Have Christians drawn a difficult lot? I don’t think so. I even think that they have great spiritual wealth. However, not everyone sees it that way. It seems to be a pious pleasure for some communities to come to faith and then to “suffer for Christ”. If you search for the term “suffering for Christ” on the Internet today, many articles appear.

A tough lot

Of course, there can be really difficult situations, but this is often not the case. It is about a religious devaluation of the self, whereby one tends to elevate oneself. It can seem advantageous to stand out through stories of suffering. In the sense of: “I am not understood, so I suffer for Christ”. That seems to be a pious projection.

In this interpretation of reality, one becomes a victim of unbelievers, of the godless world, of other people. Anyone who feels persecuted without being persecuted for life and limb really does have problems. A religiously influenced attitude of victimization without a real reason is often self-inflicted. It is a chosen suffering, a religious projection that often stems from a particular tradition. Because yes, there are communities in which this self-invoked suffering is a conscious part of piety.

Those who suffer in this way expect benefits from it. You might get a better sense of how faithful and right you are in your life. Is it a kind of self-affirmation, analogous to the desire to “make faith visible, touchable and easier to understand”? Or do I want to convey a certain impression to someone else?

I would like to contrast this phenomenon with something positive. In this ongoing reflection on the letter to the Ephesians, we have now arrived at Ephesians 1:11. It says there:

“In Him also the lot has fallen upon us, who have been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, that we should be to the praise of His glory, who have a former expectation in Christ.”
Eph 1:10-11

What is written there is our lot. Is it a difficult lot? Let’s take a look at it.

A better lot

When Paul speaks in Ephesians of the fate that has befallen us as believers, it is not a hard fate. A lot is a neutral term. It is something that was “drawn” without consideration. It was given to us “in Him”, that is, “in Christ”.

With verses 11 and 12 of the first chapter, Paul concludes a section in which it is continuously about a position “in Christ” and its effects. Thus the apostle wrote that God blesses us with every spiritual blessing in Christ (Eph 1:3). Many more details follow, but they come to a close in these last verses. Once again he mentions that in Christ we have been dealt a fate. He then describes this.

A “lot” is used to “draw a lot”. Originally, these are only small stones that are used to determine the lot. Here in the text there is no lot, no noun, therefore no object, but the verb “to cast lots” or “we are cast by lot” (Greek kleroō). It is what is promised to us. By using a verb, the activity is central and thus the giver who grants us this. We receive the blessing of the promise “in Him”, i.e. “in Christ”. Christ received the lot, and we receive it “in Him”. That is why it says “In Him the lot has also fallen to us”. Also us, i.e. Christ received it and in Him we now also receive it.

“In Him the lot has also befallen us, who are predestined.” Nothing negative can be discovered here, but rather a positive confirmation that blessing and riches are in Christ and are given to us “in Him”.

This predestination is “according to the purpose of Him who brings all things about according to the counsel of His will”. Paul’s predestination is recognized as God’s action. You can be for or against it, agree or disagree with a predestination. Sobriety dictates that I do not include or exclude these statements for the time being, but leave them as statements of the apostle. The apostle’s confidence is this: Everything is in God’s hands and he also deals with our lives according to his purpose.

God has everything in his hands

It seems superfluous to mention that God has everything in His hands. Unfortunately, that is not the case. The God of the Bible created heaven and earth. Although there are many gods, idols and the like, there is this one God who transcends all others (1 Corinthians 8:5-6). It is the largest and definitive subjector (Placer, the One who gives everything its place). This is not a moral judgment, but a position statement. He stands above everything. He has everything in His hands and brings everything about according to the counsel of His will. That is Paul’s view. Paul has an almighty God whom he trusts in everything.

If we are predestined, it is because God holds everything in his hands. Paul therefore concludes from the knowledge of God to the confident reality for believers. This God, who holds everything in his hands, has predestined us. For we are, writes Paul, predestined according to the purpose of God, who holds everything in his hands.

What Paul writes here is not explained or elaborated on in detail. There is simply the statement here that our predestination and the lot we receive corresponds to a purpose. Paul describes this as the “purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will”. This speaks of great confidence.

