Predestination - the boundaries God has given you so that you may receive God's highest and best.

EPH 1:5 In love, He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself [that’s the environment of royalty], according to the kind intention of His will,

 

/“having predestinated” is the aorist active participle of the compound verb proorizo which means to predesign or to predetermine.\

 

/This is a compound word made up of ‎pro‎, which means “before,” and the simple verb ‎horizo‎ [calm down Portagee’s that’s not chorizo] which means a “boundary or limit.”\

 

Therefore God planned your sunset/horizon in eternity past.  

 

The verb itself means "to mark out the boundary or limits" of any place or thing.

 

When used of persons, it means "to put limitations upon that person," thus, "to determine his destiny."

 

/The compound verb means "to mark out the boundary or limits of a place, thing or person previously," thus "to predestine."\

 

Some theologians have mistakenly taken this to mean that God has set certain boundaries on your life that you cannot transgress. And therefore the natural conclusion is that some are predestined to heaven and some are predestined to eternal condemnation.

 

But what they fail to recognize is that…

 

/The Sovereign will of God and the free will of man are coterminous in human history.\

 

And that…

 

/Predestination applies to believers only. Unbelievers are not predestined to the Lake of Fire, 1 Ti 2:4; 2 Pe 3:9, John 10:25.\

 

/1 Tim 2:4

who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.\

 

/2 Peter 3:9

The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.\

 

Unbelievers make their own choice to reject the relationship with God that was offered to them.

 

/John 10:24-25

If You are the Christ, tell us plainly." Jesus answered them, "I told you, and you do not believe;\

 

The only time that God’s Sovereign will trumps your free will is birth and death. The dash that is in between comprises all your free will decisions.

 

To say that God has Sovereignty over all of man’s decisions would imply that God predestined the unbeliever to go to the Lake of Fire, which is a blasphemous attack on the character of God.

 

/All of our free will decisions were simultaneously viewed by God in eternity past and He made provision for all of them in grace, without coercing your free will.\

 

God’s provisions are greater than your decisions, but God will not remove the free will that He Sovereignly gave you.

 

/Proorizo therefore stands for all of God’s provisions for your life. It includes His plan as well as His provisions for when you get out of His plan, i.e. the law of volitional responsibility and divine discipline.\

 

Therefore, proorizo doesn’t only represent the plan of God for your life, but includes it. We have another word, protithemi, coming up in verse 11 that is specifically identified with His plan for your life and it is directly linked to proorizo.

 

Go forward to EPH 1:11.

 

 

EPH 1:11

also we have obtained an inheritance [destiny], having been predestined [proorizo] according to His [“the” no word for “Him” in the original language] purpose [protithemi (anarthrous construction) = your very own plan] who works all things after the counsel of His will,

 

/“We have obtained a destiny, having had our boundaries marked out in eternity past consistent with your very own predesigned plan, putting into operation all things consistent with His purpose, plan, and will.”\

 

God will, will be accomplished. He said that He will accomplish all His good pleasure.

 

/ISA 46:10

Declaring the end from the beginning

And from ancient times things which have not been done,

Saying,'My purpose will be established,

And I will accomplish all My good pleasure';\

 

God has decreed natural laws that govern all mankind. This means that when God permissively allows a creature to reject His will that there are natural consequences that are designed to open that creatures eyes.

 

This is the permissive will of God. And this is what so many hypercalvinists do not understand.

 

This is the law of volitional responsibility. You reap what you sow. No one gets away with anything.

 

For the believer, if the law of volitional responsibility is not enough to lift the scales off his eyes, then enters the overruling will of God in the form of divine discipline.

 

Divine discipline comes in three stages: warning discipline, intensive discipline, and dying discipline.

 

The believer always possesses the free will to reject God’s message in warning discipline and to reject God’s screaming in intensive discipline, however there is no rejection of dying discipline.

 

The believer will either recover from dying discipline or he will physically die and go home to be with the Lord. This the ultimate boundary or horizon that God has set in eternity past.

 

Hezekiah recovered from dying discipline in 2 Kings 20. He was mortally ill and he wept and recovered and the Lord faithfully restored him.

