Colleen and Nikki begin a study of Ephesians. In this episode they discuss predestination and adoption—the best security ever! Transcription by Gwen Billington.
Colleen: Welcome to Former Adventist podcast. I’m Colleen Tinker.
Nikki: And I’m Nikki Stevenson.
Colleen: Today we are launching a new study. This time we’re going to go through the Epistle to the Ephesians. We’ve just completed going through Colossians, where we learned about the full deity and supremacy of the Lord Jesus. We learned that Jesus’ role within the Trinity was Creator of all things and that in Him all things hold together. In other words, He never ceased to exist and He never ceased to hold all things together, even during His death, even when He was in Mary’s womb. We learned that the truth of the gospel stands against all false teaching and heresies, that Jesus is the reality foreshadowed in every Mosaic ritual and law. He is the reality foreshadowed by the Sabbath. He canceled the curse of the law that stood against us by nailing the law, including its curse of death, in His flesh to the cross. Jesus disarmed and humiliated Satan and his minions by dying on the cross, removing their only tool against God’s people, the law that demanded death for sin. We learned that no one’s visions or teachings of asceticism have any power to restrain fleshly indulgence, and only in holding fast to our head, Jesus, can we live above the desires of the flesh. We also learned we’ve been raised up with Christ when we believe, and now, in Christ, we’re to fix our eyes on things above. Now we have the spiritual life and power to resist the sins that tempt us. We’re to let the peace of Christ rule in our hearts. Wives are to submit to their husbands, husbands are to love their wives, children are to obey their parents, and masters and servants (or employees) are to treat each other as if they were reacting to the Lord. We’re to be devoted to prayer for one another so that all may speak forth the mystery of Christ as we ought to do. Years ago I was listening to the late J. Vernon McGee – I’ve always loved his accent and his homely illustrations – and I remember him saying that the Epistle to the Colossians tells us about the person of Christ, and then he said, “Ephesians tells us about the Body of Christ.” So since we’ve just finished taking an in-depth look at Colossians and learning who the real person of Jesus is, in contrast to the weak, fallible Jesus of Adventism, we’re now going to move to the next epistle that tells what we have to know, the Epistle of Ephesians that teaches us about being the Body of Christ, our role in the church. It’s very different from what I understood that to be as an Adventist, but now we know we’re God’s new creation, and God’s creation is comprised of those who are born again through believing in the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Before we start, though, I want to remind you that if you have questions, comments, or even requests, email us at formeradventist@gmail.com. You may sign up for our weekly Proclamation! email at proclamationmagazine.com, and you can find all of our online articles and magazines there. You may also donate to Life Assurance Ministries by clicking on the donate tab, and please follow us on Facebook and Instagram, and write us a review wherever you listen to podcasts. So, Nikki, as we launch into this discussion of the Book of Ephesians, I have a question for you. As an Adventist, how did you understand the concept of election or predestination?
Nikki: Well, if you had asked me about election as an Adventist, I would have thought you were asking me what my political leanings were.
Colleen: [Laughter.]
Nikki: I never heard the word “election” as an Adventist. It made me think of politics. It was never something that caused me to think about Scripture. And I asked Carel the same question. I asked him if he’d ever heard about election as an Adventist, and he hadn’t. He said he would have thought you were talking about politics too. It’s just interesting. As far as predestination goes, my answer would have been probably that that word was misused in the translation because there is no way that the God I knew would predestine anyone to salvation or to eternal hell. There is no predestination. It was almost the opposite of the Adventist message to suggest that there was any predestination because the whole purpose of Jesus coming was to show that we had the free will to obey God’s Ten Commandments and to live a perfect life, and so predestination just doesn’t even fit into the Adventist gospel.
