David B. Curtis
David B. Curtis
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Good morning, Bereans. We have been talking about Yahweh's sovereignty in salvation for the last couple of weeks. We have seen that in eternity past Yahweh chose a group of people to be part of his family and he gave this elect group to his Son as a love gift for his sacrifice on the cross. We saw that nobody can come to Christ unless God calls/draws him to himself. This is not a popular doctrine today, but it is what the Bible teaches. Notice what Paul told the Ephesians.
Paul, after a brief salutation in verses 1-2, launches into a lengthy sentence of twelve verses in praise of the redemptive purpose of Yahweh. I think it is best to see that 1:3-14 are in the form of a Jewish b'rakhah. A b'rakhah was a common Hebrew form of blessing or praise to Yahweh:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Yeshua the Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love Ephesians 1:3-4 ESV
"Bless" is used three times in verse 3, followed by a seemingly Trinitarian outline describing the roles of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit in the plan of God and the work of redemption.
In verses 4-6, Paul identifies two of the many blessings which God has poured out upon His children. These blessings are "election" ("chose," verse 4) and "predestination" (verses 5, 11). To most Christians, these doctrines are a cause for protest, rather than praise. But for Paul, they are blessings for which Yahweh should be praised:
even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love Ephesians 1:4 ESV
"Even as"—Paul is justifying his previous statement that God is to be praised because He gave us every spiritual blessing in Christ. He begins this justification or proof with what many of your translations will translate as: "just as" or "even as." It is the Greek kathos. Many see Paul comparing the greatness of these things. But when this conjunction, kathos, is used at the beginning of a sentence, it is not used as a comparison but as a cause. I hate to say this, but the NIV has it right here. It renders it as: "For He chose us in Him." It designates the cause of our praising God. Paul is saying, "Praise be to God because He chose us in Him." That is a cause of great praise!
"He chose us"—this is an aorist middle of eklegomai, which means "to choose out, to pick." And the middle voice is reflexive, indicating that God is picking for Himself, and nobody else is involved in this. The He who chose us is Yahweh.
Salvation is a work of God. Man has no part in the miracle of the new birth and cannot have. This is what we call the Doctrine of Sovereign Election.
What does election mean? Wayne Grudem (Systematic Theology [Zondervan], 1994, p. 670, italics his) defines it as: "Election is an act of God before creation in which He chooses some people to be saved, not on account of any foreseen merit in them, but only because of His sovereign good pleasure."
A.W. Pink called this one of the most hated doctrines in the Bible. He writes:
God's sovereign election is the truth most loathed and reviled by the majority of those claiming to be believers. Let it be plainly announced that salvation originated, not in the will of man, but in the will of God, that were it not so none would or could be saved. For as a result of the fall, man has lost all desire and will unto that which is good, and that even the elect themselves have to be made willing, and loud will be the cries of indignation against such teaching. Most mongers will not allow the supremacy of the divine will and the impedance of the human will. Consequently, they who are the most bitter in denouncing election by the sovereign pleasure of God are the warmest in crying up the free will of fallen man.
The Doctrine of Election is hard for man to accept. It's hard for man to acknowledge that his salvation is an act of God. Man wants to assume some responsibility, even if it's a small responsibility, for having believed. He wants some credit for having made the right choice. The Doctrine of Election is repulsive to many because, by our standards, it seems unfair that God should, out of all the human beings, choose some at His own discretion to be saved and not the rest.
Paul does not debate the matter or apologize for it or tiptoe around it. He states it as plainly as language could put it: "He chose us." That is one of the greatest spiritual blessings that God has given to us because it guarantees our salvation and our holiness.
