The Odyssey through Theodicy: In Christ

Introduction: This series of posts is from a sermon series I preached this year. It is a three part series on the topic of theodicy. This is the question of evil in a world ruled by a good and powerful God. I used three sermons to describe the problem of theodicy and then offer a Biblical response. Join me on this journey through the question of evil coexisting with a good and sovereign God; join me on the odyssey through theodicy.

For the first part of this series, click here.
For the second part of this series, click here.

Read Ephesians 1:3-10.

Introduction: We are continuing a series this morning that was begun on Easter: The Odyssey through Theodicy. That is, the journey through the question: why is there evil in a world with a good and all-powerful God?

The word “theodicy” means to “justify God.” It is an attempt to figure out how a good and powerful God can justify the existence of evil in the world He created and sustains.

On Easter morning, we looked at the book of Job for an answer to this ever-present, ever-dangerous conundrum. We said:  The existence of evil in a world ruled by a good and all-powerful God is to glorify Christ (repeat). We call this “Christological Theodicy.”

Then back in May, we looked at Romans 8:26-30 to take this Christological Theodicy one step further. We established that all thing work together for our good, which is Christ’s glory (repeat).

You may not remember much of those two sermons, but the truths we established in them are essential to our sermon this morning. So allow to me to briefly summarize our odyssey so far then use it as our launching point for our truths from Ephesians 1. Here goes...

We know three things to be true: God is good. God is powerful. Evil exists. But we struggle to find a way for those three truths to fit together. This is the doctrine of theodicy. Insufficient theodicies have taken one of those truths away to make them fit together. Protest Theodicy believes God is powerful and evil exists, but God is not really good. Process Theodicy believes God is good and evil exists, but that God is not really powerful. And Person Making Theodicy believes God is good and God is powerful, but evil doesn’t actually exist. But from what we know of the truth of God’s Word and our experience in this world, those three theodicies just don’t work.

What we must conclude then is a Christological Theodicy which upholds all three truths through the Gospel in saying, “Evil exists in a world ruled by a good and powerful God to glorify Christ.”

This is viewing it in a corporate or cosmic sense. It’s as though we’re all on a big ship going through turbulent waters and I’ve told you that the seas might be rough, but the destination is worth it. This is like looking over the side of the ship and seeing the rough waters and scary storm but knowing the safe harbor is ahead. But we must also view this in a personal and plenary sense. That’s like turning around on the ship and seeing two people fighting or a person dying of illness or a food shortage. Does a Christological Theodicy still hold up?

What we find in Romans 8:28 is that in all things, as in each and every thing, God works for our good, which is the glory of Christ. Our good is Christ’s glory. And Christ’s glory is our good. And God is working all things together for that purpose of glorifying Christ. That is the good news! That is the heart of the Gospel. Christ came so that we might be saved, that’s our good, but also in doing that, that He might be exalted, that’s Christ’s glory.

God did not create Plan B when Adam and Eve ate the fruit. God’s plan from before time was to purpose everything for the glory of Christ. From our passage this morning, Ephesians 1:9-10 says, “God made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.”

This is what we call “teleology” or the telos of God. Telos means purpose, goal, chief end. So God’s telos in creation is Christ’s glory. We often allow God’s telos to be surmised from what we know of his being, or ontos. So we usually take what we know of God’s character and use it to inform what we think about God’s purposes. So, ontology shapes teleology. But this has to be a two-way street. We must allow what we know of God’s purposes, God’s telos, to inform what we think about God’s character, God’s ontos. So ontology shapes teleology, but also teleology shapes ontology.

Here’s where we begin to launch into the truths from Ephesians 1…

The telos of God affects our entire theology (repeat). Prepare yourself for a big word blitz. Teleology affects ontology (God’s character). It affects Christology (God the Son). It affects pneumatology (God the Spirit). It affects bibliology (the Bible). It affects eschatology (the end times). It affects ecclesiology (the Church). It affects anthropology (man). It affects hamartiology (sin). Finally, where we will camp out, teleology affects soteriology (the study of salvation).

Without a correct view of God’s purposes, we cannot have a correct view of God’s saving work in the world. Bad teleology makes bad soteriology. Good teleology makes good soteriology. That’s what this passage in Ephesians is all about.

Here’s the truth of this passage and the main thrust of this sermon series: Christological theodicy makes Christological soteriology beautiful. To state it another way, a Christ-centered view of everything illuminates the beauty of salvation “in Christ” (repeat).

Text:

Let’s find this by digging into our text, Ephesians 1:3-10.

This long sentence contains so many wonderful truths of our redemption in Christ. But time only permits us to look at one facet of this passage and look at it wholeheartedly. Staring us right in the face throughout these few verses is the doctrine of predestination. Even for those who don’t have a thorough knowledge of what this term means, it can make us uneasy and anxious. “Is he really talking about this? Is he really going down that road?” Yes. Why? Because it’s right here in Scripture. And any passage from Scripture is worth preaching.

So I’ve mentioned predestination, or election, and you’re probably in one of three places right now.

