THE PERSONNEL OF THE MINISTRY
THE PERSONNEL OF THE MINISTRY
JT Is there something you can pass on to us which you have been gathering in this epistle?
FI In reading the previous chapters we have had a sense of the wonderful position in which we stand as chosen of God before the foundation of the world, which would enable us to move forward in relation to the mind of God for us now. I do not think we have looked at it as future, but sought to be in the good of it here and now. I was wondering what the apostle had in mind in saying, “For this reason”. Is it the thought of the saints being built together for a “habitation of God”?
JT Yes; what he has just been speaking of. He returns to what he had immediately in mind in chapter 4; this whole chapter from verse 2 being a parenthesis. He is calling attention to himself in this chapter. The Spirit of God in unfolding the truth would keep before us the persons used; their place in the general position is ornamental. The personnel of the ministry would be selected according to what was to be ministered. The intent is that they should enhance the ministry; so that “I Paul” is a very significant phrase. We have elsewhere “Paul the aged”, which is another view of him. Here he is said to be “prisoner of the Christ Jesus for you nations”. His position in Rome as a prisoner was not accidental; he was the prisoner of the Christ for the nations. He had been taken prisoner in Jerusalem and remained for some time a prisoner in Caesarea; now he was in Rome, not imprisoned for the Jews, but for the gentiles, and in the very centre of the gentile world. He can serve them better in Rome than in Jerusalem. The Christ, the One who was doing things for God, has him here. Whatever external occurrences [p. 80] had led up to this, the Lord had him there bound with a chain for us.
He particularly stresses the knowledge he had of the mystery. It is important that someone has the full thought of the truth; he alludes to it in the second parenthesis. It will have been observed by the brethren that almost the whole chapter is, as already said, a parenthesis, but at the end of verse 3 there is a subordinate parenthesis — “according as I have written before briefly, by which, in reading it, ye can understand my intelligence in the mystery of the Christ”. The Ephesians were to be reminded of the knowledge that the apostle had of the mystery that had been given to him; as he says, “the administration of the grace of God which has been given to me towards you, that by revelation the mystery has been made known to me”. Then he had intelligence in it, which would be the result from his own side, to make the most of the revelation. It is intelligence in the mystery of the Christ.
FI That is, he had been formed intelligently by the revelation he had received — not just committed to it.
JT That is what I understand to be the use of the preposition “in” — “in the mystery”. He has intelligence in it. In the Lord’s first preaching according to Mark 1:14,15, he says, “But after John was delivered up, Jesus came into Galilee preaching the glad tidings of the kingdom of God, and saying ... repent and believe in the glad tidings”. That is the whole idea. “My intelligence in the mystery”, Paul says: it is his knowledge and intelligence. That is, the thing is worked out. As you believe in a thing, you take it on as a whole to be worked out. Paul had the thing revealed to him and he worked it out, as he says here. It is worked out in its varied features, which is important.
EG Is it not interesting that in Revelation 1:9 there is the same thought, “I John, your brother and fellow-partaker [p. 81] in the tribulation and kingdom and patience, in Jesus, was in the island called Patmos, for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus”.
JT Quite so: he was in prison, too. “I John” — another person. The personnel of the ministry ought to be before us. The personnel of the kingdom, in the heavenly position, is developed in Matthew; first on the mount, then as they come down the Lord brings forward sonship, so that we might understand the sons’ relationship up there — what we are up there as the companions of Christ down here. He identifies Himself with us down here in Matthew 17. The ministers are in view here; first Paul himself, as having the revelation of the mystery, and then as having intelligence in it; and then the apostles and prophets, as he says, “the mystery ... which in other generations has not been made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets in the power of the Spirit”. They are God’s best in the testimony. From the very outset the ministerial persons are kept before us, God furnishing them as He furnished the ministry, that the ministry should come to us in suitable vessels.
AJG So Paul’s position as a prisoner is because he was so much in keeping with the truth of the holy calling in Christ Jesus. Was it the opposition of the enemy to the truth set out livingly in a man?