God's choosing of us took place "Before the foundation of the world"—the word "foundation" is from the Greek word katabole; this is a compound of "down" and "throw." The verb is used of throwing seed in the ground, stones being thrown down for the foundation or the starting point of a building. It has the idea of an action that occurred before the foundation or creation of the world. Therefore, God chose the believer before the world was even created, that is, in eternity past.
he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Yeshua the Christ, according to the purpose of his will, Ephesians 1:5 ESV
"He predestined us"—the Greek word translated predestine is proorizo; it is the word from which we get our English word horizon. This Greek word could be literally translated: "pre-horizon." The horizon is the great boundary between the earth and the sky, and the Greek word horizo means to establish boundaries. And to set the boundaries, to draw the lines, to establish the limits, is to determine what will be. And to do that ahead of time, in eternity past, is predestination.
The predestination in our text means that in eternity past, God drew some lines. He established a horizon around each person He had foreknown—a set boundary marking him off—a circle of destiny. What predestined means in its most elementary form is that our final destination, heaven or damnation, is decided by God, not only before we get there, but before we are born. The active voice indicated that God did it.
Let's drop down to verse 11.
In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, Ephesians 1:11 ESV
"In Him we"—Paul begins with "In him." Who is the "him" to which Paul refers? It is "Christ" from vs. 10,
as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in Christ, things in heaven and things on earth in him. Ephesians 1:10 ESV
Throughout this eulogy, it is clearly seen that apart from our union "in Christ," we have nothing. All of God's blessings center in and come from Yeshua the Christ and what He did for us on the cross.
"We have obtained an inheritance"—the Greek word kleroo translated as "obtained an inheritance" occurs only here in the New Testament and is difficult to interpret, as seen by the various translations. It literally means "to be chosen by lot." Since the verb is passive and there is no direct object, it is probably supposed to be rendered (most scholars feel), by the term "chosen as God's inheritance." So, we could render it: "In whom we have also been chosen as God's inheritance."
"Having been predestined according to His purpose"—again, Paul brings up this predestination thing. As we saw back in verse 5, the word means: "to decide beforehand." Well, you may say, "fine, it means to decide beforehand, but maybe that decision by God took into account my will and my desires." I think that Yahweh did take into account our will and our desires when He predestined us for salvation, but the accounting He took was that our will was dead in trespasses and sins, and our desires were for those things that were ungodly and would never lead us to Him. And it was because of Yahweh's accounting of our will and our desires that He predestined.
"According to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will"—did you get that? In eternity past Yahweh had a plan, and in time He is working His plan. Yahweh works "all things" according to the counsel of His own will.
Again, objectors try to argue that "all things" couldn't possibly mean "all things." If it did, it would rob us of our "free will" and it would make God the author of evil. Some say that catastrophes such as earthquakes and hurricanes are outside of the "all things" of Ephesians 1:11. They can't square these events with a loving God.
Yahweh is not only sovereign in salvation, the Scriptures clearly teach that his will involves everything that takes place in life. All events in time proceed from His plan, and absolutely nothing takes place by chance. Let me give you a couple of things that the Scriptures reveal about God's sovereign will.
It is certain: "He works all things according to the counsel of his will." The things that happen in this life are simply the working out of what God has planned from eternity. So, God's sovereign will is certain. Daniel teaches this.
all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, "What have you done?" Daniel 4:35 ESV
God's sovereign will cannot be frustrated by men, gods, or anything else. The sinner who tries to defy God's plan may shake his fist to the heavens, but God has determined how many times he shakes it, and whether that man will live to shake his fist again tomorrow. God's will is certain.
God's sovereign will is exhaustive: It includes the fly as well as the Pharaoh, the mosquito (malaria) as well as the monarch. God determines who lands on Park Place. Some of you are familiar with the poem:
For want of a nail the shoe was lost;
For want of a shoe the horse was lost;
For want of a horse the rider was lost;
For want of a rider the battle was lost;
For want of a battle the war was lost.
If God doesn't control the "nails" then wars cannot be controlled. R. C. Sproul, in his book, The Sovereignty of God, said one of his childhood heroes, race car driver, Bill Vukovich, was killed in the Indianapolis 500 when he was going around a turn, and his car lost control. Why? Because a 10-cent cotter pin broke. James says, "If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that." Not only are our lives under God's sovereign control, but so are our actions.