 

/2 Kings 20:5 "Return and say to Hezekiah the leader of My people, 'Thus says the Lord, the God of your father David," I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; behold, I will heal you. On the third day you shall go up to the house of the Lord.\

 

/2 Kings 20:6 And I will add fifteen years to your life, and I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city for My own sake and for My servant David's sake."\

 

You can remain in the boundaries of the plan of God or you can go out of bounds - hence the first problem solving device of rebound, but you will never transgress God’s dying discipline.   

 

We have a constative aorist here of proorizo, which contemplates the action in its entirety.

 

/In other words, constative aorist takes everything designed in the divine decrees in eternity past and gathers it up into one whole or one entirety.\

 

When the aorist participle here says “having predesigned” it means that in eternity past everything that would be needed for you personally were provided.

 

So the constative aorist here takes into view everything that you would ever need.

 

God will never be taken by surprise at any disaster in the believer’s life and in eternity past He had already made provision in grace.

 

/We also have the active voice of this participle: God the Father did the work.\

 

You can’t make yourself into an adult son and you can’t fix something that isn’t working. God has set the boundaries and God has made the provisions for both our positive volition and our negative volition.

 

How many times have you recognized a certain system of thinking that was causing behavior that was hindering your relationship with God and you said to yourself, “I’m going to fix this!” How successful were you? Maybe for a little while, but was there a new wheel track formed in righteousness?

 

Psalm 23 taught us that the Lord leads me in paths of +R. God the Father did the work for you in predestination. His way is the only way and when behaviors and habits are against Him it is His word and His Spirit and His discipline all entwined the millions of details of His plan that He made according to His purpose in eternity past that is going to change it.

 

In the active voice the subject produces the action and God the Father is the subject producing the action.

 

/This is also an aorist participle, which in this case is coincident with the main verb which is eklego = to call out or election.\

 

Therefore, in eternity past, when God elected you He simultaneously provided everything the believer needed to fulfill that election.

 

Everything that God provided for our blessing is summed up in what we call the PPOG. The PPOG is the boundary of blessing of the adopted believer.

 

/The PPOG is the palace of royalty. We possess royalty through our union with Christ. As members of the Royal Family of God we need an environment of royalty.\

 

The PPOG for the RFOG consists of royal standards and protocol. It shows us how to think and how to live as aristocracy.

 

In no other dispensation is every believer royalty.

 

This plan is even an environment that is far better than the Garden of Eden. Nothing, at any other time, even in angelic history can compare with it.

 

We will study the PPOG in greater detail in verse 11.

 

EPH 1:5 In love, He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself [that’s the environment of royalty], according to the kind intention of His will,

 

So far in verse 5 we have:

 

/En agape proorisas - “In virtue love He predestined,” next is the accusative plural of ego which is hemas = “us,” every member of the body of Christ.\

 

Never ever think that God does not have your highest and best personally in mind every day despite whatever your condition may be in that day.

 

God had Hezekiah’s highest and best in mind. He had David’s highest and best in mind when he murdered Uriah and took his wife Bathsheba. He had Moses’ highest and best in mind when he murdered an Egyptian guard. He had Paul’s highest and best in mind when he went back to the Mosaic law and took a vow in the temple.

 

Am I saying go murder, steal, and compromise your principles so that you can have God’s highest and best? It is easy to see God’s highest and best when we’re running well, but it is much harder to see that His will and desire for us is immutable - never decreasing (it can’t increase because it’s His highest for the CA believer…repeat) … it is much harder to see that His will and desire for you is immutable when we’re not running well.

 

Every believer has been predestined to have God’s highest and best.

 

Next we have adoption…

 

EPH 1:5 In love, He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself [that’s the environment of royalty], according to the kind intention of His will,

 

/ the preposition eis plus the accusative noun huiothesian = “with the result of the appointment of adult sons.”\

 

Eis, can be translated, “with a view to,” signifying purpose or result.

 

The election of the believer out from the world and the limits set upon him by God in predestination had in view or was for the purpose of adopting these elected ones as adult sons.

