Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and without defect before him in love, having predestined us for adoption as children through Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his desire, to the praise of the glory of his grace, by which he freely gave us favor in the Beloved, 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 toward us in all wisdom and prudence, making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he purposed in him to an administration of the fullness of the times, to sum up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens and the things on the earth, in him. We were also assigned an inheritance in him, having been foreordained according to the purpose of him who does all things after the counsel of his will, to the end that we should be to the praise of his glory, we who had before hoped in Christ. In him you also, having heard the word of the truth, the Good News of your salvation—in whom, having also believed, you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is a pledge of our inheritance, to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of his glory.
For this cause I also, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which is among you, and the love which you have toward all the saints, don’t cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers, 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 hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of his calling, and what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to that working of the strength of his might which he worked 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, authority, power, dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come. He put all things in subjection under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things for the assembly, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our…
3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. The lofty terms in which he extolls the grace of God toward the Ephesians, are intended to rouse their hearts to gratitude, to set them all on flame, to fill them even to overflowing with this thought. They who perceive in themselves discoveries of the Divine goodness, so full and absolutely perfect, and who make them the subject of earnest meditation, will never embrace new doctrines, by which the very grace which they feel so powerfully in themselves is thrown into the shade. The design of the apostle, therefore, in asserting the riches of divine grace toward the Ephesians, was to protect them against having their faith shaken by the false apostles, as if their calling were doubtful, or salvation were to be sought in some other way. He shews, at the same time, that the full certainty of future happiness rests on the revelation of his love to us in Christ, which God makes in the gospel. But to confirm the matter more fully, he rises to the first cause, to the fountain, — the eternal election of God, by which, ere we are born, (Romans 9:11,) we are adopted as sons. This makes it evident that their salvation was accomplished, not by any accidental or unlooked-for occurrence, but by the eternal and unchangeable decree of God.
The word bless is here used in more than one sense, as referring to God, and as referring to men. I find in Scripture four different significations of this word. 1. We are said to bless God when we offer praise to him for his goodness. 2. God is said to bless us, when he crowns our undertakings with success, and, in the exercise of his goodness, bestows upon us happiness and prosperity; and the reason is, that our enjoyments depend entirely upon his pleasure. Our attention is here called to the singular efficacy which dwells in the very word of God, and which Paul expresses in beautiful language. 3. Men bless each other by prayer. 4. The priest’s blessing is not simply a prayer, but is likewise a testimony and pledge of the Divine blessing; for the priests received a commission to bless in the name of the Lord. Paul therefore blesses God, because he hath blessed us, that is, hath enriched us with all blessing and grace.
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With all spiritual blessings. I have no objection to Chrysostom’s remark, that the word spiritual conveys an implied contrast between the blessing of Moses and of Christ. The law had its blessings; but in Christ only is perfection found, because he gives us a perfect revelation of the kingdom of God, which leads us directly to heaven. When the body itself is presented to us, figures are no longer needed.
In heavenly. Whether we understand the meaning to be, in heavenly Places, or in heavenly Benefits, is of little consequence. All that was intended to be expressed is the superiority of that grace which we receive through Christ. The happiness which it bestows is not in this world, but in heaven and everlasting life. In the Christian religion, indeed, as we are elsewhere taught, (1 Timothy 4:8,) is contained the “promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come;” but its aim is spiritual happiness, for the kingdom of Christ is spiritual. A contrast is drawn between Christ and all the Jewish emblems, by which the blessing under the law was conveyed; for where Christ is, all those things are superfluous.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23 The first part of the Epistle, wherein he handleth…
The first part of the Epistle, wherein he handleth all the parts of our salvation, propounding the example of the Ephesians, and using divers exhortations, and beginning after his manner with thanksgiving.
The next final cause, and in respect of us, is our salvation, all things being bestowed upon us which are necessary to our salvation, which kind of blessings is heavenly and proper to the elect.
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With all kind of gracious and bountiful goodness which is heavenly indeed, and from God only.
Which God our Father gave us from his high throne from above: or because the Saints have those gifts bestowed on them, which belong properly to the citizens of heaven.
The matter of our salvation is Christ, in whom only we are endued with spiritual blessing and unto salvation.
The efficient cause of our salvation is God, not considered confusedly and generally, but as the father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 23 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our…
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:
Ver. 3. Blessed be God] Gratiae cessat decursus, ubi gratiarum recursus. A thankful man shall abound with blessings.
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With all spiritual blessings] εν παση ευλογια πνευματικη, wisdom, prudence, &c., Eph 1:8, a Benjamin’s portion, a goodly heritage; called here spiritual blessing in the singular. All, and yet but one blessing; to note that spiritual blessings are so knit together, that they all make up but one blessing; and where God gives one, he gives all.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv4–23 God blesseth us with all spiritual blessings according as…
God blesseth us with all spiritual blessings according as he hath chosen us; election being the fountain from whence those blessings come, so that God doeth nothing for us in carrying on the work of our salvation, but what he had in his eternal counsel before determined.
Chosen us; separated us in his purpose and decree from others, (whom he left out of that gracious act of his will), and determined that we should be holy and unblamable, &c.
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In him; either:
1. By and through Christ, (as in the former verse), for his sake, and upon the account of his merit as the procuring cause, not of our election, but sanctification; q.d. God hath chosen us, that we should be made holy and unblamable by Christ. Or rather:
2. In Christ, as the foundation on which he would build us, (his spiritual house), and by which both we might be united to God, and he communicate his influence and grace to us; or as our Head, by which he might convey grace, and strength, and life to us as Christ’s members.
Before the foundation of the world; either before God’s decree of creating the world, or rather, before his executing that decree in the actual creation of it; i.e. from eternity, when neither we nor the world had a being.
That we should be holy and without blame; by inherent grace begun in regeneration, and carried on in sanctification and mortification in this life, though not perfected till the other. Holiness in us is declared here to be not the cause, but the effect of our election; we are chosen that we may be holy, not because we are, or God foresees we will be holy.
Before him; in the sight of God, who is not deceived with an outward appearance, but looks to the heart.
In love; as a principal part of our sanctification, and the best evidence of the fear of God in us, and our obedience to the whole law.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On vv3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 11, 13, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 Observe here, 1. The work which the heart of…
Observe here, 1. The work which the heart of the apostle was set upon, and that is, the work of blessing God: we bless God one way, he blesses us another; he blesses us imperatoriously, by commanding his blessings upon us; we bless him optatively, when with thankful hearts we praise him, when we wish well to him, and speak well of him.
Lord, what an infinite favour and privilege is this vouchsafed to us, not only to pray to God and receive blessings from him, but to admit us to bless him, and to account himself honoured by us when we acknowledge him the fountain of all blessings and blessedness to us his creatures!
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Observe, 2. The title under which our apostle blessed him, namely, as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He doth not say now under the gospel, as of old under the law, Blessed be the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; or, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; but, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Where note, 1. He is a God to Christ, in relation to his being man: Christ being foreordained before the foundation of the world,to the work and office of a Mediator, 1Pe 1:20 and the Father making a covenant or federal transaction with him from all eternity as Mediator.
Note, 2. He is a Father to Christ, and that both as God and man: a father to him as God, by eternal and ineffable generation, the one being Deus gignens, and the other Deus genitus: thus he was the only begotten Son of the Father: and Father to him as man, by virtue of the personal union of the two natures in Christ, Therefore that holy thing shall be called the Son of God Luk 1:32.
Observe, 3. The reason why under these relations he so affectionately blesses God, namely, for bestowing blessings, spiritual blessings, all spiritual blessings; and this is in or concerning heavenly things, which tend to fit us for heaven and eternal glory.
And lastly, all these blessings are conferred upon us in Christ, he, by his merit, hath purchased them; he, as our head and advocate,in our name has received them; by virtue of our union with whom we have a right upon them, and shall ere long in heaven be fully and finally possessed of them.
Behold here the transcendent bounty and liberality of our heavenly Father. He has more than one blessing for his children, he has all spiritual and heavenly blessings for them, grace on earth, and glory in heaven; grace to enable them to glorify him upon earth, and glory as the reward of grace with himself in heaven.
Rejoice, O Christian, in thy lot and portion; God himself hath but all things, and so hast thou. Has he all spiritual blessings in heaven in full possession? thou hast them also in right and title at present, and ere long shalt enjoy them in full fruitation. Eternally blessed then be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places, or in heavenly things, in Christ.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv3, 15 He begins with thanksgivings and praise, and enlarges with…
He begins with thanksgivings and praise, and enlarges with a great deal of fluency and copiousness of affection upon the exceedingly great and precious benefits which we enjoy by Jesus Christ. For the great privileges of our religion are very aptly recounted and enlarged upon in our praises to God.
I. In general he blesses God for spiritual blessings, Eph 1:3, where he styles him the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; for, as Mediator, the Father was his God; as God, and the second person in the blessed Trinity, God was his Father. It bespeaks the mystical union between Christ and believers, that the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is their God and Father, and that in and through him. All blessings come from God as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. No good can be expected from a righteous and holy God to sinful creatures, but by his mediation. He hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings. Note, Spiritual blessings are the best blessings with which God blesses us, and for which we are to bless him. He blesses us by bestowing such things upon us as make us really blessed. We cannot thus bless God again; but must do it by praising, and magnifying, and speaking well of him on that account. Those whom God blesses with some he blesses with all spiritual blessings; to whom he gives Christ, he freely gives all these things. It is not so with temporal blessings; some are favoured with health, and not with riches; some with riches, and not with health, etc. But, where God blesses with spiritual blessings, he blesses with all. They are spiritual blessings in heavenly places; that is, say some, in the church, distinguished from the world, and called out of it. Or it may be read, in heavenly things, such as come from heaven, and are designed to prepare men for it, and to secure their reception into it. We should hence learn to mind spiritual and heavenly things as the principal things, spiritual and heavenly blessings as the best blessings, with which we cannot be miserable and without which we cannot but be so. Set not your affections on things on the earth, but on those things which are above. These we are blessed with in Christ; for, as all our services ascend to God through Christ, so all our blessings are conveyed to us in the same way, he being the Mediator between God and us.
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II. The particular spiritual blessings with which we are blessed in Christ, and for which we ought to bless God, are (many of them) here enumerated and enlarged upon. 1. Election and predestination, which are the secret springs whence the others flow, Eph 1:4, Eph 1:5, Eph 1:11. Election, or choice, respects that lump or mass of mankind out of which some are chosen, from which they are separated and distinguished. Predestination has respect to the blessings they are designed for; particularly the adoption of children, it being the purpose of God that in due time we should become his adopted children, and so have a right to all the privileges and to the inheritance of children. We have here the date of this act of love: it was before the foundation of the world; not only before God's people had a being, but before the world had a beginning; for they were chosen in the counsel of God from all eternity. It magnifies these blessings to a high degree that they are the products of eternal counsel. The alms which you give to beggars at your doors proceed from a sudden resolve; but the provision which a parent makes for his children is the result of many thoughts, and is put into his last will and testament with a great deal of solemnity. And, as this magnifies divine love, so it secures the blessings to God's elect; for the purpose of God according to election shall stand. He acts in pursuance of his eternal purpose in bestowing spiritual blessings upon his people. He hath blessed us - according as he hath chosen us in him, in Christ the great head of the election, who is emphatically called God's elect, his chosen; and in the chosen Redeemer an eye of favour was cast upon them. Observe here one great end and design of this choice: chosen - that we should be holy; not because he foresaw they would be holy, but because he determined to make them so. All who are chosen to happiness as the end are chosen to holiness as the means. Their sanctification, as well as their salvation, is the result of the counsels of divine love. - And without blame before him - that their holiness might not be merely external and in outward appearance, so as to prevent blame from men, but internal and real, and what God himself, who looketh at the heart, will account such, such holiness as proceeds from love to God and to our fellow-creatures, this charity being the principle of all true holiness. The original word signifies such an innocence as no man can carp at; and therefore some understand it of that perfect holiness which the saints shall attain in the life to come, which will be eminently before God, they being in his immediate presence for ever. Here is also the rule and the fontal cause of God's election: it is according to the good pleasure of his will (Eph 1:5), not for the sake of any thing in them foreseen, but because it was his sovereign will, and a thing highly pleasing to him. It is according to the purpose, the fixed and unalterable will, of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will (Eph 1:11), who powerfully accomplishes whatever concerns his elect, as he has wisely and freely fore-ordained and decreed, the last and great end and design of all which is his own glory: To the praise of the glory of his grace (Eph 1:6), that we should be to the praise of his glory (Eph 1:12), that is, that we should live and behave ourselves in such a manner that his rich grace might be magnified, and appear glorious, and worthy of the highest praise. All is of God, and from him, and through him, and therefore all must be to him, and centre in his praise. Note, The glory of God is his own end, and it should be ours in all that we do. This passage has been understood by some in a very different sense, and with a special reference to the conversion of these Ephesians to Christianity. Those who have a mind to see what is said to this purpose may consult Mr. Locke, and other well-known writers, on the place. 2. The next spiritual blessing the apostle takes notice of is acceptance with God through Jesus Christ: Wherein, or by which grace, he hath made us accepted in the beloved, Eph 1:6. Jesus Christ is the beloved of his Father (Mat 3:17), as well as of angels and saints. It is our great privilege to be accepted of God, which implies his love to us and his taking us under his care and into his family. We cannot be thus accepted of God, but in and through Jesus Christ. He loves his people for the sake of the beloved. 3. Remission of sins, and redemption through the blood of Jesus, Eph 1:7. No remission without redemption. It was by reason of sin that we were captivated, and we cannot be released from our captivity but by the remission of our sins. This redemption we have in Christ, and this remission through his blood. The guilt and the stain of sin could be no otherwise removed than by the blood of Jesus. All our spiritual blessings flow down to us in that stream. This great benefit, which comes freely to us, was dearly bought and paid for by our blessed Lord; and yet it is according to the riches of God's grace. Christ's satisfaction and God's rich grace are very consistent in the great affair of man's redemption. God was satisfied by Christ as our substitute and surety; but it was rich grace that would accept of a surety, when he might have executed the severity of the law upon the transgressor, and it was rich grace to provide such a surety as his own Son, and freely to deliver him up, when nothing of that nature could have entered into our thoughts, nor have been any otherwise found out for us. In this instance he has not only manifested riches of grace, but has abounded towards us in all wisdom and prudence (Eph 1:8), wisdom in contriving the dispensation, and prudence in executing the counsel of his will, as he has done. How illustrious have the divine wisdom and prudence rendered themselves, in so happily adjusting the matter between justice and mercy in this grand affair, in securing the honour of God and his law, at the same time that the recovery of sinners and their salvation are ascertained and made sure! 4. Another privilege which the apostle here blesses God for is divine revelation - that God hath made known to us the mystery of his will (Eph 1:9), that is, so much of his good-will to men, which had been concealed for a long time, and is still concealed from so great a part of the world: this we owe to Christ, who, having lain in the bosom of the Father from eternity, came to declare his will to the children of men. According to his good pleasure, his secret counsels concerning man's redemption, which he had purposed, or resolved upon, merely in and from himself, and not for any thing in them. In this revelation, and in his making known unto us the mystery of his will, the wisdom and the prudence of God do abundantly shine forth. It is described (Eph 1:13) as the word of truth, and the gospel of our salvation. Every word of it is true. It contains and instructs us in the most weighty and important truths, and it is confirmed and sealed by the very oath of God, whence we should learn to betake ourselves to it in all our searches after divine truth. It is the gospel of our salvation: it publishes the glad tidings of salvation, and contains the offer of it: it points out the way that leads to it; and the blessed Spirit renders the reading and the ministration of it effectual to the salvation of souls. O, how ought we to prize this glorious gospel and to bless God for it! This is the light shining in a dark place, for which we have reason to be thankful, and to which we should take heed. 5. Union in and with Christ is a great privilege, a spiritual blessing, and the foundation of many others. He gathers together in one all things in Christ, Eph 1:10. All the lines of divine revelation meet in Christ; all religion centres in him. Jews and Gentiles were united to each other by being both united to Christ. Things in heaven and things on earth are gathered together in him; peace made, correspondence settled, between heaven and earth, through him. The innumerable company of angels become one with the church through Christ: this God purposed in himself, and it was his design in that dispensation which was to be accomplished by his sending Christ in the fulness of time, at the exact time that God had prefixed and settled. 6. The eternal inheritance is the great blessing with which we are blessed in Christ: In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, Eph 1:11. Heaven is the inheritance, the happiness of which is a sufficient portion for a soul: it is conveyed in the way of an inheritance, being the gift of a Father to his children. If children, then heirs. All the blessings that we have in hand are but small if compared with the inheritance. What is laid out upon an heir in his minority is nothing to what is reserved for him when he comes to age. Christians are said to have obtained this inheritance, as they have a present right to it, and even actual possession of it, in Christ their head and representative. 7. The seal and earnest of the Spirit are of the number of these blessings. We are said to be sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, Eph 1:13. The blessed Spirit is holy himself, and he makes us holy. He is called the Spirit of promise, as he is the promised Spirit. By him believers are sealed; that is, separated and set apart for God, and distinguished and marked as belonging to him. The Spirit is the earnest of our inheritance, Eph 1:14. The earnest is part of payment, and it secures the full sum: so is the gift of the Holy Ghost; all his influences and operations, both as a sanctifier and a comforter, are heaven begun, glory in the seed and bud. The Spirit's illumination is an earnest of everlasting light; sanctification is an earnest of perfect holiness; and his comforts are earnests of everlasting joys. He is said to be the earnest, until the redemption of the purchased possession. It may be called here the possession, because this earnest makes it as sure to the heirs as though they were already possessed of it; and it is purchased for them by the blood of Christ. The redemption of it is mentioned because it was mortgaged and forfeited by sin; and Christ restores it to us, and so is said to redeem it, in allusion to the law of redemption. Observe, from all this, what a gracious promise that is which secures the gift of the Holy Ghost to those who ask him.
