By Dr Peter Pett BA BD (Hons.London) DD

Paul’s letter to the Ephesians has been described as the Holy of Holies of the New Testament. In it he reaches the heights to which his other letters have been building up. Intended for a wider audience it presents the Gospel against its background in eternity and stresses the sovereign purposes and power of God in its application. In a unique way it also presents the present position of the believer in ‘the heavenlies’ in Christ.

Introduction (1.1-2)

1.1 ‘Paul, an Apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God, to the saints who are at Ephesus, and the faithful in Christ Jesus.’

As usual Paul begins by stating his credentials. He is an Apostle of Christ Jesus. When Jesus was preparing for the future ministry of His followers He selected from among them twelve whom He called Apostles (Luke 6.13; see also Matthew 10.2-4; Mark 3.13-19). The word means ‘those sent forth’ and can mean simply duly appointed messengers, but here it had the technical sense of those especially selected by Christ Himself to be eye-witnesses to His life and teaching, and to His resurrection. It was in this latter sense that Paul also claimed Apostleship, on the same level as the twelve, as the Apostle to the Gentiles, a status accepted by Peter and the other Apostles (Galatians 2.7-9; 1 Corinthians 9.1, 5; 2 Corinthians 12.11-12; 1 Thessalonians 2.6).

‘Through the will of God.’ Paul stresses that his Apostleship was not man made, nor even by his own choice, but directly within the will of God. It was He Who had chosen Him and set him apart from his birth to be an Apostle (Galatians 1.15) as He had with the Servant of the Lord (Isaiah 49.1, 5) and Jeremiah before him (Jeremiah 1.5).

‘To the saints’ (hagioi). This describes all those who belong to Christ and are members of His church. They are ‘sanctified (hegiasmenoi) in Christ’ (1 Corinthians 1.2; 6.11; Hebrews 2.11; 10.10; 10.14) and therefore ‘saints’ (sanctified ones). They are specifically ‘set apart’ (part of the significance of the word ‘sanctify’) as His, sealed and indwelt by His Holy Spirit, and separated to His use.

‘And the faithful in Christ Jesus.’ This is probably meant to expand his greeting beyond the Ephesians to a wider circle. (There is evidence to suggest that this letter was intended to be more than just a local letter). It indicates that while entry into the blessing of Christ is by faith, evidence of it is found in faithfulness. The words that follow are spoken to those who faithfully follow Him. Note the final ‘in Christ Jesus’. It is in Him, and only in Him, that all blessing is found, and He alone can keep us faithful.

The Panorama of the Gospel (1.3-14) .

1.3 ‘Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ.’

As Paul considers the words he is about to say, the blessings he is about to reveal, he can only call down blessing on the name of the One from Whom they will all come.

‘Blessed.’ Worshipped, honoured, held in esteem, given the glory due.

‘Be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.’ Paul is about to inform us of the blessings that are ours in Jesus Christ, bought with His blood and supplied to us in ‘grace’, that is through God’s infinite, active, undeserved favour. And he wants us to know of its source in His God and Father, Who planned, and through the ages brought into reality, the glorious fulfilment of what the Gospel is all about. That He is God and Father of such a One as our Lord Jesus Christ exalts Him beyond measure.

The title ‘the Lord Jesus Christ’ contains three elements. Firstly He is ‘the Lord’ (kurios), the One Whose Name is above every name, Yahweh the God of Creation and history, God Himself (Philippians 2.9). To the Jew and to Paul the Name above every name was Yahweh, the God of Israel, and in the Greek Old Testament Yahweh is represented by kurios. He is also elsewhere the great ‘I am’ (John 8.58, compare Exodus 3.14), another name for Yahweh, and thus ‘the Word’, Who existed in the beginning, through Whom God created the worlds (John 1.1-3; Hebrews 1.1-3; Psalm 33.6, 9), the Lord of all.

Secondly He is ‘Jesus’. He became flesh and dwelt among us (1.14). He was truly man and yet in His manhood epitomised all that man was meant to be. He hungered as a man (Matthew 4.2). He grew thirsty as a man (John 4.7; 19.28). He suffered as a man. And His death was the death of a man, and yet it was of more than a man, for He was ‘the Lord’. He was ‘the Christ (Messiah)’. And the name Jesus means ‘Yahweh is salvation’. He is called Jesus because He will save His people from their sins (Matthew 1.21).

Thirdly He is ‘the Christ.’ By His death and resurrection He is declared to be ‘both Lord and Christ’ (Acts 2.36). He is the expected King Messiah, the One appointed to eternal Rule (2 Peter 1.11; compare Psalm 145.13; Daniel 4.3, 34; 7.14), the One Who both sits on His own throne and also uniquely shares His Father’s throne (Revelation 3.21), the One before Whom every knee shall bow (Philippians 2.10).

But because of this He is the powerful One (Romans 1.4). He is the One worthy of worship and honour (Revelation 1.6; 5.11, 13). He is the Lord of glory (1 Corinthians 2.8; James 2.1).

‘Who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing.’ How great and good is God the Father. He has blessed us by providing for us in Christ every possible spiritual blessing, and these will now be outlined in depth. He has chosen us to be holy and without blemish before Him, foreordained us to be adopted as sons, redeemed us through the blood of His Son, forgiven us all our trespasses, and granted us a glorious future inheritance when all things are summed up in Christ. We are blessed from start to finish.

‘Spiritual blessing.’ That which is not of this mundane world, that which is dispensed by His Spirit, that which works within our spirits making us one with Him (1 Corinthians 12.13) and true children of God (Romans 8.15-16; Galatians 4.5-6), that which makes the truth known within us (1 Corinthians 2.12-15) that which is ‘of the Spirit’, resulting in the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5.16-25), that which lifts us into another plane of existence (Colossians 3.1-3), that which is our final inheritance when we shall be with Him on His throne (Revelation 3.21), and will be like Him and see Him as He is (1 John 3.2). This is the inheritance of the saints in light (Colossians 1.12).

‘In the heavenlies.’ This is a theme of the epistle. In Christ we have been ‘raised’ into the heavenlies (2.6), into a spiritual realm where we know Him, and walk with Him, and draw continually on His life and power. And even as we live out our lives on this earth we do so as those whose citizenship is in Heaven (Philippians 3.20), as those whose spirits are continually in communion with Him there (Hebrews 4.16; 10.19), as those whose potential is heavenly and who are watched over by Heaven.

Modern man can have some faint conception of this in that it is now possible for a man in some far off place to enter into his computer room and there soon ‘see’ and be in close touch with family, friends and neighbours, sharing in the benefits of the home country, and be almost for a time as though he was at home. Furthermore even when he leaves his computer he can carry his mobile phone around for instant communication. Thus can the Christian live His life in this world, seemingly far off from his real home in Heaven and yet be in full communion and contact with Heaven, enjoying something of the blessing of Heaven, and bring Heaven with him to earth, and take Heaven with him wherever he goes. He can live in heavenly places.

1.4-5 ‘Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blemish before him in love, having foreordained us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will.’

‘He chose us in Him.’ This does not just mean that He chose Him before the foundation of the world, and that when we are in Him we are included in that choice, for elsewhere Paul will tell us that we ourselves are ‘foreknown’ (proginosko) (Romans 8.29), a word which means God has, as it were, entered into a relationship with us beforehand. He ‘knew’ us in eternity and thus chose us (see Genesis 18.19). The wondrous truth is that in His infinite goodness, and eternal awareness and knowledge, He chose us out from the beginning, before the world was, because of what Christ Jesus is and would be, with the purpose of purifying and perfecting us and presenting us to Himself as His sons.

Thus are we who believe in Christ ‘the elect’, the chosen ones (2 Thessalonians 2.13; Matthew 24.22, 24, 31; Mark 13.20; Luke 18.7; Romans 8.33; 9.11; 1 Corinthians 1.27-28; Colossians 3.12; 1 Thessalonians 1.4; 1 Peter 1.2; 2.4; 5.13), like a woman chosen for her husband (Ephesians 5.25-27). But we are not to be complacent about this but to make our calling and election sure by our good, fruitful and holy lives (2 Peter 1.10) wrought in us by the Spirit, thus proving that we are the true children of God.

‘Before the foundation of the world.’ The choice was made even before that time when He first spoke and it was done, and creation came into being. He chose us, then, before Genesis 1.1. The choice was made in eternity. ‘God chose you from the beginning unto salvation, in sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth’ (2 Thessalonians 2.13).

‘That we should be holy and without blemish before him in love.’ His purpose in so calling us was to make us Christlike, to make us ‘holy’, set apart totally to Him, sharing that ‘otherness’ which marks Him off in His supreme goodness and splendour, as we are made ‘partakers of the divine nature’ (2 Peter 1.4) through His Spirit. It is to make us ‘without blemish’ so that no spot or stain or any such thing might mar our beings. We will need no mirror to search for blemishes then, no make-up to hide the truth, for it will be genuine through and through.

We are set apart to a holy purpose, to manifest and to glorify Him, and only in so far as we are fulfilling that purpose are we being what we should be. But it is a process which will take time, for although the inward change takes place on our rebirth, the effecting of that change in our sinful bodies will go on and on until we are presented perfect before Him.

This blessing initially becomes ours when we first believe and are cleansed, reckoned as righteous and sanctified once for all through His sacrifice on the cross so that all stain is removed and we are made without blemish and acceptable to Him (5.26; Isaiah 1.18; Romans 3.24; 2 Corinthians 5.19; 2 Thessalonians 2.13; Hebrews 9.14; 10.10, 14). It continues as the Holy Spirit works in us His sanctifying work so that we are more and more without blemish among men who see us as lights in the world (‘it is God Who works in you -- that you may be -- children of God without blemish’ - Philippians 2.13-15; ‘are transformed -- from glory to glory’ - 2 Corinthians 3.18; ‘those who are being sanctified’ - Hebrews 10.14; ‘you have your fruit to sanctification’ - Romans 6.19, 22). And finally reaches its completion when in receiving us into His eternal presence He finally perfects that work which He has begun, presenting us as a spotless wife, holy and without blemish (5.27; Colossians 1.22; 1 Thessalonians 3.13; 5.23; 1 Corinthians 15.42-44) making us like Him (1 John 1.2).

‘In love.’ And all this is not the hard, cold choice of some artisan choosing to make one piece of work rather than another, but a work of incomparable love, the love that God revealed in the giving of His Son (John 3.16; Romans 5.8; 1 John 4.9-10) that sweeps us up into His arms and into His heart (Deuteronomy 33.27; John 14.21, 23; 16.27), so that all that comes to us comes in love, for God is love (1 John 4.8).

(It matters little whether we attach ‘in love’ to the earlier words or those that follow. The passage is all of a piece and the thread of His love flows through the whole).

1.5 ‘Having foreordained us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will.’

He has not only chosen us but ‘decided on us beforehand’, ‘marked us out beforehand’ (pro-orizo) for a special purpose, that we might be adopted as His sons. Yet this is not because of our deserving but ‘through Jesus Christ’ and in accordance with His own pleasure and will. It was by His own will that He chose us, and of His own will that He begat us by the word of truth (James 1.18). Thus our being saved is not of our own merit but in accordance with the gracious will of God.

When God marked us out it was not because of anything special that He saw in us, but because in His eternal purpose He loved us (Jeremiah 31.3; Deuteronomy 7.6-7; Isaiah 43.4; Malachi 1.2; Romans 9.11-13, 23-24). And He thus purposed beforehand to adopt us as sons, putting the Spirit of His Son into our hearts so that we cry ‘Abba, Father’ (Galatians 4.5-6; Romans 8.15-17), which will result in the final adoption, the redemption of our bodies (Romans 8.23). It is not just as servants that He purposed to bless us but as those who were to be His sons.

‘According to the good pleasure of His will.’ And all this is in accordance with the good pleasure of His will. Compare verse 4 ‘in love’, verse 7 ‘according to the riches of His grace’, verse 9 ‘according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Him’, verse 11 ‘according to the purpose of Him Who works all things after the counsel of His own will’. All that comes to us was and is in His good purpose, in accordance with His good pleasure and wisdom, because of the greatness of His love for His ‘intended’. God cannot be thwarted, nor is He coerced. He carries out His purpose and will throughout the ages without fear or favour.

And fore-ordination guarantees fulfilment. Those whom the Father gives to Him will come to Him (John 6.37, 39, 44; 10.28-29) and of all who are given to Jesus Christ in the purpose and will of God not one will be lost, for they are guarded and kept by Him (John 17.12). (The exception proves the rule!)

1.6 ‘To the praise of the glory of His grace with which He freely engraced us in the Beloved.’

This activity of God will result in the praise of His glorious grace. All universes, if such there be, will wonder at His gracious condescension to those who had proved themselves totally unworthy. For when the whole plan of salvation has been carried through, and the redeemed finally share the new Heaven and the new earth with Him in the glory of Christ, and all that mars creation has been done away, then will the fullness of His grace, His active, unbounded, undeserved love and favour shown to the totally unworthy, have been fully revealed and be the focus of the worship of Heaven, as to some extent it is indeed already (Revelation 5.12-13).

For it is through His grace, active and undeserved, that all this will come about. Thus will the universe know and appreciate the grace and graciousness of God, a grace which is beyond all measure and beyond all comprehension, for they will have seen it enacted before their eyes. And yet amazingly it is that grace that we experience, and, yes, if we are His, experience daily.

‘He freely engraced us.’ His grace, His undeserved love and favour, is freely bestowed on us (’echaritosen - ‘He engraced, He fully and abundantly revealed grace’. Compare its use in Luke 1.28. As Mary was ‘engraced’ in bearing Jesus, so we also are ‘engraced’, surrounded by divine mercy and active love. Thus we can say, ‘Hail, believer, full of grace, the Lord is with you’). It is bestowed in Christ, in all He is and has done for us, and in all His activity on our behalf. There was not one jot of worthiness in us, not one jot of deserving. But in Christ He has surrounded us with His active love, enveloped us in His merciful and unrestrained goodness, and poured out on us His unsparing favour, for He has given us all things ‘in Christ’.

He is the beginning (Colossians 1.18) before ever the world was. He is the Source of all things (Colossians 1.16). He is the One Who is over all (Ephesians 1.22). All that has marred creation is the sin of men and of angels, our sin and theirs, but by His amazing grace, His active, undeserved love and favour, He is acting to remove that stain and blemish by the redemption of His chosen ones and the final destruction of all that offends. So all that is will in the end be ‘to the praise of His glorious grace’.

‘In the Beloved.’ All that He has done for us is ‘in (Christ) the Beloved’ . Every spiritual blessing is in Christ (verse 3), our being chosen was in Him (verse 4), our adoption as sons is through Jesus Christ (verse 5), through His blood we have our redemption and forgiveness (verse 7), everything will finally be summed up in Him (verse 10), and in Him we have been made God’s inheritance (verse 11). But here He is called, not by name, but as ‘the Beloved’. For the title ‘the Beloved’ compare (Matthew 3.17; 12.18; 17.5; Mark 12.6; Luke 20.13; 2 Peter 1.17; Colossians 1.13). The idea behind ‘the Beloved’ is the only beloved Son of the Father, the One beloved before all worlds, the One specially sent by the Father as His only Son. Who else could have ‘freely engraced’ us in this mighty way apart from Him?

1.7-8 ‘In whom we have our redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses. According to the riches of His grace which he made to abound towards us in all wisdom and prudence.’

And it has all been made possible by His redeeming work and resulting forgiveness. He has stepped in, borne the punishment for our sin, paid the price for our deliverance, and pours out His forgiveness on us. (This latter is in response to repentance and faith (verse 13), but in this catalogue of God’s gracious working only God’s side is being described. For all is His effective working).

‘Redemption through His blood.’ Now we come down to the means by which this was carried out. It was carried out by the Redeemer, Who redeemed us with His own precious blood (1 Peter 1.18-19). He gave Himself a ransom for all (1 Timothy 2.6). He bought us ‘with a price’ (1 Corinthians 6.20; 7.23). In these verses in 1 Corinthians there may be a deliberate contrast with Isaiah where His people were redeemed ‘without money’ (52.3 compare 55.1). It was not, however, without cost, indeed the cost was the greatest that could be. He ‘gave Himself for us that He might redeem us from all iniquity’ (Titus 2.14).

Redemption always results from special costly effort or the payment of a ransom. In this case Christ has done both. He has given Himself as a ransom instead of us (Mark 10.45; 1 Timothy 2.6), redeeming us through His blood (Ephesians 1.7; Colossians 1.14; Hebrews 9.12, 15; 1 Peter 1.18-19), and He has exercised His power at great cost in defeating the forces that are against us, triumphing over them in the cross (Colossians 2.15) and bearing our sin as a sacrifice for sin. He has taken what is on record against us and has nailed it to His cross, like a list of debts that have been crossed out as evidence that they have been paid, with ‘it is finished’ written across them. Indeed He has blotted out the Law (the handwriting of ordinances) which condemned us (Colossians 2.14). The stress in redemption is on the price that had to be paid and the power that was involved and the deliverance that was accomplished.

‘The forgiveness of our trespasses.’ The word for forgiveness here is ’aphesis which means ‘cancellation’ and is used to mean the cancellation of the guilt of sin. It is common in the New Testament, see Matthew 26.28; Mark 1.4; Luke 1.77; 3.3; 24.47; Acts 2.38; 5.31; 10.43; 13.38 (by Paul); 26.18 (by Paul); Hebrews 9.22; 10.18. But it is rarely used by Paul in his epistles (only here, in Colossians 1.14, a parallel passage and in a quotation in Romans 4.7) who tends to think more in terms of ‘reckoning righteous’. Elsewhere he speaks of ‘pardon’ (charizomai) for sin (Colossian 2.13) and the ‘passing over’ of sin in the light of Christ’s future redemptive work (Romans 3.25). Thus its use here together with ‘trespasses’, ‘deviations from what is right’ (paraptoma), suggests that the main thought is of the cancelling of our particular failures to do what is right, restoring our personal relationship with God, and removing all that was against us. Usually it is used with ‘sins’ (hamartia), a more general word for sin. For such forgiveness see Psalm 51.1, 9; Isaiah 43.25; 44.22. See also James 5.15; 1 John 1.9; 2.12.

‘According to the riches of His grace.’ Again Paul emphasises that it is the richness of the grace of God that has brought about this redemption and forgiveness, and that it is full and complete in accordance with those riches. There is no stinting in His forgiveness. It is rich and overflowing. Redemption involves our deliverance, forgiveness involves the restoration of our relationship with God and the putting right of the heart in its relationship with God, although the distinctions must not be over-pressed for they are all closely entwined.

‘Which He made to abound towards us in all wisdom and prudence.’ Some may have felt that God’s goodness to such sinners as we are is misplaced. But Paul assures us that God’s actions reveal the wisdom and prudence of God. He does nothing rashly. His actions have been carefully considered by the eternal will, and therefore are effective in the bringing about of His final purposes, and His wisdom is revealed in what will be accomplished. For what will result will prove once and for all His great glory.

Notice again the stress on the abounding nature of what He does for us and of what He offers to us. God withholds nothing from those who are His own. We may feel jaded and under attack by sin, and that God is not near, but if we are His through faith, all His grace and love is abounding towards us at every moment, and especially so in times of chastening.

Some see the ‘wisdom and prudence’ as that given by God to His own (Colossians 1.9), given along with His other spiritual blessings. But later (verse 11) we are told that God works everything ‘after the counsel of His own will’, which ties in with it being His wisdom and prudence here.

1.9-10a ‘Having made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he purposed in him, unto a stewardship (regulation of an estate) of the fullness of times, to sum up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens and the things on the earth.’

In carrying out these purposes God has made known to us the mystery of His will. This ‘mystery’, the hidden wisdom from before time began that God foreordained to our glory (1 Corinthians 2.7), was kept in God’s counsel through eternal ages (Romans 16.25) but is now revealed to us. And this mystery is ‘Christ in us, the hope of glory’ (Colossians 1.26-27).

So the eternal mystery, which was fully purposed in the will of God from before the beginning of creation, and was kept secret until His coming, was that ‘in Christ’ those chosen in Him would be taken from their sinful and dreadful state, be delivered, and be transformed into His image, enjoying in themselves the indwelling of Christ, and finally sharing with Him His glory throughout eternity, when all things are summed up in Christ.

‘According to His good pleasure which He purposed in Him unto a stewardship (regulation, management of an estate) of the fullness of times.’ And this is all of God’s good pleasure, His settled purpose ‘in Christ’. And His purpose is that He will act as Divine Estate Manager in the fullness of times, (all time from now until the glorious finalisation) carrying out His stewardship and regulating everything so as to bring about the summing up of all things in Christ, whether in Heaven or on earth.

‘Stewardship, dispensation’. The word oikonomia meant household management, stewardship, estate management, the dispensing (and thus dispensation) of what one controls, and the word developed to mean ‘arrangement, regulation, administration’. Here it refers to His continual management of all things through time.

‘Mystery.’ (Musterion). In the New Testament this means a mystery once hidden but now revealed to His own.

‘To sum up all things in Christ.’ The word means ‘to summarise, to sum up’, usually in a piece of literature. So in the end the whole of history will be summed up and find its meaning in Christ, reaching its ultimate end as planned by God. As Paul tells us in Colossians 1.16-17, ‘in Him were all things created, in the heavens and on the earth, things visible and invisible -- all things have been created through Him and unto Him, and He is before all things and in Him all things hold together’, and here we are told that they will all come to their final satisfactory conclusion in Him, when everything is brought together in the final summation, and when the creation itself is delivered from the bondage of corruption to the glorious liberty of the children of God (Romans 8.21) and there is a new Heaven and a new earth in which dwells righteousness, the old having been finally destroyed (1 Peter 3.12-13).

1.10b-12 ‘In him, I say, in whom also we were made a heritage, having been foreordained according to the purpose of him who works all things after the counsel of his own will, to the end that we should be to the praise of His glory who had beforehand hoped in Christ.’

The glorious sweep of what has been said is now applied directly to us. It is we who have been made His special heritage, chosen and appointed to enjoy all that He has provided for us and all the blessings that He will give us. Through His grace we are what it is all about.

‘In Him, I say, in Whom also we were made a heritage --.’ ‘In Him’. This refers back to the Christ in Whom all things are to be summed up. In carrying out all these purposes it is in Him that we have been made God’s special heritage. Compare 1.18 where he speaks of ‘the richness of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.’ So we are God’s glorious heritage, having been made glorious by Him, and presented to Christ as His inheritance, an inheritance made rich in glory. We are His treasured possession (verse 14). And this was done ‘according to the purpose of Him Who works all things after the counsel of His will’. All was first done within the mind of God, and is worked out by the hand of God. And its aim is that we should be to the praise of His glory who ‘beforehand hoped in Christ’, that is who before the final fulfilment enjoyed a certain, assured ‘hope’, the hope of His coming to sum up all things because we trust in Him. After which His purposes, as far as this universe is concerned, will draw to an end.

The whole passage has redounded with the fact of God working out His own eternal will and purpose. In the great panorama of time and eternity man is the object of God’s gracious working as God works out His will in accordance with His own counsel, and His own wisdom and prudence. But having seen the sweep of salvation history from God’s viewpoint man now comes into the foreground for the first time.

Some see the continual ‘we’ and ‘us’ as referring firstly to believing Jews prior to the time when Paul spoke, including the believing Jews through the ages, so that ‘we who had beforehand hoped’ is referred primarily to Old Testament believers, and this as then being applied to believing Gentiles in verse 13 (note the change there to ‘you’). But this is too narrow an interpretation. It is far more likely that by ‘we’ Paul means all believers in Christ and the change to ‘you’ is simply a change to refer to his specific readers, for his readers would not naturally apply his former words only to Jews, unless it had been spelt out by him, and Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles, was hardly likely to be so restrictive without indicating it.

1.13-14 ‘In whom you also, (having heard the word of the truth, the gospel of your salvation), in whom you also, having believed, were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is an earnest of our inheritance unto the redemption of His own possession to the praise of His glory.’

The human side of this great activity of God is now laid out. We heard the word of truth, the good news of what God had done in arranging for our deliverance, and we believed in Christ, and were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, the guarantee of our inheritance until we receive it.

‘In Whom.’ Emphasised twice. All that we receive is in Christ.

‘The word of the truth, the gospel of your salvation.’ We heard the proclamation of truth, ‘the word of the cross’ (1 Corinthians 1.18) with its content revealing the truth of God, the good news about Christ and of the deliverance He has wrought in which we have our part.

‘Having believed you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.’ The reception of the promised Spirit through believing is central to the Christian message. It is His coming to a man when he believes that makes him a Christian (Romans 8.9; John 3.5-6), is the evidence that he is a Christian and marks him off as belonging to God (compare Psalm 4.3, ‘Yahweh has set apart for Himself he who is godly’). He is the seal that authenticates and guarantees once for all the status of a man in Christ and his future hope (Ephesians 4.30; 2 Corinthians 1.22).

We should note here that belief is not something that we have to do. It is a response worked within us as He works within us to will and to do of His good pleasure (Philippians 2.13). It is the openness of heart of a person whose heart has been opened by God. It is the automatic response of our lives as the Sun of righteousness shines on us, in the same way as a flower responds to the rising of the sun. He put the inclination within us so that He might feed that inclination, and believing is the inclination flowering into bloom.

‘Who is an earnest of our inheritance.’ The Holy Spirit is the earnest of our inheritance. An earnest is something given to guarantee the fulfilment of the whole (compare 2 Corinthians 1.22). Today we might speak of a deposit being given. But the idea behind the earnest was that it was more than a deposit, it was also a sample of what was to come. The trader would provide a sample which demonstrated the quality and type of what was being sold, and this could then be compared with the goods that finally arrived. It could also be produced as proof of the contract. Thus the Holy Spirit within us and upon us is the sample of what our future inheritance will be in a spiritual life to come, and is the proof that we are His. Indeed it is by this sample that we will be tested. ‘If any man has not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His’ (Romans 8.9). There cannot be a true Christian who is not indwelt by the Spirit of God.

‘Until the redemption of God’s own possession to the praise of His glory.’ The Spirit is also the guarantee of what the future holds in store, when those who are God’s own treasured possession, are finally and ultimately delivered by Him, because of the payment of the price (1.7), and brought for ever into His presence. Then will all redound to His glory. Again we have the thought of redemption but this time related to the buying back of ‘property’. Thus the redemption includes the thought of a purchase price, but also clearly includes an act of power by which all is brought to completion.

‘His own possession.’ Compare 1 Peter 2.9, ‘a people for God’s own possession’. His special treasure. This was originally God’s purpose for His people Israel (Exodus 19.5), that they would be ‘a peculiar treasure to me from among all peoples. For all the earth is Mine.’ And this included being a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. This is now the privilege of His new people. They are ‘a people which I formed for myself that they might set forth my praise’ (Isaiah 43.21), for ‘they shall be mine in the day that I act, even a peculiar treasure’ (Malachi 3.17).

Paul Prays That Their Eyes May Be Opened to the Richness of What Christ Has Brought Them and Has Done For Them (1.15-2.10).

Having declared what God has done for us in the overall plan of redemption Paul now reveals in more depth the work He has done within us and for us through His activity in Christ. He begins by praying that we may be given understanding so that we may grasp it, then he outlines the full glory of the resurrection and exaltation of Jesus Christ, and then he shows how those who are true Christians, saved by grace, partake with Christ in His resurrection and exaltation and, being so transformed, enter into a new spiritual sphere

1.15-16 ‘For this reason I also, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus that is among you, and which you show towards all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers.’

What a wonderful testimony is this. Paul says, ‘I have heard of you, of how great your faith is in the Lord Jesus, and of how it is revealed towards all God’s people.’ If only that could be said of us and of our church, known to everybody for the right reasons! And because of what he has heard he gives thanks and prays that they might enjoy even greater blessing.

‘For this reason - .’ Looking back over the whole of verses 3-14, and applying it to them, he is confident that they will receive the promised activity precisely because he has heard of their faith in the Lord Jesus, and the fact that it is revealed also by their lives.

‘Having heard.’ This need not mean he had not known them personally. It describes the fact that he has since had news of them, news that they continue to walk in the faith, something which has rejoiced his heart.

‘The faith in the Lord Jesus that is among you.’ They are a church well witnessed to as a church which believes fully in Jesus the Lord. All around know that to these Christians there in only One Lord, and He is Jesus.

‘And which you show towards all the saints.’ Their faith is also shown by their behaviour towards all God’s people. If we have true faith it will always be reflected in the way we live, and especially in how we behave towards ‘all saints’, all God’s people. (Some manuscripts have ‘the love which you show’ in various forms, but on the whole these are not the better manuscripts).

‘Do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers.’ Paul did not forget to be grateful to God for what He had done, indeed he was unceasing in his gratitude. We too would do well to spend more time in gratitude and praise to God. Notice also that his prayers were for their spiritual welfare, not for their material well-being, as our Lord Himself mainly commanded in Matthew 6.7-15.

1.17-18a ‘That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, having the eyes of your heart enlightened.’

He prays to ‘the God of our Lord Jesus Christ’ to grant to His people a full depth of understanding of spiritual truth, by the enlightenment of the Spirit. Indeed he desires that they might have ‘a full understanding and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ’, a knowledge that will include all that He is, which will come about by the enlightening of our hearts by the Father of glory, as He Who is the light of the world shines in us through His Spirit.

For ‘Lord Jesus Christ’ see on verse 2.

‘The Father of glory.’ The One Who lives in splendour and glory (see Revelation 21.23), Who is worthy of glory and has glory at His disposal to dispense as He will (Romans 8.17; Revelation 21.11). He is the focal point of all glory. ‘Glory’ speaks of that which is most wonderful in every way. He is called ‘the God of glory’ by Stephen (Acts 7.2; compare Psalm 29.3), and ‘the King of glory’ by the Psalmist (Psalm 24). Jesus also is ‘the Lord of glory’ (1 Corinthians 2.8; James 2.1; compare 2 Corinthians 3.18). The One Who is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ must be glorious, for He is glorious.

Reference to God as the Father of glory relates Him back to the God Who revealed Himself in glory at the Exodus in the pillar of fire (Exodus 13.21 and often), in glory on Mount Sinai at the giving of the covenant (Exodus 24.16-17), and in glory in the Tabernacle (Exodus 40.34; Numbers 14.10) and the Temple (1 Kings 8.11), where His glory was revealed visibly. He is thus the God of power, grace and splendour of the Old Testament. His glory is revealed by the heavens which reveal His handywork (Psalm 19.1) and by His many mighty works and wonders (Psalm 96.3; 104.31). His glory is above the heavens (Psalm 113.4) and the whole earth is full of His glory (Isaiah 6.3), which is revealed in His delivering power (Isaiah 40.5).

He is also the One Who is worthy of being glorified, and His glory is revealed in His unchanging purity (Romans 3.23), and in that He is eternally God, unchanging and beyond physical corruption (Romans 1.19-23). The riches of His glory are revealed in His mercy (Romans 9.23), and the light of the knowledge of the glory of God is revealed in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 4.6). Indeed Jesus is the outshining of His glory (Hebrews 1.2), and the means by which His glory is made known to us.

‘May give to you a spirit (Spirit) of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, having the eyes of your heart enlightened.’ Paul prays that as a result of the activity of the Father of glory their ‘spirits’, the spiritual side of their natures, may be made wise in the true wisdom (see 1 Corinthians 1.21, 24, 30; Colossians 2.3) and that they might have revealed within them the full knowledge of Christ and what He has done, and is doing, for them. Thus he prays that their ‘hearts’, their inner beings, will be enlightened by the Holy Spirit, Who is Himself the Spirit of wisdom and revelation (1 Corinthians 2.10-16), so that they may know Him Who is the Wisdom from God revealed in saving activity (1 Corinthians 1.30). The prior reference to the Father of glory connects with what is being revealed. It is all glorious in His glory and Paul wants them to behold that glory.

1.18-19a ‘That you may know what is the hope of his calling, what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what the exceeding greatness of his power towards us who believe.’

The first thing that he longs is that they may have full understanding about ‘the hope of His calling’. God has called them to a glorious future, to be fully revealed and experienced at the second coming of Christ in the glory of the resurrection and what follows in the new Heaven and the new earth, when He is gloriously revealed and they are to be presented perfect before Him and are to enjoy His continual presence (Ephesians 4.13; 5.27; 1 Corinthians 15.51-52; 2 Corinthians 11.2; Philippians 3.21; Jude 1.24; Ephesians 1.4; Revelation 21.22-25; 22.3-5). In that day God is to be made all in all (1 Corinthians 15.28) and everything will be summed up in Christ (Ephesians 1.10). That is their ‘hope’, the hope that results from the fact that He has called them.It is because of ‘His calling’ that they have this hope that is laid up for them in the heavens (Colossians 1.5). And in the New Testament such hope is always a sure and certain hope.

The second thing that he longs for them is that they may know ‘the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints’. They, His ‘sanctified ones’, the whole people of God, have been made a heritage to Him (verse 11). And they, although they may not see themselves in that way, are in God’s eyes a ‘glorious’ heritage. For God will make them glorious in holiness and righteousness, and it is Christ in them Who is the hope of glory (Colossians 1.27). He wants them to appreciate and understand that coming glory that is to be theirs (John 17.22; Romans 8.18, 30; 2 Corinthians 3.18; 4.17; Hebrews 2.10) as they are prepared and fashioned by the Spirit so as to be presented to Him holy and without blemish (Ephesians 5.27).

And thirdly he longs that they may be made fully aware of the ‘exceeding greatness of His power (dunamis)’, the stupendous power of God, the ‘dynamite’ of God, which is being exercised on their behalf as ‘those who believe’. He Whose power put the Universe in place and maintains all by that power, is now active in that same power on behalf of those who believe, and especially as manifested in the power of the resurrection of Christ and in our being combined with Him in His resurrection power. It is ours because Christ is in us (Galatians 2.20) and we in Him.

And the full blessing of all three hopes is revealed in the verses that follow (1.19-2.10) as he depicts what has been accomplished by Christ’s powerful resurrection.

1.1.19-21 ‘The exceeding greatness of his power towards us who believe, according to that working of the strength of His might which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead, and made him to sit at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority, and power, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come.’

And what is this power that is at work? It is the power that broke the chains of death and overcame all the powers of evil. So Paul seeks to bring out the greatness of the power exercised by God and he does it by multiplying words, - exceeding greatness, power, working, strength, His might. For this is the power of His resurrection, when the powers of Hell were defeated (Colossians 2.15; Ephesians 4.8), the power of death was broken (Hebrews 2.14; 1 Corinthians 15.54-57), and man and the world were potentially released from their chains (Romans 8.21, 23). Who can even begin to comprehend the power that was needed to this end? And that power is available to those who believe. It is outside the knowledge of the world who are totally unable to see what is happening, but it is known more and more by believers the nearer they grow to Christ.

‘The working of the strength of His might which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead.’ As ‘God made Man’ Christ was crucified, and all the sin of the world, past, present and future, was laid on His shoulders. He was made a sacrifice for sin (1 Peter 1.19) and He Who knew no sin was made sin for us (2 Corinthians 5.21). And not only that but all the powers of Hell were there to ensure His demise. What a catastrophe this seemed! And what amazing power had to be exercised to reverse the situation so that Christ Jesus rose triumphant and victorious, the power of sin broken, the powers of Hell defeated, and took His rightful place again in Heaven, receiving all authority in Heaven and earth (Matthew 28.18).

‘And made Him sit at His right hand in the heavenly places.’ To sit at the right hand was to share the glory and the rule (Psalm 110.1; Mark 14.62; Luke 22.69; Acts 7,55; Romans 8.34; Colossians 3.1; Hebrews 8.1; 10.12; 12.2; 1 Peter 3.22). This He had known from all eternity, but now as glorified Man He was made co-regent with His Father, sharing the throne of God (Revelation 3.21), and all power and authority in Heaven and on earth was given to Him (Matthew 28.18; John 3.35; Acts 2.36; Romans 14.9; 1 Corinthians 15.27; Philippians 2.9-10; Hebrews 2.8; Isaiah 9.6-7; Daniel 7.14). He was made Ruler over all.

‘The heavenly places.’ The spiritual world. This is not some world within the universe, or indeed outside the universe. He is not so far away. It is a world totally different from the physical, a spiritual world, a world of non-space which we can penetrate even while on earth (1.3; 6.12), a world that exists alongside our world, but of totally different essence. When Elisha’s eyes were opened he became aware of that world (2 Kings 2.11; 6.17), a world of which we are constantly unaware and yet which is ever there. A world in which we can participate even now (2.6), and where we have to battle with powerful forces (6.12) because we are His. And He is Lord over it.

