Paul beautifully lays out this complex doctrine in the first chapter of Ephesians, reminding us several times over that: 1) God specifically chose those he wanted to be in his family and to share in his inheritance before he even created the world; 2) this predestination fulfilled the divine plan which he purposed in himself, after the counsel of his own will; and 3) this divine plan both pleased and glorified God.
In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will. (Ephesians 1:11)
Paul opens this letter to the church at Ephesus in praise to God for having “chosen us in him before the foundation of the world… according to the good pleasure of his will [which he purposed in himself] to the praise of the glory of his grace,” (vs. 3-6). He then reiterates, “In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will, that we should be to the praise of his glory,” (vs. 11-12).
The depths of divine mystery surrounding the doctrine of predestination are well beyond the scope of human comprehension. It is, as Fulgentius defines, “a preparation of the works of God, which in his eternal counsel he decreed to do to show his mercy or his justice in.”[1]
And yet Paul beautifully lays out this complex doctrine in the first chapter of Ephesians, reminding us several times over that: 1) God specifically chose those he wanted to be in his family and to share in his inheritance before he even created the world; 2) this predestination fulfilled the divine plan which he purposed in himself, after the counsel of his own will; and 3) this divine plan both pleased and glorified God.
It is a staggering truth that before time began God purposed to restore harmony to a world and a people that what would soon be riddled with sin and death. And more specifically, as Paul explains in these verses, he purposed that you and I should have a part and a place in that redemption, “in whom also we have obtained an inheritance.”
Imagine… in eternity past God included you and me in the counsel of His own will! He not only conceived the plan of redemption; he saw us in it. God’s children have always been in his mind and on his heart. We are there now because we were there then, “before the foundation of the world.”
