Ephesians Series: Ephesians 1:4b-The Purpose of the Father Electing the Church Age Believer in Eternity Past

Ephesians 1:3 The God, namely the Father of the Lord ruling over us, who is Jesus Christ, is worthy of praise. Namely, because He is the one who has blessed each and every one of us by means of each and every kind of Spirit appropriated blessing in the heavenlies in Christ. 4 For He chose each and every one of us for His own purpose because of Him alone before the act of creating the time, matter, space continuum in order that each and every one of us would be holy as well as uncensurable in His judgment. (Lecturer’s translation)

As we noted in our study of Ephesians 1:3, this verse marks a transition in this epistle from the introduction to the preface of the letter in Ephesians 1:3-14, which marks the beginning of the body of this letter.

This preface begins the first major section of the letter, which ends in Ephesians 3:21, and addresses the unity of the church positionally.

We also noted that Ephesians 1:3 contains two declarative statements.

The first is elliptical and the second is epexegetical and a causal clause presenting the reason for the first, which asserts that God the Father is worthy of praise in the sense that He possesses attributes which are worthy of praise.

The second identifies specifically for the reader why the Father is worthy of praise and asserts that He is the one who has blessed Paul and the recipients of this epistle and all church age believers by means of each and every kind of Spirit appropriated blessing in the heavenlies in Christ.

Then, Paul in Ephesians 1:4 presents the second reason why the Father is worthy of praise.

He asserts that He chose every church age believer for His own purpose before the act of creating the time, matter, space continuum in order that they would be holy and unblemished in His judgment.

Therefore, a comparison of the contents of Ephesians 1:3 and 4 indicates that the Father is worthy of praise “because” He chose Paul and the recipients of this letter and all church age believers for His own purpose in Christ before the creating the time, matter, space continuum in order that they would be holy and unblemished in His judgment.

The expression exelexato hēmas en autō pro katabolēs kosmou (ἐξελέξατο ἡμᾶς ἐν αὐτῷ πρὸ καταβολῆς κόσμου), “He (the Father) chose each and every one of us for His own purpose because of Him alone before the act of creating the time, matter, space continuum” refers to the doctrine of election.

It refers to God the Father in eternity past electing those members of the human race who would be declared justified by the Father through faith in His Son Jesus Christ.

He elected them in the sense that He, in His foreknowledge, which is based upon His omniscience, knew before anything was ever created, that they would believe in His Son in time.

In other words, God elected them before the foundation of the world since He knew beforehand that they would accept His Son Jesus Christ as Savior in time.

He elected them to the privilege of possessing an eternal relationship and fellowship with Himself and the other two members of the Trinity.

The doctrine of election is never used in Scripture in relation to the unbeliever since 1 Timothy 2:4 and 2 Peter 3:9 teach that God desires all people to be saved.

There are three elections to privilege in history: (1) Israel (Deut. 7:6-7; 10:15; 14:2; Isa. 14:1; 44:1; 45:4; 48:12; Isa. 65:9; Ezek. 20:5; Psa. 135:4; Acts 13:17; 15:7; Rom. 11:5, 7, 28). (2) Christ (Isa. 42:1; Matt. 12:18; Luke 9:35; 23:35; 1 Pet. 2:4-6). (3) Church (Rom. 8:30, 33; 9:24-26; 1 Cor. 1:27; Eph. 1:4, 18; 4:1, 4; Phil. 3:14; Col. 3:12, 15; 1 Thess. 1:4; 2 Thess. 2:13; 2 Tim. 1:9; 2:10; Tit. 1:1; Heb. 3:1; James 2:5; 1 Pet. 1:1, 15; 2:4, 9, 21; 3:9; 5:10, 13; 2 Pet. 1:3, 10; Rev. 17:14).

The referent of the dative masculine singular form of the intensive personal pronoun autos (αὐτός), “Him alone” is Jesus Christ.

It contains the figure of metonymy which means that the person of Christ is put for the church age believer’s faith in Christ and their resultant union and identification with Him.

This is indicated by the fact that in eternity past the Father in His omniscience saw that the church age believer would trust in His Son Jesus Christ as their Savior, which not only results in the Father declaring them justified but also results in the Holy Spirit identifying them with Jesus Christ in His crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session at the right hand of the Father.

In other words, the Father elected them in eternity past because of the merits of the object of their faith at justification, namely, Jesus Christ and because of the merits of their resultant union and identification with Jesus Christ through the baptism of the Spirit.