The Christian lives in two worlds simultaneously. He lives through his body in the physical world, and he lives through his spirit in a spiritual world, and it is in that latter world that Christ reigns, that Christ is King. There the Christian enters under the rule (the kingship, the kingdom) of God, acting as His ambassador in this mundane world (2 Corinthians 5.20) and carrying out the orders of the King. Indeed God mainly breaks through into this world through His people, and thus to an extent He depends on us.

‘Far above all rule, and authority, and power, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world but also in that which is to come.’ Here Paul gathers together all the words he can think of which relate to power and control. Christ is over them all. That includes all power and authority in this world, and all power and authority in the world that is yet, as regards full experience, future to us. It includes the powers of Heaven and the powers of Hell (compare 6.12; Romans 8.38; 1 Corinthians 15.24; Colossians 1.16; 2.15; 1 Peter 3.22).

‘Rule, authority, power, dominion.’ All who exercise power, whether in Heaven, in the air, or on earth, are included under His jurisdiction. These words simply depict every type of Ruler. The ancients had many theories about heavenly forces and these words, among others, were used to describe them, but Paul is not following any particular view or particularising any special beings (compare a similar list in 6.14). He is being all-inclusive.

‘Every name that is named.’ Whatever title is given, whether Emperor, King, Potentate, Majesty, President, Excellency, Prince or whatever, He is set above them all, both human and supernatural. For His is the name which is above every name, the name of ‘LORD’ (Yahweh) (Philippians 2.10).

1.22-23 ‘And he put all things in subjection under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness (pleroma) of him who fills all in all.’

‘He put all things in subjection under His feet.’ Compare Psalm 8.6. The picture is of the great and victorious King and Overlord before whom all His subjects and His enemies humble themselves, prostrating themselves at His feet and acknowledging His lordship. The highest place that Heaven affords is His, and His by sovereign right. And 1 Corinthians 15.26 tells us that the last of His enemies is death, which will also have its power destroyed. This phrase is the climax of verses 20-21, yet also leads in to 22b-23.

‘And gave him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body.’ As head (supreme ruler) over all things, which includes all heavenly powers and all earthly powers, He is given to His ‘church’, to those whom He has called out and redeemed so that He might uniquely be their Head. They are uniquely His, and while He is ‘Head over all things’, He is their Head in a unique way. Thus in the whole scenario of existence the people of God are depicted as unique and special. For while the remainder are seen as subjects, some even as rebellious subjects, the people of God are seen as in such close relation to Him that they are united with Him in His body.

We can compare here the words of Paul elsewhere in Ephesians where he likens Christ’s Headship over the church to man’s headship over his wife (Ephesians 5.23). Thus it depicts a position of loving authority and close unity without signifying total merger. They are united in one but do not actually become one. They are, as it were, along with Him, His body, sharing with Him in His bodily resurrection and exaltation, and in His rule, and responding to His direction and control. They are as His wife (Ephesians 5.25-27) to be presented to Him without blemish. Note how in the case of the church as the wife Paul can immediately link it with Christ’s relationship with the church in terms of their being members of His body, gliding from the one illustration to the other (5.29-30). This in the same way as the body of the husband and the body of the wife are united so that they become ‘one flesh’ (5.31). Thus have we become ‘one flesh’ with His body (5.30).

‘Which is His body, the fullness of Him Who fills all in all.’ Here being His body means being that which makes His own body complete. Thus His people are the ‘fullness of Him Who fills all in all”. This is, of course, a paradox. He Who fills all in all surely needs no completion. Indeed all things ‘hold together’ in Him (Colossians 1.17). How then can His people be His fullness? The answer lies in the plan of redemption. Having become Man in order to redeem man He is incomplete until the redeemed are gathered in. As representative Man He must gather in those Whom He represented. They are the fullness which will make Him whole. He is their Head. He is also the Body, and they are united with His body, making His body full, and as such He ‘needs’ and requires them.

We should note here especially that the idea of the Head is only applied to Him as the risen Christ. In His body He suffered humiliation, but in His resurrection and exaltation He becomes both Head and Body. His Headship (divine rulership) was made patent over all, and especially over His people, and in His Body He was united with His people in one body. (We must not think of Him as the head and we as the body from the neck downwards. That is not the idea at all. He is both Head over all things and Body, and we united with Him in His body (see Appendix)). In His body He experienced resurrection and exaltation, and it is in His body, in which we accompany Him because He is both our representative and our substitute (2.1-10), that we are one with Him (see 1 Corinthians 6.17). Thus He Who is ‘the Firstborn of all creation’ (the source of all creation) is also ‘the beginning, the Firstborn from the dead’, so that He may have pre-eminence in all things (Colossians 1.15, 18). He it was Who began and is the source of that new creation, His people. Thus He is ‘the Firstborn among many brothers’ (Romans 8.29). The word Firstborn means the One from Whom they had their new life, the One Who produced all that followed. They were the result of His life-giving activity.

The same idea of Christ as the Head over His people, and His people as His body united with Him in His body is found in Colossians 1.18 where we read that He is over all things and controls all things, and then that also ‘He is the Head of the body, the church.’ In both contexts the Headship of Christ over all things is emphasised first and then applied to His Headship over the church, and the church is then likened to His body, because they have been made one with His body. They are one in Him. This is to bring out the closer and more tender relationship there is between Christ and His people. But the idea is not amplified in Colossians. It is allowed to express their unique relationship with Him but not applied in detail. The main emphasis is on the Headship (divine rulership) and on our union with Him.

In Colossians the idea is expanded in 2.19 where it speaks of those who do not ‘hold fast the Head, from Whom all the body, being supplied and knit together through the joints and bands, increases with the increase of God’. This adds the thought that the body receives from its Head, its Lord, all it needs for growth. It is given life by His indwelling within each Christian (Ephesians 3.17; Galatians 2.20) and by His presence in their midst (Matthew 28.20). This expansion also appears in Ephesians 4.15-16 (which see). 2.15-16 will bring home that that body, which is inclusive of Christ’s own body, consists of both believing Jews and believing Gentiles made one in Christ. But this provision of what is needed is in fact also stated in another way, for the thought of the oneness of He Who is the Head with the body, which includes Himself, leads on to 2.1-10 where our oneness with Christ means that we participate in all in which He participates (see Appendix below).

In refinement of these ideas in Ephesians, however, we should note that he is more careful in his expressions. He is not just ‘the Head’ but ‘the Head over all things’ lest we make the mistake (that many make) that he is contrasting head with body. The church is the body of Christ because spiritually it is united with Christ’s own body, not because it alone is His body. ‘If we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection’ (Romans 6.5). Christ is the body with Whom we are united (1 Corinthians 12.12).

The fullness (pleroma).’ In the Gospels the word pleroma is used of the patch that fills up the hole in the old garment (Mark 2.21) and the sufficiency of fragments which filled several baskets after the feeding (Mark 8.20). The word denotes entirety of content and is applied by Philo to the animals housed in Noah’s ark. It is also used of a ship’s complement. It thus represents the full requirement, the whole body of Christians as chosen in Christ through redemption, so as to make complete ‘the crew’, the number of the redeemed, the filling full of the body.

‘Of Him Who fills all in all.’ ‘Pleroumenou’ could be either middle or passive. The middle means ‘fills for oneself’, the passive ‘is being fulfilled’. The latter does not really fit the context for it does not fulfil the grandeur of the previous verses, and it partially turns the eyes away from the main participator, rather than focusing on Him. And grandeur about Christ Himself is what is required to complete this section. The previous verses have built up to the fact that He is all in all. Now it is stated. The thought is an intentional paradox. Christ is the One Who fills all in all, and yet, His people fill up what is lacking simply because of the working out of God’s plan and purpose and His redeeming work, which while potentially fulfilled awaits actual fulfilment.

‘Fills all in all.’ He is the One Who is omnipresent, Who created all things, Who sums up within Himself all things (1.10), in Whom all things hold together, having the pre-eminence in all things (Colossians 1.17-18), Who is totally self-sufficing. In 1 Corinthians 15.28 we are told that in the consummation God will be all in all. The phrase means the totality of what is being spoken about (compare 1 Corinthians 12.6) and when used of God and our Lord Jesus the totality of all things.

2.1 ‘And you (‘He has raised from the dead’, or ‘He has made alive’), when you were dead through your trespasses and sins.’

The ‘and you’ may refer back to ‘raised Him from the dead and made Him to sit at His right hand’ in 1.20, or refer forward to the ‘make alive’ in 2.5 (the words in brackets are not in the Greek text, but are assumed). In the light of verses 2.5-6 the first seems preferable, for it then sees His people as united in Him in all that happened to Him from verse 20 onwards, but the final idea is the same in both cases. The thought is that His people have been ‘made alive’ through spiritual resurrection (John 5.24-25) by being born from above (John 3.3), and created in Christ Jesus to good works as a result of His workmanship (verse 10), have been made one with Him. As a result in the spiritual realm they share His throne, something which is to be followed eventually by literal ‘physical’ resurrection (John 5.28-29). In other words from the moment of believing they reign along with Him in life and in death. It is a parallel thought to that in Isaiah 57.15, where as the High and Lofty One Who inhabits eternity, He dwells with those who are of a humble and contrite spirit, but it is made more significant in the long run because it involves finally sharing Heaven with Him.

This unity with Christ ties in with the previous reference to His people as His body (1.23), as those who are united with Him in His body as One in His saving purpose. It expresses the closeness of Christ with His own. This conception of corporate personality, where the many are seen as one, occurs regularly in the Old Testament. The Servant of God in Isaiah is seen as the people of Israel (Isaiah 41.8 and often); as both them and the Great Prophet (in Isaiah 42 and 49); and as uniquely the Great Prophet Himself (in Isaiah 50 and 53), while in the New Testament the Servant is Jesus Himself (Mark 1.11; Luke 9.35; 22.37) and also the witnessing church (Acts 13.47). The ‘son of man’ in Daniel is both the saints of the Most High (Daniel 7.27) and their Messianic king (Daniel 7.13), in each case one and yet separate. So all that Jesus experiences He shares with His people.

‘And you He raised from the dead when you were dead through your trespasses and sins.’ Their condition had been that they were spiritually dead, and doomed to final death, because of their trespasses and sins. But now He has made them alive, and they vibrate with His life. ‘Trespasses and sins’ is intended to cover all aspects of moral failure, both positive and negative. They had done what they should not have done (Romans 3.23), and had failed to do what they should have done (James 4.17), and were spiritually dead. But He raised them from the dead through the power of His resurrection life, making them spiritually alive. He transferred them from being under the power of darkness to being under the Kingly Rule of His beloved Son (Colossians 1.13).

2.2 ‘Wherein previously you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that now works in the sons of disobedience.’

They had been guilty at three levels. They were guilty of personal sin (‘your trespasses and sins’), they were not dupes but rebels; they were guilty of following the dictates of the world (‘the course of this world’), allowing themselves to be carried along either unthinkingly or deliberately in the stream of humanity; they were guilty of allowing themselves to be swayed by Satan (‘the spirit who works in disobedient people’), by closing their minds to the light when it came.

‘You walked.’ They had walked in sin because they had walked in darkness (John 8.12; 11.10), in the vanity of their mind (Ephesians 4.17), following the dictates of the flesh (Romans 8.1, 4). This was their way of life. This is in contrast to those who walk in the light (John 12.35), in the steps of faith (Romans 4.12), in accordance with the Spirit (Romans 8.1, 4), in newness of life (Romans 6.4). This is the Christian’s way of life.

‘According to the course (the age) of this world.’ They had followed the spirit of the age and had been tied down by, and submerged in, the ideas of an unbelieving world. To walk with the majority view is to walk in sin because man is sinful.

‘According to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience.’ While they may not have been aware of it they were also carried along in their ways by spiritual forces, the spirit who now works in disobedient people (‘The sons of disobedience’ means those who follow and are taken up with disobedience). So three factors were involved; their own choice, the influence of the age, and the workings of Satan.

‘The prince of the power of the air.’ A controlling spirit over ‘the power of the air’. In Colossians 1.13 ‘power’ is equivalent to ‘kingly rule’, for it compares ‘the power of darkness’ with ‘the kingly rule of His beloved Son’. Thus the idea may be of a prince ruling over ‘a kingdom’, a kingdom of spiritual beings not naturally of this earth, and of all who walk in disobedience. ‘The air’ may be seen as a kind of No Man’s Land, almost equivalent to the ‘heavenlies’, but excluded from them, and thus a minor spiritual sphere, from which Satanic forces attack the heavenlies (6.12). It is the sphere of those who do not know God or walk with Him. We can compare how in Revelation Satan was seen as attacking the forces of Heaven and was cast out of the heavenly realm (Revelation 12.8 compare Luke 10.18). In our view both these verses in Revelation are speaking of the time when Jesus was resurrected (see Revelation).

