In Him, in whom we also obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will,
Truth to Learn
All of the aspects of our salvation have come about because God determined them of His own free will.
Behind the Words
The word translated “we … obtained an inheritance” is klēroō. Literally, it means “to cast lots.” By application it means “to allot” or “to assign something.” It is expressed here in the aorist tense (a completed action in the past) and the passive voice (something done to the subject). Thus, it refers to something that was allotted to us; that is, an inheritance which was assigned to us at a point in time in the past.
“Being predestined” is from the Greek word prooridzō, which we saw back in verse five. There we learned that it means “to establish or determine something beforehand.”
“The purpose” is from protithēmi, meaning “something put in place beforehand.”
The word “works” is from energeō, which means “to be active, to make something happen, to do something, or to work.”
The phrase “the counsel of His will” is from tēn boulēn tou thelēmatos autou. The two key words are boulēn, meaning “a wish or a desire” and thelēmatos, meaning “a determination.” We could paraphrase this as “The desire of His determination.” Thus, this expression indicates something that God determined to do simply because He wanted to do it.
Meaning Explained
Back in verse two we noted that the content and meaning of these verses is sort of like drinking from a fire hose. Paul has packed a lot of doctrine (teaching) into each of these verses.
Here he tells us that “In Him,” that is, in Christ, we obtained (past completed action) an inheritance from God. This is not something that we earned, but something that is freely given to us simply because we have been adopted into God’s family (see verse five). Paul also tells us that this inheritance (our adoption), our redemption, and the forgiveness of our sins were all put in place beforehand. All of this goes back to His choosing us before He created anything. This is the point in time (actually before time) when God determined the plan of salvation and set it in place. For those of you who believe that we can somehow lose our salvation, how can we possibly lose something that God put in place before the world was created?
The last phrase of this verse is a powerful statement of how our God operates. It says that God does everything He does simply because He wants to. He is not constrained to do anything. Nobody can force or even entice God to do anything. So what Paul is telling us here is that the entire plan of salvation, from His choosing us, to His adopting us, to His paying the ransom for our sins, to His casting our sins far, far away, to granting us an inheritance, is all done simply because He wanted to do it. In other words, God did not do all these things because we chose to believe the gospel message and get saved. That would be us telling God what to do. The entire plan of salvation is all His doing and only His doing.
Application
As hard as it is for many of us to believe, our salvation is all God’s doing. That shouldn’t make us complacent, it should make us eternally grateful and humbled before Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will! Praise God!
Copyright © 2015 Will Krause. All rights reserved
