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Sermon preached on Ephesians 1:4-6 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 10/12/2025 in Petaluma, CA.
Sermon Manuscript
Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
Today we will talk about the doctrine of predestination, also known as election. In brief, this is the teaching that God has chosen in advance whom he would save and thus whom he would not save. While this is often a source of debate among Christians, confessionally reformed churches like ours teach it without apology. It reminds us of God’s sovereignty while preserving man’s responsibility. It glorifies God, showing he is the author and finisher of our salvation. It brings great joy to our hearts to see how much God has loved us. Let us indeed delight in studying this teaching today. We will deal with the text in three parts. First, we’ll consider this language of “chosen” and “predestined”. That will introduce us to the topic. Second, we’ll deal with the language of “according to the purpose of his will.” That will help us address the reason for God’s election. Third, we’ll see how God’s purpose in election is explained. That will identify some of the outcomes that will result from predestination. Let’s dig into this glorious mystery.
We begin then in our first point to consider this language here of “chosen” and “predestined”. These are two verbs that get at the same glorious act of God. The first word is there in verse 4, that God “chose” us. The word “chose” in the Greek is eklektos which that word made it into English via Latin as the word “elect”. So, a more literal translation of verse 4 would be that God elected us. To elect and to choose are synonyms in English, which is why translations usually just say “choose”. But I want you to understand, when we speak of election, that is literally the word being used in the Greek. So when we speak of this doctrine with the name election, we are emphasizing the aspect of God’s choice. Like in an election when you choose certain candidates and not others, so too in divine election. God has chosen those whom he would save even as he passed over others. We refer to the chosen as the elect and the rest as the reprobate.
Similarly, in verse 5 it says that God predestined us. This word has a different nuance. This is about how God decided something in advance. It can be also translated as predetermine or foreordain. God doesn’t wait to see who will come to him and then choose that he will save that person. That would not be predestination but “postdestination”. No, it says God predestined us. Verse 4 further explains the timing when it says that God chose whom he would save before the foundation of the world. So then, when we talk about this doctrine with the name of predestination, we are emphasizing the aspect of timing for God’s choice. God determined in advance whom he would save.
I hope you see now why we have two different descriptions for this doctrine. We refer to it as the doctrine of election when emphasizing the divine choice. We refer to it as the doctrine of predestination when emphasizing the timing, that God did in advance, from eternity. I always find it interesting when people say that they don’t believe in election or predestination. That isn’t an option for a Bible-believing Christian, because right here the Bible uses these terms to describe what God has done. You can’t just say you don’t believe in these things. You might attempt to interpret and explain them differently than the proper understanding, but you can’t just dismiss them. These are words in the Bible that describe an important act of God. And as we are seeing today, they really aren’t that hard to understand, it’s more that some people find them hard to accept. But if God says he has done something and he says it is good, then we should in faith believe God and embrace such truths. That is certainly the case with this doctrine.
Now, when talking predestination, let us notice who God chooses. Verses 4 and 5 says that God chooses and predestines “us”. Who are the “us”? Well, in the context of verse 1, it most immediately refers to Paul and the faithful saints at Ephesus. But as you keep reading, we must conclude this also applies to all the saints who are ever saved in Christ Jesus. God elected unto salvation all those he would save. This means he did not elect unto salvation those whom he will not save. That might seem like simple logic, but I feel the need to point this out because some people have tried to argue otherwise. Some who find this doctrine hard to accept have proposed, “Maybe God chooses everyone, but then it’s up to them to decide.” Yet, that would be problematic in several ways. It would gut the words here of their meaning, because God’s choice and predestining wouldn’t really amount to much. Certainly, the passage could have said “God chose everyone” if it wanted to convey that. It would also contradict the other places in the Bible that teaches on this doctrine. For example, Romans 9 makes several comparisons of people God chose and predestined and certain people he did not. Similarly, the Old Testament repeatedly described Israel as God’s chosen people, which clearly meant that the rest of the nations at that time were not God’s chosen people. Furthermore, Scripture is very clear that God’s elect will be saved and not one will be lost, John 10:28-29. Since we know that not everyone will be saved, that follows then that not everyone is the elect. I appreciate that people can find it hard to accept this doctrine. To them, it might not seem fair that God would choose to save some and not others. But we have to remember that apart from God’s saving grace, we are guilty sinners. Strict fairness says that none of us deserves to be saved. If God yet decides to have mercy on some, that is his prerogative, and his mercy should be praised not questioned.
