A NARROW WAY

John 14: 6; Ephesians 2: 18; Ephesians 3: 14-21

E.C.B. We have referred this morning to the scriptures in Ephesians but, in a sense surprisingly, the Lord's word in Matthew came to my mind - "narrow the gate and straitened the way that leads to life" (chap 7: 14). I was thinking that the way in which we come to the Father is really a narrow way. In John 14 the Lord shuts it up to Himself; nothing could be more narrow than the way He prescribes in verse 6 of that chapter: "No one comes to the Father unless by me". Access to the Father is in that scripture closed up except by Christ. While however the access there is closed up, yet the Lord opens up something entirely new. While the Lord prescribes that a man can come only by Himself - "the way, and the truth, and the life" - yet what such an one is brought to is something entirely new. This is not exactly the antitype of the approach of the high priest or anything of that order; coming to the Father is something entirely new and yet the gate is narrow and the way is straitened.

I was reflecting this morning as we were together on the word 'access' in Ephesians 2. Access is a narrow idea; you do not stand on the prairies and look across on the rest of the prairies and say you have access to the prairies; everything is wide open. We used to be taught in geography in school that Winnipeg gave you access to the prairies, and that idea narrows it down. Winnipeg may be a sizeable city but in that expression it narrows access down. When we talk about access it implies the idea not exactly of a wide open gate but of a narrow way. Paul seems to amplify it in Ephesians 2 by saying "through Christ", which connects again with John 14, but "by one Spirit". But still it is 'access', as if it is a narrow way. Then what does it lead to? It leads to life; and I wondered if the life was in the end of chapter 3, because as soon as Paul has access he bows his knees to the Father; he has access to the Father and then things open up. It is not as if we have access through, for instance, the outside door here into a narrow passage that brings us into a relatively small area, but we come by the access of Ephesians 2 into an area that we cannot compass - "breadth and length and depth and height". We have access to the love of the Christ and to the fulness of God. In Matthew 7 Jesus says "Enter in through the narrow gate". I wondered whether these things might suggest something to us to inquire into, that the way into the Father is in a certain sense narrow, but once we have come that way we find that we have what the life really means.

A.B.P. I am thankful that you have brought this up because I have tried to reconcile this and Hebrews 10. Hebrews 10 is antitypical of the Aaronic priesthood and that relates particularly to the wilderness, whereas this is the highest privilege that we will ever know until we are in glory.

E.C.B. The types of course help us, and Hebrews helps us a great deal as to the interpretation of the types and there is a new and living way, but even that way is straitened. It is not a great wide open path. One speaks carefully in these things but the way is reduced to Christ, the only way.

A.B.P. It is so in Hebrews also. But you were indicating that this is something new, not antitypical, whereas Hebrews 10 is antitypical and I was just trying to reconcile the two. I can see that Hebrews particularly relates to wilderness conditions.

E.C.B. I am sure that is right. John 14 is something new; if you had been there and Jesus had said something that implied that you could come to the Father, what a new thing it would have seemed. In chapter 4 He talks about worshipping the Father, and you might be like the publican who stood afar off and be worshipping, but in chapter 14 He says, You can come to the Father. I think that is something that we need to explore the potentiality of. The access is narrow, it is narrowed down to Christ, the way is straitened to Himself, but then it is to the Father that you come and it is something entirely new, and as you say, there is no type of it.

G.D.W. How would you distinguish between access and right? I am thinking of Revelation 22: 14: "that they may have right to the tree of life, and that they should go in by the gates into the city". Would they be parallel thoughts or would one precede the other?

E.C.B. In a certain sense they are parallel but they belong in different settings. In Revelation it is a question of washing your robes, which touches responsibility; indeed that scripture bears on fellowship. Unless persons have washed their robes you have not fellowship with them; that needs to be categorically understood. But this is the way into the Father. As Mr Parker says it is what we speak of as privilege, and there is the liberty to go in, but you have to confine yourself in this way. It is different from the highpriestly system of the old dispensation where only the priest went in. Now things are opened up but they are opened up through a narrow way. I know the Lord's word applies particularly to us testimonially but I thought that it bore on what we experience even in the service of God, that we come this way by a gate that is narrow and a way that is straitened and we enter into life. But Jesus begins that paragraph by saying "Enter in through the narrow gate"; and I think that is what He would say to us in the service of God.