Think about this: The fulfillment of any one prophecy requires control of the whole universe, lest something prevent its occurrence. For example, the Seven Feasts of Yahweh were acted out prophecies to Israel on what Yahweh was going to do in their future to redeem them. As they rehearsed these feasts year after year, at their appointed times, they were seeing a picture of Yahweh and His complete redemption.
The Feast of Passover: Passover occurs in the spring of the year, on the 14th day of the Hebrew month Nisan (March/April). Passover is a type, or picture of something much greater—it pictured the redemption of God's elect through the sacrifice of the sinless Son of God, the Lord Yeshua. In the evening of the fourteenth of Nisan, at exactly 3:00 p.m. the Passover lamb was to be killed. And 1600 years after Passover was instituted, Yeshua, our Lamb, was killed on the very same day, at the very same time as the Passover lamb; the 14th of Nisan at 3:00p.m. Like the lamb, Yeshua was without spot or blemish (1 Peter 1:19), and had none of His bones broken (John 19:33ff). The lamb was the type, and Yeshua is the antitype.
How could this happen if Yahweh was not in control of every event in time? The Jewish leaders did not want to crucify Yeshua during the Passover because they feared a riot among the crowd (Matt. 26:5).
and plotted together in order to arrest Yeshua by stealth and kill him. But they said, "Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar among the people." Matthew 26:4-5 ESV
But Yeshua was God's Passover Lamb whose blood applied in faith would protect from God's judgment. And so He was sacrificed during the Passover. If the Jewish leaders did not want to crucify Yeshua during the Passover because they feared the people would riot, why did they? Why did they do what they didn't want to do? It is because Yahweh rules the hearts of men.
The fulfillment of messianic prophecies—such as the lineage, birth location, and suffering of Yeshua the Christ—serves as the ultimate proof of sovereignty. It shows that God's overarching plan for humanity cannot be thwarted by human rebellion, political upheaval, or the passage of time.
God moves people to do His will and restrains people from accomplishing the evil they would normally carry out. A striking illustration of this is found in what appears to be an almost passing comment in Exodus 34.
Three times in the year shall all your males appear before the LORD God, the God of Israel. Exodus 34:23 ESV
Three times during the year, all Jewish males were required by Yahweh to appear before Him in Jerusalem at the Temple (Passover, Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles). These were known as Pilgrim Feasts because of the required pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
Their traveling away from their homes was not like our leaving our homes for a couple of weeks. When all the males went up to Jerusalem to worship as Yahweh had commanded them, their homes and family would be left exposed to their ungodly neighbors that they had just driven out of the land. Notice what Yahweh tells them.
For I will cast out nations before you and enlarge your borders; no one shall covet your land, when you go up to appear before the LORD your God three times in the year. Exodus 34:24 ESV
"For I will cast out nations before you and enlarge your borders"—Yahweh promises them that after the expulsion of the Canaanites, He would enlarge the borders of Israel. Then He says this: "No one shall covet your land, when you go up to appear before the LORD your God three times in the year"—how can Yahweh promise this? How does He know that no one will covet their land? He can promise this because He is sovereign over all things, including the will and desire of man.
The word "covet" here is from the Hebrew word chamad, which means "to delight in, to desire." This word is only used 23 times in the Tanakh. This is the same word used in the ten commandments, "You shall not covet."
John Gill, commenting on "No one shall covet your land," writes: "Though it is a desirable land; and their neighbors, and especially the old inhabitants of it, envied the happiness of the Israelites, and could not but wish it was in their possession; yet God, who has the hearts of all men in His hands, and can direct their thoughts, and turn the inclinations of their minds, and influence their affections, and engage them with other objects, promises that they should not think of an invasion of them, or have their minds, and the desires and affections of their hearts, in the least turned that way at these seasons, whatever they might have at other times."
Not only will their neighbors not invade their land while they are away, they won't even think of invading it. Because Yahweh will supernaturally control their thinking.
