Ephesians Series: Ephesians 1:11c-Paul Defines the Father’s Predetermined Plan

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. 10 This was for the dispensation which brings to completion the various periods of history. Namely, to unite for the benefit of Himself each and every animate and inanimate object in the sphere of the sovereign authority of the person of the one and only Christ. Specifically, to unite for the benefit of Himself those things in the heavens as well as those things on the earth in the sphere of the sovereign authority of Himself. 11 Because of whom, each and every one of us has been claimed as a possession because of having been predestinated according to the predetermined plan. Namely, the one who is causing each and every animate and inanimate object to function according to His purpose, that is, His sovereign will. (Lecturer’s translation)

The noun prothesis refers to the “predetermined plan” of God the Father and which plan is a reference to the “divine decree.”

This indicated by the fact that Paul describes this plan as the Father causing to exist each and every animate and inanimate object in the heavens and on earth, which is according to the purpose, that is His sovereign will and the divine decree describes the exercise of the Father’s sovereign will.

The “divine decree” is God the Father’s eternal plan in which He has rendered certain all the events of the universe, including both angelic and human history-past, present and future.

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 various circumstances that the Christian would experience during the course of his lifetime and God decided that these things would exist.

The divine decree took place in eternity past before anything was ever created and is God’s eternal and immutable will.

The “providence” of God is the divine outworking of the divine decree, the object being the final manifestation of God’s glory and expresses the fact that the world and our lives are not ruled by chance or fate but by God.

The decree of God is the chosen and adopted plan of all God’s works and is His eternal purpose according to the counsels of His own will, whereby for His own glory He has foreordained whatever comes to pass.

The decree of God is the sovereign choice of the divine will (His sovereignty) and mentality (His omniscience) by which all things are brought into being and controlled, made subject to His pleasure, and producing His glorification.

The “decree of God” is His eternal, holy, wise and sovereign purpose, comprehending at once all things that ever were or will be in their causes, courses, conditions, successions, and relations and determining their certain futurition (i.e., that they will certainly take place).

When I say “comprehending” I mean that the omniscience of God is the source of the divine decrees by “determining” I mean that the sovereignty of God chose before anything existed which things would actually become historical events.

The decree of God is His eternal and immutable will regarding the future existence of events, which will happen in time and regarding the precise order and manner of their occurrence.

The will of God in common usage refers to what God desires of an individual or group in a particular situation.

In relation to the divine decree the will of God refers to the decision God made in eternity past, from His attribute of sovereignty, which established that certain things would actually come into being while other things would not.

The will of God is His sovereign choice as to what will take place in time.

God in eternity past decreed that angels and human beings would have volition and would be allowed to make decisions contrary to His sovereign will and without compromising His justice.

In giving angels and men volition, God decreed that their decisions, whatever they might be, would certainly take place-even those that are contrary to His desires.

Being omniscient, God had the good sense to know ahead of time what men and angels would decide, and He not only decreed that those decisions would exist but He also decreed the exact manner, consistent with His integrity, in which He would handle their decisions.

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

The “directive” will of God refers to what God directly requires of an individual, His “permissive” will refers to Him “permitting” His creatures to act contrary to what He desires and His “overruling” will refers to the fact that at times God “overrules” the bad decisions of His creatures in order to perpetuate His plan.

Therefore, when God the Father, from His omniscience and foreknowledge in eternity past knew that the church age believer would trust in His Son, Jesus Christ as their Savior in time, He elected them in eternity past to the privilege of possessing an eternal relationship and fellowship with Himself and the other two members of the Trinity.

Simultaneously, He also elected them by predestinating them to adoption as His sons because of the function of His attribute of love.

As was the case in Ephesians 1:10, the adjective pas (πᾶς), “each and every animate and inanimate object” here in Ephesians 1:11 pertains refers to the totality of inanimate and animate objects that are contained in the first, second and third heavens and the earth.

In other words, it refers to every animate and inanimate object that iscontained in creation.

This would include: (1) Stars, satellites, and planets that compose the stellar universe. (2) Earth’s sun and moon. (3) Vegetation on the earth (4) Marine life (5) Bird life (6) Terrestrial life. (7) Human beings (8) Angels.

The adjective pas (πᾶς), “each and every animate and inanimate object”is used in a distributive sense meaning “each and every thing,”

The verb energeō(ἐνεργέω), “the one who is causing to function” is speaking of the Father exercising His omnipotence by causing to function each and every animate and inanimate object in the heavens and on earth.

The present tense of this verb is a gnomic present, which is expressing a spiritual axiom or an eternal spiritual truth because it is used in relation to the Father as the subject.

Therefore, here it is expressing the idea of the Father “as an eternal spiritual truth” causing each and every inanimate and animate object in the first, second and third heavens and the earth to function.

The participle conjugation of this verb energeō is a genitive of apposition or epexegetical genitive.

This indicates that it is defining the accusative form of the noun prothesis, “predetermined plan” as being the Father causing each and every animate and inanimate object in the first, second and third heavens to function according to His purpose, that is, His sovereign will.

The noun boulē(βουλή), “plan” speaks of that which the Father decides or plans, which is defined here as causing each and every animate and inanimate object in the first, second and third heavens to function.

The articular form of this word monadic which indicates that the Father’s decision or plan or purpose to cause each and every animate and inanimate object in the first, second and third heavens to function is “unique” to His sovereign will.

As was the case in Ephesians 1:5 and 1:9, the noun thelēma (θέλημα) here in Ephesians 1:11 means “will” since it pertains to that which is purposed or intended or willed. It refers to a person’s desired purpose or outcome.

In Ephesians 1:5 and 9, the word refers to the Father electing church age believers by predestinating them for the purpose of adoption as sons for His purpose because of His love through Jesus Christ.

Thus, it was according to His will to elect church age believers by predestinating them for the purpose of adoption as sons for His purpose alone because of His love through Jesus Christ.

In Ephesians 1:11, the noun thelēma also means “will” and is used of the Father’s sovereign will.

However, it is used in relation to the Father decision or plan or purpose to cause each and every animate and inanimate object in the first, second and third heavens to function.