We are working our way through a series on the doctrine of salvation. Remember the broad overview, the broad outline of it, is salvation planned, salvation accomplished, and salvation applied. We are still in the midst of that first section, Salvation Planned. All we have done so far is look briefly at this broad idea of God planning salvation and that our salvation came to us as the result of His purpose. It was not a surprise to Him; it may have been to us, but it was not a surprise to God. Our conversion came about as a result of His purpose and plan.
Today then, we come to look specifically at the doctrine of election, and no place is better, I think, to start than Ephesians chapter one. This is a very familiar passage of Scripture. Verses 3 to 14, as you may remember, are a single sentence in the original. And here the Apostle Paul outlines the blessings that we enjoy from Christ in salvation. He outlines them for us: the blessings of God the Father, the blessings of God the Son, the blessing from God the Spirit. These are blessings past, present, and future.
There are something like three stanzas to this passage. In fact, many New Testament scholars have suggested that this is, in fact, an ancient hymn, or at least an ancient hymn that the Apostle Paul has reworked somehow. That might be evidenced by the refrain that we have in several of the verses: “to the praise of his glory.” Whether it is a hymn that the church sang or not, it is a marvelous passage expounding for us or highlighting for us the greatness of God’s grace in salvation.
So verse 3: “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 before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love, he predestined us for adoption 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. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. 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 own will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of his glory.”
Let’s bow together for prayer. Our Father, we’re grateful for this wonderful theme. We’re grateful for this wonderful passage. We ask that You will guide our hearts and our thinking. Send Your Spirit to teach us and to bring it home to our hearts, the greatness of this truth of electing grace. We pray in Jesus’ name, amen.
As I say, we’ve looked at salvation planned just in the beginning ways—that we are saved according to God’s purpose. Last time we looked at some of the theological, broader theological backdrop to that: human depravity and God’s sovereignty over all things. Specifically, the doctrine of election.
The Source Or The Subject
Notice, let’s jump into it, first of all, the source or the subject, or how do we put this—the one who does the choosing. Now this will become important, but we have to emphasize the obvious here, verses 3 to 5: “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 before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love, he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will.”
Now notice here again, as we have seen in our previous times together on this, that the idea of divine purpose just dominates through this entire passage. If anything is clear from this passage, it is that we are saved according to divine purpose—that God had a plan. We have that in verse 5, we have it in verse 9, we have it in verse 11: that we have been saved, chosen, predestined according to the purpose of God Himself.
Verse 10 places this in the context of the broadest picture possible: that God has a purpose for history that is global in scope. Verse 10: this is a plan for the fullness of time in which He will gather all things together in Christ. God has a universal saving purpose, that men and women from every tribe and kindred and tongue will come to Christ, be saved, and in the end, we will have this great gathering of the redeemed according to the purpose of God Himself. It’s the climax or the purpose of the ages.
Verse 4 now tells us that this plan was devised before the foundation of the world. I think we should keep in mind that has to be a way to accommodate our thinking: devised before the foundation of the world, chosen before the foundation of the world. That is to say, it was an eternal decree. This purpose language that Paul has here in this passage is explicitly then linked to the doctrine of election and predestination. Verses 4 and 5: we were chosen before the foundation of the world. Then verse 11: we were predestined according to the purpose of His will.
All of that to say, God is the one who determined who would be saved. God is the one who does the choosing. Verse three: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Verse four: “He chose us.” Verse five: “He predestined us according to the purpose of his will.” God is the one determining who will be saved. The whole passage is given to emphasize that saving blessings come to us entirely from God’s side. He blessed us. He chose us. He selected us. He has freely given us His Son. He has adopted us. He has appointed us as heirs. He’s predestined, He’s foreknown, He’s foreordained. All of this comes from God’s side. And the whole point then is that salvation comes to us because of His will, His purpose, and it is linked explicitly to this idea of divine election: God choosing whom He will save.
Now, just to drive that—I used to have a friend who accused me in my preaching of driving a tack with a sledgehammer. That’s what I’m going to do here. Let’s drive that just a little bit more. Come back to Ephesians in just a moment, but let’s look at a few other passages that tell us the same.
Look at 1 Thessalonians chapter 1, verses 4 and 5: “For we know, brothers, loved by God, that he has chosen you.” How does he know that? Well, because when our gospel came to you, it came not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. Notice Paul says—this is important, we’ll come back to this later—Paul is certain of their election. How does he know that? Because they believe. And when the gospel came to them, God came with effective grace and brought them to faith.
Look at 2 Thessalonians 2, a passage Pastor Greg read earlier this morning. 2 Thessalonians 2, verses 13 and 14: “We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved through sanctification of the spirit, belief in the truth. To this he called you through our gospel so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.” We could spend the whole time this morning here in this passage, but just notice here in passing: God chose you. God chose you to be saved. That is, salvation comes as a result of God’s choice. And in keeping with that choice, He called you and you believed.