The apostle mentions the great end and design of God in bestowing all these spiritual privileges, that we should be to the praise of his glory who first trusted in Christ - we to whom the gospel was first preached, and who were first converted to the faith of Christ, and to the placing of our hope and trust in him. Note, Seniority in grace is a preferment: Who were in Christ before me, says the apostle (Rom 16:7); those who have for a longer time experienced the grace of Christ are under more special obligations to glorify God. They should be strong in faith, and more eminently glorify him; but this should be the common end of all. For this we were made, and for this we were redeemed; this is the great design of our Christianity, and of God in all that he has done for us: unto the praise of his glory, Eph 1:14. He intends that his grace and power and other perfection should by this means become conspicuous and illustrious, and that the sons of men should magnify him.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv4–23 According as he hath chosen us in him,.... This…
According as he hath chosen us in him,.... This choice cannot be understood of a national one, as Israel of old were chosen by the Lord; for the persons the apostle writes to were not a nation; nor does he address all the inhabitants of Ephesus, only the saints and faithful in Christ that resided there; nor are they all intended here, if any of them. However, not they only, since the apostle includes himself, and perhaps some others, who did not belong to that place, nor were of that country: nor does this choice regard them as a church; for though the saints at Ephesus were in a church state, yet the apostle does not write to them under that formal consideration, but as saints and faithful; nor are these persons said to be chosen to church privileges, but to grace and glory, to be holy and blameless: besides, from Eph 1:3, the apostle seems to speak of himself, and some others, who first trusted in Christ, as distinct from the believers at Ephesus, Eph 1:13, nor is this choice of persons to an office, for all that are here intended were not apostles, or pastors, or deacons: nor can it design the effectual calling, or the call of persons in time by efficacious grace; because this was before the foundation of the world, as follows: but it intends an eternal election of particular persons to everlasting life and salvation; and which is the first blessing of grace, and the foundation one, upon which all the rest proceed, and
according to which they are dispensed; for according to predestination are calling, justification, and glorification. The author of this choice is God, God the Father, who is distinguished from Christ, in whom this act is made; and it is according to his foreknowledge, and is an act of his grace, and is entirely sovereign: the objects of it, us, are not angels, but men, considered as unfallen with respect to the end, and as fallen with respect to the means; and these not all mankind: to choose, implies the contrary; and they that are chosen are distinguished from others, and are represented as few; nor do all men partake either of the means or end appointed in the decree of election; and yet some of all nations, Jews and Gentiles, are included in it; though none for any previous qualifications in them, as not for their good works, faith, holiness, or perseverance therein; for these are fruits and effects of election, and therefore cannot be causes or conditions of it: and this choice is made in Christ; and the persons chosen are chosen in him, and by being chosen they come to be in him; for this refers not to their openly being in him at conversion, as believers, but to their secretly being in him before time. Christ, as Mediator, is the object of election himself; and all the elect were chosen in him as their head, in whose hands their persons, grace, and glory are, and so are safe and secure in him: the Arabic version renders it, "by him"; not as the meritorious cause, for Christ's merits are not the cause of election, though they are of redemption and salvation; but as the means, in order to the end: the Ethiopic version renders it, "to him"; to salvation by him, and to the obtaining of his glory; as if he and his benefits, being the end of this choice, were intended; which was made
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before the foundation of the world: and that it was so early, is certain, from the love of God to his people, which this is the effect of, and which is an everlasting love; and from the covenant which was made with Christ from everlasting, on account of these chosen ones, when Christ was set up as the head and representative of them; and from the provision of all spiritual blessings for them in it, which proceeds according to this choice; and from the preparation of a kingdom for them from the foundation of the world; and from the nature of God's decrees, which are eternal; for no new will, or act of will, can arise in God, or any decree be made by him, which was not from eternity: God's foreknowledge is eternal, and so is his decree, and is no other than himself decreeing. The end of this choice follows,
that we should be holy, and without blame, before him in love; the objects of it are not chosen because they were holy, but that they might partake of the sanctification of the Spirit; that they might be sanctified by him here, and be perfectly holy hereafter; and be without fault and blame, both in this life, as instilled by the righteousness of Christ, and as washed in his blood; and in the life to come, being entirely freed from all sin, and without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; and appear so in the sight of Christ, who will present them to himself, and in the sight of his Father, to whom they will also be presented by him, even in the sight of divine justice: and this will be all "in love", or "through love", as the Syriac version renders it; or "through his love", as the Arabic version; for the love of God is the source and spring of election itself, and of holiness and happiness, the end of it; and which is shed abroad in the hearts of God's people now, and will be more fully comprehended and enjoyed in the other world; and which causes love again in them to him. A phrase somewhat like this is used by the Targumist on Ecc 11:6 where, speaking of a man's children, he says;
"it is not known unto thee which of them , "is chosen to be good", this, or that, or both of them, to be alike good.''
Some copies put the stop at before him; and read the phrase, "in love"; in connection with the words following, thus, "in love", or "by love hath predestinated us"; so the Syriac version.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv3–23 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord…
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us - God's blessing us is his bestowing all spiritual and heavenly blessings upon us. Our blessing God is the paying him our solemn and grateful acknowledgments, both on account of his own essential blessedness, and of the blessings which he bestows upon us. He is the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, as man and Mediator: he is his Father, primarily, with respect to his divine nature, as his only begotten Son; and, secondarily, with respect to his human nature, as that is personally united to the divine. With all spiritual blessings in heavenly things - With all manner of spiritual blessings, which are heavenly in their nature, original, and tendency, and shall be completed in heaven: far different from the external privileges of the Jews, and the earthly blessings they expected from the Messiah.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv3–23 Verse 3. Blessed be the God] 2Co 1:3, where…
Verse 3. Blessed be the God] 2Co 1:3, where the same form is used.
With all spiritual blessings] With the pure doctrines of the Gospel, and the abundant gifts and graces of the Holy Ghost, justifying, sanctifying, and building us up on our most holy faith.
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In heavenly places] εν τοις επουρανιοις. In heavenly things, such as those mentioned above; they were not yet in heavenly places, but they had abundance of heavenly things to prepare them for heavenly places. Some think the word should be understood as signifying blessings of the most exalted or excellent kind, such as are spiritual in opposition to those that are earthly, such as are eternal in opposition to those that are temporal; and all these in, through and by CHRIST. We have already seen, on Ga 4:26, that the heavenly Jerusalem, or Jerusalem which is from above, is used by the Jews to signify the days of the Messiah, and that state of grace and glory which should follow the Levitical worship and ceremonies; and it is possible that St. Paul may use the word επουρανια, heavenly things, in this sense: God hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly things, or in this heavenly state, in which life and immortality are brought to light by the Gospel. This is apparently the preferable sense.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv3, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 18, 22 Eph 1:3-6. Blessed be God, who hath blessed us…
Eph 1:3-6. Blessed be God, who hath blessed us — God’s blessing us is his bestowing spiritual and heavenly blessings upon us. Our blessing God is the paying him our solemn and grateful acknowledgments, both on account of his own essential blessedness, and of the blessings which he bestows on us; with all spiritual blessings — The spiritual blessings here spoken of are such as are necessary to the perfection and happiness of our spirits; namely, the light of the gospel, the influences of the Spirit of God, the pardon of sin, adoption into God’s family, the sanctification of our nature, and eternal life. These blessings are here opposed to the earthly blessings which were promised to the natural descendants of Abraham, the ancient church of God, which consisted in the possession of Canaan, in victory over their enemies, fruitful seasons, &c, as described Deuteronomy 28. To these, and such like blessings, Abraham’s seed, by faith, were entitled by the promise, In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. In heavenly places — Or rather, In heavenly things, as εν τοις επουρανιοις, it seems, ought to be here translated. Certainly, we must enjoy spiritual blessings in heavenly things, before we can enjoy them in heavenly places; namely, blessings which are heavenly in their nature, original, and tendency, and shall be completed in heaven; far different from the external privileges of the Jews, and the earthly blessings they expected from the Messiah. According as he hath chosen us in him — Both Jews and Gentiles, whom he foreknew as believing in Christ, 1Pe 1:2. That he speaks of such, and of such only, is evident from Eph 1:12-14, where see the notes. Indeed, none but true believers in Christ, none but those whose faith in him works by love, are ever termed, in the New Testament, God’s chosen, or elect. For the election spoken of in the New Testament is not the election of individuals, out of the mass of mankind, to repent, believe, and obey, passing by the rest; but it is the election of such as are already possessed of faith, love, and a new nature, to be the people and children of God; which election it behooves them to make sure, by aspiring after a larger measure of these, and of all other graces and virtues, and by enduring to the end, 2Pe 1:10. Before the foundation of the world — Or, before the world began. This, as Macknight observes, “being said of the Ephesian brethren in general, it cannot be an election of the whole of them as individuals” [unconditionally] “to eternal life;” but must be that election, which, before the foundation of the world, God made of true believers, of all nations, to be his children and people, and to enjoy the blessings promised to such. That we should be holy — Dedicated to God, employed for him, and transformed into his image; and without blame — As to our whole spirit and conduct; before him — Or in his sight, who searches the heart, and observes all our ways. As the election here spoken of is an election of believers to be holy, all such ought continually to keep in mind this end of their election, that they may press on toward it more and more. In love — To God, his people, and all mankind, the source of all true holiness; Having predestinated, or fore-appointed, us — Who do now, or shall hereafter, believe in him with our heart unto righteousness; unto the adoption of children — For those who receive Christ, namely, in all his offices and characters, or who believe aright in him, enjoy the dignity of being his children and heirs, and joint heirs with Christ. See on Joh 1:12; Gal 3:26. According to the good pleasure of his will — According to his free, fixed, and unalterable purpose to confer these blessings on all those who believe in Christ, and those only. Of the word προοριζω, here, and frequently elsewhere, rendered to predestinate, see the notes on Rom 8:29-30. To the praise of the glory of his grace — His glorious, unmerited, and free love, without any desert on our part; wherein he hath made us accepted — Greek, εχαριτωσεν, he hath taken us into favour, namely, his peculiar favour; in the Beloved — In Christ, his beloved Son, through whom, though in ourselves we are so unworthy of them, we receive these inestimable blessings.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv3–23 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord…
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ - This commences a sentence which continues to the close of Eph 1:12. The length of the periods in the writings of Paul, is one cause of the obscurity of his style, and renders an explanation often difficult. The meaning of this phrase is, that God has laid a foundation for gratitude for what he has done. The ground or reason of the praise here referred to, is that which is stated in the following verses. The leading thing on which the apostle dwells is God’s eternal purpose - his everlasting counsel in regard to the salvation of man. Paul breaks out into the exclamation that God is worthy of praise for such a plan, and that his eternal purposes, now manifest to people, give exalted views of the character and glory of God. Most persons suppose the contrary. They feel that the plans of God are dark, and stern, and forbidding, and such as to render his character anything but amiable.
They speak of him, when he is referred to as a sovereign, as if he were tyrannical and unjust, and they never connect the idea of that which is amiable and lovely with the doctrine of eternal purposes. There is no doctrine that is usually so unpopular; none that is so much reproached; none that is so much abused. There is none that people desire so much to disbelieve or avoid; none that they are so unwilling to have preached; and none that they are so reluctant to find in the Scriptures. Even many Christians turn away from it with dread; or if they “tolerate” it, they yet feel that there is something about it that is especially dark and forbidding. Not so felt Paul. He felt that it laid the foundation for eternal praise; that it presented glorious views of God; that it was the ground of confidence and hope; and that it was desirable that Christians should dwell upon it and praise God for it. Let us feel, therefore, as we enter upon the exposition of this chapter, that God is to be praised for all his plans, and that it is “possible” for Christians to have such views of the doctrine of “eternal predestination” as to give them most elevated conceptions of the glory of the divine character. And let us also be “willing” to know the truth. Let us approach word after word, and phrase after phrase, and verse after verse, in this chapter, willing to know all that God teaches; to believe all that he has revealed; and ready to say, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ for all that he has done.”
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Who hath blessed us - Who does Paul mean here by “us?” Does he mean all the world? This cannot be, for all the world are not thus blessed with “all” spiritual blessings. Does he mean “nations?” For the same reason this cannot be. Does he mean the Gentiles in contradistinction from the Jews? Why then does he use the word “us,” including himself, who was a Jew? Does he mean to say that they were blessed with external privileges, and that this was the only object of the eternal purposes of God? This cannot be, for he speaks of “spiritual blessings;” he speaks of the persons referred to as having “redemption” and “the forgiveness of sins;” as having “obtained an inheritance,” and as being sealed with the “Holy Spirit of promise.” These appertain not to nations, or to external privileges, or the mere offers of the gospel, but to true Christians; to persons who have been redeemed. The persons referred to by the word “us,” are those who are mentioned in Eph 1:1, as “saints,” - ἅγίοις hagiois - “holy;” and “faithful” - πιστοῖς pistois - “believing,” or “believers.”
This observation is important, because it shows that the plan or decree of God had reference to individuals, and not merely to nations. Many have supposed (see Whitby, Dr. A. Clarke, Bloomfield, and others) that the apostle here refers to the “Gentiles,” and that his object is to show that they were now admitted to the same privileges as the ancient Jews, and that the whole doctrine of predestination here referred to, has relation to that fact. But, I would ask, were there no Jews in the church at Ephesus? See Act 18:20, Act 18:24; Act 19:1-8. The matter of fact seems to have been, that Paul was uncommonly successful there among his own countrymen, and that his chief difficulty there arose, not from the Jews, but from the influence of the heathen; Act 19:24. Besides what evidence is there that the apostle speaks in this chapter especially of the Gentiles, or that he was writing to that portion of the church at Ephesus which was of Gentile origin? And if he was, why did he name himself among them as one on whom this blessing had been bestowed? The fact is, that this is a mere supposition, resorted to without evidence, and in the face of every fair principle of interpretation, to avoid an unpleasant doctrine. Nothing can be clearer than that Paul meant to write to “Christians as such;” to speak of privileges which they enjoyed as special to themselves; and that he had no particular reference to “nations,” and did not design merely to refer to external privileges.
With all spiritual blessings - Pardon, peace, redemption, adoption, the earnest of the Spirit, etc., referred to in the following verses - blessings which “individual Christians” enjoy, and not external privileges conferred on nations.