Alternately the ‘power of the air’ may be seen as evil winds, which may tie in with the idea of ‘winds’ of false doctrine tossing men to and fro like leaves (Ephesians 4.14). Winds are often symbols of disaster (see especially Job 1.19 with 12 where such were specifically Satan’s work).

‘The spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience.’ This can only be the Devil, Satan, the adversary and tempter (Matthew 4.10; 16.23; Mark 4.15; Luke 22.3; Acts 5.3; 26.18; 2 Corinthians 11.14; Ephesians 4.26; 6.11; 1 Timothy 5.15; 1 Peter 5.8; 1 John 3.8-10). He himself is in rebellion against God, and he has thus brought others into that same spirit of rebellion.

2.3 ‘Among whom we also once lived in the lusts of the flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.’

‘We.’ Lest anyone think he is excluding himself from being a sinner Paul now includes himself and his companions, along with all Christians. They too had once followed the lusts of the flesh and had given way to the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and there was also a theoretical danger that they might do so again. For constant is the battle of the Spirit with the flesh, although those who walk by the Spirit will overcome (Galatians 5.16). Note the duality of the types of ‘lusts of the flesh’, for they include not only the desires of the body, but also the desires of the mind. Intellectual sin is as great as fleshly sin. The mind at war with God is as sinful as the body which walks in disobedience.

‘And were by nature (phusei) children of wrath, even as the rest.’ For phusei compare Galatians 2.15. It means what we essentially are in our thinking and behaviour, our natural condition. The natural man is thus a child of wrath, that is a person deserving of wrath, for by nature man is a sinner (Romans 5.19) and once given the chance this soon reveals itself. Thus is introduced, as a suggestion that cannot be denied, that the wrath of God is directed at sin (compare Romans 1.18) and that all men are under the wrath of God because of sin (Romans 2.5; Colossians 3.6; John 3.36; Revelation 6.17). The wrath of God is not anger as we know it, it represents God’s antipathy to sin, God’s hatred of sin, God’s reaction in His holiness against sin. He cannot abide sin and must act to destroy it like a gardener acting with his chemicals to destroy all that is destructive and harmful in his garden. That is His ‘wrath’.

‘Even as the rest.’ Paul was no different from the others, no different from us, in this.

2.4-6 ‘But God, being rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ, (by grace you are those who are saved), and raised us up with him, and made us sit with him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus.’

‘But God.’ Here is the great turning point. In the midst of man’s sinfulness and subservience to evil God stepped in. He did not leave mankind without hope, walking in darkness, not knowing where they were going. Instead He intervened because He is rich in mercy, and because He has set His love on us. Thus Paul now stresses again the abounding riches of the mercy of God and the greatness of His love for us. It is these, and these alone, that can explain why, when we were dead in sins, He exercised the greatness of His power (1.19) and gave us new life, and raised us up with Him, and made us sit with Him in heavenly places, giving us spiritual life that we might know Him.

‘Being rich in mercy.’ Elsewhere we read, ‘according to His mercy He saved us’ (Titus 3.5). Here the richness of that mercy is stressed. This mercy is within His sovereign will (Romans 9.15-18), and it abounds towards us, so that Paul himself could never forget that he had obtained mercy in this way (1 Timothy 1.13, 16), with the result that the plea for mercy for others is often contained in his salutations. Here we learn of God’s overflowing mercy, of His boundless activity which results from His compassion towards the undeserving, towards us and all who are His.

‘For His great love with which He loved us.’ His love was central to the exercise of His saving power. He so loved that He gave His only Son (John 3.16) and John exults continually at the greatness of that love (1 John 3.1; 4.9), while Paul tells us that God commends His love towards us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us (Romans 5.8). What greater love could there be than that? Grace is indeed love acting on behalf of the undeserving, and here again we learn of His overflowing and abounding love.

‘Even when we were dead through our trespasses.’ The suggestion appears to be that because we were ‘dead’ we were unwilling and unable to respond. We had no spiritual life. We had constantly deviated from what was right and it had worked death within us. We continually ignore Him in our daily lives. Thus because of our parlous state He had to step in and to force the issue.

‘Made us alive together with Christ.’ And how did He do it? He ‘made us alive.’ The word of God spoke to our hearts and the Holy Spirit worked a new birth within us. We were born from above (John 3.5) We experienced the ‘washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit’ (Titus 3.5). We were ‘begotten again to a living hope’ (1 Peter 1.3). We were ‘begotten again -- of incorruptible seed through the word of God which lives and abides’ (1 Peter 1.23). We were begotten ‘of His own will --by the word of truth’ (James 1.18). It was like the dead earth producing life after an abundant fall of rain, the ‘drenching’ (baptizo) of the Holy Spirit (which is what baptism illustrates). Thus were we ‘made alive’ by Him.

‘Together with Christ.’ And it happened in Christ. Spiritually we rose because He rose. The power of His resurrection was released to give us life (Philippians 3.10; Romans 6.8-9), and we are now alive from the dead (Romans 6.13) and live our lives by the power of His risen life (Galatians 2.20; Romans 5.10; 6.10-11). ‘The hour comes and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live,’ Jesus had said (John 5.25) , and that hour has now come for us who are His. We live as those who are risen from the dead, walking in newness of life in the spiritual sphere (Romans 6.4), which then reflects itself in the physical sphere. So Father, Son and Holy Spirit unite in giving us life.

This ‘making alive’ indicates the commencement of the Christian life, and is therefore speaking of a genuine present, personal experience in the life of each believer. We may not always ‘feel’ it but it is at work within us nevertheless (Philippians 2.13). It is often suggested that while what Paul is describing in 1.19-22 actually happened to Jesus Christ, it only ‘potentially’ happened to us. But that is not what Paul is saying. Rather he is making clear that it is more than that, that it is something that is actuated in experience. There are, in other words, two aspects to what he is describing. One the present aspect which we experience through the Spirit as he opens up a new spiritual world and we enter in and live in it (‘Heaven above is softer blue, earth beneath is sweeter green, something lives in every hue, that Christless eyes have never seen’), and the second the final fulfilment when earth is left behind and we enter totally into that spiritual world at the coming of Christ when we will be ‘changed’ or resurrected (1 Thessalonians 4.14-17) and see Him as He is (1 John 3.2) and spend eternity with Him (Revelation 22.3-5).

‘By grace you are those who are saved.’ Lest this all seem to be too wonderful for us Paul interjects this comment, which he cannot keep back as he contemplates the graciousness of God. This is not something that we have attained for ourselves, he declares. This is not something we have earned or deserved. It is all as a result of God’s active grace, His undeserved, unmerited, active love and favour reaching out to us in saving power. It is ‘by His grace’ that we have been, and are therefore now saved, thus experiencing this glorious chain of events, commencing from new birth and finalising in glory.

‘And raised us up with Him, and made us to sit with Him in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.’ If our being made alive with Him is actual in experience there is no doubt that this is so too. The point is not only that what happened to Him will one day happen to us because we are in Him, (although that is true), but that in a genuine sense it has already happened. We can ‘know Him and the power of His resurrection’ (Philippians 3.10). We can walk continually in His presence. We can experience continually the active power of His life at work within us and through us (Galatians 2.20). And 6.12 makes clear that even now, as we seek to stand against the wiles of the Devil (6.11), ‘our wrestling -- is against -- spiritual wickedness in the heavenly places’. Thus we are seen as already in the heavenly places. And this is because when we responded and believed, we were not only made gloriously alive in Him through His Spirit, but were also raised with Him through His resurrection power and seated with Him in the heavenly places, and entered into a new sphere of existence, reigning in life through Christ (Romans 5.17). Into this sphere we are born as new-born babes (1 Corinthians 3.1; Hebrews 5.13; 1 Peter 2.2) and within it we need continually to grow and mature (Ephesians 4.15; 1 Peter 2.2; 2 Peter 3.18).

Thus having entered into a new sphere of existence, we, as it were, live in two worlds. We live in the physical world, as we always have, but we now also live in a spiritual world where we are seated with Christ, Who is at God’s right hand (1.20). That means that in that world we experience the protection of His authority and power, and we know the power of His life. It is only because of this that we can hope to stand against the wiles of the Devil. (See on 1.19-21). And it is from this world that we then go out as ambassadors for Christ, calling on the world to be reconciled to God (2 Corinthians 5.20). We are, through the Spirit, enjoying the earnest of our inheritance (1.14), the first sample and guarantee, until we finally receive the whole.

2.7 ‘That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.’

And the final purpose of God in all this is that He might continually reveal His goodness and kindness towards us in every possible way through all ages. He will show to us ‘the exceeding riches of His grace.’ What could be greater than that? This is either saying that His grace (active, powerful love) towards us is like a vast treasure-house of riches, beyond comprehension, beyond counting, being showered upon us, or that of His grace we shall experience such treasure-houses of riches for ourselves. Both are in fact true.

‘In the ages to come.’ This is both in the remainder of the present age, and ‘to the ages of the ages’, into the everlasting future. There will be no time limit to the dispensing of His goodness. The ancient Hebrew did not think of ‘eternity’ as we think of it, he thought of ages and ages and ages, ‘the ages of the ages’. These are not necessarily theological ages, simply ages beyond measure. They express the idea of eternity.

‘In kindness towards us.’ The word for kindness is used in Romans 11.22 of God delighting in mercy towards those whom He has chosen. It is used in extra-Biblical literature of the beneficence of rulers as they shower gifts on their favourites and dispense favours to their people, and it is used of Isaac’s pacific nature. Thus it is God being at abundant peace with us, and pouring out His generosity on us in full measure, supplying us from His storehouse of grace.

‘In Christ Jesus.’ And, as ever, all this is ‘in Him’. It is the Messiah Jesus, sent by His Father, Who has brought all these blessings on us.

2.8-9 ‘For by grace you are those who are saved, through faith, and this not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.’

This links back to ‘in Christ Jesus’. We are in this position outlined above as ‘those who are saved’ because we have put our trust in Christ, and even that salvation was not of ourselves but was a gift given to us by the grace of God, the unmerited, active love and favour of God.

‘By grace.’ By God’s actively revealed and unmerited love.

‘Through faith.’ All God’s gifts come to us through our response of faith. As in our hearts we reached out to Him through Christ, and what He wrought for us through His cross, God responds with saving power.

‘And this not of yourselves.’ ‘This’ may refer back to ‘faith’ (but ‘this’ is neuter and ‘faith’ is feminine, so that it is unlikely) or it may refer to the salvation inherent in ‘you are those who are saved’. Either way it signifies that we have done nothing of ourselves. Faith may be the channel, but it does not deserve anything, nor is it of merit. It is merely the opening though which all that God freely gives us comes. It is the breach in our defences brought about by God when we were dead in sin. It is response wrought in us by His Spirit to something wonderful being offered, and is perfected in us by the grace of God. We long for salvation, we look to Him for salvation, He responds in grace, granting it to us as a gift. It is only then that He works righteousness within us.

‘It is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.’ Paul could not have put more clearly that salvation is all of God. It is a gracious gift. We do nothing towards it (‘not of works’), we simply respond for our own selfish reasons and suddenly find ourselves engulfed in the active, unmerited love of God. Thus boasting is excluded. All of us are basically on the same level. Those who have responded have nothing to boast about, but much to rejoice in. But they cannot say ‘we have responded because we were better than they’ otherwise boasting would not be excluded. We must beware of making faith a somehow superior ‘work’. Faith that is ‘our’ work will fail.

Faith as God’s gift is true, lasting faith. It is not faith in ordinances or ceremonies, or in the church. Nor is it faith based on deserts. It is faith in Christ Himself. It is faith in the direct working of God (Colossians 2.12). It is faith in the Faithful One. When the Apostolic preacher proclaimed Christ, he did not initially call men to a series of ritual acts, nor did he initially ask him to join the church, he called him to put his trust in Jesus Christ. It was of faith not of works.

