More on Ephesians 1– ‘God Chose Us ‘in Him’

Last updated on: August 29, 2023 at 1:01 am by Ben Witherington

More on Ephesians 1– ‘God Chose Us ‘in Him’ 2023-07-29T10:17:56-04:00 Ben Witherington

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

“God chose us in Him…”

This statement from Ephesians 1 is personal, not impersonal. The us refers to Paul and his audience, and the ‘in Him’ refers to Christ. Christ is the locus of the choice, not apart from him, not in the abstract, not merely in the mind of God but ‘in Christ’. Now what exactly does that mean? If the choice is personal and of person, and in the context of a person namely Christ, who exactly existed before the creation of the universe to be chosen? Only Christ. He was there, and even participated in the creation of the universe. We were certainly not there. Paul does not believe in the notion of pre-existent or immortal souls or a well of souls in heaven that at some point are placed into human bodies. Election happens ‘in Christ’ because he is the Chosen of God, as the recent movie series’ title suggests. Now since it is Christ who has been chosen to redeem humanity, it should be obvious that election is one thing, and salvation another. Christ himself did not need to be saved or redeemed. And yet he is the Chosen, the Elect One of God. We are only elect if we are in Him. Did God have a plan of salvation for fallen humanity before there even was a creation? Yes, says Paul. And it should be noted that Israel was also God’s Chosen, but their election was for a specific historical purpose—to be a light to the nations about the one true God. This election or choseness did not guarantee the salvation of individual Hebrews. Election is corporate in nature— it was in Israel, and then it was in Christ. Salvation as always is by grace and through faith, and in Ephesians it is specified even more clearly—by grace through faith in Christ, God’s Messiah, his Chosen one.

One of the keys to understanding Ephesians 1 then, and other similar passages which talk about predestination such as Rom. 8, is to understand the concept of corporate personality or put another way group identity. In the ancient world, including in a Biblical context, group identity was primary and individual identity is secondary. When provoked to roll out his pedigree, the first words out of Paul’s mouth for instance in Phil. 3 he says this—

“circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee”. None of this has to do with Paul as a distinctive individual, it all has to do with something someone else did for him— he was circumcised, he was born into the people of Israel, into the tribe of Benjamin, he was a Hebrew of Hebrews (probably meaning one who knew Hebrew like his father) and he was a part of the group called Pharisees. Nowhere does this read like a modern CV of individual accomplishments. It has to do with his original group identity in various forms. And he goes on to say that he is prepared to reckon all that as skubala compared to being in Christ (I’ll let you look up that Greek word). But now Paul is in Christ. Or consider what he says in 2 Cor. 11— “Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they Abraham’s descendants? So am I.” Again, no list of individual distinctives or accomplishments. Indeed, when he lists distinctives he talks about all the troubles he has endured for the Gospel.

Now my point is this—in the wake of the Enlightenment the spotlight was shone on individuals and individualism and individual accomplishment, and so it is no surprise that Luther and Calvin at the dawn of the Enlightenment read the NT in an individualistic light, like most moderns do today, when we talk about personally being born again, or being saved etc. This whole approach to texts like Ephesians 1 is wrong because it ignores that election and salvation happen in the context of God, in particular in the context of a vast corporate personality we know as Christ who is God’s elect one. We are only elect if we are in Him, and through Him we are also saved by grace through faith in Him. This has nothing to do with God picking and choosing individual persons to be saved before the creation of the universe. It has to do with the Father choosing the Son to go and save a lost world, a personal choice of a person to do the job because Christ existed before the creation of the universe— and we certainly did not. Now Romans 8 is telling a little different tale—the tale of how those who love God and are called according to purpose, have been destined in advance to be fully conformed to the image of Christ— this is of course about glorification and resurrection when Christ returns. It is not about the choosing of people to be saved in the first place. It is about the destiny of those who love God.

One more thing. While it is true that ‘faith’ like ‘grace’ is a gift from God, we as believers have to exercise that trust and belief in God, and be faithful. God does not do this for us, and we have a choice about how we will respond to the Good News. In other words, God is not and does not operate like the Godfather. He does not make us ‘an offer we can’t refuse’. This is in part because love must be freely given and must be freely responded to. It cannot be coerced, compelled, or predetermined. There is a reason that Jesus calls loving God with all we are, and our neighbor as self as the great commandment. It is the heart of NT ethics, just as the heart of God’s character is holy love, as 1 John 4 so ably tells us. See my little book Who God Is.

History and Religion

Education and Religion

Uncategorized

God Chose and Sent his Son so we could be 'in Him'

Previous Post

August 28, 2023

Shapiro and Tyson on Transgenderism

Next Post

August 30, 2023 Shapiro vs. William Lane Craig on the Historical Jesus

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz