CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 1
Paul was a prisoner when he wrote the epistle. Everything was over as to any hope of Israel, the people of promise.
Was the truth contained in this epistle first made known in it?
Truth may be communicated long before it is made known to others. In 2 Corinthians 12, Paul refers to revelations “fourteen years ago”, and so here, in writing to the Ephesians, he may have received the truth long before. We need to have a sense of being “in Christ” before we can talk of a “man in Christ”.
What is the difference between being “in Christ” and “a man in Christ”?
One is that I am consciously there, the other is more an abstract thought, what the man is. The first six verses are abstract. It is as much for one as the other. Up to verse 14, we have the individual blessing, the individuality of our relationships, but we are all one in it. Union, in itself, does not give us anything save position. (See after remarks.) Verse 3 is common to all. It is the key of the epistle.
When union is referred to, it is the truth of the body which is referred to. Sarah was of the same kindred as Abraham, so that her union with him did not give her higher kindred, but raised her into a new position. I am a son of God, and accepted in the Beloved, and you cannot get more than that. If I were not in relationship as son, I could not be united to Him.
We have brought before us in Ephesians what is of a new order. The first fourteen verses show what grace has done for you. God’s counsel connects itself with our being after an entirely new order. It was a thing in the mind of God. We have unity (as in [p. 128] John) where we have not union. Ephesians brings before us an entirely new thing, not connected with dispensations - before the foundation of the world. Dispensations are connected with the world. This is apart from, and outside all dispensations (verse 3). Kingdom blessings are dispensational, “prepared ... from the world’s foundation”, Matthew 25: 34. We enjoy the blessing while in this world, but as to its nature, it is entirely outside of this world. We see the wisdom of God in establishing the soul in the individual blessing before He goes on to the corporate thing. We are chosen in Him.
Predestination is always to something, predestinated to a position before Him. We were chosen in a past eternity, but being chosen were predestinated to sonship - the full display of this position of “adoption... to himself” in the future. We cannot understand union unless we know that we are sons to Himself. If I am not fit to be Christ’s companion, I am not fit to be united to Him, and could have no pleasure with Him in such union, nor He with me. It is life and nature here. There is no higher relationship than that of son to Himself. I do not gain relationship by union, but I gain position. In the new Jerusalem it is the consort of One who sits on the throne; but in Ephesians 5 you are brought to Himself, being there as if there never had been sin or a world.
Unless a soul is at rest, he is not prepared for the counsel of God in the first fourteen verses. Verse 4 is meeting the necessity of the nature of God; verse 5 is the glorification of His affections. “Holy and blameless” in chapter 5: 27 is the same as in chapter 1, “holy and blameless”. He gives us a nature suiting us for the relationship. We could not have the relationship if we had not the nature.
Union is by the Holy Spirit, and it is a wonderful thing to know it, to know that I am actually united to a Christ in glory. There is nothing given to us here
[p. 129] on earth, beyond the gift of the Holy Spirit. Stephen had the Holy Spirit, and was in the reality of union, though the truth as to it was not revealed. In the beginning of Acts they illustrated it before it was actually revealed. Many have the instinct of relationship, and by the Holy Spirit cry, “Abba, Father”, before having intelligence. It is of importance that we should know our heavenly relationships, in order that we may enjoy union. I am united before I know it, but scripture does not suppose me walking without enjoyment.
Union is more position, we are already brought into relationship as sons. I am similar to Him on the same footing (Hebrews), and if you do not understand what it is to be in companionship with Christ, you will never understand what it is to be united to Him. A wife gets a different position, but she may have been of the same rank previously. Union comes out in Acts 9: 4, 5, “Why persecutest thou me?” In Acts 8: 33 the life of Christ is taken from the earth; then I leave it, too. Satan thought he had got rid of Him, but in chapter 9 He is found in His members. It was a terribly signal defeat for Satan!
Satan is ever opposed to the truth of the “one body”. Satan has his counterfeit of it, Rome. So long as the sheep lies still the dog lies still, but when the sheep moves, the dog moves; so with Satan and the church. In Acts 16, the apostle will not receive support from man. The devil offers to placard him, but the servant of God refuses. “The powers that be” may vouchsafe protection, but this is very different from placing reliance on them. The Holy Spirit is the only power on earth for testimony.
As regards warfare in Ephesians, we do not want the armour unless we are on the battlefield, and that is against wickedness in the heavenlies. In Romans we have the armour of light, but that is different. The root of all difficulties has been the giving up the truth [p. 130] of the presence of the Holy Spirit, and this is so amongst ourselves individually, though it may be nominally owned. The church, having lost the sense of this power, went to the world for power. I think the church first lost the knowledge of the forgiveness of sins, and then, consequently, the knowledge of the seal, the Holy Spirit.
In chapter 1: 10 the counsel of God is made known to us as to the glory of Christ; the universe is to be headed up in Him. The “administration of the fulness of times” is an administration preparatory to the eternal state.
There is the heavenly man and the earthly man, and Christ, Head over all. The new Jerusalem will be in the eternal state as well as in the millennial. In the millennium the church will be set in the administration of grace. The Old Testament saints are in the city, but do not compose the city. The pious Jew will turn to the new Jerusalem to learn what Christ’s grace is in the church. It is like a review - there are red coats and black coats, but the red coats are the army; the black coats are there, but they are not the army. The new Jerusalem is the city for which Abraham looked. In the millennium, the new Jerusalem is Christ’s agency in administration.
Peter, in his second epistle, skips the millennium and goes to the end, speaking only of the eternal state. He would not give the Jew an inch to stand on here. The millennium is, as it were, the antechamber to the eternal state. The reconciliation of all things in Colossians is governmental, under Christ; it begins with the millennium but leads to the eternal state. The Father’s kingdom is the heavenly side of the millennium; the kingdom of the Son of man is the earthly side. “The mystery of his will” is the widest of all expressions, wider than the term ‘mystery’ when applied to the church simply. God restored the truth of the mystery by bringing before one of His [p. 131] servants what he expressed in the words, ‘I have a Head in heaven, I am united to Him; so then are others’. “Being enlightened in the eyes of your heart” is a qualifying condition for knowing.
Chapter 1 is prayer for knowledge - conscious knowledge; chapter 3 is prayer for enjoyment. To know the power that is toward you is in chapter 1, with the objective presentation of Christ. Subjective enjoyment is in chapter 3 - the Christ dwelling in our hearts by faith. There are two distinct things - what is true for me, and true in me. The man who understands union could not say that the corporate thing is over. What is presented to us objectively becomes the power of life in us. Knowledge, in Ephesians 1: 17 and 18, is a divine gift. Objective knowledge, without having a state corresponding, is mischievous. Peter had revelation without state (Matthew 16). Peter’s state could not be ours now, not as christian state. It would never do to bring christianity down to people’s practical condition.