Notes of a Bible Reading.
(Eph. chap. I:1-7.)
1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus and to the faithful in Christ Jesus;
2 Grace be to you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:
4 According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love:
5 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will,
6 To the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the beloved;
7 In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.
These verses which we have read bring before us some of our spiritual blessings-only a few, for the balance of the chapter, and also chap. 2, is a further unfolding of our portion-our heavenly portion in and with Christ. Therefore we read the repeated expressions "in Him" and "in whom," for Christ Himself is the golden casket, so to speak, in whom all our spiritual treasures are.
Our portion in Christ is spiritual. They are the things that are unseen and eternal. " Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him. But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit" (1 Cor. 2:9, 10). We have some of these things here, as we shall see.
The object of this epistle is to reveal to us the eternal counsels and purposes of God in regard to Christ and the Assembly, and the heavenly blessings and vocation of those who form part of that Assembly. Chaps, i and 2 give us our blessings and vocation; then in chaps. 4, 5 and 6 our responsibilities and warfare, flowing out from our heavenly privileges.
The expressions "in the heavenlies" and "in Christ" give us first the character and also the position of our calling. It is heavenly, not earthly; in Christ, not in Adam, the first man.
It is a specific epistle to open up to us the present purposes of God in bringing many sons to glory; it also reveals to us the mystery of the Body of Christ, of Jew and Gentile formed into one body as the bride of Christ.
(ver. i) " Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus and to the faithful in Christ Jesus."
Paul was preeminently the apostle of the Gentiles; the sent one of Jesus Christ, by the will of God. In a special way he was the heavenly messenger of Jesus Christ as the glorified One, to minister what none other did; viz., The heavenly calling of the saints and the counsel of God in regard to the Assembly as Christ's body. He addresses the saints (" at Ephesus" is very doubtful-see note in J. N. D.'s Trans.)-and the faithful in Christ Jesus. We who are believers and love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity (chap. 6:24), are contemplated in this verse as saints and faithful. This is not in the sense of attainment or fidelity, but as being separated' from the world, and belonging to the household of faith. The word "saint" means one set apart, and "faithful" those who belong to the faith. It is not what we should be, but what we are.
And this is ever God's way of teaching:He first tells us what we are, and then exhorts us to be in character what we are in fact. In this way it may be said to a person, You are a prince, now act like a prince. So in this verse He tells us we are saints and of the household of faith. We see, then, our separation, and our position-saints and in Christ. Should we not find our joy and delight to be with our own company-the saints ?
How often we fail to "seek the company of the saints, and to realize that God has separated us from the world for Himself. But blessed be God, the God of all grace, our failing in what we should be in no wise lessens what we are. Israel shall dwell alone, was the first prophetic blessing pronounced upon them by Balaam, who had the vision of the Almighty. May the Lord give us to see the typical teaching of it in regard to us, for we are set apart, and that by the blood of Christ.
(ver. 2) " Grace be to you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ."
Here we have the salutation of God the Father, and of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is grace and peace. We stand in grace (Rom. 5:2), and our eternal portion is peace. The one disposition of God the Father is grace. All the grace of God the Father is shown us in the incarnation and death of His Son. " For ye know," says the apostle, " the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor," etc.
Then, peace was made by the blood of His cross. We deserved it not. If, then, such be the unchanging disposition of our God and Father toward us, should we not be so to each other ?
(ver. 3) " Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ."
Now we have an ascription of praise founded upon what God has wrought for us in measureless blessing. Oh to lift our hearts to Him like this! Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ-His God our God; His Father our Father. What a privilege! In such a manner we should approach our God in the intimacy of sons. This is true Christian worship, worshiping the Father and the Son in the realized consciousness that we have been brought into the same circle of love and relationship.
We are not blessed with earthly blessings as Israel was. No, such is not Christianity. We are blessed with spiritual blessings, in a new creation; not in Adam but in Christ; not in Canaan, nor in this world at all, but in heaven where Christ has gone. We are to know them and enjoy them here, however. We have the grapes of our heavenly Eshcol now.
(ver. 4) "According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love."
This verse brings us to our blessings. The Spirit of God first tells us that we are blessed, and then mentions the blessings.
FIRST.
The first of these blessings is election:-chosen in Him before the foundation of the world. God made Adam in view of Christ, and the world in view of His saints. Christ and His redeemed ones were before His eye when He created all things. In opening out to us the purpose of His grace God begins at the source; and when we have met our responsibilities in repenting and believing, we learn that but for the electing grace of God we would have chosen the pleasures of sin for a season, rather than the eternal bliss with Christ. All is of grace, from end to end-the Saviour, and the faith which trusts in Him. Outside the gate, it is, "Whosoever will, let him come"; inside, we learn we were "chosen in Him before the foundation of the world."
