And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ,
God made known to US the mystery of His will. Who is the “us” to whom Paul is referring?
Go back a few verses in this same chapter to verse 1, which was one of my points of Bible Truth #211. He is writing to believers in Ephesus and to the faithful in Christ. This letter is NOT for everyone in Ephesus, it is not for the lost. God’s will is a mystery to the lost, and I’m beginning to think His will is a mystery to many saved also - well, at least concerning His sovereignty in Election. But He made the mystery of His will known to US. If God has made this mystery known to us and not to the lost, how can they believe in something that has not been made known to them?!? THEY CAN’T, and with few exceptions such as His eternal power and Divine Nature (Romans 1:20), nowhere in the Bible will you find that God has made anything known to a lost man.
Another piece of information to consider is that God made it known to us. He didn’t make it “available” for us to know, hear, see, or feel. Nowhere in this passage or anywhere else in God’s Word will you find it “made available” to us. God didn’t provide it and let us decide whether we wanted to know it or not. God made it known to us. We can’t NOT know it.
As Jesus said, it is God working in a lost man to make him believe in Jesus as his Savior (John 6:29). Without God working in a man, it is impossible for that man to do something that is against his nature, i.e believe in Jesus as his Savior.
As Jesus said, it is God working in a lost man to make him believe in Jesus as his Savior (John 6:29). Without God working in a man, it is impossible for that man to do something that is against his nature, i.e believe in Jesus as his Savior.
The Arminian puts the cart before the horse in that he has the lost man coming into the Light when he hates the Light (John 3:20); he has the lost man understanding Truth when he doesn’t have the Holy Spirit to discern It for him (1 Corinthians 2:14); he has a lost man pleasing God when everything he does is in the flesh (Romans 8:8); and in this case, he has a lost man believing in something that has NOT been made known to him.
The bottom line is that God chooses to whom He will make the mystery of His will known. And according to verse 4 of this same chapter, He makes the mystery of His will known to those He chose in Christ before the foundation of the world.
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