May 3, 2009
Background Scripture: Ephesians 1:3-14
Devotional Reading: Exodus 19:1-8

One of my favorite movies is a 1950 film, “Stars In My Crown,” starring Joel McCrae, Ellen Drew and Dean Stockwell.

McCrae plays the part of a frontier preacher in the mid 1850s. When hooded vigilantes threaten to hang a black man who refuses to sell his farm to one of them, the preacher suggests they first need to hear the man’s will. One after another, he ticks off the man’s meager possessions.

Many of those named in the will are members of the mob and one by one, they are shamed by what they hear and drift away until there are none left. When the last of them has gone, the preacher’s son looks at the paper from which his father has been reading. It is blank, and the son exclaims, “That’s nothing written there! It’s no will!”

To which the father replies, “Yes it is, son; it’s the will of God.”
The will of God

I don’t hear much mention of the will of God these days. Perhaps that is because in days past some Christians claimed or acted as if they alone knew the will of God – and no one else!

Another reason has been the longstanding controversy over predestination – that the events of our lives, including our salvation, were determined by God long before the world was created. There are passages in the Bible that may be interpreted in that deterministic direction, and our scripture this week, Ephesians 1:3-14, is one of them – just as there are passages which may be interpreted as supporting radical free will.

Most Christians, perhaps all, would agree that God has a plan and purpose for each of us; the only question is to what degree God’s will is determined for us and to what degree we have the ability to resist or embrace that will. My purpose is not to pontificate on that issue but to suggest that it doesn’t have to be either of the two extremes.

If one goes too far in one direction, God’s power is diminished. If too far in the other direction, we become marionettes and can hardly be held responsible for choices we could not help make – for or against the will of God.

If you find Ephesians 1:3-14 a bit difficult to understand, it might be helpful to know that this passage in the original New Testament Greek was one very long sentence. Fortunately, our English translations break it into several (my Bible has six sentences in 1:3-14).

Having begun with a salutation and blessing (1:1,2), the writer uses 1:3-14 to bestow a blessing that is a compendium of the theology of the letter.

Named in the will?

In 1:4 he says God “chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love.” In 1:5, he says “He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will …”

In 1:11,14 we read: “In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things to his counsel and will … this is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God’s own people, to the praise of his glory” (underlined words for emphasis).

So it is God’s will, part of His plan, for us to be holy and blameless and, thus, His will for us to be His children by adoption: God’s own people. And the purpose of this will is “the praise of his glory.”

So who are the “us” that God chose “before the foundation of the world?” Is it a select group who become followers of Christ because they cannot help themselves? Or does God choose all of us, although only some of us respond acceptingly to that inheritance?
Most important: Does God have a purpose for only some of us, or all of us? And, if all of us, what is God’s will for your life? What or who did He create you to be?

Read the will!

The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of Farm World. Readers with questions or comments for Rev. Althouse may write to him in care of this publication.