In heavenly places in Christ - The word “places” is here understood, and is not in the original. It may mean heavenly “places,” or heavenly “things.” The word “places” does not express the best sense. The idea seems to be, that God has blessed us in Christ in regard to heavenly subjects or matters. In Eph 1:20, the word “places” seems to be inserted with more propriety. The same phrase occurs again in Eph 2:6; Eph 3:10; and it is remarkable that it should occur in the same elliptical form four times in this one epistle, and, I believe, in no other part of the writings of Paul. Our translators have in each instance supplied the word “places,” as denoting the rank or station of Christians, of the angels, and of the Saviour, to each of whom it is applied. The phrase probably means, in things pertaining to heaven; suited to prepare us for heaven; and tending toward heaven. It probably refers here to every thing that was heavenly in its nature, or that had relation to heaven, whether gifts or graces. As the apostle is speaking, however, of the mass of Christians on whom these things had been bestowed, I rather suppose that he refers to what are called Christian graces, than to the extraordinary endowments bestowed on the few. The sense is, that in Christ, i. e. through Christ, or by means of him, God had bestowed all spiritual blessings that were suited to prepare for heaven - such as pardon, adoption, the illumination of the Spirit, etc.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 19, 21, 22, 23 Blessed by the God, who, through his Son Jesus…
Blessed by the God, who, through his Son Jesus Christ, made man, hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings and gifts; and by his grace, infused into our souls, has given us a title to a happy eternity in heaven. (Witham) --- In heavenly things; (in cælestibus) i.e. all spiritual blessings from heaven, or for eternity. This is the object of all the blessings we receive from God; and we ought, according to the first intention of them, to refer them all to eternal or heavenly beatitude. St. Paul distinguishes the blessings which we receive in Jesus Christ from those bestowed upon the Jews, which were temporal and limited to this earth. (Calmet; Challoner)
With all spiritual blessings in heavenly places: literally, in heavenlies,[1] or celestials, which some expound and translate, in heavenly things; but this being expressed just before by spiritual blessings, it rather seems to be understood of the glory prepared for us un heaven, or in the heavenly mansions; in which sense it seems to me, according to the interpretation both of St. Jerome and of St. John Chrysostom in their commentaries on these words. Estius takes notice that the same expression, in the celestials, is used five times in this epistle, and in all of them signifies places above us. (Witham)
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[BIBLIOGRAPHY]
In cælestibus, Greek: en tois epouraniois, in supercælestibus. St. Jerome, (p. 324, tom. 4. nov. edit.) Spiritualia in cælestibus expectanda....thesaurizamus nobis in cælis. See St. John Chrysostom, Greek: log. a. p. 765.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On vv3, 15
II. PART FIRST
THE GLORY OF THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST
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1–3
A. The ground and goal of the church
Eph_1:3-23
1. Grateful praise of the decree of grace
(Eph_1:3-14)
3Blessed be the God and Father15 of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath [omit hath]16 blessed us with [ἐν, in] all spiritual blessings [blessing]17 in [the] heavenly places in 4Christ: According [even] as he hath chosen [he chose] us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him [;] in love: [omit the colon]18 5Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children [unto adoption] by [through] Jesus Christ to [unto] himself,19 according to the good 6pleasure of his will, To [Unto] the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted [which20 he freely bestowed upon us] in the beloved: 7In whom we have [the or our] redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins [our transgressions],21 according to the riches22 of his grace; 8Wherein he hath abounded 9[Which he made to abound] toward us in all wisdom and prudence; Having made known unto [to] us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which 10he hath [omit hath] purposed in himself: [,] That in [Unto]23 the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one [to gather up together] all things in Christ, both [omit both and supply the things]24 which are in heaven, and 11[the things] which are on earth; even in him: [,] In whom also we have obtained an [In whom we were also made his]25 inheritance, being [having been] predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own [omit own] will: 12That we should be to [unto] the praise of his glory, who first trusted [we who have before hoped]26 in Christ [or the Christ]. 13In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard [In whom ye also, having heard]27 the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also, after that ye believed [in whom I say having also believed], ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise [the 14Spirit of promise, the holy One], Which [Who]28 is the earnest of our inheritance until [unto] the redemption of the [his] purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Summary.—It is clear that Eph_1:3 opens the section with thanksgiving and praise for the blessing of Redemption. But in this wonderful chain of clauses (Eph_1:4-14), so interwoven and intertwined, the divisions and groupings are not easily perceived, so that expositors hold very different opinions. But it is evident, that the three times repeated: “unto the praise of the glory of his grace” (Eph_1:6), “unto the praise of his glory” (Eph_1:12), “unto the praise of his glory” (Eph_1:14), form conclusions, receiving, it is true, in the flow of language in Eph_1:6; Eph_1:12, qualifications for amplification and transition. Accordingly we find in Eph_1:4-6, the first foundation for praise: the election of eternal mercy; in Eph_1:7-12, the second: the carrying out of the eternal decree; Eph_1:13-14, the third: the personal appropriation of salvation. Our view is directed to the Father before all time, the Son in time, the Spirit in eternity. So Stier, who, however, artificially divides each section again into three parts, according to ground, course and goal.
[Alford, who follows Stier, gives this summary: “The preliminary idea of the Church, set forth in the form of an ascription of praise, Eph_1:3-14 :—thus arranged: Eph_1:3-6, the Father, in His eternal love, has chosen us to holiness (Eph_1:4), ordained us to Sonship (Eph_1:5), bestowed grace on us in the Beloved; Eph_1:7-12, in the Son, we have—redemption according to the riphes of His grace (Eph_1:7), knowledge of the mystery of His will (Eph_1:8-9), inheritance under Him the one Head (Eph_1:10-12); Eph_1:13-14, through the Spirit we are sealed, by hearing the word of salvation (Eph_1:13), by receiving the earnest of our inheritance, to the redemption of the purchased possession (Eph_1:14).—Dr. Hodge is less satisfactory, see Eph_1:4 for his exhaustive analysis of Eph_1:4-6.—R.]
Harless: 1. The objective act of God, a) in the eternal decree of the Redemption of believers, b) actualized through the death of His Son (Eph_1:1-7 : παραπτωμάτων); 2. The revelation of this act in the word (Eph_1:7-10); 3. The subjective actualization of this act in the Redemption of individuals (Eph_1:11-14).—Meyer takes the salvation (Eph_1:3) as a) foreordained (Eph_1:4-5), b) effected (Eph_1:6-7), c) made known (Eph_1:8-10), d) actually appropriated (Eph_1:11), by Jews (Eph_1:12), as well as by those who had been heathen (Eph_1:13-14).—Others otherwise, always with an overlooking of the incisa so readily perceived.—[Dr. Lange, who suggests the frequent occurrence of liturgical forms in Paul’s Epistles, finds in these verses the most striking example. See his liturgical reading, Romans, p. 26.—R.]
Eph_1:3. General opening.
Blessed be [εὐλογητός].29—First of all, we must notice the play upon the words: εὐλογητός—ὁ εὐλογήσας—ἐν—εὐλογία. The words εὐλογεῖν and εὐλογία have a two-fold meaning, as in benedicere and benedictio, to bless and blessing, (בֵּרֵךְ) בָּרַךְ, to praise, to laud and to endow, all to be traced back to one sense, to speak or promise good. So εὐλογεῖν, Luk_1:64 (ἐλάλει εὐλογῶν τὸν θεόν); comp. Luk_24:53 (αἰνοῦντες τὸν θεόν); Jam_3:9 (ἐν αὐτῇ εὐλογοῦμεν τὸν κυρίον); εὐλογία, Rom_16:18 (διὰ τῆς χρηστολογίας καὶ εὐλογίας), decora oratio, praise, Gal_3:8-9; Gal_3:14; Heb_6:7. The German word Segen, blessing, is derived from signum, sign, i.e., the sign of the cross in pronouncing the blessing; from this is derived segnen, to bless (see Juetting, Bibl. Wörterbuch, p. 171 ff.), and this means not only to wish well (Psa_10:3; Isa_65:16) in coming (1Sa_13:10) or in going (Act_20:1), but to praise, to thank (1Co_14:16; 1Co_10:16) and also to assign or impart good or goods (Gen_12:2; Gen_27:34; Gen_27:36). The meaning, to praise, to thank, does indeed become the prominent one, where it is applied to men with regard to God, since man has only words, can only εὗ λέγειν; as does that of allotting good or goods, where God’s dealings towards men are in question, since with God there is no resting in words, His words are or become deeds. Bengel: Antanaclasis: aliter benedixit Deus nobis, aliter nos benedicimus illi. Theodoret: εἰδέναι προσήκει, ὡς εὐλογοῦντες μὲν οἱ ἅνθρωποι τὸν θεὸν λόγους αὐτῷ προσφέρουσι μόνους, ἔργῳ δὲ αὐτὸν εὐεργετῆσαι οὐ δύνανται, ὁ δέ θεὸς εὐλογῶν βεβαιοῖ τοὺς λόγους τῷ ἔργῳ καὶ παντοδαπὴν παρέχει φόραν ἀγαθῶν τοῖς εὐλογουμένοις. It is otherwise, when Jethro says of God: בָּדוּךְ יְהוָֹה (Exo_17:10), or Laban to Eliezer, (Gen_24:31): בְּרוּךְ יְהוָֹה “thou blessed of the Lord” (comp. Gen_26:29; Mat_25:34, where Jesus as Judge will say to His own: “Come, ye blessed of my Father;” Luk_1:28, where Mary is called κεχαριτωμένη, “highly favored,” in the same sense). Both meanings appear here in our passage, where the Apostle praises and blesses God (εὐλογητός), who has blessed us (ὁ εὐλογήσας ἐν εὐλογίᾳ).
The form here chosen should be noticed, εὐλογητός, which is always applied to God,30 not εὐλογημένος, since for Him there is no time when He was not and will not hereafter be “blessed,” so that God is κατʼ εξοχὴν ὁ εὐλογητός (Mar_14:61). Nor is this=worthy of praise, to be praised, but like בָּרוּךְ in a purely passive sense, as the promiscuous use of both forms requires. The position of the words also, at the beginning, shows that the emphasis rests upon it; in Rom_9:5 the Person is put first for the same reason. [So Ellicott.] On the sense of εὐλογητός it may be remarked, that Paul begins nearly all his Epistles with praise and thanksgiving to God, and that too with a reference to the churches and persons to which, the circumstances in which, and the purpose with which, he is writing; with εὐλογητός as here, only in 2Co_1:3 (so 1Pe_1:3), usually with εὐχαριστεῖν, Rom_1:8; 1Co_1:4; Php_1:3; Col_1:3; 1Th_1:2; 2Th_1:3; Phm_1:4, with χάριν ἔχειν 2Ti_1:3. As the received “grace” is returned again in thanksgiving, so is the εὐλογία received from the Lord, in the εὐλογητός from the praising creature: God is saluted, never blessed, with His own blessing (Stier).
The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ—ὁ θεὸς καὶ πατὴρ τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ.—Exactly as in 2Co_1:3; 1Pe_1:3. Comp. Rom_15:6; 2Co_11:31; Col_1:3; Rev_1:6. It is most natural, since the passage does not read: ὁ θεός, ὁ πατὴρ τοῦ κυρίου, to join the genitive τοῦ κυρίου, “of our Lord,” with θεός, “God,” as well as with πατήρ, “Father” (Jerome, Theophylact, Rueckert, Stier), as the genitive is not necessarily required as an explanatory addition to πατήρ. It is found without any qualification, in Eph_1:20; 1Co_15:24 : τῷ θεῷ καὶ πατρί; Eph_6:23; 2Ti_1:2; Gal_1:1 : θεοῦ πατρός; 1Th_1:1 : θεῷ πατρί. Besides in Eph_3:14 many MSS. read: τὸν πατέρα τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ (though א. A. B. C. omit the genitive), while the established reading in Eph_1:17 is: ὁ θεὸς τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ, so that the Apostle, as this very Epistle shows, could join this qualifying phrase to “God” as well as to “Father.” On this account Meyer is incorrect, in applying the genitive to πατήρ, and not to θεός, on the ground that the former idea alone demands such complementing, and not the latter; nor should he have laid so great weight upon the notion, that the expression: the God of Christ, as an isolated one, has not obtained that currency, which it must have done, had it been found in this “solemn formula” also, since Christ’s word on the cross (Mat_27:46 : θεέ μου, θεέ μου) and on the day of His resurrection (Joh_20:17 : ἀναβαίνω πρὸς τὸν πατέρα μου καὶ πατέρα ὑμῶν καὶ θεόν μου καὶ θεὸν ὑμῶν; comp. Rev_2:7; Rev_3:12) suffice to justify this expression and this connection in our “solemn formula.” We find too in B. the reading ὁ θεὸς τοῦ κυρίου, κ. τ. λ. Nor can it be asserted, with Harless, that if the following genitive belonged to the first substantive also, the reading should necessarily be: ὁ θεός τε καὶ πατήρ; Meyer refers very properly to 1Pe_2:25. Kai binds what is homogeneous; τε adds something accessory (Winer, pp. 404, 408); καὶ conjungit, τε adjungit, as Hermann says.31 To be God and to be Father are not ideas which exclude each other, nor do they appear as two, but as a unity; He is here praised, who is not only the God of the Incarnate One, but is also the Father of this Lord, of the. Only Begotten, whom He has given; thus is indicated the God-man by whom the blessings of Redemption are mediated. It was not necessary for Theodoret to say: δηλῶν, ὡς ἡμῶν μέν ἐστι θεὸς, τοῦ δὲ κυρίου ἡμῶν πατήρ. Practically this generally Christian formula has taken the place of the Jewish: the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, even if it were not so intended by the Apostle or Apostles, as Rueckert supposes.
Who blessed us [ὁεὐλογήσας ἡμᾶς].The active, over against the passive (εὐλογητός) denotes efficient, active blessing, the aorist the historical fact in the existence and condition of the Church.32 Hence “us” should be taken in its wider meaning and applied to Christians, and should not be limited to the Apostle (Koppe), who afterwards (Eph_1:15 : ἐγώ) begins to speak of himself and his experiences, nor to the Jewish Christians, who are first thought of in Eph_1:11 (comp. Eph_1:13); so strong rather is the feeling of the fellowship under the blessing of God, that the Apostle, as the genuine Apostle to the Gentiles, includes with himself and the Apostles as his people, all men, who have become or will become Christians.
With all spiritual blessings, ἐν πάση εὐλογία πνευματικῇ.—This denotes the sphere into which He in blessing has transferred them; He has so placed us in blessing, that we are surrounded, overflowed thereby, and ἐν πάσῃ εὐλογίᾳ. According to Winer (p. 105) this means every blessing; πᾶσα ἡ εὐλογία would be the whole blessing; see the instructive passage, Rom_3:19. There is no variety of blessing, which God has not bestowed upon us, but the entire fulness of the blessing, so that we have nothing more receive, has not yet been conferred upon us. Comp. Rom_15:29 : “in the fulness of the blessing of Christ.”
The adjective “spiritual” limits the manifold variety to the domain of the spiritual, to what the Holy Spirit effects and imparts. It is recalled also in what follows respecting the adoption (Eph_1:5) the redemption and forgiveness of sins (Eph_1:7), the revelation (Eph_1:9) and thus is expounded the riches of that spiritual blessing, which we already possess, but which we ever need yet more. There is no manner of occasion for supposing an antithesis to the earthly blessings and promises of the Israelites (Chrysostom, Grotius and others), or to their typical possessions and the vain ones of the heathen (Schöttgen); nor should “spiritual” be explained as=qui ad animum pertinet (Erasmus, Rosenmueller); our spirit of itself still belongs to the σάρξ. [See Romans, p. 234 f.]33 The Apostle is treating of the blessings promised in Joe_3:1, which are no longer merely promised, since their fulfilment is expressed in “who hath blessed us.”
In heavenly places, ἐν τοὶς ἐπουρανίοις.
1. Besides this passage the phrase is found in Eph_1:20; Eph_2:6; Eph_3:10; Eph_6:12, and in all, even in the last named, with a local sense; in the domain of the heavenly; hence in accordance with the nature of the matter, it is not to be taken in any coarse, sensuous signification as measurable, limitable space, but as domain, region.
2. The word itself has in the preposition ἐπί a local reference, like ἐπίγειος (1Co_15:40), but as this is to be distinguished from κατάγειος, καταχθόνιος (Php_2:10), so is the former from ὑπερουράνιος.
3. Τὰ ἐπουράνια at all events is not to be taken as=ὁ οὐρανός, οἱ οὐρανοί or=βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν, but designates more indefinitely, in general, what belongs to heaven in contrast with what belongs to and is on earth, as appears from Eph_6:12, where the contest with the powers of darkness “in heavenly places” is spoken of in antithesis to the contest with flesh and blood.