If God does and accomplishes everything He sets out to do, what does that mean for us? This is the question that Paul answers here regarding our spiritual riches and blessings. However, we can learn more from this sentence: God accomplishes everything, and not just something as He has purposed. No double predestination can be derived from this, nor can this will be trivialized. Rather, God is the only one who can do what He wants.

Evangelicals are often masters of trivialization. For example, Paul says that God “wants” all people to be saved (1 Timothy 2:4). This is then quickly reinterpreted as a weak “wish”. God “wants to save all people, but he can only save those who think like me”. Man’s so-called “free will” is then given greater weight than God’s will to save.

This is how one comes to devalue God, who brings about everything according to the intention of His will, to the level of man, in order to simultaneously burden man with the burden of eternal damnation because he should have an “absolutely free will”. In the assumptions of many a hell-lover, the will of man is divine and what God wants is only human. A strange reversal.

So Paul sees it differently here. God brings everything about according to the counsel of His will. This is the basis for further assumptions and a firm foundation for the apostle’s confidence.

Why did the lottery strike us?

In Christ the lot has fallen upon us, we read in Ephesians 1:11. What is it good for and what is it about? The apostle describes this when he says:

“That we may be to the praise of His glory.”
Eph 1:12

The assignment of the lot is not so much for our sake, but for His sake. It is so that we may be to the praise of His glory. In other words, God has good things in mind for us because He wants the fruit of it. This is not entirely altruistic. The goal is set. The goal is not us, but Him. Divine glory is the epitome of everything good that comes from God.

“That we may be to the praise of God’s glory” is no small thing. In his letter to the Romans, Paul emphasized that we are incapable of attaining God’s glory on our own (Romans 3:23). We lack this glory. We have a deficiency that could be categorized as “sin”.

Here, however, in Ephesians, we should “be to the praise of God’s glory”. That’s quite astonishing, because we don’t have the opportunity to do that ourselves. We are characterized by a deficiency phenomenon. We lack the glory of God, this absolutely pure and weighty holiness and dignity. However, we can be to the praise of His glory. This is not a matter of course, but it is possible because of our position “in Christ”.

You could also say that God makes possible what we lack the disposition, strength and splendor to do. He makes it possible “in Christ”, and we receive a share in it “in Him”. Let’s go, because God Himself gives us the opportunity and carries out His purpose “in Christ”. We thus have a share in this development.

The earlier expectation

“That we may be to the praise of His glory, who have an earlier expectation in Christ.”
Eph 1:12

Paul mentions “we” twice. That we may be to praise, who have an earlier expectation. The second we follows on from the first we. It’s like an extension, an extended declaration. We are to praise because it is we who have a prior expectation.

What characterizes this outlook and service is the essence of an earlier expectation. There are different expectations in this world, but believers receive an earlier expectation. You could interpret it that way. However, there are other interpretations.

A comparison with the next verse shows that Paul is addressing the believers directly and says “you too”. The we of verse 12 also seems to contrast with the also you of verse 13. There is even something to be said for that. If this is true, then the we of verse 12 refers to Paul and his coworkers, while the also you applies to the believers in Asia Minor. Paul would then have spoken first about himself and his position, and only then would he have explicitly included the readers of the letter. This will play a role in the rest of the first and second chapters.

The earlier expectation could therefore apply to Paul and perhaps to other Jewish believers, to which the believers from the nations are added in the next verses. This will come into play in the further course of these considerations. Simplified, however, one could also see that the believers trust that Christ will return and therefore an earlier expectation applies specifically to the believers than to the rest of the world. It is the expectation of salvation that first applies to believers.

Deepening

• Which statements from Ephesians 1:11-12 are new to you?
• What themes can you recognize in these verses?
• Which terms or statements would you like to check further?
• Do Christians have to suffer because they have a harsh lot to deal with?
• What do you think about persecution and suffering? Discuss!
• Does suffering belong to life, to faith, or simply to both?
• Are there advantages to suffering? Should you develop a longing for death?
• Is Paul talking about suffering in this passage?
• When Paul talks about a lot, what does he mean?
• Ask other people if they have an expectation for their life and what is it? This makes it easy to get into conversation.
• Do you have to know everything God does to be “sure”? How does Paul see this (cf. Rom 11:33-36)?