Boice Expositional Commentaries $149.95

Bruce Dunning said:

I'm considering this but can someone who has used Boice tell me why you like and and what sets it apart from others?

Bruce, I prefer the Preaching the Word series over Boice, but do use Boice. So if you don't own that, it would be one I'd put higher on my list. It is, of course, much more money.

While these are a bit long, here are Boice and Hughes on Ephesians 1:4-6/1:3-6

Boice:

         Election


    Ephesians 1:4–6


  For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.


It is wonderful to be told, as Paul does tell us in the third verse of Ephesians 1, that God “has blessed us … with every spiritual blessing in Christ.” But as soon as that is said we immediately want to ask how such great blessing actually becomes ours. Paul describes it as “spiritual” blessing “in the heavenly realms.” But we are not in heaven; we are on earth. How can we possess the blessings God has for us?
We can imagine a number of wrong ways. The blessings of heaven might be thought to be possessed by force, which is what Satan tried to do. He tried to conquer heaven; he was conquered instead. We might try to earn these great blessings. But with what would we earn them? Heaven’s blessings must be bought by heaven’s coin. We possess no spiritual currency. Perhaps we can inherit them when the owner dies. Alas, the owner is the eternal God, who does not die. Perhaps God is gracious and is only waiting for us to ask him for these blessings. Even this will not work. For according to Scripture, we are not the kind of persons who, unaided by God, will even ask him for blessings. On the contrary, we despise God’s blessings. We want our will and our way and left to ourselves, we would never ask God for anything.
Then how is it that some people receive these blessings, as Paul says they do? The answer is in verses 4–6. It is the result of God’s own sovereign act, election. Paul says, “For [the Greek word is kathōs, meaning ‘just as’ or ‘because’; it links verses 4 and 3, as an explanation] he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.”
This teaches that the blessings of salvation come to some people because God has determined from before the creation of the world to give them to them—and for that reason only.