C.S.E. In John 10 the Lord speaks of Himself as the door: "I am the door: if any one enter in by me, he shall be saved, and... shall find pasture" (v 9); and later on He says "that they might have life, and might have it abundantly", (v 10). Is that a similar thought: you enter through Christ but then there is a wide area that is opened up afterwards which the thought of 'abundantly' would bring before us?

E.C.B. I think that is right. Mr Raven taught that in John 10 the Lord is the door out of the world. By being the door out of one thing He is the door into something else. But He is the door - out of the world, but if you go through that door you come into the area where there is more abundant life. And where is our life if it is not in the realm of breadth and length and depth and height? The life of the Christian is not confined to limited things, to small numbers and what may be possible in a broken day; the life of the Christian is in the area of breadth and length and depth and height. We need to feel the release into that area that the Lord would give us as we come by Him.

A.B.P. And "with all the saints".

E.C.B. Certainly; I think we have a lot of difficulty about that, gathering up all saints and at the same time holding in our minds the principles that govern fellowship. But all the saints are needed for that area of life.

A.B.P. I have often thought about the priest of Midian and his daughters who came to him; they came to the Father in principle; they had been helped but he says "where is he?" Exod 2: 20. This access through Christ seems to indicate that we should never be in the service of praise in the sense of being in the presence of the Father without realising that the Lord Jesus is there too.

E.C.B. I think that very much.

A.B.P. I felt sometimes that our response to the Father seems to be taken up to a substantial degree with our own blessings and that we sort of leave the Man behind. What you are bringing before us would help.

E.C.B. As we come by Him who is the way and the truth and the life we learn things about Him and we carry those things with us into the Father's presence. My mother used to tell us, admittedly it was in connection with the gospel, that you never forget the bridge that carried you across. And you never forget that by which you have access. As you come into the Father's presence you never forget Christ; as you say, you do not leave the Man behind. But I am impressed with the fact that the access is really narrowed down. It is wide enough for all but it is narrowed down; even in Ephesians 2 it is narrowed down to Him and the power of one Spirit; there is no other way. I think the end of chapter 3 connects with it, that as soon as you have come through the access and you bow your knees to the Father in whose presence you then are, you find that you are in a realm that you cannot measure.

B.T. This is very interesting, because the Lord was about to leave them here and they were troubled and He was reassuring them as to what was in His Father's house; and not only that but what was available currently through Himself, this access.

E.C.B. Yes, and in a certain sense He sets this out for the disciples, because He says, I am going to the Father and you can come to the Father, but you will not come unless you come by Me. He was so well known to them, and He was giving them that comfort, that He would go away not only to prepare them a place but to prepare the access as well. So they would have no difficulty as they came by Him to the Father, and yet what a new thing, the sense that you can come to the Father! Of course we learn it, the children are taught it - thank God that they are taught to turn to the Father about things - but it is a new thing, yet it is really the whole of Christianity, that you can come to the Father.

C.S.E. Why do you say it is a new thing? Would you elaborate a little more on that.

E.C.B. It is a thing that was not known in the previous dispensation. God had certainly said "Israel is my son, my first born", Exod 4: 22. He did not actually say it to the people; he sent a message through Moses to Pharaoh. It is a remarkable thing that God's claim on His people as His son was made to Pharaoh, the people were not exactly told it. But the whole of that system of worship is a system of distance. One man could go in, but the common people could not get into the holy place let alone the holiest of all where the immediate presence of God was. But in the present day that Jesus was setting on, it is not only that the Father is known, has been declared and is known, but that you can come to the Father. I think that is something that would strike you as very new. Jesus says to the woman in chapter 4, The hour is coming and now is when you will worship the Father. Now that is one thing, but as He goes on teaching the disciples (and this is all intimate - I think Mr Stoney says these chapters were expressed at the supper table) Jesus says you can come to the Father; I am going to the Father and you can come to the Father. I think that is something new.

A.R.S. Would a grasp of what you are saying help us in the testimonial scene to accept the narrow way because it leads into life and to what is expansive?

E.C.B. It would certainly help us in the testimonial sphere; that is what the Lord's word immediately refers to, and in that setting it is a way that we do not like much. We do not like the narrow gate and the straitened way for the testimony, and sometimes we are trying to elbow it a little bit wider, but that is not in the scripture in Matthew. I thought it would help us positively in regard to our approach to the Father that the gate is narrow; it consists of one Man and the way is straitened - "I am the way" - but coming that way you enter into life. It helps to dwell a bit on the detail of scripture; that paragraph in Matthew refers to the broad gate and the way that leads to destruction but Jesus does not begin the paragraph with that, He begins with "Enter in through the narrow gate". I think that is the kind of thing He would have said to us this morning in the service: "Enter in through the narrow gate", but I am the gate. Then things open out into a fulness that we can hardly understand.

