THE POWER OF GOD (3)
[p. 351] THE POWER OF GOD (3)
Ephesians 1:15 - 22; Ephesians 2:10; Ephesians 3:13 - 21
We have dwelt on the power of God as exercised in grace in the kingdom, which has to do with man’s need, and then as needed if we are to be before God according to His mind, as in Colossians. It is on that side there but in Ephesians it is presented from the side of the divine mind; the power of God is seen as exercised in bringing about His entire purpose in the heavens and on the earth. One desires that we might see the vastness of it and there is the need of prayerfulness in approaching the subject, especially on account of its greatness. It exceeds the power exercised in bringing about the physical universe. We do not know that there was any opposition to God in the creation of the physical universe, indeed one would conclude that there was not, but in bringing about the spiritual universe there is opposition from the outset. But it brought out the more what God is and the power exercised especially in the resurrection of Christ. There can be no doubt that Satan had wrought in the creation before the work of the six days recorded in Genesis 1. It does not appear that this extended to the heavens. Genesis 1:2 speaks of the earth being without form and void and darkness on the face of the deep. There is nothing said as to the heavens in that verse. A change had evidently come over the earth, for we read, “He created it not in vain (or void); he formed it to be inhabited”, Isaiah 45:18. In that way we see that the work of God in the six days was necessitated by the effect of evil having entered into God’s primary creation.
There is nothing said about creating in Genesis 1 after verse 1 till the fifth day. God was using what [p. 352] was there. He changed it into a different form. What was there was available. The dry land was made to appear; it had been submerged. Then He said, “Let the earth bring forth grass”, etc. Genesis 1:11. So the “great lights” in heaven; they were all adapted to the new order of things. We get the word ‘created’, in connection with the living creatures. Then the Spirit emphasises the fact that man is not a development of what was there, man was created on the sixth day. God doubtless anticipated the modern opposition in what is called evolution, so the testimony is that man was created, he was created in the image of God. The word is employed six times in connection with man; Genesis 1:27; Genesis 5:1,2. From verse 2 to verse 9 all was “commanded” or “made”, not, ‘created’. I think it is well to notice that. It shows the wisdom of God in the Scriptures, foreseeing later efforts of Satan. “God himself that formed the earth and made it”, Isaiah 45:18. We have to distinguish between the material that already existed, which God could and did use and additional creations.
After the first creation darkness ensued. You could not Conceive of God creating it thus. “The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters”. Genesis 1:2. God had a moral system of things before Him and the Holy Spirit was waiting to bring it about. The Spirit of God in Genesis 1 occupies us with what is before men every day so that we might know the history of the things that appear. The “worlds” in Hebrews 11:3 are the whole universe. We get three words: ‘created’, ‘made’ and ‘formed’. Romans and Corinthians treat of the testimony in connection with the previous ways of God; in Colossians and Ephesians we have new creation, wholly new. In the other epistles believers are taken account of generally as being in the state of responsibility in the world. The question of good and evil had to be settled. This took place on the cross and now God [p. 353] is free to bring in a wholly new order of things. This epistle deals with the greatness of God’s power brought into activity in the resurrection of Christ. The whole force of evil was entrenched from ancient times. The old serpent brought into activity all his power when the Lord was to be put to death.
The Ephesians had faith, and love for all the saints, and on this ground the apostle gave thanks for them and prayed for them; Ephesians 1:16. When you come to the fifth and sixth days in Genesis 1 you have life capable of affections — living souls. A plant has no affections; still it has life. But it is in the life of Christ and in the Spirit we have affections. The Ephesian saints were marked by affection (compare Acts 20:37,38) and hence the great light vouchsafed to them.
Adam was a figure of Him that was to come. God intended to work every thing out in a Man. All the different creatures mate, then go together. There is a remarkable link between the fishes and the birds; it is on the principle of an egg through which generation takes place; they were created at the same time. The land creatures and man are linked together. Solomon had something to say about all the living creatures (1 Kings 4:33) and about man, of course. No doubt what he said would convey the mind of God. The lower creatures were all put under man. Adam had wonderful intelligence, he would, no doubt, give them names according to their movements. Man is spoken of as a “living soul”. You have in him as regenerated, affection according to God by the Spirit, affection that abides — “Love in the Spirit”. Colossians 1:8. “Soul” in the lower creatures has reference to the affections which they have. Man has a link with the lower creation, but see what a different breath he breathes! “The Lord God ... breathed into his nostrils the breath of life”, Genesis 2:7. The lower creatures do not have spirits in this sense.
[p. 354] We receive our spirit from God, not from our parents. “The spirit of a man is the candle of the Lord”. It is the link with God that every man has. God has left that door open to touch man. Man has got a spirit, it is the highest part of his being. God is called the “Father of spirits”. Hebrews 12:9.