Colleen: My goodness, I was of the same mind, as an Adventist. I could not allow the word “predestination” where it appears in the Bible, as it does here at the beginning of Ephesians 1, I couldn’t allow it to mean what it said. It just went against my Adventist worldview. Now, because the words of Scripture are so important and carry so much meaning and weight, and if we’re to understand what God had in mind when He gave these words of Scripture to the Bible writers, and in this case Paul, we have to understand how to approach these words. Now, a couple weeks ago we talked about the necessity of using biblical words to describe biblical ideas. The necessity for using the words that represent the author’s original words is why we denounce Bible versions such as the Clear Word or the Jehovah’s Witness New World Translation. These are not Bibles that represent the original words that God gave the authors. These have new ideas woven into them, explanations, interpretations. The heretical beliefs of false religion are woven into those so-called Bibles, but those Bibles aren’t the only ones that we have to be careful of. A few weeks ago we had a new person join us on our Friday night Zoom FAF meeting. Now, this person was not a former Adventist, but when this person read the passage out of Ephesians, incidentally, that we were studying that night, she read it from The Passion translation. Now, many of us who were present at that Zoom meeting felt ourselves tensing and becoming really cautious because there were a lot of words and ideas that she read that were not in the original source of Scripture. They were not in the translations we were using, which included the NASB, the ESV. We ended up telling her we can’t use that translation of the Bible because it does not represent the words of Scripture. There were human words, human concepts, human phrases woven in to try to make the concepts understandable, but what they really did was to detract from what the Bible actually said. That’s why we made a big deal about using Bible words. But at the same time, I just must say that over the centuries, as Christians have wrestled with heresies that have come up, they have developed some words that represent biblical ideas when there’s no specific word in Scripture to summarize what’s being said. For example – I’ll make this easy – the word like “Trinity.” A lot people, including a lot of Adventists, say, “Well, Trinity is not in the Bible. It’s not a true concept.” Well, the way “Trinity” is described and interpreted literally stands for what the Bible says about the Father, Son, and Spirit. Other words that theologians have developed as shorthand for the real concepts of Scripture include “Decalogue.” That’s one we all know, as former Adventists. It stands for the Ten Commandments. Words like “omnipresence,” meaning God is present everywhere; “omniscience,” God is all-knowing; “omnipotence,” God is all-powerful. These words are not heretical words. They represent biblical concepts. They aren’t trying to explain and define biblical concepts, and that’s a difference we have to keep in mind. We’re making kind of a big deal about this because as we start this Book of Ephesians, it is an amazingly rich book. We want to launch our discussion of this book by laying down just a few ground rules that we follow ourselves when we study Scripture, Nikki. And you’ve created a wonderful outline of hermeneutics for how we approach Scripture, and I’d like you to go through it briefly as we start, and we’ll refer to it over the months as we discuss other passages of Scripture, but this will help you understand how we know that we can trust the words of the Bible. Would you mind going through your outline for us, please?
Nikki: This is just kind of a summary of the stuff that I’ve learned over the years from other teachers or things that I’ve read online. The first thing we do when we approach a letter like Ephesians is we identify the book. We need to know the genre that we’re reading from. If it’s in the Old Testament, are we reading the Torah? The history books? Poetry and wisdom? The major or minor prophets? Or if we’re in the New Testament, is it the gospels? The history of the church? The epistles? Or apocalyptic Scripture? Whichever genre we’re reading from is going to play a big role in how we interpret and understand those letters. We also consider who the author is, and has the author written any other books that help us understand their use of language? What is their writing style? Or what are key words that they use from letter to letter? We also consider the historical background. What is the date of the letter or the book that we’re reading? What is the historical context? The theological, geographical, political, or social context? Those questions used to intimidate me, but a good study Bible helps a lot with answering that. Then we ask: Who’s the audience? Is this written to Jews? To Gentiles? To believers? Is this Old Covenant or New Covenant? And then we look at the main purpose or theme of the book. What is the goal of the letter? Some of the things that we look for as we read are all questions. Are there commands or promises for us to notice? Who are they for? What applies to us now? Are there principles that can be applied to us? And what do we learn about God, and what do we learn about man? Those are my favorite questions. So along with this, I have a list of interpretive rules. They’re by no means formal. They are just some things that I’ve read and heard and compiled. There are only ten here, but there are many more, and there are great books written about this that you can buy to learn more.
Colleen: These are Nikki’s “Ten Commandments of Hermeneutics.” [Laughter.]
Nikki: [Laughter.] So again, they’re not exhaustive, but:
1. This one has been so helpful to me, the rule of precedent or pattern. So where else do we see Scripture talk about what we’re reading? Is there a precedent in Scripture related to the topic, whether it’s prayer or whatever it is that you’re looking at? What does the rest of Scripture say about it?
