Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Ephesians 1:4-5 Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world . . . having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will.
FULL OF GIFTS: TO ME (2)
In this verse we see why we can be certain that Paul speaks of the "us" as the individuals that make up the group and not as the group as a collective. One could translate "us" either as equal to the Church or as equal to all individual members of the Church. If "us" merely means the Church, then we are saying that God chose to save the Church before the foundation of the world, but we are saying nothing about how we individually received faith and became members of that Church. On the other hand, if God chose us the individual members of the Church, then what we are saying that God reached down picked me out of the world and made me a member of His Church. As an example of the former, I might say that I choose to root for the Green Bay Packers. I, then, am not choosing any individuals but only the group. As an example of the latter, we might say the manager chose the members of the Green Bay Packers. We then are acknowledging not just that he chose them as a group but that he picked each individual and made them a part of that group.
This first explanation is impossible in this verse of Ephesians. In many different ways Paul shows this choosing of God is an active selecting of individuals. First of all, from the Greek word that is here used for "chose." Which, in and of itself, means to select individuals out of a larger group. In John 13:18 Jesus Himself uses this very same word and makes it clear that it does not apply to any group but to the individuals whom He has chosen. In the second place, we could look at the phrase which follows this one in verse four. "That you should be holy and blameless." God does not look at a group to see if it is holy and blameless, but only at individuals. God does not say, "Oh yes, Americans -- they are good people but Indians, they are not," but only, "Mark, you are a holy person" or "You are not."
The final point then is this that when Paul declares "He chose us," we can say with absolutely certainty He chose ME. Not because I was part of a group, but in order to make me part of this group. And going back to verse three, we can say He has given ME EVERY spiritual blessing.