4. The connection of the phrase ἐν τοῖς ἐπουρανίοις with ἐν εὐλογίᾳ πνευματικῇ is demanded by the fact that the latter is joined with εὐλογήσας and dependent on it, and hence the latter cannot belong to the verb as a closer qualification of the act of blessing. Accordingly this added phrase says, that every spiritual blessing, which we have received, springs from a higher world, is to be sought in a heavenly region and thence to be obtained. [Ellicott with his usual exactness presents the view here upheld and now generally received; he takes the phrase as “defining broadly and comprehensively the region and sphere where our true home is (Php_3:20), where our hope is laid up (Col_1:5), and whence the blessings of the Spirit, the ἡ δωρεὰ ἡ ἐπουράνιος (Heb_6:4) truly come.” We may add from Alford: “Materially we are yet in the body: but in the Spirit, we are in heaven—only waiting for the redemption of the body to be entirely and literally there.”—R.]
Accordingly it is incorrect:
a) To understand by τὰ ἐπουράνια bona not loca, with Chrysostom, Theodoret, Luther and many others; the idea of possessions is already found in εὐλογία (against Rueckert, Stier). Nor is Calvin right in saying: Non multum refert, subaudias locis an bonis; tantum voluit indicare præstantiam gratiæ, quæ per Christum nobis confertur, quia scilicet non in mundo, sed in cœlo et vita æterna nos faciat bonos.
b) Grotius is in error, in referring it, to a place indeed, but to the cœlum summum in contrast to the regio astrifera.
c) The rendering and explanation: in heaven (Meyer, Rueckert, Harless, Stier, Schenkel and others), is not exact, passes beyond the word itself; still less is it admissible to refer it to the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of heaven on earth, the church (Ernesti, Teller and others). [With more definiteness it is explained by Hodge: cœlum gratiæ, the kingdom of grace here on earth, the heavenly state into which the believer is introduced; a view to which Eadie inclines.—R.]
d) To follow Beza in joining the phrase to God, is as unjustifiable and inadmissible, as to accept with Koppe the aorist for the future, because the believers walk in heaven already in a certain sense (Php_3:20, to which Jerome and Beza refer), or quia non in mundo, sed in cœlo et vita æterna nos faciat beatos (Calvin), or quia hæc (dona) nos et spe et jure in cœlis collocant (Grotius). The explanation of Homberg, that it is=εὑλογίᾳ πνευματικῇ καὶ ἐπουρανίῳ is altogether arbitrary and groundless.
In Christ, ἐν Χριστῷ, indicates the mediation of the blessing (Segnen) which consists in spiritual blessing (Segen). Comp. 2Co_5:18 f. It is not propter Christum (Morus, Flatt, Meyer: “in Him was contained the ground why God blessed us,” which is after all equivalent to: for Christ’s sake). Schenkel: “Outside of the fellowship with the Son there is no part in the spiritual blessing of the Father (Rom_8:9 f.).” It cannot be overlooked in this Epistle, that this phrase: ἐν Χριστῷ, is “the centre and heart beat of the Apostle’s view.” It is repeated in Eph_1:4; Eph_1:6-7; Eph_1:10-13 ff.; with the Apostle it stands in the same category as: in Adam, in Abraham. Herein (ἐν Χριστῷ) is to be found the difference between the Christian and Jewish Churches, the New Testament and Old Testament people of God. In the case of the former, the blessing was not wanting, nor the “spiritual,” for the law is spiritual (Rom_7:14); even the “every” was not lacking, since God’s Word was there, the forgiveness of sins, though in incipiency, in types, in shadow (Heb_8:5 : σκιᾷ τῶν ἐπουρανίων, Col_2:17); nor yet is ἐν τοῖς ἐπουρανίοις, “heavenly places,” altogether new, as though the New Testament first found place and voice there, first established itself there, while the Old Testament pointed only to the earthly Canaan (against Stier).
[Alford follows Stier, in accepting a reference to the Trinity in the threefold ε̇ν, but Ellicott’s treatment of the phrases seems more exact: “Εὐλογήσας contains the predication of time (Donaldson, Gr. § 574 sq.), ἐν π. εὐλογίᾳ πνευμ. the predication of manner, more exactly defined by the local predication ἐν τοῖς ἐπουρανίοις, while ἐν Χριστῷ is that mystical predication which, as Stier well observes, ‘is the very soul of this Epistle,’ and involves all other conceptions in itself.” This accords well with Braune’s view, that it expresses the distinctively Christian character of the blessing here spoken of,—R.]
The first foundation of the praise; Eph_1:4-6 :
The Election of eternal mercy. [Dr. Hodge thus analyzes these verses: “Of these (spiritual gifts for which the Apostle blesses God) the first in order and the source of all the others is election, Eph_1:4. This election Isaiah 1. Of individuals. 2. In Christ. 3. It is from eternity. 4. It is to holiness, and to the dignity of sons of God. 5. It is founded on the sovereign pleasure of God (Eph_1:4-5). 6. Its final object is the glory of God, or the manifestation of His grace, Eph_1:6.” This agrees with Braune’s view, except that he substitutes “the church” for “individuals” under (1), viewing the church as an organism made up of individuals. See below and also Doctr. Note 3.—R.]
Eph_1:4. Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world [καθὼς ἐξελέξατο ἡμᾶς ἐν αὐτῷ πρὸ καταβολῆς κόσμου].—Καθώς marks a relation, indeed a conformity of two facts, which correspond to one another: the εὐλογεῖν has taken place in conformity with the ἐκλέγεσθαι; He has blessed entirely as He has decreed in the choosing, the election. So Meyer also. That analogy is in question, according to which from the fact of the blessing a conclusion may be drawn with respect to the election. It is not merely indicated that there is an internal connection between the election and the blessing, but it is definitely stated that this carrying out corresponds to the eternal decree of God. Bengel: electio respondet, et eam subsequitur, benedictio, et patefacit. Hence καθώς is not used here as a designation of causality (Morus, Rueckert) [Hodge: because], as it is in other passages (Winer, p. Eph 417: [quoniam] quippe, siquidem); Harless takes it as an argumentative particle (=inasmuch) and says that it is related to καθότι, the latter however designating the causa, the former the modus (Rom_1:28; 1Co_1:6). [Meyer takes it as argumentative; Alford and Ellicott as explaining and expanding the foregoing, the latter admitting its causal force at times; Eadie is most exact: “These spiritual blessings are conferred on us, not merely because God chose us, but they are given in perfect harmony with His eternal purpose.” However true it may be that “election is the cause or source of all subsequent benefits” (Hodge), it is hardly safe to found such a statement on the particle καθώς.—R.]
Ἐξελέξατο=He chose us out for Himself;34 Paul uses it only three times elsewhere (all in 1Co_1:27-28). The verb ἐκλέγεσθαι corresponds entirely to the Hebrew בָּחַר, as ἐκλεκτός=בָּחִיר. In the middle form it designates, both in the Old and New Testaments, an act of God, “by virtue of which some rather than others especially belong to God’ ’ (Harless). Although Hofmann (Schriftbeweis I. p. 223 ff.) will only admit, that in this word respect is had to that on account of which one is chosen, or respect to him who on that account is chosen or accepted, and that the stress is laid each time upon that which the chosen one thus becomes, and not upon the antithesis to those who do not become this, yet he perceives in the preposition a preference, even if only a preference above a mass to which he would otherwise belong. He refers to οἱ ἐκλεκτοί ἄγγελοι (1Ti_5:21), ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ ὁ ἐκλελεγμένος (Luk_9:35),ὁ Χριστὸς τοῦ θεον͂ ὁ ἐκλεκτός (Luk_23:35), remarking, that the angels are thus designated as taken by God into His service, and that Christ is not elected out of the sum of humanity, to become what the rest should not become, but chosen to be, what the rest are not. Ἐκλέγεσθαι, does then still mark a preference, a distinction from others, who are not what the chosen are, even if not an opposition to those, who do not become this.35 Respecting the others, in preference to whom the elect belong to God, nothing is indicated here,—whether they are not chosen after all, or no longer do or can belong to the elect; just as it is not said concerning the elect, that they cannot fall away from such a relation to God. Since in 1Pe_1:1, the church is termed “elect” and in the conclusion (Eph_5:13) “the Church at Babylon elected together with you,” and “elect of God” (Col_3:12), “for the elect’s sakes” (2Ti_2:10), “God’s elect” (Rom_8:33), etc., are applied to individual Christians, because and in so far as they are members of the Church of Christ, it may be concluded, that the act of election does not concern individuals as its immediate objects, as Hofmann thinks. It is true that the κόσμος, out of which they are Chosen (Joh_15:19), is not a sum of individuals, a multitude; it is rather an ethical conception. Still less is the Church a plurality, a colluvies, it is an organism, a whole. Yet God does have regard to the individuals, with Him the individual, the member, is not lost in the whole. Accordingly the explanation of Harless is to be sustained, only it must be remembered, that the individuals are not to be thought of as without connection, severed, by themselves alone, or the others as those who may not and shall not belong to God. Hofmann’s opposition is right only against this unjustifiable interpolation. It is evident that Paul could apply the word “chosen” only to himself and the members of the Church, because only in the case of these was this fact cognizable, and must be, or at least could be, perceptible to individuals. Hence we should here, with Frank (Theologie der Form. Con. 4 p. 177), think of the world merely, out of which Christians are taken by virtue of their effectual calling, as in 1Pe_1:1; Jam_2:5; 1Co_1:27 f., not however of the totality of those called, from whom the elect, as more numerous (Mat_20:16; Mat_27:14), are to be distinguished. See further in Doctr. Note 3. Inadmissible, therefore, is the explanation: præcipuo in nos amore Deus fuit, because ἐκλέγεσθαι is also=imprimis amare vel imprimis beneficiis ornare (Morus). Comp. 2Th_2:13. It is very erroneous to suppose (Rueckert), that Paul transferred the faith of his nation, respecting the preference of their race to all the nations of the earth, to those who accepted Christianity with joy, and regarded these as the number chosen by God.
The position of the verb emphasizes this electing act of God as the main thing. It is then further defined.
First, there is added a designation of the objects, ἡμᾶς, US. By this is meant the Church of Christ, the congregatio sanctorum, the “saints,” who at the time make up the people of God, in whom the election, consummated in the calling, is perceptible and manifest. About the conduct of individuals, their faith, its degree or perfection, nothing is said, just as little as was expressed or indicated in ἁγίοις (Eph_1:1). Accordingly the reference is not to individuals in themselves, to the sum of individuals at that time, but to the Church and its growth externally and internally, yet in such a way that each individual may refer it to himself.36 Richter, therefore, correctly remarks: “God chooses for Himself, out of all, before others and for others.” But it is also correct to say: Sic nos quoque in Christo eramus, priusquam mundus fieret, vigore scilicet electionis ælernæ (Musculus).
Second qualification: definition of modality, in Him, ἐν αὐτῷ, viz., Christ. By this our election is more closely defined and limited: Christ the Person, in whom we are chosen, the life-sphere, the life-element, in which we are the objects of the Divine election. Harless may be correct, in saying that it is first stated in what follows, how He has chosen us in Him, but he is incorrect in rejecting all closer definitions of expositors here as interpolated, even if they correspond with what follows. Beza (in ipso videlicet adoptandos) is very near the true explanation, but his view is more limited than the subsequent context authorizes. Our union, our external and internal connection, with Christ is marked as the modality of our election. But the act of choice is asserted as a fact: in Him He has chosen us, so that as humanity was made in Adam, as the people of Israel was separated in Abraham, so the Church was chosen in Christ; not, however, that He has merely determined to choose us. Accordingly it is entirely improper to read ἐν ἁυτῷ (Alex., Morus, Holzhausen), nor is it=εἰς Χριστόν (Ethiop. Vers.), or=δἰ αὐτοῦ, τουτέστι διὰ τῆς εἰς αὐτὸν πίστεως (Theophylact and others), or per Christum et Christi merita prævisa (A-Lapide, Bullinger), or propter Christum (Glassius, Flatt). Finally, it is arbitrary and incorrect to join ἐν αὐτῷ with ἡμᾶς, since ὄντας is “wanting and εἶναι ἡμᾶς ἁγίους follows.
[Olshausen, Ellicott: “In Christ, as the head and representative of spiritual, as Adam was the representative of natural humanity.” “In the proper and final sense this can be said only of His faithful ones, His Church, who are incorporated in Him by the Spirit. But in any sense, all God’s election is in Him only” (Alford)). Hodge: “In Christ, i.e., as united to Him in the covenant of redemption;” on the ground of the federal union which precedes the actual union. So Eadie. Meyer is less exact: “The divine act of our election has in Christ its determining ground.” “Outside this connection of the divine decree of election with Christ we would not be chosen; but in Christ there lay for God the causa meritoria of our election.” This is really equivalent to propter Christum.—R.]
Third qualification: a temporal definition, before the foundation of the world, πρὸ καταβολῆς κόσμου. Used by Paul only here, but found in Joh_17:24; 1Pe_1:20. In Mat_25:34; Luk_11:50; Heb_3:4 : and ἀπὸ καταβολῆς κόσμου; Mat_13:35 : ἀπὸ καταβολῆς. The preposition πρὸ denotes that the election took place before the creation, and, since καταβολή designates the foundation, the groundwork, before the beginning of the carrying out of the well-ordered plan of creation. Thus the reference to the eternity preceding time is made very strong,37 stronger than in πρὸ τῶν αἰώνων (1Co_2:7; comp. 2Ti_1:9; Rom_16:25; Col_1:26; Eph_3:9; Eph_3:11). The election precedes the creation: the fulfilment of the former is justified in creation and its history, in the history of the world. Harless: “The plainest parallel is 2Ti_1:9 : ‘who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began.’ ” Olshausen (with Stier also) properly rejects the idea of a real, individual existence of believers before the creation in the Divine mind, but Christ’s existence with the Father before the creation of the world is unmistakably indicated (Stier). Bengel: Hæc præsupponunt æternitatem filii Dei, namque filius, ante mundum factum erat objectum amoris paterni non futurum tantummodo, sed jam turn præsens, Joh_17:5; Joh_17:24. [Alford (after Stier): “How utterly irreconcilable pantheism is with this, God’s election before laying the foundation of the world, of His people in His Son.”—R.]
That we should be holy and without blame before him [εἶναι ἡμᾶς ἁγίους καὶ ἀμώμους κατενώπιον αὐτοῦ].—The infinitive εἶναι ἡμᾶς adds a supplement to the previous clause, to the phrase ἡμᾶς ἐν αὐτῷ in particular, and is to be taken as epexegetical (Winer, p. 298), giving prominence to the end, purpose and result of the election. The position of εἶναι marks the existence, the actualized reality aimed at in the pretemporal, eternal choice. Eph_3:4; Eph_3:6 (ἐν τῷ μυστηρίῳ τοῦ Χριστοῦ—εἶναι τὰ ἔθνη, κ. τ. λ.) is similar.
Whether we are to understand the then present realization, just begun, or the consummation, begun in the church militant, or the completed reality in the church triumphant, cannot be determined from the adjectives “holy and without blame,” but must be found in the phrase κατενώπιον αὐτοῦ, “before Him.” It is not necessary to write αὑτοῦ, with Harless, Stier and others. Bengel has remarked (App. ad Mat_1:21), and Tischendorf [Præf. N. T., p. 58 f. ed. 7], corroborates it, that before αυτοῦ αυτῷ, αυτόν we constantly find ἀπ̓, ὑπ̓, μετ̓, ἐπ̓, κατ̓, never ἀφ̓, ὑφ̓, μεθʼ, ἐφ̓, καθʼ, so that in the New Testament the reflexive form αὑτοῦ is never used, but in its stead ἑαυτοῦ. Thus too it happens that αὐτός is referred in quick succession to different subjects, as Mar_8:22; Mar_9:27-29 (Winer, pp. 141, 14338). From the Apostle’s point of view αὐτοῦ is quite correct, and to be understood of God, even though ἐν αὐτῳ refers to Christ. To the phrase κατενώπιον αὐτοῦ corresponds the Hebrew לִפְּנֵי יְהוָֹה, coram Deo. According to this we must accept a reference to the present life, and not to the Judgment. The context at all events gives no support for the reference to the Judgment, which He will hold at the end of days. The parallel passage, Col_1:22 : “to present holy and unblamable and unreprovable in His sight,” as well as the “now” (Eph_1:21), and “if at least ye continue” (Eph_1:23) refer definitely to the present state.39 This is confirmed by a comparison with Jude 24: “to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy.” We must evidently apply this to the Judgment before God in eternity, but the expression is modified in accordance with this meaning. Hence Stier is mistaken in regarding our passage as applicable “to the last flaming glance of the holy Judge, who can and will be the perfectly righteous and eternal beatifying God alone (Heb_12:23).” Schenkel too is not satisfied with the reminder that He is the knower of hearts, but refers to His great Judgment day.