2. Interpretations must be consistent with the rest of Scripture. They can’t contradict each other.
3. Scripture interprets Scripture.
4. The goal of interpreting Scripture is not to discover hidden truth. We should not seek after unique interpretation. The Bible is God’s book of self-disclosure, and it’s clear.
5. Words and definitions matter. Scripture defines its terms, not current culture. The meaning is derived from the context. An example of this might be just simply thinking about the word “trunk.” How do we define that word? Well, it depends on the context. Are we talking about the trunk of an elephant, a trunk that you use for traveling, or the back end of a vehicle?
6. Interpret Scripture literally unless the genre gives ample evidence that it’s meant to be read figuratively. This is so important and has been so helpful for me. This will deal with spiritual Israel.
Colleen: Yes.
Nikki: Why do we do this? Because Jesus did. We don’t have an example of Jesus or His disciples giving allegorical or spiritualized interpretations of the Old Testament, which by the way, is the precedent rule, or the rule of pattern. We don’t see it happening. Also, allegory is unverifiable. It’s subjective, and when you spiritualize the Scriptures, the message is no longer authoritative.
7. Grammar and grammatical devices are important. The Bible contains similes, personification, metaphor, symbolic language, etc. When we read these, we have to let the text make its own point, and we can’t push the grammatical device used outside of the author’s purpose. If you push a metaphor too far, you’re going to come up with something else. All Scripture is authoritative and tells us the truth. This means that the tenses matter, and they did to Jesus – again, a precedent rule. The tenses mattered to Him, the jots and the tittles were important to Him, and so they ought to be to us as well.
8. A text cannot mean what it never meant. The meaning is fixed by the author, and it’s not subject to alteration.
9. Do not interpret Scripture in light of personal experience. Interpret personal experience in light of Scripture. An example of this for me personally was the text, “No one seeks for God, no not one.” Now, I know I wasn’t born again until 2010, but as far back as I can remember through my life, I wanted to know God. So when I read a text like, “No one seeks for God,” I thought, “Well, wait a minute, I sought for God.” That’s me interpreting the text. That’s me arguing with the text on the basis of my experience. But if I interpret my experience on the basis of that text, then I can know that I didn’t seek after God. God drew me to Himself. And then reality now is in its right place, because it’s defined by Scripture, the only arbiter of truth.
10. The clear interprets the unclear. When we have questions about a text, we look at other parts of Scripture where the topic is discussed. And where it’s clear, we understand that’s the message of Scripture because Scripture doesn’t contradict itself. Where it’s unclear, we understand there is something we’re not quite grasping, and we can push into it from that perspective. We shout where Scripture shouts, and we whisper where it whispers.
Colleen: Those are wonderful, Nikki. Those rules of understanding and reading Scripture have helped me see that my worldview as an Adventist was based on something other than Scripture, even though I was taught everything I believed was based on the Bible.
Nikki: Um-hmm.
Colleen: When I started understanding that the words mean what the words say and context is everything, everything started looking different to me, and I saw that Adventism directly contradicts the words of Scripture, and I had to decide, “Am I going to believe the Bible or am I going to believe the Adventist interpretation,” which ultimately is from Ellen White. Even Adventists who’ve never read Ellen White have a worldview that is based on her commentary of Scripture. They don’t know it. That’s one of the reasons it’s so difficult to help them see sometimes that they actually do believe in an extrabiblical prophet. It’s a form of brainwashing. Adventists are taught, essentially, that the sky is green instead of blue. And they’re taught that that color in the sky defines the word “green.” And when we start to see what’s real, we have to redefine our terms. It’s these rules that have helped me do that and helped me see that there’s something consistent that other people in the world have found as well. This isn’t unique. It isn’t something that’s up to me. God has given His word, and He’s given us a means of understanding it, and it is consistent, and it holds together.
Nikki: And these principles are simple enough that they can be taught to young Sunday school children. You do not have to have a theological degree in order to read the Bible with respect for what you’re holding in your hand, to do it accurately. And that’s something that we were deprived of as Adventists because the majority of our “Bible teaching” in church was propaganda, it was Sabbath school quarterlies, whatever. We were never taught that there was a way to read the Bible.
