Although Israel were under law, they were not under pure law, else they would all have perished at the foot of Sinai when they worshipped the golden calf. The sacrificial system allowed sins of ignorance to be atoned for, and although God often punished His rebellious people, He ever listened to their cry when they turned to Him confessing their sins. Still, law was the ground on which Israel, as a nation, stood in relationship with God, given by God to prove them, and to show what was in the heart of man. When men, through Israel, had been fully shown to be incorrigible, and utterly unable to stand before God in righteousness, on the ground of law, God intervened, sending His own Son who manifested His grace towards men, and who died upon the cross that His free grace might be offered to all men.
The Glory and Riches of God’s Grace
In the opening verses of Ephesians 1, Paul, by the Holy Spirit, opens out the eternal thoughts of God. We have now been blessed with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ, but this is because God had chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world. God desired to have us in the nearest and dearest place to Himself, holy and without blame, before Him in love, and that in the closest intimacy and relationship of sons. This was not because of anything in us that was attractive to God, but was “according to the good pleasure of His will.”
The glory of the grace of God shines out, and is praised in what God has done. This is a character of grace that was never seen before. God might forgive His people Israel, allowing a sin offering to meet their guilt, but they never knew such a place of favour as this. It is true that Israel nationally was God’s son, but it was an earthly relationship, a peculiar place among the nations of the earth, but it did not bring them into a place of spiritual blessing, only into a place of earthly favour.
God’s glory shines out in the unmerited favour He shows to those whom He has now blessed in His Son, in giving to men this place of nearness and sonship along with His own Son. All this was in the heart of God before time began, but it could not be disclosed till the Lord Jesus had died and gone to heaven, and the Holy Spirit come to tell of the place that Jesus occupied as Man before God, and then He could disclose what God had in His heart and mind regarding those who were to be blessed before Him in association with His own Son, and in relationship to Himself.
In the grace manifested towards us, God has accepted us in His Beloved, so that we share the affection in which Christ is as Man before His Father’s face. Christ’s place of acceptance is ours, and His place of affection is ours. That place is Christ’s because of who He is, what He is, and what He has done; it is ours in the sovereign grace of God who desired to have us before Him for His own pleasure, and for the pleasure of His Son.
But those whom God has so richly blessed, through whom His glorious grace is praised, were sinners far from Him, and required to have their sins put away and forgiven. This God has done, for in the same blessed One in whom we have been blessed we have redemption. On the cross, the Lord Jesus shed His precious blood, procuring the redemption that has enabled God to forgive our sins and take them all away. We have the redemption in Christ, for all the efficacy of the work of the cross abides in Him where He is in the presence of God. Of old it had been written, “without the shedding of blood is no remission,” and now we learn that the blood of Jesus has enabled God to deal with our sins in righteous grace.
The riches of God’s grace that enables Him to forgive us our sins tells of the wonderful resources of God to deal with every problem that sin had brought into His universe. We see what God is in all the goodness of His heart, in providing for us in all our need, in all our sins, and in all our distance from Him. This same rich grace opens out to us the secrets of the mind of God, for in His grace “He hath abounded towards us in all wisdom and prudence; having made known to us the mystery of His will” (verse 9).
Grace has taken us back to the secrets of eternity, has brought us before God in Christ, and through the work that He has done on the cross, and has let us into the secret of what He is going to do in the coming age, the dispensation of the fulness of times. Then He is going to head up the whole universe in Christ, the Man of His right hand, the Son of Man that He has made strong for Himself.
The Power and Display of God’s Grace
In chapter 2 we read, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God” (verse 8). Earlier, in verse 5, it is written, He “hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved).” If it is God’s sovereign gift that has saved us, it is also by the mighty power of God. God, in His grace, has given to us His own life, and it is in this life that we have been raised up and made to sit down in Christ in the heavenly places, so that the grace of God is seen in the power that has taken up those who were dead in trespasses and sins, and setting them down in Christ in His own presence.
Our present place in Christ above has another day in view, for in the ages to come He will “show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.” God will display what His great kindness is when He brings out with Christ those who once were sinners, dead in sins, and far from Him, but whom He has given a heavenly and eternal life, and to share His Son’s place before Himself, and His Son’s glory before the world. Such as Saul of Tarsus will be there, the chief of sinners; and we shall be there, every one a trophy of God exceeding rich grace, and every one in the likeness of the Christ of God.
The Administration of God’s Grace
How richly God’s grace was ministered in the Person of the Son in Manhood, and how wonderful was its presentation to Israel by Peter and the other apostles on the day of Pentecost; but its administration to the Gentiles was committed to the Apostle Paul, who was specially called by Christ from glory, and was divinely fitted for this work. To prepare His servant for this administration, the Lord made known to him by special revelation the truth of the mystery, of which Paul writes in the epistle to the Ephesians, also mentioning it at the close of the Roman epistle, and in his letter to the saints at Colosse.
