DIVINE ADMINISTRATION IN EPHESIANS (1)
DIVINE ADMINISTRATION IN EPHESIANS (1)
SMcC This letter, as the brethren know, brings before us the greatest thoughts in the divine mind in relation to the saints of the present dispensation. The ministry in this epistle has in mind that our thoughts might be elevated and enlarged in relation to the immensity of the scope of divine operations, proceeding from Christ in heaven and working out in the power of the Spirit here. While we generally accept, as a matter of doctrine, that the Lord is in heaven; having been raised from the dead and carried up into heaven as Luke tells us, we need to make way for the greatness of this actually in our minds; the greatness of the position linked with Christ as Man in heaven, and from that position things being administered, as we have reference made in this chapter, the whole realm of the testimony being in mind in relation to what is working out from Christ in His position as Man in heaven; the centre of all divine administration, and the administration having particularly in mind in this dispensation, the assembly, although the administration in Ephesians would go far beyond our dispensation. The Lord Jesus when here was administering, He secured the nucleus of the assembly in the disciples, the Spirit coming down in Acts 2, and forming the assembly. The men that were theme, the personnel, were the fruit of Christ’s service here, and then He will administer in the day to come, when the fulness of times will be reached. Things will be headed up in the Christ. He is administering now, as known to faith, in the present dispensation, in heaven, with the whole realm of the testimony in mind, and the whole scope of the truth in mind, that we might be brought into it through that administration, involving of course, as we shall see later, the work of the ministry, and each one of us having part, because the saints come into it, each one of us receiving grace, according to the gift of the Christ. It will be obvious that we cannot cover the whole chapter with all the details, and it is suggested as a basis of enquiry this morning, that we keep before us the greatness of the saints in relation to divine counsel and then the greatness of the administration contemplated in the body of the chapter, and then the great position in heaven, in which Christ is viewed, and in relation to which the assembly is with Him, as it says, “Gave him to be head over all things to the assembly which is his body the fulness of him who fills all in all.” He is given to be head over all things to the assembly, the assembly having part, as we have often noticed, in this wondrous working out of divine thoughts, in all their dignity and greatness.
PB This is all that the Father does, in the chapter?
SMcC Well, it is to be noted the way that in verse 3 God is referred to as “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,” whereas in verse 17, He is mentioned as “the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory,” bringing in the fulness of the thoughts that are in mind in the operations that are contemplated in this chapter.
CAI Would you say a little more in regard to those two references?
SMcC I suppose the one, as we have been taught, particularly stands related to the thought of sonship, its greatness and dignity as it applies to the saints. It applies, of course, uniquely to Christ, but it is applying to the saints in this section of the word, and then the particular Allusion to the dignity of Manhood as seen in the Lord Jesus Christ, the “God of our Lord Jesus Christ,” a particular reference to what manhood is to God in this glorious setting.
CAI Your allusion to the greatness of the thoughts in divine counsels would bear particularly upon the first reference, would it?
SMcC That is the way it stands, the “God of our Lord Jesus Christ” is brought into the operating section of the chapter, whereas the “God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” is brought before us in the section that refers to Him as the source of all our blessing.
AC How do we come into the good of this? I am referring to a verse in the 4th chapter of Ephesians which enjoins us to grieve not the Spirit.
SMcC Well, prayer has a good deal to do with our coming into it, but one’s concern is first of all, not that we should be engaged with how we come into it, but that we should let the Spirit of God bring into our minds the greatness of divine thoughts, apart from whether we come into them or not. We should allow the infiltration into our minds, in the power of the Spirit, of the glory of divine thoughts.
CFI So the ascription of praise in verse 3 helps; it is full of the thought of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Would He not stand out as magnified in our gaze in that very reference?
SMcC He would. The whole bearing of the great thoughts that are in mind in this chapter would lead to a worshipful spirit on our part, not exactly in thinking of what we have got, marvellous as that is, in the teaching, but in taking account of things from the topmost view, what God Himself is, in His own glory and greatness operating from Himself and for Himself.
CSK So that this section is a doxology on the part of Paul in relation to the “God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” because of what He has done?
