Ephesians 1.5a-The Father Elected the Church Age Believer By Predstinatinating Them
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Saturday March 4, 2023
Ephesians Series: Ephesians 1:5a-The Father Elected the Church Age Believer By Predestinating Them
Lesson # 18
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 creation in order that each and every one of us would be holy as well as uncensurable in His judgment. 5 He did this by predestinating each and every one of us for the purpose of adoption as sons because of His love through Jesus Christ for Himself according to the pleasure of His will. (Lecturer’s translation)
Ephesians 1:5 is a participial clause, which asserts that the Father predestinated each and every church age believer for the purpose of adoption as sons because of His love for them through Jesus Christ for Himself according to the pleasure of His will.
It identifies the means by which the Father elected for His own purpose each and every church age believer because of His Son before creation in order that each of them would be holy and uncensurable in His judgment.
Therefore, this indicates that the Father elected the church age believer by predestinating them for the purpose of adoption as His sons because of His love for them through Jesus Christ for Himself according to the pleasure of His will.
This participial clause is modified by five prepositional phrases.
The first eis huiothesian (εἰς υἱοθεσίαν), “for the purpose of adoption as sons” presents the purpose for which the Father predestinated each and every church age believer through Jesus Christ.
The second en agapē (ἐν ἀγάπῃ), “because of His love” presents the reason why the Father predestinated the church age believer to adoption as His sons through Jesus Christ.
The third dia Iēsou Christou (διὰ Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ), “through Jesus Christ” indicates that Jesus Christ is the Father’s personal agency through whom He predestinated the church age believer for the purpose of adoption as sons.
The fourth eis auton (εἰς αὐτόν), “for Himself” emphasizes the identity of God the Father as adopting church age believers through the personal intermediate agency of His Son, Jesus Christ because of His love.
It also expresses the idea that the Father predestinating church age believers for the purpose of adoption as His sons because of His attribute of love through Jesus Christ was “for the benefit of Himself.”
The fifth and final prepositional phrase kata tēn eudokian tou thelēmatos autou (κατὰ τὴν εὐδοκίαν τοῦ θελήματος αὐτοῦ), “according to the pleasure of His will” expresses the idea that the Father predestinating church age believers for the purpose of adoption as sons for His purpose alone through Jesus Christ corresponds to the pleasure of His will.
In other words, it was according to His will to predestinate church age believers for the purpose of adoption as sons for His purpose alone because of His love through Jesus Christ.
Therefore, as we noted, Ephesians 1:5 presents the means by which the Father elected for His own purpose each and every church age believer because of His Son before creation in order that each of them would be holy and uncensurable in His judgment.
Therefore, this would indicate that the Father elected for His own purpose each and every church age believer because of His Son before creation in order that each of them would be holy and uncensurable in His judgment “by” determining beforehand in eternity past or predestinating each of them for the purpose of adoption as His sons because of His love for them through Jesus Christ for Himself according to the pleasure of His will.
In other words, this indicates the Father elected the church age believer “by” predestinating them or “by” determining beforehand for the purpose of adoption as His sons because of His love for them through Jesus Christ.
This interpretation is supported by several factors.
First, the causal participle usually precedes the main verb, which in our context is the verb eklegomai (ἐκλέγομαι), which appears in Ephesians 1:4.
Here it is following the main verb.
Secondly, the participle of means usually follows the main verb, which is the case here with the verb proorizo following the verb eklegomai, which appears in Ephesians 1:4.
Thirdly, as we noted in our study of Ephesians 1:4, the prepositional phrase en autō (ἐν αὐτῷ), “because of Him alone” is marking Paul, the recipients of this letter faith in Christ at justification as well as their union and identification with Him 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 faith at their justification 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.
In fact, church age believers are adopted by the Father as His sons because of their faith in Jesus Christ at justification as well as their identification with Jesus Christ in His crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session at the Father’s right hand.
Furthermore, as we noted the action of both verbs proorizo and eklegomai took place in eternity past.
Thus, the Father elected church age believers in eternity past, which the former defines as predestinating them to adoption as His sons.
The purpose of electing them was so that they would be blameless and uncensurable in the judgment of the Father and the purpose of predestinating them was to adopt them as sons.
To be the Father’s sons, they would have to share His holy character and nature, which is why they must be holy and uncensurable in His judgment like His one and only Son, Jesus Christ.
This is supported by the fact that Ephesians 1:4 asserts that church age believers were elected because of their faith in and identification with Jesus Christ while Ephesians 1:5 asserts that they were predestinated to adoption as His sons because of His love through Jesus Christ.
In other words, Jesus Christ is both the reason why they were elected and He was the personal intermediate agency through whom they were predestinated to adoption as His sons.
So therefore, the means by which the Father elected church age believers in eternity past to be holy and uncensurable in His judgment was “by” determining beforehand in eternity past to adopt them as His sons because of His love for them through the work of His Son, Jesus Christ on the cross and their identification with Him through the baptism of the Spirit.