 

/The desire of God therefore is the appointment of adult sons into the Royal Family of God that have been conformed to the image of His son and enjoy with great capacity, God’s highest and best.\

 

/ROM 8:29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren;\

 

/ROM 8:30 and whom He predestined, these He also called; and whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.\

 

/huiothesia is a compound word (huio - adult son; thesia - to place). It means adoption as a Roman custom, which was the recognition of maturity.\

 

Paul is the only writer of Scripture to use this word.

 

Isagogics: the Bible must be interpreted in the time in which it was written.

 

The noun huiothesia refers to a Roman custom in Paul’s time.

 

In the Roman Empire the son was placed under slaves and teachers during his minority which was an intensive system of training and discipline. At around age 14 he had graduated from that system and then he was recognized as an adult member of the family.

 

I think about how our kids are so babied today. Imagine being required to be acting as an adult at 14.

 

The ceremony was called huiosethia, the word “adoption” in our passage.

 

The basic concept of the ceremony was freedom to function as an adult citizen in the Roman world. This custom is taken by Paul.

 

There is no concept here of adopting someone outside the family, it is recognition of someone inside the family, that they have now grown up.

 

/This is an illustration of the Roman practice of legally adopting a trained young man of the family and thus bequeathing to him the material possessions of the one adopting and also giving him his civil status.\

 

Thus God takes the believing sinner, regenerates him, and by means of this makes him His child (teknon in the Greek, a born one). But He not done there, also at the moment of salvation, takes this child and places him in a legal position as an adult son (huios).

 

/At the moment of salvation we become adult sons of God (huios) in position and children of God (teknons) in experience.\

 

/We thus become joint heirs with Christ, having been raised to a civil status as adult sons, in which we become heirs of God.\

 

Our inheritance is jointly with Christ so that we possess all that He possesses as an heir of God the Father by virtue of His Sonship and work on the Cross.

 

Now, Roman style adoption was based upon the merit of the young son’s response to his training under the slaves. Our adoption is based solely on the merit of Jesus Christ’s response to the Father’s plan.

 

/Roman adoption was based on merit whereas our adoption is based on the merits of Jesus Christ.\

 

This is the object, the view, the purpose, or the horizon of God’s predestination.

 

Hence the CA is the only extension of the HU. Both are Chistocentric and the only dispensations to be so.

 

Make no mistake, God has provided all these provisions so that we would be adopted adult sons, conformed to the image of Christ, and experience the inheritance of Christ in time.

 

/We say, “Wow, God has done so much,” and yes that is true, but “God has done so much,” with the purpose of producing so much in you.\

 

/You are an adult son at the moment of salvation in position, but you are still a teknon in condition. Predestination, encompasing God’s plan, is designed to turn experiential teknon into the experiential huios.\

 

The inheritance of the adult son can remain in the family treasury if he does not fulfill the conditions of the family purpose. Thus he does not receive the inheritance and he does not glorify the family.

 

 

 

 

 

ROM 8:15-17

For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, "Abba! Father!" 16 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him.

 

The Spirit of God makes the deep things of God understandable to the believer priest. There is an inheritance that we all possess in position and it remains in the family vault. Then there is the distribution of that inheritance when the adult son executes the family purpose by applying his training. It was for this purpose that he was elected for adoption.

 

If we refuse to suffer with Christ in time then the inheritance will remain in the family vault for all eternity. However, once a son always a son, we will never lose our sonship thus no one is able to snatch us out of God’s hand.

 

And in fact, we will never lose our inheritance. It will remain in the Royal Family vault for all eternity.  

 

 

 

 

 

We must relate the etymology to the isagogics. The word u(ioseqia comes from the Greek word u(ioj which means adult son, and qesia come from tiqhmi which means to appoint or place. U(ioseqia means, then, to be appointed an adult son as a member of the family. It refers to one of the 36 things that every believer receives at the moment of salvation, and it has to do with the believer’s freedom. At the moment you believe in Christ spiritually you are brefoj, a child on mother’s breast. But you are at the same time in union with Christ who is the Son of God, u(ioj, and being in union with Him positionally you are u(ioj. You are a child spiritually, experientially, but positionally you are an adult son. This indicates that every believer, no matter how he fails, is still another u(ioj of God; he is in union with Christ.