G.D.W. Does this show that the focal point of all God's ways is in Jesus? There is no one else. People try their own way but everything is in Christ.

E.C.B. Yes. God has made Him the focus, as you say, of all His thoughts and He has established Him as the Mediator of God and men, but He has also established Him as the Declarer of the Father; and we come through Him as the Declarer of the Father and we find that if we come by Him as the way, and the truth, and the life, life is immediately before as.

A.B.P. Would it be right to say that up to this point it has been mainly a question of the Father coming to us or being brought to us, even in manifestation in Jesus Himself, and now the point is that we have access to that Person who has come into expression?

E.C.B. That is right. In a certain sense chapter 13 and "part with me" is a transitional point in John's gospel. As you say, up to this part of the gospel it has been a question of God being declared and God being made known in Christ, known in His disposition towards men and especially towards men as individuals, women too as individuals; then things are gathered together into the flock and Jesus talks about "part with me". In chapter 14 He begins to illuminate what that means. Chapter 13 bears on the testimony as well - but "part with me" is discovered in that He is the way of approach to the Father. As Mr Ben Taylor was saying, Jesus was going away; He says, I am going and you can come but you must come by Me.

A.B.P. They have a preliminary taste of that in the twelfth chapter in part with Him. Lazarus was one of those that sat at table with Him and we can tell by the context that the disciples were there too.

E.C.B. Yes, but that section takes you only as far as having part with Jesus Himself, it does not take you as far as the Father.

A.B.P. I understand that. I got an impression as to that this morning and was just seeking to fill it out a little. In chapter 13 He says that He washed the feet of the disciples that they might have part with Him, indicating that there was something that He was giving them at the supper level which was beyond what they had experienced in chapter 12.

E.C.B. I think just that. Then in chapter 14 and onwards He begins to enlarge that. So the scope of chapters 14 to 16 in relation to the Father is embraced in this; that in the Father's house are many mansions, but you can come to the Father and then the Father Himself has affection for you.

G.D.W. The link with what Mr Parker is speaking of seems to be in chapter 13: ''Jesus, knowing that the Father had given him all things into his hands, and that he came out from God and was going to God" (v 3). John is in the secret of this and is able to write it down.

E.C.B. Yes, but Jesus also says "I leave the world and go to the Father", chap 16: 28. And in chapter 17 He says, in the hearing of disciples, "I come to thee" (v 11). Earlier Jesus had said, You can come but you come by Me. I think chapter 17 taken with this presents Him in the sense that He is in Hebrews the Forerunner, not the Forerunner going into God but the Forerunner going into the Father. Does that connect with what you thought?

B.T. Yes. Martha said "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection in the last day", John 11: 24 - His coming again (of course He has not come corporeally) but this would reassure them that, although He was leaving them, the way was open currently for them to be with Him.

E.C.B. So more than once in John's gospel He expresses this "where I am ye also may be" (chap 14: 3); "where I am, there also shall be my servant" (chap 12: 26); "Father, as to those whom thou hast given me, I desire that where I am they also may be with me", chap 17: 24. And He had gone before as Forerunner. It is a very blessed thought that He has gone as Forerunner to the Father as well as Forerunner to God, and that is in order to bring us into the reality of the experience that His place with the Father is our place with the Fat her.

A.G.S. Is that the reason why He said to Philip, "He that has seen me has seen the Father", John 14: 9?

E.C.B. That is so; that is what was in Jesus when He was down here: of course the knowledge of the Father is in Him, as the knowledge of God is in Him. But He says, I leave the world and go away to the Father, and now Father, I come to Thee. But He had already said - and an intelligent disciple would remember it - You can come provided you come by Me. I think He is showing them that there is a narrow gate and a straitened way, but it leads to life; and the life of a Christian is in the knowledge of the Father.

B.T. He was straitened Himself and cut off and had nothing. That would bring out our appreciation of Him as the way.

