A Plan For the Fullness of Time

                                                                     Ephesians 1: 1-10

 

 

          Today, in our introduction to the Essential Tenets of ECO, we turn to another well-accepted doctrine of the Reformed Tradition; that of Election, both for salvation and for service.

          Presbyterians are identified with election, or predestination as it is also called, more than any other denomination. We particularly get credit ot blame, depending on who is critiquing, for double predestination. There are historical reasons for that. John Calvin, one of our church fathers, wrote about it in his great work called The Institutes. The Westminster Confession of Faith, an important Presbyterian confession, affirms it. But double predestination, the doctrine that God preordains people for both heaven and hell, is only one of several major views about election. It is beyond the scope of this message to consider the details of each. Suffice it to say that each view is supported by Scripture, and that it takes study and discernment to find what God is saying. But what should be said at the outset is that election is a Biblical doctrine. It is not optional. It is as much a part of Biblical teaching as grace and sin and covenant.

          Let’s talk for a minute about what election is not. Election is not some God ordained fatalism that whatever good or bad that happens is God’s will. Election is not why you lost that job or your boyfriend broke up with you. It’s not about the ongoing conflict in the Middle East or any other war. Election is about God’s plan of salvation.

          In Romans 10 and 11, Paul talks about righteousness; about the path to it. He points out the difference between Israel’s pursuit of righteousness through the law, and the Gentiles’ pursuit of righteousness by faith. It is only faith which will succeed.  He says that God makes no distinction between Jew and Greek. Paul says the distinction is drawn by who calls upon the name of the Lord. He speaks that now famous passage about how to be saved: “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” [10: 9].

          In Ephesians 1, our passage for today, Paul addresses his letter to the saints who are in Ephesus. In other words, he is writing to the Christian community in that town or region. He goes on to talk about God blessing us in Christ, how we (the church) were predestined for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ. He ends this passage by talking about God’s purpose as set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time [1:10].

          In the passage from Romans, Paul is writing about two people groups, the Jews, those chosen by God in the Old Testament, and the Gentiles, which is everyone else. Specifically, Paul is writing about those among the Gentiles who believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ. In the passage from Ephesians, Paul is again targeting Gentile Christians, specifically those in the church in Ephesus. In the book of Galatians, Paul closes out his letter by addressing that community as the Israel of God. The point is this: in all three books, predestination as Paul explains it has to do with the election of a community to be the people of God. In every case, Paul is writing to churches, not individuals.  

          ECO states that we lost our freedom in the fall, meaning the fall of Adam, or mankind, into sin. From that, we are incapable in and of ourselves of turning away from sin. Paul reminds us in Romans 3 that all have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory. So now what? How can we be reconciled? In Christ. The grace of Jesus Christ makes that reconciliation possible. How does it start? God draws us to him and opens our hearts.   Jesus tells us in John’s gospel: “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him” [Jn.6: 44]. God draws us because he loves us. We, the Christian church, are part of the grand design. We are elected in love to be free, no longer bound by sin.

          Guthrie puts it this way, “According to scripture, individuals are indeed loved and chosen by God, but only as they participate in the whole community of God’s people.” We need not fear election. Indeed, we need to embrace it. Election is an assurance, not a threat. If we believe in the saving grace of God in Christ, we will be saved. God predestined us, Christianity, for that salvation. As surely as God’s grace through Jesus Christ is the reason for our election, it is also our assurance for that election (Guthrie, p. 136). Who does God want? Listen to the words of Paul in 1 Timothy: “God our Savior…desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” [2:4]. Who is elected? Listen to the words of the apostle John: “So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him ‘If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’” [8:31, 32].

          So we see that election provides a way to salvation for us. But election is a two sided coin.  We need also to recognize that election, while a gift from God, is a form of commission from him as well. ECO’s essential tenets state that the Holy Spirit gives faith, enables holiness through His sanctifying and regenerating work, thereby making us witnesses of God’s gracious presence to the lost. 

          In the servant songs of Isaiah, the prophet hearkens to a time of deliverance by a servant leader. We know these passages as Messianic prophecy. Look how they connect with the subject of election to service. God says; “I am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness. I will take you by the hand and keep you. I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations” [42: 6].  Later in chapter 49, God says again that he will make this servant “a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach the end of the earth” [v. 6]. Does this sound like election that limits or election that includes? It is not God, but ourselves, who in our deluded idea of freedom, opt out of God’s plan for our salvation. He not only wants us in his kingdom; he wants us to help him usher it in. He wants us as his witnesses.

            To come to a saving knowledge of God is to receive the Holy Spirit. Jesus promised his disciples that “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” [Acts 1: 8]. You, you who believe—will be my witnesses—to the ends of the earth!

           In his letter to the church in Corinth, the apostle Paul projects the mission of every Christian, the task of every member of the body of Christ. He talks about spiritual gifts, and how each of us has been gifted in our own way to serve the Lord. It is in those gifts singular to us that we are afforded our particular calling for service. And Paul goes on to say that each is essential. “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized in one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit…Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it” [12: 12, 13, 27].

          We are indeed elected. We are chosen, chosen by God himself. We are elected for salvation, elected for service. How do we know?  We confess with our mouths; we believe in our hearts, that Jesus is our Savior. And we are saved. God calls us to community with him. This is election, “God’s plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.”