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God's power bringing dead souls into enjoyment of heavenly privileges
In Ephesians 2* the operation of the power of God on earth, for
the purpose of bringing souls into the enjoyment of their heavenly
privileges, and thus of forming the assembly here below, is
presented, rather than the unfolding of the privileges themselves,
and consequently that of the counsels of God. It is not even these
counsels; it is the grace and the power which work for their
fulfilment, by leading souls to the result which this power will
produce according to those counsels. Christ is first seen, not as
God come down here and presented to sinners, but as dead, that is,
where we were by sin, but raised from it by power. He for sin had
died; God had raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own
right hand. We were dead in our trespasses and sins: He has
quickened us together with Him. But as it is the earth that is in
question, and the operation of power and grace on the earth, the
Spirit naturally speaks of the condition of those in whom this
grace works, in fact of the condition of all. At the same time, in
the earthly forms of religion, in the system that existed on earth,
there were those who were nigh and those who were far off. Now we
have seen that in the full blessing of which the apostle speaks the
nature of God Himself is concerned; in view of which, and to
glorify which, all His counsels were settled. Therefore outward
forms, although some of them had been established provisionally on
the earth by God's own authority, could now have no value. They had
served for the manifestation of the ways of God as shadows of
things to come, and had been connected with the display of God's
authority on earth among men, maintaining some knowledge of God —
important things in their place; but these figures could do nothing
as to bringing souls into relationship with God, in order to enjoy
the eternal manifestation of His nature, in hearts made capable of
it by grace, through their participation in that nature and
reflecting it. For this, these figures were utterly worthless; they
were not the manifestation of these eternal principles. But the two
classes of man, Jews and Gentles, were there; and the apostle
speaks of them both. Grace takes up persons from both to form one
body, one new man, by a new creation in Christ. Man's distance from God under the power of darkness
In the first two verses of this chapter he speaks of those who
were brought out from among the nations that knew not God — Gentiles,
as they are usually called. In verse 3 he speaks of the Jews — "We
all also," he says. He does not enter here into the dreadful
details contained in Romans 3,* because his object is not to
convince the individual, in order to show him the means of
justification, but to set forth the counsels of God in grace. Here
then he speaks of the distance from God in which man is found under
the power of darkness. With regard to the nations, he speaks of the
universal condition of the world. The whole course of the world,
the entire system, was according to the prince of the power of the
air; the world itself was under the government of him who worked in
the hearts of the children of disobedience, who in self-will evaded
the government of God, although they could not evade His
judgment. Jews and Gentiles all children of wrath by nature
If the Jews had external privileges; if they were not in a
direct way under the government of the prince of this world (as was
the case with the nations that were plunged in idolatry, and sunk
in all the degradation of that system in which man wallowed, in the
licentiousness into which demons delighted to plunge him in
derision of his wisdom); if the Jews were not, like the Gentiles,
under the government of demons, nevertheless in their nature they
were led by the same desires as those by which demons influenced
the poor heathen. The Jews led the same life as to the desires of
the flesh; they were children of wrath, even as others, for that is
the condition of men; they are in their nature the children of
wrath. In their outward privileges the Israelites were the people
of God; by nature they were men as others. And remark here these
words, "by nature." The Spirit is not speaking here of a judgment
pronounced on the part of God, nor of sins committed, nor of Israel
having failed in their relationship to God through falling into
idolatry and rebellion, nor even of their having rejected the
Messiah and so deprived themselves of all resource — all of which
Israel had done. Neither does He speak of a positive judgment from
God pronounced on the manifestation of sin. They were, even as all
men, in their nature the children of wrath. This wrath was the
natural consequence of the state in which they were.* God's mercy, love and power to those dead in trespasses and sins; passed out of death into life as a new creation, all distinctions ended
Man as he was, Jew or Gentile, and wrath, naturally went
together, even as there is a natural link between good and
righteousness. Now God, though in judgment taking cognisance of
all that is contrary to His will and glory, in His own nature is
above all that. To those who are worthy of wrath He can be rich in
mercy, for He is so in Himself. The apostle therefore presents Him
here as acting according to His own nature towards the objects of
His grace. We were dead, says the apostle — dead in our trespasses
and sins. God comes, in His love, to deliver us by His power — "God,
who is rich in mercy, according to his great love wherewith he
loved us." There was no good working in us: we were dead in our
trespasses and sins. The movement came from Him, praised be His
name! He has quickened us; not only that He has quickened us
together with Christ. He had not said in a direct way, that Christ
had been quickened, although it may be said, where the power of the
Spirit in Himself is spoken of. He was however raised from the
dead; and, when we are in question, we are told that all the energy
by which He came forth from death is employed also for our
quickening; and not only that; even in being quickened we are
associated with Him. He comes forth from death — we come forth with
Him. God has imparted this life to us. It is His pure grace, and a
grace that has saved us, that found us dead in sins, and brought us
out of death even as Christ came out of it, and by the same power,
and brought us out with Him by the power of life in resurrection
— with Christ,* to set us in the light and in the favour of God, as a
new creation, even as Christ Himself is there. Jews and Gentiles
are found together in the same new position in Christ. Resurrection
has put an end to all those distinctions; they have no place in a
risen Christ. God has quickened the one and the other with Christ.