[Meyer renders this phrase: judice Deo, in connection with his view of the forensic reference of the adjectives “holy and without blame.” But the reference to sanctification is to be preferred, and hence if “before Him” does not refer to the last Judgment, it must mean: vere, sincere (Beza, Ellicott; so Eadie). Alford: “In the deepest verity of our being, thoroughly penetrated by the Spirit of holiness, bearing His searching eye; but at the same time implying an especial nearness to His presence and dearness to Him—and bearing a foretaste of the time when the elect shall be ἐνώπιον τοῦ θρονοῦ τοῦ θεοῦ, Rev_7:15.”—R.]
With our view then “holy and unblamable” cannot of course mean the complete holiness, which is the original end of the first choosing, as its attained goal before the throne of God, as Stier thinks, or humanity cleansed from all the defilements of sin, which, according to Schenkel, is the end of the Divine election. Ἅγιος, holy, can scarcely be taken in any other sense than that of Eph_1:1, designating one consecrated to God. The distinction between its meaning here and Eph_1:1 is to be found in the qualifications: εἶναι—κατενώπιον αὐτοῦ. This state of consecration is therefore a reality, not merely a being “called,” a “name” (although even this latter is not a mere sound, a non-entity), a reality too before God, and not merely before men. Accordingly ἄγιος here must in some way mark the internal effects upon the subject, connected with this state of consecration; so that ἄμωμος is very naturally added.
Ἄμωμος corresponds to the Hebrew תָּמִים, unblemished, and is to be rendered neither irreprehensus (Morus) nor irreprehensibilis (2Pe_3:14; Php_2:15, where the form is ἀμώμητος), even though this is the original meaning (Passow sub voce). It is applied strictly to the sacrificial animal (1Pe_1:9) which is also consecrated to God.40 The two words are joined together elsewhere (Eph_5:27; Col_1:22); in the first passage they are used of the church (“not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing”), in the latter, which is parallel to our verse, καὶ ἀνεγκλήτους is added. Hence we are reminded of Rom_8:33 : “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth,” and have to do with those who are transferred εἰς υἱοθεσίαν (Eph_1:5), who are partakers of “redemption,” “the forgiveness of sins” (Eph_1:7), among whom all this is inward, living truth, the vital beginning of a glorious conclusion, so that advance is ever made toward holiness (1Pe_1:15-16), and the saying in the Apocalypse (Rev_22:11) is verified: “he that is holy, let him be holy still,” which indeed finds a further verification in eternity. Thus both a condition, a subjective, state, and more especially a position, which is to be and has been occupied, a station into which they have come and live, are meant, and not merely a judgment. The words of Koppe, which Harless recalls, are apt: non tum ad virtutis studium, quam potius ad dignitatem Christianorum, qua tanquam homines innocentes sibique caros Deus eos tractat, est referendum, idem quod alias in epp. Pauli est δικαιοῦσθαι παρὰ θεῷ. Accordingly ἅγιος without further qualification does not refer to inward, actual sanctification (Stier). Such limitations as: nisi confecto nostro stadio (Calov.), quantum quidem hujus in mortali vita per Dei ipsius gratiam et carnis nostræ infirmitatem fieri potest (Calixtus), are as inadmissible as the explanation of Baumgarten-Crusius, that the final end of the matter of Christianity is found in moral worth, or Rueckert’s opinion, that it was the Apostle’s peculiarity, to idealize everything.
[Modern English commentators accept the distinction of Meyer respecting these two words: the first presents the positive, the second the negative side; but there is an unusual agreement among them against the reference to justification, which Braune, Meyer, Olshausen, Harless, Koppe and others favor. Chrysostom, Theophylact, Calvin, Stier, Hodge, Eadie, Ellicott, Alford and others, apply the adjectives to sanctification. And with good reason: For an ultimate result is here spoken of, and Paul who had stamped the technical sense on so many Greek words before this Epistle was written, would have made the other meaning plain by using such words here. Dr. Hodge deduces very properly these statements: “If men are chosen to be holy, they cannot be chosen because they are holy.” “Holiness is the only evidence of election.”—R.]
In love, ἑν ἀγάπῃ.—Of course, His, God’s love. This phrase, at the close of Eph_1:4, must be connected grammatically with the following participle, thus standing in emphatic position. The Greek is much freer in the position of words than the German; where the latter must help out the meaning with particles, the former requires only change of position; still it never goes beyond bounds in this respect. It cannot be connected with “chose” (Oecumen., Thomas, Flacius, Baumgarten, Flatt, and others), since it stands entirely too far and too decidedly removed from that verb; and must be regarded as “trailing after it.” Nor yet is the connection with “holy and blameless” (Ambrosiaster, Erasmus, Luther, Calvin, Beza, Grotius [evangelii, τὸ πᾶν is in love], Wolf, Rueckert [dubiously], Morus, Matthies, Heubner [E. V., Alford, Hodge], admissible; although ἄμωμος ἐν ἀγαλλιάσει (Jud_1:24) and ἀμώμητος ἐν ἐιρήνῃ (2Pe_3:14) occur, yet it is in such close union as to form one idea; the phrase could be separated from its adjective by “before Him,” only in case the latter were adopted to be included with the adjective as one idea, which was to be qualified; but Paul uses ἅγιος καὶ ἄμωμος without any qualification (Eph_1:27; Col_1:22), and the proper exposition excludes this connection, which has mainly subserved the Romanist and Rationalistic view. Accordingly most (from the Peshito to Tischendorf) have upheld the conection with προορίσας as the only admissible one.
[The connection with the adjectives favors the reference to sanctification in those words, giving this sense: we are chosen to be placed “in a state of moral excellence which consists in love” (Hodge). But this author is as little justified in saying that the reference to sacrificial purification occasioned the connection with the following participle, as Braune is, in affirming that the connection with the adjectives has mainly subserved the Romanist and Rationalistic view. Neither of these statements affect the question. Alford has an able defence of the ordinary connection. Besides arguing that throughout this long sentence the verbs and particle precede their qualifying clauses, since the verbs are emphatic, giving prominence to God’s act, not His attribute, he holds that this qualification is highly appropriate: “ἀγάπη, that which man lost at the Fall, but which God is, and to which God restores man by redemption, is the great element in which, as their abode and breathing-place, all Christian graces subsist, and in which, emphatically, all perfection before God must be found.” All which is true, but not sufficient to overcome the grammatical objections to this view. Dr. Hodge says that “predestinated” has a subsequent qualification, hence it would be tautological to join “in love,” to it, but as Ellicott intimates, the two qualifying phrases point to two different attributes; one to the loving mercy, the other to the sovereign power of God. The view of Braune, is that of the Peshito, Chrysostom, Theodoret, Theophylact, Augustine, Jerome, Bengel, Koppe, Storr, Harless, De Wette, Olshausen, Holzhausen, Stier, Turner, Eadie, Ellicott, Meyer, Bleek; also Griesbach, Scholz, Lachmann, Tischendorf. The list might be enlarged, but is long enough to sustain the last remark of Braune against Hodge’s assertion that “the majority of commentators adopt the construction followed by our translators.”—R.]
Eph_1:5. In love having predestinated us [προορίσας ἡμᾶς].—Προορίζειν, to determine beforehand; πρὸ points out, that the determination existed before the thing or person to be destined, and is to be more closely defined only by the context: “before the foundation of the world” (Harless, Stier, Meyer, and others), hence beforehand, not before others (Baumgarten). The participle is associated with ἐξελέξατο: ἐξελέξατο τῷ προορίσαι, or καὶ προώρισε. Thus the Greek expresses it, not indicating a chronological sequence; the temporal relation is not touched upon. The aorist indeed denotes the concluded action without reference to the past or present; the matter spoken of is before time. Similarly Eph_1:8; Eph_1:11; Eph_1:13; Eph_1:20. The participle denotes, therefore, not priority of fact, but only the attendant manner (Harless). Homberg is incorrect: postquam nos prædestinavit adoptandos, elegit etiam nos, ut simus sancti. In that case we should have found at all events, πρότερον προορίσας. When the Apostle says (Rom_8:30): “whom he did predestinate, them he also called,” without mentioning the election, we must find the latter included in the first ante-temporal act, not in the other act of accomplishment, taking place in time. Nor can it be inferred from Rom_8:29 : “whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate,” that the predestination was preceded temporally by a particular act, that of foreknowing, quite as little as the two notions are to be confounded.
[As regards the relation of priority, Alford and Stier, take the “election” as antecedent to the “predestination,” the former regarding the ἐξελέξατο in this passage as ranking with the προέγνω in Rom_8:29. On the other hand Hodge implies just the reverse, that the election is based on the preceding predestination. Ellicott too regards the participle “as temporal, not modal, and its action as prior to, not synonymous with, that of ἐξελέξατο.” He takes it as=quum prædestinavit, “after He had,” & c., but Meyer says that “predestinatio is never elsewhere distinguished from electio, as antecedent to it.” Eadie too takes the participle as synchronous with the verb, which is safest where there is no grammatical necessity for insisting on the temporal qualification (see, however, Winer, p. 321). It is not well to dogmatize about the order in the Divine mind, especially on so slender a basis as that afforded by the Greek aorist participle.—R.]
The phrase “in love,” coming first, marks with special emphasis the motive of the predestination. In hac epistola regnat τὸ amo, amor, amatus; ipsi principio epistolæ congruit (Bengel). This precedence is like Eph_3:18 : ἐν ἀγάπῃ ἐῤῥιζωμένοι. What is thus demanded by the thought, and confirmed by the form of language, is certainly not contradicted, as will appear, by what follows: κατὰ τὴν εὐδοκίαν—εἰς ἔπαινον δόξης τῆς χάριτος, which is not added tautologically, as some (Matthies and others) suppose.
Ἡμᾶς, “us,” is the object, as in Eph_1:4; but it must be noticed, that we have here, not ἐκκλησία or some such collective notion, but ἡμᾶς. Hence it cannot be said with Schenkel: “The predestination applies to the whole of the Divine decree of salvation, the election to the individual persons in whom it is accomplished.” So much only is correct, that the thought does not respect individuals as such, a colluvies, a multitude, but the church and its members, or the individuals as members of an organism, but in the predestination, just as in the election (Eph_1:4). Comp. Rom_8:29 f. Eadie makes a far better distinction between προορίσας and ἐξελέξατο: “The end pre-appointed—πρό, is implied in the one; the mass out of which the choice is made—ἐκ, is glanced at by the other.” So Ellicott.—R.]
Unto adoption, εἰς υἱοθεσίαν. This designates, in distinction from τεκνογονία (1Ti_2:15), adoption (υἱοὺς θέσθαι, υἱὸν θετὸν ποιεῖσθαι); we are not children by nature, like Christ, but only by grace. Adoption is a rich conception, not at all a simple matter, and its actualization has a very significant history; it did not come to maturity at once, but has a development from primary stages, preceded by grand preparatory stages, unto its completion in eternity. To the Old Testament Israel belonged the adoption (Rom_9:4, to which are added the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of the sanctuary, the promises); even the Christians are “waiting for the adoption, the redemption of the body” (Rom_8:23). An explanatory parallel to our verse is found in Rom_8:29 : “He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the first-born among many brethren;” Rom_8:30 (“he also glorified”) however points yet deeper, so that we must recall the bold words of Peter (2Pe_1:4): “that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature,” as well as those of Paul (Rom_8:17): “If children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ.” Comp. Gal_4:5-7; 1Th_2:12; 2Th_2:14; 1Jn_3:2. Hence it is not a formula solemnis ad Christianam religionem adducere (Koppe), nor to be referred in general and indefinitely to the benefits, which distinguish Christians from other men (Flatt), nor yet futura beatitate ornari, adeo amari Deumque redamare (Morus), nor can it be said: υἱοθεσία veniæ peccatorum morte Christi partæ certa spe verissime constat (Tittmann).
[Hodge: Sonship in reference to God includes,—1. Participation of His nature or conformity to His image. 2. The enjoyment of His favor, or being the special objects of His love. 3. Heirship, or a participation of the glory and blessedness of God. Sometimes one and sometimes another of these ideas is the most prominent. In the present case it is the second and third.” Meyer has a good note in loco on υἱοθεσία.—R.]
Through Jesus Christ unto himself, διὰ Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ εἰς αὐτόν.—Against the reading αὑτόν, see the close of Eph_1:4. Δτά with the genitive retains the meaning per, through, marking the mediator, cannot therefore be: propter (Moldenhauer). Comp. Joh_14:6. The person of the Lord must be regarded as that of the mediator. Even though we find in Gal_3:26 : υἱοὶ διὰ τῆς πίστεως, there the subjective mediation which proceeds from the Object of faith, the mediator, is marked, here the objective, to which the former will not be wanting. We take αὐτόν as referring to God; should Jesus Christ be meant, the reading must be, καὶ εἰς αὐτόν. Hence the explanation is incorrect: in conformitatem ejus (Christi) per fidem et bonos mores (Anselm and others). But the preposition εἰς must retain the sense unto or into Him, as is required by those passages cited in the last paragraph, which indicate the final end of the υἱοθεσία. Hence it is not so much an “explanatory addition” (Harless), as an adjoined supplement (Stier). The explanation: ad gloriam gratiæ suæ (Piscator, Morus), is in any case insufficient. It is impossible to take εἰς αὐτόν as=the Hebrew לוֹ, sibi (Grotius, Wolf, Koppe following the paraphrase of Bucer: Qui prædestinavit pridem nos, ut in filios sibi per Jesum Christum—adoptaret). Passavant weakens it into: up to God. Nor is it=ἐν ἑαυτῷ (Calvin, Beza, Calixtus); and just as little a circumlocution for the genitive αὐτοῦ, qualifying υἱοθεσία (Rueckert). Meyer is excellent: “How rich and entirely Grecian Paul is precisely in his prepositional expressions, by which he never represents a mere relation of case.”
[Among the various opinions respecting εἰς αὐτόν, and the shadings of signification attached to it, the view of Ellicott seems most satisfactory: “In these deeper theological passages the preposition seems to bear its primary (εἰς=ἐνς Donaldson, Cratylus, § 170) and most comprehensive sense of ‘to and into’ (see Rost u. Palm. Lex. s. v.); the idea of approach (τὴν εἰς αὐτὸν ἀνάγουσαν, Theophylact) being also blended with and heightened by that of inward union; comp. notes on Gal_3:27. We may thus paraphrase, ‘God predestinated us to be adopted as His sons; and that adoption came to us through Christ, and was to lead us into, and unite us to God,’ ”—R.]
According to the good pleasure of his will, κατὰ τὴν εὐδοκίαν τοῦ θελήματος αὐτοῦ.—Εὐδοκία can indeed mean good will, as in Luk_2:14; Php_1:15; Php_2:13; 2Th_1:11, or wish, arbitrium, or Mat_11:26; Luk_10:21. Here however it is equivalent to βουλή, Eph_1:11 : κατὰ τὴν βουλὴν τοῦ θελήματος, and the sense is that what was ordained in love, He ordained according to (κατά) the determination of His will. As ἐν ἀγάπῃ (Eph_1:4) denotes the principle of the ordaining, ε ὐδοκία here cannot mean “good will.” It is the substantive answering to δοκεῖν (frequentative from δέχεσθαι, Ion., δέκεσθαι), to seem good, as Act_15:22; Act_15:25; Act_15:28=beneplacitum, and is distinguished from (βουλή, the inclinational41 act of willing (while ἐθέλειν designates the ethical act), only in this, that it refers more to deliberation, choice. Comp. Tittmann, Syn. I. p. 124 ff. Hence the interpretations of Theodoret (ἡ ἐπʼ εὐεργεσίᾳ βούλησις), Suidas (from Theodoret ad Psa_5:12; τὸ ἀγαθὸν θέλημα), Beza (benevolentia), Luther, Morus (pro benevolo suo consilio), Harless, (according to the kindness of His will), Olshausen, Heubner [Eadie, not Meyer as the German indicates,—R.] and others, are incorrect.