Election and Human Depravity

This doctrine is difficult for many persons, of course. But before we deal with their objections we would do well to consider the various views that people hold about election. There are three of them.
The first position is a denial of election outright. No one is saved because of some supreme hidden purpose of God, these objectors say. We can speak of grace, for God chose to reveal himself to fallen men and women and to provide a way of salvation through the death of his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. That he did so proves him to be gracious. But having spoken of the grace of God in this sense, we must stop there and turn the entire situation over to human beings. God graciously offers salvation, but people must choose this salvation of their own free will. Election simply does not enter into it.
The strength of this view is that it conforms to what we all naturally like to think about our abilities. The difficulty is that, whether we like it or not, the Bible does teach this doctrine. John R. W. Stott calls election “a divine revelation, not a human speculation.”1 D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones refers to this teaching as “a statement, not an argument.”2 In his study of election J. C. Ryle begins by listing eleven texts (including Ephesians 1:4) that teach election in the simplest and most undeniable language and urges his readers to consider them well.3
It is hard to imagine anyone doing this and then continuing to deny that election is the Bible’s teaching.
According to the second view, election is taught in Scripture but it is election based on foreknowledge. This is a mediating position, held by those who acknowledge that election is taught but who do not want to admit to a doctrine which they consider unjust and arbitrary. They would argue that God elects some to salvation and its blessings but that he does so on the basis of a choice, a response of faith, or some other good that he foresees in them.
This is patently impossible. One problem is that an election like that is not really election. In such a reconstruction God does not preordain an individual to anything; the individual actually ordains himself.
Another, greater problem is, if what the Bible tells us about the hopeless condition of man in sin is true, what good could God possibly see in anyone to cause him to elect that one to salvation? Goodness is from God. Faith is from God. If God is eliminated as a first cause of goodness or faith or a God-directed human choice (whatever it may be), how could there ever be any faith for God to foresee?
Calvin put it like this: “How should [God] foresee that which could not be? For we know that all Adam’s offspring is corrupted and that we do not have the skill to think one good thought of doing well, and much less therefore are we able to commence to do good. Although God should wait a hundred thousand years for us, if we could remain so long in the world, yet it is certain that we should never come to him nor do anything else but increase the mischief continually to our own condemnation. In short, the longer men live in the world, the deeper they lunge themselves into their own damnation. And therefore God could not foresee what was not in us before he himself put it into us.”4
When people have trouble with election—and many do—their real problem is not with the doctrine of election, although they think it is, but with the doctrine of depravity that makes election necessary.
The question to settle is: How far did the human race fall when it fell? Did man fall upward? That is the view of secular evolutionists, that we are all getting better and better. Did man fall part way but not the whole way, so that he is damaged by sin but not ruined? That is the view of Pelagians or Arminians. It affirms that we are affected by sin but insists that we nevertheless possess the ability to turn from it and believe in Christ when the gospel is offered—by our own power. Or did man fall the whole way so that he is no longer capable of making even the smallest movement back toward God unless God first reaches down and performs the miracle of the new birth in him? That is the view of Scripture.
The Bible says that we are “dead in … transgressions and sins” (Eph. 2:1).
It says, “There is no one … who seeks God” (Rom. 3:11).
Jesus declared, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him” (John 6:44).
It is written in Genesis: “The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time” (Gen. 6:5).
What good could God possibly foresee in hearts that are dead in transgressions and sins and inclined only to evil all the time? What good could God anticipate in people who cannot come to him and do not even seek him unless he first draws them to himself? If that is the situation, as the Bible says it is, then the only way any man or woman can be saved is by the sovereign election of God by which he first chooses some for salvation and then leads them to faith.
The third position is election pure and simple. It teaches that we are too hopelessly lost in sin ever to partake of God’s great spiritual blessings on our own. Instead, God in his mercy chose us and then made his choice effectual. First he made our salvation possible by sending the Lord Jesus Christ to die for our sin. Then he made us capable of responding to him by sending the Holy Spirit to open our eyes to the truth and glory of the gospel. Thus, all the blessings we enjoy must be traced back to this sovereign electing purpose of God toward us in Jesus Christ. And Paul does exactly that in these opening verses of Ephesians.


Arminian Objections

Objections to the Bible’s teaching about election have been around for a long time, and there are many of them. Here I consider two: that election is arbitrary and that it is unjust.
When election is described as arbitrary we need to understand precisely what we are talking about. If we are basing the accusation on any supposed quality in man that is imagined to call forth election, then there is a sense in which election is arbitrary. From our perspective there is no reason why one individual rather than another should be elected. But generally that is not the way the charge is made. Generally the objector means that election is arbitrary, not from our perspective, but from God’s perspective. It amounts to saying that God has no reason for what he does. He is utterly arbitrary in picking one individual rather than another. It could as easily have been the other way around. Or God could have picked no one.
That last sentence indicates the way through this problem. For as soon as we think of the possibility of no one being saved we run against the very purpose Paul talks about in Ephesians 1:6, namely, that salvation is “to the praise of his [God’s] glorious grace.” That is, God purposed to glorify himself by saving some. Since that is so, election is not arbitrary. It has a purpose from God’s point of view.
But why one person rather than another? Why more than one? Or why not everyone? These are good questions, but it does not take a great deal of understanding to recognize that they are of another order entirely. Once we admit that God has a purpose in election, it is evident that the purpose must extend to the details of God’s choice. We do not know why he elects one rather than another, but that is quite a different thing from saying that he has no reasons. In fact, in so great an enterprise, an enterprise which forms the entire meaning of human history, it would be arrogant for us to suppose that we could ever understand the whole purpose. We can speculate. We can see portions of God’s purpose in specific instances of election. But on the whole we will have to do as Paul does and confess that predestination is simply “in accordance with [God’s] pleasure and will” (v. 5).
The second objection is that election is unjust. It is unjust for God to choose one rather than another, we are told. All must be given an equal chance. But is it possible that a person can still so misunderstand what is involved as to think in these categories? An equal chance! We have had a chance, but we have wasted it by rejecting the gospel. And it makes no difference how many “chances” are given, or to how many. Apart from God’s sovereign work no one follows Jesus. So far as justice is concerned, what would justice decree for us, if justice (and nothing but justice) should be done? Justice would decree our damnation! Justice would sentence us to hell!
It is not justice we want from God; it is grace. And grace cannot be commanded. It must flow to us from God’s sovereign purposes decreed before the foundation of the world, or it must not come at all.