As I said, the fulfillment of any one prophecy requires control of the whole universe. In order to fulfil prophecy, Judas and Pontius Pilate had to be born in a certain century, therefore, their parents had to marry at a given time and for this many other conditions had to be carried out. And these conditions depended upon even more remote events. Take the prophecy of Genesis 15.
Then the LORD said to Abram, "Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. Genesis 15:13 ESV
God caused Jacob to migrate to Egypt to fulfill this prophecy. Was it possible for Jacob to will not to go to Egypt? Can man's will prevent God's plans from coming to pass? Is it beyond your paradigm to say that God controls men's wills? Consider this: Abraham moved south to Gerar, in the kingdom of Abimelech. Abimelech became enamored with Sarah's beauty and took her for his own. Did he lie with her? No. Why not?
Then God said to him in the dream, "Yes, I know that you have done this in the integrity of your heart, and it was I who kept you from sinning against me. Therefore I did not let you touch her. Genesis 20:6 ESV
Abimelech could not have chosen to have sex with Sarah because his will was not free. God's sovereign will is exhaustive; He determines the president's personal plans:
The king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; he turns it wherever he will. Proverbs 21:1 ESV
God's sovereignty extends to the rise and fall of nations. For example, the biblical prophet Isaiah accurately named King Cyrus of Persia more than a century before he was born, detailing exactly how he would conquer Babylon and allow the Jews to return to their homeland. This displays God's power to direct the hearts and decisions of the most powerful earthly rulers.
God determines the numbers that come up when the dice are thrown.
The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD. Proverbs 16:33 ESV
God rules over all the affairs of men.
He changes times and seasons; he removes kings and sets up kings; he gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding; Daniel 2:21 ESV
No one can act outside of God's sovereign will or against it. Centuries ago, Augustine said "Nothing, therefore, happens unless the Omnipotent wills it to happen: He either permits it to happen, or He brings it about Himself."
God calls ALL the shots; He rules over all. Why is that? Because He is God. The sovereignty of God is asserted, either expressly or implicitly, on almost every page of the Bible.
The Christian who has a mature understanding and trust in God's sovereign plan is spiritually prepared for anything. He doesn't understand why he had to endure some difficulty, but he will know that his experience was part of the sovereign plan of an all-wise and loving God. All of our "Why is this happening to me?" questions must ultimately have the same answer—our loving God, in His sovereign wisdom, willed it so. His plan is perfect.
Now let's be honest. When circumstances don't go the way we want, the way we've planned, we usually get upset. Would you say that was true? If we believe that God controls every event in time, if we believe that nothing happens apart from His sovereign plan, then why do circumstances upset us? The answer to that question is this: We get upset by circumstances because our will conflicts with God's will. We don't like God's plan. We want it our way. Listen, believer, it is not only important that we live in obedience to God's moral will, it is also important that we live in submission to His providential will.
Whatever it is that we are going through, we may be sure that our Father has a loving purpose in it. We need to learn to submit to God's providential will even when we don't understand.
Let me give you a biblical illustration of a man who submitted to God's will of providence even when it meant great pain to him. Eli was the high priest of Israel. In 1 Samuel 3 we learn how God revealed to the young child Samuel that He was about to kill Eli's two sons for their sinfulness. The next day Samuel communicated this message to the aged priest. It is difficult to conceive of a more difficult message for a parent to receive. The message that his children are going to be suddenly killed, under any circumstances, would be a great trial for any father. Yet, this was the message to Eli. What was his response when he received these tragic words from Samuel? What did he say when he heard the awful news?
So Samuel told him everything and hid nothing from him. And he said, "It is the LORD. Let him do what seems good to him." 1 Samuel 3:18 ESV
Believers, that is submission! He knew Yahweh and he trusted Him. He didn't argue with Him or try to talk Him out of His plan. He simply bowed to Yahweh's sovereign will in humble trust. When is the last time things went contrary to what you wanted, and you said, "It is Yahweh, let Him do what seems good to Him?" Job's response was similar:
Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD. Job 1:21 ESV
Job says, "Baruch HaShem Yahweh!" In the loss of all ten of his children Job takes a knee in humble submission and blesses Yahweh. In all of life, in every circumstance we are to bless Yahweh. Bless His holy Name!
