BRIEF NOTES ON
THE EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS.
CHAPTER I.
WE must introduce our meditations on this epistle by
recurring a little to the ways of God from the beginning; because there is a
wonderful unity in His counsels, and the whole volume sets its seal to the
divine thought, "Known unto God are all his works from the beginning."
Therefore, when we come to a scripture like this, it is well to pause and look
about us, and see its relation to previous scriptures. If I come to a merely
moral scripture, such as, "Let him that stole steal no more," I may take it and
use it at once, and alone, but when it is doctrinal or prophetic scripture,
which opens the divine mind, I have to ask how it is introduced, and what is to
come after it, because we are to be fraught with divine intelligence -"We have
the mind of Christ." The Epistle to the Hebrews unfolds the heavens, and speaks
of heavenly calling, putting you in company with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; but
it does not open the mystery of the church. The Epistle to the Ephesians opens
the mystery of the church, but does not keep you in company with Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob. We are advancing, and we are called to distinguish between
the heavenly caffing and the calling of the church. So there is a fitness in
considering the Epistle to the Hebrews before the Epistle to the Ephesians.
Now, why do I say the Epistle to the Hebrews opens the heavenly calling?
Because it associates you with Noah, Abraham, Moses, etc. The earth at the
beginning was given to the children of men. What did they do with it? They
forfeited it. Then what did God do with them? Well, He opened heaven to them!
He gave them the earth to enjoy. They soiled and lost it by sin. Well, said He,
Ill open heaven to you. This is one way in which the grace of God
abounds.
What should I say of one who, when I had abused the gift which
he put in my hand, put a better gift in my other hand? This is God!
Was
not Adam brought back to God, and Enoch taken to heaven? I have no doubt that
Abraham had the heavenly calling. They looked for a better country, "that is,
an heavenly." Moses was carried up to Pisgah to bear witness of it. Enoch bore
witness of it, and Elijah in a later dispensation. From the beginning there has
been heavenly calling, but not church calling. So, when the apostle comes to
address the Hebrews, who were brought from a Jewish root, he talks of heavenly
calling, but does not go beyond it. When he comes to address himself to the
Ephesians, once a Gentile people, the worshippers of the goddess Diana (but
apart from all Jewish connections), he unfolds the mystery of the church - the
richest thing in the counsels of God. Let me say another thing. How did God
unfold His purposes in the earth? He knew a family in the loins of Abraham.
They flourished into a nation in the Book of Exodus; then under judges and
prophets; but they did not ripen to the culminating point of glory till God put
them under a king.
He goes on from step to step till the elect family
flourished, under Solomon, into a kingdom. So it is with His heavenly purposes.
It is not till the apostleship of Paul is set up that they unfold in the bright
culminating point of the church. God is always consistent in His ways. Let the
earth be the scene of His activities, we find them unfolding till they reach
the palmy days of Solomon. In His heavenly purposes we follow on till we see
the church at the highest point in creation, "The fulness of him that flileth
all in all." So it is impossible not to stand and say, "0 the depth of the
riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!" Now, having prefaced thus, we
stand before the Epistle to the Ephesians. It is desirable to come up to this
writing with intelligence. Here we are listeners in heavenly scenes to the same
kind of thing as we saw in earthly scenery.
Let me remind you of a
passage in Colossians: "the dispensation of God, which is given to me for you,
to fulfil the word of God"- or, "to fill it out." (Chap. i. 25, 26.) To fill
out the revelation of God - a magnificent commentary of Paul on his own
ministry. Was it not left to Solomon to display the closing purpose of God in
the earth by heading it with a throne? It was left to Paul to reveal in his
ministry the bright magnificent point of the heavenly mysteries. We are brought
up by him to the headship of Christ.
The apostle begins by addressing
all the faithful in Christ Jesus. He steps over the Ephesians. So that we are
all called to learn these things. "Who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ." This could not be said of the
patriarchs. "In heavenly places" they would have been associated with us; but
these are blessings in company with Christ.
