Ephesians Series: Ephesians 1:9b-When and Why the Father Revealed the Mystery of His Will for the Benefit of Church Age Believers

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. 6 This was for the purpose of praising His glorious grace, which He freely bestowed on each and every one of us because of the one who is divinely loved. 7 Because of whom, each one of us are experiencing that which is the redemption through His blood, namely the forgiveness of our transgressions according to His infinite grace. 8 This He provided in abundance for the benefit of each and every one of us because of the exercise of a wisdom, which is absolute and divine in nature resulting in the manifestation of an insight, which is absolute and divine in nature. 9 He did this by revealing the mystery of His will for the benefit of each and every one of us according to His pleasure, which He planned beforehand because of our faith in and resultant union and identification with Himself. (Lecturer’s translation)

Ephesians 1:9 is composed of a participial clause, which is modified by a relative pronoun clause and continues Paul’s thought from Ephesians 1:7-8 because it presents the means by which the Father provided His infinite grace in abundance for the benefit of each and every church age believer.

Therefore, the apostle Paul is asserting in Ephesians 1:9 that the Father provided His infinite grace in abundance for the benefit of each and every church age believer “by means of” revealing the mystery of His will for the benefit of each and every church age believer according to His pleasure.

This the Father accomplished through the Holy Spirit teaching the members of the church this through the apostles’ teaching.

The relative pronoun clause, which modifies the participial clause, identifies when the Father revealed the mystery of His will, which was according to His pleasure.

It asserts that the Father planned beforehand in eternity past to provide this revelation for the benefit of each and every church age believer.

This relative pronoun clause also identifies the reason why the Father did this, namely because of the church age believer’s faith in Christ at justification which resulted in them being identified with Christ in His crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session at the right hand of the Father.

In this relative pronoun clause, the verb protithemi (προτίθημι), “planned beforehand” indicates that the Father’s pleasure of revealing the mystery of His will for the benefit of church age believers was planned in eternity past.

The middle voice of this verb is an indirect middle, which indicates that it was “for the benefit of” the Father that He planned beforehand in eternity past to reveal the mystery of His will to church age believers, which was according to His pleasure.

It was for the Father’s benefit that He did this because it would result in church age believers praising Him for doing so.

This is indicated by the fact that Paul begins Ephesians 1:3-14, which is the preface of this letter in the form of a doxology, by asserting that the Father is worthy of praise.

The prepositional phrase en autō (ἐν αὐτῷ), “because of our faith in and resultant union and identification with Him” is presenting the reason why the Father planned in eternity past to reveal the mystery of His will for benefit of church age believers.

It asserts that He planned this in eternity past by means of Jesus Christ Himself.

Specifically, it was because of the church age believer’s faith in Jesus Christ Himself at justification and their resultant union and identification with Him in His crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session at the right hand of the Father.

This interpretation of this prepositional phrase is indicated by the fact that the Father only elects those members of the human race He declares justified through faith in His Son Jesus Christ as Savior, which immediately results in the Holy Spirit identifying them with His Son in His crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session at His right hand.

Thus, the Father only predestinates those members of the human race He declares justified through faith in His Son Jesus Christ as Savior, which immediately results in the Holy Spirit identifying them with His Son in His crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session at His right hand.

This is indicated by the fact that the Father elected the church age believer in eternity past by predestinating them for the purpose of adoption as His sons because of His love through their faith in and resultant union and identification with Jesus Christ.

The implication from this relative pronoun clause is that from His attributes of omniscience and foreknowledge, the Father saw that the church age believer would trust in His one and only Son, Jesus Christ as their Savior and thus planned to reveal the mystery of His will to them in time after their justification.

Therefore, from His attributes of omniscience and foreknowledge, He saw that the church age believer would trust in His one and only Son, Jesus Christ as their Savior and thus planned to reveal the mystery of His will to them.

As we noted, His will was that He elect them by predestinating them for the purpose of adoption as sons for Himself alone because of His love through faith in and union and identification with His Son, Jesus Christ.

Therefore, this relative pronoun clause is alluding to the Father electing the church age believer in eternity past, which was first mentioned in Ephesians 1:3.

Election is the work of God in eternity past and is a result of the divine decree and it took place before God created the universe, angels or human beings.

Election is God’s complete agreement with His own foreknowledge which refers only to those things, which God did decree or adopt as the plan of God-those things related to the believer only.

Foreknowledge is more limited in scope than God’s omniscience since it includes only the actual.

Only the decree establishes certainty or reality; only reality can be foreknown; nothing can be foreknown until first decreed.

God’s decrees never originate from His foreknowledge.

In 1 Peter 1:2, the phrase “who are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God” means that He simply agrees with Himself (foreknowledge) and puts a stamp of approval (election) upon what He decreed (1 Pet. 1:2).

Election is declared through God’s foreknowledge.

The decrees are God’s eternal and immutable will regarding the future existence of events which will happen in time plus the precise manner and the order of their occurrence.

The decrees in the plural means the eternal plan by which God has rendered certain all events of the universe (past, present and future).

The decrees are God’s chosen and adopted plan for all of His works and are His eternal purpose according to the councils of His own wisdom and His sovereign will.

The divine decrees are the eternal plans by which God renders certain all the events of the universe, including both angelic and human history—past, present, and future.

The divine decrees are actually one decree but because of the limitations of our human brain we often use the plural, decrees, to express the many facets of God’s plan.

The decree of God is the chosen and adopted plan of all His works.

It is His eternal purpose, according to His will; whereby, for His own glory, He foreordains whatever comes to pass.

It is the sovereign choice of His divine will and His omniscience, by which all things are brought into being and controlled, made subject to His pleasure, and made to produce His glorification.

God has rendered certain all the events of the universe, including both angelic and human history-past, present and future.

Therefore, God rendered certain to take place all the events of human history-past, present and future and thus figured these various circumstances into His plan.

God’s decree rendered all things as certain to occur and He decided that they would exist and so therefore, God rendered certain to occur all the events of human history-past, present and future and God decided that they would take place.

In the divine decree, the sovereignty of God and the free will of man co-exist in human history.

The relationship between human volition and the sovereign will and purpose of God can be viewed from different perspectives, namely, the “permissive” and “directive.”

In relation to eternal salvation, the “directive” will of God refers to what God directly requires of an individual and desires for them, which is to be saved.

His “permissive” will refers to Him “permitting” His creatures to act contrary to what He desires.

Therefore, God permits people to reject His will or accept it.

The Father’s eternal will, purpose and plan for the believer is that they are conformed to the image of Christ.

So therefore, when Ephesians 1:4 asserts that God the Father elected church age believers, it means that God the Father, who is omniscient, looked down the corridors of time and saw that they would trust in His Son Jesus Christ as Savior and consequently, prepared in advance a plan for them in eternity past.

Therefore, when they placed their trust in Jesus Christ as Savior, they were manifesting the fact that they have been elected to privilege by the Father.

He did not coerce their volition by electing but rather elected them to privilege when He saw through His omniscience and foreknowledge that they would believe in His Son.