CHAPTER 1: 1 - 6
CHAPTER 1: 1 - 6
FER The first six verses are a kind of introduction; they show us God’s side, that is, the revelation of God’s mind and purpose in Christ. This forms the introduction. God is active according to His own counsels, and the question of sin does not come in till verse 7. The truth of it is, that God has come out in the revelation of His will and His counsel, not simply in grace to man. This last is, of course, necessary, but behind all that is the revelation of God in His will. The gospel came in when God had on His part tried every overture and mode of dealing with man, but all to no avail. Then it is He sets Himself to act according to the counsel of His will; He makes it known and accomplishes it Himself. It is no question of the responsibility of man, it is the counsel of His will which He sets Himself to effect. The purpose of God in regard of man is revealed in Christ, the full light of it is made known in Him, and God works according to that. The mischief of late years has been, the separating the grace and gospel of God from the counsel of God. People have thought that grace and salvation were everything. If God was to approach man, it must be in grace to meet man’s state, but behind that there is the counsel of God. The door is open to all in grace, but behind the presentation of grace there are the counsels of God which He has set Himself to effect for the satisfaction of His own love.
In the two first chapters, God takes us to Himself. The latter part of the epistle is that we come out for God here, so that He might be displayed.
[p. 196] In verse 3 we have spiritual blessings; in verse 4 the nature in which we can be before Him; and in verse 5 the relationship; it is all a question of what we are before Him and to Himself, what God has provided for His own satisfaction. This is the family, which is the first thing in the counsel of God. It is in heavenly places and before the foundation of the world, and therefore it has nothing to do with this world, for it belongs to another place and is outside all time.
Some omit “at Ephesus” in verse 1, but I should not like to lose it, it gives a link in the chain. I incline to the idea that it was written to the Ephesians; verse 13 seems to apply to Gentiles, while verse 11 plainly applies to the Jew. It seems to have been written to a particular assembly, of which “faithful in Christ Jesus” appears to have been characteristic. I gather that in the first few verses there is an implied contrast to what the earthly people will have, just as the conflict in chapter 6 is in contrast with the earthly conflict.
Ques What are spiritual blessings?
FER They are blessings of that character in contrast to temporal blessings in the land; but just as the Israelites could only tell what they were when they got there, so we can only tell what the blessings are when we know something of the heavenly places. The point here is that the blessings are not connected with the order of things in which we are down here. The whole thing is based on verses 4 and 5. We cannot enter into the spiritual blessings unless we are according to what is stated in these verses, “holy and without blame before him”. This is practical, not exactly practice. A man is either holy and without blame, or he is not. Of course, as long as we are down here we have something to be divested of, and therefore we cannot say we are holy and without blame in an absolute way. We can be delivered, but [p. 197] we cannot be fully divested, so we are this and yet we are not. The passage looks on to the coming age (see verse 6). People have looked at it as what they are in Christ, but it is not standing. We are not holy and without blame if we are not so practically. We are entitled to it because it is the revelation of God’s mind about us, but it is unreal to say I am holy and without blame if I am not.
The work of the Spirit in the believer is according to God’s purpose about him; the Spirit works according to that. The purpose is revealed, but there is more; there is also adequate power to effect the purpose, and therefore there is no reason why we should not answer to it. It is the purpose of God that we should be holy and without blame; that is the point here.
What I call ‘objective truth’ is the revelation of God’s counsel in Christ, but it is not yet made good in me, therefore I am not it in an absolute way. Here we get the revelation of God’s purpose, and the work of the Spirit in us is to form us according to that purpose.
The great point in verse 4 is “in love”. We must be holy and without blame to have to do with God, but “in love” means that I am before Him according to His own nature. The connection of light in Scripture is that it is brought in where darkness had been, to expose and disperse it; here, it is no question of light but of love.
The “choosing” here is of the company, not merely of the individual. The prominent idea is that God would have a company characterised by divine love. When you come to the revelation of God’s counsel, I believe it is a company that is chosen, and for this reason I have said that sonship involves the truth of the body — it really depends upon sonship. It must be “one body” by the very fact of partaking of one Spirit, and that, the Spirit of sonship. Christ is [p. 198] the Head of the body, that is, He takes the pre-eminence. It is a most wonderful thought that God should have a company before Him answering to His own nature. All is according to the good pleasure of His will, not connected at all with responsibility. Great stress is to be laid on these expressions, “before him”, “to himself”. A man must be clear in his soul as regards the question of responsibility before he can enter into these things, and therefore we get all that question taken up in the next chapter.
It is remarkable how inheritance is always connected with the gospel. In the apostles’ commission these two things are spoken of — forgiveness and inheritance, and so it is here. Forgiveness is a great thing, but it does not confer much; hence we get an inheritance. We have not come into the inheritance, but we have the earnest of it in the gift of the Spirit.
The Son comes by incarnation into manhood, and brings all the value of what He is into it, and then, on the ground of redemption, we come into it (i.e., sonship). It shows the intimate connection between the eternal Son and the Son become incarnate. We could not have come into sonship save by the Son becoming Man, so we get, in verse 5, “through Jesus Christ to himself”. We get the same thought in Galatians 4, “God sent forth his Son come of woman ... that we might receive sonship”. People often try to carry human ideas into divine things; it is dangerous to construe figures too literally. Sonship is a grace given. My son is my son because he is born of me, but sonship has not the same force in relation to God.
Sonship carries us to glory. The Spirit of sonship is the Spirit of a glorified Christ, not of a humbled Christ. Galatians gives the light of sonship: in Romans you await sonship while you have the Spirit of it: in Ephesians you get the place of it. In Romans 8 it is not absolutely stated that we are the sons of God, but that “as many as are led by the [p. 199] Spirit of God, they are the sons of God”. We are in the light of it, and we have the Spirit of it. The Spirit is more than a seal; He is that, of course, but He has come from Christ to conduct us to Christ.
It is wonderful that the Eternal Son should become a man, stepping outside the place of Godhead that there might be a company in association with Himself! The moment the Lord became man it could not stop there; divine love must have fuller scope, it must go out to a company.