Colleen: It’s given me so much confidence because I know the words mean what the words say, and I use the normal rules of grammar and vocabulary to understand it. I don’t read a book of science and ask, “How can I reinterpret this understanding of weather?” I read the words and understand what science has revealed and know that it’s the truth, and now I can look at the Bible in that same way and know the words mean what the words say, and they’re not up for interpretation. They have meanings that are their own. As we begin this book of Ephesians, Nikki, I think it’s important to know, right from the start, that the main idea in Ephesians is the idea of being in Christ, and we’re going to see that as we start walking through these verses. The idea of being in Christ is an idea that Paul wrote about in his epistles perhaps three times as often as the idea we normally think of in reference to Paul, which is justification. Now, to be sure, Paul is the one who taught us details about justification through the shed blood of Jesus. The idea of what it means to be in Christ is also Paul’s huge contribution to the Body of Christ. So as we start this book of Ephesians, Nikki, would you share with us some of the background information that you’ve gathered about this book, to give us some context as we start launching into the verses?
Nikki: Ephesus was best known for its Temple to Artemis, or Diana, which was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. And it was an important political, educational, and commercial center in Phrygia. It was the capital of the Roman province of Asia, and it was sort of the main headquarters, if you will, of Paul’s work in Phrygia. The economic industry depended a lot on the silversmiths and the idol makers because of the Temple of Artemis, so the impact on Ephesus from the church impacted their economy. Now, this letter to the Ephesians doesn’t actually correct any heresies, but it’s full of doctrine and practice, and like you said, its main point is “What does it mean to be in Christ?” So the letter has six chapters, and the first three cover New Testament doctrine, and the last three cover Christian behavior. Some have wondered if this letter was actually meant to be a cyclical letter because some of the manuscripts that we have don’t actually mention Ephesians, while others do, and we did see in Colossians that Paul told the church at Colossae to share their letter with Ephesus, and Ephesus would share their letter with Colossae, so we do know that it was circulated. This letter was written around AD 60, between AD 60 and 62, while Paul was under house arrest in Rome. It’s one of the prison epistles, as we’ve talked about, along with Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon.
Colleen: Okay. So with that understanding of the background, and having some understanding already of the milieu and the context of the time, because he wrote it about the time of the Colossians, and we’ve already done Colossians, so we’ll now go into reading the first part of Ephesians 1. Now, I just want to say, Ephesians 1 is rich with language that Adventists argue with, that I would have argued with, that I would have glazed over and become confused by because it talks about election. We’re going to read verses 1 through 6, and as we read, I just want to say this, the first 14 verses of Ephesians 1 can be roughly divided into three parts. Roughly, after the introduction, verses 3 through 5 tell us about the work of God in the salvation of His church, of His people; verses 6 through 12 tell us about the work of Christ; and 13 and 14 tell us the work of the Holy Spirit in the development and formation of the church. And each of these three sections is set off by some variation of the phrase, “To the praise of His glory,” so everything about the work of the Trinity in bringing the dead to life and making us part of the Body of Christ is all for the glory of God, and so not only we but all creation will praise Him for what He has done, and we’ll see that as we walk through this book. Nikki, do you mind reading verses 1 through 6, please, and then we’ll just talk about what we’ve read.
Nikki: “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.”
Colleen: Paul’s introductions to his epistles, I used to think of them as sort of throwaway phrases, throwaway sentences, because, you know, they all say similar things. He always kind of affirms his apostleship and calls upon God and Jesus, and I always thought it was just sort of like, “Dear Sally.”
Nikki: Um-hmm.
Colleen: But I look at it now, and I realize this is not “Dear Sally.”
Nikki: Uh-uh.
Colleen: This is Paul making statements of eternal truth that set the stage for what comes next in the letter. So when we read verse 1, Paul begins by saying who he is: an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God to the saints who are at Ephesus and who are faithful in Christ Jesus. What is Paul saying about himself here, Nikki, that we have to pay attention to?
Nikki: Well, first of all, he’s telling us that he has authority from God. He’s been called by God, according to God’s will, he’s been called to be an apostle to them, and so he’s speaking truth for God to the church, and we are to sit up and listen.