[The two meanings of εὐδοκία here under discussion are: 1. beneplacitum, mere good pleasure; 2. benevolentia. Undoubtedly in this case God’s good pleasure was also His benevolentia, but to which does the Apostle here refer? The usage of the LXX. favors the latter meaning, but in the New Testament both occur. The context must decide. It favors meaning (1), for (a) the idea of benevolence in the highest degree was already introduced as a qualification in ἐν ἀγάπῃ, admitting that the phrase is to be joined with this verse. (b) The phrases occurring afterwards in Eph_1:9; Eph_1:11 point to this meaning, especially βουλὴν τοῦ θελήματος αὐτοῦ (Eph_1:11). (c) The reference being to the actor exclusively and not to the objects of the action, this meaning brings them less into view (Ellicott, after De Wette). The proper safe-guard against the notion of bare arbitrary decree is found in ἐν ἀγάπῃ. So substantially but with an occasional tendency to press the sense too far, Grotius, Erasmus, Calvin, Bengel, Flatt, Rueckert, De Wette, Meyer (“the free self-determination independent of all human desert is here meant”), Bleek, Hodge, Alford, Ellicott. Nor does this view make the ground for thanksgiving the less, as Eadie implies.—We accept θέλημα here in the simple sense of “will,” reserving the discussion of its precise meaning for a subsequent page.—B.] The explanation of Chrysostom (τὸ σφοδρὸν θέλημα, τὸ μετὰ ἐπιθυμίας θέλημα) is to be rejected.
Eph_1:6. Unto the praise of the glory of his grace, εἰς ἔπαινον δόξης τῆς χάριτος αὐτοῦ.—Εἰς ἔπαινον points to the υἱοὶ θετοί, who now praise, as those who have been blessed by the sonship and heirship, and renders prominent, that God’s ultimate aim is the blessedness of His creatures, of His Own. For εἰς ἔπαινον is to be taken in connection with προορίσας εἰς υἱοθεσίαν—εἰς αὐτόν as forming the conclusion; it reaches unto the praise from him who has been pardoned. The object of the praise is “the glory,” but not glory in itself, or God’s glory, but “of his grace” (αὐτοῦ not αὑτοῦ, see on Eph_1:4). Χάρις is ἀγάπη, the latter is however more general, the former more special, marking love, which condescends, like the German Gnade (see on Eph_1:2), or which acts upon χαίρειν, χαρά, making or being χαριέις (lovely). This then is, principally, the object of the praise, which lauds indeed the glory of the grace. This glory is the object of the praise, Eph_1:12; Eph_1:14, where we find: εἰς ἔπαινον τῆς δόξης αὑτοῦ. It is remarkable that the article is omitted here before δόξης; but δόξα is not the main idea, but ἡ χάρις αὐτοῦ, and we should render (according to Winer, p. 179): To the praise of His glory in grace (Gnadenherrlichkeit), so that δόξα τῆς χάριτος forms one conception. Still it is altogether inadmissible to explain the genitive δόξης as a Hebraism for the adjective ἔνδοξος; Paul was acquainted with that adjective (Eph_5:27; 1Co_4:10) and did not select it here. This is equally true, whether it be joined with ἔπαινον, as meaning: to glorious praise (Grotius, Estius), or to τῆς χάριτος: to the praise of His glorious grace (Luther, Beza, Morus, Koppe, Flatt, and others).
[Meyer: “The glorifying of the Divine love (which however is here designated, according to its definite peculiarity, as grace, because it concerns what is sinful, Eph_2:1 ff) is the final end” of the Divine predestination. Ellicott: “As Chrysostom appears rightly to have felt, δόξης is a pure substantive, and serves to specify that peculiar quality or attribute of the χάρις which forms the subject of the praise.”—R.]
Which he freely bestowed upon us [ἦς ἐχαρίτωσεν ἡμᾶς]—On the attraction ἦς ἐχαρίτωσεν for ῆν—according to the well-known expression χάριν χαριτοῦν, see Winer, p. 154, and the Textual Note6. Similar cases, Eph_4:1; 2Co_1:4. Χαριτοῦν=gratia aliquem afficere; but gratia may be taken in the subjective or objective sense, so that this means either: He has made lovely, pleasing, or: He has dispensed grace, favor. The word occurs elsewhere in the New Testament only in Luk_1:28 (the salutation of the angel to Mary: χαῖρε κεχαριτωμένη, where either meaning may be accepted, or both combined (Stier in loco.) [The objective sense is certainly to be preferred in Luk_1:28; for to take the other view involves at least a quasi support of very untenable dogmas. On the force of Greek verbs in όω, see Eadie, Harless, Ellicott.—R.] It also occurs in the LXX. (Sir_9:8; Sir_18:17), and in the first sense. The reading ἦς supports the first view; the reading ἐν ᾗ the other. For the former was evidently accepted in the Syriac version, and aptly reproduced: quam effudit super nos, so that His grace has not remained and does not remain fruitless. So the Vulgate: gratificavit. Chrysostom: οὐ μόνον ἁμαρτημάτων ἀπήλλαξεν, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐπεράστους ἐποίησεν; Theodoret, Theophylact, Œcumenius to the same effect. A-Lapide: Gratiosos nos reddidit, scilicet gratiam suam nobis communicando et infundendo. Luther: Angenehm gemachi, made pleasant. Beza: Gratis nos sibi acceptos reddidit; so Stier and others. The second view is held by Bengel (gratia amplexus est), Baumgarten, Koppe, Flatt, Harless, Rueckert, Schenkel and others. At all events with the perspective reaching “unto the praise of the glory of His grace,” we must not leave out of view the result of pardoning, the effect of the χάρις on the χαριτῶθέντες, who become χαρίεντες; here, where the Apostle “closes his first circle of thought” (Stier), there is at the same time a reference to the goal aimed at from the pardon. Accordingly “us” applies not merely to Paul and his readers or contemporaries, but to all believers.
[The subjective sense may be involved, but the other seems decidedly preferable. Alford says the subjective meaning of χάρις does not seem to occur in the N. T., certainly not in St. Paul. He very properly argues for the other meaning, from the “indefinite aorist, referring to an act once past in Christ, not to an abiding state which He has brought about in us.” Also from the context which is all of God’s grace. So Ellicott, Eadie, Meyer, Hodge. The Romanist expositors find in the other sense a support for their doctrine of justitia inhærens.—R.]
In the beloved, ἐν τῷ ἀγαπημένῳ.—This contains a reference to ἐχαρίτωσεν, Bengel aptly says: Autonomasia, opportuna. Amor plus significat, quam gratia. 1Pe_2:10 : ubi de iis, qui misericordiam consecuti sunt, ea dicuntur, supra quæ ὁ ἠγαπημένος, amatus longe eminet; ἔλεος necessario præsupponit præviam miseriam, sed amor non item. The Beloved, κατʼ ἐξοχήν, (Col_1:13; Mat_3:17), by God the Father, not ab omnibus (Pelagius), is the Only Begotten, the Son of God by nature, Christ; He is the object of the love (ἀγάπη) of the Father, not needing χάρις, as we; only through the grace of God in Christ do we become objects of His love; as χαριτωθέντες. Accordingly this distinction is not to be made use of in favor of the second meaning of έχαρίτωσεν, as is done by Harless. The preposition ἑν must be retained as marking our fellowship with Christ, who is our life-sphere; hence it is not=διὰ τόν, propter (Grotius and others). We are rather reminded of the verse: Vor dir sonst nichts gilt, als Dein eigen Bild. [Before thee nothing passes current but thine own image.] In Him, the image of God, we have, not only objectively, but subjectively also, the grace, that we are well-pleasing to God.
[Eadie: “We, as adopted children, are indeed loved, but there is another, the Son, the own Beloved Son. It was not, therefore, affection craving indulgence, or eager for an object on which to expend itself, that led to our adoption. There was no void in His bosom, the loved One lay in it.”—R.]
second foundation of the praise; Eph_1:7-12. The carrying out of the eternal decree.
Eph_1:7. In whom we have the [or our] redemption through his blood [ἐν ᾧ ἔχομεν τὴν ἀπολύτρωσιν διὰ του αἴματος αὐτοῦ].—Comp. Col_1:14. “We have,” “the first present tense of the whole discourse, and very emphatic” (Stier). Hence it immediately follows ἐνᾧ, “in whom.” With this a new circle of thought begins, pointing to the already experienced accomplishment of the Divine eternal decree, even though just begun. The preposition ἐν is to be taken in its strict meaning: for only within the Person of the Beloved, Christ, are we in the possession and enjoyment of redemption. Christ’s work is inseparable from His Person; we have redemption, not in His work without His Person, but in His Person, which with His work is a living unity (Olshausen). Hence it will not suffice to explain: in fellowship with Him (Winer, p. 364, note 7), while it is altogether incorrect to take it as=διὰ ὄν, ἔνεκα οὗ (Flatt, Koppe), even though the phrase “through His blood” be adjoined, and the explanation be: cujus morti cruentæ debeo; so Morus: propter quem. Schenkel appears to interpolate per δἰ οὗ in his explanation: by means of the fellowship with Him through faith. [Hodge seems to have lost the force of the phrase, weakening it into, “i.e., not in ourselves,” and then taking “by his blood” as explanatory. Ellicott, Eadie, Alford all catch more or less of the true view so aptly expressed by Olshausen.—R.]
We are having! Believers, Christians are in possession of a property. The possession is marked, not the receiving, or having received; hence ἔχειν is not=assecutum esse, or assequi.
[Eadie is still better: “We are ever needing, and so are ever having it.” The objective sense, there is for us, adopted by Alford, following Harless, underlies the expressed and emphatic subjective one; the latter is not merely “an implied import,” but the prominent thought.—R.]
The subject treated of is a bonum novi testamenti (Bengel)—τὴν42 ἀπολύτρωσιν. This word points to a redemption through ransom. This idea is a prevalent one, even in the New Testament, where our Lord so uses it (Mat_20:28; Mar_10:45 : to give His life a ransom for many), and Paul, 1Ti_2:6 : ὁ δοῦς ἑαυτὸν ἀντίλυτρον ὑπὲρ πάντων, Tit_2:14 : λυτροῦσθαι 1Co_6:20; 1Co_7:23; Gal_3:13 : ἀγοράζειν, Act_20:28 : περιποιεῖσθαι. Still the expiation, indicated in the Lord’s saying, appears also, as in Rom_3:23-25. Manifesto satis eam mortis vim indicat, quæ sacrificio confertur piaculari (Fritzsche). Here indeed the thought of an expiatory sacrifice seems to be the prominent one, since “through his blood” is added (comp. Lev_17:1, Harless). We may however take the blood of Christ as the ransom price. The powers and evils, indicated in the preposition ἀπό, from which believers are and shall be snatched, are according to Stier, the wrath to come (1Th_1:10), the present evil world (Gal_1:4), the power of darkness (Col_1:13), all unrighteousness (Tit_2:14), vain conversation after the ways of their fathers (1Pe_1:18); indeed the extirpation and compensation of all the evil in which we have involved ourselves with our transgressions (Pfenninger). Though the word may have in passages, such as Eph_4:30; Rom_8:23; 1Co_1:30, a more general signification, the original reference being supplanted or obliterated, here this is marked by the context. Harless indeed is correct, in maintaining against Romanist expositors (such as A-Lapide), that it designates not merely a subjective condition; but he should not have based on the presence of the article the statement that abstract nouns without the article merely designate that the generic notion has become real as a subjective possession.
Through his blood, διὰ τοῦ αἴματος αὐτοῦ.—Meyer regards this as entirely like ἐν τῷ αἵματι (Eph_2:13), remarking that Paul was very fond of prepositional variations (2Co_3:11). The former, however, describes rather the mediation, which may be in constant movement, as here; while the latter points to an existing life-sphere or fact, in which indeed that mediation must be consummated. Hence the Apostle is not influenced by likings or beauty of diction, etc., but by a shading of the thought.—In the Person of Christ as the Only Begotten, is given to us, as to all believers, Redemption by means of His blood, as an offering and ransom-price, and now we are having such a gift. Though Heb_9:12-14 is to be compared with our passage, still we may not introduce here, as is done by Koppe, the sacrificial worship of the ancient nations, according to which through a sinless offering past sins were extirpated and the angered divinity reconciled, as though Paul had made use of this.
[Alford: “It is a noteworthy observation of Harless here, that the choice of the word, the Blood of Christ, is of itself a testimony to the idea of expiation having been in the writer’s mind. Not the death of the victim, but its Blood, was the typical instrument of expiation. I may notice that in Php_2:8, where Christ’s obedience, not His atonement, is spoken of, there is no mention of His shedding His blood, only of the act of His Death.” This was the price, τὸ λύτρον. As Eadie well says: “The nexus we may not be able to discover fully, but”—“the death of Christ has governmental relations, has an influence on our salvation totally different in nature and sphere of operation, from its subjective power in subduing the heart by the love which it presents, and the thrilling motives which it brings to bear upon it.”—R.]
The forgiveness of our transgressions, τὴν ἄφεσιν τῶν παραπτωμάτων.—Luther joins this with the foregoing thus: namely, the forgiveness of sins, thus taking it, and correctly, as epexegetical (Winer, p. 492). [So the E. V. in the parallel passage, Col_1:14.—R.] This implies, that the more comprehensive expression, redemption, is to be limited, contains more than is involved in the context, ἔχομεν; “the forgiveness of transgressions” renders emphatically prominent one principal element, on which indeed another depends. Accordingly it cannot be said, that the Apostle defines the nature of the “redemption” with this epexegetical addition (Harless) [Meyer]. It is just as erroneous to extend the epexegetical phrase on account of the first expression, and to explain “forgiveness of transgressions” as taking away of sins (Berlenb. Bible). Paul now takes out as chief the first thing: the forgiveness of sins (Stier). Fritzsche aptly remarks (Rom_3:25) on the distinction between πάρεσις and ἀιφεσις:43 “Conveniunt in hoc, quod sive illa, sive hæc tibi obtigerit nulla peccatorum tuorum ratio habetur; discrepant eo, quod hac data facinorum tuorum pœnas nunquam pendes, illa concessa non diutius nullas peccatorum tuorum pœnas lues, quam ei in iis connivere placuerit, cui in delicta tua animadvertendi jus sit.” Further the genitive of τά παραπτώματα refers only to individual facts, and, since these can neither be undone or extirpated, we must understand pardon alone; Olshausen is incorrect in laying no weight upon the form παραπτώματα, ἁμαρτίαι (Col_1:14), and including also the sinful condition, the inborn sinfulness, understanding here absolutely all that is sinful.44 Although he is correct in saying that the appropriation of this forgiveness of sins as a fact cannot be conceived of, without the transformation of the man proceeding from it as a consequence, yet we must still maintain that nothing is said here about the latter, but only that redemption, like the forgiveness, has its complete objective reality entirely irrespective of the subjective state of the individuals (Harless). [Accepting this view, which is that of Hodge, Eadie and others, we must deny Alford’s remark, that this phrase is not to be limited, but is “at least equipollent with ἀπολύτρωσις.”—R.]
According to the riches of his grace.—Κατὰ τὸ πλοῦτος τῆς χάριτος αὐτοῦ evidently designates the grace of God, not of Christ, as the ultimate ground of the fact of Redemption, and corresponding (κατά) to the depth and importance of the same in its riches. Similarly Eph_2:7 : τὸ πλοῦτος τῆς χάριτος, Rom_2:4 : πλοῦτος τῆς χρηστότητος, Rom_9:23; Col_1:27; Eph_3:16 : τῆς δόξης. Hence it is not=gratia liberalissima (Koppe). Instead of τὸ πλοῦτος attested by א. and B., and to be retained here, ὁ πλοῦτος more frequently occurs. [Comp. Textual Note3.] Passavant aptly says: “We have in this grace not only deliverance from misery and curse, not only forgiveness—we find in it the freedom, the glory, the heritage of the children of God, the crown of eternal life.”
