Cosmie Redemption Ephesians 1:15-23 Apr. 24 '6€

The Adult Church Sch. class has been studying the book of Ephesians for
the past several weeks, and last Sun. the discussion turned to the point of
predestination and election, | Now, anyone who has attended that class with
a little regularity knows that sooner or later the discussion will get around
to predestination, no matter when it began, eiioeeas admittedly it is
difficult to real Ephesians and avoid the question. | Bar, the fact that
we keep returning to it tells me three things .\ First, it is important to
us--it perhaps is a waéershed oe what feels like a threatening world

hurtling toward disaster.\ Second, we don't understand it--or know what

exactly we believe about it.\ Thirdly, it is an important part of the
Christian religion.\ Of these three--the third is most ay Laie
Presby. have been saddled with the doctrine and are usually given sole
responsibility for its origin and propogation.|But the truth about Predes-
tination is that it is an important Biblical theme--one which runs throughout
the Old and New Test. and it is no more the property of the Presbyterian
tradition than the assertion that ther is one God and not one hundred.

And yet there are times when I wish the word predestination had never
been | The concept, the idea which it is meant to indicate is
absolutely essential to the Christian faith--but it never seems to be
this concept which comes across when Predestination is discussed.\ The word
has, over the years, collected a whole load of other meanings, all of which
serve to strip it ofits original intent.\ For instance, say the word
"Predestination" to the averaage laymen and immediately he begins to think
in terms of God willing his job, wife, number of children and physical

well being.\Or another person will thin in terms of God causing this plane
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accident--or this fall down the stairs. Another person will think in terms
of God causing the—death of-this=persen and will derive comfort--and if
not comfort--at least some answer from the position that it was the will
of God \that is--predestination usually means determinism--that God causes
egerything _to SEDPRR that happens ~--weddings as well as wars; murders as
well as birthdays. \ This is not a doctrine that can be forced to coincide
with the Bible--it is not what Paul--or the other early Christian writers
had in mind. It is basically, a pagan doctrine that puts everything that
happens into the hands of a mysterious cosmic force--andmakes of man
little more than a puppet. \Yet it persists, and I suppose alwayswill.

In thinking about a new way to approach the question of predestination
I came up with two further questions whibh will help to lead into it and
hopefully help to provide Some sort of an answer.\ The first is--what was
the particular religious--historical situation chat prompted the Reformers
a Cocke the doctrine and make it such a cornerstone of Protestant
thought? , The second is--simply--what is reigion"- What is the purpose of
religion?\ Specifically, what is the nature and purpose of the Christian
religsone

John Calvin is the one who did themost to formulate the doctrine of
Predestination as it has come down to us and Calvin was” reformerg.| The Reformer §

in turn, were reacting and rebelling against the way the Roman-C., was © °>¢
‘interppaeanu thesG@espel in the 16th cent, A.D.

Simply stated--Christianity for the 16th cent. churchman was a matter
of doing good things whiten Ben peepenttea by the ehurch--and which, when
done woujd have the effect of Winning a man a place in heaven instead of
hell. \ Some of these good things were making pilgrimages, saying the rosary,
attending confession and the mass ana buying indulgences ., The skeptics of
the age were quick to point out that all of these exercises had been created

and prescribed by the Church; \none of them were in the Bible--and so it

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could be speculated that in another place--at another time the Church could
prescribe head hunting as a work sufficient for salvation. \In fact the teamke
story of the crusaders comes close to this--as Christian men_went out to
slaughter the heathens--and were promised God's salvation for their
effort,

In any case, stated in its very simplest terms the Prot. Ref. was a
rediscovery of the Gospel of Jesus Christ--the fact that in Jesus Christ
God had acted to redeem the world;\that salvation had been given to man as
a gracious gift; that God had already given man what the Church was trying
to make him earn. The reformers rediscovered the Basically good news that
God had taken the initiative--that the requirements for salvation were
already fulfilled by God himself--and that man's efforts to do more--to
win it and earn it only resulted in spiritual pride and a false sense of self
righteousness.

