Lesson for January 17, 2021
The Book of Ephesians
Chapter 1:5-6
“In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.”
The words “in love” at the end of verse 4 are actually the beginning of verse 5. The Greek word for love is “agape,” which is a love which has no emotional connotation. It is the absence of mental attitude sins and is the concept and the dynamics of love from the standpoint of thinking. Here it refers to the unconditional, impersonal love of God the Father as the motivator for His plan.
Predestined is the Greek word “proorizo,” which means to predesign or to predetermine. The doctrine of predestination deals with the believer only. There is no such thing as the unbeliever being predestined to Hell. The believer has a destiny, the unbeliever goes to Hell by his own decision according to John 3:18, 36. The biblical concept of predestination does not conflict with human volition but actually emphasizes it. The purpose of the doctrine of predestination is to relate the believer permanently to the plan of God through positional truth. (Ephesians 1:5)
There are five Greek words used to communicate the biblical doctrine of predestination:
a) Proorizo, a verb meaning to predesign — Romans 8:28-29; Ephesians 1:5, 11.
b) Protithemi, a verb meaning to predetermine or purpose to do — Romans 3:25; Ephesians 1:9.
c) Prothesis, a noun meaning a predetermined plan — the subject of Ephesians 1. It is used in Romans 8:28, Romans 9:11; Ephesians 1:11; 3:11; II Timothy 1:9.
d) Proginosko, a verb meaning to foreordain or preordain when God is the subject —
I Peter 1:20; Romans 8:29; 11:2.
e) Prognosis, a noun meaning foreknowledge — Acts 2:23; I Peter 1:2.
The crucifixion of Christ was the predetermined purpose or plan of God the Father set down in His divine decrees in eternity past. Acts 2:23, “Him [Jesus Christ], being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God.” The word counsel is the Greek word “boule,” meaning decree. The word determinate is the Greek word “horizo,” meaning to set a boundary or to settle. The word foreknowledge is “prognosis” but it should be predetermined purpose. So, Jesus Christ was delivered by the predetermined purpose of God the Father. Predestination inevitably involves the Person of Jesus Christ, and therefore it is related to the doctrine of divine decrees, the plan of God designed in eternity past. It centers and focuses on the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ. It does not conflict with human volition it anticipates human volition. It anticipates human volition involved in the first sin. It anticipates human volition in believing in Christ. It anticipates human volition in rejecting Christ. But here we have it related to the Person of Christ, and “prognosis” is mistranslated “foreknowledge” in Acts 2:23. It does not mean foreknowledge, it is stronger than that. It means predetermined purpose. So, Jesus Christ was delivered by the thoughtful decree and the predetermined purpose of God the Father. In grace, God in eternity past thought about us and predesigned provision for us. This is what predestination is all about. God the Father predetermined the grace concept of propitiation. Romans 3:25, “ … through the forbearance of God.” The word forbearance is “protithemi,” “the predetermined plan of God.” The predetermined plan of God takes care of the believer before he is even born. (Romans 9:11)
Since God the Father has foreknowledge to know in eternity past who would believe in Christ and who would not, He said His plan would apply to those who believe. Those who do not are outside of the plan. Predesigned in eternity past are 40 spiritual assets received by every believer at the point of salvation. Predesigned in eternity past is everything the believer will ever need for the Christian life. However, this passage emphasizes the salvation provision of eternity past. Other passages emphasize what God has provided to get the believer spiritual maturity.
The Bible states the destiny of the believer as Heaven. While the believer is predestined to Heaven in a resurrection body, the unbeliever is not predestined to Hell. The unbeliever goes to Hell by his own decision, not by the plan of God. The plan of God made provision for everyone to stay out of hell — unlimited atonement. God’s plan calls for the unbeliever to go to Heaven but rejection of Christ from his own free will places him forever in the Lake of Fire. However, it is not God’s predesigned plan for that unbeliever to go to Hell, but it is the unbeliever’s own volition.