JT I suppose the Lord never lost sight of what Paul was as in His mind at the outset — “an elect vessel unto me” (Acts 9:15). Paul’s journey to Jerusalem might be viewed as discreditable spiritually to him, but that has to be laid aside now: the Lord has reached His end, as if to say, I want him in Rome, even if he must go round that way. He went up to Jerusalem with Barnabas, and he went up by revelation, according to Acts 15; he was not very free there; it was not his own sphere in testimony, although it was needful that he should be there. He brought Titus up with him at that time [p. 82] as an example of divine work — a divine product from among the gentiles — as much as to say, This is the end God has reached. Titus would be the result of the gospel Paul preached. He is viewed afterwards in Paul’s mind as a “fellow-workman”, a man trusted to select elders. He brought him up to Jerusalem and they did not compel him to be circumcised; the work of God was too manifest for Jerusalem to exact its legal requirements — Titus was too great for that. Then there were others there, distinguished men, conspicuous as pillars; they did not add anything to Paul. It was a test to his personality in the ministry. There were James, Cephas, and John, all “conspicuous as being pillars” (Galatians 2:9), but he does not discredit them, they were something to him; he says, they “gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship”. This indicates that things were not normal at Jerusalem. It was not like this in Rome. Rome was the centre of the area to which God had called Paul in service, whatever had happened in the interim. From the time he left Ephesus, according to Acts 20, up to this time, the Lord had reached His end in His servant, and he was now just where the Lord wanted him. He says, “I, Paul, prisoner of the Christ” — not of the Lord, but “of the Christ Jesus for you nations”.
Rem He was “less than the least of all saints”.
JT You might wonder how he could say that. It would be hard for any of us to say it truthfully, but we may be sure it was absolutely the truth in his case; and it conveys his estimate of himself and the saints. The saints were so great in his eyes that he would clothe them with all the light of the mystery.
Rem Is that why in nearly all his epistles he says “Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ”? He clothes the saints with divine thoughts, showing that they were sons.
JT That is right; you bring out the best robe and put it on a repentant sinner; he will thus become greater [p. 83] in your eyes than you are. All the interest of heaven is expended on him — the very best clothes that there are — the shoes and the ring — everything put on him.
Ques Is the character of the personnel a necessity to make way for the ministry?
JT I think so — the adornment that is in the personnel.
Ques It is striking that the Lord in speaking to the woman in John 4 says, “Woman, believe me”, not ‘I say unto you’. Does that agree with what you have in mind? He is presenting Himself personally to be believed.
JT Yes. Then He says, “If thou knewest the gift of God and who it is that says to thee, Give me to drink ...” “Who it is”. That “who it is” must, relatively, apply to every minister. Christ was a divine Person — unique — but, making full allowance for that, it would refer to every person who ministers the truth; having something to say from God, he is a great person. So He would set you free in His presence. You would ask of Him, and it would be worth your while, because He would give you living water. But then, it is the greatness of the Person first, who He is!
ESH In 1 Chronicles 2, where the sons of Jesse are recorded, David is mentioned as “David the seventh”: but the Spirit of God very soon introduces him as “David”, the thought of personality being set out in David. Is that a similar idea?
JT Just so. His personality is greatly stressed. The young man that spoke to Saul said, “Behold, I have seen a son of Jesse, the Bethlehemite” (he does not call him by name), “who is skilled in playing, and he is a valiant man and a man of war, and skilled in speech, and of good presence” (that is, he had a great personality), “and Jehovah is with him” (1 Samuel 16:18). That is the account of the son of Jesse given to Saul, to begin with. It was a question of personality and attainment too. Attainment is involved [p. 84] in my understanding what is presented; revelation is not attainment, but understanding a thing is attainment.
ESH I was thinking of David as he arrives at the house of God in this regard. It was his desire to build God a house, and having received the message sent to him through Nathan the prophet, he sits down in the presence of God as a worshipper.
JT Then he says, in the very presence of Jehovah’s greatness, “for thou ... hast regarded me according to the estate of a man of high degree” (1 Chronicles 17:17).
FI Is your thought that spiritual understanding brings out the personnel for the habitation of God?
JT Yes, and for the ministry. The first minister, so called officially by Jehovah, is Abraham. Jehovah says to Abimelech of Abraham, “he is a prophet”. Psalm 105:15 says, “Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm”. God would commend him. As much as to say, Abimelech, you do not realise who and what this man is: he is a prophet and he will pray for you. Personally, Abraham was “heir of the world” (Romans 4:13).