There is a type of so-called faith which is shallow and receives nothing. It is temporary, and is passing and fading like the grass (see John 2.23-25, and compare Mark 4.16-17). It is a faith brought about by the event of the moment, fading when the moment fades. It wants to receive any blessings going but the person who has it has no real desire to be saved. They do not want to be changed, they merely want to remain the same and yet go to Heaven. Such faith does not save.

But when a person recognises his sinfulness and longs to be changed in heart and mind, and cries in his helplessness to the Saviour, then he will be truly saved. We only have to look at the description of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector to see this. The one had strong faith, but it was faith in his own goodness in the sight of God, the other had a weak faith that reached out to God for forgiveness and mercy, and rejected any thought of deserving. And it was the latter which received God’s response (Luke 18.11-14).

2.10 ‘For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God beforehand prepared that we should walk in them.’

‘We are His workmanship.’ The word poiema means ‘creation, what is wrought’. In the New Testament it is only used of God’s activity. Thus we are His creation, His workmanship. We are made exactly as He wants us to be. This does, of course, refer back to what Paul has described. Our being made alive, and raised, and seated with Christ in Heavenly places, results from the creative work of God within us and upon us and results in a ‘heavenly’ life.

‘Created in Christ Jesus unto good works.’ His creative work within us inevitably results in good works, but the creative work precedes the works, it does not result from them. When we are made ‘a new creation’ (2 Corinthians 5.17 compare Galatians 6.15) He recreates our hearts with a desire and yearning for what is good, with the result that our lives are changed and we begin to ‘hunger and thirst after righteousness’ (Matthew 5.6) and begin to ‘seek first His kingly rule and His righteousness’ (Matthew 6.33). Then the set purpose of our lives becomes to do what is right towards God and man. It may begin slowly, but if this is not beginning to happen in us we need to question our faith.

‘Which God beforehand prepared that we should walk in them.’ God’s purpose has always been that His people should be people of ‘good works’. We must never see good works as ‘not quite as spiritual’ as worship and witnessing. As we carry out good works in the love of God we are fulfilling God’s purpose in us. We are being lights in the world as He commanded us, bringing glory to God (Matthew 5.16). It was for these good works, among other things, that He chose us and it is to this, among other things, that He foreordained us. They are thus part of His great plan. But as ‘wrought by God’ the good works follow His saving work, they do not precede it. Many do ‘good works’ naturally, and that is well and good. They should not be belittled. But in the scheme of things they are incidental. They bring little glory to God, except indirectly. On the other hand the works of which Paul speaks here are those that result from a heart and life changed by God, and they produce fruit for eternity.

So we finish the description of God’s saving power through the resurrection with the indication that the final result on earth will be the good works which bring glory to God.

They Are to Remember that They Were Once Excluded From Israel and the Promises But Are Now Made One With the True Israel; They Are Now the People of God (2.11-3.12) .

Paul here goes on to point out that the ordinances of the Law of Sinai (the whole sacrificial system and all that pertained to it), which were a cause of separation as they were what made Israel distinctive, have now been done away through His cross, which has superseded all offerings and sacrifices, and the result is that all can now be received within that covenant, and within the Abrahamic covenant of promise which offered blessing to the nations (see Galatians 3; Genesis 12.3), and enjoy the same relationship with God and with each other as was dispensed though that covenant. He points out the disadvantages that they had endured while separated, not so much because they had necessarily been concerned about those disadvantages but in order to demonstrate that it was those advantages that they had now gained by having the separation removed. He very strongly emphasises that the two (Jews and Gentiles) have been made one within His covenant. There is now one new Israel, one church, and all who believe are a part of it.

It should be noted that the idea is not that the Law has been abolished, but that it has rather been fulfilled in Christ (Matthew 5.17-18). That is why those who are in Christ will fulfil the Law by being filled with His love, not disregard it (Galatians 5.13-14).

2.11-12 ‘Wherefore remember, that previously you were the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called Circumcision in the flesh made by hands, that at that time you were separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world.’

Paul first reminds his Gentile readers of the position they had been in. They had been Gentiles, the Uncircumcision (not circumcised as members of the covenant), separate from Christ, outside the promises of God, having no hope and without God in the world. Many of Paul’s converts had been admirers of the Jewish religion while not being willing to be circumcised and enter it fully. They were thus very much aware of this lack. Others had simply been aware, often vaguely, that they were outside the promises of God because they were not His people.

‘Gentiles in the flesh who are called Uncircumcision.’ They were non-Jews by birth and not physically circumcised into the covenant. Therefore the Jews despised them and saw them as having no part in the people of God, as outside the promises of God and as having no claim on the Messiah. They were thus seen as ‘without God’.

Which is called Circumcision in the flesh made by hands.’ This refers to physical circumcision. Previously, without physical circumcision the Gentiles could not become Jewish proselytes, which was at the time their only hope of sharing in the blessings of the God of the Jews. Those who were thus circumcised despised ‘the Uncircumcised’. They saw circumcision as absolutely necessary for all who would be His people.

‘You were separate from Messiah.’ They had had no part in the coming Messiah, who thus would offer them no hope. Not for them the promise of God’s future deliverance, except as a by-product.

‘Alienated from the commonwealth of Israel.’ ‘Alienated’ here means excluded from, seen as having no part in. The Jews were seen as among the most moral members of society because of the Mosaic Law. They were, on this account, and on the basis of their ancient writings, admired by many Gentiles. ‘Commonwealth’ (politeia) can also mean ‘way of life’. Thus the idea may be that they were generally excluded from the Jews as a nation, with their superior laws, or alternatively that they were excluded from their way of life which encouraged morality. They did not enjoy the spiritual and moral blessings brought by the Law (the word of God).

‘Strangers from the covenants of promise.’ ‘Strangers’ were those who were passing through but had limited rights. Thus the Gentiles had had limited rights as regards the covenants or their promises.

‘Having no hope.’ They had had nothing to look forward to, no Messiah, no future kingdom, no promises. Greek philosophies of the time tended to offer little real hope, being either cynical or profligate, and while there were religions which appeared to offer hope, they failed in what they offered.

‘Without God in the world.’ This probably refers to their condition as ‘in the world’ without God. Biblically being ‘in the world’ meant being heedless of God and following the world’s ways. Thus they were in the world and far from God. It may however signify that any religious belief they had did not deal with ‘a god who was at work in the world’, as the God of the Jews was at work in the world, as witnessed by their history.

But a major reason for this detailed description of what they were without, was because he will now demonstrate that in Christ all these benefits are theirs, and theirs without physical circumcision. They will become united with Christ the Messiah, they will become members of the true Israel, they will inherit the covenant promises, they will gain hope, and they will find the God Who acts in history. (In Colossians he will point out that they have in fact been circumcised in the circumcision of Christ - Colossians 2.11).

The Uniting of Jew and Gentile Through the Cross. The Establishing of the New Israel.

2.13 ‘But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off are made near by the blood of Christ.’

Now all is changed. In the Christ Who died for them all these benefits are theirs. They have been brought near to God, the invisible God proclaimed by the Jews, through His shed blood. Through His sacrifice of Himself for sin, which cancels out the old ordinances, He has removed the barrier of sin, making them ‘holy’ and righteous so they can approach Him without fear.

‘Made near.’ In verse 17 the Jews are ‘near’. Thus in Christ Jesus and through the blood of the cross the believing Gentiles are, in being ‘made near’, united with the believing Jews in their ‘nearness’. They are reconciled both to God and to each other (verse 16). The implication is that physical circumcision has been replaced by being united in His death.

2.14-16 ‘For he himself is our peace, who has made both one, and broke down the middle wall of partition, having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, that he may create in himself one new man, so making peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, having slain the enmity thereby.’

Indeed God has united both Jews and Gentiles who come to Christ Jesus into one body. Peace is made between them and they are one. And through the cross He has reconciled both as one body in His own body, to God, by means of His sacrifice on the cross.

‘He Himself.’ The pronoun is emphatic and should be in italics for emphasis. ‘Is our peace.’ This means ‘has brought about and maintains peace’, making both one. They are made one with each other and at one with God.

‘Broke down the middle wall of partition.’ He has, as it were, torn down the wall in the Temple that separates the believing uncircumcised Gentiles from the Jews and their holy place. Copies of the actual inscription forbidding any foreigner on pain of death to ‘enter within the barrier which surrounds the Temple and enclosure’ have been found in the neighbourhood of the one time Temple. It was thus a serious barrier to oneness. But that barrier has now been torn down (even before the Temple was torn down). For all are now His in Christ on equal terms.

‘Having abolished in His flesh (that is, His flesh offered on the cross, compare ‘in the blood of Christ’ - verse 13, and Colossians 1.21) the enmity, even the Law of commandments contained in ordinances.’ The major hindrance to their being one, and a cause of enmity between them, was the ceremonial and ritual requirements which were found in ‘the Law of Moses’. This was why there had to be a wall in the Temple so that the Gentiles could not enter and make the inner part of the Temple ‘unclean’. But through the offering of the flesh of Christ, and the shedding of His blood, the sacrifices and rituals of the Temple are no longer necessary. In Christ and through His sacrifice that Law has been done away as far as it deals with ordinances. Its requirements are no longer binding because Christ’s offering of Himself is all sufficient (Hebrews 10.11-14). All can now enter fully into the presence of God. Paul does not otherwise explain here how this is achieved, so it would seem that it was seen as a settled issue by this time. We can find part of the answer in Galatians 3.

In Galatians 3 Paul tells us that no man can be reckoned as righteous by the Law, for no man can fully observe it, and that through His death Christ has removed the curse of the Law by being made a curse for us, taking our curse on Himself (Galatians 3.10-13). Thus the Law no longer has power over us to condemn us. He also tells us that the promises to Abraham, which include blessing to the Gentiles, are superior to the Law, being applied through the Spirit by faith (Galatians 3.1-9, 14) and that the Law, which was short term, has now been replaced, as its function is now over (Galatians 3.15-29).

‘Having abolished.’ The Greek word is difficult to translate. It can mean ‘to make of no effect’, ‘to do away with’ or ‘to take away the power of’, thus to abolish, invalidate. But its main meaning is clear. All the Jewish rites and ordinances have been done away as far as approach to God is concerned. They are no longer necessary. They have been replaced by something greater.

Thus the enmity and cause of division being removed, Jews and Gentiles who come to Christ become one new man in Christ. United with Him and in Him they are seen as a corporate unity along with Him, ‘in Him’. The idea of the ‘new man’ may be to suggest a new Adam composed of believing Jews and believing Gentiles, a new ‘mankind’. Jesus Christ is ‘the last Adam’ (1 Corinthians 15.45).

‘And might reconcile them both in one body.’ This is an interesting use of body which combines two ideas. The prime emphasis is on the fact that His one human body was offered on the cross, thus He offered Himself in one body. But this is then seen as a unifying factor so that they too are seen as ‘one body’ in His body which is why they are ‘one new man’. It thus illuminates the meaning of ‘His body’ in 1.23. There is no suggestion here of the one body as a body in contrast with Him as the head. It represents Christ fully and signifies the one corporate entity represented by the one new man, which is both head and body, united with Him as the body. The later emphasis (verses 20-22) is indeed on one Temple as cementing the unity. The main point is that the two are united as one man, one body, united with His body, so that as one they can be reconciled to God through the cross, the enmity between them having been slain.

This is symbolised for us by the bread at the Lord’s Table. The bread represents the body of Christ offered up for us but it also represents us as the one bread, the one body, incorporated in Christ, ‘seeing that we who are many are one bread, one body, for we all partake of the one bread’ which is ‘a communion, a continual relationship, with the body of Christ’ (1 Corinthians 10.16-17).

‘And might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross having slain the enmity thereby.’ Through their response to the shed blood of Christ both Jew and Gentile, the ordinances of the Law being abolished, are united and made one. And simultaneously, as they are being united in one corporate entity, ‘one body’, they are reconciled to God through the cross, through the one body of Christ with which they are united. So oneness, reconciliation, is achieved with both man and God.

‘Reconcile.’ Apokatallasso. An intensification of katallasso (Romans 5.10; 2 Corinthians 5.18-20), which also means ‘reconcile’. It is only found elsewhere in Colossians 1.20, 21. It is possibly a Paulinism. To ‘reconcile’ is to ‘bring back into relationship’, to ‘remove enmity and antipathy’. We had no relationship with God because of sin, but sin having been dealt with we can now come to know Him truly. We are reconciled with God.

2.17 ‘And he came and preached good news of peace to you who were far off and to those who were near.’

