Sermons by
Let Us Magnify the Lord Together Part II: The Work of the Father--Election
- Ephesians 1:4-6
- Pastor Jerry Halbrook -PBC
- Feb 21, 2010
(Due to technical difficulties, the first couple minutes of this sermon were not recorded.)
Let Us Magnify the Lord Together
Part II. The Work of the Father: Election
Ephesians 1:4-6
Sermon Proposition: Let us magnify the Lord together for electing us and predestining us, for his purpose and according to his pleasure.
Hoehner. Having stated that God is praised because he has enriched the believer with every spiritual benefit for his spiritual well-being, Paul now explains that these spiritual benefits are based on the work of three persons of the Trinity: the selection of the Father (vv. 4-6), the sacrifice of the Son (vv. 7-12), and the seal of the Holy Spirit (vv. 13-14). This division is obvious in the text because of the inclusion of the three persons of the Godhead and also because there is a similar refrain at the end of each person’s work (vv. 6, 12, 14). The election of the Father, the redemption of the Son, and the seal of the Holy Spirit are themselves spiritual benefits as well as being the basis for every spiritual benefit.
Introduction: Southern Baptist Amnesia
We Southern Baptists typically avoid the topics of election and predestination. With our passionate focus on church growth, we have begun to treat the theological topic of election like the Jews of old treated Samaria. We feel compelled to go around it.
But . . .“The doctrine of election is a divine revelation, not a human speculation” (John Stott). It was not dreamed up by Martin Luther or John Calvin or St. Augustine, or by the Apostle Paul for that matter. It is not to be set aside as the imagination of some overactive religious minds, but rather humbly accepted as revelation (however mysterious it may be) from God. We must never allow our subjective experience of choosing Christ water down the fact that we would not have chosen him if he had not first chosen us. (Cf. John 6:44, 15:16; 2 Thess. 2:13; 1 Pet. 1:2, 1 Thess. 1:4-7). The doctrine of election presents us with a God who defies finite analysis. It is the doctrine which lets God be God. (Hughes)
“even as he chose us in him” (Eph. 1:4a)
A. The elect
1. The elect individuals
2. The elect group
Hoehner. The chosen individuals are united with one another as a new family unit, the church, the body of Christ (2:11-3:13; 4:1-16; cf. Rom. 8:29).
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, ¶ To those who are elect exiles of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia . . . (1 Peter 1:1)
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. (1 Peter 2:9)
The elder to the elect lady and her children, whom I love in truth, and not only I, but also all who know the truth, (2 John 1)
B. The association
1. Elect in union with Christ (as head of the spiritual community)
We are chosen in Christ as the head and representative of the spiritual community just as Adam is the head and representative of the natural community (Hoehner).
2. Elect by virtue of Christ’s particular redemption
God chose believers in connection with or through Christ’s work of redemption. It had to be done in connection with the redemption accomplished in Christ.
• First, God is the subject.
• Second, God chose “us” from the whole human race.
• Third, it speaks only of those who are chosen and nothing of those not chosen.
• Fourth, it is in the middle voice, indicating a personal interest in the one chosen.
• Fifth, the one who is chosen has no legal claim on the one who chooses (Rom. 3:10-11). (Hoehner)
I. The point of time of divine election (1:4b)
God chose us before the foundation of the world. So what? What’s the significance of that? It means he selected every person who ever will be forgiven, justified, saved, and glorified. He elected those individuals who have made up the church in the past, who make up the church now, and who will make up the church in the future, and he selected them before he spoke this universe into existence. One could surmise several things from the fact that God chose us before the foundation of the world. First, God chose us before the beginning of time and space as we know it. He decided to save us knowing that we would need to be saved after the fall, but there was nothing about us that he foreknew which had anything to do with his choosing us. When Peter refers to those exiles who were elect according to the foreknowledge of God, the “foreknowledge of God” refers to what God knew he would do. (Halbrook)
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, ¶ To those who are elect exiles of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood: ¶ May grace and peace be multiplied to you. (1 Peter 1:1-2)
In that he chose us before the foundation of the world, he elected us for salvation before we had done anything – good or bad. Paul makes a similar argument pointing to Jacob and Esau in the ninth chapter of Romans. God elected us on the basis of his sovereign grace. We had no claim on him, his mercy, his forgiveness, his justification, or even his Son’s atoning sacrifice. He did not elect us because he foreknew that we would be worthy of saving, nor did he elect us because he knew we would believe. Indeed, our faith in Jesus is a consequence of his electing us before the foundation of the world. God’s electing is the divine cause and our faith is the human effect. If any man be in Christ he is a new creation, because God in his sovereignty decided to spiritually create that person in Christ.