Blessings of Election

Election is not the problem some have made it to be. In fact, it is actually a great blessing of the gospel. It is so in at least four areas.
1. Election eliminates boasting. Critics of election talk as if the opposite were true. They think it is the height of arrogance, something hardly to be tolerated, for a person to claim that he or she has been chosen to salvation. They suppose it is a claim to be worth more or to have done something better than other people. But, of course, election does not imply that at all. Election means that salvation is utterly of God. As Paul says, “he chose,” “he predestined,” “he has freely given,” and this is “to the praise of his glorious grace” and not to our glory.
Only election eliminates all grounds for boasting. Suppose it were otherwise. Suppose that in the final analysis a person could get to heaven on the basis of something he or she had done. In that case, that individual could claim some part (small or large) of the glory. In fact, it would be the critical part, the part that distinguished him or her from those who were not saved. That is why salvation’s blessings have to be ours by election alone.
2. Election gives assurance of salvation. Suppose it were otherwise. Suppose the ultimate grounds of salvation were in ourselves. In that case, salvation would be as unstable as we are. We might be saved one moment and lost the next. As Calvin says, “If … our faith were not grounded in God’s eternal election, it is certain that Satan might pluck it from us every minute.”5
Calvin found security of salvation in the “adoption,” which verse 5 says God’s election provides for us. Adoption means that we are taken into God’s family so that we become his children and he becomes our heavenly Father. Calvin points out that when we pray to God we must call him Father, for that is what Jesus taught us to do (see Matt. 6:9). But how can we do that, he asks, unless we are sure that he really is our Father? If not, then our prayers are mere hypocrisy and the first words we utter in them (“Our Father …”) are a lie. “We must be thoroughly resolved and persuaded in ourselves that God counts us as his children. And how may that be but by embracing his mercy through faith, as he offers it to us in his gospel, and by assuring ourselves also that we are grounded in his eternal election?”6
3. Election leads to holiness. A person might say, “Well, if I am elect, I suppose I’ll be saved regardless of what I do; therefore, I’ll enjoy myself and sin all I please.” Those who say that either are not elect or else are elect but are not yet regenerate. Why? Because, as verse 3 says, election is to holiness. That is, election to salvation and election to holiness go together. They are never separated. So, as John Stott says, “Far from encouraging sin, the doctrine of election forbids it and lays upon us instead the necessity of holiness.”7 If we are not growing in holiness, we are not elect. We are still in our sins.
4. Finally, election promotes evangelism. Some think that election makes evangelism unnecessary. “For if God is going to save certain individuals anyway,” the argument goes, “then he will save them, and there is no point in my having anything to do with it.” It does not work that way. The fact that God elects to salvation does not eliminate the means by which he calls those elect persons to faith. One of those means is the proclamation of the gospel to sinners by those who already believe (1 Cor. 1:21). The very Paul who wrote this letter was the first great missionary.
Moreover, it is only as we recognize the importance of election that we gain hope in evangelism. Think about it. If the hearts of men and women are as opposed to God and his ways as the Bible says they are, and if God does not elect people and then call them effectively by means of the Holy Spirit so that they respond in saving faith, what hope could you or I possibly have of winning them? If God cannot call effectively, it is certain that you and I cannot. On the other hand, if God is doing this work on the basis of his prior election of some, then we can speak the word of truth boldly, knowing that all whom God has previously determined to come to faith will come to him.
We do not know who God’s elect are. The only way we can find them out is by their response to the gospel and by their subsequent growth in holiness. Our task is to proclaim the Word boldly, knowing that all whom God has elected in Christ before the foundation of the world will surely come to Jesus.

