On Sunday, I touched on the Doctrines of Election and Predestination in Ephesians 1, due to the amount of time I was barely able to scratch the surface of such an important doctrine. I left a lot of notes on the floor in my office. If I had more time here is more of what I would say...
1) First, we must admit great mystery in the doctrine of election: This passage speaks about what God was doing "before the foundation of the world" It speaks of His eternal, secret purposes, and recognizes that He works all things according to "the decision of His will". We must admit mystery here. God is God and we are not. Deuteronomy reminds us, "the secret things belong to God". So we might disagree about the finer points of this mystery, but we can still fellowship and serve together. It is difficult for finite creatures with three-pound, fallen brains to comprehend how this doctrine relates to God's love for all people and and His impartiality, as well as how it relates to human choices. We should be OK with mystery. Encountering mystery should be a cue to start worshiping.
2) Second, while we want to affirm mystery, we should also affirm the other attributes clearly affirmed in the text. In this text we see that God is perfectly loving (verses 4-5), eternally sovereign (vs. 5), gloriously gracious (verses 6-8), and infinitely wise (vs. 8). God can do whatever He pleases (Ps. 115:3), and whatever He does is always consistent with who He is.
God is loving. Election is an expression of God's loves for His children. Paul says, "in love He predestined us.
God is sovereign. God's choosing is simply one expression of His eternal control over all things. Notice the language of God's sovereignty, as Paul mentions predestination, God's favor or good pleasure, God's will, God's administration and God's purpose.
God is gracious. God's choosing is an expression of His grace to sinners. God did not choose us because of anything good in us.
God is wise. God's choosing is an expression of His infinite wisdom.
3) Third, the passage itself shows the necessity of personal belief in the gospel. This is true even if all of our questions about human responsibility are not answered in this passage. Look at verse 13: one must believe. Remember, this is the same sentence! Election and faith belong in the same sentence, and it is a sentence only God could write. We may not understand this, but we should fully embrace it. We embrace other truths that are mysteriously woven together like the deity and humanity of Christ and the divine-human authorship of Scripture. Our invitation should be, "Come to Jesus! When you come, thank Him for drawing you!"
4) Election gives hope to evangelism: When Paul was discouraged in Corinth, Jesus said, "Don't be afraid, but keep on speaking and don't be silent... because I have many people in this city. Some people will believe when you speak the gospel! The hardest of hearts can be converted because evangelism is not about the quality of our presentation but the power of God. We should fear no one because of this truth, and because God is sovereign, we should assume that God has placed us where we are for the purpose of seeing others come to Christ through our faithful evangelism.
5) Our election is in Christ: We are chosen in the "Chosen One". F.F. Bruce says, "He is the foundation, origin, and executor: all that is involved in election and its fruits depends on him" O'Brien summarizes, "Election is always and only in Christ. We were not chosen for anything good in us. God accepts us because He chose to put us in union with Christ.
6) Finally, in light of these things, election should humble us: The proper response to God's having chosen us for salvation is awe, worship, and obedience to God. Election should not anger anyone or inflate anyone's pride. It should humble everyone. No one should be arrogant when talking about the doctrine of election. For those who want to argue against this truth, Paul says, "But who are you, a mere man, to talk back to God?" We should not be arrogant; we pots do not talk back to the Potter. Those who embrace this doctrine but walk in pride have not applied it properly.
This doctrine should put us on our faces in worship to the sovereign, wise, loving, gracious, and mysterious God, who has chosen us in Christ.
1) First, we must admit great mystery in the doctrine of election: This passage speaks about what God was doing "before the foundation of the world" It speaks of His eternal, secret purposes, and recognizes that He works all things according to "the decision of His will". We must admit mystery here. God is God and we are not. Deuteronomy reminds us, "the secret things belong to God". So we might disagree about the finer points of this mystery, but we can still fellowship and serve together. It is difficult for finite creatures with three-pound, fallen brains to comprehend how this doctrine relates to God's love for all people and and His impartiality, as well as how it relates to human choices. We should be OK with mystery. Encountering mystery should be a cue to start worshiping.
2) Second, while we want to affirm mystery, we should also affirm the other attributes clearly affirmed in the text. In this text we see that God is perfectly loving (verses 4-5), eternally sovereign (vs. 5), gloriously gracious (verses 6-8), and infinitely wise (vs. 8). God can do whatever He pleases (Ps. 115:3), and whatever He does is always consistent with who He is.
God is loving. Election is an expression of God's loves for His children. Paul says, "in love He predestined us.
God is sovereign. God's choosing is simply one expression of His eternal control over all things. Notice the language of God's sovereignty, as Paul mentions predestination, God's favor or good pleasure, God's will, God's administration and God's purpose.
God is gracious. God's choosing is an expression of His grace to sinners. God did not choose us because of anything good in us.
God is wise. God's choosing is an expression of His infinite wisdom.
3) Third, the passage itself shows the necessity of personal belief in the gospel. This is true even if all of our questions about human responsibility are not answered in this passage. Look at verse 13: one must believe. Remember, this is the same sentence! Election and faith belong in the same sentence, and it is a sentence only God could write. We may not understand this, but we should fully embrace it. We embrace other truths that are mysteriously woven together like the deity and humanity of Christ and the divine-human authorship of Scripture. Our invitation should be, "Come to Jesus! When you come, thank Him for drawing you!"
4) Election gives hope to evangelism: When Paul was discouraged in Corinth, Jesus said, "Don't be afraid, but keep on speaking and don't be silent... because I have many people in this city. Some people will believe when you speak the gospel! The hardest of hearts can be converted because evangelism is not about the quality of our presentation but the power of God. We should fear no one because of this truth, and because God is sovereign, we should assume that God has placed us where we are for the purpose of seeing others come to Christ through our faithful evangelism.
5) Our election is in Christ: We are chosen in the "Chosen One". F.F. Bruce says, "He is the foundation, origin, and executor: all that is involved in election and its fruits depends on him" O'Brien summarizes, "Election is always and only in Christ. We were not chosen for anything good in us. God accepts us because He chose to put us in union with Christ.
6) Finally, in light of these things, election should humble us: The proper response to God's having chosen us for salvation is awe, worship, and obedience to God. Election should not anger anyone or inflate anyone's pride. It should humble everyone. No one should be arrogant when talking about the doctrine of election. For those who want to argue against this truth, Paul says, "But who are you, a mere man, to talk back to God?" We should not be arrogant; we pots do not talk back to the Potter. Those who embrace this doctrine but walk in pride have not applied it properly.
This doctrine should put us on our faces in worship to the sovereign, wise, loving, gracious, and mysterious God, who has chosen us in Christ.
No comments:
Post a Comment