This leads us now to our second point to consider this language that we see in verse 5
of “according to the purpose of his will.” Similar wording appears in several places in this passage. These words get at the reason that God has chosen and predestinated some to everlasting life. We’ve already begun to wrestle with this question. When people hear about this doctrine, they ask, “Why would God choose some people over others?” You can find this doctrine throughout the Bible in various places. Each time it comes up, you might ask that question. But you never find the sort of answer that people might want to find. People often want to find something in the person. They want to say, well God must have chosen this person for this reason or for that reason. Maybe God knew they would believe, so he chose them. Or maybe God saw something in them that made them redeemable, so he chose them. Or maybe God knew they’d really repent in godly sorrow over their sin, so he chose them. People can want to find some reason in the object of God’s choice. But that’s looking in the wrong place.
If you are talking about damnation, that would be the right place to look. Is there a reason in the person for why God would damn them to hell? Yes, absolutely! They are a sinful, fallen creature that has broken God’s laws in various ways and has lived a life of rebellion against their creator. They have failed to give God the proper worship due to him. They have not properly loved and honored their fellow mankind created in God’s image. Our first parents in Adam and Eve showed themselves sinners worthy of condemnation. And each of us proves that we are made in their image and are also damnable creatures.
And so, Scripture is clear that every human deserves damnation. None of us deserves to be chosen for salvation. That is surely why we can’t find anywhere in the Bible that explains a reason in the person for why God has chosen them. This is why in the TULIP acronym we refer to this doctrine as that of “unconditional” election. When we speak of election being unconditional, we are saying that God didn’t choose people based on some good condition in them that would warrant choosing them over others.
Now, while we affirm the unconditional aspect of election, that doesn’t mean there wasn’t still a reason we can say about why God did such choosing. When people want to know “why”, we can point them back to these words here in verse 5, “according to the purpose of his will.” This gets to God’s eternal decree, by the secret counsel of his will, that he has foreordained whatsoever comes to pass. He is going to work all things out in time and history, whether through first or second causes, to bring about the plans of his glorious will. The doctrine of election is part of his bigger plan for the ages.
Let me be more specific. The word in our pew Bible translated as “purpose” has traditionally been translated as “good pleasure”. That is a more literal translation and helps us to understand the intention of God. In modern English, to speak in terms of “one’s good pleasure,” might sound a little more antiquated, that God was “pleased” to predestine us. But the idea is that in his eternal decree, as God determined all things, he decided this would be the best way for things to take place. There was no reluctance on God’s part to do it this way. He didn’t choose us grudgingly. In considering all the ways he might have foreordained all things, it was his good pleasure to plan things this way, including that he would elect only some to salvation.
It is important to understand this idea of God’s good pleasure when thinking about this topic, if for no other reason, that to remind us of our place. Critics of this doctrine might question why God would do it this way. Some might even dare to act like an advisor to God to tell him how he should have done things. But I will instead remember that God is fully just, merciful, loving, gracious, as well as all-knowing and all-wise. However one of us might think God should have done things, we are not God. He was pleased to do it this way as how he would go about accomplishing his eternal purposes that he has willed.
Now in this second point, we’ve addressed the “why” of predestination. We said God chose to save some according to his good pleasure, and not because of any condition within the person he has elected. That being said, we should not miss that it says here that our election is in Christ. Verse 4, he “chose us in him”. In Christ, he chose us. This explains how God can choose to save us fallen sinners. It explains how he can be a just God that shows mercy to sinners. It’s because of what Christ has done for us. Jesus died to pay for all our sin. He obeyed God’s law on our behalf. We said that God didn’t choose us for any worthiness in us. But for him to choose us in Christ is to say that Christ makes us worthy. This too was part of God’s good pleasure, that he would save those whom he chose to save by receiving them in Jesus. It was his good pleasure that salvation would be thoroughly through grace and not by anything in us.
This leads us now to our third point to consider what specifically are his purposes, his good pleasure, in our election. In other words, we’ve said he chose us beforehand according to his good pleasure because it was all a part of a wonderful plan he was working out. What is that good plan when it comes to election? Much could be said, but I will point you to the three specific things that this passage especially identifies.
The first purpose of God in election is in verse 4. He intends to make us holy. He chose us, it says, that “we should be holy and blameless before him.” This is something he has begun in us, and is presently working within us, and will bring it to completion at the end. Ephesians later repeats this wording in 5:27 talking about how Christ will present the church to himself at the end of this age. Our final state will be one of perfected holiness, without any spot or blemish, but made beautiful for living wed to Christ for eternity. God predestined us with the intention of making us a holy people.