Now that is how the ministers are to be regarded — those used of God to speak to men, and therefore when we come to Exodus it shines out in Moses and Aaron — particularly in Moses, for there was no one like him: he is the prototype of ministers. The true Leader in ministry is of course Christ. Luke, who always has ornamentation in mind, says of Him that He stood up in the synagogue to read, and the Spirit of God dwells on how He did it; and everything that He did is marked so as to call attention to what God has in mind in the ministry. So that the minister has to ornament or enhance the ministry, to make it commendable. Paul was concerned “that the ministry be not blamed ... in everything commending ourselves as God’s ministers” (2 Corinthians 6:3,4).
Rem “Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone” (Ephesians 2:20).
JT [p. 85] That is right — the ornamentation of the building.
Ques Is it the intention that “all the saints” with the Ephesians should understand? The apostle speaks of having “written before briefly, by which, in reading it, ye can understand my intelligence”.
JT Well, it is put down here for us, and the word ought to come home to each of us as to what we understand: the things we are talking about every week — what do I understand? Philip says to the eunuch, “Understandest thou what thou readest?” (Acts 8:30).
FI The apostle so presented it that they were able to understand.
JT They were to understand his intelligence in the mystery; thus a leader in understanding would be before them. The apostle’s two prayers in this epistle are to the end that the Ephesians might be intelligent in the great things of God.
FI Here it is what he had, what had been wrought in himself. We often speak of it as what belonged to him in the way of substance.
JT It is the Spirit of God calling attention to Paul; he is spoken of in testimony more than anyone in the New Testament, next to the Lord. He is brought forward constantly — mostly by himself, but Peter, when about to die, speaks of “our beloved brother Paul”, in some of whose letters were things “hard to be understood”, but nevertheless, scripture (2 Peter 3:15,16). Thus understanding is specially needed for his ministry.
AH Peter says, “the untaught and ill-established wrest”. The vessel is to be so in accord with the ministry as to be representative of what is presented. Peter and John (Acts 3), say, “Look on us”. What extraordinary fruit was secured from their service at that time!
JT They were God’s best in His service then. The man held them, as much as to say, They represent God’s idea and I will hold on to it. We are, alas! very [p. 86] low and shallow on our side. What comes to us from God is not attainment. “This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears” (Luke 4:21) — that is not attainment. It is from the divine side to put us under responsibility. It is what I have got out of it, as understanding it, that is attainment. “Until we all arrive ... at the full-grown man, at the measure of the stature of the fulness of the Christ”, is the great end in view in this epistle.
Ques In the early part of this chapter they were not exactly called upon to understand the revelation, but Paul’s intelligence in it. Is that what you mean?
JT Yes, thus they would have leadership. You would like to listen to Paul. We read of one who sought out Paul very diligently and found him. The brethren mentioned in Acts 20:4 were representatives of his work. They were from different parts of the world, accompanying Paul “as far as Asia”. They would love to sit alongside of Paul to read the Scriptures, or to be with him in prayer; thus they would see what a man he was with God. “Knowing of whom thou hast learned them ...” Timothy had that advantage. So the apostles were “eye-witnesses of and attendants on the Word” (Luke 1:2). These are the kind of persons God uses.
ESH You feel what a place Paul had for us gentiles, as you remarked — drawing attention to himself as our apostle — “for you nations”.
JT That is what enters into this great parenthesis. Then he works up to God the Father — “the Father ... of whom every family in the heavens and on earth is named”. That is the supreme thought he works up to. The chapter is full of God and His purpose worked out in the assembly. And the apostle’s prayer at the end is, that we might be fully able to take things in, the Father’s Spirit working in us, as it says, “in order that he may give you according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power by his Spirit in the inner man”. It is a question of what is worked in us. The revelation is what is spoken of in chapter 1,
that we should have “the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge” of God, but here it is power inwardly by the Father’s Spirit — a peculiar and striking title of the Spirit of God. The Father names the families in heaven and on earth, and the families specially involve personality.
Ques Do you mean that the personal thought reaches up to God as Father in a supreme way?