James Montgomery Boice, Ephesians: An Expositional Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Ministry Resources Library, 1988), 14–19.

Hughes:

Celebration of Election
EPHESIANS 1:3–6†


We are indeed seated with Christ in the heavenly realms. Why? We are his people. How? He chose us!
Commentators agree that verses 4–14 amplify the thoughts of verse 3, and this being so, the first thing Paul wants to expand is the truth of divine election.



THE FACT OF ELECTION (v. 4)
He does this with very specific statements in verses 4–6. “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world” (v. 4a). Later in that long sentence, verse 11, he neatly summarizes it again: “In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will.” From these statements we cull several points.
First, the choosing was before time as we know it — “before the creation of the world,” to use Paul’s words. God’s choosing antedated human need — indeed, human existence! As Calvin says, “The very time of election shows it to be free; for what could we have deserved, or in what did our merit consist, before the world was made?”1 (Cf. Romans 9:11.)
Second, the reasons for God’s choosing were only in himself. Verses 4, 5 reveal that it was “In love he predestined us.” His choosing cannot be separated from love. God did not do his choosing with a roulette wheel or a throw of celestial dice, because “Where love is supreme there is no place for fate or caprice.”2 Verse 5 expands on this by stating that this was “in accordance with his pleasure and will.” “His pleasure” bears the idea of his good pleasure or good desire. Marcus Barth says, “Far from any idea of arbitrariness it has warm and personal connotations. When God’s good pleasure is mentioned, his willingness and joy in doing good are indicated.”3
God’s eternal choice is warm and smiling — far from the dispassionate stereotype so often thought of. Again, the ground of his choice is his love and good pleasure, not man’s or woman’s goodness.
Third, the choice was made “in him” — that is, in Jesus. How absolutely fitting this is, for creation itself exists in him, as is taught so beautifully in the great Colossian Hymn of the Incarnation:

  For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities — all things have been created by Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the first-born from the dead; so that He Himself might come to have first place in everything. (Colossians 1:16–18, NASB)

Everything in creation comes from Christ, sings the Colossian Hymn. And here in the overture to Ephesians, everything is subject to his sovereign election. “He is foundation, origin, and executor: all that is involved in election and its fruits depends on him.”4 Jesus, who became sin for us on the cross (2 Corinthians 5:21) and a curse (Galatians 3:13), bearing the inconceivable pain of separation from the Father for us, is the agent and facilitator of the Father’s choice. In Christ we were chosen.
This is primary truth, and as John Stott, a man known for measured sensibility, says: “The doctrine of election is a divine revelation, not a human speculation.”5 It was not dreamed up by Martin Luther or John Calvin or St. Augustine, or by the Apostle Paul for that matter. It is not to be set aside as the imagination of some overactive religious minds, but rather humbly accepted as revelation (however mysterious it may be) from God. We must never allow our subjective experience of choosing Christ water down the fact that we would not have chosen him if he had not first chosen us. (Cf. John 6:44, John 15:16, 2 Thessalonians 2:13, 1 Peter 1:2, 1 Thessalonians 1:4–7.) The doctrine of election presents us with a God who defies finite analysis. It is a doctrine which lets God be God.
It also forms a bedrock of confidence for the believer. A God who chose you before time, when only he existed, will not leave you victim to the time and tides of life. As a sixteen-year-old I read Arthur W. Pink’s The Sovereignty of God, through which I was made to see the transcendent holiness of God, my own utter sinfulness, and his sovereign working in bringing men and women to himself. The effect of this was to increase my trust in him.
In view of this, there can be no room for pride or imagined merit, but rather profound humility and thanksgiving. It is not by accident that as Paul begins his overture of blessing, he opens with celebrating the blessing of being chosen. Paul could never get over it. And neither should we!



