The Expositor's Bible: Ephesians Part 3

III. Verse 11 fills up the measure of the bestowment of grace on sinful men. The present antic.i.p.ates the future; faith and love are lifted to a glorious hope. "In whom also--_i.e._, in Christ--_we received our heritage_, predestinated [to it], according to His purpose who works all things according to the counsel of His will."

Following Meyer and other great interpreters, we prefer in this pa.s.sage the rendering of the English Authorized Version (_we obtained an inheritance_) to that of the Revised (_we were made a heritage_).[39]

"Foreordained" carries us back to verse 5--to the phrase "foreordained to sons.h.i.+p." The believer cannot be predestinated to sons.h.i.+p without being predestinated to an inheritance.[40] "If children, then heirs"

(Rom. viii. 17). But while in the parallel pa.s.sage we are designated heirs _with_ Christ, we appear in this place, according to the tenor of the context, as heirs _in_ Him. Christ is Himself the believer's wealth, both in possession and hope: all his desire is to gain Christ (Phil.

iii. 8). The apostle gives thanks here in the same strain as in Colossians i. 12-14, "to the Father who qualified us [by making us His sons] to partake of the inheritance of the saints in the light." In that thanksgiving we observe the same connexion as in this between our _forgiveness_ (ver. 7) and our _enfeoffment_, or investment with the forfeited rights of sons of G.o.d (vv. 5, 11).[41]

The heritage of the saints in Christ is theirs already, by actual invest.i.ture. The liberty of sons of G.o.d, access to the Father, the treasures of Christ's wisdom and knowledge, the sanctifying Spirit and the moral strength and joy that He imparts, these form a rich estate of which ancient saints had but foretastes and promises. In the all-controlling "counsel of His will," G.o.d wrought throughout the course of history to convey this heritage to us. We are children of "the fulness of the times," heirs of all the past. For us G.o.d has been working from eternity. On us the ends of the world have come. Thus from the summit of our exaltation in Christ the apostle looks backward to the beginning of Divine history.

From the same point his gaze sweeps onward to the end. G.o.d's purpose embraces the ages to come with those that are past. His working will not cease till the whole counsel is fulfilled. What we have of our inheritance, though rich and real, holds in it the promise of infinitely more; and the Holy Spirit is the "earnest of our inheritance" (ver. 14).

G.o.d intends "that we should be to the praise of His glory." As things are, His glory is but obscurely visible in His saints. "It doth not yet appear what we shall be,"--and it will not appear until the unveiling of the sons of G.o.d (Rom. viii. 18-25). One day G.o.d's glory in us will burst forth in its splendour. All beholders in heaven and earth will then sing _to the praise of His glory_, when it is seen in His redeemed and G.o.dlike sons.

Verses 9 and 10 (_which He purposed ... upon the earth_) are, as we have said, a parenthesis or episode in the pa.s.sage just reviewed. Neither in structure nor in sense would the paragraph be defective, had this clause been wanting. With the "in Him" repeated at the end of verse 10, St Paul resumes the main current of his thanksgiving, arrested for a moment while he dwells on "the mystery of G.o.d's will."

This last expression (ver. 9), notwithstanding what he has said in verses 4 and 5, still needs elucidation. He will pause for an instant to set forth once more the eternal purpose, to the knowledge of which the Church is now admitted. The communication of this mystery is, he says, "according to G.o.d's good pleasure which He purposed in Christ [comp.

ver. 4], for a dispensation of the fulness of the times, intending to gather up again all things in the Christ--the things in the heavens, and the things upon the earth."

G.o.d formed in Christ the purpose, by the dispensation of His grace, in due time to re-unite the universe under the heads.h.i.+p of Christ. This mysterious design, hitherto kept secret, He has "made known unto us."

Its manifestation imparts a wisdom that surpa.s.ses all the wisdom of former ages.[42] Such is the drift of this profound deliverance.

The first clause of verse 10 supplies a datum for its interpretation.