E.C.B. That is helpful. "How am I straitened" (Luke 12: 50)! - and if I could use the expression, it is in the straitened Man that we have access to the Father. He is not straitened any more but He has been through that straitened way and that is the way that we have access to the Father. I do not refer to that scripture so much to bring in the implication of suffering which is in Matthew 7 as to the narrowness of the way. You can come only one way, but if you come you find that there is an expanse beyond you.

A.B.P. Paul speaks of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (see 2 Cor 4: 6). Is that an impression that he received when he was in the third heaven? He had gone so to speak through the narrow way and was in the area where Christ is known as He is in heaven, in contrast to what you were saying, that the disciples had seen Him here in humility. How could the apostle give an expression like that if he had not witnessed something?

E.C.B. It may be that he saw it, as you say, in the third heaven. He may also have later come to understand what it was he actually saw on the Damascus road, that is the light above the brightness of the sun, not just the glorified Christ but God's glory in the face of the One who was revealed to him. Because, as you will remember, each time he speaks about it it is enhanced in his view.

A.S.H. I was thinking as to one divine Person linking on with Another. Another scripture says "No one can come to me except the Father who has sent me draw him", John 6: 44. Would that link on with your thought?

E.C.B. That scripture taken with this shows how divine Persons, as we speak of Them, are all working together for an end which satisfies Them; the Father draws to Christ and Christ brings to the Father those whom the Father has drawn to Him, and thus things work for the glory of the Father. I think this bears on what Mr Parker said earlier, that sometimes our familiarity with the service of God almost leads us to think that we approach the Father doctrinally, but we do not; we approach the Father through Christ and by one Spirit. 'By one Spirit' involves power, and thus as you come through this straitened way you come in power and you find there both the Man and the power able to sustain you where otherwise you would be lost.

A.B.P. And that power comes as we gaze upon the glory of the Lord, according to 2 Corinthians 3.

E.C.B. We are changed by that. We used to hear a lot more of that scripture than we do now. (It is a very interesting study how some scriptures are before the brethren for a long time and then they kind of disappear. When did you last hear a reading on Genesis 24 for instance? And yet there was a time when we had it very frequently. We become familiar with things and then they kind of fall away). We need to learn the reality of our approach to the Father in the power of one Spirit. I thought this morning that we are almost laden with more power than we can bear as we come in the power of one Spirit. The infinity of the power of the Spirit is beyond us.

A.Macd. I was just going to ask if we need the power of the blessed Spirit to understand the dimensions in any way. It is a narrow way, but when we get into this sphere it is tremendous and full of glory, and apart from the Spirit we would not be able to stand it, would we?

E.C.B. No we could not; nor could we be sustained in it, and yet as we approach through Christ and in the power of one Spirit we have the power to sustain a place there. I think that it is in the presence of the Father that we learn more about the love of the Christ than anywhere else. We may think that we learn most of the love of Christ circumstantially, but I think we learn it most before the Father. Do you think that?

A.Macd. I am sure that is true.

A.B.P. Open it up a little please.

E.C.B. We think about the love of Christ even in regard to our circumstances, and we appreciate such aspects of it as "the Son of God, who has loved me and given himself for me", Gal 2: 20. Then we think of the love of Christ that cares for us all the time in a priestly way; but the place where we apprehend that the love of the Christ surpasses knowledge is in this area where we are bowing our knees to the Father, and are in a sphere the immensity of which in itself makes us dependent on the love of the Christ. We then realise that that love is sufficient for the sphere in which we are.

A.B.P. Is that when we get past the throne room and into the family room?

E.C.B. Yes, it is. I have wondered whether we are exactly in the sense of the throne in the service of God. There is One who sits on the throne but we are not altogether in the sense of the Father's throne and Christ sitting on it; we are more in the sense of the family, and Christ's service then is not so much as sitting on the Father's throne but as conducting us around and showing us the blessedness of the Father's house. Do you think that?

A.B.P. I do very much. I have often wondered why we use the expression about the Lord being victorious and the indication of the great battle He has been in, and so forth. While this is all essential for us so as to have part with Him, what He is seeking to bring us into is the area which Mr Taylor used to speak of where love is at home, where it is flowing between Father and Son, and Son and Father, and the Father and the saints, and the saints and the Father - that mutual flow of love in the Father's house.

E.C.B. I think that. I think that the sense of the Lord as Victor comes to us as the Lord comes to us. As the hymn says, 'As the Victor Thou art known, coming in amongst Thine own' (No 147); He comes in as victorious. But He is not exactly holding us on that line. What we speak of as the marital aspects of things do not really relate to conflict; they relate to settled enjoyment.