SMcC Exactly. He is viewed as God in this way in relation to the greatness of these thoughts that apply to the saints of the assembly at the present time. I do not think that we shall ever be in the testimony effectively or shall ever be able to administer effectively, unless we understand how to appreciate and apprehend what we have here.
TRH So do the last two verses suggest the power of that administration as secured in the assembly?
SMcC Yes, allusion is made to the greatness of the power of God, especially bringing into our minds the greatness of resurrection. Resurrection is a remarkable thing in the ways of God; while the assembly’s place is based on ascension, and she is a heavenly vessel, a heavenly family, stress is laid in the closing verses of the chapter on the unique power linked with resurrection.
WIB So that the thought is accentuated, is it not? The surpassing greatness of the power, working in the might of His strength?
SMcC It is not only referred to, but it is enlarged by the adjectives employed to impress our minds with the greatness of the matter on hand.
DB Would the verse in 1 Corinthians 8 somewhat bear out this “To us there is one God, the Father, of whom all things and we for him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things and we by him?”
SMcC Yes, that brings before us the economy, the divine arrangement into which divine Persons have come in view of the administering of these thoughts, and the working out of them that we have in this chapter.
MRJM When we think of the greatness of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and then think that He has chosen us, does it really make us wonder that we should be in this choice?
SMcC Well, it does, and it should set before our souls, the greatness of the saints in sonship, that each one of the saints has come under the divine eye as it were, in this regard.
GRD Would you say something as to why the apostle begins with sonship and then goes on to the thought of man as you spoke of it? Is sonship a place of dignity, and answering to the affections of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the other bearing upon representation more?
SMcC So that the greatness of God’s power in resurrection is working out in relation to the public testimony. In fact, resurrection is the greatest witness to God’s power in the public testimony, while ascension is more the hidden and inward and secret side, understood by the assembly, as a unique family standing in relation to the position in ascension.
EB Does that emphasise the fact that conditions proper to sonship involve Christ at the right hand of God; while He entered into it when here, the full thought of sonship involves Christ glorified?
SMcC Yes, as to us, in view of our coming into the position. Christ at the right hand of God is the great measure and standard. The Lord was unique in sonship here (John’s Gospel stressing it) in the position He came into in the bosom of the Father, an Object of contemplation to those that were around Him.
WJB So that His resurrection added nothing to Him personally. It did not increase or enlarge the thought of sonship in Him personally, did it?
SMcC That is the important thing to see, that sonship in Christ as John presents it, the position into which the Lord came, was unique and marvellous, and whatever came about in His going into death and being raised from the dead, it added nothing to the intrinsic value and blessedness of sonship seen in Him as Man here below. He is the same on high, only the condition is changed. He is now in a condition of manhood according to the purpose of God.
CFI So that “I ascend to my Father and your Father.” Ascension has brought the saints into the place, has it?
SMcC Yes, and the condition, the body of glory that our Lord has taken, bears upon our part and place in sonship, because we are going to be conformed to it. Sonship in actuality, involves that our bodies are transformed, conformed to the body of glory of Christ above.
CSK It was necessary, was it, for the Lord to take this place of exaltation in order that we should be brought into it in the family to which we belong?
SMcC And in view of administering in the whole realm of the testimony, in regard to the great thought of the assembly, and what is in mind in this dispensation in the one family. There is only one family in this dispensation. There are not two families, there is only one family, and all the administration is working out at the present time in relation to that one family, the assembly.
CSK Would you say why the heavenlies are emphasised so much in Ephesians?
SMcC To bring into our minds the thought of elevation, the thought of altitude. It is a great matter having in view especially all that is current in the profession around us, in the way the standards of the truth have been lowered, that our thoughts should be elevated, and Ephesians is especially stressing the thought of elevation.
MRJM With Israel it was natural blessings in earthly places. Verse 3 immediately brings in spiritual blessings in heavenly places in contrast.
SMcC Well, exactly, to impress our minds with the character of our blessings that are referred to here in Christ.
FW Why is the emphasis on “before the world’s foundation” and “beforehand?”
SMcC To show how what we have here takes precedence over all that is linked with things in this world. Hebron was built before Zoan in Egypt, as we have often noted; the purpose of God takes precedence of all that is in the scene through which we pass.