1. You’re already asleep. Maybe all this talk of God’s grand purposes and how they relate to our salvation is just way too “heady” for you and I lost you a while ago. But all this talk has a point and amazing implications for our life. If nothing else, let this sermon make God bigger and mankind smaller for you.
2. Maybe you’re fully on board. You love talking predestination and know the beauty of this doctrine. Praise God. May these words simply pour fuel on the furnace of affections towards God in your heart.
3. Maybe you’re rather skeptical about the whole topic and you’d rather stay away from it. Maybe you’re not quite convinced that God would predestine people to heaven or hell before they even existed. You’d rather not think about it at all because of the controversy surrounding it. You don’t think we even need to be discussing whether or not certain decisions were made long ago. What does it matter?

One million dollars. Would anybody not want one million dollars if offered to them? One million dollars would be nice. So what if approached you today and told you that your great uncle you didn’t know about passed away recently. In his will, he left you one million dollars. If that were the case, would you say, “Well, I hear the whole process of sorting out a will and divvying up possessions is a messy affair. And who cares about decisions he made a long time ago.” Absolutely not! There wouldn’t be anything you’d want to do more than to go sort out the will and obtain your inheritance.

Here’s the good news: Someone did make a very important decision a long time ago to include you in their inheritance. Before the foundation of the world, He was thinking about you, determining if you would be adopted into His family to obtain the incredible blessings of the inheritance. So now, let’s talk about it. And hopefully in doing so, I can show you the beauty of this doctrine for your life.

First, let’s use our passage to define it. Predestination, also called election, is the act of God before time in choosing some people to be saved, decided not by our merit but by the eternal, loving will of God (repeat).

Let’s see how we can build this definition from Ephesians 1:3-10. It’s as simple as “ABCDE”.

Act of God: As you know from grammar, a sentence can only have one main clause with one subject and one predicate. This massive sentence in Ephesians begins with it: “Blessed be God.” Everything else in verses 3-14 is subordinate or explanatory to this one main clause, main point: Praise God because of all He has done. He is the prime mover, the first cause, the sovereign ruler of the universe. As we see in verses 9-10 and in the previous sermons from this series, He has chosen to do one thing with His sovereign will: to glorify Christ in His creation. So first we have an act of God, not obligated, completely free, and completely powerful.

Before time: “Before the foundation of the world.” This is the when of election. “But wait,” you say, “before the foundation of the world is before the creation of time itself.” Exactly! God is not confined by time like we are. He is over and above time. So when we say “before the foundation of the world,” we don’t mean it chronologically, but rather, that God in his eternal infinitude elected. This goes against those who say God elects based on the good works He sees people performing. This goes against those who say God elects based on people’s choosing Him. This goes against even those who say God elects after the fall of man, choosing only who would be saved and not who would not be saved. It’s an act of God before time.

Choosing some people to be saved: The action itself. God chooses some people to be saved. Here’s how Ephesians 1 phrases it filling in some antecedents: “God chose us in Christ.” “He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ.” Then from our passage last time, Romans 8, “For those he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son… And those He predestined He also called, and those whom He called He also justified, and those whom He justified He also glorified.” Remember, this choosing is an act of God. He chooses us, we do not choose Him. There are some who say, “He predestines those whom he foreknew would choose him.” But that’s really distorting the truth of Romans 8. Because God foreknew everyone but He doesn’t predestine everyone. Foreknew there is based on the Old Testament meaning of knew: loved. So it’s really those whom God foreloved He also predestines.

This is where some people struggle. This is why this sermon follows two sermons on theodicy. It asks the same question: “How could a good God only elect some and punish others? Isn’t He good? Isn’t He powerful? Doesn’t hell exist? How can all three be true?” In the same way as theodicy, this is where we must allow our teleology of God to inform our soteriology of God. This is where we must allow what we know of God’s purposes to shape how beliefs on how He saves. If we don’t, disastrous things happen. Either we get rid of God’s goodness and make an unloving sovereign who plays around with people’s destinies for fun, or we get rid of God’s power and make him a loving, but weak God, who wants people to be saved, but just can’t seem to make it happen. Or we can get rid of hell and have a good and powerful God that saves everyone. None of these are sufficient. So we must allow what we know of God’s purposes to shape our view of how He saves, just like Paul does in Ephesians 1. His choosing some to be saved is to glorify Christ, not to make us feel special and warm inside. There’s so much more I want to say on this, but I’ll leave that for another time. The important part of this is that predestination does not contradict God, but perfectly fulfills His purpose and will for creation.

Decided not by our merit: Why does God choose some people to be saved? It is not by our merit. Do not get this wrong. God did not choose you because you had good deeds or good faith or good abilities or good looks. God does not sit in Heaven and hope you’ll be on His team because of how awesome you are. Because you are not that great! Harsh, I know. But this is not bad news. It is good news! This means you do not have to work hard enough to gain salvation. You do not have to believe hard enough to gain salvation. You do not have any way to merit salvation. Therefore, you do not have any way to unmerit salvation. If you struggle with sin tomorrow, are you still part of the elect because God did not choose you based on your merit. Ephesians 1 says we are predestined to receive “forgiveness for our trespasses.” That’s all we have to offer, our sin. It is not based on our merit. So why did he choose some people to be saved?

