3. We are “elect” “in Christ” / “God chose us in him” (Eph. 1:4).

Arminians insist that an individual is chosen for salvation because and only after he puts himself in Christ by an act of free will. God foreknows that we will fulfill the condition, as a result of which we are put “in Christ,” and on that basis he elects us. Other Arminians insist that it is not so much individuals who are elect, but Christ himself, or perhaps the Church. Thus, they insist that it is only because we are in Christ (by free will, of course), who is himself the one true elect person, that we as individuals may be said to be elect ourselves.

It must be admitted that the clause “in Christ” is ambiguous. By itself, it says neither that we are elect because we are in Christ nor that we are elect in order that we shall be in Christ. What are the options according to Calvinist interpreters?

• Contrary to what some Calvinists would say, it is unlikely that Paul means we were chosen “to be” in Christ, insofar as the latter part of the verse declares that we were chosen “to be” holy and blameless.

• Even less can it mean that we were chosen because we, before our election, put ourselves in Christ by free will. This is reading into the passage what is conspicuous by its absence. Besides, the ground of our election is said to be God’s good pleasure, not ours.

• Others suggest Paul means that Christ is the foundation of election, or perhaps the sphere of election. But what do those terms mean? What is their theological significance?

• Maybe Paul means that it is “in union with Christ” that we are chosen. I have no problem with that, but the question remains, how did we come to be “in union” with Christ: by free will or by free grace or by some other avenue? Did our union with Christ precede or follow our election? Was it the cause or the consequence of election? Or is our union with Christ simultaneous with our election, perhaps even synonymous with it? In other words, simply saying that God chose us “in union with Christ” does not tell us how or when that “union” came about, or whether it has anything to do with the basis for our being chosen.

• Perhaps “in Christ” simply means “through Christ,” or, to say it negatively, “not apart from Christ.” Charles Hodge opts for this view and explains it this way:

“It was in Christ as their head and representative [that] they were chosen to holiness and eternal life, and therefore in virtue of what he was to do in their behalf. There is a federal union with Christ which is antecedent to all actual union, and is the source of it. God gave a people to his Son in the covenant of redemption. Those included in that covenant, and because they are included in it – in other words, because they are in Christ as their head and representative – receive in time the gift of the Holy Spirit and all other benefits of redemption. . . It is, therefore, in Christ, i.e., as united to him in the covenant of redemption, that the people of God are elected to eternal life and to all the blessings therewith connected” (Commentary on Ephesians, 31).

In summary, when God elected a people from the fallen mass of humanity, he never intended to save them apart from his Son but only by means of what his Son, the Lord Jesus, would accomplish in his redemptive work. Jesus is therefore the means by which God’s electing purpose is put into effect as well as the goal of that election, inasmuch as it is God’s purpose through election to sum up all things in Christ (Eph. 1:10).

Paul says much the same thing in 2 Timothy 1:9. There we are told that God saved us and “called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity.” Again, we read much the same in 1 Corinthians 1:4-5 – “I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and knowledge.” If we are given anything in grace it is by virtue of who Jesus is and what he has done and will do, not by virtue of who we are or what we have done or will do. Therefore, we are elect “in Christ,” not “in ourselves.” It is because of God’s love for his Son and his desire that his Son have a people through whom he might be glorified and honored that God chose us. Therefore, we are chosen “in Christ” in the sense that this Son to whom the Father has given us is he through whom this election to life is made ours in experience. His sinless life, atoning death, and glorious resurrection were the means through which God’s electing purpose was put into effect.

4. We have been blessed with God’s “glorious grace . . . in the Beloved” (i.e., in Christ) (Eph. 1:6b).

 5. “Redemption” from sin is found only “in him [Christ]” (Eph. 1:7).

 6. God’s purpose is to “unite all things in him” (Eph. 1:9-10).

 As Best says, “believers, foreordained and already possessing their deliverance, are now told about the secret of the ultimate destiny of the cosmos” (133). The mystery “which has been disclosed to believers in accordance with God’s purpose for history is his summing up of all things in Christ” (Lincoln, 32). The verb translated “summing up” or “unite” (ESV; anakephalaiōsasthai) means either “to renew, arrange under one head, reduce to one sum,” or “to reunify,” re-establish harmony where discord and chaos and division once existed (cf. Col. 1:19-20). The idea is that the discordant and disintegrating elements in the creative realm will be renewed and unified under the Lordship of Jesus. Everything will be brought into submission to his will and subservience to his glory.

Note the word “plan” (v. 10a; oikonomia). This refers either to (1) the act of administering; or (2) that which is administered, an arrangement or plan; or (2) special duty or assigned task within a household; i.e., a person’s stewardship. (1) is probably most accurate. That which is being administered by God is the fullness of the times. God will, in fact, orchestrate and administer the events and direction and course of history to bring about his ultimate purpose, but only “in Christ”. What he wants to happen will happen when it is the right time for it to happen, culminating in the achievement of God’s purpose. As F. F. Bruce put it, when the time is ripe for “the consummation of his purpose, in his providential overruling of the course of the world, that consummation will be realized” (262).

The “all things” which require summing up “in him” include:

• the inanimate creation (Rom. 8:18-23; 2 Peter 3:13); consider the hostility between the animal world and humanity; also the terrors of natural phenomena such as tornadoes, earthquakes, floods, etc.

• the elect (soteriological reconciliation)

• the unfallen angelic host (their ministry to us brings them into contact with the sin and evil of this world)

• the fallen demonic host and the unsaved, non-elect (Eph. 6:12; see esp. 1 Cor. 15:24-25).

So-called “reconciliation” or “reunification” or “uniting” of the fallen, unsaved world of sentient beings entails their non-salvific subjugation and conquest. Christ’s work was to create peace and harmony, to restore what was lost and corrupted by Adam. He does so in one of two ways: (1) by removal of hostility and corruption through redemptive and forgiving grace; and (2) by pacification through power (i.e., conquest).

Herman Bavinck:

“Round about us we observe so many facts which seem to be unreasonable, so much undeserved suffering [such as child abuse], so many unaccountable calamities, such an uneven and inexplicable distribution of destiny, and such an enormous contrast between the extremes of joy and sorrow, that anyone reflecting on these things is forced to choose between viewing this universe as if it were governed by the blind will of an unbenign deity, as is done by pessimism, or, upon the basis of Scripture and by faith, to rest in the absolute and sovereign, yet – however incomprehensible – wise and holy will of him who will one day cause the full light of heaven to dawn upon these mysteries of life” (quoted by Hendriksen, 87).

To be continued . . .