EPHESIANS 1 (NOTES OF A READING)
[p. 261] EPHESIANS 1 (NOTES OF A READING)
CAC Why was this subject chosen?
Rem That our thoughts might be lifted above the pressure down here to what we have in Christ.
CAC No salutation appears in this epistle, the subject is outside particular persons, and is the common portion of all saints in Christ. All are viewed according to the full thoughts of divine love and purpose.
Ques Why does he call them faithful — “Faithful in Christ Jesus”?
CAC Faithful in the sense that they were believing ones. “They who are on the principle of faith are blessed with believing Abraham” (Galatians 3: 9).
Believing is a great matter: to be full of faith as receiving the divine testimony. Their position in Christ Jesus is a matter of faith with them, not mere doctrine. We are “by faith in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3: 26). It is normal to believers. A new place in Christ Jesus is opened up to them. It would help if we took up the position; what confidence it would give in prayer and how it would help us in practical details of life. Have we the faith of it? It contains the thought of position and state. Both are always linked with the words “in Christ Jesus”. It is a new status we have entered upon, so is characteristic of our state, for it means the position has been taken up — it supposes it taken up, so it makes state, not merely standing. “In Christ” gives the thought of purpose only. “Faithful in Christ Jesus” is greater than being faithful. A faithful individual — that is I, not God and His precious thoughts before me.
Rem I disappear in Christ Jesus.
CAC I pass out of myself into Christ Jesus, it is a faith state.
Ques What is the difference between “saints” and “faithful in Christ Jesus”?
CAC We are “saints” by divine calling, as called of God, just as an apostle was called. We had nothing whatever to do with it. It is by the will of God. We cannot alter it. “Faithful in Christ Jesus” means we are marked by the faith of our position in Christ Jesus. It is the basis of all our relations with God. As we pray, how the sense of it would affect us.
Rem In Timothy “in Christ Jesus” is mentioned many times over in relation to the saints, showing the need of their being established in the new position in the last days.
CAC We need the faith of our new position. It is our abiding place with God. “In Christ Jesus” is a complete change of status, outside all status in the flesh as a worthless and discarded thing. It belongs to me, and why should I not have the comfort of it?
“In Christ Jesus” does not only refer to Him personally, but is an extended thought great enough to admit all saints. It is a suitable introduction to this epistle. If it is our state, where can we not go? We have not only the freedom down here, but the freedom of the heavenlies.
Verses 3 - 14 are all one sentence without a stop. All is an utterance of worship — a sample of how Paul would take part in the assembly when amongst spiritual conditions in Ephesus. He worships before he prays. He worships, then he prays that they may enter into it. We might well do this, and in private prayer. It would probably prevent our praying afterwards for things we should not have asked for! There is very little about worship in the New Testament so we must pick up what we can. Worship cannot go beyond where the meeting is, or it tends to be unreal, but it is always possible to bring God’s great thoughts before Him. Here we see the apostle worshipping — you cannot say ‘I’ or ‘me’ then. This is a model for assembly worship, every sentence grows up out of the previous one — it develops as it proceeds, and all is addressed to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It gives an idea of how our new [p. 263] position works out Godward. The apostle could say all this with one breath, but we cannot. A spirit of worship is the right introduction to this epistle or we shall lose the value, power and glory of it.
‘God’ is in relation to the blessed and exalted Man. ‘God’ is a greater thought than ‘the Father’.
Ques As to “Grace to you and peace from God our Father” — peace for what?
CAC Peace for pressure down here. Of this grace and peace there is a perpetual outflow; if I turn my face to God the Father this is what meets me as in this new position in Christ Jesus — a perpetual outflow upon us, always to be known and counted upon.
Ques What is the difference between mercy and grace?
CAC It has been said that mercy is great in the need it meets, grace is great in the thought of the Person exercising it — so grace is more purely what is in God Himself, the thought of favour in the heart of God, independent of me, though I may be the occasion of bringing this out. There is no limit to favour for the assembly: “Taken ... into favour in the Beloved”.
The nearer we are the more intensely blessed is our portion. Have we got to God? “For Christ indeed has once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3: 18). A wonderful thing it is to get to God — no sin, no infirmity, no shade of the world or flesh there, but a spiritual realm of blessing in the heavenlies.