Ephesians 3.11a-The Father's Eternal Predetermined Plan
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Tuesday June 4, 2024
Ephesians Series: Ephesians 3:11a-The Father’s Eternal Predetermined Plan
Lesson # 161
Ephesians 3:11 This was in conformity with the eternal predetermined plan, which He caused to be accomplished by means of our faith in and union and identification with the one and only Christ, who is Jesus, who is the one and only Lord ruling over each and every one of us as a corporate unit. (Lecturer’s translation)
Ephesians 3:11 is composed of the prepositional phrase kata prothesin tōn aiōnōn (κατὰ πρόθεσιν τῶν αἰώνων), “the eternal predetermined plan,” which modifies the result clause in Ephesians 3:10.
The latter asserts that the multifaceted wisdom produced by the manifestation of the will of God (the Father) was made known to the sovereign rulers and governmental authorities in the heavenlies through the members of the church.
This prepositional phrase is modified by the relative pronoun clause hēn epoiēsen en tō Christō Iēsou tō kyriō hēmōn (ἣν ἐποίησεν ἐν τῷ Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ τῷ κυρίῳ ἡμῶν), “which He caused to be accomplished by means of our faith in and union and identification with the one and only Christ, who is Jesus, who is the one and only Lord ruling over each and every one of us as a corporate unit.”
The noun prothesis (πρόθεσις), “predetermined plan” pertains to that which is planned or purposed in advance.
Thus, as was the case in Ephesians 1:11, the word here in Ephesians 3:11 refers to the “predetermined plan” of God the Father.
We also noted that this word is modified by the articular genitive masculine plural form of the noun aiōn (αἰών), “eternal” which speaks of an exceedingly long or indefinite period of time from an assumed beginning up to the present.
Literally, the word means “ages” and speaks of the period prior to the Father creating through His Son, Jesus Christ the time, matter, space continuum.
Thus, it pertains to eternity past.
This word is in the genitive case and can be interpreted in a variety of ways.
First, it can be interpreted as functioning as a genitive of source, which takes place when the genitive substantive is the source from which the head noun derives or depends.
Therefore, this interpretation would indicate that the Father’s plan “originates from” before the ages began.
Secondly, it can also be interpreted as an objective genitive, which takes place when the genitive substantive receives the action implicit in the head noun.
Therefore, this would indicate that the ages receive the action of the Father devising a plan before the ages began.
However, I believe that the noun aiōn (αἰών) functions as an attributive genitive, which functions like an adjective but more emphatically.
Here it is expressing the eternal quality of the predetermined plan of the Father because it is actually a Hebraism in which the genitive functions as an adjective and is thus equivalent to the noun aiōnios (αἰώνιος), “eternal.”
The noun prothesis (πρόθεσις) is the object of the preposition kata (κατά), which functions as a marker of correspondence to a particular standard or policy.
As we also noted earlier, this prepositional phrase is modifying the result clause in Ephesians 3:10, which asserts that the multifaceted wisdom produced by the manifestation of will of God (the Father) was made known to the sovereign rulers and governmental authorities in the heavenlies through the members of the church.
Therefore, this indicates that the multifaceted wisdom produced by the manifestation of will of God (the Father) was made known to the sovereign rulers and governmental authorities in the heavenlies through the members of the church “according to” or “in conformity with” the Father’s “eternal predetermined plan.”
Now, the noun prothesis (πρόθεσις), “predetermined plan” here in Ephesians 3:11 is a related to the election and predestination of the church age believer in eternity past by God the Father, which was according to this predetermined plan.
This is indicated by a comparison of the contents of Ephesians 3:10 with the contents of the Ephesians 3:11.
The former we noted asserts that the multifaceted wisdom produced by the manifestation of the will of God the Father was made known to Satan and the members of his kingdom through the members of the church.
The latter we noted asserts that the Father caused His predetermined plan to be accomplished by means of the church age believer’s faith in and union and identification with the one and only Christ, who is Jesus, who is the one and only Lord ruling over each and every one of member of the church.
Notice the connection or relationship between the multifaceted wisdom brought about by the manifestation of the will of the Father, which was made known to Satan and the members of his kingdom and this eternal predetermined plan, which was accomplished by means of the church age believer’s faith in the Father’s Son at justification and union and identification with Him through the baptism of the Spirit.
This relationship or connection exists because of the preposition kata (κατά), which links these two assertions together.
It indicates that the assertion in Ephesians 3:10 is in conformity with the contents of Ephesians 3:11.
In other words, this preposition indicates that the multifaceted wisdom produced by the manifestation of will of God (the Father) was made known to the sovereign rulers and governmental authorities in the heavenlies through the members of the church “according to” or “in conformity with” the Father’s “eternal predetermined plan” for the church age believer.
This involved the election of the church age believer in eternity past, and which election was accomplished by the Father when He predestinated them to adoption as His sons.
In our study of Ephesians 1:3-5, we noted that the Father in eternity past elected the church age believer by predestinating them to adoption as His sons.
This election was manifested in time when the Father declaring them justified through faith in His Son, Jesus Christ.
Simultaneously, the Father placed them in union with His Son and identified them with His Son in His crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session at His right hand through the baptism of the Spirit.
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)
