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The writer acknowledges in this booklet that some of the writings of the present
author were blessed to his liberation, saying:
"Now as to Dr. John Owen's second question `Did Christ die for all the sins of some
men', we answer, Yes, the election hath obtained it (Rom. 11: 7). For it is indeed the faith
of God's elect. For if ever there was a dispensation of absolute election, it is now. But as
Mr. Charles H. Welch, in his Dispensational Expositions* (* - a series which appeared in
Things to Come 1909-1913), has said `We must be very careful, however, with regard to
these things, that we do not limit the Holy One of Israel. His purpose of grace to Us, and
the redemptive work of Christ for Us, may not necessarily be the same as His purposes
regarding other ages and dispensations. Particular redemption, with the utmost emphasis
of hyper-Calvinism, may be the correct aspect of the work of Christ regarding the Church
(the elect body of Christ). It may or may not be so regarding mankind under other
dispensations."
The choice, before the overthrow of the world, is revealed to have been "in love". Or,
if, with some commentators, we refer this to the next clause, then "in love" He hath
predestinated us, sounds the same note. This reference to predestination is followed by
the words "according to the good pleasure of His will" (Eph. 1: 5), or as it is extended in
verse 9 to "His good pleasure which He hath purposed in Himself".
The words "good pleasure" are a translation of the Greek eudokia. This word occurs
nine times in the New Testament. How are we to understand this term "good pleasure"?
It will be seen that everything depends upon the character of the one whose good pleasure
is in view. If it be an autocrat, like Nebuchadnezzar, of whom it is written "whom he
would he slew, and whom he would he kept alive", then the exercise of such good
pleasure will always have a sinister effect. If however we are contemplating the "good
pleasure" of "the God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ", the One Who so loved the
world that He gave, and spared not His only son, then the fact that His choice and His
predestination is revealed to be according to His good pleasure, will but encourage us to
rest in His choice and to realize that His good pleasure is but another way of saying, with
verse four, that He chose us "in love".
Eudokia is composed of the adverb eu "well" and dokeo "to think". The basic idea of
dokeo is "to seem", so the good pleasure of the Lord is that which "seems good" in his
sight. The reader will remember its use in Matt. 11: 26 when in the time of His rejection
the Saviour looked up to the Father and said:
"Even so Father for so it SEEMED GOOD in Thy sight."
The herald angels used the word eudokia when they spoke of "good will" toward men
(Luke 2: 14). That the word does not necessarily imply any element of arbitrariness or
tyrannical power, let the Apostle testify, for in a context in which he shows himself
willing to make the greatest self sacrifice known to man, he says:
"Brethren, my heart's desire for Israel is that they might be saved" (Rom. 10: 1, see
Rom. 9: 1-3).