            3. The mechanics of adoption. Positional truth in Ephesians 1:4,5 gives us the mechanics. By means of the baptism of the Holy Spirit every believer enters into union with Christ. Positional truth is the mechanics of adoption. The word tiqhmi, the verb from qesij, is fulfilled by the baptism of the spirit — 1 Corinthians 12:13. At the moment of salvation every believer is an adult son.

            4. The time of adoption is the point of salvation — John 3:3,7; 1:12; Galatians 3:26; Titus 3:5.

            5. The implications of adoption are freedom to have relationship with God and serve Him — Galatians 4:5. Remember that adoption as well as salvation in general gives us freedom toward God, not freedom in the human race. Therefore full time Christian service is nothing more or less than the believer free to have relationship with God — Romans 8:15.

            6. There is also a future aspect of adoption — Romans 8:23, the resurrection body, minus the old sin nature, minus human good. In other words, the future aspect of adoption is ultimate sanctification.

 

 

God is perfect; His plan is perfect.

 

/Since God’s perfect plan is designed for us as imperfect Christians, grace is the only Divine policy for the administration of God’s game plan for the Church Age.\

 

Under the divine policy of grace, the believer cannot earn or deserve anything from God. God’s work is always supported by divine riches.

 

EPH 1:7 In Him [4] we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, 8 which He lavished upon us. In all wisdom and insight 9 He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him [5] 10 with a view to an administration suitable to the fulness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ [6], things in the heavens and things upon the earth.

 

Election and predestination are two sides of the same coin. You can’t have one without the other.

 

/Election is God’s expression of His Sovereign desire for your life. Predestination is the provision of His Sovereign desire for your life.\

 

We are not the only ones to ever be elected. The nation of Israel has been elected. But never before in human history has an individual been elected in Christ.

 

/There are three elections:

Israelunder the ritual plan of God

Christ under the prototype plan of God

Individual CA believer under the PPOG\

 

The key to our election is that it is election in Christ. Therefore all that Christ is and has is now ours positionally.

 

How does it become a reality experientially?

 

EPH 1:3 Blessed [worthy of praise and glorification] be the God and Father of our [possessive genitive = the Lord belongs to us] Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly [in the heavenlies] places in Christ,

 

EPH 1:4 just as He chose [elected] us in Him before the foundation of the world [kosmos], that we should be holy and blameless before Him.

 

In election there is logistical grace support for every believer as well as the greater blessings for time and eternity that have been put in escrow.

 

The greater blessings in escrow will remain there until the conditions of the escrow are met, which conditions have been established by the Father.

 

/The conditions of the escrow are capacity from spiritual growth to adulthood (SSE) and finally to maturity. \

 

Growth to maturity can only happen in God’s system or plan for you. Therefore the plan has been given so that you can fulfill the conditions of the escrow.

 

At verse 11 we will study the plan in detail under the doctrine of predestination.

 

The words “in love” should be at the beginning of verse 5.

 

EPH 1:5 In love, He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself [that’s the environment of royalty], according to the kind intention of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved [3].

 

Election is God’s expression of His Sovereign desire for your life. Predestination is the provision of His Sovereign desire for your life.

 

It is important to understand the logistical progression of God’s thinking in eternity past as it relates to you in the CA.

 

Angelic conflict

Fall of man

Jesus Christ born perfect in His own plan

That plan is given to us (predestination)

You believe

Events of the baptism of the HS simultaneous

       Entered into union with Christ, share his +R, EL, heirship sonship, election and predestination simultaneously which is Christ’s destiny. We share His plan under predestination which has been extended to the CA.

 

All of that and more was accomplished for you at the moment of salvation. Then, we have you in time with your volition, from salvation to death or the Rapture. 

 

 

Predestination is sharing the destiny of Christ in HU with emphasis on humanity.

 

Accomplished at salvation through baptism of the HS and resultant positional sanctification.

 

Christ received His plan (prototype) we receive at regeneration the operational plan.

 

He resided in the plan.

 

In sharing His destiny we can reside in the operation plan to fulfill election.

 

Rom 8 - conforming into the image of His Son. The plan is designed to make us think like Him.