CFI Was the exalted place of Christ in manhood in divine counsel before the foundation of the world?
SMcC Well, it was. As to condition, it is essential, in view of the saints coming into it, that the full thought in regard to Manhood is seen in Christ as exalted, but as we were saying, it does not add intrinsically to Christ’s sonship which was seen so uniquely here below, “the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father.” John 1: 18.
CFI I was thinking of the references to Christ, “Every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ” and then “chosen us in him” and “taken us into favour in the Beloved.” All seems to centre around that Person, does it not?
SMcC We could never be united to Christ here below. There are two thoughts that run through Ephesians. That is sonship and marital relation, sonship referring to the saints in their individualities, and marital relation referring to the assembly as an entity on the feminine side, as united to Christ. Well, we could only be united to Christ on the other side of death, we could not be united to Him here below.
GWB Does what you have said give point to the Lord’s word to Mary in John, “Touch me not for I have not yet ascended?” Chapter 20: 17.
SMcC Exactly, so that our links with Him as of the assembly, are not with Him as Man here in the days of His flesh. The full thought and the purpose of God is reached in Christ in heaven, and we are united to Christ in heaven.
CAI So that the divine thought for the saints is nothing less than sonship as seen in this blessed Man in heaven.
SMcC And it is important that we should see that there is nothing exceeding the greatness of sonship. The marital thought does not exceed sonship in greatness, the thought of sonship represents the greatest of divine thoughts in regard of the saints.
TRH Do we see the thought in type in Genesis 24, “my son” stands out in all his greatness and what follows is the bride secured for him.
SMcC Isaac represents Christ as the heavenly man officially. He is a peculiar type of Christ as presented in Ephesians. In relation to Sarah’s tent, it serves to show us and amplify in our minds that the Lord is operating in relation to the whole realm of the testimony. Israel was in it once, but now the assembly is in it and the Lord is operating from heaven in relation to the scope of the testimony here, the Spirit in the assembly corresponding with that.
CAI I think it would help if we could have something more in regard to the thought of sonship as applying to the saints, being a greater matter than even the thought of the assembly in its marital relations.
SMcC Well, it is important that we should see that nothing transcends sonship in the saints as to blessing, because sonship brings out the peculiar nearness of the saints to God. The marital side is the peculiar links of the assembly with Christ.
W.J.B. Christ as Man?
SMcC Christ as Man, not as God. It would be blasphemous to link the marital side with God, because we could never be united to God, we are united to the exalted Man.
CAI Does sonship in that way involve our personal relations with God?
SMcC Exactly, and sonship is to colour the whole administration in the realm of the testimony. It is peculiarly linked with the Father here in Ephesians, the “God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ.” Sonship involves relationship.
PB Does the 5th verse help us in that, “having marked us out beforehand for adoption through Jesus Christ to himself?”
SMcC Exactly, showing that the great point that would be in mind in sonship, is in its standing related to God, but presented in this way, in the One whom we know as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
GRD Would you say a word on the thought of being associated with Christ in this matter of sonship? Does it link up at all with what was just remarked, “through Jesus Christ to himself,” and then, “taken us into favour in the Beloved?”
SMcC Well, all that points to the greatness of sonship in this position. The introduction of the Beloved brings a peculiar focal point to our minds in the teaching, that sonship has a peculiar place in relation to the mediatorial position. We have got the Spirit of God’s Son in our hearts.
CSK Is the glory of that order of Man emphasised here?
SMcC Well, it is. The order of man would be particularly in mind in the reference to the God of our Lord Jesus Christ.
FW I did not follow what you were saying about the Beloved. Would you say that again?
SMcC Well, I think it is a focal point, a point in relation to which the affections of divine Persons and of the saints move and they converge upon that point, the Beloved. It is Christ in the unique attractiveness of His manhood, being a focal point both in regard to divine Persons, the Father and the Spirit, and also in regard to the saints.
CFI Does the individuality of the saints stand out in relation to sonship? We are viewed severally in this way, are we not? I wonder if we may have lost, and perhaps not just realised it sufficiently in having perhaps not made enough of sonship. We have viewed ourselves more in relation to the assembly in a feminine way which would be the saints viewed in a corporate way, and perhaps something has been lost in the individual touch.