JT That is what I was thinking, and it runs on in that way. Having said so much about the mystery, he now says, “For this reason I bow my knees to the Father”. It is a very weighty matter with him; as if to say, I have knowledge of the mystery, and my burden is that you also should have it. There is one man that has “intelligence in the mystery of the Christ” and his burden is that the Ephesians should know this, and have intelligence of the mystery also. So he prays to the Father. The bowing of the knees is noticeable: I think it means there was great pressure, a great burden upon him, that the saints should come into the great things available to them. If we have meetings like this, week after week, well, one would be challenged — What have I got out of them all? The reading of the Scriptures is not an attainment; it is of value, of course, also to be at a meeting is something, the Lord takes account of that, but the point in this chapter is attainment in the way of spiritual understanding of God and His great things.
Rem Pursuing the thing is the matter for exercise. There should be something added to us on each occasion.
JT Quite. I believe the brethren, in their weekly meetings for the reading of the Scriptures, spend too long a time on each book. One may say, Why should we not go on verse by verse? But the more profitable way in collective readings is to get an outline of each chapter and of the whole of the book or epistle, so as to see the scope, and then work it out individually — upon our knees.
ASH [p. 88] We have felt that particularly in reading the Old Testament scriptures; we are often too long over details.
JT Yes. I remember hearing in one place that they were five years on the Psalms. By the time they had reached the last they had forgotten the first! Why were five books written? They were to be read in that way. One of the books can thus be read and the others left for a while, so that some other section of the Bible might be considered. The first book of Psalms is a book by itself. So with the prophets: meetings might spend three years on a prophet. I do not believe that is wise. Scripture by word and example shows that in our education and pasturing there is regular movement and change of position.
GCS The Ethiopian eunuch had got nearly to the end of Isaiah; you would not think he had commenced there.
JT He was “reading the prophet Isaiah”, the section now known as chapter 53, but the actual “passage” which he read is stated, not the passage which he reached in reading. It seems that he was purposely reading that passage. The Lord also in Luke 4 read from the prophet Isaiah, and read very selectively. At the next occasion of the kind He might take up some other book.
Ques Going back a little, would you suggest that for us to have spiritual intelligence in the mystery we should have an appreciation of the vessel through whom the ministry has come? Speaking generally, the apostle Paul is despised today.
JT That is what this chapter would suggest. Some regard Paul highly, thank God. I have no doubt he will be easily found in heaven; he is known there. So the apostle brings himself forward here in our chapter. We read that later all in Asia — including Ephesus, of course — turned away from Paul. This shows that Satan would rob the saints of the ministry [p. 89] by turning them away from the minister. The apostle is stamped on this chapter at the beginning; “I Paul”, he says elsewhere.
Ques Is it not striking that in the end of Revelation the Lord says, “I Jesus”?
JT Yes, and chapter 1 has “I John”. Paul and John were not afraid of speaking about themselves, but then, who are they? Scripture would not in this sense speak of persons save for spiritual reasons. They possess personalities the Lord would have prominently before His people.
Ques What is the great burden of this prayer? Is it that the saints might be formed in love?
JT It has specially in mind that we might have strength inwardly to apprehend fully the sphere of the divine purposes and all that enters into it. Referring to the ministry, Paul says, “that they who are of the nations should be joint heirs, and a joint body, and joint partakers of his promise in Christ Jesus”. It is for us to work that out; the prayer is to bring us into it. We need to take notice of that word joint. The tenor of this epistle is to draw us together, to make us practically part of each other. Joint heirs, and a joint body, and joint partakers — that is, each believer is actually taking part in the thing, but with all the saints. Even the apprehension of the great things in view is “with all the saints”. Ephesians links us peculiarly with all saints and introduces us in power into the realm of divine purpose. The prayer has this in mind. It is to make us suitable for heaven — the finishing touch so that we might go into heaven as suitable to it. We are raised up together — elevated — and made to sit down together in the heavenlies in Christ. Personality comes in here, for as in heaven we shall know according as we have been known.
So the prayer is to the Father, that we might take all this on. We were seeing yesterday the desire in the minister; he cannot accomplish it all, but it is kept [p. 90] alive in his heart, and it is more alive in his prayer than anywhere, because he is putting it forward to God the Father to make it good — and how could it be made good otherwise?
Rem Our intelligence would be seen now, as we work out this collective idea.
JT Joint heirs, and a joint body, and joint partakers — what collective formation is implied in that! As joint partakers, we learn together, we partake of the things of God together; love in us would have it so; in the heavenly man love does not wish isolation, but all the saints.