For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. (2 Cor. 4:6)
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. (1 Peter 2:9)
You see, your being in Christ is something that God accomplished, and he will not share his glory with fallen human beings. Consider verses 3, 6, 12 & 14, where Paul exhorts the elect to give all praise and all glory to God for choosing us, for redeeming us, and for sealing us through the Holy Spirit (all three of which are accomplished “in Christ,” “in the beloved,” “in him” [ten occurrences in vv. 4, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13]). We can take no credit for our election, because God chose us before the creation of the universe.
In that God selected us to be in Christ before he created the universe, we see how God’s focus in this world is on his church.
Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood. (Acts 20:28)
Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. (2 Tim. 2:10)
Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the sake of the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness, . . . (Titus 1:1)
In that God accomplished his work of election before the foundation of the earth, we know that the elect will be saved. This encourages us in evangelism.
II. The divine purpose of election (1:4c)
Both in the OT and NT (Lev. 11:44; 1 Pet. 1:16) the believer is enjoined to be holy because God is holy. God did not choose anyone because they were holy but he chose them in order that they might be holy. (Hoehner)
A. In his presence
Christ is seated on the right hand of the Father (Matt. 26:64; Mark 14:62; 16:19; Luke 22:69; Acts 2:33; 7:55, 56; Rom. 8:34; Col. 3:1; Heb. 1:3; 8:1; 10:12; 12:2). Paul says that God has blessed us (the elect) with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places (1:3) and that he has seated us with Christ in the heavenly places in Christ. Whether we recognize it or not, by virtue of our union with Christ, we live in the presence of God. (Halbrook)
B. In love
It seems best to see “in love” united with “holy and blameless.” God chose us that we might stand in his presence holy and blameless before him in love. Believers are to be holy and blameless before him in love, as well as before their fellow human beings in order to show God’s work and character in them. (Hoehner).
One of the false charges made against the doctrine of election is that it is morally debilitating—“If we are chosen, then we can do as we like.” Nothing could be further from the truth! Rather, election is morally elevating because it is election to a dynamic two-sided sanctification. Positively it is “to be holy” – that is, set apart from the world, separate, different. And negatively it is to be “blameless” – literally, without spot or blemish, a sacrifice to be presented to God. Election demands and promotes the radical moral excellence of Romans 12 – the offering of believers’ bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God” (Romans 12:1). Hughes
Read Phil. 2:14-16 to see how our living “holy and blameless in love, in the presence of God” proves to be evangelistic.
III. The predestination aspect of election (1:5-6)
A. Predestination unto adoption (1:5b)
In order to understand adoption one must understand the structure of the Roman family. The father had absolute power over the members of his family so that he could even take the life of a member of his family and that act would not be considered murder. With regard to property, he had full legal ownership of everything the family had and could dispose of it as he willed. . . . The purpose of this adoption was so that the adoptee could take the position of a natural son in order to continue the family line and maintain property ownership.
The saints chosen by God are predestined as adopted sons (and daughters) of God. This means that believers, formerly labeled as “sons of disobedience” and “children of wrath” (Eph. 2:2-3), have absolutely no responsibility and/or obligation to their old father the devil (cf. John 8:38, 44), the ruler of the realm of the air (Eph. 2:2). Rather, they are now God’s sons and daughters and he controls their lives and property. Since God does not die, the saints will always be under his control. The father has a right to discipline his sons (Heb. 12:5-11). Although this may sound foreboding, it is not.
