St. Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians Part 6

But G.o.d, being rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespa.s.ses, quickened us together with Christ (by grace have ye been saved), and raised us up with him, and made us to sit with him in the heavenly _places_, in Christ Jesus: that in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus: for by grace have ye been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: _it is_ the gift of G.o.d: not of works, that no man should glory. For we are his workmans.h.i.+p, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which G.o.d afore prepared that we should walk in them.

[Sidenote: _The method of redemption_]

Here is St. Paul's description of the method of G.o.d in dealing with men when they were in {98} that state of sin, the conditions of which he has just summarised. We take note of the chief points in the method.

(1) St. Paul has in mind here, as always, the divine predestination.

There was an eternal purpose in the divine mind to make St. Paul and those to whom he wrote such as they were now on the way to become; it was a purpose not merely general, but extending to details. It belongs, in fact, to the divine perfection, that G.o.d does nothing, and purposes nothing, in mere vague generality. The universal range and scope of the divine activity as over all creatures whatsoever, hinders not at all its perfect application to detail. Thus G.o.d had 'predestined,' or held in His eternal purpose, not merely the state of Christians as a whole or even of the Asiatic Christians in particular, but the details of conduct which He willed them individually to exhibit. It is the particular 'good works' which G.o.d 'prepared beforehand in order that they should walk in them[5].'

(2) What G.o.d predestined He accomplished first in summary 'in Christ Jesus.' In Him all that G.o.d meant to do for man was exhibited {99} and accomplished as G.o.d's own and perfect handiwork, as an effective and final disclosure. Men are to look for everything, for every kind of development and progress, in Christ, but for nothing outside or beyond Him. All is there--'all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge,' all 'the fulness of the G.o.dhead,' all the perfections of mankind, the reconciliation of all seeming opposites. All is brought to the highest possible level of attainment, 'the heavenly place.'

(3) What had been summarily realized in Christ is progressively realized in those who are 'in Him.' Undeterred by their condition of moral and spiritual death, G.o.d, out of the heart of His rich mercy, simply because of the great love He bore to men, has brought them, by one act of regeneration, into the new life of His Son; has 'quickened them together with Christ,' that is, has introduced them, at a definite moment of initiation, into the life which has once for all triumphed over death, and been glorified in the heavenly places; and has introduced them into this life in order that, by the gradual a.s.similation of its forces, future ages might witness in them all the wealth of the goodness which had lain hid in the original act {100} of incorporation. Meanwhile, while their growth is yet imperfect, G.o.d sees those who are Christ's as 'in Christ': imputes His merits to them, so we may legitimately say: that is, sees them and deals with them in view of the fact that Christ's Spirit is at work in them; sees them and deals with them 'not as they are, but as they are becoming.' _This_ doctrine of imputation, instead of being full of moral unreality, is in accordance with all that is deepest in the philosophy of evolution.

For are we not continually being taught that in order to take a true view of the value of any single thing, we must view it not as it is at a particular moment, but in the light of its tendency? We must ask not merely 'what,' but 'whence' and 'whither.'

(4) It is all pure grace--the free outpouring of unmerited love. The Christians are 'G.o.d's workmans.h.i.+p,' His new creation. He, in Christ, had wrought the work all by Himself. They, the subjects of it, had contributed nothing. It remained for them only to welcome and to correspond. This is the summing up of man's legitimate att.i.tude towards G.o.d. This is faith. It is at its first stage simply the acceptance of a divine mercy in all its undeserved and unconditional largeness; but it pa.s.ses at once, as {101} soon as ever the nature of the divine gift is realized, into a glad co-operation with the divine purpose.

This then is, in outline, the method of the great salvation, of which the Asiatic Christians had been and were the subjects.

[1] On the virtuous aspect of the contemporary empire, see Renan, _Les Apotres_, pp. 306 ff.

[2] Rom. ii. 14.

[3] See app. note B, p. 255.

[4] Is. x.x.xiii. 14, 15.

[5] Cf. app. note C, p. 263, for a similar thought in a contemporary Jewish book.

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DIVISION I. -- 4. CHAPTER II. 11-22.

_Salvation in the church._

[Sidenote: _The salvation social_]

G.o.d's deliverance or 'salvation' of mankind is a deliverance of individuals indeed, but of individuals in and through a society; not of isolated individuals, but of members of a body.

It is and has been a popular religious idea that the primary aim of the gospel is to produce saved individuals; and that it is a matter of secondary importance that the saved individuals should afterwards combine to form churches for their mutual spiritual profit, and for promoting the work of preaching the gospel. But this way of conceiving the matter is a reversal of the order of ideas in the Bible. 'The salvation' in the Bible is supposed usually 'to reach the individual through the community[1].' G.o.d's dealings with us in redemption thus follow the lines of His dealings with us in our natural developement.

For man stands {103} out in history as a 'social animal.' His individual developement, by a divine law of his const.i.tution, is only rendered possible because he is first of all a member of some society, tribe, or nation, or state. Through members.h.i.+p in such a society alone, and through the submissions and limitations on his personal liberty which such members.h.i.+p involves, does he become capable of any degree of free or high developement as an individual. This law, then, of man's nature appears equally in the method of his redemption. Under the old covenant it was to members of the 'commonwealth of Israel' that the blessings of the covenant belonged. Under the new covenant St.