The mystery brings out the place that the Gentile believers in Christ have in common with believers from among the Jews, something that was entirely new, for the secret had been hid from ages and generations, hid in God Himself until the time came for the revelation. Although the Spirit of God revealed this great truth to the other apostles and prophets, the ministry of it was given to Paul, as was also the ministry of the Gospel connected with it (Eph. 3:1–10).
A special gift of divine grace made Paul “minister of the Gospel,” grace not only to carry out this ministry, but grace in putting him into this ministry. It was the Gospel, given to Paul, that the Lord used to bring in the Gentiles. Peter had been used to open the door to the Gentiles, when he went to speak to Cornelius, but once this was done, Paul was the special vessel used of God to bring the Gospel to the Gentiles. We can discern the wisdom of God in using Peter to open the door to the Gentiles, for it secured the practical unity of the work among the Jews and among the Gentiles.
When Paul considered the greatness of God’s grace in taking him up for such a great work, he wrote, “unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ” (Eph. 3:8). If Paul was not a whit behind the chiefest apostles, when he thought of God’s mercy, he felt himself the chief of sinners, and when he thought of God’s grace, he felt himself to be less than the least of all saints. There is nothing like occupation with God’s grace and mercy for making us feel what we truly are.
The divine grace, given to Paul, was for the proclamation of the unsearchable riches of Christ, all that belonged to Christ as the Head of the body, the assembly, and as Head over all things. All the resources of the Godhead dwell in Christ as the Man of God’s right hand, to carry out His will now, and in the coming day when the whole universe will be subject to Him, and ordered by Him for God’s pleasure.
Paul, by the grace given to him, was also to “make all see what is the administration of the mystery.” It is in the writings of Paul that we see what the church is in this world, in its local aspect and gatherings, formed by the Holy Spirit, but directed by the Head in heaven, so that the will of God might be carried out in all the gatherings of the assembly; and that the unity of the church might be maintained according to the truth of the unity of the body which the Holy Spirit has formed, for the church is not only a local gathering, but a universal body, Christ’s body, drawing its resources and direction from its Head in heaven.
The Gift and Ministry of Grace
In chapter 3 we learn of the special gift of grace that Paul received, but in chapter 4:7 we read “unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.” Paul received divine grace to do the will of God, and Christ has given grace to each individual saint of God, grace to do His will. In His goodness, the Lord has assigned some function to each one of us, so that we ought to realise that we are of service to Him. It is this that gives dignity and character to every little bit of service to Christ. He has given us something to do, therefore it must have the divine stamp upon it, and it is for us to realise this, and to carry out what He has for us in the sense of it.
But there were special gifts, given by the ascended Christ, “for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ” (Eph. 4:11-12). Apostles and prophets remain for us in the writings of the New Testament, and the evangelists, pastors and teachers are still with us to carry on the work of the Lord, “till we all come in the unity of the faith, and the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the fulness of Christ.”
Among the practical exhortations of Ephesians 4 is “Let no corrupt communications proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers” (verse 29). If each one of us has received grace from Christ here is one way in which we can be of service to Him, by ministering grace to those who listen to a conversation that is honouring to Christ. In all our ways and words the grace of Christ should be seen. We may not have any of the special gifts that Christ has given to men, but we have the privilege of manifesting the features of Christ in all the details of our daily life, and so showing to others what Christ is.
The Invocations of Grace
Grace is invoked on the saints at Ephesus, at the beginning of the epistle, and at the end, for only grace will keep us in the path of the will of God, and acting for Him in such a world as this through which we are passing. At the commencement of the epistle, Paul writes, “Grace be to you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ” (1:2). How encouraging to our poor hearts to know of the resources of grace that are available for us, and that our God and Father and our Lord Jesus Christ are waiting for us to avail ourselves of the unlimited, heavenly resources that can enable us to enjoy all the depths of the revelations made in this epistle, and to walk in accord with all the precious truth unfolded.
The last verse of the epistle is “Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity.” Every true believer learns sooner or later that he needs Christ’s grace to keep him day by day, and, as the Lord Himself said when here, “Without me, ye can do nothing.” Love for the Lord Jesus makes us dependent upon Him, for it brings us nearer to Him, and it is near Him we learn of the boundless stores of grace that abide in Him. Those who are mere professors pretend to love Christ, but where there is no reality there cannot be nearness to Christ, nor will there be any knowledge of the grace available in Him.
May we therefore, in simplicity, and in true affection for Christ, the One in whom we are blessed with every spiritual blessing, seek to answer to His mind and will in all things, having Him dwelling in our hearts by faith, and drawing lavishly upon His resources, upon the fulness of God in grace, so as to walk for His pleasure, worthy of the calling wherewith we are called, and standing firmly for Him in the conflict in which we are to be strong in Him, and in the power of His might.
R. 21.11.67