Eternal, loving will of God: Ephesians 1:5 says he chose us “in love” and “according to the purpose of His will. God chooses some to be saved and some to punish based on nothing but his divine purpose. Fortunately for us, we’ve spent two sermons discussing God’s divine purpose and Ephesians 1 states it pretty clearly: “to the praise of Christ’s glorious grace… the mystery of his will, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time.”

So here’s the truth of election: Election is an act of God before time in choosing some people to be saved, decided not by our merit but by the eternal, loving will of God. This is what salvation looks like “in Christ, through Christ, by Christ, for Christ.” And it gives us some wonderful news.

Here’s the result of election: We, who were once enemies of God and rebels of his kingdom, are now adopted into his family. “In love, He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ.” Adoption is something that is near and dear to the heart of Bethel. We just heard about our Esther Project, helping orphans find families. Let me state this clearly, “There is no clearer picture on earth of the Gospel than adoption.” That is the beautiful result of election.

Truett is now 47 days old. I’ve always looked forward to raising a child, but so far we’ve just been growing a baby. And it’s been tough. If I’m honest, Truett has given me zero reason to love him. Absolutely no reason at all. He has not merited my love in any way. In fact, it seems like he’s trying to do everything to get me to stop loving him. And yet, in some miraculous, God-ordained way, there’s nothing like the love I have for him.

But that love is amplified to a whole new level when it comes to adoption. They are not related by blood. They were not carried around for 9 months. There’s no reason why you have to love them. But when a child is adopted, they are still loved beyond comprehension without any way to merit it.

That is just a glimpse of our salvation in Christ. God has adopted us, chose us before time, on no merit of our own. In fact, we’ve given him every reason to not love us. But in love, he predestined us for adoption in Christ. Praise God!

So let me drive this truth home today by explaining briefly ten wonders of election. Ten beautiful truths that election shines its powerful light on. Ten delicious actions of election that we completely miss out when we avoid election. Here they are in no particular order:

1. Election promotes missions This might be the opposite of what you’ve been told. But think about it. If God has predestined the ends of salvation, He has also predestined the means. That means we get to participate in the mission of God to bring the Gospel to the elect. It takes the pressure off of us in knowing God is working with us to save the elect.
2. Election encourages prayer We come before a God who has known us before time and knows us fully even now. So our prayers do not depend on us but on God. Praying is no longer a chore, but a joy.
3. Election produces humility Election most excellently puts in our view the power and grandeur of God and the lowliness and sin of mankind. One cannot be proud at the foot of the cross.
4. Election assures us of our salvation Election in Christ means our salvation does not depend on us, it depends on Christ. If we were predestined by the will of God and not by our merits, that means we can rest assured of our salvation because it depends on God in Christ.
5. Election relieves the burden self-salvation We are not good enough. We all know it. But knowing that God elected us in Christ means we do not have to try to merit our salvation or God’s approval. We are approved and have been since before time!
6. Election motivates obedience This doctrine spurs us on towards obedience. In election God’s justice humbles us and teaches us to look up to his mercy, when we see his justice and mercy we are aroused and stimulated to live a holy life. We do not obey to earn salvation, we obey because we are saved. And God has not only predestined our justification, but also our sanctification. God has already prepared good works for you to do tomorrow. Let that motivate you to obedience.
7. Election comforts in trial Because God has elected us before time, we can know during times of trial that God is not angry with us, or that we have lost his love. If God predestined us for adoption before time, then his faithfulness extends to us today. God’s faithfulness is an unbroken cord throughout history. If He was faithful in electing you in the beginning and He will be faithful to bring you to glory in the end, then He is faithful even now.
8. Election abolishes racism Because this is an important issue in our world, we need to see how election destroys racism. One ethnicity cannot be better than another ethnicity because God has elected from all tribes and tongues to one holy nation in Christ.
9. Election bonds us tightly to the love of God Look at the rest of Romans 8 after the truth of predestination is presented: “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Because we are elect, we are bound tightly to the love of God. Nothing can separate us.
10. Election secures our salvation If we have been predestined from the foundation of the world, then we can rest in our salvation. If God has elected us to salvation, then He will give us the grace to complete our salvation and bring us to Him in Heaven.

Conclusion: This is the beauty of election. Hopefully I have shown you how important and beautiful this doctrine is. It is not to be avoided, but rejoiced in. It is not an anxiety-producing controversy, it is a joy-producing doctrine.

Yesterday was Halloween. But it was also the 498th anniversary of the Reformation’s beginning. On October 31st, 1517, Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the Wittenberg Chapel to spark the Reformation and recovery of the Gospel. His 95 Theses were based on the truth of justification by faith alone through grace alone. So I will close with just one of his theses.

“62. The true treasure of the church is the most holy gospel of the glory and grace of God.”

Amen.