Then look at James chapter two, verse five: “Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which he has promised to those who love him?” Follow James’ thinking here. Has not God chosen the poor to be rich in faith? That is to say the church, broadly speaking, the church is not marked by the world’s elite—the richest, the greatest. Largely speaking, the church is marked by just a bunch of regular people, the poor. And what he says is, that came about not by accident. That was God’s own design. And again, we have this idea that God is the one determining who will be saved. In this context, it means God is saying, like in 1 Corinthians chapter 1, if the church were a gathering of the world’s elite, people would think you have to be something or be someone in order for God to have you. And God says, “I’m not going to have confusion like that. I’m going to save in such a way that everyone knows that I get the glory for it. And so we’ll just save a lot of nobodies.” And James is reflecting that here.
Look at another we’ve seen already: Romans chapter 8, verses 28 to 30. We know that for those who love God, all things work together for good to those who are called according to His purpose. Then he tracks out that purpose for us from eternity past to eternity future. But notice that expression at the end of verse 28: “we are called according to his purpose.” The reason we were called to faith is because that was the outworking of what God had planned.
And then one more, look at 2 Timothy chapter 1, verse 9. He writes here of God “who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works, but because of his own purpose and grace which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began.” Our coming to faith was an outworking of God’s purpose that was purposed long before we were born. In fact, long before the world itself was created. All of that reflects then and drives home what we have here in Ephesians chapter 1.
Now all of that’s important, and I take the time to stress it in order to emphasize that election, the doctrine of election in the New Testament, is not a doctrine of ratification. It is not that I chose God and God rubber-stamped my choice. He does the choosing. It is the outworking of His purpose. It is not the outworking of anything from my side. That’s the whole thrust of the passage here at Ephesians 1. That’s the thrust of the verses that we’ve read. Beyond that as well, this salvation that we have is the outworking of a divine initiative.
When I was in undergraduate work, I remember in a chapel meeting one time, one of the administrators was preaching, and he slandered the Calvinist doctrine of election. He said the Calvinist doctrine of election is like a stuffed ballot box. And he said the doctrine of election is just this: Satan cast a vote for you, God cast a vote for you, you cast the deciding vote. Well, the first problem with that, of course, is that this passage goes to pains to tell us that God is the one who did the choosing, not us. He’s not ratifying anything. He takes the initiative. He does the choosing. Verse four: “he chose us in him before the foundation of the world.” Verse five: “he predestined us to adoption.” Verse eleven: “having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the purpose of his own will.”
So the first problem with that “Satan cast a vote for you, God cast a vote for you, you cast a deciding vote” idea is that it just flies in the face of so many of these passages that go to pains to tell us that the selection, the electing, comes from God’s side and not ours. The second problem is what we’ve seen before, and that is that it’s impossible. We saw that last week. It’s just not the case. And every one of us who knows our heart knows that if God had not taken the initiative—well, we know where we were when we were making our choice. We all know how we were casting our vote. Our only hope, in other words—in fact, I remember thinking this in that chapel session when he said that. I thought, “My only hope is that God will stuff the ballot box because Satan has voted for me and I have voted with Satan. My only hope is a stuffed ballot box.”
I might mention here one other passage that’s related to that. Look at John chapter 15. Here Jesus makes an interesting statement to His disciples in this regard. John 15 verse 16: “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide.” You did not choose Me, but I chose you. Now, on one level, you have to say, “Well, didn’t the disciples choose to follow Jesus?” Well, on one level, of course they did. But what Jesus is obviously saying here is, “It was not your choice of Me that determined My choice of you. It was My choice of you that determined your choice of Me.”
And that’s what Paul is telling us here in Ephesians 1. We were blessed. How were we blessed? We were lost. We were depraved. We were choosing our own way and we were going to hell for it. But God chose otherwise. And God interrupted us on our mad rush to hell and according to and in keeping with His own eternal purpose, in which He chose us to be His, He brought us to Christ in faith. We ought every day to remember where we were when we cast our vote.
The Time
Number two then, the time. The time of election. When did this election take place? Verse four: “he chose us in him before the foundation of the world.” Now, what’s the point of that detail? Why is it important for Paul to say he chose us in him before the foundation of the world? How is it significant? Well, I think it’s pretty clear that Paul is driving the point that our salvation traces back to God’s own purpose and initiative and not ours. When this election was held, you weren’t old enough to vote yet. That’s the point. Even Pastor Boyd wasn’t old enough to vote back then. Back before the foundations of the world, before anyone came into being.