Colleen: He points out that he’s an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God. And we say, well, how do we know he’s telling us the truth, you know? And there were people apparently back who were contemporaries of his who questioned his apostleship because he wasn’t one of the 12 that had walked with Jesus in His lifetime. People tried to cast aspersions on his authority, and he never missed an opportunity in these epistles to say he was an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, but we know that because of the testimony of Luke in the Book of Acts. Remember the story in Acts 9 where he’s on his way to persecute the church, and Jesus Himself stopped him?
Nikki: Um-hmm.
Colleen: A bright light shone on him, and he was blinded by the light, and Jesus spoke to him. And Paul said to Him, “Well, who are you, Lord?” And He said, “I am Jesus, whom you’re persecuting.” Now, was Paul persecuting Jesus directly?
Nikki: He didn’t think so.
Colleen: But he was persecuting the Christians, and in that moment Jesus identified that the believers really are His Body. Paul really was persecuting Jesus. And then, when Jesus sent Ananias to go and pray for Paul, it’s interesting what Jesus told Ananias to say and what he was supposed to do. The Lord said to Ananias – and this is taken from Acts 9 – He says, “Go, for he [Paul] is a chosen instrument of mine, to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.” And then we know the rest of the story. Ananias obeyed. He went, he prayed for Saul, who was later called Paul, and something like scales fell from his eyes, and he could see again. But it’s interesting that as Jesus spoke to Ananias we learned some really important things. Now, we all know that Paul is the apostle to the Gentiles. Paul makes that very clear. But Jesus also identified the rest of his calling. He was not only to go to the Gentiles, he was also going to speak the truth of Jesus to kings and to the children of Israel and he would suffer for Him. So when we look at this introduction, how do we know, as somebody asked me just this week, did Paul really see the risen Christ? What would your answer be to that, Nikki?
Nikki: Yes, he did, on the road to Damascus, when He appeared to him, and you know, another place where we learn about that is a little further in Acts, when he gives his defense before Agrippa. In Acts 26:15, Jesus says to him, “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. But get up and stand on your feet; for this purpose I have appeared to you” – so right there we see He has manifested Himself to him – “to appoint you a minister and a witness not only to the things which you have seen, but also to the things in which I will appear to you.” We have the words of Christ in Scripture saying that Paul could see Him. He appeared to Paul, He manifested Himself to Paul, after His resurrection, after His ascension.
Colleen: Yes.
Nikki: So he saw the risen Christ. He saw Christ in His ministry, though he wasn’t yet a disciple. He met the qualifications.
Colleen: He had a different revelation of the risen Christ than the other apostles did, but it was no less real and no less authoritative. God revealed things to Paul that He did not reveal in the same way to the other apostles. And we can trust what Paul says as revelation from God. The second part of verse 1 identifies who Paul is writing this letter to. What do we learn there?
Nikki: This letter is to the saints who are at Ephesus and who are faithful in Christ Jesus. You know, as an Adventist I thought that the saints were either angels or Catholic. [Laughter.]
Colleen: [Laughter.]
Nikki: I did not understand that believers were called “saints.”
Colleen: I didn’t either.
Nikki: It wasn’t until I read the text “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints” that I understood that saints had to be human.
Colleen: Isn’t that interesting? I know I had them confused with angels as well. I knew it couldn’t be the dead, but I wasn’t sure what to do with that word, and I did think “Catholic” as well. I heard a commentator say that the word “saints” are the believers, and the difference between the actual word “saints” and the actual word “believers,” which is not in this first verse, but just by way of comparison, the word “saints” is from God’s perspective. God looks at those He has brought to life and placed in Christ, and from His perspective they are washed, sanctified, justified, holy, set apart for His use. They are saints. From our perspective, in mortal bodies, having believed in Jesus, we understand ourselves as believers who have been forgiven, who have been adopted, who have been born again. So it’s just a matter of perspective. The believers are the saints, and it kind of just depends on if we’re looking at them from a heavenly perspective or from an earthly one. It’s the same thing, the same people. And I really thought that was a helpful explanation. The saints are the believers. So then we look at verse 2, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” Well, it’s interesting here too that Paul is saying something to these saints on behalf of whom?
Nikki: “From God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Colleen: What is Paul saying that God and Jesus are delivering to these saints? And I just also want to ask, how did you understand this as an Adventist?