In Genesis 2 there is no emphasis laid on power when God made Adam to live, but in Christ’s resurrection we get the exceeding greatness of His power and it is “to usward who believe”. All the power of evil is against that. We have before us in the opening of Ephesians the power by which God has brought about a spiritual universe. You have “the exceeding greatness of his power”, Ephesians 1:17 - 20. We have to know that. It is not simply ordinary power but the same that wrought in Christ. In chapter 3 we are to be strengthened with might in the inner man by the Father’s Spirit. The first thought in the apostle’s prayer is “The spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him”; the knowledge of God, that saints should know it. A greater power now operates in believers than what operated in creation. The great display of power is in the spiritual universe; this power operates in us; it is “the power that worketh in us”. Ephesians is the least understood of all Scripture.
In Acts 19 the Spirit of God tells us that Apollos was at Corinth. Corinthians gives the order of God in the assembly now. But while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul comes to Ephesus and asks the disciples he finds there: “Have ye received the Holy Spirit since ye believed?” Acts 19:2. The known possession of the Spirit is essential to what he is going to bring about now. We cannot build an Ephesian structure in connection with those who have not the Spirit. So they were baptised in the name of the Lord Jesus, twelve men at one time. Paul remained a long time at Ephesus. Then we get the seven sons of Sceva — [p. 355] the complete power of evil brought in against the testimony. What was arrayed against Christ is the same still. We are now in the presence of the accomplishment of the purpose of God, looking into eternity. You must have the power of God for that. These seven men were ignominiously ejected, there was overwhelming power there in defence of the truth. Paul says: “If after the manner of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus”. 1 Corinthians 15:32. There seems to have been a combination of religious and commercial evil and then literary power — books. The world was there in all its features. Satan has power specially as man’s lusts are appealed to. As the Ephesians had seen power in Paul’s ministry, they were to have it in a spiritual way. We may see the evidence of power, but that is not enough. We are to have the power; hence the prayer here and in chapter 3. The inscription on the cross was written in Hebrew and Greek and Latin — the world was there, the world committed itself. There was no drawing away from it, the thing being written up. The world is committed to the death of Christ, the whole world. That is how the thing stands as we sit down to partake of the Lord’s supper. We “show the death of the Lord”. 1 Corinthians 11:26.
The thing now is that we might be spiritual; to get from God “the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him”. Whatever arises, you are able to meet it. A man then is furnished to meet all emergencies, in the way of having power to locate things. “Wisdom is better than weapons of war” Ecclesiastes 9:18.
In Ephesians 1 the power is “towards us”, in chapter 3 it is the power — “the power that worketh in us”. In chapter 1 it is to know objectively through the eyes of the heart being enlightened; it is to be apprehended as it wrought in Christ. This power continues on in the dispensation. In chapter 3 it works in the “inner man”, enabling us to enter into our privileges.
“And see! the Spirit’s power
Has ope’d the heavenly door”. (74:5)
One is able to arise to take one’s place on high; that is the thought of sitting. The power of God is still operative in the saints.
The passing through Jordan was a great fact and the falling down of the walls of Jericho and God hearkening to the voice of a man, in the sun and moon standing still, but God is not slackening His hand in a spiritual way, we have a greater thing today: souls being operated on and in, made to sit down in heavenly places in Christ. Taking Christ out of death and the saints out of it is one act; it really lasts through the whole dispensation; that is, the power that wrought in Christ continues in the quickening and raising to heaven of the assembly. We were dead in trespasses and sins, but God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love wherewith He loved us, quickened us with Christ, and has raised up together and made us sit down together in heavenly places in Christ. The book of Joshua helps as enlarging on all this; the same power proceeds till every enemy is dislodged. The raising in Ephesians 2 is not raised from the dead exactly, but rather elevated. The word ‘together’ is used. Love for one another would have it so — we are raised up together and made to sit down together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus. All is effected by the exceeding greatness of the power of God. God took Christ and the assembly out of death at one stroke. As remarked, it extends as to us over the whole dispensation; this wonderful power continues to operate.
This prayer of the apostle’s contemplates three things: the hope of His calling, the riches of the glory of His inheritance and the exceeding greatness of His power. It is all His; it looks at things from [p. 357] the divine standpoint, hence the immense outlook in Ephesians. The inheritance is the saints here, what God has in them. What an immense thing it is that we are in the sphere and time of this wonderful operation and that we are the subjects of it! That is what affects one so much. We are living in the period in which, so to speak, Eve is being formed, that is, Adam was put to sleep and God builded the woman out of his rib. In regard to Israel and the world Christ is asleep at the present time, and the assembly is being builded. The light of Ephesians 1 and 2 enables us to take our place in the assembly. We see that by the Spirit’s power we may enter into heavenly places.