A second purpose of God in election is our adoption. Verse 5, he “predestined us for adoption to himself as sons.” The Greek uses the legal terminology for adoption, literally about making someone a son. It has in mind that adoption includes the rights to the family inheritance that sons would receive. Look down to verse 11 and you will see that predestination is again mentioned and there in connection with receiving an inheritance. Interestingly, it speaks of how the elect have already obtained an inheritance. But this has to be explained further by going down to verse 14. There we learn that the elect haven’t yet acquired possession of the inheritance, but while we wait for that, we’ve been given the Holy Spirit as a guarantee of the inheritance. So, God predestined us with the intention of us becoming his adopted children, which would include a divine inheritance. Indeed, we are now co-heirs with Christ, and the world-to-come with blessed-eternal life has been bestowed upon us an inheritance. God chose us and is so working redemptively in us and through Christ to realize that future.
Let us appreciate the significance of the Holy Spirit being a guarantee of the inheritance. Think about that in light of the doctrine of predestination. It is often asked, how can someone know if they have been predestined? One way to tell if you are predestined is if you have the Holy Spirit in your heart. Follow the logic. This passage says that the elect receive an inheritance as a son. It says that before we receive that, we’ve been given the Holy Spirit as a guarantee that we will receive it. So, if you have received the Holy Spirit, then you can know that you are one of the elect. You might then ask, well how do you know if you’ve received the Holy Spirit? Well, you look for the fruit of the Holy Spirit in your life. For example, 1 Corinthians 12:3 says that no one will truly confess Jesus as Lord except by the Holy Spirit. So, if you examine your heart and find yourself believing on Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you can have confidence that you are one of the elect. Likewise, Galatians 5:22, speaks of other qualities that the Holy Spirit brings forth in your life, such as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. While we won’t possess these perfectly before glory, if our faith is expressing itself in such virtues that can be further evidence of the Holy Spirit’s presence within us.
So then, this passage describes these two purposes of God in our election, our holiness and our adoption. God elected us, intending us to be holy and his adopted children. He intends to give us a heritage of blessedness in the age to come where he will live with us in the coming Paradise, where we his saved people will live together with him our Heavenly Father, in peace and harmony, forever. But there is a third purpose highlighted here. I refer to verse 6. A third purpose in our election is the “praise of his glorious grace.” In other words, another reason God elected us in this way is so that God’s glory would be manifested and it would result in great praise to God. If you remember last week’s message, we saw that this whole passage is one big statement of praise to God, one of those “blessed be” statements. These verses specifically draw out how God’s predestination of us should cause us to praise him.
Think of how the doctrine of election specifically spurs us to praise his grace. The more you study the Bible’s teachings on our election, we realize that from start to finish in our salvation, all of it is God’s grace working out his choice to save us. God graciously chose us from before the foundation of the world. He graciously sent Jesus to die on the cross for us. He graciously sent the gospel out into the world to proclaim the message of salvation through faith in his name, which at some point in time came to each of us. He then graciously worked in our hearts by the Spirit to make us born again, which insured that we would to turn in faith to Jesus. At that point, he graciously justified us and adopted us. He is now graciously sanctifying us by the Spirit, even as we yet wrestle with the old man. Through that struggle and amidst the trials of this life, God graciously preserves us in the faith. And God will graciously finish the work inside us so that when we die we will go as perfected saints to be with Jesus. At the end of this age, at Christ’s return, God usher us into the glory he has graciously prepared for us. All this is grace upon grace. God’s marvelous election of us should result in our giving praise upon praise to God.
Trinity Presbyterian Church, today we’ve been given to understand the glory of election. While there is some mystery to it, God has actually revealed to us a lot about it. This need not be a point of debate among Christians. It is rather plainly taught. But it is also a weightier matter of the faith, so I urge you to be charitable with Christians who haven’t yet come to embrace this teaching. Don’t be one of those “cage-stage Calvinists,” but hold your biblical convictions with meekness and love.
In closing, I hope you’ve appreciated the several practical applications we’ve seen this doctrine brings to us. It promotes humility. We don’t ultimately save ourselves. We have chosen God because he first chose us. It promotes joy. We know God has so loved us in this way. It promotes holiness. Because we know that God chose us to become holy, we ought to strive for it. It promotes hope. Because we know God intends to give us the inheritance of the world-to-come, we can trust that will happen. And it especially promotes worship. This doctrine so clearly glorifies God in how his eternal purposes are so beautifully being realized. It has been God’s good pleasure to choose us in Christ for such a mighty salvation. Let it be our good pleasure to worship him in faith, joy, humility, and hope.
Amen.
Copyright © 2025 Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
All Rights Reserved.