In Christ in a new condition; all the gift of God's grace and not of works
Now, Christ having done this, Jews and Gentiles, without the
differences which death had abolished, are found together in the
risen and ascended Christ, sitting together in Him in a new
condition common to both — a condition described by that of Christ
Himself.* Poor sinners from among the Gentiles, and from among the
disobedient and gainsaying Jews, are brought into the position
where Christ is, by the power which raised Him from the dead and
set Him at God's right hand,** to show forth in the ages to come
the immense riches of the grace which had accomplished it. A Mary
Magdalene, a crucified thief, companions in glory with the Son of
God, all we who believe, will bear witness to it. It is by grace we
are saved. Now we are not yet in the glory: it is by faith. Would
any one say that at least the faith is of man? No*** it is not of
ourselves in this respect either; all is the gift of God; not of
works, in order that no one may boast. For we are His
workmanship. Created anew for good works in accordance with the new creation
In how powerful a way the Spirit puts God Himself forward, as
the source and operator of the whole, and the sole one! It is a
creation, but, as His work, of a result which is in accordance with
His own character. Now it is in us that this is done. He takes up
poor sinners to display His glory in them. If it is the operation
of God, assuredly it will be for good works: He has created us in
Christ for them. And observe here that if God has created us for
good works, these must in their nature be characterised by Him who
has wrought in us, creating us according to His own thoughts. It is
not man who seeks to draw nigh to God, or to satisfy Him by doing
works that are pleasing to Him according to the law — the measure of
that which man ought to be; it is God who takes us up in our sins,
when there is not one moral movement in our hearts ("none that
understands, none that seeks after God"), and creates us anew
for works in accordance with this new creation. It is an entirely
new position that we are placed in, according to this new creation
of God — a new character that we are invested with according to the
pre-determination of God. The works are pre-determined also
according to the character which we put on by this new creation.
All is absolutely according to the mind of God Himself. It is not
duty according to the old creation.* All is the fruit of God's own
thoughts in the new creation The law disappears with regard to us
even as to its works; together with the nature to which it applied.
Man obedient to the law was man as he ought to be according to the
first Adam; the man in Christ must walk according to the heavenly
life of the second Adam, and walk worthy of Him as the Head of a
new creation, being raised up with Him, and being the fruit of the
new creation — worthy of Him who has formed him for this very thing
(2 Cor. 5:5). Jew and Gentile one new man; enmity destroyed and peace made and proclaimedThe Gentiles therefore enjoying this ineffable privilege — although the apostle does not recognise Judaism as a true circumcision — were to remember from whence they had been taken; without God and without hope as they were in the world, strangers to all the promises. But however far off they had been, now in Christ they were brought nigh by His blood. He had broken down the middle wall, having annulled the law of commandments by which the Jew, who was distinguished by these ordinances, was separated from the Gentiles. These ordinances had their sphere of action in the flesh. But Christ (as living in connection with all that), being dead, has abolished the enmity to form in Himself of the two — Jew and Gentile — one new man; the Gentiles brought nigh by the blood of Christ, and the middle wall of partition broken down, to reconcile both to God in one body; having by the cross not only made peace, but destroyed by grace that was common to both, and to which one could make no more claim than the other, since it was for sin — the enmity that existed, till then, between the privileged Jew and the idolatrous Gentile far from God, abolishing in His flesh the enmity, the law of commandments contained in ordinances. Access to God as our Father and part of His family; the true house of God viewed both as a progressive work and as His house on earth at the moment
Having made peace, He proclaimed it with this object to the one
and the other, whether far off or nigh. For by Christ we all—
whether Jews or Gentiles — have access by one Spirit to the
Father. It is not the Jehovah of the Jews (whose name was not
called upon the Gentiles); it is the Father of Christians, of the
redeemed by Jesus Christ, who are adopted to form part of the
family of God. Thus, albeit a Gentile, one is no longer a stranger
or foreigner; one is of the christian and heavenly citizenship; of
the true house of God Himself. Such is grace. As to this world,
being thus incorporated in Christ, this is our position. All, Jew
or Gentile, thus gathered together in one body, constitute the
assembly on earth. The apostles and prophets (of the New Testament)
form the foundation of the building, Christ Himself being the chief
corner stone. In Him the whole building rises to be a temple, the
Gentiles having their place, and forming with the others the
dwelling-place on earth of God, who is present by His
Spirit. Firstly, he looks at the progressive work which was being
built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, the whole
assembly according to the mind of God; and, secondly, he looks at
the union which existed between the Ephesians and other believing
Gentiles and the Jews, as forming God's house on the earth at that
moment. God dwells in it by the Holy Ghost.* The subjects of chapter 1 and 2
Chapter 1 had set before us the counsels and purposes of God;
beginning with the relationship of the sons and the Father, and,
when the operation of God is spoken of, the assembly as the body of
Christ united to Him who is Head over all things. Chapter 2,
treating of the work which calls out the assembly, which creates it
here below by grace, sets before us this assembly on the one hand,
growing up to a holy temple, and then as the present habitation of
God here below by the Spirit.* |
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