Predestination in Ephesians 1:3-14
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed
us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just
as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world that we should
be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption
as sons through Christ Jesus to Himself, according to the good pleasure
of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace...In Him we have
obtained an inheritance, having been
predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel
of His will" -- Ephesians 1:2-5, 11.
This passage seems clear enough. However, some interpreters argue
that this was not an election of which individuals would be in Christ.
Instead God simply chose that there would be a "thing" called the church,
but left it up to each individual to
decide whether they would belong to the church. So on this view,
predestination was God's election of a group without electing any
individuals who would be in the group.
This interpretation does not work because it does not fit the
context. In this passage, predestination is placed together with many other
blessings
that God gives us--such as redemption, being holy in His sight, and being
blessed with every spiritual blessing. These blessings are clearly
directed towards specific individuals, not merely an undefined corporate
entity. Therefore, it is inconsistant to single out predestination as
being something merely corporate and not individual when everything else in
this
text is true of each Christian specifically and individually. Let us
examine this further.
First, let's examine verse three. It says that "God has blessed us
with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ." Did God
simply bless the church corporately but not bless any individual in it?
How could God bless the church as a
group without blessing each individual within it? God has clearly
blessed each individual in the church with every spiritual blessing, not
just the church as a non-defined group. Since verse four continues
"just as He chose us in Him..." I would conclude that just as God has
blessed every individual believer with every spiritual blessing in the
heavenly places, God has also chosen every believer individually. I see
no warrant for interpreting the blessing to be individual but the
election merely corporate.
Next, verse four says that we were chosen "that we should be holy
and blameless before Him." Is it just the church as a group that will be
holy and blameless, or every individual within the church? How could God
elect the church to be holy and blameless without electing every
individual in the church to be holy and blameless? I think almost all
would agree that it is individuals whom God makes holy and
blameless. Since the purpose of God's choice was to make us holy and
blameless, and it is
individuals who are made holy and blameless, God must have chosen
specific
individuals to be holy and blameless. There is no warrant for applying
the "holy and blameless" aspect to individuals, but the "chosen" aspect
to merely a corporate entity.
Now let's look at verse six, which says God freely bestowed His
grace upon us. Isn't this bestowal of grace upon individuals? Verse
seven says, that "in Christ we have redemption." Isn't redemption
individual as well? Then we could look at verse
eight, etc.... but I think you get the point. There is no basis to make
God's predestination corporate in this text while every other blessing of
God as individual. It seems clear that the context argues for an
individual election, not corporate.
The one who holds to a corporate view might slightly alter their
position now and admit that the election is individual. But they might
add "It may be individual, but it is not unconditional. You become
chosen when you believe. You make yourself
chosen." But if what we examined above holds true, this interpretation
does serious violence to the meaning of "chosen." Most importantly, Paul
is clear that God's choice was made "before the foundation of the
world." His reason for naming the time of
the choice seems to be that it was unconditional -- it was not based on
us since we didn't exist. Saying that God chose those whom He "foreknew"
would believe seems to take away the whole point of the phrase "before
the foundation of the world."
Significantly, Paul uses a very similar phrase in Romans 9:11 to denote
individual, unconditional election. This passage in Ephesians itself
militates against the view that God chose those that He knew beforehand
would believe on their own -- Paul says that
God's choice was "according to the good pleasure of His will," not
our will (v. 5).
The corporate interpretation does not seem to fit with verse eleven
either: "we were predestined according to the purpose of Him who works
all things according to the counsel of His will."
Also, "the ordinary meaning of the word for 'choose' in verse four
is to select or pick out of a group (cf. Luke 6:13; John 13:18; 15:16,
19). So the natural meaning of the verse is that God chooses His people
from all humanity, before the foundation of the world by viewing them in
relationship to Christ their redeemer
"(What We Believe About the Five Points of Calvinism, Bethlehem
Baptist Church Staff, p. 18).
Finally, many other passages in the Bible make it abundantly clear
that predestination is of individuals. See 1 Corinthians 1:26-30, James
2:5 and Revelation 13:8; 20:15 (among many others).
One other twist people sometimes give to this text is the
interpretation that Christ was elected, not believers. But verses four,
five, and eleven are clear that God chose Christians, not just Christ:
"...He chose us...He predestined us...we have
obtained an inheritance, having been predestined." So this view would
lead to the question "who is us--a nondefined, corporate entity or
individuals?", which is precisely what we have just investigated. God
chose the specific individuals in Christ
unconditionally. A person's belief in Christ is not the reason that God
choose them. God's choosing them is the reason they believe.
All Scripture quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, copyright1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1975, 1977, by the Lockman Foundation.
MP
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