[Alford is not correct in saying this clause of itself prevents the limitation of ἄφεσιν to mere forgiveness. Eadie seems to catch the spirit of the passage best. “Atonement is not in antagonism with grace. For the opulence of His grace is seen not only in its innumerable forms and varieties of operation among men, but also in the unasked and unmerited provision of such an atonement—as the blood of the ‘Beloved One.’ ”—R.] With the forgiveness of sin we gain access to all the treasures of Divine grace (Gerlach). Hence the Apostle continues as in the following verse.
Eph_1:8. Which he made to abound toward us[ἧς ἐπερίσσευσενεἰς ἡμᾶς].—Ἧς, referring to τῆς χάριτος, which is imparted, not parted, cannot be, as in Luk_15:17 : περισσεύουσιν ἄρτων, a partitive genitive (Erasmus: de qua ubertim nobis impartivit); but is here an attraction for ἥν, since the ἐπερίσσενσε is to be rendered, transitively in accordance with the context (Eph_1:9 : γνωρίσας), and with the accusative like 2Co_9:8 (δυνατὸς γὰρ ὁ θεὸς πᾶσαν χάριν περισσεῦσαι εἰς ὑμᾶς; comp. Eph_4:15; 1Th_3:12). Theophylact aptly says: ἀφθόνως ἐξέχεε. It is not in accordance with the language or context to take it as instead of ῆ (Vulgate: quæ superabundavit) or ᾗ (Calvin: qua redundavit). [So E. V., but such an attraction of the dative is not found in the New Testament, while the attraction of the nominative (Vulgate) is scarcely possible.—R.]—Εἰς ἡμᾶς, into us He has caused His grace to flow abundantly.
In all wisdom and prudence [ἐν πάσῃ σοφίᾳ καὶ φρονήσει45].—The word πάσῃ, without the article, designates every one there is (Winer, p. 105). Comp. Eph_1:2; Col_4:12.—Πᾶς sets forth the multiplicity, fulness, always extensiveness, never intensity, force (Harless); hence it is not=summa (Wahl, Rueckert). Σοφία καὶ φρόνησις cannot be taken as exact synonymes (Koppe), nor so distinguished, that the former is used de præterito et præsenti, de his, quæ Deus facit (Eph_1:17), the latter de futuro, de his, quæ nos faciemus (Anselm, Bengel). Wisdom designates rather a normal state of the mind in the centre of intelligence, prudence the special turning of the same in different directions; ἡ δὲ σοφία ἀνδρὶ τίκτει φρόνησιν (Pro_10:23); the latter is subordinate to the former. Besides this formal distinction, the material difference must be considered: Wisdom grasps God’s doings, perceives and understands His counsels of grace, prudence is directed to what we have to do, looks at our problem and how to solve it; the former clearly sees the relations ordered by God, the latter regulates our conduct accordingly. Thus every kind of wisdom and prudence is indicated by “all,” and “in” marks that God has caused His grace to flow abundantly into us, in the gift of all wisdom and prudence. So also in the parallel passage, Col_1:9 : ἴνα πληρωθῆτε τὴν ἐπιγνωσιν τοῦ θελήματος αὐτοῦ ἐν πάσῃ σοφίᾳ καὶ συνέσει. Accordingly this is not to be taken as=“manifold wisdom” (Eph_3:10), and, as in ἐν ἀγάπῃ προορίσας (Eph_1:5), to be joined with the following γνωρίσας (Jerome, Chrys., Semler, [Eadie], and others), nor to be applied to God, to whom indeed φρόνησις (1Ki_3:28; Jer_10:12) may be ascribed, but not πᾶσα in such a way as to mean that not only is all wisdom and prudence in Him, but that He acts, does this or that in all wisdom and prudence (Harless).
[The view here defended is also that of Harless, Meyer and Ellicott, the three most exact commentators on this Epistle. Comp. the note of the last named on the meaning, reference and connection of these words. Alford follows De Wette in referring them to God, taking the same view of the connection as given above, while Eadie refers them to man, but connects them with γνωρίσας. Hodge joins this phrase to the object of the verb instead of to the verb itself, and inexactly renders the preposition ἐν: in connection with, together with; his view of φρόνησις is also objectionable.—R.]
Eph_1:9. Having made known to us.—Γνωρίσας denotes, as in Eph_1:4-5, the manner of the ἐπερίσσευσε (Winer, p. 322), explaining “in all wisdom and prudence.” The verb means to make known, without stating any thing as to the means used. Comp. Eph_3:3; Eph_3:5; Gal_1:12; Col_1:25. [The perfect participle in English is indefinite, and serves best to express the idea of the Greek aorist participle, which here denotes an act coincident, and terminating synchronously with the finite verb (Meyer, Ellicott). The best paraphrase would be: in that He made known (Alford).—R.].—“Us” means Christians, believers, not merely Paul or the Apostles.
The mystery of his will, τὸ μυστήριον τοῦ θελήματος αὐτοῦ.—[The genitive is that of the object: the mystery concerning His will (Meyer, Ellicott, Alford and now Eadie). On θέλημα see Eph_1:11.—R.] This mystery is the object made known. He terms it “of Christ” in Eph_3:10, because He is the Mediator of the same; “of the gospel,” Eph_6:19, because it is thereby proclaimed; “of faith,” “of godliness,” 1Ti_3:9; 1Ti_3:16, because it is comprehended and preserved only by faith, and the fear of God in faith; here “of his will,” because it is willed by God. It is the decree of Redemption in Christ. In Eph_3:9; Col_1:25-26; Rom_16:25-26; 1Co_3:7-10, its depth and concealment as well as its revelation are described. This decree, a secret from all eternity in the fullest sense for the Gentiles, hinted and adumbrated in Israel by prophecies and types, is now manifest in Christ, to those only, however, who are true believers (1Co_3:12), to those who are lost, it remains concealed (2Co_4:3). It is a secret which has become public, ceasing henceforth to be a secret, yet ever having and still retaining in itself what surpasses all reason (Harless, Stier).
According to his good pleasure, κατὰ τὴν εὐδοκίαν αὐτοῦ, defines more closely the γνωρίσας, “having made known.”—Comp. Eph_1:5. [The making known is thus defined as having taken place in strict dependence, both in time and manner, on the will of God (Alford, Ellicott). Eadie retains here the meaning benevolentia, which is quite inadmissible, more so than in Eph_1:5.—R.]
Which he purposed in himself, ῆν προέθετο ἐν αὑτᾧ.—The determination is thus marked as an internal one, so as to give prominence to its freedom; hence we should read αὐτῷ (Harless, Tischendorf), not αὑτῷ (Meyer). [The latter reading is adopted by Alford, Eadie, Ellicott, all of them claiming that if the pronoun refers to God (and we cannot well accept any other reference) the reflexive form is necessary. In Eph_1:5, they urge, another idea had intervened, hence αὐτόν was there sufficiently explicit, but here the immediate connection with the verb and its subject requires the form αὑτῷ. This is opposed to the theory advanced in Eph_1:5, that this reflexive form never occurs in the New Testament; but it is safer to accept this reading than to refer the pronoun to Christ.—R.]
In the compound verb προτίθεσθαι, sibi proponere (Bengel, Passow sub voce), the preposition προ is local (Meyer): to put before one’s self, not temporal=beforehand. So also in πρόθεσις, ver.11; Rom_1:13; Rom_3:25; Act_3:20 (προχειρίζομαι); 2Co_9:7 (προαιρέομαι). Accordingly εὐδοκία is not=good pleasure (Luther), gracious purpose (Harless), and ἐν αὐτῷ is not to be referred to Christ (Chrysostom, Luther: hervorgebracht durch Ihn, Bengel), nor is προέθετο=ante constituit (Anselm), apud se retinuit (Calvin). [As Meyer remarks, this purpose is to be regarded as taking place before the foundation of the world, but the preposition does not express this.—R.]
Eph_1:10. Unto the dispensation of the fulness of times [εἰς οἰκονομίαν τοῦ πληρώματος τῶν καιρῶν].—This verse follows, setting forth the goal, of the πρόθεσις. Εἰς designates the tendency, the aim, as in Eph_4:30; Gal_3:17; Gal_3:23 (Winer, p. 371), with a view to which He purposed in Himself; hence it is to be closely joined with προέθετο, not with γνωρίσας (Bengel), which is too remote. Of course εἰς is not=in (Vulgate), nor usque ad (Erasmus, Calvin), for which ἔως, μέχρι, would be used. [Hodge and Eadie: with reference to, a view of the preposition which Meyer often favors, but which fails to bring out its full force here.—R.]
Οἰκονομία, from οἰκόνομος, is stewardship (Luk_16:2); it is transferred to the spiritual sphere in Eph_3:2; Eph_3:6; 1Ti_1:4. The original meaning is modified in two ways, according as the word in its connection “designated the activity of a governing or subordinate subject; in the first case: arrangement, disposition, in the second: management, execution” (Harless). Thus the context in 1Co_9:17 defines the word in the second sense, of the apostolic office and service. Here God, and that towards which He has formed a purpose, are spoken of; so it here means: unto, with a view to the disposition. Luther correctly renders the εἰς of the aim, but limits οἰκονομίαν too much: that it may be preached; so Grotius: ut suo demum tempore publicaret. Theophylact (διοίκησις) and the Vulgate (dispensatio) restrict it too much. Rueckert’s complaint about the omission of the article is entirely unnecessary, as in Rom_1:1, which is a parallel for cur passage, we read: εἰς εὐαγγέλιον θεοῦ, “unto the gospel of God.” The article is wanting on account of the following genitive, which defines our word more fully, and is to be joined most closely with it; so λόγον ζωῆς (Php_2:16)=Lebenswort, “Word of life,” ἡμέρα τοῦ Χριστοῦ, “day of Christ.” Comp. Winer, p. 118 ff. According to this, we should take the phrase to mean: fulfilment—economy.
The genitive τοῦ πληρ ώματος τῶν καιρῶν defines then οἰκονόμιαν more closely. “Verbo πληρόω et πλήρωμα persæpe utitur Paulus ad Ephesios et Colossenses (Bengel). According to the well-known investigations of Fritzsche (Ad Romans 2. p. 473, and a Dissertation, Rostock, 1839)—although Hofmann (Schriftbeweis, I. 2, p. 118) denies the active and passive senses of the word, seeking to prove that its meaning is: contents, full amount, complement [i. e., the first of the following senses]—πλήρωμα signifies (1) id quo res impletur [this is often called the active sense, but is not strictly so, see on Eph_1:23.—R.], (2) id quod impletur [the strictly passive sense=τὸ πεπληρωμένον, that which is filled, or the state of having been filled and continuing so, fulness; this being the more usual meaning of verbals in μα.—R.], (3) implendi actionem [the proper active meaning], the passive sense being more prevalent than the active. According to this view, the second signification is to be accepted here, as in Gal_4:4 : τὸ πλήρωμα τοῦ χρόνου, that which is filled, the state of fulness, the fulness of time.
Between the two passages there is however a difference, occasioned by τοῦ χρόνου and τῶν καιρῶν. Here definite καιροί are spoken of. Although we find in Mar_1:15 : πεπλήρωται ὁ καιρός, because one point of time is referred to, yet in 1Ti_2:6, the proclamation of salvation is said to take place καιροῖς ἰδίοις, and in Luk_21:24 καιροῖς ἐθνῶν are mentioned, as in Act_1:7 χρόνους ἢ καιρούς. And in the passage strictly parallel (Eph_2:7) it is said that ἐν τοῖς αἰῶσι, τοἴς ἐπερχομένοις, God would show the riches of His grace toward the congregation of the believers. Hence we must apply the word here to different sections of time, linked on to each other, through which the plan of salvation is unfolded, since God ever revealed what and so much as was requisite, to advance the development of His Kingdom, so soon as the end of one period of time in the history of Redemption arrived, and an epoch had fulfilled its task and passed away; while τοῦ χρόνου the passage from Galatians marks these details in their connection as a totality. The fulfilment of these definite periods and points of time, adapted for the required development, is to be understood here: ὁ ὁρισθεὶς παρὰ τοῦ πατρὸς καιρός (Theodoret), the point of time, with the entrance of which the pre-Messianic periods are closed and the Messianic ages begin.
The genitive τοῦ πληρώματος τῶν καιρῶν indicates then what belongs to οἰκονομία, the external and internal relation to it. Comp. Winer, p. 176 ff. [So Ellicott and Eadie; the former has a capital note on this genitive, which he calls a genitive of the characterizing quality.—R.] We have therefore here indicated, that the fulfilling of the times stands under the guidance of God Himself, who has determined and ordered the periods and brings them in according to His purpose. Hence we explain it as: dispensatio propria plenitudini temporum (Calov., Rueckert, Meyer, Matthies, Stier [Hodge, Ellicott, Eadie] and others). Harless takes the genitive as epexegetical, subjoining the special to the general; but οἰκονομία, that which is arranged by the Lord, is not explained by πλήρωμα, a developing process, nor that mode of action by a fact, such as the latter undoubtedly is. Schenkel accepts a genitive of the object, as though “the fulness of the times” was the object of “dispensation;” but while ἧλθε (Gal_4:4) may be predicated of that πλήρωμα, οἰκονομεῖται cannot be, and οἰκονομία has the καιρούς as the object of its νέμειν, the result of this being the πλήρωμα. Luther’s rendering is too limited: dass es gepredigt würde, da die Zeit erfüllt war. It should not be explained, as if we read ἐν τῷ πληρώματι: tempore exacto (Wolf), or aliquo tempore, suo tempore (Morus); nor should it be referred to extrema tempora (Koppe), still less is it=eorum quæ restant temporum, or in reliquis, i.e., novi fæderis temporibus (Stier46 and others). Unpauline as well as unbiblical is Usteri’s explanation, the fulfilling of that time has had its ground in the necessary development of the human consciousness, or of the religious spirit of humanity.47 God’s gracious design applies then to a dispensation, which ordains time and its periods, leading to a point when they are completed. This is still further defined by what follows:
To gather up together all things.—[ἀνακεφαλαιώσασθαι τὰ πάντα. Braune: to gather together again for Himself all things.]—The verb is derived from κεφάλαιον, the chief point, and means principally, to gather together in one main point, as Rom_13:9, where it is said of the single commandments, that they are “briefly comprehended” in the one command of love (ἐν τῷ λόγῳ τούτῳ ἀνακεφαλαιοῦται), summatim comprehendere. But it is acknowledged, that the Apostle, “who does not etymologize, but follows general accords” (Harless), might readily have chosen the word, in order to play upon the word κεφαλἠ, the head, which according to Eph_1:22 is Christ (Chrysostom, Theophylact, Luther: “comprehended, together under one head,” Calov., Wolf, Harless, Stier, Schenkel, Matthies and others). As recapitulare passes over capitulum to caput in its meaning, so too ἀνα κεφαλαιοῦν over κεφάλαιον to κεφαλή. [The play on the word is barely possible. Paul’s usage favors it, but the context is against it, since “in Christ” follows so soon, and the idea of Christ as Head occurs much further on, the reference here being more to His atonement than to His sovereignty. He is regarded as κεφάλαιον rather than as κεφαλή (Meyer).—R.]
Although the meaning of the preposition (ἀνα, again) does not appear in the verb, Rom_13:9, since it would be too artificial to retain it with Harless, because of an assumed reference to the local position of the law given in detail Exodus 20. and afterwards summed up and repeated, Lev_19:18 (Thilo renders Rom_13:9, repetere), still there is no ground for not retaining it here (see Passow sub voce), where the reference is to a gathering of what was dispersed and a renewal of what was ruined, and not originally so. The word may indeed apply to an entirely new fact, but it still refers back to an original status and beginning (Meyer, Harless, Stier).48 Comp. Col_1:15-17.
Finally the middle form must not be left unnoticed: God will gather together again for Himself (sibi) what He has created for Himself; this supports at the same time the meaning again. Accordingly the following explanations are unsatisfactory: a principio renovare (Syriac), instaurare (Vulgate), giving an explanation of the character of the gathering together; συγκεφαλαιοῦσθαι (Raphel), to subject all things at once to Christ; borrowing the phrase from rhetoric, to recapitulate (Jerome, Erasmus, Beza), or from military usage=in unum agmen cogere (Grotius) or from arithmetic=in unam summam redigere (Camerarius, Bucer), although in each of these there is something more or less correct.