SMcC Well, I think it is important to see the great place that sonship has in that relation, because sonship brings out our nearness to the Father, and our peculiar links with Him in intimacy, each one too having a distinctive place, a distinctive impression of Christ and of God in that relation.
DB Would you say that sonship is the great thought of God’s pleasure for men?
SMcC That is what we were saying earlier, that there is nothing as far as we are concerned that transcends the greatness of sonship, as to our blessing. If we think of God in the most extended thought in which we may think of Him, in the fullest thoughts in which we may think of Him, and our relations in manhood in that glorious setting, it is manhood in sonship.
WJB And it is to the praise and glory of His grace that we are taken into favour in the Beloved?
SMcC Things are working out in this great and dignified way, the glory of His grace, the riches of His grace, the good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, and then further down, to the praise of His glory. It is all maintaining in our minds the high level of the administration that is operating, centring in Christ in heaven, working out according to the purposes and counsels of eternal love.
MRJM Is it because God has found so much pleasure in sonship in Christ, that He has taken us in? Galatians seems to suggest that it is taken in. Sonship is given to us, the Jew was under bondage, and the Gentile had right to nothing.
SMcC Well, we come into it as it is extended to us in that way from Christ. Sonship is no afterthought of God. Sonship was a blessing marked out for men before time.
CAI Do you think there is a danger of our limiting the thought of sonship to status, whereas does it not really involve the intimacy of holy affection and relationship, the Spirit being given to us to enable us to enter into it on our side?
SMcC Sonship in its grace and dignity is to cover the whole position in whatever we do, in the realm of the testimony. Whatever we do, however we act, it is to be coloured by the uniqueness of sonship as seen in this dispensation.
WJB So that the great fact of sonship lies behind priestly service in the worship of God?
SMcC That is the truth, and it lies behind priestly service in administrative action. In the Old Testament it was foreshadowed in the type, that the family side underlies the thought of priesthood, otherwise it would be out of balance. The arbitrary character of the law is tempered in the priesthood by the basic side in the family.
AJC Do we get the greatness and glory of sonship always maintained? Although we may not attain to it, is the standard always preserved?
SMcC Whether we come into it or not, it is there. There are others that may come into it, we do not make the thing, as it were, it is there in the divine mind, and it is important that the standard should not be lowered.
GHR Is the good pleasure of His will really involved in that standard?
SMcC According to His good pleasure, first of all, verse 9, which He purposed in Himself. As if this matter of sonship as we understand it in the light of these expressions would have a commanding place in our thoughts. What a serious thing it would be to fall beneath the level of it, to fall beneath the dignity of it, and to interfere with the liberty of it. I think that is what the Lord is stressing on the eve of the translation, that the saints might be set free in the greatest and most distinctive of the blessings in the dispensation - sonship.
EAS Is that why Paul, in the third verse, starts off with “Blessed be the God ... “ his sense of the greatness of it?
SMcC So that the grace of it flows into the realm of administrative operations here below, in the way we regard one another, and serve one another. It is the grace of this, flowing into the administrative position in the realm of the testimony, that is to affect us.
AMcKH Would you say a word as to why the thought of redemption comes in here?
SMcC Well, I think it is important to see how redemption comes in, specially stressing its position “in whom we have redemption.” I think it would stress what beloved Mr. Taylor has referred to in the course of his ministry as the “glory of redemption.” It is the glory of it, the position of it here, in whom, in the Beloved, that exalted Object of divine affections, that redemption is presented.
CSK In the 8th verse, speaking of “the riches of his grace which he has caused to abound towards us in all wisdom and intelligence;” does that suggest that it is really open for us to enjoy it in the power of God?
SMcC That is the point, being the handmaid of love and suggesting the feature of resource; these expressions bring to us the way that the truth is working out whatever the difficulties may be, redemption implying what enters into the history of those who are referred to as the sons.
AI As Paul says in Colossians, “the Son of his love,” and he goes on to say “in whom we have redemption.” I was thinking of “the Son of his love” as connected with the Beloved.