THE PURPOSES OF ELECTION (vv. 4–6)
Sanctification. The first purpose of election which Paul notes is sanctification: “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight” (v. 4). One of the false charges made against the doctrine of election is that it is morally debilitating — “If we are chosen, then we can do as we like.” Nothing could be further from the truth! Rather, election is morally elevating because it is election to a dynamic two-sided sanctification. Positively it is “to be holy” — that is, set apart from the world, separate, different. And negatively it is to be “blameless” — literally, without spot or blemish, a sacrifice to be presented to God. Election demands and promotes the radical moral excellence of Romans 12 — the offering of believers’ “bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God” (Romans 12:1).
That is why the telltale evidence of one’s election is holiness. Harold Ockenga, pastor of Park Street Church and founding president of Fuller Seminary and Gordon-Conwell Seminary, put it in no uncertain terms:

  If God has elected us He has not elected us to remain sinners but to become holy. It is an anomaly or an error to speak of the elect living in sin. God never chose us to continue in sin. We are created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Therefore, the test of our election is the holiness of our lives. Christ “gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.” We ought not to delude ourselves into believing that we belong to the elect of God if we are not living holy lives before Him.… The proof of this is that we become holy, that we approximate the character of our Lord Jesus Christ. Thus John was able to say, “Whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him.… He that committeth sin is of the devil.… Whosoever is born of God doth not commit [practice] sin.”6

I cannot agree more! If your life is characterized by a pattern of conscious sin, you very likely are not a Christian. If some of your most cherished thoughts are hatreds, if you are determined not to forgive, you may not be a true believer. If you are a committed materialist who finds that your greatest joys are self-indulgence — clothing your body with lavish outfits, having all your waking thoughts devoted to house, cars, clothing, and comforts — you may not be a Christian. If you are a sensualist who is addicted to pornography, if your mind is a twenty-four-hour bordello — and you think it’s okay — you may very well not be a Christian, regardless of how many times you have “gone forward” and mouthed the evangelical shibboleths. Election ultimately results in holiness, but the process begins now. Are you concerned for holiness? Are you growing in holiness?
Adoption. The next grand purpose of election which the apostle celebrates is adoption — “he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will,” sings Paul (v. 5). This is an especially lyrical chord — and for good reason. The writers of the Old Testament only referred to God as Father fourteen times in the huge corpus of its thirty-nine books — and these rather impersonally. In those fourteen occurrences of “Father,” the term was always used with reference to the nation and not individuals. But when Jesus came on the scene, he addressed God only as Father. The Gospels record Jesus using “Father” more than sixty times in reference to God. He never used any other term except when quoting Psalm 22 on the cross. No one in the entire history of Israel had spoken or prayed like Jesus. No one! But this amazing fact is only part of the story, because the word Jesus used for Father was not a formal word. It was the common Aramaic word with which a child would address his or her father — “Abba.” This was astounding!
Even more astounding, it became the subconscious and conscious refrain of the elect, who were “adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ.” Paul says of this, “For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children” (Romans 8:15, 16). “Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, ‘Abba, Father.’ So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir” (Galatians 4:6, 7).
Do we have a “spirit of adoption”? Do we sense that God is our Father? Do we think of him and address him as our “Dear Father”? If we cannot answer in the affirmative, it may be because he is not our spiritual Father, and therefore we need to heed the words of Scripture and receive him. “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12).
Dr. J. I. Packer considers our grasp of God’s Fatherhood and our adoption as sons or daughters as of essential importance to our spiritual life. He says:

  If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God’s child, and having God as his father. If this is not the thought that prompts and controls his worship and prayers and his whole outlook on life, it means that he does not understand Christianity very well at all. For everything that Christ taught, everything that makes the New Testament new, and better than the Old, everything that is distinctively Christian as opposed to merely Jewish, is summed up in the knowledge of the Fatherhood of God. “Father” is the Christian name for God.7

That name testifies to the reality of our adoption. The richness of our adoption will also be revealed in a future public recognition. Paul says, “The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed” (Romans 8:19). The day of our investiture as sons and daughters is coming, and he is our loving Father right now.

