Short Summaries of

Sermons on Ephesians

by Rev. Ralph Allan Smith

God's Sovereignty and Our Salvation

(Eph. 1:4-5)

Predestination is one of the most controversial doctrines of the Christian faith, but it shouldn't be. Not only is it not a problem intellectually, it is actually the foundation of the Biblical doctrine of free will which it is thought to endanger. Paul teaches predestination as a comfort and an encouragement for Christians in times of trial (Rom. 8:28-39). It is a doctrine that promotes humble and grateful worship (Eph. 1:3-14) as we acknowledge that our salvation is wholly by grace. The doctrine of God's sovereignty is absolutely essential to the Biblical conception of God as Creator and Lord and to the doctrine of salvation by grace.

God's Sovereignty in the Christian World View

To understand why the doctrine of God's sovereignty is intellectually necessary as well as edifying, we will begin by comparing Christian and non-Christian world views. The first point that we must clearly comprehend is this: denying that God is absolutely sovereign does not make for less problems, it creates more and greater problems. Every view of the world faces the question of whether or not the universe is rational and whether or not man has real freedom. These questions cannot be answered without defining the ultimate nature of the universe.

Though we are being simplistic here, we can say that there are three basic non-Christian approaches to explaining the universe. First, there are some non-Christians who assert that the universe is a rational system and that man has no real freedom or dignity. This has been expressed with radical clarity by the Harvard psychologist B. F. Skinner, especially in his book Beyond Freedom And Dignity. Skinner asserts, "Personal exemption from a complete determinism is revoked as a scientific analysis progresses, particularly in accounting for the behavior of the individual." The whole universe is a deterministic system in which man is one small part of the great machine. In this view man has no freedom or dignity, nor is there moral meaning to man or his history.

This is such a complete denial of the meaning of human life that some have rebelled against it by going to the opposite extreme. Rather than believe in a universe in which everything is mechanically determined, some appeal to modern physics, especially quantum mechanics, to find support for a universe in which chance is ultimate. In this view freedom is restored to man, but it is the freedom of randomness. Human choice is always a mere matter of whim. There is no ultimate explanation of man or of history. In the end man is meaningless, just as in the deterministic view. In stead of man as a small part of the universe as machine, we are only offered man as part of the universe as St. Vitus dance. These first two views give us a choice between being a gear or a spastic convulsion.

It is more common in the West to combine these extremes by holding both to determinism and chance as two ultimate principles that "balance" one another. When determinism is uncomfortable, run to chance for help. When chance is absurd, find salvation in determinism. This means that there is a fundamental contradiction in one's world view. It may seem unusual that anyone would hold such a view, but it happens that the Japanese Nobel prize winning biologist, Tonegawa, expressed this perspective clearly on an NHK program. Tonegawa asserted that man is a machine that can be totally explained by scientific theory, but that this machine had "many random elements" in it! Total determinism and total indeterminism asserted with total confidence! Intellectual schizophrenia, in other words, is the preferred faith of many in the West (and East!).

The only way out of this intellectual dilemma is faith in the God of the Bible. God created the world according to a rational plan and He rules the world according to a rational plan. There is ultimate meaning in the universe--meaning that is personal and moral. Man is predestined by God, but he is predestined to act as God's image, that is, as a morally responsible creature. Man's choices are therefore real and morally meaningful, even if not ultimate. Man's freedom is not threatened by God's decree, it is guaranteed and preserved by God's decree. Man's freedom is secondary, but nonetheless real. The fact that we cannot ultimately comprehend this mystery is consistent with our entire worldview as Christians, for we deny that man is able to comprehend anything ultimately. Predestination by God is the basis of our freedom and meaning.

Predestination And Worship

Paul presupposes the Christian world view that we have been speaking of, but he is not expounding it. He is giving thanks to God that He has chosen us before the foundation of the world to be His people. This is the mystery of grace. Salvation by grace does not just mean that salvation is a gift of God that we receive by faith. Salvation by grace means that God graciously determined to save certain individuals before the foundation of the world. He planned that Adam would sin in the garden by his free will, He planned that the race would become rebels against God. But He also planned salvation. The Father covenanted with the Son to save certain men, the number of which, I believe, will be far greater than those who are lost. God gave these men to Christ and Jesus came into the world to redeem them (cf. John 17).

We have been given the Holy Spirit and with Him all of the blessings of the new covenant because even before He created the world, God planned to save us and make us His own dear children. We have the blessing of salvation not by chance, nor by human whim, but by divine choice. Knowing that our salvation comes from His eternal election, we praise Him for His everlasting love and pray that His elective purpose may be fulfilled in us. We bow the knee to an absolute God who has loved us with a sovereign love.

The Purpose of Predestination

God chose us to be "holy and without blame before Him." "Without blame" refers to our justification and "holy" refers to our sanctification. Paul says further, in verse 5, that God has predestined us to be adopted as His children. God chose us for a purpose that we should become like Christ our Lord: " For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren" (Rom. 8:29). To be saved by grace means that God both plans and accomplishes salvation. He will remake us to be like Christ.

We thank Him, therefore, not only that He chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world but also that He is working in us now to accomplish the eternal purpose that He purposed in Christ. We worship Him and praise Him as the Alpha and Omega of our salvation. And when we do worship Him as such, we are compelled by His love and grace to strive to be what He has chosen us to be. Moral effort is not undermined by the doctrine of predestination, any more than freedom is.

When the Bible tells us that God loved us before He even created the world, that Jesus came into the world to die for us personally to save us from our sins, that God sent His Spirit to convict us of sin and draw us to Himself so that we could believe, that His Spirit indwells us to sanctify us, does all of this make us lazy? Does this make us presume on God's grace? Not if we really believe it. On the contrary, our hearts should be, as Calvin often says, "ravished by His love." We respond to His everlasting love by loving Him and seeking to do His will. Striving for holiness is the natural response to being told that He loved us and saved us so that we could be like Christ.

It is important also to remember that humility is of the essence of holiness--not the humility of pretense and human show, but the humility of joyful submission to God. Knowing the doctrine of predestination, we cannot pray like the Pharisee in the parable: "God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess." (Luk. 18:11b-12). We can not boast of a holiness that is the gift of God, nor can we imagine that the difference between us and other men is found in our goodness, wisdom, or strength. We have nothing to boast of, except the grace of God, as Paul says, "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world" (Gal. 6:14). We can only pray, like the sinner, "God, be merciful to me." And, like Paul, thank Him for the undeserved love that He determined to set upon us. When we are humbly thankful, we begin to be holy.