Paul still conceives of the same commonwealth as subsisting (as we shall see directly), and as fulfilling no less than formerly the same religious functions. True, it has been fundamentally reconst.i.tuted and enlarged to include the believers of all nations, and not merely one nation; but it is still the same commonwealth, or polity, or church; and it is still through the church that G.o.d's 'covenant' dealings reach the individual.

It is for this reason that St. Paul goes on to describe the state of the Asiatic Christians, {104} before their conversion, as a state of alienation from the 'commonwealth of Israel.' They were 'Gentiles in the flesh,' that is by the physical fact that they were not Jews; and were contemptuously described as the uncirc.u.mcised by those who, as Jews, were circ.u.mcised by human hands. And he conceives this to be only another way of describing alienation from G.o.d and His manifold covenants of promise, and from the Messiah, the hope of Israel and of mankind. They were without the Church of G.o.d, and therefore presumably without G.o.d and without hope.

Wherefore remember, that aforetime ye, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncirc.u.mcision by that which is called Circ.u.mcision, in the flesh, made by hands; that ye were at that time separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without G.o.d in the world.

But now in Christ Jesus ye that once were far off are made nigh in the blood of Christ.

This alienation of Gentiles from the divine covenant was represented in the structure of the temple at Jerusalem by a beautifully-worked marble bal.u.s.trade, separating the outer from the inner court, upon which stood columns at regular intervals, bearing inscriptions, some in Greek and some in Latin characters, to warn {105} aliens not to enter the holy place. One of the Greek inscriptions was discovered a few years ago, and is now to be read in the Museum of Constantinople. It runs thus: 'No alien to pa.s.s within the bal.u.s.trade round the temple and the enclosure. Whosoever shall be caught so doing must blame himself for the penalty of death which he will incur.'

This 'middle wall of part.i.tion' was vividly in St. Paul's memory. He was in prison at Rome at the time of his writing this epistle, in part at least because he was believed to have brought Trophimus, an Ephesian, within the sacred enclosure at Jerusalem. 'He brought Greeks also into the temple, and hath defiled the holy place.'

It was this 'middle wall of part.i.tion,' representing the exclusiveness of Jewish ordinances, which St. Paul rejoiced to believe Christ had abolished. He had made Jew and Gentile one by bringing both alike to G.o.d in one body and on a new basis.

There were in fact two part.i.tions in the Jewish temple of great symbolical importance. There was the veil which hid the holy of holies, and symbolized the alienation of man from G.o.d[2]; and there was 'the middle wall of part.i.tion' {106} already described, representing the exclusion of the world from the privileges of the people of G.o.d.

The Pharisaic Jews ignored the spiritual lessons of the first part.i.tion, and devoutly believed in the permanence of the second. But Saul, while yet a Pharisee, had felt the reality of the first, and had found in his own experience that the abolition of this first barrier by Christ involved also the annihilation of the second.

[Sidenote: _The breaking down of part.i.tions_]

It is in the Epistle to the Colossians that he lays stress upon the abolition in Christ of the enmity between man and G.o.d. 'It was the good pleasure of the Father ... through him to reconcile all things unto himself, having made peace through the blood of his cross.' 'You, being dead through your trespa.s.ses and the uncirc.u.mcision of your flesh ... did he quicken together with Christ, having forgiven us all our trespa.s.ses; having blotted out the bond written in ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us: and he hath taken it out of the way, nailing it to the cross.' So with the help of various metaphors does St. Paul strive to express the mighty truth that, by the shedding of Christ's blood, that is to say by His sacrifice of perfected obedience, the way had been opened for the forgiveness of our sins and our {107} reconciliation to G.o.d in one life, one Spirit. But the symbols and instruments of that former alienation from G.o.d which St.

