Ephesians 1:3-14
Title: Responding to God’s Sovereignty
This might be a tough message for those of you on carnivore or keto diets.
We’re gonna talk about donuts.
I want to introduce you to what I call Donut Theology.
Donut theology is how my mind deals with what seem like paradoxes in God’s Word.
A paradox can be a situation where two truths exist that seem to contradict each other.
Let’s picture how biblical paradoxes might appear on a pie graph.
You can call it the pie graph of paradoxes.
Sorry, carnivore eaters, we’ve gone from donuts to pie.
In this pie graph of paradoxes, each set of opposite concepts would represent a paradox.
One of them could be the biblical truth that there is only one God.
And on the opposite side of that paradox is the biblical truth that God is three persons.
Another paradox is made up of the biblical truths that Jesus is both 100% God and 100% man.
One of the paradoxes that we’ll deal with today is that God is sovereign over man’s salvation.
And yet man is morally responsible to choose to worship God and believe the gospel.
Where we can get into some trouble is in trying to understand how the two sides of these paradoxes meet.
And this is where my “donut theology” comes in.
It seems to me that it helps us understand that there’s a hole in the middle of this pie graph of
paradoxes.
Now, I’m not saying that the information in the hole (where these paradoxes meet) is unknowable.
I’m saying that we don’t have clear passages of scripture that explain it to us.
And we’re always in danger of pushing one side of a paradox to the point that it shortens the other side.
Of course, scripture has to be our guide.
This is part of why people spend good money on systematic theology books.
And I think they’re a good investment.
Grudem also writes, “It is something we do not understand, and it is therefore a mystery or a paradox, but
that should not trouble us as long as the different aspects of the mystery are clearly taught by Scripture, for
as long as we are finite creatures and not omniscient deity, there will always (for all eternity) be things that
we do not fully understand.”
With that said, we’ve developed the term “Trinity.” to explain the truths of our one God being three
separate persons,
And this concept is good and has held up as being biblical throughout church history.
But the term isn’t found in the Bible.
It’s our explanation of what’s in the hole of the donut what we’re not told.
Dealing with the person of Jesus, Wayne Grudem writes,
“The assertion that “Jesus was fully God and fully man in one person,” though not a contradiction, is a
paradox that we cannot fully understand in this age and perhaps not for all eternity, but this does not give
us the right to label it ‘incoherent’ or ‘unintelligible.’”
We describe the paradox of Jesus being 100% God and 100% man with what theologians call the
“hypostatic union.”
It’s what theologians use to explain the miracle of Jesus Christ - what’s in the hole.
Like the term Trinity, it’s not in the Bible, but evidence of it is.
This morning, we’re going to look a little bit at the paradox of God’s sovereignty and man’s
responsibility in salvation.
I heard a story of Corrie Ten Boone in church talking with her brother about God’s sovereignty in salvation.
Her brother pointed to the bell pull ropes that hung from the opposite sides of the church ceiling.
He said they’re like God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility.
They’re both part of the same system, and they connect somewhere.
But where they connect was somewhere above the ceiling where they couldn’t see.
This was an object lesson he used to explain that both are true, but how they connect are a mystery.
If only he had a donut to explain it with!
So I think you have a pretty good idea of why I call this my donut theology.
Over the years as I’ve tried to explain it.
And I’m sure some of you thought it’s my divine creation story for the glorious blessing of donuts.
But hopefully now you understand that it’s how I explain the existence of paradoxes and how we need to
hold somewhat loosely to our explanations of what the Bible doesn’t clearly tell us.
So, I promise this is the last time I’ll read through Ephesians 1:3-14 as our passage.
3 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, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we
should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons
through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he
has blessed us in the Beloved.
7 In him 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 making known to us the mystery of his
will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all
things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
11 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, 12 so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might
be to the praise of his glory. 13 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, 14 who is the guarantee of our
inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.
We’ve talked about the Grace of Salvation and God’s Process & Glory in Salvation
We’ve talked about our redemption through forgiveness and how God is in control of His plan of salvation
This morning, I want to talk about how these verses should impact us or how we should respond.
Many can be feel discouraged in sharing their faith or in prayer from verses like these.
While Ephesians 4-6 will lay out much of how God’s grace should impact our lives, I want to focus in on
how these verses should and shouldn’t impact us as believers.
1. EMBRACE GOD’S SOVEREIGNTY AS A REASON TO PRAISE HIM.
3 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, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we
should be holy and blameless before him.
The first of how I believe we should respond is to embrace God’s sovereignty as a reason to praise Him
God’s sovereign work in salvation is included in the “every spiritual blessing” believers have received.
And, right out of the gate, we’re told what to do in response to God’s blessings - to Bless or Praise Him.
By now, you’re familiar with the fact that this theme pops up in more places in our passage.
In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of
his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.
The preposition “to” is expressing the purpose of God’s predestining work.
God works sovereignly in salvation in order that His glory-shining grace will be praised.
And we should be giving Him that praise for His sovereign saving work.
Verses 11 and 14 bring the purpose of salvation back to us again.
