02.07. Predestination
Predestination Men on whom God’s favour rests In Ephesians 1:1-23 we find election in Ephesians 1:4, and predestination in Ephesians 1:5. In electing us before the foundation of the world, God had in mind to place us "holy and without blame before Him in love". We needed a new nature that was in keeping with His essential being, His holiness as well as His love. For God is light, and He is love. This privilege is given to us in the new birth. Next we have predestination, which is aimed at our "adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will". This makes it clear that predestination relates to an additional blessing. As election was with a view to becoming God’s children, predestination was with a view to obtaining the privilege of sonship. Christians are not only children of God, but also sons of God. While being in the flesh, we could not be recognized as His children. Being a child of God is a prerequisite, so to speak, for appearing in His presence. But in addition to this, God has also granted us the position of sons, the special blessing of sonship. We are now companions of the Son of God, who became Man to redeem us and bring us to God. By Jesus Christ we have been placed before God as sons, sons to Himself, sons in whom God is well pleased. This clearly links up with what we read in Romans 8:1-39 : God has predestined us "to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren" (Romans 8:29). These brethren bear His image and reflect His glory. This special blessing could be ours only as a result of a divine predestination, a decision to be destined for blessing before the foundation of the world. The vessels of wrath, on the other hand, prepared themselves for destruction during their lifetime (Romans 9:22).
Called into God’s glory
We understand that this particular predestination was necessary also because man’s natural place is in the earth. For the heavens are the LORD’S, but the earth He has given to the children of men (Psalms 115:16). Now, however, a Man is placed in heaven, in the glory of God, because He glorified God on the earth (John 13:31-32; John 17:4-5; Acts 7:55-56). But this Man, the Man Christ Jesus, is not alone there. He has companions, He has brethren. He is united with a company of sons, and in their midst He is the firstborn. This means that He takes the first place among them; He is united with them, yet distinguished from them. This is God’s purpose. He grants us the blessing of sonship. He wants to conform us to the image of His beloved Son, and to place us with Him in the same heavenly glory. God has placed us in this entirely new position, which far exceeds Adam’s blessings in the garden of Eden. Therefore we now have the privilege of addressing God as "Abba, Father" (Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:6). This relationship with the Father is the fruit of the redemptive work of the Son, who calls us His brethren as the Risen One (Psalms 22:22; John 20:17). But we shall not be fully conformed to the image of God’s Son, until He appears as our Saviour to transform our lowly bodies that they may be conformed to His glorious body (Php 3:20-21). That is why at the present time our sonship is still linked with a living hope. We are eagerly waiting for (the full extent of) the adoption, the redemption of our body (Romans 8:23). So the ultimate goal of our predestination is this future glory - although Christ is already representing us there, and we are placed there in Him. Therefore glorification is the last step of the plan of salvation as outlined in Romans 8:1-39. This thought is confirmed by Ephesians 1:1-23, where predestination is not only mentioned as the basis of our sonship, but also as the foundation of the future glory which we are to inherit. We are both sons and heirs. For in Christ we also "have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will" (Ephesians 1:11).
What a position is ours as a result of this divine predestination! In heavenly glory we shall surround the Father and the Son throughout all ages, as children and sons of the Father, and brethren of the Lord Jesus. Moreover, we shall share in the public manifestation of God’s glory when Christ as Head over all things will assume His millennial reign.