A.B.P. The reference you made to His coming in would be to set us free.

E.C.B. Yes, the hymn indeed says that. I think we have an impression of the Lord as Victor as He comes in but the Lord saying "Peace be to you" (John 20: 19), implies that victory had been accomplished, He then opens up a scripture (which I again take out of its immediate context) "the things that are for thy peace", Luke 19: 42.

L.MacF. Just to go back, discipleship seems to be a very important thing in relation to what you are saying. He came to where the disciples were and they were glad having seen the Lord. Would all this be preparatory to the access we are speaking of?

E.C.B. I think that discipleship helps us to learn more about Jesus as the One through whom we have access. We do not quite go in to the Father as disciples but we learn a lot about Jesus as disciples and it was to those who were disciples that He came. But once the Lord begins to move us into the sphere of privilege the idea of discipleship is left and we enter into the area of friendship and companions and His assembly. As you rightly say, discipleship helps us in the preparation.

B.T. When Rebecca said "I will draw water for thy camels also" (Gen 24: 19) there was appreciation of the power, the great carrying power; and although the way is narrow, as you say, there is activity along that way, over against what is passive.

E.C.B. That is right. "By one Spirit" is in the power of one Spirit, which helps us in unity, but it conveys to us that we do not enter the presence of the Father passively, as you say, but in a kind of vigour. I think the power of one Spirit is a greater power than we can probably apprehend. Very rarely do we experience the full power of the Spirit because of the inhibitions on our side. Later on Paul would say "Be filled with the Spirit", Eph 5: 18..

I thought that in chapter 3 something of what life really is is brought before us; it is "narrow the gate and straitened the way that leads to life". If you run on from the thought of access to the Father (there is much else that is brought in in between) Paul's next reference to the Father is "I bow my knees to the Father". You would say that was natural; you have access, you take advantage of the access and the Father is before you and you bow your knees to the Father; that is a spiritually natural activity. Now things begin to unfold. Paul says "l bow my knees to the Father"; it does not exactly say he is praying but "I bow my knees to the Father"; it may convey more the idea of submission to the Father, He says "I bow my knees to the Father... 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; that the Christ may dwell, through faith, in your hearts, being rooted and founded in love, 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". Now what better description of life according to God could you have than that? It is not just presented in a word, it is broken up for us so that we can the more readily get some impressions about it.

A.B.P. If we think of this access objectively, Paul brings in the experience of it subjectively, does he not? "Strengthened with power by his Spirit" and "that the Christ may dwell, through faith, in your hearts" would be, so to speak, the subjective substance in those who have access.

E.C.B. I think so. Of course it all leads at the end of the chapter to there being glory to Him in the assembly in Christ Jesus unto all generations of the age of ages. That can only be in persons in whom there is life. I am just wondering about the way one can illustrate this; it is a little bit like finding a doorway high up in a castle wall; you are inside, you open the door and outside there is infinity, there is a great drop below you and a great height above you and you can see the country for miles expanding around. But you can step out into this realm in security because there is the upholding power of the Spirit and the anchorage of the love of the Christ. One tries to illustrate these things so that we may more simply grasp them, but spiritual things are not easily illustrated by natural means.

C.S.E. I was impressed with the line you are on because about two weeks ago Mr Welch was helping us on a similar line in Ephesians 1: 17 where it says "the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, would give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of him, being enlightened in the eyes of your heart". As you are saying, it brings us into a wide, vast, full area of things which we have with the Father. It just uplifts one's spirit to think of what we have been brought into through Christ.

E.C.B. Well, this is life; "straitened the way that leads to life", and Jesus says "Enter in through the narrow gate", and He would tell us that all these things are there. One practical consequence is that it leads to great variety of expression in response to the Father in the service of God. It would save us from the regular language that we use, all safe in its place - that is why we use it so much - but it would take you in spirituality into things that you find yourself expressing freshly because you have learned what life is beyond this access.

G.D.W. When you say you have learned, this brings me back to the subjective question Mr Parker was referring to. Is there a suggestion in this that there might be a pattern? I am thinking of what Paul does; "I bow my knees to the Father". It would be a great thing if you had one or several brothers in a locality who would so bow their knees that these things might be true in our localities. I am not saying there are not but it is just the pattern of this beloved apostle.

E.C.B. That is so. Of course if you make a remark like that you tend to expose yourself to the reply that Mr Darby's father gave him, do you not?