ESH So that as coming together on any occasion this end would be in view; in the readings and other meetings, there would be the merging together in love — all have this end in view under the Father’s hand.
JT Yes. It is very wonderful as one sees it, perhaps; more than others, how the spirit of getting together increases; the brethren love to get together. I believe it is the Lord working out a condition for heaven, for our exit from this earth. We shall leave it suitably, not looking behind like Lot’s wife: we look straight before us, and when we get there we are ready for the place; we shall know all the dignitaries, even as the disciples knew Moses and Elijah on the mount. We want to be ready for all that. Thus the saints become more and more to us, and the force of what the apostle says about himself here will be understood — “less than the least of all saints”. It is what they are in his mind, according to the mystery. “I bow my knees to the Father” suggests great exercise. Elijah on mount Carmel put his face between his knees; that is exercise, he had a burden upon his heart, and the exercise reached to heaven in that case, it was heard.
Ques One of the things referred to in Hebrews 12 is “the spirits of just men made perfect” (verse 23). Is there any connection between that, and what you have been [p. 91] saying?
JT Well, quite so; their importance as just men is in mind; there are not many now relatively. They are made perfect. It is the complete thought of God effected in them, involving resurrection.
GCS Knowing the love of Christ as referred to here, would endear the saints to us more than ever, as being the objects of such love.
ESH You were speaking yesterday of the footstool and the holy place and the most holy place — the spiritual realm opening up. Would you say a little more about all that?
JT It was a comment on Psalm 132:7: “Let us go into his habitations, let us worship at his footstool”. The idea of the plural, habitations, would give the complete thought of the divine habitation. We have it, of course, here in this very epistle — we being built together for a habitation of God — but the plural would give the whole thing in its grades. It was remarked that we might include the court as part of the divine abode; many do not go beyond that, but then they do go into the abode in some way. The sparrows are on Jehovah’s altars. We begin at the footstool in that way — at the beginning or lowest place.
The “holiest” is the greatest thought in mind. We begin in the court, then there is the second compartment called the holy place where certain things are — the table, the shew-bread, the candlestick, the golden altar, but the holiest is where God Himself is. So that we are enjoined to “draw near”. We may be in the habitations without drawing near — content to remain in the court.
ESH Are you linking the holiest with the spiritual realm?
JT Quite so. The tabernacle in Hebrews gives us a graded idea of things — figurative representations. Paul was caught up to the third heaven, and that is the same idea of gradations, but it gives the complete idea — three heavens. The holiest of all is a corresponding [p. 92] thought. Thus we are enjoined to draw near, as the way to it is open to us.
FI Why does it present the Spirit here as the Father’s Spirit? In Romans 5 it is the Holy Spirit, and in Romans 8 the Spirit of sonship.
JT We must think of that title — the Father’s Spirit. The titles of the Spirit should be noticed. Ephesians 3:14 reads, “For this reason I bow my knees to the Father”: it is that Person in the Deity. And there are families, it is “every family”; and the Father names them all. The apostle’s desire is “that he (the Father) may give you according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power by his Spirit in the inner man”. It seems to be His Spirit, that is, the Spirit of the Father — that Person.
FI I wondered whether it was the height that we are brought into, what we might call the topstone of our relationship with God. The love of God is brought into the soul by the Spirit (Romans 5), but here we are strengthened in the inner man by the Father’s Spirit; all that we might enter into the great things spoken of here.
JT Yes. It is not simply that we have the Father’s Spirit, but that this kind of operation should be by the Father’s Spirit — “in order that he may give you according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power by his Spirit in the inner man”. The operation is in the inner man. It is the heart in Romans 5; but “the inner man” is a remarkable expression; it is not dealing with externals, but with what is characteristically inward.
AJG The Spirit viewed in that way, as the Father’s Spirit, would impress us with what Christ is to the Father in relation to His purpose — “that the Christ may dwell, through faith, in your hearts”.
JT That is it. You begin with “the Christ”, the One who does things for God, and it is by this operation of the Father in the inner man that Christ has His place — He dwells in our hearts. “That the Christ may dwell, through faith, in your hearts”. That is, God makes room for Him by this remarkable operation. “According to the riches of his glory” — the language is very rich and powerful. The inner man is the full mature thought — not simply an organ, but my whole spiritual being viewed as the inner man — in which there should be scope for the Christ. It is a magnificent thought, that He should dwell there by faith. We are thus “fully able to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height; and to know the love of the Christ”. That we should be thus affected is one of the greatest results of divine power operative in us.