Nikki: Well, it says that he’s delivering grace and peace. As an Adventist, I saw that phrase all over Paul’s writings, “Grace and peace.” And to me it was just a lovely greeting, like “Greetings, Earthling.” I don’t know. [Laughter.]
Colleen: [Laughter.] Uh-huh.
Nikki: It was just this general, kind of generic greeting. I didn’t understand yet that grace meant undeserved favor from God. I mean, these are real blessings that Paul is bringing on behalf of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. This actually means something. It’s not just pretty, formal letter writing.
Colleen: Exactly, “Dear Sally”; “Greetings, Earthlings.”
Nikki: Yeah. [Laughter.]
Colleen: It’s interesting too that this verse, when he says “Grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,” it’s placing the Father and the Son on an equal footing, equally responsible for delivering grace and peace to the saints, equally sending it. It’s a joint effort. They are united in every way, in authority and in power and in love, as they deliver grace and peace to the saints.
Nikki: And can I say, as an Adventist, because I didn’t have a good hermeneutic and I didn’t understand audience and I didn’t understand that I was even a Gentile, I didn’t read this properly. When I read “God our Father,” I thought, “Yeah, we’re all children of God. This is for everybody. This letter is for anyone who picks it up and reads it because He created us and so He’s Father of all.” I didn’t understand that this is actually speaking of a unique position in Christ. This is the giant indicative of the believer.
Colleen: That is such a good point. In verse 3, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.” There is that phrase, “in Christ,” again. And we have just seen in verse 2 that Jesus and the Father are equal, equal in power, equal in authority, equal in responsibility and in blessing the saints. What do we learn in verse 3 about the Father and the Son?
Nikki: They have blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.
Colleen: Isn’t that an amazing thing?
Nikki: Um-hmm.
Colleen: And we also see that Paul is saying that God the Father is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, so there’s also a sense in which he is identifying that although they are equal in authority and power and substance, they are also different persons, and they have a relationship between them that is not just one person who is manifesting in different modes. They are separate persons in this being called God, and they have a relationship. And another thing that’s interesting, if you think about the word “blessing,” we have it used three times in this verse, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.” “Blessed” can be seen in two different ways. When he says, “Blessed be God,” he is saying God is worthy of our praise and of our blessing Him with our honor and our worship. Or it can be seen as something that God does to those He loves. He has blessed us with His goodness, with His grace, with His peace, with His provision, with His blessings. So I used to wonder, how can we bless God? God is only able to bless us. And yet the Scripture shows us that our worship and our honoring of God is a blessing to Him as surely as His providing for us is a blessing to us, something I don’t fully understand. Another thing about this verse is that it says, “God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.” This passage is showing us that when a believer is united to the Lord Jesus through believing and through the new birth, he is placed in Christ, and we go wherever He goes in the heavenly places. You know, as an Adventist, I just thought of that as a metaphor, like, “Well, one day by and by we’ll be with Him up there in the sky,” or just a sort of concept of, “Okay, now, whatever the case, we belong to God.” No. This is something real that happens spiritually. Even though we’re here on earth in mortal bodies and can’t fully perceive it with our minds, we know it’s true. He confirms our new birth to us, and the Bible tells us that it’s true, we’re in Him, and we go where He goes. In other words, in this passage we find out that eternal and ultimate things are involved. Even though we don’t completely perceive them, they are still true. As we grow in trust and serenity as we face life, knowing that Jesus has us safely in Himself, we begin to experience the reality of being in the heavenly places with Him. The eternal security and provision of the Lord Jesus is ours, and we increasingly experience its reality. As we live with Him, knowing these things are true, we find that over time, as we trust Him, our anxiety gets less, our fears become less, and we know Him, and we’re held in His love. We have the strength and the energy to do what He brings us to do. By receiving every spiritual blessing in Christ in the heavenly places, we also demonstrate to all creation what God has done in His wisdom in sending His Son and redeeming His people. So in verse 4, Nikki, where Paul says, “Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him,” let’s just stop right there and talk about what we read right there. Talk about what Paul is saying, “Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him.” What is he saying?
Nikki: Well, he’s not saying that this was Plan B or that Jesus had to go before the Father and plead on behalf of man after the fall. This is saying that before He ever even created the world, He chose us in Christ Jesus, the Lamb who was slain before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy, set apart, and blameless, made righteous and justified before Him, because of the work of Christ. This annihilates the Adventist gospel. And really, the burden of proof falls to them. If they say that their story is the true one remnant story, then they need to deal with Scripture, and they need to deal with verse 4.