This is the same as Romans 9: before Jacob and Esau were even born, when they’d done neither good nor evil, God determined the elder shall serve the younger. That’s what he’s saying here, that this selection that was made was made so far back that it couldn’t possibly have anything to do with you in terms of its origin. You weren’t there when God made the choice. The whole point of mentioning this “before the foundation of the world” is that the election is made in a way that’s entirely apart from our involvement.
The Basis Or The Ground
Number three then, quickly, the basis or the ground for God’s choice. Look at verse five: “He predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will.” 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.” That is to say, God’s choice to save us is grounded entirely in His purpose, not ours. It was His design, not ours. That is to say, when I finally did cast my vote, I cast my vote for Satan. And my only hope was that God would overrule my vote, and that’s what he said He did, only He did it long ago. The basis of His choice is His own purpose.
The Motive Or The Purpose
Number four. Notice the motive or the purpose in God’s choosing. Verse six, and this is the refrain that we find throughout this passage: “to the praise of his glorious grace.” Verse 12: “so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.” Verse 14: “He’s the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of his glory.”
That is to say, our salvation in its first instance has nothing to do with us. It is all about God. He’s choosing us, yes. He’s choosing us to be saved, yes. But first off, He’s doing it for His own glory and to the praise and the highlighting and the underlining of His own grace. That is to say, His election is grounded in God’s own purpose to glorify Himself—in particular, to glorify His grace. The great end of everything is the glory of God. And God Himself pursues His own glory because there’s no greater objective to pursue. And in saving us, He does the same. He chooses us so that in the end, it will be His grace that is highlighted in it all. In fact, as I said, verse 10 emphasizes the same thing: that in the end He’s going to unite all things together in Christ, again highlighting the greatness of God’s grace.
We have another expression along these lines in Romans chapters 9 through 11. Let’s take time to look there. Romans chapter 11. Now in Romans 9 through 11, as you may know, Paul is outlining God’s purpose for the ages. It has to do with the role of Jews and the role of the Gentiles. The question has arisen here in Paul’s exposition of the gospel: if God’s promises are true, what then about Israel? Because at this point in history, it seems that Israel is losing out. Those to whom the promises were first made are not being saved. Gentiles are being saved. This salvation thing looks to be a Gentile affair. What about the Jews? It was promised to them. How’s that going to work out?
And so Paul gives this lengthy exposition, Romans 9 through 11, of this wonderful, history-long purpose of God: that He has turned from Israel now to take the gospel to the Gentiles and in the end the Jews will be provoked by jealousy and be saved themselves. But notice what He says in Romans 11 verses 5 and 6: “So too at the present time there’s a remnant chosen by grace.” Now there’s the expression I want to focus on. There is a remnant chosen by grace, “but if it’s by grace, it’s no longer on the basis of works. Otherwise, grace would no longer be grace.”
So Paul’s giving this history-sized picture of God’s purpose. The gospel for the time has turned from Israel to the Gentiles. But even now—and this is the essence of his argument at this point—even now there’s a remnant within Israel that believes. Paul’s one of them. And how is it that there’s a remnant within Israel? What accounts for that? God has turned from Israel and yet there’s a remnant there. What accounts for that? How did that happen, that they still believe? And he says, well, it’s that way because of the election of grace. Verse five: there’s a remnant according to the election of grace, chosen by grace.
Now the point here is that if there is a remnant, and if that remnant is only due to the fact of God’s electing grace, then clearly election has nothing to do with us in terms of its origin. It is the work of God Himself. In other words, then, it is this doctrine of election—and Paul works at this at length in chapter 9. We will see that in some weeks to come. Paul works at this at length there to show that if there is any doctrine that establishes that salvation is by grace, it is the doctrine of election.
This was, by the way, Reformation Sunday. This was enormously important to the Reformers. What we hear about on Reformation Sunday, rightly, most often is the doctrine of justification by grace, through faith, by faith alone, by grace alone. But back behind all of that in the ministry of the Reformers was this doctrine of election and predestination that above everything else and behind everything else established that justification was by grace. It was from God’s initiative all the way back from eternity. And so the root doctrines of the Reformation were exactly this: a healthy, robust recognition of God’s sovereign grace at work from eternity past.
Now, you see then the reason for this detail in Ephesians chapter 1. Election is according to grace. Election is to the praise of His glory. Election is to the praise of His glorious grace. Election is to the praise of His glory. That is to say, the doctrine of election is designed to make us worshipers. You know what He’s saying? “I’ve chosen whom I will save, and I have done it this way precisely so that in the end, those who are saved will praise My glorious grace.” And no one in the end will be saying, “Well, I’m glad I did anything.” What we will say is that God was gracious to choose me out of my sin and bring me to Himself.