Calvinand the feformers called for men to accept what God had done
for them--tnd to live in grateful, response to it., They wanted men to worship ~
not to please God--but to praise him. They wanted men to love each other
not to win salvation--but because God had acted in love. They wanted men
to pray--not in order to persuade God to do sume th ine-—wat to thank
him for that which he had already done.

Now had the reformers stopped here egwerything would have been all right.
But they did not. They went further. If God had acted to redeem all men--
why weren't all men Christians? If God's gift of salvation was for all men--
why didn't everyone believe? The logical answer was that God wanted
it that way; that he ——— and chose some men for salvation and others
for damnation. Thus we have the second aspect of the doctrine--and the

one that stops most of us in our tracks.

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I wish the Reformers hadn't gone quite that far--for in this they too

stepped cutside the Biblical frmework that prompted them to be reformers in

the first piace | But they were men of logic--they were not noted for their
intellectual modesty; they believed that everything could be explained

rationally--cause and effect. \ And so if God had redeemed ali men--and
Some men didn't appear to be effectdd by it--or to believe it--it follows

logically that that's the way God wanted it.
It is precisely this point of their theology that we find offensive

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and rightly 80, Man is a great deal less man, stripped of his freedom

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of will. We believe that every men--can if he choses-~say_ no to God--ana

whether that no to God lands him in eternal demnation is God's business

ye , \uys
and not ours .\ And so can reject part of the doctrine of predestination as

it has come to us~-but at the same time we need to see that the reformers

were focusing on the real thrust of the Gospel~+that is, that God has acted
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to save men--to give tham salvation--and that there is nothing man can do

to earn that gift.
Now, in forcusing their thinking and Prot. thinking ever since, 6fon

this point, how valid were they?) This leads to the second question~ Whet

is religion--its purpose and intent? | What is the Christian religion?

The history of man's religion's is the story of man stiriving for three

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things; know ledge of God; security; and eternal salvation. Religion has

bean man's concerted and often bizarre attempt to cope with and influence
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the creator. ‘The ancients lookd at the sun and moon and intuitively

felt the life force in the universe ;\ and so they built fires and chanted

and danced hoping to influence that life force to be benevolent to them.
Sometimes they sacrificed one of their own for the same reason the religon
of the ancient Jews often deteriorated to the aame degree. \ The law had
been given to structure man's responsee to God--but it too became merely

the means through which men extered an influence over the creator, \At times
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the Jews felt that if they were obedient they would be prosperous; which
is only another Way of saying that if you dance three - times around 4 tree
the rain will ‘fail, Se wigs the 16th cent. and Beet. in the intervening
years has corresponded to this traceable pattern of man's religions.
For the 16th cent, Chréstian, God was influenced by obeying the canon
law of the Church; and the result and intent of obeying was admittance
into heaven .\ For the Prot, it is still going to church-avoiding all the nasty
things the church has labeled as sins-and the motivation remains; to influence
God ta be benevolent tO us now, and if he can't do this-to at least give us
our reward when we die.} vin this context the church becomes the
institution for those who are worried about eternity-~a basically selfish
conecern-and has absolutely nothing to say to the man who simply isn't worried
about his destiny.
But what if the creator God, on his own initiative has already given
an answer to the original motives for religion?| What if God has already
revealed himself-thus ending man's search for knowledge of nim?| wnat if
God has acted to redeem man in the present--to make him secure and comfort—
able in what appears to be a hosfile world’ What i8 God, on his own, has
already taken care of man's destiny-giving hm eternal life and salvation.Y
Then there is no longer any need for religion as it has been historically
defined.| This is what the N.T. book of Ephesians is saying.\This is what
the Reformers were saying.\ This is what contemporary theologians like the
late Dietrich Bonhoeffer are saying when they tlk bbdout . 'religionless
Christianty” ; ' But, most important of ali this is what God was saying in J.C,
According the writer of Eph. God has redeemed ail men}\ listen again

to his soaring description of Christ; Whe has put all things under his feet

and has made him head over all things for the church. nan doesn! t say-—he

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has put sometthings under his feet" | mm another letter Paul did not say