Yahweh not only created the universe, He controls it—all of it. And He controls it all in accordance with what He has ordained. Do you realize that whatever takes place in time is what God planned from eternity past? The "Westminster Confession of Faith" puts it this way:
God, from all eternity, did, by the most wise and holy counsel of His own will, freely, and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass (chapter 3, section 1).
The Bible puts it this way:
In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, Ephesians 1:11 ESV
All that comes to pass in our lives is according to the eternal plan of the all-wise, all-powerful, and all-loving great God and our Father. We do not have a God that set the world in motion and stepped away to watch the clock wind down. We are not talking about fatalistic deism here. We see that while God chose in the past, and He predestined in the past, He is presently "working" all things according to the counsel of His will. God cannot be accused of neglect. He is imminent, presently involved in creation at every moment to bring about "all things." There is nothing that happens outside of the counsel of God's will. Nothing. And though it is hard at times to wrap our minds around the inescapable will of God, it is the most comforting thought and doctrine that we can have. There is nothing that happens outside the counsel of His will.
Most believers will say that they believe in the sovereignty of God, but most won't acknowledge that the sovereignty of God is absolute, irresistible, and infinite. God does as He pleases, only as He pleases, always as He pleases; whatever takes place in time is but the outworking of that which He decreed in eternity. This is too strong for most believers. But this is the God of the Bible.
Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases. Psalm 115:3 ESV
Nothing happens outside the sovereign will of God. The Doctrine of God's Sovereignty, properly understood, won't paralyze us from taking action. The Doctrine of God's Sovereignty should be a comfort to us. It assures us that He is able to do what He has promised us. If God weren't sovereign, He would make promises like we do—maybe with all good intentions, but without the power to carry them out. But because He is sovereign, He can, in fact, carry out every promise that He has made. But the bare fact of God's sovereignty raises one big question: "If God is in control of all things, including our actions, how can we be held responsible for anything?" How does Paul answer that question? He says, "Who are you, O man, who answers back to God?" (Romans 9:20) Notice what the Scriptures teach:
The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps. Proverbs 16:9 ESV
Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, Ephesians 5:15 ESV
How can we be responsible for our walk if Yahweh is directing our steps? To the Western thinker these verses pose a problem. But the problem is that the Bible is an Eastern book, and we approach it with a mindset from a Western culture.
The Bible, in its original languages, is, humanly speaking, a product of the Hebrew mind. But the influence of Greek philosophy upon the interpretation of Scripture has had a tragic effect. When Greek logic is used to understand Scripture, the reader is filled with feelings of contradiction.
The biblical authors never argue the existence of God; they only assume it. God is not understood philosophically, but functionally. He acts. The Hebrews primarily thought of Him pictorially, in terms of personality and activity, not in terms of pure being or in any static sense. Westerners are abstract thinkers. As such, we like to put information in definition and proposition form; we like organization. We like words that carefully explain.
But the Hebrews think differently than we do, and we need to have an understanding of how they think if we are going to properly interpret the Scriptures. The Hebrews often made use of block logic. Marvin Wilson wrote this about Hebraic reasoning: "Concepts were expressed in self-contained units or blocks of thought. These blocks did not necessarily fit together in any obviously rational or harmonious pattern, particularly when one block represented the human perspective on truth and the other represented the divine. This way of thinking created a propensity for paradox, antimony, or apparent contradiction, as one block stood in tension—and often illogical relation—to the other. Hence, polarity of thought or dialectic often characterized block logic."
The Greeks used a linear logic that flows in steps from premises to a conclusion. Each step linked closely to the next in a coherent, rational, logical fashion. The conclusion is almost always limited to one view—a human being's limited perspective on reality.
