Election and Union: Eph 1:3-14

Apostle Paul

I think most people read Ephesians 1:3-14 as an overflowing of verbiage, powerful statements lacking any coherent order.

I propose that the passage is quite organized. It has an initial statement (vv. 3, 4) and then two re-statements (vv. 5-10; 11-14). The first of these re-statements has a tw0-part structure (vv. 5-6, 7-10).

Here is the text:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him in love (vv. 3-4).

He predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his graciously-given glory, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved (vv. 5-6).

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth (vv.7-10).

In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory (vv. 11-14).

I categorize vv. 5-10 and 11-14 as re-statements because the mention of predestination seems to be a reiteration of being chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. Verses 7-10 seem to be an elaboration of what it means to be “blessed” with “glory in the beloved (v. 6), which is also, of course, a re-statement of being “blessed… in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places” (v. 3)

While vv. 7 & 8 list some of those blessings, the list includes knowledge of a plan to change the order of the cosmos by bringing heaven and earth into union. That leads to the second restatement which says that two groups of people “we” (v. 12) and “you” (v. 13) both receive one inheritance and the Holy Spirit (v. 14).

Paul doesn’t write who these two groups are. But all of vv. 11-14 hints at and is fulfilled by 2:11-22. There we learn that it is we Jews and you Gentiles who through Christ “both have access in one Spirit to the Father” (2:18). The uniting of Jew and Gentile is the result on the elevation of Jesus into the heavens

What is more, 2:11-22 is the third statement describing the implications of the resurrection and ascension of Christ. This is the context of the entire passage and it is the unavoidable implication of this:

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, [20] built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

2:19-22

God’s throne is in heaven where Christ is seated with Him (1:20ff; 2:6). If believers are not only seated with him, but together being made into his throne room with Christ as the cornerstone, then heaven and earth are truly united. (Also, I will argue elsewhere, “the dividing wall” [2:14] was the firmament boundary set up on the second day of Creation and represented by the curtain blocking off the Holy of Holies.)

But if the 2:11-22 is the third great description of the meaning of the Ascension of Christ, descriptions that begin in 1:15 where Paul states that he prays for the Ephesians that they will perceive how God is exercising his strength for them beginning with raising Jesus from the dead and enthroning him…

far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

Ephesians 1:21–23 ESV

So, indeed, we have been blessed in Christ with every Spiritual blessing in the heavens! (1:3)

After that initial statement, Paul rehearses it again in order to emphasize how we are saved from our trespasses and death (2:1-10). And that leads to the third statement about Jew and Gentile (2:11-22). Note that while, in the first re-statement (1:5-10), believers have “redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace” (v. 7), in 2:1-10 elaborates on similar blessings:

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—-and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

Ephesians 2:4–7 ESV

So the order in 1:3-14 seems to be a seed of the same three-fold more elaborate statements in 1:15-2:22. In both, they sections climax in Jew and Gentile sharing an inheritance in Christ. Paul then “extends” (see 3:1-2) the “theological” portion of the Epistle by emphasizing his calling to the Gentiles and his Gospel for them (3:2-13).

So not only is 1:3-14 carefully ordered, but is matches the order of 1:15-2:22 and demonstrates Paul’s apostolic calling .