  A young mother wrote:
  “I stayed with my parents for several days after the birth of our first child. One afternoon, I remarked to my mother that it was surprising our baby had dark hair, since both my husband and I are fair.
  “She said, ‘Well, your daddy has black hair.’
  “‘But, Mama, that doesn’t matter because I’m adopted.’
  “With an embarrassed smile, she said the most wonderful words I’ve ever heard: ‘I always forget.’”8

Our adoption is complete, and we are eternally God’s sons and daughters. We were predestined for this before the foundation of the world, “In love … in accordance with his pleasure and will.” This ought to be the the melody of our hearts continually.
Praise. The last stated purpose of our election is praise — “to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves” (v. 6). His “glorious grace” is the undeserved riches which are ours in Christ. The emphasis here is on the bounty of it, for the words “which he has freely given” are literally “begraced.”9 So Paul’s words memorably read, “to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has begraced us with, in the One he loves.” This is an abundant overflow of grace, like the “fullness of his grace” of John 1:16.10
Paul has let himself go, throwing his heart into grand jubilation over the greatness of salvation. Clause tumbles after clause in his grand poem of praise. We are actually seated “in the heavenly realms” in Christ. Our position in the heavenlies opens us to “every spiritual blessing in Christ.” We have been chosen before time began because of his love and good pleasure. The choice was not due to anything in us, but because of Jesus. He is everything.
This choice gives us great reason to rejoice, for it brings: sanctification — a holiness in conformity with that of God; adoption — we become the actual sons and daughters of God, so that we cry in our heart of hearts, “Abba, Father”; and praise in our hearts for “his glorious grace with which he has begraced us” — “fullness of grace.”


R. Kent Hughes, Ephesians: The Mystery of the Body of Christ, Preaching the Word (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1990), 22–28.

Thanks Mark and Scott. I already have Preaching the Word and am just considering Boice because it is currently such a good deal at 60% off. Thanks for the quotes for they are helpful to give an idea of his style of writing.

mike said:

isn't this an everyday price? we could get this price thru Upgrade > Customize > Next page. (and call CS)

I didn't think so but I could be wrong. Has anyone else noticed this?

Bump

mike said:

Bruce Dunning said:

I didn't think so but I could be wrong. Has anyone else noticed this?

the price of Boice under Upgrade > Customize > Proceed is $79 not $149. 

it has been like that that since L5 was available & I believe you can get all the prices on books whatever you see there without even upgrading higher package.

check yours..

Thanks for clarifying Mike. I should have been more clear when I first responded to you. Perhaps I should clarify what I meant. Yes, $79 has been the price when you upgrade but only when you do that. When I said "I don't think this has been the everyday price" I was not referring to the upgrade price but rather the truly "everyday" price. For instance I have portfolio and thus I can't upgrade so this option is not available for me. Since it is only an upgrade price I don't consider it an every day price. Hope that helps clarify what I meant.

fgh said:

Lots of people have reported getting or being offered those prices long after they've upgraded. Some have reported being denied. Seems to depend on who you talk with. If you don't want to try, that's up to you, but don't discourage others from trying.

Unless I'm wrong I sense that you are perturbed with me fgh so sorry for causing you to feel this way. In no way do I want to discourage anyone. I can report that I have asked my sales rep this question again today and was given the clear answer that the lowest price is $149. I'm not sure how it applies to some and not others but I guess that is just the way it is. I wish there was more consistency here.