Furthermore, we noted that the prepositional phrase en autō (ἐν αὐτῷ), “because of Him alone” is marking every church age believer’s faith in Christ at justification as well as their resultant union and identification with Him in His crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session at the right hand of the Father as the reason why the Father chose them before the foundation of the world in order that they would be holy and unblemished in His judgment.

The Father elected them to possess an eternal relationship and fellowship with Himself and the other two members of the Trinity “because” in His omniscience He saw that they would in time trust in His Son Jesus Christ as their Savior.

This resulted in the Holy Spirit identifying them with His Son in His crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session at the right hand of the Father.

The prepositional phrase pro katabolēs kosmou (πρὸ καταβολῆς κόσμου) is expressing the idea that the Father chose the church age believer because of Christ “before the act of creating the time, matter, space continuum.”

The infinitival purpose clause einai hēmas hagious kai amōmous katenōpion autou (εἶναι ἡμᾶς ἁγίους καὶ ἀμώμους κατενώπιον αὐτοῦ), “in order that each and every one of us would be holy as well as uncensurable in His judgment” presents the purpose for which the Father elected the church age believer before the act of creating the time, matter, space continuum.

Therefore, it indicates that He elected the church age believer before the act of creating the time, matter, space continuum because of Jesus Christ “for the purpose of” them possessing the characteristics of being holy and blameless in His judgement.

The adjective hagios(ἅγιος), “holy” describes Paul and the recipients of this epistle as being set apart through the baptism of the Spirit at the moment of justification in order to order serve God exclusively.

The adjective amōmos(ἄμωμος), “uncensurable” describes Paul and the recipients of this epistle as being “free from official reprimand, free from censure” in the judgment of the Father.

The reference to being “holy as well as uncensurable” refers to the sanctification of the believer, which is a technical theological term for the believer who has been set apart through the baptism of the Spirit at the moment of conversion in order to serve God exclusively.

It is accomplished in three stages: (1) Positional (2) Experiential (3) Perfective.

All three stages of sanctification refer to the process of conforming the believer into the image of Jesus Christ, which is the Father’s plan from eternity past (Romans 8:28-30).

Therefore, when Paul asserts that the Father elected the church age believer before the act of creating the time, matter, space continuum because of Jesus Christ for the purpose of them being holy and blameless in His judgement, he is speaking of these three stages of the believer’s sanctification.

The expression hagious kai amōmous (ἁγίους καὶ ἀμώμους), “holy as well as uncensurable in His judgment” echoes Colossians 1:22, which contains the same expression.

Colossians 1:21 Indeed, because each and every one of you at one time existed in the state of being alienated, specifically enemies because of your attitude, because of your evil actions, 22 He has now in fact reconciled each and every one of you by means of His body composed of human flesh by means of His death. The purpose of which is to present each and every one of you as holy, uncensurable and unaccusable in His presence. (Lecturer’s translation)

These two words hagios(ἅγιος), “holy” and amōmos (ἄμωμος), “uncensurable” both also appear together in Ephesians 5:27 in relation to the sanctification of the church age believer.

Ephesians 5:25 Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her 5:26 to sanctify her by cleansing her with the washing of the water by the word, 5:27 so that he may present the church to himself as glorious—not having a stain or wrinkle, or any such blemish, but holy and blameless. (NET)

Now, in this infinitival purpose clause in Ephesians 1:4, the genitive third person masculine singular form of the intensive personal pronoun autos (αὐτός), “His” refers to the Father who is the nearest antecedent.

This is indicated by the fact that He is identified in Ephesians 1:3 as the one who has blessed the church age believer by means of every kind of Spirit appropriated blessing in the heavenlies in Christ.

Also, He is identified in Ephesians 1:4 as having chosen or electing the church age believer because of their faith in Christ in time at justification before creating the time, matter, space continuum.

This word is the object of the preposition katenōpion (κατενώπιον), which means “in the judgment of” since it functions as a marker of a position relative to someone who is viewed as having jurisdiction or authority whether visibly present or not.

Here the word is used of Paul and the recipients of the Ephesian epistle and every church age believer possessing the characteristics of being holy and uncensurable “in the judgment of” the Father because He elected them because of their faith in Christ in time at justification and because of their resultant union and identification with Christ through the baptism of the Spirit.

This judgment will take place after the church age believer will be perfected in a resurrection body and will no longer sin again.