CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 2
We are here taken up from the lowest point to the very highest. No word is introduced as to our conversion.
What is the meaning of, “He that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit”? (1 Corinthians 6: 17.)
1 Corinthians 6: 17 is responsibility. Here it is the power which wrought in Christ, His Spirit who dwells in us. In Ephesians 1: 20 Christ has been raised from among the dead; in chapter 2: 1, “and you”. It is not how it is done, but the fact that it is done that is presented. Quickened has reference to the state we were in - dead in sins. We are quickened together with Christ. Raised up together, is Jew and gentile; verse 2 is gentile, verse 3 is Jew.
[p. 132] Verse 5, quickened together with Christ. Verse 6, raised together, Jew and gentile. Quickening here puts us into the same life condition as Christ. It is the work of God seen in its entirety - God doing His work in one stroke. We are looked at here as quickened when Christ was quickened, and we found it out when we were converted. Quickening introduces into a new state. There is no future resurrection mentioned in the epistle - all is included in the statement here. Jew and gentile could not be together in any dispensation on earth. It is God’s side of it here.
Time must not be brought in, for the fact alone is stated. Thus it is like the man child in Revelation 12. We should not dissociate the life from Christ where He is, nor our relationship. Relationship is the gift of sovereign grace, and we have the life of Christ given in order that we may enjoy it. Looked at as quickened with Christ, everything connected with the life down here is ignored. (See previous remarks.)
We are sons, and it is thus that we understand that we are united to the Christ, the Son of God. He makes us sons first. Old Testament saints were not called sons (see Galatians 4); the relationship is a privilege and is not the result of new birth, though you must be born again to be in it. We are brought into the wonderful position of sons.
How vast the magnitude of this relationship!
In Galatians 4 we have not only the spirit of sonship, but the Spirit of His Son. Raised up together and seated in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus - the place is the prominent part here. We are set there by Himself. There is no place for Jordan here; in Colossians Jordan comes in. It is God, taking you up, dead in trespasses and sins, and putting you in the heavenlies, a new creation out of the moral chaos.
Here the prominent idea is “heavenly places”. Christ was here, moving about in a moral chaos, in power of life outside of it. Here we are seen united [p. 133] to Him in the new place, and after the new order, although we are actually in the old place where He was. The whole of chapter 2 brings out our vocation.
There are seven points here: (1) The new place (verse 6). God never needs to justify His own work; here it is new creation. It is a great thing to see the two lines which are defined in Scripture - God’s line and our line. The difference is between the actual state and the faith state; one is true as you put your foot on it, the other is God’s side. He takes us up dead in sins, and we are quickened and seated in Christ; that is God’s line. Our line is, that faith should take God’s line. “Raised us up together” is standing. “Raised with Christ” is power. Joshua (chapters 3 - 5) is not Ephesians, it is more Colossians. Ephesians 6 is Joshua. I am in the land, not fighting to get possession, but to keep it. In Colossians you reach Gilgal; you are over Jordan but not in heaven. I recognise that all that belongs to me as of the old man is rolled off at the cross. A great many have deliverance, but have not learned circumcision.
Circumcision is leaving the whole man behind, so that there remains none. Marah is dropping a sin; Gilgal, dropping the man. By grace you are saved, you had no title at all (chapter 2: 5).
(2) New creation (verse 10).
It is the nature of the thing rather than membership. We have part in this new thing, and it is now morally displayed. You do not get the idea of the “new man” unless you look at it collectively. It is true of each individual, but collective in idea. Christ is all (Colossians 3: 11). I am outside of every man but Himself. It will be seen in display by and by, morally now.
(3) The new man (verse 15).
Here it is “to form ... in himself”. In verse 10 it is the material, “created in Christ Jesus”; in verse 15 it is result, “one new man”. In the “one body” the [p. 134] idea is more what is for God; the new man is more for display. We lose distinctions as a heavenly people. The difference between the new creation and the new man is that one is for a new sphere, and the other a new order. New creation (verse 10) is for good works. In the first creation all was very good, but there were no good works. Adam fell immediately. In Genesis you get the creation first and then the man; now you get the new man first. New creation takes in all. New man is included in “form ... in himself”. I get part in the new man by new creation, new creation power. The new man is the first part of the new creation. We are in the old creation, but we are to set forth the new man in this place morally, though it will be actually set forth in the future. It will be displayed in the glory complete.
(4) One body (verse 16).
It is only the whole body that could set forth Christ. No individual could set forth Christ. The new man is Christ. The body is the complement of Christ - the body of which He is the Head. In Colossians the new man is Christ in us; in Ephesians, the new man is created after God.
“Christ is all” objectively, and “in all” subjectively (Colossians 3: 11).
In 1 Corinthians 12 we have the body in function. Here it is the simple fact of a body. “The Christ” includes all. The one body here (verse 16) is the character of the thing, and does not go so far as 1 Corinthians 12.
(5) Access to the Father (verse 18). By one Spirit we reach the Father.
(6) The holy temple (verse 21). The shrine where God dwells - to which all the building is growing. The temple is for communion, the city for administration.
(7) Habitation of God (verse 22). Actually builded together now.