This echoes Isaiah 52.7 and signifies the good news preached through His cross and through His Apostles, which brings them peace with God and peace from God. It is not likely that it means His lifetime ministry as that would put the verse out of order, for the preaching appears to be after the act of reconciliation. The main point here is that both those who had been far off (the Gentiles, compare verse 13) and those who were ‘near’ (the Jews) have had peace preached to them by Him. Peace with each other and peace with God.

2.18 ‘For through Him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.’

For the one Holy Spirit gives both of them access as one in Him to the Father. This emphasises their oneness. Thus both believing Jews and Gentiles now have access to the Father through the activity of the indwelling Holy Spirit. And as the Spirit is one, so they approach God as one.

‘Access.’ The word is prosagoge meaning ‘approach, access’.

The whole emphasis from verses 11-18 is thus on the fact that believing Jews and Gentiles are made one. They are made one, ‘in Christ Jesus -- in the blood of Christ’ (verse 13), through Him Who is ‘our peace’ (verse 14), through the creation of one new man from two (verse 15), through being reconciled as one body (verse 16), through the believing Gentiles being brought near as the believing Jews are near (verse 17), and through both having access to the Father through the one Spirit (verse 18). This is in order to demonstrate that the believing Gentiles may now enjoy equally the privileges already enjoyed by the believing Jews. They have become ‘the Israel of God’ (Galatians 6.16). They are all one in the new Israel.

2.19 ‘So then you are no more strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow-citizens with the saints and of the household of God.’

Paul could not make clearer that all believers now form the new Israel. Previously they were ‘alienated from the commonwealth of Israel’, now they are fellow-citizens with ‘the saints’ (an Old Testament word for the true Israel). Previously they were strangers to the covenants of promise, now they are no longer ‘strangers and sojourners’. Previously they were ‘without God’, now they are ‘of the household of God’. Previously they were separate from Christ, now they are ‘in Christ’ (verse 14) and joined into God’s Temple with Christ as the chief cornerstone (verse 20). Thus they have been made a part of the new Israel, the ‘Israel of God’ (Galatians 6.16).

‘Strangers and sojourners.’ The ‘strangers’ were those who passed through Israel making only a temporary stay, possibly also having in mind ‘God-fearers’ (Gentiles interested in Jewish teaching but unwilling to be circumcised), while the sojourners were more permanent, but in the later period were never accepted fully as true Jews (unless they were circumcised and entered into the covenant by becoming proselytes). It possibly also indicate these proselytes (Gentiles willing to be circumcised and become ‘Jews’) who, while theoretically accepted as full Jews, never felt themselves as fully accepted in practise. Basically it represents all who have a sense of being separated from the people of God.

‘Fellow-citizens with the saints.’ They now have total equality with, and the same standing as, the Old Testament saints, the people of believing Israel (Deuteronomy 33.3; 1 Samuel 2.9; 2 Chronicles 6.41; Psalm 16.3 and often in the Psalms; Daniel 7 often). As fellow-citizens (sunpolitai) they are members of the commonwealth (politeia) of Israel.

‘And of the household of God.’ They now belong especially to God’s own household (compare Caesar’s household (Philippians 4.22) which was large and widespread), and therefore especially and recognisably His. Thus they now have an intimate knowledge of God in contrast with being ‘without God’. They are as close as anyone can be.

So the believing Gentiles are now joined with Christ, are members of the new commonwealth of Israel, are partakers in the covenants of the promise, have much hope, and have access into God’s presence through the Spirit. They are His people (compare 2 Corinthians 6.17-18).

2.20 ‘Being built on the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the chief cornerstone.’

The believing Gentiles are now built into a living Temple of God (‘a habitation of God in the Spirit’ - verse 22) on the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets. The fact that the Prophets are linked with the Apostles as the foundation makes clear that the foundation is the teaching of both, and not the persons themselves. We can compare this with how the foundation rock on which the church would be built was also the statement of Peter, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God’ (Matthew 16.16-18). The true church of God is not founded on men but on truth.

In view of the stress all through on the uniting of believing Jews and Gentiles in one, and their now enjoying together all the benefits of being ‘Israel’, we are almost certainly to see these as including the Old Testament Prophets, and as including John the Baptiser. The foundation is the teachings of the Jesus as revealed through the Apostles, including their expansion of that teaching, and the teachings of the Old Testament as exemplified in the Old Testament Prophets. Jesus Christ is the chief cornerstone as the teaching of both prophets and Apostles points to Him and centres on Him. Indeed He is the foundation on which all their teaching is built (1 Corinthians 3.11).

This interpretation parallels it with 2 Peter 3.2, ‘That you should remember the words which were spoken before by the holy Prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Saviour through your Apostles’, and Romans 16.25-26, where Paul speaks of ‘my Gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ -- the mystery which -- is now manifested and by the scriptures of the Prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, is made known unto all the nations unto obedience of faith’.

Some would see the prophets as solely New Testament Prophets but such stress on their foundation qualities is not found elsewhere, and 2 Peter 3.2 and Romans 16.25-26 also suggest otherwise. (3.5 might be seen as fairly strong support for this view, although see our discussion on that verse. But if so it is almost unique). As we have seen the Old Testament Prophets and their teachings are constantly in mind in the Apostles’ teaching (Romans 1.2; 16.26; James 5.10; 1 Peter 1.10; 2 Peter 3.2). In Revelation 21.14 the names of the twelve Apostles alone are written on the foundation stones of the new Jerusalem, the twelve patriarchs and the twelve tribes being represented by twelve gates.

‘Christ Jesus Himself being the chief cornerstone.’ The chief cornerstone was either fitted at the top of the building, giving strength to the whole and binding the structure together, or the foundation stone on which all else rested. Thus Christ Himself is seen as the binding force that holds all together and strengthens the whole, and as the One on Whom all is founded.

2.21 ‘In whom all the building (or ‘every building’), fitly framed together, grows into a holy Temple in the Lord.’

And the purpose of all that has been described is so that they might be ‘the Temple of God’, that is, that in which God dwells in the world. Men must no longer look to Jerusalem and its Temple but to the Temple which is composed of Christ and His believing people. The building being described is ‘a holy Temple’, ‘a habitation of God in the Spirit’, and all its parts are joined and fitted together ‘in Him’, growing into that Temple. Thus the people of God are seen as being His Temple, a picture used elsewhere in 1 Corinthians 3.16-17; 2 Corinthians 6.16. (In 1 Corinthians 6.19 it is the body of each individual Christians which is seen as a sanctuary of God). All believers are being fitted together for this purpose. ‘All the building’ stresses the unity of the whole. If we read as ‘every building’ it may refer to different local churches, but ‘all the building’ seems preferable. (The picture is very similar to that in 1 Corinthians 12.13-27 where we are all members of His body. Note how in 1 Corinthians 6.15, 19 the two concepts merge).

2.22 ‘In whom you also are built together for a habitation of God through the Spirit.’

Paul’s Gentile readers are therefore also part of that Temple and part of that people, and the presence of God and the indwelling of the Spirit in them is especially stressed. Thus the whole Temple, which is the whole church of true believers in union with Christ, is the dwelling-place of God through the Spirit. God dwells with His people and is active among them (John 14.23).

God’s New Revelation Is Revealed in His Making the Church Into the New Israel.

3.1-6 ‘For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ on behalf of you Gentiles - if so be that you have heard of that stewardship of the grace of God which was given to me for your benefit, how that by revelation was made known to me the mystery, as I wrote before in few words, which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men as it has now been revealed to his holy Apostles and Prophets in the Spirit, which is that the Gentiles are fellow-heirs, and fellow-members of the body, and fellow-partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the Gospel.’

Paul begins his sentence and then diverts as another thought strikes him. He suddenly decides that, having declared this message of the oneness of Jews and Gentiles in Christ, he must establish a firm basis for his authority to speak in this way. It is possible, though not certain, that his return to his theme is in 3.14 (it could, for example, be 4.1 where he again refers to his being a prisoner in the Lord).

‘For this reason - .’ Because of what he has been saying in the previous chapter.

‘I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles.’ His forthright teaching of these facts, and his fight for the full inclusion of the Gentiles without circumcision (because they are already circumcised in Christ - Colossians 2.11), has brought about his imprisonment. He is a prisoner for their sakes. Had he been willing to accept circumcision and submission to the ritual law he would not have been so persecuted.

‘The prisoner of Christ Jesus.’ This was so in two senses. Firstly in that the reason why he was a prisoner was because of his service for Christ Jesus, but secondly because there was a sense in which Christ had made him a prisoner for the furtherance of the Gospel and for the benefit of the Gentiles (Philippians 1.12-14). He was Rome’s prisoner, but he was also Christ’s prisoner.

‘You Gentiles.’ This may suggest that the letter is for a wider audience of Gentiles than just a church he has founded, but not necessarily so, for he may merely be emphasising that it is as the Apostle to the Gentiles that he suffers on their behalf. Either way Paul is establishing his position so that even those who do not know him will recognise his authority. And this is what then makes him switch his thoughts to a different topic.

‘If so be that you have heard of that stewardship of the grace of God which was given me for your benefit, how that by revelation was made known to me the mystery - .’

‘If so be that you have heard.’ This again suggests that he has in mind many who have not personally heard him, although this could in fact be referring to some who became Christians after he left Ephesus. He has decided he needs to establish his credentials, for if they have heard previously what he is about to say they will have no difficulty in recognising that he is a prisoner on their behalf.

‘Of that stewardship of the grace of God which was given me for your benefit.’ This stewardship is his Apostleship to the Gentiles. He has been entrusted with the message of God’s free grace to all, which especially, (at least outwardly), benefits the Gentiles, for among other things it makes them fellow-heirs with the believing Jews (verse 6).

Alternately he may mean that the stewardship was given to him by the grace of God (compare Galatians 1.15) and consists in the content of the revelation he is about to speak of.

‘How that by revelation was made know to me the mystery - .’ Either way his position was finally established by the special revelation that God gave him. Compare on this revelation Galatians 1.12-17. What he was bringing to them was not what men had taught him, not even the Apostles, it was what was personally revealed in him by God.

Some would restrict this to the revelation on the road to Damascus (Acts 9.3-6), but there seem good grounds for thinking that it included further revelation, possibly during his time in Arabia (Galatians 1.17). Was that for forty days like his Master? (During the ‘three years’ he had a solid period of ministry in Damascus of ‘many days’ - Acts 9.23 - thus he was not in Arabia for three years). Consider the man in Christ who was lifted up into Heaven (2 Corinthians 12.2). He learned and experienced that which was to be the basis of his ministry, and it is not necessary to assume that all that he heard was unlawful to utter.

Certainly the revelation, whether it came by meditation on his experience or by further special revelation from the Lord, included ‘the mystery’ (in the New Testament the idea of ‘mystery’ indicates what had been hidden but was now revealed. It was no longer a mystery to those who were taught), the fact of the full acceptance of the Gentiles.

‘As I wrote before in a few words.’ This may refer to 2.11-22 or even 1.3-14. Or it could refer to a previous letter, or even to the letter to the Colossians, or that to the Galatians, passed on to other churches.

‘Whereby when you read you can perceive my understanding in the mystery of Christ.’ What was written made clear his full understanding in Christ’s mystery re the Gentiles. Either the previous verses or Galatians or Colossians would suit this admirably. All made known the acceptance of the Gentiles by God in full measure without circumcision.

‘Which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy Apostles and Prophets in Spirit (or ‘by the Spirit’).’

The mystery of Christ, now revealed, was not known in previous generations to ‘the sons of men’, that is men in general (this description may suggest, but not necessarily, that it was known to some who were not the sons of men, i.e. ‘the bene elohim - ‘the sons of God’ (the angels) and/or the Spirit-inspired Prophets). But now it has been revealed to His holy Apostles and Prophets. ‘Holy’ means set apart for God for a special purpose. All the people of God are sanctified and therefore ‘holy’, because they have been set apart for God and endued with His Spirit (1 Corinthians 1.2), and thus it is even more so of the Apostles and Prophets. Paul wants us to know that they have been set apart by God and are uniquely His.

