During high school, the state of Ohio had a standardized writing portion of its “9th Grade Proficiency Test.” For about a month prior to the exam, my brother pored over a dictionary, trying to add maybe a dozen large and complex words to his personal lexicon. The idea was to impress whoever might be grading the exam, showing off his vast vocabulary (notice how I slipped “lexicon” into the previous sentence!). Somehow, he successfully shoehorned the word “octogenarian” into a 500-word essay on why dogs make good pets. And it worked; he passed on his first try with flying colors, thanks to what my dad would call “fancy hundred-dollar words!”
Many have come to believe that if a word is more complex, has many syllables, and is somewhat hard to pronounce, that word must be important. No one does that better, by the way, than students of the Greek New Testament. Equipped with our “BDAG,” the Merriam-Webster’s equivalent of ancient Greek words, we love uncovering the mysteries of, for example, Ephesians 1. I have my Greek New Testament open in front of me right now, and right there in the center of the page, in verse 10, is one of those “hundred dollar words”: anakephalaiosasthai.
Wow! That must be important! That probably serves as the key to unlocking a better understanding of Paul’s entire thought! Except it doesn’t. Not that the word is unimportant, but its length and complexity shouldn’t trick us into believing there is something theologically profound in that word. It simply means “unite” or “sum up.” As in “all the commandments are summed up in ‘Love your neighbor.’”
What a letdown. We were expecting something dazzling hidden in the complex string of letters. To be fair, vocabulary studies do have value, and from time to time, there really is something significant in the Greek that, if we had a better understanding of the nuance, would change the way we think about life, relationships, God, or what have you.
But something far more interesting happens if we decide to pay closer attention to the small words. Sometimes a better understanding of theology is not found in the “hundred dollar words,” but the simple words we learn as children, the words we take for granted because of their familiarity. Here again, Ephesians 1 provides a great case-study.
I feel like one of the more lamentable features of our time is that our best understanding of theology, particularly associated with concepts of “election” and “predestination”, come not from the Bible but instead from Reformation debates that raged in 16th Century Europe. Ephesians 1 was ground-zero for those debates.
God (so it was taught), for his divine glory, specifically chooses some to be eternally saved and others to be eternally condemned for reasons known only to Him. The “elect” who have been “predestined” ought to thank God for their salvation and pity those who, for reasons known only unto God, are consigned to Hell (again, “for his glory”).
To me, this seems like the equivalent of Jesus’ parable of the Pharisee and Tax Collector in Luke 18. One takes the posture of elitism, celebrating his place on the top of the moral ladder while the other knows his sin and hates it. What 16th Century European Protestant debates have taught us is the exact opposite of what Jesus was trying to teach. If those Reformers are right, the Pharisee is actually the hero of Luke 18, and he has Ephesians 1 to justify him. You could almost hear him quoting verse 4: “I’ve been predestined to be holy and righteous and blameless since before the foundation of the world!” So take that, you lousy Tax-Collector!
I think those Reformers are wrong. I think those who have attached themselves to that theology are misguided. But it isn’t the long, complex, “hundred dollar words” that show this; rather, it's the small words—the pronouns.
Yes, absolutely Paul uses “election” and “predestination” language. You can’t get around that. Paul, an orthodox Jew, can trace his ancestry all the way to Abraham aligning himself with God’s Chosen People—a point he drives home repeatedly in chapter 1 while speaking to non-Jewish Gentiles in Ephesus. For that matter, he pulls no punches when outlining all the blessings available to the everyday Jew.
Never forget that Jesus is a Jewish Messiah, born to a Jewish mother, circumcised in a Jewish dedication.
And in Him—this deliberately and exclusively Jewish Messiah—we have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places (v. 3). And notice that “WE”. That is “we Jews” and not “you Ephesian Gentiles.”
He chose US in him before the foundation of the world, that WE should be holy and blameless.
He predestined US for adoption.
In him WE have redemption through his blood and forgiveness of Our sins.
The riches of God’s grace have been lavished upon US, making known to US the mystery of his will.
In him WE have obtained an inheritance so that WE who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.
If you only read the first 12 verses of Ephesians, it would reinforce the idea that in Luke 18 the Pharisee is right and justified in his words and actions.
If you only pay attention to those 1st-person pronouns, the 16th Century European Reformers are right—WE have somehow been granted a special privilege for reasons known only unto God and are justified to gloat over those who, for reasons known only unto God, he has eternally condemned (though I don't know what gives them the right to insert themselves as one of the "we," seeing that those Reformers themselves were obvious Gentiles!).
Pay attention to the small words!
One word in Ephesians 1:13 flips this entire understanding on its head:
In him YOU also…
YOU heard the word of truth, the good news of salvation.
YOU believed in him too, and were sealed with the Holy Spirit.
You cannot get around “predestination” language. Whether we like it or not, God only chose Abraham to receive his special blessing. He only chose the Hebrews to deliver from slavery. Of all the nations in the world, he only elected Israel to be the nation among whom his special presence would dwell and upon whom his special covenant blessings would fall. God Predestined Abraham and no one else; He elected Israel and no one else. He chose them to the exclusion of other viable options. You cannot get around this.
Everything Paul says in the first 12 verses of Ephesians serves as a reminder of exactly those truths. God didn’t predestine an Ephesian patriarch nor elect the Ephesian nation out of all the nations of the world. But he didn’t predestine, choose, and elect Abraham and Israel exclusively for their own sake, so that they could look down their long noses at those poor suckers who were never able to reach the summit of the moral high ground.
God made them a blessing so that they could be a blessing.
God gave them a blessing so that they could share their blessing.
God elected, chose, and predestined Abraham and Israel so that through them “ALL the families of earth shall be blessed” (Gen. 12:3).
If you pay attention only to the big words, you miss the point of Ephesians 1; I would add, you miss the point of the entire book; my goodness—you miss the entire purpose and plan of God!
It is the small words—the switch from We and Us to You—that is what makes the difference. And that is what we miss when we align ourselves with 16th Century European Reformers and not the Bible.
And our election and predestination are not secured for reasons known only unto God. Consider God's instructions to his "Servant" in Isaiah 49:6:
It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and bring back the preserved of Israel…
That is, the “elect”:
I will make you a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.
In other words, God’s interests goes far beyond the “chosen,” the “predestined,” the “elect.” We wouldn’t even have a book called “Ephesians” if it were any other way.
If you have been chosen, predestined, elected by God, then all of the spiritual blessings in the heavenly places are yours to enjoy—unmerited gifts from God to you. But those same spiritual blessings are yours to share. Our “He-chose-us” and “we-have-redemption” should always result in the proclamation, “In-Him-YOU-also….” Otherwise, we align ourselves with the Pharisee in Luke 18. When I am an octogenarian, may I not be found with them, protecting the moral high ground from non-elect sinners, but sharing the blessing I have received. In this way, those "who once were far off" may be "brought near by the Blood of Christ" (Eph. 2:13).
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