GOD'S PURPOSE
GOD’S PURPOSE
The history of the Ephesian saints, from the darkness of nature up to the height of glory, and rest, apportioned by God’s grace to the members of Christ’s body, is evidently instructive to us, in order that we may ascertain how far we have consciously advanced in the same blessed path. We read in the end of Acts 18 that the apostle Paul had preached in the synagogue at Ephesus and subsequently that Apollos came to Ephesus, and he spoke and taught diligently the things of the Lord, knowing only the baptism of John. That the saints in Ephesus had advanced no farther than John’s baptism is evident from chapter 19. Then we read the apostle again visits Ephesus and finds certain disciples, whose progress he ascertains by asking them, “Have ye received the Holy Spirit?” to which they replied, “We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Spirit”. The apostle then traces their ignorance to the limited nature of their faith and profession by a second question “Unto what then were ye baptised? And they said, Unto John’s baptism”. Now we must remember that the things of the Lord can be taught diligently, knowing only the baptism of John, and that saints can be disciples and not have heard even whether there be any Holy Spirit (I suppose not simply hearing but understanding), ere we can form any just idea of the state of soul such limited acquaintance with the work of Christ must entail. John’s testimony went no further than declaring the coming of one mightier than he, awakening consciences to the ruin of their condition, demanding of them to bring forth fruits meet for repentance, calling on them to repent, for God’s reign was commencing and judgment was concomitant with it, but giving man no [p. 31] new power to effect this change. The terror of coming and deserved judgments were pressed on the minds of all, while John himself as a witness of the judgment he pronounced, took a path in the world unfrequented by man and ate food not common to or provided by man. He led his disciples to confess their sins and express in the waters of Jordan their willingness to enter on another course, but surely there was no sense of forgiveness - of acceptance with God in the Beloved - of membership with Christ as bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh - of adoption, the Spirit of the Son in our hearts crying, Abba Father, or of sealing with the Holy Spirit of promise, the earnest of our inheritance. All these are to be learned by the Holy Spirit of which the Ephesians had not as yet heard.
May we not fear that many disciples of the Lord even now have not advanced practically beyond the doctrines taught in the testimony of John the baptist? How many know nothing, at least almost nothing, of the forgiveness of sins, and as possessors of a new life and nature, accepted of God in all the excellence of the Beloved! If not, surely they too might answer, “we have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Spirit” - at least instructively so. But at this let them not be cast down, for such-like were the Ephesian saints, and yet after they believed they were sealed with “that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance”.
Now it is as sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise that the apostle proceeds to instruct the saints of Ephesus into all the glory of their calling. He first prays that the eyes of their understanding may be enlightened that they may know what is the hope of His calling, what is the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He wrought in Christ,
[p. 32] when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in heavenly places. They had something more to learn than even being sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, some greater enjoyment to be partaken of in addition - an earnest of our future inheritance. The soul is to be carried on to the hope of His calling and the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and, as leading to this, to know what is the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe. This is more than sealing - this is more than the earnest of the inheritance. Have we attained to it? and are the eyes of our understanding enlightened? If not, it is evident they ought to be. If, however, we know anything of the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe, it is according to the power which wrought in Christ and raised Him from the dead, and set Him at God’s right hand in heavenly places. It is here the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe has reached its limit. It raised Christ from the death into which He entered for us and has set Him at God’s right hand in heavenly places, and it is the same power which is to us-ward who believe, according to the same quality, reaching onward and proved by the same limit, to the heavenly places where it has set Jesus head over all things; and the church, which is His body, knows no less a quality. It is according to His mighty power which He wrought in Christ. If it were a lesser power, it would have a lesser limit and a lesser quality; but the power is the same, and the limit and the deliverance must be the same. There may be different extents of power given in the heavenly places, but it is the one and the selfsame power which has raised Jesus there, and that our eyes ought to be enlightened to know as to us-ward who believe - and which the apostle goes to show in the second chapter, is the same power (whether we know it or not) which has blessed us in every stage, from death in trespasses and in sins till it [p. 33] accomplishes in us, even now in spirit, the same blessed result, as it has triumphantly in unquestioned majesty in the Lord Jesus Christ. The depths of our degradation have not countervailed. He has raised Jesus who entered into death for us, and having raised Him from the mire of our ruin, He quickens into the life of Christ, every member of His from the same scene, and raises them together with Christ and makes them sit together with Christ in heavenly places. It is the same power all through. The power which quickens is the power which makes us sit in spirit together in Christ in heavenly places. Not by and by, but it is now, the eyes of our understanding should be enlightened, to know the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe, and it is now that we should know the results. If saints have not yet learned it, let us remember that it is from blindness and want of faith. The Ephesian saints were not left in this darkness, for they were willing to go onward. They were willing to be taught, their hearts were the good ground. In honesty and truth they heard the word. No one is straitened in God; but he who has a hard judgment of God will have a judgment according to it. Let us further take the evidence of Scripture on this point. What was taught in the crossing of Jordan? Was it not a full and complete deliverance from the wilderness into Canaan? No Israelite set his foot in Jordan till a clear and immutable path, an assured path of safety, lay fully before him. He entered on it rejoicing in the power of God which provided it, but that was not all. Mere faith in deliverance, wonderful and gracious as it is, is not fulness of our blessing. On Canaan’s side of Jordan the memorial of deliverance was to be reared up. Where power was exercised, thence the material of the memorial was to be procured. Where the priests’ feet stood, thence the stones were to be taken and set in the place where they lodged that night. Their first lodging-place in Canaan was marked by this memorial - [p. 34] a memorial of what? Not that they had hoped for deliverance - not they had seen by faith, through the intervention of the power of the ark of the covenant, an inobstructable path, across the wide flowing river - but that they really had crossed over, and as a remembrance of the power which wrought it, did they rear up a remembrance at the first lodging in Canaan. It is evident Canaan is not the scene of complete rest but of conflict in the scene of future rest and glory. We are taught the same truth in the thief on the cross. He as a Jew had sought to be remembered in the kingdom, but paradise is given to him as his present portion. So now the world’s rejected one is quickened with Christ, raised up together with Christ, accepted and made to sit together with Christ in heavenly places.
Again, in Lazarus (John 12) we get a type of the church now. In chapter 11 we had our condition because of death, our only hope in Jesus: the male representing power or the lack of it, the female actual condition; the one marking the conduct of faith, the other the state. The exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward, who believe in the Person of Christ, liberates Lazarus from the tomb, and thus quickened and raised up we find him sitting in happy communion with Jesus, denoting our calling, or that into which Christ has brought us; while the visible expression of the church on earth is symbolised by Martha serving and Mary pouring forth fragrance in reference to the death of Christ, from whence all fragrance to this evil world springs.
May our souls be more conversant with the wonderful mercies of our God, and we shall be prepared for still greater revelations of His unaccountable grace! Only let us prize what we do know, honour Him in our appreciation of it, and have readiness of soul ever to say when opening His word, “Speak, Lord; for thy servant heareth”.