‘As it has now been revealed to His holy Apostles and Prophets in Spirit, (or ‘by the Spirit’).’ Who are these Prophets? The fact is that nowhere else does Paul give such status to New Testament prophets. While therefore this is considered by many to refer to such New Testament prophets there are weighty arguments against it, and consideration must be given to the fact that he may well mean the Old Testament Prophets as now revealing more fully by the Spirit the significance of what they had prophesied. For in Romans 16.25 he says that the mystery ‘is now manifested, and by the scriptures of the Prophets -- - is made known to all’. This clearly links the Old Testament Prophets with the revealing of the mystery, and 1 Peter 1.10 says the Old Testament Prophets ‘prophesied of the grace that would come’ to them. And these Prophets are constantly appealed to (Romans 1.2; 16.26; James 5.10; 1 Peter 1.10; 2 Peter 3.2) while the New Testament prophets are never elsewhere appealed to in this way or put on such equivalence with the Apostles.

Furthermore it is the Old Testament Prophets who are called ‘holy Prophets’ in 2 Peter 3.2, and the Apostles are directly connected with these Prophets in Revelation 18.20 (compare verse 24) with ‘Apostles’ coming first. ‘Prophets in Spirit’ may thus well mean that what the Prophets wrote, and did not fully understand, is now ‘by the Spirit’ through their writings being made known and revealed on earth, while also possibly being now made known to them by the Spirit in their heavenly existence as they are aware of events on earth (see Hebrews 12.1 and compare the awareness of delayed judgment in Revelation 6.10-11. Consider also 3.10. If the principalities and powers could know, why not the prophets?).

3.6 ‘That is that the Gentiles are fellow-heirs, and fellow-members of the body, and fellow-partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the Gospel.’

This is the revealed mystery, that the Gentiles come on the same basis as believing Jews and partake of all the promises of God without having to become Jewish proselytes. They are fellow-heirs. That means that on believing they inherit the promises made to Abraham and the Prophets, and now belong to the commonwealth of the true Israel. They are fellow-members of the body. This is the body mentioned in 2.16, the new man made of both Jew and Gentile united with Christ. The Greek for ‘body’ is ‘sussoma’, a combination of ‘sun’ (with) with ‘soma’ (body). The emphasis is thus not on the body but on the oneness of it. Thus they are no longer alienated. They are fellow-partakers of the promise. Thus they are no longer strangers to the promises. They are one body together ‘in Christ’, joint heirs, joint members, joint beneficiaries.

‘In Christ Jesus through the Gospel.’ This is how the miracle has been brought about, through the offering of Christ Jesus on the cross as a sacrifice as proclaimed in the Gospel and by their being united with Him in His body (2.13, 16; 1 Corinthians 1.17-18).

It is difficult for us to appreciate how great this change was. As a Pharisee Paul had believed implicitly in the precedence of the Jews in all things related to God. The Gentiles were in the shadows, with a comparatively few coming humbly to take hold of the coat tails of the Jews. But now all this is turned upside down. Now all God’s ways are open to all who believe on equal terms, and all are equal in God’s sight.

3.7 ‘Whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God which was given me according to the working of His power.’

In mentioning the Gospel given to the Gentiles he cannot but remember how God graciously took him and made him a minister of that Gospel to the Gentiles (Galatians 2.7-8).

‘According to that gift of the grace of God which was given me.’ This means that the gift sprang from the grace of God and that he recognised the wonder of that gift. It was given to him solely as the act of God’s grace even while he was in the womb (Galatians 1.15), and it was revealed in the Damascus Road experience (Acts 9.15-16).

‘According to the working of His power.’ As ever when the gift was given the power resulted. He experienced the mighty power of God at work through him (compare 1.19). That is the test of the true gift of God, that He works through it with power.

3.8 ‘Unto me who am less than the least of all saints was this grace given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.’

The more Paul preached and proclaimed the Gospel, the more humbled he became that he could be allowed such a wonderful privilege. Having just spoken of ‘the holy Apostles’, which would include himself, he assures them that the ‘holiness’ is due to God’s grace not his merit. Many may say such words for effect but few genuinely feel it as Paul did. This is the test of the really great man. He began by seeing himself as the least of the Apostles, not fit to be an Apostle because he persecuted the church of Christ (1 Corinthians 15.9), but now he sees himself as the lowest of all the people of God. Later he would recognise himself as the chief of sinners (1 Timothy 1.15).

‘Was this grace given.’ No man deserves the privilege. Once again he repeats that it is a gift of God’s grace. Sadly many a preacher is lacking in this genuine recognition, and all are in danger of being lacking and must be watchful. Pride is a subtle enemy.

‘To preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.’ What vast treasures this covers. The whole of eternity is summed up in these words. The unsearchable riches of Christ, riches so great and so vast that their depths cannot be plumbed, and they are now offered to all irrespective of race, through Christ and His indwelling.

3.9-12 ‘And to make all men see what is the stewardship of the mystery, which from all ages has been hid in God who created all things, to the intent that now to the principalities and the powers in the heavenly places might be made known through the church the many sided wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access in confidence through our faith in him.’

‘To make all men see.’ Paul is desirous that the whole world should know, and indeed is commanded that it should be so.

‘What is the stewardship of the mystery.’ He wants them to see ‘the stewardship of the mystery’, that is, the carrying out into effect of the mystery by God in the church of God with its indwelling by Jesus Christ. For this is the wonder of the mystery, that Christ is in them the hope of glory (Colossians 1.27), so that they will become like Him, will partake in His glory, and will through the ages continully reveal that glory (compare 2 Corinthians 3.18; John 17.22). That is God’s purpose in Christ.

‘Which from all ages has been hid in God Who created all things.’ This mystery was kept secret in the heart of God even from before creation, and has now been made known in Christ.

‘To the intent that now the principalities and the powers in the heavenly places.’ This probably means all heavenly beings both unfallen and fallen (for the latter compare 6.12). They were created by Jesus Christ (Colossians 1.16) and have a part in the spiritual realm into which Christians have now been brought through the Spirit, some being helpful (Hebrews 1.14) and some being antagonistic (Ephesians 6.12). Many ancient religious non-Christian creeds produced whole hosts of heavenly beings of great varieties. Whatever they are, says Paul, they can only stand in awe at the church of God through whom God is carrying out His purposes. We may wonder at angels. They wonder at us.

‘Might be made known through the church the many sided wisdom of God.’ All such beings are to see the many sided (variegated) wisdom of God, either through the activity of the called out people of God, the Christ indwelt church, or perhaps just through its very existence, although the one assumes the other; and especially by its final presentation before God as the unblemished ‘wife’ of Christ (5.26-27).

‘According to the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord.’ The great mystery of the church is that, having been redeemed and sanctified, they are indwelt by the risen Christ, ‘Christ in you the hope of glory’ (Colossians 1.27), and enjoy His unsearchable riches. But this indwelling is not of some great organisation called ‘the church’, but of living members of the church, who are each indwelt by Christ (3.17; Galatians 2.20) and who must each be presented perfect in Christ (Colossians 1.28), and yet are united as one in Him.

‘Christ Jesus our Lord’. A phrase used only here (but compare Colossians 2.6 where it is used without ‘our’). It is intended to emphasise the majesty and glory of Christ (‘the Christ, Jesus our Lord’, compare Acts 2.36).

‘In Whom we have boldness and access in confidence through our faith in Him.’ Their being possessed by Christ makes His people confident in their approach to God, for they come through Him. Thus they come boldly to the throne of grace to obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need (Hebrews 4.16), and find that their access is sure. ‘Confident access.’ Not blase or arrogant, not thoughtless or presumptious, but humble and joyful because we come through Him.

3.13 ‘Wherefore I ask that you may not faint at my tribulations for you, which are your glory.’

Some of his readers were clearly very constrained at what Paul was enduring. They were dispirited and concerned. Why did God not step in and deliver him so that he could carry on with his powerful ministry. What would happen when he was gone? How could the church survive? Do not worry says Paul, my sufferings are your glory. Either a cause for them to glory, or will result in glory for them, or both. Without his imprisonment there may well have been no letters, and what would we have done then?

‘Tribulations.’ The word means literally ‘squeezings’ or ‘pressings’, being pressed in and afflicted by circumstances.

Paul’s Prayer for His Readers (3.14-21).

‘For this reason -.’ Compare 3.1 which begins in the same way. Does this mean that this is the continuation that he would have made had he not made a diversion? There are good grounds for suggesting that that occurs in 4.1 when he returns to the theme of the prisoner of the Lord, and exhorts them to walk worthily of their calling and maintain the unity of the Spirit.

We may equally see the prayer here as resulting from his outlining of the mystery of God to be revealed through the church of Christ. In order to complete their destiny they will need divine empowering in order to fulfil their responsibilities and fulfil His eternal purpose.

3.14-17a ‘For this reason I bow my knees to the Father from whom every Fatherhood in Heaven and on earth is named, that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory, that you may be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.’

Paul now feels constrained to express his prayer on their behalf. Prison gave much time for praying and Paul used it to the full. Aware of the future they faced he prayed for their divine empowering without which they could not hope to succeed.

‘For this reason.’ Because of the wonder of what God is doing, and because He has made them all one on Christ.

‘I bow my knees to the Father.’ Father He may be, but He is the divine Father. Thus Paul kneels in submission and worship. Boldness and confident access do not make him careless in his approach. Besides he has deep matters to deal with.

‘To the Father from Whom every fatherhood situation in Heaven and on earth is named.’ There is a play of words here between ‘pater’ (father) and ‘patria’ (family, fatherhood situation). The whole hierarchy of existence went down through fatherhood. God was Father of all. Then reflecting His Fatherhood came national and tribal leaders, including Abraham. Then came heads of the sub-tribes and families. Then the head of the individual family. And the same was so among the heavenly beings (‘in Heaven’). It is the whole pattern of existence. And the whole pattern of fatherhood is based on God’s Fatherhood. He is the supreme example of Fatherhood.

In all cases ‘the father’ was responsible for maintenance of unity, for justice and for the well-being of his family. Thus here the supreme Father is being approached about the well-being of His family (compare John 17.11).

‘That he would grant you according to the riches of His glory.’ He calls on all the resources of the Godhead, ‘the riches of His glory’, confident that He will supply from the riches of His glory and in accordance with it.

‘That you may be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man.’ The unique feature of the new people of God is that the Spirit of God has come among them and has entered in to them. They are born of the Spirit, sealed by the Spirit, being filled with the Spirit. They are Spirit possessed (in the right sense), filled with the dynamic of the Spirit. And this by the Spirit of God. Thus he prays that each member may learn to so yield to the Spirit that His full empowering might understay their whole being.

‘Strengthened.’ To be fortified, braced, invigorated.

‘In the inner man.’ The inner depths of a man that some call the soul, the centre of his being. In the Christian it is being renewed day by day, and delights in the precepts of God. Compare Romans 7.22; 2 Corinthians 4.16.

‘That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.’ He is addressing the whole church, and yet each individual member of that church. Each individual heart is in mind. To Paul the church is not an organisation or a society. It is a living body composed of individual living members. It throbs with the life of its members. And his prayer is that they may each experience the indwelling of Christ to the full, Christ revealing Himself in them, Christ living through them, Christ in them the hope of glory (Colossians 1.27; Galatians 2.20; John 14.18, 20, 23; 17.23, 26). Each member is daily to allow Christ to reveal Himself through their lives. Thus will the whole reveal Him in greater fullness.

3.17b-19 ‘To the end that you being rooted and grounded in love may be strong to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge, that you may be filled unto all the fullness of God.’

Enjoying the empowering of the Spirit and the indwelling of the risen Christ their very being will be rooted and grounded in love, for love is the basis of their salvation (John 3.16; Romans 5.8; 1 John 4.9-10), the nest in which they find their rest (1 John 4.8), the goal ever set before them (1 John 4.11). And it is the love of Christ which is beyond all knowledge. It is something that is so vast that its breadth, length, height and depth will take all the people of God through all ages to fathom. And being filled with that love we will be filled with all the fullness of God, thus becoming the fullness of Him Who fills all in all (1.23).

‘That you may be filled unto all the fullness of God.’ God is ready to give of Himself as much as we will receive. Each Christian may receive of that fullness to the measure that He is willing and able to receive it, and all the members of His true church as a whole may receive it, for it is inexhaustible and beyond measure. And the more they are open to Him the more they will receive of His fullness until they are completely filled.

In Colossians 2.2 Paul expresses his similar longing that the hearts of God’s people might be knitted together in love resulting in a full knowledge of Christ, in Whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. If we would fully know Christ we must first love, and as we love we will know more and more, and as we know more and more we will love more and more, and so it will go