Colleen: That is true. This is before the foundation of the world. And the word “chose” here is a word that means “to select.” Now, can I explain this? No. Can anybody? No. But it’s what God says. This is a word that is the same kind of word we would use if we went to the store and were selecting a pair of shoes from an assortment of shoes from which we could choose, and when we select or choose a pair, that’s the one that we take with us. That’s what this word “chose” means. So before the foundation of the world, before creation, before anyone came to be, God chose the saints in Christ. I can’t explain that, but we have to know that we have to accept that and believe it as true or we lose the message of our salvation, and we place ourselves in charge.
Nikki: This is something that’s pushed back on a lot by Adventists, and I think I always thought it was just in Ephesians 1, but it’s all over Scripture. From Old Testament clear to the end of the New we see that God chooses His people. In John 6:44, Jesus says, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws Him, and I will raise him up on the last day.” We read in Acts 13:48, “When the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed.” We read in 2 Thessalonians 2:13, “God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth.” And in 2 Timothy 2:10, “For this reason I endure all things for the sake of those who are chosen.” It’s all over. These are just a few examples.
Colleen: That’s true.
Nikki: We see that the Lord chooses His people. And it’s not something we can explain, like you said, but it’s also something we cannot explain away because the authoritative word of God teaches this.
Colleen: And when we can say, “God chose us,” when we know we’re born again, there’s a remarkable security that comes because it’s like we’ve said before, if we think of salvation as a doorway in front of us, and before we know the Lord, before we trust Him, we see that doorway in the front of us, kind of beckoning, and it says, “Come unto me, and I will give you rest.” And when we finally walk through that doorway, we turn around and we see, on the other side of that doorway, the words, “Chosen from the foundation of the world,” and we didn’t see those words before we walked through that door, and we didn’t see that God the Father was drawing us to that door, but He was. This is not something we do on our own. We’re born dead, we can’t rise above our own natures, but He draws us, He chose us, He makes us alive when we come to Him. In verse 5, Paul continues this idea, and here we find that word that so many Adventists really, truly don’t like, the word “predestination.” “In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will.” I never used to understand that there was really a difference between the word “predestined” and the word “chosen.” I heard the late S. Lewis Johnson explaining this, and he did know the biblical languages, and he said, “The word ‘predestined’ is a word that implies a goal. We’re predestined for something or predestined to something. Now, the word ‘chosen’ is a word that means ‘selected,” but the word ‘predestined means that when God selected us, He had a goal in mind for us.” And it’s interesting because right here in verse 5 we find out the goal of those God chose, and what is it?
Nikki: “To adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself.”
Colleen: Isn’t that amazing? We’re predestined when God chooses us to be adopted as His sons, or His heirs. It’s fascinating to me that this word, “adoption” is really used and taught in three places primarily: Here, Roman 8, and Galatians 4. It’s a very important concept in the New Covenant and in the understanding of the church, but those that God predestines are to be adopted as sons and were also intended to be conformed to the likeness of His Son. So that’s the goal that God has in mind when He predestines people. Now, Adventists like to say, “Everyone’s predestined for salvation in Christ,” but that’s not what the Bible says. It says, “Those He chooses He predestines to be adopted as sons,” and we have to believe the words mean what the words say. Now, to be fair, there are other places in Scripture that seem to say something slightly different, or at least in my Adventist mind I used to go to these places. For example, 1 Timothy 4:9-10, where it says, “The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance. For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe.” And we also know that the Bible commands us to believe. It asks us to believe. Is there a contradiction here? How are we to understand this?
Nikki: We know the Bible does not contradict itself, and we know that it’s authoritative, so the answer is no, they don’t contradict each other. They’re just both true. And we have to understand our own fallibility to understand.
Colleen: Yes.
Nikki: Our election and predestination of God, by God, and for God in His glory does not nullify man’s responsibility to repent and believe in Jesus, because the Scriptures tell us both.