11 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, 12 so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might
be to the praise of his glory. 13 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, 14 who is the guarantee of our
inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.
Jewish& Gentile believers are saved to the praise of his glory
The sealing work of the Holy Spirit is to be to the praise of his glory.
I don’t know if you’ve ever seen it when a person is without a pulse and receiving CPR.
If y’all haven’t, I must watch way too many first responder videos.
The patient is laying there helpless.
If the paramedic stops, they’re GONE.
When the person is brought back to life, how ridiculous would it be for the person to say,
“Yeah, they did alright, but I made the choice to come back to life!”
God saves the way He saves for His maximum glory from our salvation.
The reality is that the Bible describes us as being dead and worse than unable to respond before salvation.
God MUST do a miraculous work in order for a person to come alive spiritually and come to Christ.
And He does this miraculous work in every person that is saved, putting their trust in Jesus for salvation.
About this, Wayne Grudem writes, “The doctrine of election does increase praise given to God for our
salvation and seriously diminishes any pride that we might feel if we thought that our salvation was due to
something good in us or something for which we should receive credit.”
One way that we glorify God for His saving work can happen when a person isn’t saved yet.
We glorify God when we pray for the person to be saved.
By doing so, we’re asking God to bring them to life.
This is what theologians call “regeneration.”
This gives me an opportunity to address the paradox of prayer.
So, praise God for the fact that He works all things according to the counsel of His will.
But it can seem contradictory to pray that God would do something in answer to our prayer.
This is an example of a paradox - The sovereign God does what He sees fit to do
And We’re to ask that He might do what we see fit for Him to do.
This paradox is represented in -
* 1 John 5:14-15 14 And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according
to his will he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the
requests that we have asked of him.
We can explain a little bit of how the two sides of this paradox come close to meeting.
God answers our prayer when we pray according to His will.
But some might ask, “Why ask God to do something, if He’s only going to do what’s according to His will.”
I don’t know if this is generally the right way to look at it.
Prayer isn’t intended to get God to do our will.
I do know that God being the perfect God means that His will is perfect.
And we should want His perfect will for this world even if it goes against our will.
But the truth is that we’re commanded to lift our requests to God along with our praise and thanksgiving.
And God tells us that He is going to act according to His perfect will.
And we are told that God answers prayer.
And we see Him answer prayer in the Bible.
Both are true, and we can trust Him with how they fit together… in the hole of the donut.
2. EMBRACE GOD’S SOVEREIGNTY AS A COMFORT.
In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of
his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.
Another way that we should respond to God’s perfect reign over all things is to embrace God’s sovereignty
as a comfort.
Those who’ve been chosen before the foundation of the world will come into a relationship with God.
We’re further told that this relationship involves the forgiveness of our sins according to riches of God’s
grace which He continuously lavishes upon us.
And that relationship is as God’s child for all eternity because we’ve receiving Christ as Savior.
This is such an amazing free gift that is given to us before we could ever do anything to even look like we’re
trying to earn it.
We should also be comforted by God’s sovereign plan for the final state of heaven and earth.
7 In him 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 making known to us the mystery of his
will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all
things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
This is talking about when everything that exists is united in purpose of glorifying Christ.
F.F. Bruce puts it in this way, “When all the times and seasons which the Father has fixed by His own
authority have run their course, God’s age-long purpose which He planned in Christ will attain its full
fruition.”
We should be comforted by the fact that God’s redemption plan will be vindicated to the point that
everyone and everything will fall in line under the headship of Jesus Christ.
And we should find comfort in how God’s sovereign saving work results in His redeemed children sealed in
that grace for eternity.
13 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, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire
possession of it, to the praise of his glory.
We should be comforted that God is all-in for the salvation of His redeemed.
And the salvation that I’m talking about is the saving, sealing, and glorifying of His children in heaven.
He’s not hanging back saying, “Let’s see if this guy mans-up and makes the cut.”
Instead, God seals us in Christ upon our belief in Him.
In thinking about our security in our salvation, we should be encouraged that we didn’t do anything to earn
our relationship with God, and (sealed in Him) we’re not going to do anything to lose it.
Imagine that you’re going on vacation with Donald Trump (prior to being president).
You show up at the airport and ask if I need a ticket.
He responds with “I own the plane.”
You land where you’re staying, and ask about helping with the cost of the hotel.
He responds with “I own the hotel.”
You start to discuss playing a round of golf and calling about a tee time.
His response, “I own the golf course.”
God owns all of time and eternity.
And He intends to bring us from birth to rebirth to home with Him.
And this should comfort us greatly.
The usual result of us learning about God’s predestining work is that we feel pretty small.
But that’s not necessarily God’s intention.
His plan is for His glory as we realize how elevate we are by His grace and mercy… and probably recognize
how small we are in the process.
Before we move into the final point, let me draw your attention to what I observe about the sovereignty of
God in salvation.
God tells His redeemed children of how He worked before the foundation of the world to save us.
This is meant to cause us to reflect on the grace of our OWN salvation not to discourage us about the need
of others to be saved .
