In chapter 2 [see note #4]
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.
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,[see note #5]
because his object is not to convince the individual, in order to shew 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.
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[see note #6]
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, [see note #7]
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.
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.[see note #8]
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,[see note #9]
to shew 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[see note #10]
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.
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 drawnigh 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 understandeth, none that seeketh
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.[see note #11]
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).
The 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.
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.[see note #12]
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.[see note #13]
