Intro

I was reading though several debates on social media last week over the correct interpretation of Ephesians 1:3-14. I’m not going through all the nuances here, but a common theme in the discussions was an outright rejection of election and predestination. It stemmed more from a dislike of Calvinism than an exegesis of Scripture. I see this offline a lot too so wanted to mention it.

I also wanted to mention the NLT here since a lot of local churches use it. I enjoy it and use it sometimes, but I think it contains a potential misleading translation here - so this is a good opportunity to show why a word for word translation is better for study purposes.

TL;DR – Election and predestination don’t make us Calvinist – they make us biblical. So, we shouldn’t let our dislike of a theology drive our interpretation. And the NLT is great for causal reading, but we should use word for word translations when studying.

Exegesis of Ephesians 1:3-6

Below is what I was taught as “phrase diagraming.” Basically, you select a passage based on the flow of the author’s thought and argument and then break out each phrase to see what the main points are and how they are supported. So, the main clauses are on the left and supporting clauses are indented underneath what they modify or support. This allows us to make observations of the text – safeguarding us from reading our own ideas into it (eisegesis).

It’s both an art and science so yours may look different than mine, but all of us should be pretty close. This is where a literal word for word (or formal equivalence) translation is a must.

Here’s an infographic from Wesley Huff outlining the different translations. This method only works with the ones on the left.

His website can be found here. It’s a great resource for apologetic material!

Observation

The overall theme of Ephesians 1:3-14 is the “Blessings of Salvation.” Paul addressed this letter to Christians in Ephesus, so if someone isn’t a Christian, then these blessings aren’t for them. However, if they repent and believe the Gospel, then they can be (Ephesians 1:13).

I’m not breaking all of it down because it’s one long, complicated sentence in Greek – but it can be divided up in three main sections. Each section begins by stating what each person of the Trinity has done for our salvation and ends with praising His glory. We’ll only look at what God the Father has done for this.

Exegetical Outlines

The NASB, which is known for its literal translation as shown above, keeps the same word order and grammatical structure as the Greek – whereas the NLT takes more liberties with its translation. It’s not a major difference, but this is because the NLT is meant to be a translation that sounds the same way to an English speaker as it would have to an original listener.

Interpretation

Best advice I’ve heard is “don’t build theological castles on grammatical clouds.” In other words, build on the subjects, verbs, and objects within the overall context they act first, and then let any modifiers inform us. This is especially true here since it’s not clear what some of these phrases modify (ex. “in love” at the end of Ephesians 1:4). In light of this, we should identify the main parts of the sentence as guideposts.

Why does God deserve praise?

The subject of the sentence is God who is said to deserve praise. The verbs tell us why He deserves it and the direct object of these verbs is “us” – which references back to the Christians Paul mentions at the beginning. So God has blessed, chose, and predestined Christians. The other clauses fill in the details of what this means.

He blessed us

God the Father deserves praise because He enriched us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. While there’s tons of depth in those spiritual blessings, I want us to notice the difference between the NLT and NASB in that last preposition. The NLT has “because we are united with Christ” while the NASB has “in Christ.” This highlights the disagreement I saw online, and what I think causes confusion.

NLT vs. NASB on ἐν Χριστῷ

All translation is interpretation. You can’t go from one language to another without making some judgements on what’s being said. And I don’t technically disagree that we receive these blessings because we are united with Christ – but adding that in the context of Ephesians 1 can significantly change our theology.

I know this sounds nitpicky, but the issue is with the word “because.” In English, it carries the idea of a logical connection or explanation between two clauses – but the Greek words typically translated as “because” are absent here. It’s just the preposition.

To illustrate the problem with a question – did our union with Christ cause God to bless us? Or is our union with Christ one of those blessings God gave us? If it’s the former, then this will be a problem when we get to Ephesians 2:8-9.

The translators of the NLT definitely didn’t mean that we caused God to act. The hard part with the preposition is that its uses “are so many and various, and often so easily confused, that a strictly systematic treatment is impossible[1].”

There’s at least two uses that matter here. It can indicate:

the state, condition or position something or someone is in
the instrument, means or manner [2] in which something is accomplished

I think the NLT meant the second one. Our union with Christ is the means in which God blesses us with these spiritual blessings. A better way to say it would be “God blessed us… by our union with Christ.” This is consistent not only with the typical use of ἐν, but with the context of Ephesians 1 and 2 as a whole.

