THIRD QUARTER 2023
SABBATH SCHOOL INSIGHT #2
JULY 8, 2023
“GODS GRAND CHRIST-CENTERED PLAN”

 

Predestined All

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ" (Ephesians 1:3).

 

What a great joy it is to study the precious good news in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. Rightly understood, this letter gives important insight into the message that is sent to the whole world to prepare people for the return of Jesus. In this letter Paul shares the treasures he has found in Christ.

Throughout this letter Paul deals with both the objective and subjective aspects of salvation. The objective aspects are those that God has brought universally for all men in Christ, independent of their response.  The subjective experience comes to each one who believes in and responds to what God has already done objectively for them.  All comes through Christ by virtue of the infinite sacrifice God has made on our behalf and both are necessary for us to be saved at last.

If we don’t recognize these two aspects of salvation, we are liable to come up with all kinds of errors in our understanding of Paul's words.  In Ephesians Chapter 1, for example, some teach that God has predestined the believer only.  This has led to Calvinist view of predestination that many believe today.   This view recognizes the objective nature of God's predestination irrespective of choice for an elect group (believers) but fails to apply this predestination to all men.

Alternatively, our quarterly gives a hybrid view of this, trying to make sense of Paul’s language while missing the objective and universal aspects of salvation.  Here again, the believer only is predestined.  But while the Bible says we are predestined or predetermined the author makes a jump to say that God's response is predetermined and limited to those only who have faith in Jesus.

The 1888 messengers saw that the predestination and adoption here spoken of by Paul occurred solely based on God’s desire that all be saved and that His initiative alone makes this an objective reality.  That is to say that God has done everything already such that every man, woman, and child is predestined to be saved and adopted into the family.  This God has already made true by virtue of Jesus.  In Christ the whole human race has been reconciled to God already, predestined and adopted.  And the only reason one will not experience this unto eternal life is because they do not believe it and/or have refused what God has predestined them to be.  All (not only believers) are predestined but unfortunately all will not have it so.

So, our passage for this week (Ephesians 1:3-14) is an outpouring by Paul of inexpressible gratitude for what God has done.  Verses 3-12 describe what is objectively true for the entire human race in Christ:

• All have been chosen to be holy and without blame before Him in love
• All have been predestined to adoption as sons
• All have been made accepted in the Beloved
• All have redemption through His blood in Him
• All have forgiveness of sins
• All have the riches of His grace poured upon them
• All have been gathered together in Christ
• All have been given an inheritance

If God has done all this, then what is left?  What is left is the heart response of “those who first believed” and the Ephesians seen in verses 12(b) and 13.

They believed.

A heart response then gives free access to the Holy Spirit of promise, leading to an experiential fulfillment in the life of the believer of all that God has given and said to be true.

See how one of the 1888 messengers saw and articulated this:

 

“‘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 should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.” Ephesians1:3-6.

 

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.”

What is it He “hath” done? [Congregation: “Blessed us.”].

Is it so? [Congregation: “Yes.”]

Has done it? [Congregation: “Yes.”]

He has blessed us with how many blessings? [Congregation: “All spiritual blessings.”]

All the blessings He has? He has given us all? [Congregation: “Yes.”]

How [Congregation: “In Christ.”] In Christ.

Then in giving Christ, what did God give? [Congregation: “All spiritual blessings.”]

All the spiritual blessings that He had….

 

Next verse: “Having predestinated”—appointed the destiny that He wants us to reach, long before hand. The destiny that God fixes for man is worth having.“Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will.” Why did He do it then? Not because we were so good, but because He is so good; not because we were so well pleasing to Him, but because of the good pleasure of His own will. It was just Himself to do it. That’s why He did it.

 

Verse 6: “To the praise of the glory of His grace wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.” Now what do you say to that? [Congregation: “Amen.”] When did He do that? [Congregation: “Before the foundation of the world.”] Precisely. “Before the foundation of the world.” That answers all this idea about whether we can do anything in order to be justified or not. He did it all before we had any chance to do anything—long before we were born—long before the world was made. Don’t you see that the Lord is the one that does things, in order that we may be saved and that we may have Him?