SECOND.
Now we have our place before Him, "holy and without blame." We are righteous and holy alone as seen in Him. The righteousness and holiness in which we stand before God are not our righteous and holy practice produced by the Spirit in us. Aaron standing before the Lord to represent Israel is a beautiful type of this. He wore a mitre, and on the mitre a plate of gold. On this plate were inscribed the words " Holiness to the Lord." In like manner our Lord Jesus-the true Aaron-represents us before God, without blame and in holiness. All our blame was upon Him when He died upon the cross. And it is only as we are occupied with Him that we are formed in practical holiness. And the Spirit is here to form Christ in us. We in Christ- that is what gives us our place before God. Christ in us-that is what produces practical holiness and fruitfulness.
THIRD.
We are also before God the Father in love:our place, in the Son, is a place of intimacy and affection, as well as of righteousness and holiness. David said of Mephibosheth, who had been of the rebel house of Saul, "He shall eat bread at my table as one of the king's sons." Love seeks for objects to be there in love. The Father ever loved the Son; yet the Son said, "Therefore doth My Father love Me, because I lay down My life, that I might take it again." He brings His sheep into the same circle of love before the Father by virtue of His life laid down and taken up again.
FOURTH.
(ver. 5) " Having predestinated us unto the adoption [of sons] by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will."
Our next blessing is that of sonship, God's purpose is to bring many sons to glory. It is a different thought from that of children, as we have in John's ministry. A person born into my family partakes of the same life and nature. This is the truth presented to us in John's ministry, and is ours. But here we have the thought of sonship. According to law, a man can take a stranger and foreigner and adopt him and bestow upon him all the privileges and advantages of a full-grown son.
Such is one of our spiritual blessings here opened up to us. We were strangers and foreigners, as we see in chapter a; but now we are sons by adoption.
FIFTH.
(ver. 6) " To the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved."
In this verse we have our acceptance-accepted in the Beloved. "As He is, so are we in this world." Happy people! Yes, the saints of the Lord should be a happy people. In fact, I often think, dear brethren, that the key-note of the truth presented in Ephesians is acceptance in the Beloved. It should be the strength and joy of our hearts. As the king held out the sceptre of grace to Esther, so the sceptre of grace is always held out to us, to be touched by faith. We need not put ourselves under law and say, " If I perish, I perish," as we go into the presence of God; for we are accepted in the Beloved.
SIXTH.
(ver. 7) "In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace."
The sixth blessing is redemption by blood. "Fear not," God continually says to us; "I have redeemed thee; thou art Mine." We are redeemed by the blood of the Lamb; and, dear brethren, God will never forfeit His claim upon us. We needed redemption from two things:the curse of the law, and the power of Satan.
In the epistle to the Galatians we learn very clearly that we are redeemed from the curse of the law, Christ having been made a curse for us. Redemption means liberation from a power or claim. Through the death of Christ, we are forever liberated from the curse and every claim. Through His death, we pass on to new ground. We are freed from these enemies:
The guilt of sin;
The power of sin;
The power of death;
The power of Satan;
The power of the Law.
SEVENTH.
Also, our sins are forgiven. Our daily portion is forgiveness of sins. Not long ago, I was reading some of the written ministry of the late F. W. G., and I very much enjoyed the thought that the saints, or the assembly, are always on the ground, before God, of forgiveness of sins.
God will not charge Christ with our sins again. He did so on the cross. Truly our sins are gone, never to arise again. If they are sought for, they cannot be found (Jer. 50:20).
These are some of our spiritual blessings. They are enumerated one by one; and in the close of the chapter, after telling it all out, he bows his knees, and prays that the eyes of our hearts may be enlightened, that we might know it all in the power of the Spirit.
We should not read the Word like cold, formal lawyers who might read a will to state its legal exactness, but rather as children who read a will to learn their portion and interest in it all.
The spiritual blessings we have looked at one by one are, then:
1. Our election.
2 Our place in holiness and righteousness.
3 Our place in love and affection.
4 Our sonship.
5 Our acceptance.
6. Our redemption.
7. Our forgiveness.
And all these, with how much more, are " according to the riches of His grace"! May the Lord increase our interest and delight in these our own things!
"Thy deep, eternal counsel
Chose us in Christ the Son
Before the earth's foundation,
Or sin had yet begun;
That we might all the nearness
Of the Beloved know,
And, brought to Thee as children,
Our children's praises flow."
D. C. T.
A Song of Thanksgiving.