And he’s saying here that this ought to mark our worship. This is how they sang in the early church. When we bow our heads to pray, the forefront of our minds ought to be this recognition that God brought me here. Of His own initiative, He brought me to myself. I’m no longer part of the world, and I’m no longer part of the world because He chose me out of it. I’m no longer on that crowded road to destruction. I’m on the narrow road to eternal life because of God’s gracious choice. This doctrine is designed to make us worshipers.
Can you think of a doctrine that is better suited to promoting a deep sense of dependent trust on God than this doctrine of election? It traces everything back to Him. The essence of faith is a dependence, an utter dependence on divine mercy. What fosters that kind of faith more than a recognition of a doctrine like this that says long before you had anything to do with it, God had a purpose and He has brought you in, and that this is grounded in His own purpose and electing grace? The doctrine of election fosters a deep sense of complete reliance on divine mercy. And that’s as it is intended. It is to the praise of His glorious grace. Yes, I had to believe. I had to believe. Justification is by faith. But here I find that my very faith was the outworking of a choice that was made long before I was around. I’m saved ultimately, not because of my will, but because of God’s will, to the praise of His glorious grace.
The Final Outcome Of God’s Election
And then notice, fifthly and lastly, the final outcome of God’s election, verse four. “He chose us in him before the foundation of the world.” Why? “So that we should be holy and blameless before him.” Holiness is not the condition, but the consequence of our election. He chose us so that we would be holy and blameless before Him. This verse looks ahead to the outworking of God’s full purpose in the end. And in the end, He says, because He chose us way back in eternity past, in the end, in eternity future, we will be holy. We will be presented before God without blame because we are in Christ.
And with that, notice then also the implications with regard to assurance of salvation. Is there anything better suited to our confidence that we will make it than this recognition that I’m in this because of His will? I’m in this because of His purpose, that He has brought me to Himself, that long before the ages He had determined that He would bring me to Himself. Is there any reason for doubt that God’s purpose will not come to fruition? From beginning to end, from eternity past to eternity future, he says this is all God’s doing.
Now then, let me raise one more question before we close. And it’s one that I alluded to at the very beginning. And it’s a question that many people ask, probably most Christians have asked, when they’re first introduced to this doctrine. And that is the very important question: how can I know that I’m one of God’s elect? And I understand the puzzlement of it. This is out of our hands. This is God’s working. How can I know that I’m one of them?
But you see, the answer really is very easy. Because if there is any mark of God’s elect, it’s that they come to Christ. We come to Christ in faith, and we have the assurance that this is the outworking of God’s eternal purpose. And what the gospel offers you up front is not election. What the gospel offers you up front is Christ. And if you’ll believe, He’ll have you and He’ll not turn you away.
Harry Ironside, the Bible teacher of a couple of generations ago, had a wonderful illustration of this. He said salvation is like a doorway that you walk through. And over the top of the door as you walk through, it says, “Whosoever will, let him come.” And you walk through the door and trust Christ, and you turn back and you look, and above the door on the other side is “Chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world.” And you spend the rest of your life and all of eternity marveling that His choice preceded yours, and that I’m here because of God’s electing grace.
And all that to say that we are saved and we are saved on purpose—God’s purpose. He did it in spite of us to the praise of His glorious grace. Amen. Let’s pray.
Our Father, these are marvelous truths and we’re grateful that You’ve revealed them to us. We pray that You will help us to take them ever so seriously, lest ever we are tempted to take credit or rob You of the praise that belongs only to You. We praise You for Your grace. Thank You for choosing us. Thank You for overruling our choice in sin. Thank You for saving us. In Jesus’ name.
Hey. Well, it seems very appropriate to conclude our service by singing the very words that we’ve heard preached to us this morning. So let’s turn in our yellow songbooks to number 168, and we’ll sing to the praise of His glorious grace. Let’s stand as we conclude our service in song.
What astonishing mercy and power!
In accord with his pleasure and will,
He created each planet, each star,
Every galaxy, microbe, and will.
He suspended his planet
To the praise of His glorious grace,
To the praise of His glorious grace,
Yet not enough without the praise
And destroy all who love the preface
Though He chose us to make a new place
Through the praise of His glorious grace
Through the praise of His glorious grace
Providentially ruling all things,
To conform to the end we desire,
It mysteriously governs and guides.
His eternal wise plans into time.
He works out every step, every trace,
To the praise of His glorious grace.
To the praise of His glorious grace.
To the praise of His glorious grace.
To the praise of His glorious grace.
We were blessed in the heavenly rest long before we met.
We shall see him ourselves face to face,
Through the praise of his glorious grace.
Through the praise of his glorious grace.
Through the praise of his glorious grace.