He chose us

The Greek verb is (eklegomi), which is where the Doctrine of Election comes from. It means “to pick out someone or something, choose (for oneself)[3].” So God’s choice is an intimate choice for Himself, which is emphasized in the preposition “in love” at the end of Ephesians 1:4.

Even though He chose us, He does so with reference to Christ. This is necessary since we can’t do enough good to stand before a holy God. We have to stand before Him with Christ’s righteousness to avoid condemnation (Romans 8:1).

Corporate Election?

Here, some non-Calvinists will insist that “in Christ” proves Christ is the object of election and everyone who trusts Him is then elect by association (Corporate Election). “Brian J. Abasciano explains:

Most simply, corporate election refers to the choice of a group, which entails the choice of its individual members by virtue of their membership in the group. Thus, individuals are not elected as individuals directly, but secondarily as members of the elect group.… Individuals are elect as a consequence of their membership in the group.… On both the individual and the corporate level, election is contingent on faith in Christ.[4]”

They’ll also add that “us” “is said to refer not to individuals but to “the church as a whole[5].”

I’m afraid this is building castles on clouds. As mentioned above, there’s two obstacles for this interpretation.

Objections to the Corporate View

The first is grammar. Christ isn’t the direct object of the verb “chose”, so it’s hard to say that He was the one “elected.” Of course, all things were made to glorify Him (Colossians 1:16) and we are said to be given to Him (John 6:37), but grammatically – God is said to have chosen us. So there’s no inconsistency with individual election here.

The second is the context of chapters 1 and 2. Believers are said to be adopted into God’s family when they trust in Christ (Galatians 3:26-4:7). The Church isn’t said to do that. So the next “us” in Ephesians 1:5 would be individual believers and not the Church.

Also, the Church wasn’t dead in trespasses and sin in Ephesians 2:5. Individuals were. But since “us” and “we” are consistently used throughout these two chapters, saying one is the Church and the other is individuals is arbitrary and reading into the text.

Either way, it’s too vague for corporate election to claim an advantage. We’d need to survey other texts, which is beyond the scope of this.

Timing of Election

The timing of His choice occurs “before the foundation of the world” – indicating that our sin didn’t catch Him off guard or change His mind. He accounted for everything before creating the world.

Unconditional Election?

Calvinists will insist this proves unconditional election. Namely, that God chose us for Himself without reference to foreseen faith.

As I said with the Arminian, this is building castles on clouds as well. There’s no reason to rule out foreseen faith based on anything here. We would need other texts to build a case. All we know so far is that the choice was made prior to creation – which is consistent with Classical Arminianism.

Purpose of Election

Finally, the purpose of His choice was for us “to be holy and blameless before Him.” One day, we’ll be completely free of sin and able to be fully with God. He didn’t choose us because we were good, He chose us to become good – a point both sides agree on.

He predestined us

The verb here is (proorizo) meaning “to decide beforehand” – which is where the Doctrine of Predestination comes from. So, God decided beforehand for us to be adopted through Christ to Himself.

And this was done according to the kind intention of His will, not according to our worthiness. That’s why it’s to the praise of His glorious grace that He gave us in Christ – His Beloved.

This is often pressed as a difference between Calvinists and Arminians, but properly understood, they agree on this. They disagree on the way God predestines, but nothing I’ve said here should be objectionable to either.

Application

Praise God for His Election and Predestination

I was intentionally brief on the difference between Calvinist and non-Calvinist interpretations because we need to see the main reason of Paul’s words – praise God for choosing and predestining our salvation!

Since He chose us, we should unite with other Christians – not looking down on anyone, but building them up (Ephesians 4:1-10)

Since He chose us, we should live for Him (Ephesians 4:17-5:21).

Since He chose us, our marriages should reflect His love (Ephesians 5:21-33).

Since He chose us, our family relationships should reflect His love (Ephesians 6:1-9).

Since He chose us, we should acquire the full armor of God to accomplish the tasks set before us (Ephesians 6:10-17, 2:10).

Citations

[1] William Arndt et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 326.

[2] Henry George Liddell et al., A Greek-English Lexicon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996), 552.

[3] William Arndt et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 305.

[4] S. M. Baugh, Ephesians, Evangelical Exegetical Commentary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2015), 165.

[5] S. M. Baugh, Ephesians, Evangelical Exegetical Commentary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2015), 166.

The NLT, Election, and Ephesians 1:3