Then, having put you in
this peculiar place, he unfolds the divine roll of blessings to you. First,
chosen in Him before the world was. These high privileges began before the
foundation of the world. Could I say that properly of Abraham? Certainly he was
chosen before the foundation of the world, but you are chosen "in him." The
divine purposes rested in a peculiar way on a peculiar people. Then,
predestination always follows on election.. Election touches the person;
predestination the place or condition: "Having predestinated us unto the
adoption of children by Jesus Christ . . . he hath made us accepted in the
beloved." Now is not that a peculiar form of adoption? Do I believe that Adam
was a son of God? Indeed I do. Do I believe that he was "accepted in the
beloved"? No, I do not. Do I believe that angels are sons of God? Indeed I do.
Do I believe they are "accepted in the beloved" ? No, I do not. So that here
again is a peculiarity. It is an adoption of the highest order. We have the joy
and liberty of the Beloveds sonship. He goes on to say, "In whom we have
redemption by his blood, the forgiveness of sins." Why, to be sure, that is a
thing of course. Who would think of asking a person up in heavenly places, "Are
you forgiven ?" Did you ever observe in the parable of the prodigal son that
the father never says he forgives him? How could he? How could he frame his
lips to say, "I forgive you"? You and I ought to walk in the sunshine of our
calling in such a way as to assume forgiveness as a thing at the foot of the
hill, while we are up at the heights. Let the music and dancing, the ring and
the shoes, tell me I am forgiven. So the Father treats the prodigal, and so the
Spirit treats us in Ephesians i. Yet the soul is constantly busying itself
about forgiveness when it should be viewing the magnificence of its calling in
Christ. There is a style in love that love could never rid itself of. The
father would have wept to say, "I forgive you." Would not you be ashamed to
tell one coming back in sorrow, confessing his fault, "I forgive you" ? Talk of
a father, on the neck of his weeping, penitent child, saying, "I forgive you" !
How little we know of the ways of love!
Now, to go on. He abounds
towards us in all wisdom and knowledge, having opened to us the bosom secret -
all things gathered together in Christ. That is a secret never made known
before. In the prophet Isaiah we get a beautiful picture of the millennial
earth; but do we ever get the millennial heavens with Christ at their head? Was
it ever said by Isaiah that all things in heaven and earth should be headed up
in the glorified Man? "In whom also we have obtained an inheritance." We are
heirs with Him. Was that ever unfolded before? And till the inheritance comes
we get the Holy Ghost. We get Him here under two titles - a seal, and an
earnest. A seal of present salvation; an earnest of future inheritance. When I
look at the place of the Holy Ghost, in the mystery of redemption, it is
wonderful to see the official glories that attach to Him here on earth. In the
Epistle to the Hebrews we have the official glories of Christ. Here we are
called to witness the official glories of the Holy Ghost in this dispensation.
What a blessed, glorious thing - to take the secrets of the divine bosom, and
make them known to us! To seal us by His presence as possessors of present
salvation, and to be the earnest of our inheritance! Ah, it is wonderful. I
could not move a step in company with a soul not pregnant with the blessedness
of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost being the One with whom we have to do.
"The purchased possession" here is the whole scene - the whole creation. It is
purchased, but not yet redeemed. The blood of Christ has purchased the creation
as well as you; but it is not yet redeemed, and while in that condition you
have the Holy Ghost as an earnest. When it is redeemed you will be the heir of
it. Are you redeemed yet? You are purchased, but you wait for the adoption, to
wit, the redemption of your body, and that you will never get till God puts
forth power as well as blood. The Apocalypse is the display of redemption; the
gospel is the display of purchase - but the purchased thing is not redeemed
till God puts forth power to rescue it from the hands of the destroyer .
At verse 15 the apostle ceases to be a teacher and becomes an
intercessor - and you will find that he never in prayer pulls down what, as a
teacher, he had built up. You will sometimes hear people asking God to love
them. I could never make such a prayer as that. I am to pray for a deeper sense
of His love. Paul does not ask God to give them this, and the other; but he
asks Him that they may have the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the
knowledge of Him - that the eyes of their understanding may be enlightened. Oh,
for a better heart to know these things! But to ask God to love me, to make me
a co-heir with Christ, to appoint me to heavenly places in Him! I will make a
prayer much more humbling than that, I am so blessed in my caffing; so poor in
my enjoyment! If God has lit a candle, I will not ask Him to light it, but to
take the ifim from my eyes, that I may see what He has done, what this
magnificent purpose is, and the power that has brought us there. So he prays
that you may have an eye to discern the brightness of the heavenly glory, and
the resurrection power that has conducted you from such ruins to such glories.
End of Extract