The _fulness of the times_, in St Paul's dialect, can only be the time of Christ.[43] The dispensation which G.o.d designed of old is that in which the apostle himself is now engaged;[44] it is the dispensation, or administration (_economy_), of the grace and truth that came by Jesus Christ, whether G.o.d be conceived as Himself the Dispenser, or through the stewards of His mysteries. The Messianic end was to Paul's Jewish thought the denouement of antecedent history. How long this age would continue, into what epochs it might unfold itself, he knew not; but for him the fulness of the times had arrived. The Son of G.o.d was come; the kingdom of G.o.d was amongst men. It was the beginning of the end. It is a mistake to relegate this text to the dim and distant future, to some far-off consummation. We are in the midst of the Christian reconstruction of things, and are taking part in it. The decisive epoch fell when "G.o.d sent forth His Son." All that has followed, and will follow, is the result of this mission. Christ is all things, and in all; and we are already complete in Him.

What, then, signifies this _gathering-into-one_ or _summing-up_ of all things in the Christ? Our _recapitulate_ is the nearest equivalent of the Greek verb, in its etymological sense. In Romans xiii. 8, 9 the same word is used, where the several commands of the second table of the Decalogue are said to be "comprehended in this word, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." This summing up is not a generalization or compendious statement of the commands of G.o.d; it signifies their reduction to a fundamental principle. They are unified by the discovery of a law that underlies them all. And while thus theoretically explained, they are made practically effective: "For love is the fulfilling of the law."

Similarly, St Paul finds in Christ the fundamental principle of the creation. For those who think with him, G.o.d has by the Christian revelation already brought all things to their unity. This summing up--the Christian inventory and recapitulation of the universe--the apostle has formally stated in Colossians i. 15-20: "Christ is G.o.d's image and creation's firstborn. In Him, through Him, for Him all things were made. He is before them all; and in Him they have their basis and uniting bond. He is equally the Head of the Church and the new creation, the firstborn out of the dead, that He might hold a universal presidence--charged with all the fulness, so that in Him is the ground of the reconciliation no less than of the creation of all things in heaven and earth." What can we desire more comprehensive than this? It is the theory and programme of the world revealed to G.o.d's holy apostles and prophets.

The "gathering into one" of this text includes the "reconciliation" of Colossians i. 20, and more. It signifies, beside the removal of the enmities which are the effect of sin (ii. 14-16), the subjection of all powers in heaven and earth to the rule of Christ (vv. 21, 22),[45] the enlightenment of the angelic magnates as to G.o.d's dealings with men (iii. 9, 10),--in fine, the rectification and adjustment of the several parts of the great whole of things, bringing them into full accord with each other and with their Creator's will. What St Paul looks forward to is, in a word, the organization of the universe upon a Christian basis.

This reconst.i.tution of things is provided for and is being effected "in the Christ." He is the rallying point of the forces of peace and blessing. The organic principle, the organizing Head, the creative nucleus of the new creation is there. The potent germ of life eternal has been introduced into the world's chaos; and its victory over the elements of disorder and death is a.s.sured.

Observe that the apostle says "in _the Christ_."[46] He is not speaking of Christ in the abstract, considered in His own Person or as He dwells in heaven, but in His relations to men and to time. The Christ manifest in Jesus (iv. 20, 21), the Christ of prophets and apostles, the Messiah of the ages, the Husband of the Church (v. 23), is the author and finisher of this grand restoration.

Christ's work is essentially a work of _restoration_. We must insist, with Meyer, upon the significance of the Greek preposition in Paul's compound verb (_ana_-, equal to _re_-in _restore_ or _resume_). The Christ is not simply the climax of the past--the Son of man and the recapitulation of humanity, as man is of the creatures below him, summing up human development and lifting it to a higher stage--though He is all that. Christ _rehabilitates_ man and the world. He re-a.s.serts the original ground of our being, as that exists in G.o.d. He carries us and the world forward out of sin and death, by carrying us back to G.o.d's ideal. The new world is the old world repaired, and in its reparation infinitely enhanced--rich in the memories of redemption, in the fruit of penitence and the discipline of suffering, in the lessons of the cross.