B Do you distinguish between being rooted and grounded in love, and knowing the love of Christ?
JT I do; the thought of the root is that there is access to suitable nourishment: there is growth through substance drawn through the roots. Grounding is that you are settled or established; you will not be carried away by every wind of doctrine — there is stability. It is not simply fixedness through the truth: the sap is being drawn through the roots in love, and the grounding is in love; there is thus a living and stable condition. All is “in order that ye may be fully able to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height; and to know the love of the Christ which surpasses knowledge; that ye may be filled even to all the fulness of God”. One is steadied in the rooting and grounding, and able to exercise the mental powers that God has given to us by the Spirit, so as to apprehend the divine realm opened up to us with all the saints. Then the filling into all the fulness of God — one is in infinitude, steadied in it, intelligent in it, and able to enjoy what God is as revealed in Christ. All is perfect — no room for anxieties or regrets, for we are filled to all the fulness of God. And the love of Christ — already [p. 94] proved in various experiences — is now known, although it passes knowledge.
AEBL In chapter 1 the apostle speaks of “the surpassing greatness of his power towards us who believe, according to the working of the might of his strength”.
JT In chapter 1 the power is “towards” us; in chapter 3 it is “the power which works in us”. It is the Father’s Spirit strengthening us in the “inner man”.
EG Is strengthening in the inner man in view of the filling?
JT Whatever your capacity is, you are filled. There is no void or vacuum in the divine realm. We are all there in keeping with the fulness of God. The idea of fulness has a great place in Scripture.
AJG How does this work out at the present time? “In order that ye may be fully able to apprehend with all the saints ...” Is it a matter of the outlook we have in our own minds and affections?
JT I think the idea of “all saints” is brought in to enhance what is in mind. Do we not learn more in a meeting like this than in our closets? All the saints, refers to our outlook. It is in accord with the teaching and spirit of the epistle — love working in us involving all its objects. Enlargement to the inclusiveness of all marks Ephesians, hence “joint heirs, and a joint body, and joint partakers”. We really grasp things better in the assembly than elsewhere — at least I find that. And that is what the Lord is stressing. Young people come into these meetings, and they are alert. It is remarkable in young children, with whom God is working, how they take on the very phrases that express spiritual things. Instead of being segregated, and put into the hands of one who knows but little about Ephesians, you give them the best — and they drink into it, too.
AH Would you say a word as to the fulness of [p. 95] God?
JT It is God shining out in revelation in and through Christ. It is a word used peculiarly in Colossians — “for in him all the fulness ... was pleased to dwell” — without saying what the fulness is, as if the very term denotes the Deity; correspondingly, in Hebrews 1:3, we get “the greatness on high” Then in Colossians 2:9 — to make it intelligible to us — we have “in him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily”. “Bodily” means that it is brought within our compass; that is what is in mind. I am to be filled into that. It is not God in His essential Being dwelling in light unapproachable, but as He came out — all shining in Jesus, as Man.
AH Is it like the scripture that says, “The earth is the Lord’s” — that is one thing — “and the fulness thereof”?
JT Quite so. There is the basic thought and the developed thought. In Genesis 1 we have what God wrought as a basis, and in Genesis 2 what God works out — the garden, with Adam tilling it, the rivers, the animals named by him, ending with Eve — all suggesting fulness.
FI We come into the knowledge of what is surpassing — “the love of the Christ which surpasses knowledge”. It is in that way that we are filled into the fulness of God. As brought into this knowledge of the wonderful love of Christ, you are filled by Him.
JT Quite so. The fulness of God is finality, it steadies us. We are in infinitude, but we are not lost in it, we are intelligently in it. It is the marvellous result reached through the work of God in us. We cannot compass it, but we know where we are, we are intelligent in it, restful in it, not strangers, but as known and loved there.
FI That work of God is only seen and known by us as in Christ.
JT Then the next thing is the display of the glory of God in the assembly — “to him be glory in the assembly in Christ Jesus unto all generations of the age of ages”. That is what He has.