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Elect in Jesus Christ
has divided Christianity and damaged the Church's understanding of God.
introduction to this significant circular letter to the churches via Ephesus, which he sent out from his prison cell in Rome, this inspired Word awesomely says –
| "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as He chose us in Him [Christ] before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace, with which He has blessed us in the Beloved [Christ]." |
emphasis mine.
Scripture refers to a unique act of God which preceded the creation of His universe, if words mean anything.
But before understanding the nature of this act of God we need first to understand the nature of this God.
vital to remember that the eternal and infinite nature of God necessarily precedes any act of God relative to the created universe or anything in it!
The Bible's revelation of the eternal nature of God includes an infinite attribute which has become known as omniscience, or all-knowing. Put simply: this means that there was never a time when God did not know everything about everything!
It should not be hard to understand therefore that this unchanging nature of God not only precedes but is also unavoidably the basis of all decisions of God relative to all that exists.
means therefore that God's choosing of all believers 'in Christ' before the 'foundation of the world' to be His own, as described in the Scripture above, is more than simply about a knowledge of individual decisions to surrender to the claims of Christ made by persons in evangelistic meetings.
However, we have a problem built into the natural process of our own understanding, for humanly we may know a future event because it can be based on our own action or decision in the present. It is subtly deceptive to begin to think of God's behaviour within this framework of our own human experience. But this is not appropriate or true!
God's knowledge of the future is not based on His decisions in the past. It is the reverse of this.
In other words, God's decision in the past informs us of the absolute certain future as He knows it!
the mistaken idea that God's decision in the past determines the future of human behaviour effectively thereby reduced a sense of responsibility and accountability for behaviour and the choices made, as though we are simply products of a divine decision of predestination with inevitable consequences...
the character of God
This erroneous thinking led to Augustine and Calvin's idea that –
• the redeemed in Christ are redeemed because God chose them to demonstrate His mercy; and
• the damned are damned because God chose them to demonstrate His justice.
• the redeemed in Christ are redeemed because God chose them to demonstrate His mercy; and
• the damned are damned because God chose them to demonstrate His justice.
derived from Augustine of Hippo
with his Neo-Platonic
perspective on God.
view, apart from its Neoplatonic elements transmitted through Augustine, was in Calvin's time largely a reaction to the works-based salvation of medieval Catholicism. As is typical of reactions, it swung to its opposite extreme, making salvation a product of predetermined grace arbitrarily attributed without reference to the voluntary response of the individual, so it foolishly became 'Irresistible' Grace.
Explaining God's behaviour or methodology by reference to our perceptions of the experience of salvation in Christ may be natural and sincere but it misses the fundamental Biblical view of God, that His actions arise directly from His nature, which includes the omniscience of His intellect as much as it includes the virtue of His moral character.
then, nothing in God's past behaviour reduces our human responsibility in the present. Rather, God's pre-creation choice of all believers 'in Christ' because He knows all things, assures every believer that
nothing which has subsequently occurred in all creation and its following history since the beginning
has the ability to inevitably undermine the Christian obedience of any who are 'in Christ'.
has the ability to inevitably undermine the Christian obedience of any who are 'in Christ'.
This brings us to the practical purpose behind this foundational statement for our understanding in Ephesians concerning God's pre-creation election of all believers 'in Christ'.
*Contrary to the teaching of some Calvinistic churches (that the term 'world' means 'Christian'), the same word is used in the same Gospel for those who are hostile to God (14:17). |
written as a message to produce a practical result, for God does not dabble in doctrine.
This truth arms the believer with the understanding that everything in creation and in all its history, which has ever occurred, has been with the welfare of every believer in God's mind. Therefore nothing, absolutely nothing, that has the capacity in itself to destroy God's beneficent purpose for the life of each individual believer, if that believer walks with obedient confidence toward God who is over all things.
This Christian obedience has as its goal of affection to become like Him who first called them into His grace in Jesus.
Thus, there is no falling in and out of salvation – and never can be!
Neither is God an overlord above creation who simply uses humanity's destiny to display His personal attributes.
The Scripture "for God so loved the world ('kosmos'*)" would mean nothing if Christ did not die for all;
yes, even for those who reject Him.
servants of this God, there is nothing that can intimidate or defeat those who trust in Him more than in themselves!