_All things_ in heaven and earth it was G.o.d's good pleasure in the Christ to gather again into one. Is this a general a.s.sertion concerning the universe as a whole, or may we apply it with distributive exactness to each particular thing? Is there to be, as we fain would hope, no single exception to the "all things"--no wanderer lost, no exile finally shut out from the Holy City and the tree of life? Are all evil men and demons, willing or against their will, to be embraced somehow and at last--at last--in the universal peace of G.o.d?

It is impossible that the first readers should have so construed Paul's words (comp. v. 5). He has not forgotten the "unquenchable fire," the "eternal punishment"; nor dare we. "If anything is certain about the teaching of Christ and His apostles, it is that they warned men not to reject the Divine mercy and so to incur irrevocable exile from G.o.d's presence and joy. They a.s.sumed that some men would be guilty of this supreme crime, and would be doomed to this supreme woe" (Dale). There is nothing in this text to warrant any man in presuming on the mercy or the sovereignty of G.o.d, nothing to justify us in supposing that, deliberately refusing to be reconciled to G.o.d in Christ, we shall yet be reconciled in the end, despite ourselves.

St Paul a.s.sures us that G.o.d and the world will be reunited, and that peace will reign through all realms and orders of existence. He does not, and he could not say that none will exclude themselves from the eternal kingdom. Making men free, G.o.d has made it possible for them to contradict Him, so long as they have any being. The apostle's words have their note of warning, along with their boundless promise. There is no place in the future order of things for aught that is out of Christ.

There is no standing-ground anywhere for the unclean and the unjust, for the irreconcilable rebel against G.o.d. "The Son of man shall send forth His angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all things that offend and them that do iniquity."

FOOTNOTES:

[33] The arrangement above made of the lines of this intricate pa.s.sage is designed to guide the eye to its elucidation. Our disposition of the verses has not been determined by any preconceived interpretation, but by the parallelism of expression and cadences of phrase. The rhythmical structure of the piece, it seems to us, supplies the key to its explanation, and reduces to order its long-drawn and heaped-up relative and prepositional clauses, which are grammatically so unmanageable.

[34] ?a??e, ?e?a??t????. It is impossible to reproduce in English the beautiful a.s.sonance--the _play_ of sound and sense--in Gabriel's greeting, as St Luke renders it.

[35] See Rom. i. 16-18, iii. 19-v. 21, vi. 7, vii. 1-6, viii. 1-4, 31-34, x. 6-9; 1 Cor. xv. 3, 4, 17, 56, 57; 2 Cor. v. 18-21; Gal. ii.

14-iii. 14, vi. 12-14. The latter pa.s.sages the writer has endeavoured to expound in Chapters X. to XII. and XXVIII. of his Commentary on _Galatians_ in this series.

[36] It is an error to suppose, as one sometimes hears it said, that _trespa.s.ses_ or _transgressions_ are a light and comparatively trivial form of sin. Both words denote, in the language of Scripture, definite offences against known law, departures from known duty. Adam's sin was the typical "transgression" and "trespa.s.s" (Rom. v. 14, 15, etc.; comp.

ii. 23; Gal. iii. 19).

[37] Gal. iii. 13; 1 Cor. vi. 19, 20.

[38] See _The Evangelical Revival, and other Sermons_, pp. 149-170, on "The Forgiveness of Sins."

[39] Bishop Ellicott, who advocates the latter rendering, objects to Meyer's interpretation that it is "doubtful in point of usage." _Pace tanti viri_, we must retort this objection upon the new translation. _To obtain by lot, to have (a thing) allotted to one_, is the meaning regularly given to ??????s?a? in the cla.s.sical dictionaries; and in O.T.

usage the _lot_ (??????) becomes the _inheritance_ (the thing _allotted_). The verb is repeatedly used by Philo with the meaning _to obtain_, or _receive an inheritance_; whereas there seems to be no real parallel to the other rendering. It is true that ??????s?a? in the sense of the A.V. requires an object; but that is virtually supplied by ?? ?: "we had our inheritance allotted _in Christ_." Comp. Col. i. 12, "the lot of the saints _in the light_," which signifies not the locality, but the nature and content of the saints' heritage.

[40] See Gal. iii. 22--iv. 7; and Chapters XV.--XVII. in the _Expositor's Bible_ (Galatians), on Sons.h.i.+p and Inheritance in St Paul.