"God was in Christ reconciling some men to himself" nor good men-no churchmen;

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but "god Was in Christ reconciling the world to himself" }the whole world.
This is what we mean by predestination;\ that God, before time began,

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planned to redeem mankind ; \ that he had destined all men to be his sons;

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that he had acted in Jesus Christ te do this and it has been. done « This
is the meaning of predestination,
And what of the person who stands outside the body of the Church? | ts

it wrong to_say- oy don't now?" ‘at this paint? Is is wrong to say that that

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God's concern? \Is it wrong to believe the N. T, writ4rs were serious where

dey claimed that God has redeemed all men-and reconciled the whole world

to himself/ °

ae ~ \ay s . . .
If may not be worng, buf if is a dongerous doctrine: it is a radicn| fdes — because if

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sssul ts asr pride, vit ig dungerous becsuse mony pf us sre Christins for_the wrong ressons.
Basicelly we feel we -re doing two things in the choren: | are providing, for our solvition
and we re doing Ged « favor by helping out in his fvorite project.. In short, we_aee engszged
in the practice of treditional religion,

we tcn'f seem to shvke the {dei thet somehow our salvation is the result of something we

hive done or .re now doing. dithin this context it is neturs| for us to feel superioir to
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the person who is not doing wht we ure doing. But more to the point, if this is what we
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befeive — if truly believe we sre earning our he-venly reward by being in the church, we

sre seriously thre-tened by this Christian doctrine - that God has given us the gift we

are expending so much of our time, energy and money jo earn. That idee cuts the bottom out

of our practice of Teligion:, we are left with no motives.: what's the sense in itall if

everyone is redeemed | if God haves and has acted fo sive :]l men, why nof forget about
oe :

religion snd the church?

if ts st this point, this trying, upsetting moment on integrity that we become vulner=ble

to something else <!so - to the re tlyy Good news of Jesus Christ A Ht is of this point thet

page 7.

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we can begin to see = perhaps for the first time - what Christianity is. \It is a point at
which we can diserd religin snd start becoming disciples of Jesus Christ.
This con be © freeing transforming experience. There is power in the knowledge that

God hes redeemed us. \here is freedom in knowing that | no lomger have to live out my life

trying to gain something I've already been gi ven.\ There is a whole new approach to the church,
No longer do | heve to serve in it out of sense of obligtion born of fearend anxiety.
No longer do | heve to belong to it in order to get my name on the roll up yonder. | Suddenly
church membership can become © beautiful, joyful response — 9 thing | do out of lowe and
thanksgiving to the God who has loved and redeemed me. Suddenly my approach fo fhe person he
stands outside the church is radically transformed: no longer is it merely a matter of
trying to convince him to do the things | am doing so that he can get to heaven., Rther
it becomes a joyful announcing of te good news - a tedling thet in Jesus Christ God has
redeemed him ~ and thet the way to acquire salvtion ~ is to begin to live in ccordance with
the fct that if hes already been given. \ When a person knoews this ~ when we successfully
communicate this to him - instead of teditine dowm our noses at him — he will become a joyful,
obedient member of the body of Christ.

Now [| hove no iltusions that htis will for «Il time clear up the matter of predestination
You will continue fo ask , and [ will continue to respond to your probing questions. But in
our thinking together let us remember the cosmic aspect of redemption: \the good news of
Christianaty thot God has destined, before time, «II! men to be his woenes ans thar he has
acted fo mekee them his soan in Jesus Christ, Let us remeber the Gospel — best ststed by

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the Apostle: “He has put 4ll things under his feet end has made him head over ell things for

the church which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all."

ADEN

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