In the Epistle to the Colossians
Paul makes the statement, "Whereof I am made a minister, according to the
dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the Word of
God" (Col. 1:25). To fulfil the Word of God does not mean, as often
stated, that Paul fulfilled his ministry and was faithful in it. It means rather
that to him was given the revelation which makes full, or completes, the Word
of God. The highest and most glorious revelation which the God and Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ has been pleased to give, He communicated through the
Apostle Paul. The two prison Epistles to the Ephesians and Colossians embody
this completion of the Word of God. The Ephesian Epistle holds the place of
preeminence. The revelation which is given in this Epistle concerning believing
sinners, whom God has redeemed by the blood of His Son and exalted in Him into
the highest possible position, is by far the greatest revelation. God is
revealing His own loving heart and tells out by His Spirit how He loved us and
thought of us before the foundation of the world. He shows forth the riches of
His grace and now makes known the secret He held back in former ages. How rich
it all is! Like God Himself, so this revelation, coming from His loving heart,
is inexhaustible. We may speak of Ephesians as the rich Epistle of the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, rich in mercy, tells us of the exceeding
riches of His Grace in kindness towards us through Christ Jesus. But even this
definition does not tell out half of all the glory this wonderful document
contains. It is God’s highest and God’s best. Even God cannot say more than
what He has said in this filling full of His Word.

In the Psalms we read:"The
heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth His handy
work" (Ps. 19:1). We lift up our eyes and behold the wonders of God’s
creation, which He called into existence by His Son and for Him (Col. 1:16).
Here in Ephesians another heaven is opened. If the heavens of creation are so
wonderful and their depths unfathomable, how much more wonderful are the
heavenlies into which Christ has entered, where He now is seated far above all
principality and power and might and into which God’s grace has brought us in
Him!

And this brings us to the reason
for calling the opening chapters of this Epistle "the masterpiece of
God." The first three chapters of Ephesians contain the great revelation
to which we referred above. What God has accomplished in His Son, the Lord
Jesus Christ, to the praise of the glory of His grace—how He makes believing
sinners one with His Son, sharers of His fulness and His glory—this is the
revelation of these chapters. All was planned before the foundation of the
world, while elsewhere in these chapters (2:7) the eternity to come is
mentioned. From eternity to eternity are the boundaries of these three
chapters.

The church, the body of Christ,
the fulness of Him that filleth all in all, the one body in which believing
Jews and Gentiles are united, the building growing unto an holy temple, the
habitation of God by the Spirit, and the ultimate destiny of that body, are
further revelations of these marvelous chapters.

Now the central verse of these
chapters is found in 2:10. "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ
Jesus unto good works, which God has before ordained that we should

walk in them." The word workmanship
arrests our attention. It is the Greek poiema, from which our word poem
is derived. It is a beautiful thought in itself to think of those who are
saved by grace, and united to Christ as "the poem of God." But the
word poiema may also be rendered masterpiece.

Only
once more is the same word found in the original language of the New Testament
Scriptures. In Romans 1:20 it is used in connection with the physical creation.
God has produced two great masterworks in which He manifests His power. He
called the universe into existence out of nothing. What He, as the omnipotent
One can do, is seen in the creation of the heavens and the earth and in the
sustenance of His creation. His eternal power and Godhead are revealed in
creation (Rom. 1:19-20). But the creation of the universe out of nothing is not
the greatest masterpiece of God. God has done something greater. He has
produced a work, which reveals Him in a far higher degree. That greater
masterpiece is the redemption of sinners. In this greater work He manifests
also "the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe,
according to the working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ, when
He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly
places" (Eph. 1:17-20). God planned this great work before He ever created
the universe, and the universe was called into existence in anticipation of this
greater manifestation of God’s glorious power in the details of His masterpiece
and the mystery connected with it.