 

Now see what He has done: 1. “He hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings” in Christ. 2. “He hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world.” 3. “He hath predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ.” 4. And “He hath made us accepted in the beloved.” Well, I am glad of it. I know that that is so. [Congregation: “Amen.”] Don’t you? [Congregation: “Yes.”] For He says so. He says so. Here then are four things that we can be everlastingly sure of.

 

A word further about those blessings the Lord hath given us. We have all the blessings that God has, when we believe Jesus Christ. Then they are our own. We don’t need to be so very particular about praying for blessings. Would we not do better, think ye, to spend our time in thanking Him for the blessings that we have, than in asking Him for blessings? How does that look? Which do you think looks the better, to thank the Lord for the blessings He has already given, or to ask Him to give us some, when He hasn’t any more to give? Now which is the better? [Congregation: “To thank Him.”]

 

He hath given us all the blessings He has in Christ. Christ says, “I am with you.” Brethren, let us feed on the blessings. We have them, and they are our own.

 

Then we can be sure all the time that we have all spiritual blessings.

 

We can be sure all the time that He has chosen us. He says He has.

 

We can be sure all the time that He has predestinated us unto the adoption of children.

 

We can be sure all the time that He has made us accepted in the Beloved.

 

We can be sure of all these things, for God says so and it is so. Then isn’t that a continual feast itself?

 

Now He has done all that and has done it freely. For how many people did He do this? [Congregation: “All.”] Every soul? [Congregation: “Yes, sir.”] Gave all the blessings He has to every soul in this world; He chose every soul in the world; He chose Him in Christ before the foundation of the world, predestinated him unto the adoption of children and made him accepted in the Beloved, did He not? [Congregation: “Yes.”] Of course, He did.

 

We will read other verses on that presently. The thought I am after just now is that no one can have these things and know they are his without his own consent. The Lord will not force any of these things upon a man, even though He has given them already, will He? [Congregation: “No.”] This is a cooperation, you see. God pours out everything in one wondrous gift, but if a man will not have it, the Lord will not compel him to have a bit of it. Every man that will take it, it is all his own. There is where the cooperation comes in. The Lord has to have our cooperation in all things.

 

Now let us turn to Titus 2:14, speaking of the Lord it says, “who gave himself for us.” That is the past tense too is it not? That is done. He did give Himself for how many people? [Congregation: “All.”] How many people on the earth can read that text and “say that means me”? Every soul on the earth. Wherever we go, then, on this earth and find a man, we can read to him that “Christ gave himself for you,” can we not? [Congregation: “Yes.”] He gave himself for you, then. That is the price that Peter refers to in 1 Peter 1:18-20: “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers: but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world.”

 

Now we want each individual to know where he stands. “He gave himself for me.” That is stated in Galatians 2:20: “The life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” How many people in the world can read that and say that means me? [Congregation: “Everyone.”] “Loved me and gave himself for me. That was the price that was paid. Then He bought me, did He? [Congregation: “Yes.”] He bought you? [Congregation: “Yes.”]

 

Whether you or I let Him have us, that is not the question just now. What has He done? What did He do? [Congregation: “Paid the price.”] Before the foundation of the world He bought me, did He not? And you? Then whose are we? [Congregation: “The Lord’s.”]

—A.T. Jones, General Conference Bulletin, 1893, Sermon No. 17, excerpt.

 

It is the full realization of what the Lord has done while we were yet sinners, before we repented and turned, before we exercised faith, that will be the only lasting motivation to follow Him with all of our heart, and soul, and mind.  This is what motivated Paul and this is what Paul could barely put into words in the portion of scripture studied this week. To the degree that we under appreciate the objective realities of the gospel will be the degree to which we are at risk of failing to experience the subjective realities.  May our journey through the book of Ephesians this quarter afford us greater and greater views of the glorious good news of God’s great initiative and lead us to the deeper and purer experience found only in Christ.

 

~Kelly Kinsley