It must be remembered that under Roman law the reason for adoption was to continue a family name and its property. The point is that the one adopted acquired a new status, privilege, and property that would not have been available under his old father. There would be no reason for adoption if it were disadvantageous. The adoption brought great gains to the adoptee. Likewise, the saints were under the tyrant the devil who was their slave master and who brought destruction. In contrast, the saints have a new father who is unselfish, loving, and caring and wants the very best for his sons and daughters, the believers. Although believers are adopted into God’s family, its full realization for the believers will be enjoyed at the time of the resurrection (Rom. 8:23) when their old father the devil will no longer tempt them to return to him.
Adoption is never used of Christ because he has always been the Son of God by nature, and unlike humans, he does not need to be adopted from his natural state into a new relationship with God as father. Hence, the sense is that since God has predetermined the destiny of the saints to be adopted into God’s family, he, knowing all the options, selected them out of all the mass of humanity. (Hoehner)
1. Predestined to adoption through Jesus Christ
It is through or by means of the work of Christ that makes it possible for the sinner to be adopted into the family of God (Hoehner.)
2. Predestined to adoption through Jesus Christ unto God himself.
God predestined us to be adopted as his sons (and daughters), this adoption came through Christ, and this finally brings us to God in order to have fellowship with him as our father (Hoehner).
We were elected by God before the foundation of the world, and a corollary of that election is that we were predestined before the foundation of the world. In “pre-establishing our destiny,” God predestined us to be adopted as his sons and daughters. He did this through the work of Christ, which was a blood purchase (the “purchase” was an aspect of the Greek form of adoption). Jesus purchased us in a particular way through the shedding of his blood. When he did so, he he purchased us for His father, who by this purchase took us as his adopted sons and daughters.
The point is this: if we do not appreciate the facts that God elected us before he created the world, and that in electing us he predestined us for adoption (with all its privileges and responsibilities) we will not worship the Father as we ought. (Halbrook)
B. Predestination to adoption that is based on God’s sovereignty (1:5c)
This gives us the standard by which God’s actions were accomplished. The standard is the good pleasure of God’s will.
In the NT when this word translated “good pleasure” is used of God it speaks of God’s sovereignty. In the context of Eph. 1:5 and 9; God’s good pleasure is expressed freely from his own will, which is not influenced by any other person or thing.
C. Predestination to adoption that leads to praise (1:6)
1. The goal of God’s election & predestination (1:6a)
This marks the end of the first strophe of praise revolving around the first person of the Trinity, God the Father. Having discussed the activity and cause of the Father’s election, Paul shows the goal, that is, the praise of the glory of his grace. (Hoehner)
The purpose of God’s electing activity is to reveal his own character as a loving, saving God. When God is revealed—and “glory” is primarily a word about revelation—praise is the inevitable result. (NIVAC)
Predestination, which is a corollary of election, is the glory of God’s grace. We should not embezzle God’s glory by trying to explain away election and predestination. (Halbrook)
2. The execution of God’s election and predestination (1:6b)
In conclusion, predestination puts more emphasis on the “what” than on the “who.” God took the initiative to predetermine our destiny as adopted sons into the family of God. He accomplished this through his Son Jesus Christ to bring us to God himself. This was done all according to his pleasure freely operating from his own will. Because he has predestined us, he chose us out of all humanity. These actions are not only the basis of every spiritual blessing but also are the spiritual blessings themselves. Is it any wonder that God is to be praised! (Hoehner)
Conclusion: Let us magnify the Father together for his work of election.
In the end, no one seeks God and yet in his sovereign grace he chooses some for everlasting life in his presence. His selection was made with full knowledge of all the options and with intense personal interest, not in a random impersonal manner. Believers may take comfort in the fact that what God has begun in eternity past will be completed in eternity.
Believers are to bless God who has benefited them with every spiritual blessing. The first is the work of God the Father who has elected them in Christ in eternity before the creation of the world that they might be holy before him. He elected them from the mass of all humanity because he had already predetermined their destiny as adopted sons into God’s family, all in accordance with God’s good pleasure. The goal of all this was to cause believes to praise the glorious Father for his grace which he has bestowed on them in his beloved Son Christ. (Hoehner)
No one should worry whether he or she is elect. The main question is: “Are you in Christ and one with him?” (NIVAC)
A. The point in time of election
—get a grip on God’s grace.
B. The purpose of election
—get a life by God’s grace.
C. The predestination aspect of election
– get up and praise the Lord for the glory of his grace.