G.D.W. A very good reply too.

E.C.B. 'Make it better by one man'. It is a thing that we can all take on and could go in for. It needs submission to the Father and to the Spirit and then you find there is room for great expansion. If you connect this with Isaac's history it belongs to the time when the strife was over. They dug a lot of wells and the Philistines came and filled them in and they gave them all quarrelsome names, and then they found another well, Rehoboth, and they did not strive for that and the name of that well means Broadways; that is to say, you have at least reached the breadth; you have the length and the depth and the height to come but you have at least reached the breadth in a well where the strife is ended. There is much we can think about in that regard because if we can touch the Spirit beyond the struggle with the flesh, or the flesh's struggle with the Spirit, then we find that we are free in these things.

A.S.H. Would you say a little as to the families "the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom every family in the heavens and on earth is named".

E.C.B. The families as I understand it relate to those that the Father has taken up in the course of all the ways of God. Every dispensation has yielded a family, but I think they fit very well into the many abodes in the Father's house, every family will find its place there. Yet the remarkable thing is that in the Father's house each has its place but they are all contained within the same structure. I think you need eternity to apprehend it fully. The Father's house in John 14 I suppose would run on to eternity, but in eternity where everything has become spiritual it is much easier to understand the assimilation of all the families into their own place because they have become spiritual and are now beyond the distinctions which related to them in flesh and blood.

A.B.P. Does tabernacling with men imply that what is greatest in the sense of intelligent understanding and feeling, as would be related to this dispensation, would be the nearest family? It is somewhat similar to the set-up of the tribes in the land in relation to the temple, is it not?

E.C.B. In Ezekiel you mean? I think it is in that sense. There is much in Ezekiel's temple which is mysterious in its structure but it very much more fits with the idea of the Father's house with many abodes than does either the tabernacle or Solomon's temple.

A.B.P. I was thinking that it seems to be God's mind in dwelling to have that which is most understanding, if I might put it that way, in proximity.

E.C.B. I am sure that that is so. And there is certainly a sense (we use these words carefully because we have to use them in regard to Christ) in which the assembly has a mediatorial position in relation to other families. Is that how you understand it?

A.B.P.· That is the way I understand the millennial day particularly.

E.C.B. I do not think that the assembly's prime place is lost in eternity, yet the other families are brought into positions of immense blessing to them in spirituality. Israel has very great difficulty in understanding spirituality, as I understand the Scriptures; they understand what is material, but after the world to come they will pass into what is spiritual and will find their ultimate satisfaction there.

C.S.E. Is there a sense of climax reached in chapter 3 of Ephesians where as soon as the apostle bows his knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ he goes on "to be strengthened with power by his Spirit in the inner man; that the Christ may dwell, through faith, in your hearts". All three divine Persons converge in that area. Is that like a climax of worship?

E.C.B. I think that is right. The sense of movement at the end of Ephesians 3 is very rapid; you are not taken chapter by chapter over things. We have threeday meetings on different stages of this, but Paul covers it in about ten lines and goes from bowing his knees to the Father to the fulness of God in a moment. That shows the rapidity of the style and the rapidity of what is possible, but it requires the power and fulness of the Spirit to make it effective.

A.B.P. It was certainly a narrow way that Paul went through physically. He wrote this in prison, did he not? And he encases the chapter between the two references to his being a prisoner, which seems to help us to understand by contrast.

E.C.B. Yes. Sometimes you find a scripture comes to your mind which is written in an entirely different context and yet it seems to illuminate something that we customarily look at elsewhere. And I was just struck this morning that narrow is the way but it leads to life. Now what is life? Jesus says earlier in John's gospel: "ye will not come to me that ye might have life", chap 5: 40. There can be no greater life than to be filled with all the fulness of God. While Paul refers to God being able to do far exceedingly above all which we ask or think, implying that he was praying, yet I think that "I bow my knees to the Father" is really more the sense of the power that the Father bestows on those who submit to the Father in His glory. It seems to me something like the idea of obeisance to the king or the queen in England when they are crowned.

A.B.P. You mean that that would be the feelings that he had, but at the same time he was praying for the saints that they might enter into it.

E.C.B. That is certainly what he was doing. But "I bow my knees to the Father... in order that" is almost like coming to the Father and bowing before Him and then the Father anointing you with power in order to experience the greatness of what is in His realm.

BROOKLYN NY

10 December 1978