In the previous blog, we saw that Paul says in Ephesians 1 that we are blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, and that in listing these blessings, He begins by stating that we are elect in Him, before the foundation of the world. Subsequently, Paul says that God predestined us to sonship.
We will share in the dominion of Christ, in which He will subordinate everything and the entire creation will be brought back to God.
Ephesians 1 ISA
8 In all wisdom and understanding 9 He makes known to us the secret of His will, according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Him.
hidden
God makes the secret of His will known through the apostle Paul. The word for “secret” is musterion, rendered in other translations as “mystery”. If we analyze the word, it has the structure of: closing + keeping. This word musterion is a key word in the letters of Paul and his teaching. God had already made His will known in the Hebrew Tanakh, namely that the Messiah would rule over the entire creation. That was no mystery. However, there was something regarding the Messiah and His reign that had remained hidden and that God reveals through Paul. To understand that, we must first see what God’s ultimate goal is.
10 to the administration of the fullness of the ages, to gather all things, both in the heavens and on the earth, in Christ…
the fullness of the ages
In the fullness of the ages, at the completion of the aeons (Heb. 9:26), God is going to bring the universe together in Christ. That it concerns everything is confirmed by what follows: both in the heavens and on the earth. Nothing is excluded from that.
summarized
The word translated as “summarize” is anakephalaiomai, and one of the parts of which it is composed means head. Hence, the NBG translates it as: “…to summarize under one head, that is Christ.” When we place a heading above a paragraph, that is the summary of what follows below. In this way, the entire creation is summarized, or brought together, under Christ.
revealed
That God would bring everything together under Christ was not a secret in itself. The Tanakh speaks about this in many places. What had remained hidden is that Christ encompasses more than just the Messiah personally.
Paul reveals that Christ is not merely one person, but consists of Christ and the company that belongs to Him, His body. Therefore, Paul speaks not only of Christ as Person, but also of the Christ as Head with His body, the ecclesia. Head and body is what Paul here, just as in other places, simply calls: the Christ (cf. 1 Cor. 12:12).
11 in Him, in whom we also were allotted by lot, in accordance with the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will…
co-owners of lot
We have received our share in Him as if by lot. That is what Paul elsewhere calls us, that we are co-owners of Christ (Rom. 8:17; Eph. 3:6). We share in what is given to Him, and that is all, both what is in the heavens and what is on the earth. It is God who had purposed this for Himself and who works everything according to His purpose.
12 so that we might be to the praise of His glory, we who have a fore-hope in Christ.
fore-hope
God does all this so that we might be to the praise of His glory. Election is therefore not a merit of man, but a demonstration of God’s grace and purpose. That God has chosen us in Christ is His work, and therefore He will also receive all honor for it. Every creature will kneel in the name of Jesus and wholeheartedly confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Phil. 2:11).
We have a fore-hope in Christ. Through our election, we already know what tremendous expectation will befall the entire creation. But we, too, as firstfruits, will receive a new body and be united with Christ, to submit the entire creation to Him.
to the blessing of the entire creation
In Scripture, election is never an end goal in itself. God chooses a few for the benefit of many. So it was with Abraham, so it is with Israel, so it is with the ecclesia. Ultimately, the entire creation will share in the blessing that God brings about through His elect.
From Adam, Abraham, and Israel, through Christ, and ultimately the ecclesia, we see the same pattern recurring. God does not choose because some are better than others, but because He accomplishes His purpose for all through the elect. Election is therefore not a limitation of God’s grace, but rather the means by which His grace ultimately reaches all of creation.