Out of this a principle that God designed beforehand a plan, not the person’s decisions. The person enters the plan by faith in Christ. God knew beforehand who would enter His plan and who would not. Therefore, God predesigned that all who believe would be taken by God by the Holy Spirit and entered into union with Christ.
To adoption as sons means that being entered into union with Christ believers are adopted as sons into the family of God, which is part of God’s predetermined plan for all those who believe in Christ as Savior. The Greek word for adoption is “huiothesia” [huio = adult son; thesis = placing]. This was a Roman custom, the recognition of maturity. Adoption means recognition of maturity; it does not mean to adopt someone outside the family. It should read, “In love having predesigned us with the result of the appointment of adult sons.”
The Bible must be interpreted in the time in which it was written. The noun “huiothesia” refers to a Roman custom in Paul’s time. In the Roman Empire, the son was placed under slaves and teachers during his minority. At around age 14 he had graduated from a system of intensive training and discipline which was administered by slaves, those who taught him. He was then recognized as an adult member of the family. The ceremony was called “huiothesia,” the word “adoption” in our passage. The basic concept of the ceremony was freedom to function as an adult citizen in the Roman world. This custom is taken by Paul. There is no concept here of adopting someone outside the family, it is recognition of someone inside the family, that they have now grown up. (Romans 8:14-17)
At the moment you believe in Christ you are a spiritual baby (the Greek word ““brephos.) But you are at the same time in union with Christ who is the Son of God. And being in union with Him positionally you are adult son (“huios”). You are a child experientially, but positionally you are an adult son. This indicates that every believer, no matter how he fails, is still a son of God; he is in union with Christ.
The mechanic of adoption is by means of the baptism of the Holy Spirit when every believer enters into union with Christ. Positional truth is the mechanic of adoption. (I Corinthians 12:13) At the moment of salvation every believer is an adult son, positionally. (John 3:3,7; 1:12; Galatians 3:26; Titus 3:5) The implications of adoption are freedom to have a relationship with God and to serve Him. (Galatians 4:5) Remember that adoption, as well as salvation in general, gives us freedom toward God, not freedom in the human race. Therefore, full time Christian service is nothing more or less than the believer free to have relationship with God. (Romans 8:15)
There is also a future aspect of adoption. Romans 8:23, the resurrection body, minus the sin nature, minus human good. In other words, the future aspect of adoption is ultimate sanctification. Union with Christ makes the adoption reality. It was the predetermined purpose of God to adopt every believer at the point of salvation as an adult son. This is a purpose compatible with grace. Positional truth was designed to make every believer at salvation an adult son, whether he is carnal or spiritual, whether he is in reversionism or super-grace. Therefore, positional truth was predesigned to give every believer eternal security regardless of his experiential status.
To the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. The Greek word for praise is “epainos,” which is a strengthened form of its root word (“ainos”) and can be translated over-praise, applause, recognition, or approval. Literally then, “resulting in recognition.” This is the believer’s response to the plan of God. You cannot begin to appreciate Who and what God is, or His plan, until you recognize its ultimate parts. The fact of over-praise recognition indicates the response of a believer with an edification complex and this is really super-grace recognition. Ephesians 1:6, like James 4:6, is not dealing with grace in the ordinary sense but it is referring to the function of the super-grace life. So, this is tantamount to occupation with Christ as the fourth floor of the edification complex plus the capacity for loving Jesus Christ under the super-grace life. A more detailed response is presented in Psalm 32.
Glory is the Greek word “doca,” which is a word referring to the quality of God. The specific part of God which is being described is His grace plan. It is the plan of God the Father that pursues us from the point of salvation to the point that we depart from this earth. It is a question of whether you are going to be disciplined by grace or pursued by grace. If you as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ are negative toward doctrine it is inevitable that you will be disciplined by grace. But if you as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ are positive toward doctrine it is also inevitable that you will be pursued by grace.
