does not
support the supra-lapsarian (pre-fallen mankind) position. In fact it opposes it. Those that were predestined were unholy. They were sinners. But Adam, before he fell was not a sinner in
need of saving grace. Verse 6 states
that predestination is to the praise of the glory of His grace. Grace is given to sinners so a reference to
grace here seems to consider man in a fallen condition. Further, the passage
states that we are made accepted in Christ, but we must first be considered
rejected because of our sin. This is evidence that God considers men as sinners
prior to predestination.
The infra-lapsarian
(post-fallen mankind) position does not have this problem. They concur that man was considered as
sinners when they are predestined to salvation. The mistake is not that the
election is made prior to individuals believing, but that the election relates
to individuals and not the group. Also
the election is in Christ, not unto union with Christ.
Verse 4 describes the
individuals as “in Him” but only believers are united to Christ. Because Christ is the foundation of
salvation, no one could be predestined to salvation apart from union with
Christ.
Further, the “us” in verse
1 is “the faithful in Christ Jesus”.
Verses 13 & 23 indicate that the reference is to a group and not
individuals. In verses 22 & 23 those
that are “in Him” are named the Church, but the Church is a group of believers
not “individuals without being considered believers”. In verse 13 only after believing did the
gentiles join the Jews who first believed and were officially added to the
group by the Holy Spirit who sealed them.
Paul is saying is that God
before the foundation of the world chose to save believers through Christ and
predestined them to heaven. Basically,
this is the formulation of the gospel before the foundation of the world. God did not have to choose to save anyone at
all. Believers do not earn salvation
through faith. God out of the good
pleasure of His will, graciously chose to save believers.
Ephesians 1 teaches that
God before the foundation of the world chose to save believers through Christ
and predestined them to heaven. God does
not accept sinners nor does he choose anyone to eternal life except in Christ
and for the sake of Christ. "He hath chosen us in Him," verse 4;
"wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved," verse 6. This
demonstrates that man’s condition prior to election was fallen and in need of
saving grace. This grace is in Christ
and provided through faith which unites us to Him.
[1] Some people object that faith itself is not the gift
here, noting the gender of it and faith are different in the Greek. They prefer to understand that salvation or
the economy of salvation through faith as the gift. The Greek is inconclusive and has been read
either way. Though I prefer the
understanding that faith is the gift, either read is permissible. But the
concept that we need God’s grace to believe is clear from many passages of
scripture, such as John 15:5 (without me ye can do nothing), Acts 18:27 (he helped them much that had
believed through grace) and 2 Timothy 2:25 (if
peradventure God may give them repentance unto the knowledge of the truth).