Colleen: You know, many people say that if you believe in predestination, then we don’t have to evangelize. God’s got it all in a box, and He knows what He’s doing, He knows the beginning from the end and we’re just kind of down here playing out a role that was predestined, and we really don’t have anything to say about it. That is the classic Adventist go-to when you really push them on this subject. Because Adventists are so committed to the idea of their free will: “God would never force us to do something against our free will.” Well, this Bible passage on predestination is not teaching that He forces us to do something against our free will. It’s just stating a fact, that God chooses and predestines, and the other fact is also true. He’s the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe, and we are asked to believe, and when we believe, that’s when we know we were chosen and predestined. We have to know that both of these things are true, but we cannot harmonize them like a math problem. We are finite. I really believe that outside of time and space, these things don’t appear to contradict each other at all. If we could see as God sees, there would be no contradiction, but we can’t see what He sees. In the meantime, we believe both are true. And, yes, we do have to evangelize because it’s a command of God. Scripture commands us to preach and to teach and to pray for the gospel to be clearly taught and spoken. God’s plan is that, from our perspective, we’re to obey His call and His command. From His perspective, He foreknows, He chooses, He predestines, and these are not in contradiction. We hold these truths in tension, and if we try to create a formula that explains away the tension, we lose the cross and the gospel. Finally, we come to verse 6. In verse 6, we find Paul summarizing what he has just said about the work of the Father in choosing and predestining, and says He does this “to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.” So what do we find out here, Nikki, that sounds a little bit like the introduction, where he says, “Grace and peace to you”? What is “to the praise of the glory of His grace”? And this is what He’s freely bestowed on us. What is that?
Nikki: Everything that we’ve just read. The spiritual blessings, the adoption, all of that is to the praise of His glory. We can’t take credit for that. And it’s right that we don’t. We don’t merely decide to become a part of somebody’s family. We can’t just walk into someone’s house and say, “Hey, you’re going to be my adoptive parents, and now you’re responsible for me.” That’s not how this works. He chose us. Our Father chose us to be adopted children, and it’s to the praise of His glory. It’s the kindness of His will, as Paul said. He gets it all, all the glory.
Colleen: It’s an amazing thing. I adopted my sons when they were adults, 21 and 25 – many of you know this already – after I had been their stepmother since they were 2 and 6. And I’ll never forget the day we sat in the judge’s chambers, and the adoption ceremony took place, and I remember the judge saying – he asked them if they were willing to give up what they naturally would have inherited through their birth mom’s side of their inheritance and take my inheritance in its place, and they both said yes. Then to me he said, “These adopted children you may not un-adopt or un-inherit. They have chosen to become your sons, and you may not legally undo this adoption. And I realized for the first time that natural parents can disinherit their natural children, but the adoption is a permanent legal status that replaces the one that comes by nature with something that is superimposed legally, and this is the metaphor that God uses to explain our position in Him. It is utterly secure, and I find it fascinating and so reassuring that He both gives us new birth, we are born of God, and He adopts us. It’s like a double security. We become His natural children when we are born of God and we become His legal children when He adopts us as His heirs, and that is something that can’t be undone. We can’t even undo it when we have a bad day. It’s important to remember that all of these things were written to believers. Unbelievers are not expected to understand these things. For an unbeliever, the call is not to sit and argue with “chosen” and “predestined.” If you’re struggling with yourself with not knowing if God loves you, if you’re compelled by the fact that Jesus went to the cross and paid for human sin and you’ve never trusted Him to pay for yours, the call for you is to repent, to kneel before His cross and to say, “Lord, I am a sinner. I do not know you. I need you. I need to be forgiven, and I want to become part of your family.” That is the call. If you haven’t done it, we urge you to do it, and the Lord will testify to you, if you do that, that you are His true adopted and born again son or daughter.
Nikki: If you have any questions or comments for us, you can write to us at formeradventist@gmail.com. You can also visit proclamationmagazine.com to sign up for our weekly emails containing new online articles, links to current podcasts, and other ministry news. If you’re interested in coming alongside Life Assurance Ministries with your financial support, you can find a donate tab there as well. Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook and Instagram, and please consider writing a review wherever you listen to podcasts, as it helps to extend our reach.
Colleen: So we’ll see you again next week as we continue walking through this first chapter to the Ephesians and discover what the riches are that we have inherited by being chosen, predestined, and adopted by our Father.
Nikki: Bye for now.
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