All the types of the assembly have reference to the testimony of God here except Eve, she is for Adam. Rebekah represents a provisional state of things. Asenath is the assembly as Christ’s companion as among the Gentiles, and Moses’ wife refers to the whole testimony of God. Psalm 90 is the whole range of divine testimony. Moses represents Christ in relation to the whole testimony. Abigail is in connection with conflict. She became wife to him who was fighting the battles of the Lord. Eve represents the primary thought of God. The Lord’s supper is connected with the whole testimony of God, but it affords an outlet from the sphere of responsibility. We take the Lord’s supper as disciples, as those publicly identified with the Lord in His rejection; but the light of Ephesians leads us further. Matthew and Mark alone record that they sang a hymn after the Lord’s supper was instituted. They have to do with dispensational things. Luke and John have to do more with heaven. The singing of a hymn indicates an outlet from what is dispensational into what is heavenly; “they went to the mount of Olives”. Mark 14:26.
“Upon whom the ends of the ages are come” 1 Corinthians 10:11;
[p. 358] the ends of the dispensation all come on to us. This is a serious fact, and it enters into our position as at the Lord’s supper. We are connected with the whole testimony of God. But there is an outlet in the hymn, it is a link with heaven. We pass out for the time from dispensational things into what we get in Ephesians. It is a great thing to apprehend that the Lord goes out at the top, to speak reverently, in the sense of what He finds. “My wine and my milk”. Song of Songs 5:1. It is all His; what the saints have and provide is all His and He values it. We should go out in what He brings in. We are thus added to; that is how increase comes. A word of ministry given is as from the Head; it is on the line of contribution. He causes those that know Him to inherit substance. A word thus given is right so long as it edifies; it should add to the brethren.
Ephesians 2 indicates our position, chapter 3 enables us to take it. In verse 14 the prayer is to the Father; we are in His presence now. “Of whom every family in the heavens and on earth is named”. We are now to be strengthened by His Spirit so that we may be able to apprehend, etc. (verse 18); it is not simply light as in chapter 1, but as power in the soul. Ephesians looks into eternity. You cannot take it in but you can take in something of the love of Christ. What is there is the love of Christ. It is beyond your compass, but you are to know it. If you did not have the love of Christ as a known centre, so to speak, you would be lost in eternity; no finite being can compass it; but I know the love of Christ and I rest there. It looks into eternity here. The chapter closes in a doxology, the apostle’s heart being moved thus by the thought of what God has in the assembly. Christ is to be in our hearts by faith, so that as “rooted and founded in love”, we are fully able to apprehend the breadth and length and depth and height. You are thus gradually brought into [p. 359] eternity, Christ is dwelling in the heart by faith and we know His love and are filled unto all the fulness of God. Love is the life of heaven, the life of God. There are four dimensions given, thus what is outside the range of the natural mind and natural things. “Rooted and founded” one is fixed. “His roots are like Lebanon”, roots that stand the test; there is the thought of stability. As rooted in love I am nourished in it, as founded I am stabilised. We stand up in love. One stands up as nourished in these roots. The believer is taken out of a world of hatred through the power of God; he apprehends God who is love. It is what I understand to be eternal; although finite, one is not lost in infinitude, because he knows the love of Christ and is filled unto all the fulness of God. You have to do with what exists all around, but you apprehend, as rooted and founded in love, what God has in His mind. It is God Himself in relation to the whole purpose of His love. “Filled even to all the fulness of God” is a marvellous thought; all else is necessarily shut out. Then we get the doxology, the outburst of a heart moved by all these things. A note of praise of this kind is very rare among the people of God.
The four dimensions refer to what came out in Christ. The depth is the descent of love. It is all a question of love in eternity, intelligent affection. Love is the life of eternity.
It was one thing for the Lord to come down, but another thing for Him to descend into the lower parts of the earth — the heart of the earth, It is a moral thought, love went to that point.
What we have here is not objective, you are In the thing. You take into account that love is the life of God; all these measurements have reference to love as expressed in Christ. Here the apostle bows his knees; in chapter 1 he says “making mention of you in my prayers”. Here his exercise seems [p. 360] deeper — that the saints should be able to enter into these great things of God. He could do no more than pray; he knew the Father alone could give them the power needed.
One greatly desires that we all should get some thought of eternity; the Father can bring us to it. The power is available in the Spirit of the Father to bring us into all this. “According to the power which works in us” 2 Corinthians 13:10. There will never be any greater display of power than what is active in the assembly now; the power that worketh here in us.