Paul had experienced so bitterly, were to his mind the 'ordinances' of the Jewish law. These, he had come to feel, had no other function than to awaken and deepen the sense of sin which they were powerless to overcome. They were nothing but 'a bond written against us'; a continual record of condemnation. To trust in the observance of ordinances was to remain an unreconciled sinner, alienated in mind and unpurified in heart. On the other hand, to have faith in Jesus and receive from Him the unmerited gift of the divine pardon and the Spirit of sons.h.i.+p was, for a Jew, to cast away all that trust in the observance of the ordinances of his nation which was so dear to his heart. It was at once to place himself among the sinners of the Gentiles. For in Jesus Christ all men were indeed brought near to G.o.d, but not as meritorious Jews; rather as common men and common sinners, needing and accepting all alike the undeserved mercy of a heavenly Father. Thus it was that Christ, in breaking down one part.i.tion, had broken down the other also. In opening the way to G.o.d by a simple human trust in a {108} heavenly Father, and not by the complicated arrangements of a special law, He had put all men on the same level of need and of acceptance. He had not indeed abolished the covenant or the covenant people, but He had enlarged its area and altered its basis: there was still to be one visible body or people of the covenant, but members.h.i.+p in it was to be open to all, Jew and Gentile alike, who would feel their need of and put their trust in Jesus. This is what St. Paul proceeds to express, and little more need be added to explain his words. In the 'blood' or 'blood-shedding' of Jesus--that is, His self-sacrifice for men, His obedience carried to the point of the surrender of His life--a way had been opened to the Father that was purely human, that belonged to the Gentiles who had been 'far off' as well as to Jews who were already 'nigh' in the divine covenant. And in being brought near to G.o.d by faith, and not by Jewish ordinances, Jew and Gentile had been reconciled on a common basis--the two had been made one in 'the flesh,' that is, the manhood of Christ, for no other reason than because the 'law of commandments contained in (special Jewish) ordinances,' which had hitherto been the basis of separation, was now once for all {109} 'abolished.' Henceforth there was one new man, or new manhood, in Christ, in which all men were, potentially at least, reconciled to G.o.d and to one another by His self-sacrifice upon the cross. And to the knowledge of this new manhood all men were being gradually brought by the 'preaching of peace' or of the gospel, which had its origin from Jesus crucified and risen, and which, even now that Jesus was invisibly acting through His apostolic and other ministers, St. Paul attributes directly to Him.

[Sidenote: _The admission of Gentiles_]

But now in Christ Jesus ye that once were far off are made nigh in the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who made both one, and brake down the middle wall of part.i.tion, having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments _contained_ in ordinances; that he might create in himself of the twain one new man, so making peace; and might reconcile them both in one body unto G.o.d through the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: and he came and preached peace to you that were far off, and peace to them that were nigh: for through him we both have our access in one Spirit unto the Father.

Now we can turn from the negative to the positive statement, and observe what St. Paul says of the new privileges of the once heathen converts. He pictures them under four metaphors, each describing a social state.

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(1) They are citizens in the holy state, the commonwealth of the people consecrated to G.o.d--citizens with full rights, and no longer strangers or unenfranchised residents (sojourners).

(2) More intimately still, they belong to the family or household of G.o.d.

(3) They are being built all together into a sanctuary for G.o.d to dwell in--a holy structure of which the foundation stones are the apostles, and the Christian prophets who were their companions; and of which the corner-stone, determining the lines of the building and compacting it into one, is Jesus Christ, according to the word of G.o.d by Isaiah, 'Behold I lay in Zion for a foundation stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone of sure foundation.'

(4) But the metaphor of the building pa.s.ses into the metaphor of the growing plant. Christ is, as St. Peter says, 'a _living_ stone[3].'

He not only determines the lines of the spiritual structure, but He pervades the whole of it as a presence and spirit, so that every other human 'stone' is also alive and growing with His life.

So then ye are no more strangers and sojourners, but ye are fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the {111} household of G.o.d, being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief corner stone; in whom each several building, fitly framed together, groweth into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom ye also are builded together for a habitation of G.o.d in the Spirit.

These are indeed metaphors expressive of glorious realities, which have no doubt become dulled in meaning through a conventional Christianity, which involves no sacrifice and therefore attains no sense of blessedness, but which a little meditation may easily restore to something of their original freshness.

(1) The idea of the chosen people all through the Old Testament is that they are as a whole consecrated to G.o.d. Priests and kings appointed by G.o.d to their several offices may indeed fulfil special functions in the national life, yet the fundamental idea is never lost that the entire nation is holy, 'a kingdom of priests.' It is because this is true that the prophets can appeal as they do to the people in general, as well as to priests and rulers, as sharing altogether the responsibility of the national life. Now the whole of this idea is transferred, only deepened and intensified, to the Christian Church. That too has its divinely-ordained ministers, its differentiation of functions in the one body, but the whole {112} body is priestly, and all are citizens--not merely residents but citizens, that is, intelligent partic.i.p.ators in a common corporate life consecrated to G.o.d. How truly realized this idea was in the early Christian communities, St. Paul's letters are our best witnesses. They are really--except the pastoral epistles--letters to the churches and not to the clergy. It is the whole body which is at Thessalonica and Corinth to concern itself with the exercise of moral discipline[4]--the whole body in the Galatian churches and at Colossae who are to concern themselves with the apprehension and protection of the full Christian truth. They are all to be 'perfectly initiated' in Christ Jesus, full partic.i.p.ators in the affairs of the divine society[5]. Whatever needs to be said afterwards about the special functions of special officers, this is the first thing to be said and recognized; and it gives us a profound sense of the distance we have fallen from our ideal. The laity, it is generally understood among us, are to come to church and perhaps to communion, are to accept the ministries of religion at marriages and funerals, and are to subscribe a little money to religious objects; but they may leave it to the clergy, as a matter of course, to carry on {113} the business of religion--that is, wors.h.i.+p and doctrine, for discipline has been dropped out--and confine themselves to a certain amount of irresponsible criticism of the sermons of the clergy and their proceedings generally.

[Sidenote: _The catholic church_]

For this state of things--this very false sacerdotalism--the responsibility is generally laid at the door of 'clerical arrogance.'