SMcC Very good. The Solomon side is stressed there in Colossians. It is an expression intensifying the thought of affection and love, showing that the blessings are not arbitrary, they are the outcome of the working of divine affections.
CFI Would the contemplation of this thought, “Taken us into favour in the Beloved,” help us in the enlarging of the divine affections made known in sonship; to think of One who is the Beloved, who fully answers to that love?
SMcC Yes, and Ephesians is good for keeping the standard before us. We think of the full responsiveness of sonship seen in Him, what it was intrinsically in the days of His flesh here, but what it is now in the new condition and position according to the purpose of God which He is in, in heaven.
PB Would it be right to say that the standard of sonship is seen in manhood as it is in Christ? He is unique in sonship and we are brought into sonship in the order of manhood seen in Him, through redemption?
SMcC Redemption is the great means by which we come into these great thoughts. It lies at the basis of everything, and therefore we should never forget the glory of redemption. It is a feeling note in the chapter that would touch our innermost affections.
ACI Are we sons by adoption and by faith?
SMcC We are sons by faith in Christ Jesus, not sons by birth. The Lord Jesus came into sonship by birth. We are not sons by birth, we are sons by adoption. We are all God’s sons by faith in Christ Jesus. We should keep in mind towards the end of the chapter what Paul alludes to in verse 15, “Wherefore I also, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which is in you, and the love which ye have towards all the saints.” That is the whole realm of the testimony is in mind, and divine Persons are seeking to enlarge us as to the whole realm of the testimony. This is not just linked with some of the saints, but involves all the saints, the whole thought of the assembly. The Lord stresses it in Philadelphia. We must be careful lest we imply that Philadelphia is only those walking in the truth, because, in Philadelphia the Lord has the whole assembly in mind, and Ephesians would intensify the thought of all the saints in our minds. There are promises in Philadelphia to those walking in the truth.
WHW Would verses 15 and 16 have a reference back to verse 9, “according to his good pleasure which he purposed in himself?” I was thinking of all the saints in verse 15. You were just saying the whole realm of the testimony is in mind. I was just linking verse 9 with what God purposed in Himself. I suppose there was none other great enough to share with Him, but now that is coming out.
SMcC That is it, so that in the church epistles, love for all the saints is stressed, and I believe that on the eve of the rapture the Lord is helping us to be enlarged in our thoughts in view of the completing of the assembly in the rapture.
GHR Perhaps you could say something more about Philadelphia.
SMcC Well, the tendency would be for us to limit what the Lord is saying there to a few and to think that as walking in the path of separation in the truth,
that we are Philadelphia, and that would never do. That would be pretension. The Lord is thinking of the whole assembly in alluding to Philadelphia, and not a few, as we have been taught.
JBT How would it work out in a practical way, “all the saints”? We can understand it as it is written here to the saints at Ephesus, but how would it work out today in a day of brokenness?
SMcC Well, you hold them in your affections. Perhaps you have never met the saints in London or in New York, but you hold them in your affections, not just the brethren in this city but in every part of the world, all the saints are held in our affections.
CSK So that laying hold of the truth in relation to the saints in this way at this present time, will prevent us from drifting into sectionalism and sectarianism?
SMcC It helps in the working out of the administration in the realm of the testimony, that we have large thoughts, that we are marked by large thoughts in our minds. We do not hold the truth loosely. We hold the saints in our affections.
WJB It gives us a liberal and generous outlook on the brethren?
SMcC Exactly. We were saying the other day that Matthew would regulate us on the administrative side, but John would enlarge us on the family side as to all the saints. Caiaphas prophesied that Jesus was going to die to gather together in one the children of God scattered abroad and I think in view of the translation we should have them in our minds and in our prayers.
CSK Should we always hold the brethren or the saints of God on this level, not viewing them below it?
SMcC We shall never be able to serve them rightly unless we do. There may be conditions come in concretely which might deny what we are referring to, but you always hold them abstractly in this light.
MRJM Are you thinking of the liberation of those that are tied up in the systems of men too? I was only thinking of the height of privilege that we enjoy, from this chapter; we would long that others may be brought into it too.
SMcC Exactly. We hold the ground for them. They are not available to us to work out the thoughts with us.