by Darrel Cline (darrelcline biblical-thinking.org)
Chapter # 1 Paragraph # 2 Study # 10 April 17, 2024 Broadlands, Louisiana (Download Audio)
I. The Overall Paragraph In Terms Of Its Focus.
A. Paul's prayers because of the response the Thessalonians gave to the message of the Gospel.
1. Began with "thanksgiving" expressed to God.
2. Moved from this gratitude to incessant, intercessory, prayer.
3. Focused upon the obvious changes that occurred when the Thessalonians heard and believed the Gospel.
4. Rooted in a "rational, deductive knowledge" of the "election" of the Thessalonians.
a. "Election" is revealed in Revelation 17:8 to be a matter of "names written the Lamb's Book of Life from the foundation of the world" and a "pattern of behavior that revealed loyalty to Christ in the face of extreme physical danger up to, and including, execution".
b. This "rational, deductive knowledge" was not a claim to be "inerrant", but to be "reasonable".
c. The objective rationale for "election".
1. Ephesians 1:3-6.
a) The "blessing" of us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ is directly linked to His "choosing of us" before the foundation of the world.
1) The "in Him" phrase is mistakenly taken by some to mean "God chose Christ and everyone who believes in Him becomes, then, "elected in His election".
2) This is patently false for these reasons...
(a) The text says it is "us" that He chose, not Christ.
(b) The text says that this "choosing" was directly linked with His "blessing" of us so that the "blessing" is tied to the "choosing".
(c) The text says that the "choosing" is an "example" of the "blessing" ("...just as..." means "according to the manner of some other illustrational manner": 4:17; 4:32; and 5:2; typically the first issue is the "copy cat" event reality and the second is supposed to be the previous event that illustrates the first).
(d) The text says that the "choosing" was to ultimately result in our "being holy and blameless before Him" (the only way that can be is by our having the righteousness of Christ attributed to us because no one is this life ever achieves the holy and blameless life style of Christ): thus, the "choosing" was unto our justification, not our progressive sanctification.
(e) The text also says that this entire sequence of events is rooted in "predestination".
(f) And, finally, the text says that this whole concept is "unto the praise of the glory of His grace".
b) This is the reason that Paul, in Romans 11:5, calls "election" a matter of "grace".
c) This is also the reason that Paul, in Romans 4:16, said that the only way the "promise" can be "sure", or "guaranteed" to all the seed (of Abraham) is if it is rooted in "grace" (if the root is anywhere else, every man will falter at that point and the promise will not take effect).