This is meant to evoke our praise, our comfort, our gratitude, and so on.
It’s not intended to cause us to think that “the die is cast. It’s hopeless if someone isn’t predestined.”
or “What does it matter if I pray or share my faith if God’s already decided if He’s going to save someone?”
Once again, it’s a paradox that God has chosen those He will save.
And we are called to be actively praying and seeking to add to those who are being saved.
3. EMBRACE GOD’S SOVEREIGNTY AS EMPOWERMENT TO SHARE THE GOSPEL.
13 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,
And this brings us to our last application from our verses, and it’s that we should embrace God’s sovereignty
as empowerment to share the gospel
Verse 13 gives us mankind’s side of the salvation coin.
While I believe God is in control of salvation, the redeemed person plays a crucial role.
They believe, which according to John 3:16 means they “will not perish but have everlasting life.”
They receive Christ as their Savior, which according to John 1:12 means they’re
“given the right be called children of God”
We’re told in scripture that people must respond to the gospel to be saved, as Paul writes in -
* Romans 10:8-10, 13 8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart”
(that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); 9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord
and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one
believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved… 13 For “everyone who calls on the
name of the Lord will be saved.”
But people need to hear the gospel in order to respond to the gospel.
And Paul reminds us of the need for people to share their faith in the verses that follow.
* Romans 10:14-15 14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are
they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone
preaching? 15 And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet
of those who preach the good news!”
We can be comforted/excited that we might share the gospel with someone God is preparing to hear it.
I had this experience this week in talking with a neighbor.
I asked him if he’d like to talk about eternity, and he said “yes.”
One thing led to another and he’s praying to receive Christ as his Savior.
God sovereignly set that situation up on the tee for me, and he now has a saving relationship with God.
A pastor told of a conversation that he had with a missionary, who was home on furlough after serving four
years in a Muslim nation.
The missionary said, “If you’d told me before I went to this Muslim culture that the only people that would
come to Christ were those that God had chosen for salvation, I wouldn’t have gone.”
But after the experience of living in the spiritually dark culture devoid of a gospel presence, he said,
“If you told me that there are not people there that God has chosen for salvation, I wouldn’t go back.”
So, we have a paradox when it comes to evangelism and the sovereignty of God.
On the one side reads “God will save His elect.”
On the opposite side, “People choose to be saved.”
Between then is that hole in the donut representing how these two concepts interact.
Scriptures reinforce this side as with -
* Romans 10:13 13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
Jesus Himself called to the crowds often with an invitation of salvation as in -
* Matthew 11:28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
He’s talking about no longer working for salvation and resting in the saving grace that He would purchase.
Jesus also speaks in this way of those who will be saved.
* John 6:44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on
the last day.
So, there is a paradox of the required work of God which I believe is effective for salvation.
And there’s the response that the person must make to trust Christ for salvation.
I have these images that were originally shared with me as the differences between men and women.
But I think they’re a pretty good description of God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility in salvation.
Does God do something in order for a person to be saved? - Yes
Does a person need to respond in order to be saved? - Yes
But God’s work in our salvation is eternal, intentional, powerful, and effective.
If we were to look at God’s works, I think they’d look like all the switches and knobs on a Boeing 747.
They’d include His foreknowledge, election, predestination, calling, regeneration, justification, sealing, and
glorification
And when considering man’s responsibility in salvation, I think it’s like flipping a light switch -
believe/receive/trust - call it what you want.
So, God’s sovereign work of salvation and our call to pray and witness represent a paradox.
When it comes to trying to reconcile what’s in the hole of the donut, there’s guesses we can make.
But we have to recognize they’re all useless, unless their informed by scripture.
For instance, Revelation 13:8 tells us that the names of the redeemed were written in the Lamb’s book of
life from before the foundation of the world
Yet, the eternal God often answers prayers to save people.
People are often left with the question, “Why am I praying for my neighbor’s salvation if it all depends on
whether they’re predestined to salvation?”
Well, for me, I’m excited to possibly be a part of what God is doing. So I pray and witness.
But I can understand if that isn’t helpful for some.
Let me give a guess at an explanation of what’s in the center of the donut.
Is it possible that when the eternal God answers “yes” to that prayer to save someone, that He chooses to
predestine that person in eternity past even as He’s answering that prayer now?
Might the eternal God step into eternity past and write their name into the Lamb’s Book of Life?
My idea’s might be rubbish, and I’m not presenting it as a solution.
But it’s just one way to try to explain what’s in the hole of the donut.
One thing we know is that any theory or opinion is rubbish if it doesn’t hold up to what God’s Word says.
I think that we should handle this paradox as the Apostle Paul did
He explains to the Corinthians the calling of the Christian in -
* 2 Corinthians 5:18-20 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us
the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their
trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are
ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be
reconciled to God.
The apostle that God spoke through to teach us about the sovereignty of God in salvation called for people
to respond in faith to the gospel.
He didn’t consider it a waste of time or a waste of breath to challenge others to “be reconciled to God.”
and neither should we.