[41] Compare Acts xxvi. 18, which also speaks to this a.s.sociation of ideas in St Paul's mind, with vers. 4, 5, 7, and 11 in this chapter.

[42] Vv. 8, 9, ch. iii. 4, 5; comp. Col. ii. 2, 3; 1 Cor. ii. 6-9.

[43] "The fulness of the time," Gal. iv. 4; "in due season," Rom. v. 6; "in its own times," 1 Tim. ii. 6. These are all synonymous expressions for the Messianic era. Comp. Heb. i. 2, ix. 26; 1 Pet. i. 20.

[44] Ch. iii. 8, 9; Col. i. 25; 1 Cor. iv. 1; 1 Tim. i. 4, i. 7; 2 Tim.

i. 9-11; and especially Rom. xvi. 25, 26.

[45] Comp. ch. v. 5; 1 Cor. xv. 24-28; Phil. ii. 9-12; Heb. ii. 8; Rev.

i. 5, xi. 15, xvii. 14; Dan. vii. 13, 14.

[46] One wonders that our Revisers, so attentive to all points of Greek idiom, did not think it worth while to discriminate between _Christ_ and _the Christ_ in such pa.s.sages as this. In Ephesians this distinction is especially conspicuous and significant. See vv. 12, 20 iii. 17, iv. 20, v. 23; similarly in 1 Cor. xv. 22; Rom. xv. 3.

CHAPTER IV.

_THE FINAL REDEMPTION._

"[That we might be to the praise of His glory:]

We who had before hoped in the Christ, in whom also ye _have hoped_, Since ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation,-- In whom indeed, when ye believed, ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of the promise, Which is the earnest of our inheritance, till the redemption of _G.o.d's_ possession,-- To the praise of His glory."

EPH. i. 12-14.

When the apostle reaches the "heritage" conferred upon us in Christ (ver. 11), he is on the boundary between the present and the future.

Into that future he now presses forward, gathering from it his crowning tribute "to the praise of G.o.d's glory." We shall find, however, that this heritage a.s.sumes a twofold character, as did the conception of the inheritance of the Lord in the Old Testament. If the saints have their heritage in Christ, partly possessed and partly to be possessed, G.o.d has likewise, and antecedently, His inheritance in them, of which He too has still to take full possession.[47]

Opening upon this final prospect, St Paul touches on a subject of supreme interest to himself and that could not fail to find a place in his great Act of Praise--viz., _the admission of the Gentiles_ to the spiritual property of Israel. The thought of the heirs.h.i.+p of believers and of G.o.d's previous counsel respecting it (ver. 11), brought before his mind the distinction between Jew and Gentile and the part a.s.signed to each in the Divine plan. Hence he varies the general refrain in verse 12 by saying significantly, "that _we_ might be to the praise of His glory." This emphatic _we_ is explained in the opening phrase of the last strophe: "that have beforehand fixed our hope on the Christ,"--the heirs of Israel's hope in "Him of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write." With this "we" of Paul's Jewish consciousness the "ye also"

of verse 13 is set in contrast by his vocation as Gentile apostle. This second p.r.o.noun, by one of Paul's abrupt turns of thought, is deprived of its predicating verb; but that is given already by the "hoped" of the last clause. "The Messianic hope, Israel's ancient heirloom, in its fulfilment is _yours_ as much as ours."

This hope of Israel pointed Israelite and Gentile believer alike to the completion of the Messianic era, when the mystery of G.o.d should be finished and His universe redeemed from the bondage of corruption (vv.

10, 14). By the "one hope" of the Christian calling the Church is now made one. From this point of view the apostle in chapter ii. 12 describes the condition in which the gospel found his Gentile readers as that of men cut off from Christ, strangers to the covenants of promise,--in a word, "having no hope"; while he and his Jewish fellow-believers held the priority that belonged to those whose are the promises. The apostle stands precisely at the juncture where the wild shoot of nature is grafted into the good olive tree. A generation later no one would have thought of writing of "the Christ in whom _you_ (Gentiles) _also_ have found hope"; for then Christ was the established possession of the Gentile Church.