Beloved means God the Father loves every believer with a permanent love. We receive this love without earning it or deserving it or working for it. You do not work for the love of God, it is maximum at the point of salvation, and God’s love for you from the point of salvation on never is improved. Therefore, we are the objects of maximum love from the start, and it never changes. Since the believer is in union with Christ the Father can only love us with the same capacity of love that He has for the Son. Consequently, we are the Beloved. This is taught in Colossians 3:12; I Timothy 6:2; Hebrews 6:9; II Peter 3:1; I John 3:2.
Operation Grace, the plan of God, was provided for man before man was created. Therefore, man cannot earn and cannot deserve this grace. Under grace God does the work and man is only the beneficiary. Under super-grace God does the pursuing and man does the benefiting. Grace is all that God is free to do for man on the basis of the Cross. God is free to express His love through grace and He does this without jeopardizing His essence. No one can truly give apart from freedom and God gives out of total freedom because of the Cross to us. Grace is the work and the plan of God on behalf of man beginning at the Cross. It is God’s plan and God’s policy for mankind. It is a plan, a policy, a function, a mechanic, a divine mode of operation, a divine way of living.
Grace depends upon the essence of God therefore grace depends on Who and what God is. Grace is what God can do for man and still be consistent with His own character. A believer must sort out the difference between grace and legalism. Legalism is man’s ability and human works intruding upon the plan of God. Man’s human works cannot coexist with God’s works. Such an implied coexistence is blasphemy. Grace excludes human works.
The greatest thing God can do for a believer is to make him exactly like His Son, Jesus Christ. Ultimately it is the objective of God’s plan to make everyone like His Son. Man was created to resolve the Angelic Conflict and since man was given free will it is inevitable that he would fail. Adam through his free will sinned. Jesus Christ had to become a human being and not an angel in order to resolve the Angelic Conflict. (Hebrews 2;14-16) In other words, the first Adam lost the victory through the fall and the last Adam (Christ) wins the victory through the Cross. (Colossians 2:14) Grace found a way to take man, created inferior to angels, and make him superior, and this is accomplished in all three stages of the plan of God for mankind.
Stage one is positional sanctification in which the believer enters into union with the glorified Christ. Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father, which is an application of positional truth. Every believer is in union with the Lord Jesus Christ therefore believers are positionally higher than angels. When Christ was seated at the right hand of the Father in His humanity, He became higher than angels, we are in union with the God-Man, Jesus Christ, and we are now positionally superior to angels.
Stage two is experiential sanctification and is our lives on this earth under the construction of the Edification Complex of the Soul and the entrance into the super-grace life it is possible for our experience to represent in an effective way what was provided for us at the point of salvation. In other words, the super-grace life is the only normal Christian life which expresses the priesthood of the believer. Believers who do not grow up never live the normal Christian life. So, stage two is designed through grace whereby God can take a believer living in the devil’s world in the intensified stage of the Angelic Conflict and make it possible for this individual to adequately represent the Lord Jesus Christ.
Stage three is ultimate sanctification where the believer receives a resurrection body exactly like that of the Son of God, minus the sin nature, and minus human good. As a result, he is exactly like the Son of God, fulfilling Philippians 3:21.
Every believer has tasted the grace of God at least once. (Hebrews 6:4; I Peter 2:3) At the moment of salvation every believer receives from God 40 spiritual assets and he never loses these things. This grace package of salvation cannot be cancelled or destroyed either by God Himself, by Satan, by angels, or by mankind. Among the 40 things received by grace at salvation we have the principle of propitiation whereby the believer, regardless of spiritual status, is always under maximum love from God. But grace can only find a place to lodge where there is capacity for grace and capacity for grace only comes through the super-grace life. (I John 2:2)
The hazard for believers is disorientation to grace through reversionism. Under these conditions, in Galatians 5:4, reversionism is called “falling from grace,” and in Hebrews 12:15 it is called “missing grace.” So reversionism is a great danger after one has erected an edification complex in the soul. God is constantly waiting to pour out His grace to every believer. (Isaiah 30:18,19; Psalm 103:8-12; Romans 3:23,24; 4:4; 5:20; Ephesians 2:8,9; Hebrews 2:9)