Hebraic reasoning does not focus as much on linear thought (argument), or linear narrative. Instead, it focuses on blocks of context, or subject matter. For example, the Gospel narratives have chronological problems at some points, because in the Hebrew mind, chronology takes a back seat to theme and content. Chronology is subsumed by more important principles. This doesn't mean that the Bible cannot be trusted in its chronology. Rather, we must understand where it is attempting to be chronological and where it is not.
Rabbi Akiva, who lived one generation after Yeshua, was regarded as one of the greatest Jewish rabbis. The Talmud (Menachos 29a) compares him favorably to Moses, which is the ultimate compliment in the Jewish Lexicon. A pronouncement of Rabbi Akiva, is in effect an affirmation of the two contradictory sentiments: "All is subject to providence, yet man possesses free will" [Mishnah, Avot 3:16].
The Hebrew mind was willing to accept the truths taught on both sides of the paradox; it recognized that mystery and apparent contradiction are often signs of the divine.
The renowned biblical scholar, Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik, writes, "We [Jews] are practical. We are more interested in discovering what God wants man to do than we are in describing God's essence." He goes on to say, "Judaism is never afraid of contradictions… it acknowledges that full reconciliation of the two is possible only in God. He is the coincidence of opposites."
It is particularly difficult for Westerners—those whose thought patterns have been influenced more by the Greeks and Romans than by the Hebrews—to piece together the block logic of Scripture.
Eastern thinkers can live with the tensions and paradoxes surrounding block logic. To the Jew, the deed was always more important than the creed. He was not stymied by language that appeared contradictory from a human point of view. Neither did he feel compelled to reconcile what seemed irreconcilable. He believed that God ultimately was greater than any human attempt at systematizing truth.
Intellectually, we are Greeks, not Hebrews. We apply Aristotelian and Socratic thought patterns to practically everything. It is surprisingly difficult to escape these patterns and enter into the Hebraic mind-set. We insist on rendering everything into logically consistent patterns; on systematizing it; on organizing it into tight, carefully reasoned theologies. We cannot live with inconsistency or contradiction.
This Hellenistic thinking is a real problem when it comes to God's sovereignty and man's responsibility. We can't see how both can be true. What we must understand is that Yahweh's sovereign will controls all things, but His moral will tells us how we must live. When the Bible talks about God's will, it can be referring to one of two things: God's sovereign will, or providence— His predetermined plan for everything that happens in the universe; or His moral will, which is revealed in the Bible, which tells us how to live. Look at "will" in these two passages:
You will say to me then, "Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?" Romans 9:19 ESV
For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; 1 Thessalonians 4:3 ESV
Does the term "will" mean the same in both of these passages? No. Romans 9 uses the term "will" to speak of God's secret will of decree, His sovereign will. And 1 Thessalonians 4 uses the term "will" to speak of God's revealed will of precept, or His moral will. As we have seen, God's sovereign will is always carried out. His moral will, on the other hand, is not. Do people commit sexual immorality? Yes, but it is God's moral will that they not commit sexual immorality, and if they violate His will they will suffer the consequences.
The term "will" itself is ambiguous. We must determine its meaning from the context. "The Ten Commandments" are God's perceptive, or moral, will. They command men to do this and to refrain from that. They state what ought to be done, but they neither state nor cause what is done. God's sovereign, or decretive will, however, causes every event.
Let me show you a great description of a disciple of Yeshua:
not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, Ephesians 6:6 ESV
These last eight words sum up God's moral will for all believers. This is what life is all about. We are to be "doing the will of God from the heart." God created us, He is the author of life, and if we are ever going to live life to the fullest, it will be by living in the will of God. Does that make sense?
Our guide for life and conduct is the moral will of Yahweh. We don't know what His sovereign will is until it is past. But we know His moral will and that is what we must concern ourselves with. Why evangelize when it is God who saves sinners? We evangelize because our sovereign God told us to. So, we can never blame our disobedience of God's moral will on His sovereign will. We are not responsible for His sovereign will, and we don't know what it is, but we are responsible for His moral will. Knowing that Yahweh is sovereign in all things does not give you the right to ignore His precepts.