The infinitive is to be taken as epexegetical; it brings forward as an explanation the design49 which obtains in the “dispensation of the fulness of times” (Winer, p. 300): in order to gather together under one head for Himself. But how? In Christ.—Nothing further is said; in the resumptive ἐν αὐτῷ we find an explanation. We must maintain however that ἐν τῷ Χριστῷ refers to the Saviour who appeared in the fulness of time (the article is in any case inserted purposely and for emphasis), thus preparing the way for the statement of the object. What then is to be gathered together? All things.
The things which are in heaven, and the things which are on earth [τὰ ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς καὶ ἐπὶ τὴς γῆς. See Textual, Note 10]. Τὰ πάντα is neuter and universal, the more because this explanatory clause is added. No importance is to be attached to the plural (οὐρανοῖς), since we find in Php_3:20 : ἐν οὐρανοῖς—ἐξ οὗ; despite its different regions (2Co_12:2 : ἔως τρίτου οὐρανοῦ) heaven is conceived of as a unity, over against the earth. The well-attested ἐπί is at all events an error of the transcriber or a provincialism, beside which the established ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς could not appear strange. The repeated article denotes the particularity of what is found in both spheres. Heaven and earth have become places of sin (Eph_2:2; Eph_6:12); indeed heaven was the first theatre of sin, when a part of the angels fell into sin and from God (1Ti_3:6; 1Jn_3:8; Jam_2:19; 2Pe_2:4; Judges 6); thence it came to earth (2Co_11:3), in ever greater dimensions (1Co_10:20-21). Thus the state originally appointed by God and the development He wished to be without disturbance, ceased (Rom_8:18-24), so that a renewing of the heavens and of the earth was taken into view (2Pe_3:13). The centre of this renewal is Christ and His redeeming work (Col_1:20), which, however, has its development also, as before His appearance up to the “fulness of times,” so afterwards up to His second Advent, when the “restitution of all things” (Act_3:21), the palingenesia (Mat_19:28), will be introduced. Comp. 2Pe_3:10-13.
It is altogether unmistakable that, in accordance with the views of this Epistle as well as the entire organism of Scripture truth, we must apply this to the totality of the creation (Harless, Olshausen, Matthies, Meyer, Stier, Hofmann, Schriftbeweis, I. 216 ff., Schenkel and others). If we maintain with Bengel: Omnia sub Christo fuerant; per peccatum autem facta erat avulsio et divulsio; atque hæc rursum sublata est, then only such a “restitution of all things” is here treated of, as takes into the account, not the relations of the individual members, of the individuals of the τὰ πάντα, to each other, nor yet the relations of the same in their diversity over against God and Christ, but rather and only the relation of Christ to the totality. We should neither specialize and restrict too much, as does Hofmann, who excludes good angels and evil men, and others, who apply it only to intelligence, persons,50 nor accept an unspecialized thought (Harless), indefinitely in suspense and admitting of no specialization, respecting a totality. If it could be inferred from the fact of the angels not needing redemption, that they were excluded here, we should be finally obliged to except redeemed men from this ἀνακεφαλαίωσις and no longer regard them as under Christ, when their redemption was completed. “The reconciliation through Christ is to the Apostle a fact, whose effects permeate the universe, which affects alike the conscious and the unconscious creation, whether it be touched by sin, or not, as is the case with the good angels” (Olshausen). Here we may certainly apply what Bengel so aptly remarks on Rom_8:19, that pro suo quodque genus captu, and statu may be appended, participate in this Anacephalaiosis, the evil as conquered and rejected opponents, the good angels as participating, ministering friends, the redeemed as accepted children, the rest of creation as subordinate companions, as theatre of the honors. It is precisely “the restoration of the harmony of the Universe” (Harless), which is aimed at. Chrysostom makes the excellent remark; ὡς ἄν περί οἰκίας τις εἴποι τὰ μὲν σαθρὰ τὰ δὲ ἰσχυρὰ ἐχούσης, ἀνῳκοδόμησε τὴν οἰκίαν—οὔτω καὶ ἐνταῦθα πάντας ὑπὸ μίαν ἤγαγε κεφαλήν. That nothing is said of “the restoration of all things,” is quite evident. (Sea Doctr. Note 8.)51
Even in him, ἐν αὐτῷ, is to be joined to “things in heaven, and things on earth,” as “in Christ” is with “all things,” since the two clauses are entirely parallel (Harless). Grotius well says: “Sed repetendum censuit, quasi diceret: per ipsum, inquam, unum, non per ullum alium; non hoc factum per Mosen, non per philosophos.” Hence it is not a Hebraism or Syriasm (Rueckert, who acknowledges the “not feeble repetition”), nor to be joined with the following ἐν ὧ as pleonastic. Thus, then, the person of Christ is noted as the Mediator and middle-point of this comprehensive reuniting, and that without Him such does not and shall not take place. [“Re-asseverating with great, solemnity and emphasis (see Jelf, Gr. § 658), the only blessed sphere in which this ἀνακεφ. can be regarded as operative, and apart from which, and without which, its energies cannot be conceived as acting. It forms also an easy transition to the following relative” (Ellicott).—R.]
It is arbitrary and unscriptural (Meyer) for Calov. and others to assume that Christ is as to His Divine nature the Head of angels, as to His human nature the Head of men. This anacephalaiosis is not to be applied to the completion of the kingdom of God in the resurrection of the body (Theodoret, Jerome), and still less to the moral uniting of antagonistic endeavors (Koppe, Wahl); nor should we determine from Col_1:20, how it is to be conceived of or to take place, but rather confess that our passage says nothing about this.
Eph_1:11. In whom we were also made his inheritance [ἐν ᾧ καὶ ἐκληρώθημεν].—A comma only is to be placed after “in Him;” “in whom,” which refers to it, marks the union with Him (hence not=through whom, Koppe, Flatt) as the way to the obtaining of the inheritance, which is rendered prominent by the καί; were the emphasis on the subject we should find καὶ ἡμεῖς here, as in Eph_1:13 : καὶ ὑμεῖς. Incorrect: in quo etiam nos [Vulgate, Erasmus). [The E. V.: “in whom also” is equally objectionable in connecting καί with ἐν ᾧ.—R.] Prominence is given to the fact, that the plan of God is already in the process of accomplishment, in accordance with the decree and design; καί is not indeed=really, it joins with ἐκληρώθημεν, only what is to be inferred from the preceding context: we are destined, and this connection points to the actualization.
Κληροῦν is found here only; the compound προσεκληρώθησαν in Act_17:4. It is derived, not from κληρονομία, but from κλῆρος, lot (Mat_27:35; Act_1:26), portion of an inheritance (Act_26:18; Col_1:14), used in a spiritual sense, and transferred to men, to the church composed of individuals (1Pe_5:3; τῶν κλήρων). Since this usage is well established, and there is no sufficient reason why the passive sense should not be retained here, we explain: we have become κλῆρος (i.e., of God, as the context requires) in Christ. Bengel: hic loquitur per personam Israelis; eramus facti נַחְלָה κλῆρος seu κληρονομία, sors, hereditas domini. Deu_32:9. So also Stier. The context (Eph_1:12 : “that we should be,” Eph_1:14 :) “purchased possession” supports the requirements of the language. Hence it is not to be explained with Luther: through whom we also have come to an inheritance, nor with most: have become partakers of the inheritance; nor yet accepimus (Morus,) contigit nobis, ut (Koppe).
[The view here taken of the verb is ably defended by Alford and Ellicott, and the ordinary interpretation by Hodge and Eadie. The passive form calls for a passive sense, unless there are very strong reasons to the contrary. It would seem that the other sense is allowable, but the only grounds for adopting it here are (1) the objective character of the whole passage, (2) the parallel passage, Col_1:12. But the sense: we have become an inheritance, is subjective only in form, presenting as it does something which God has become to us, quite as much as what we have become. The other reason is in itself of little weight, for the parallel is inexact in other respects. We adopt the passive sense, rejecting however the allusion to the lot as indicating God’s freedom of choice, and accepting the special meaning given by Bengel.—R.]
Finally it is clear that the subject (“we”) is not put in antithesis to another one, as in Eph_1:14, and that no limitation is indicated either in the verb or in the following participle, so that according to the context and Eph_1:1, we may apply it to the Apostle and his readers, to Christians in general, but not to the Apostle alone (Koppe), nor to him and the Jewish Christians (Grotius, Bengel, Harless, Stier, Schenkel [Hodge] and others). [Barnes restricts it to the ministers of religion. Meyer, Eadie, Alford, Ellicott, agree with Braune.—R.]
Having been predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things [προορισθέντες κατὰ πρόθεσιν τοῦ τὰ πάντα ἐνεργοῦντος].—We who have become an inheritance, are predestinated. A comparison with Eph_1:5 : “having predestinated us unto adoption,” shows us the progress and the distinction. Here it is further defined by the phrase “according to the purpose” from Eph_1:9 (ἢν προέθετο), that the predestinated is grounded in Him, in His design, His will. Accordingly He whose design it is, is termed: τοῦ τὰ πάντα ἐνεργοὺντος,52 “the God, who ordains, prepares and carries forward to its goal the Redemption,” who is “there in the All efficient, Almighty” (Stier); τὰ πάντα is both what is external and historical in the world’s story, as well as in the life of individuals, and what is spiritual and internal (Gal_2:8; Gal_3:5; 1Co_12:11.)
This working is further defined by the phrase: After the counsel of his will κατὰ τὴν βουλὴν τοὺ θελήματος αὐτοῦ. Similar to this is τὰς βουλὰς τῶν καρδιῶν (1Co_4:5). Harless compares: the desire of my heart, the joy of my eyes, the tears of my sorrow, as examples of the exchange of the simple subject into the activity, or peculiarity, or organ of the subject, which is the ground or means of a mental or sensuous manifestation, in order thus with exactness and definiteness to render prominent the close relation between the two. A similar case is 1Pe_3:17 : εἰ θέλοι τὸ θέλημα τοῦ θεοῦ. Βουλή is then the decision, the determination which God forms in His will. See above on Eph_1:5. It is God absolutely free (Matthies), His consilium liberrimum (Bengel). Τὰ πάντα is not
ad id negotium, de quo agitur, adstringendum (Grotius), nor are βουλή and τοῦ θελήματος mere synonymes, as has been affirmed without ground of προορισθέντες and πρόθεσις also, nor yet=voluntas liberrima (Koppe).
[The two words βουλή and θέλημα naturally lead to remarks upon the distinction between the verbs from which they are derived θέλειν and βούλεσθαι.53 The distinction of Buttmann will not apply in the New Testament. He says (Lexic. sub voce): “βούλομαι is confined to the inclination, θέλω to that kind of wish in which there lies a purpose or design.” But in Mat_1:19, where both words occur, they cannot be thus distinguished; for Joseph’s inclination was not to expose his wife, and this is expressed by θέλων, while his purpose to put her away is expressed by ἐβουλἠθη. It is rather in this case, as Alford says: “θἐλω expresses the mere wish, βούλομαι the wish ripened into intention,” in favor of which view he cites Buttmann however. Tittmann on the other hand, while seeming to agree with Buttmann, and usually cited as sustaining him, really differs from him. In his Synonym. N. T., p. 134 ff, he says that θέλειν is simply to will (simpliciter velle), while βούλεσθαι denotes further the inclination. His citation of Ammonius who remarks that the latter cannot be predicated of brutes, would prove that deliberation also was implied in it. He further adds that he who does anything θέλων, does it spontaneously, while he who does it βουλόμενος, determines to turn his mind to that matter. So Plato (Laws, v.) opposes τὸ βουλητόν τε καὶ ἑκούσιον and τὸ ἀβούλητόν τε καὶ ἀκούσιον. This distinction would justify the remark of Braune (on Eph_1:5) that βουλή is the act of willing joined with inclination, while ἐθέλειν is the ethical act. Yet Tittmann and others are scarcely justified in denying to θέλειν any sense of desiring, wishing, etc. With the infinitive such a meaning is common, as in the well-known formula: “I would not have you ignorant” (οὐ θέλω δὲ ὑμᾶς ἀγνοεῖν, Rom_1:13, etc.), and in Rom_7:15 ff., where the antithesis is μισῶ. Besides the spontaneity of will may, after all, indicate an impulse from the side of the desire; who can decide? One thing is certain, we cannot, save by a species of anthropomorphism, apply such distinctions to God, e.g., 1Ti_2:4 : “who will (θέλει) have all men to be saved;” 2Pe_3:9 : “not willing (βουλόμενος) that any should perish.” We dare not, it seems to me, say that one passage refers to God’s spontaneous will and the other to His inclination. In fact any discrimination between the two words for doctrinal purposes is of doubtful propriety, for there is no conflict in God, such as we find in us. Still we need not hesitate to explain “the counsel of His will” as meaning, the definite and deliberate volition of God’s free, sovereign, spontaneous will. A pure voluntas on His part involves the accordant desire, purpose, determination and volition, all questions respecting priority being out of place. So Ellicott, whether correct in his distinction or not, is right in saying that our passage “solemnly represents the Almighty Will as displaying itself in action: θέλημα designating the will generally, βουλή the more special expression of it.” So Meyer, Alford (on 1Ti_5:14) make this general distinction: “θέλω is the resting inclination of the will, βούλομα its active exertion,” which is valid enough here. On the whole Eadie is most judicious in his remarks, preserving Tittmann’s distinction, and yet admitting the idea of desire in θέλω. “θέλημα is will, the result of desire—voluntas; βουλή is counsel, the result of a formal decision—propositum.” Donaldson’s New Cratylus, §§ 463, 464. Here βουλή is the ratified expression of will—the decision to which His will has come. The Divine mind is not in a state of indifference, it has exercised θέλημα—will; and that will is not a lethargic velleity, for it has formed a definite purpose, βουλή, which it determines to carry out.—R.]
Eph_1:12. That we should be unto the praise of his glory [εἰς τὸ εἷναι ἡμᾶς εἰς ἔπαινον δόξης αὐτοῦ. The Rec. inserts τῆς before δόξης on very slight authority.—R.]—This marks the goal, which is set up for those who are “predestinated” in the “purpose,” with the further definition: “to the praise of his glory.” Comp. Eph_1:6. Here He Himself and His glory are the object of the praise, as in Eph_1:14. This expression, three times repeated, and always used at the close of a circle of thought, must be explained each time in the same way, and so that the emphasis which is laid on it be not lessened; accordingly we must retain its force as a designation of the aim or goal, remembering that εἷναι precedes it; a being is spoken of, which is attained through a becoming, and this status is that of persons (ἡμᾶς), who not merely praise with the mouth, in words, but should be themselves a praise. Hence the phrase is not all to be regarded as an incisum or as parenthetical, nor should we join “that we should be” either with” in Christ” (Zeltner) or with “who before hoped” (Knapp, Flatt, Harless, Olshausen and others), as though the thought were: the goal of the predestination is, that we who before hoped, should be in Christ, to the praise and glory of God, or that we to God’s glory, hoped before in Christ. Morus: ut adeo in Christo spem reponere possimus in laudem honoremque Dei. This displaces the proper aim, and what it substitutes cannot be an aim; the hope of the Jews, the faith of the Gentiles.
We who have before hoped in Christ [or the Christ].—Τοὺς προηλπικότας=quippe qui antea spem posuerunt (Winer, p. 127);54 it characterizes those who have thus become to the praise of God, by pointing out the way to this. The construction is not singular (1Co_15:19 : ἐν Χριστῷ ἠλπικότες; Rom_15:13; ἐλπὶς ἐν δυνάμει πνεύματος ἁγίον, before in Eph_1:12 : επ̓αὐτῷ—ἐλπιοῦσιν). “In Christ,” ἐντῷ Χριστῷ, marks this vital fellowship with Him; it is not=εἰς τὸν Χριστόν, towards Him, to Him; He is the ground of the hope.
And now πρό! It points to the state and the period before attaining the appointed goal, hence to the earthly life; it is a designation of the Christian state in the pilgrimage. Hence Bengel very properly remarks: τὸ ante refertur ad tempora V. T., but he is incorrect in referring “before” to persons as though the Jews were thus indicated (primum nacti sunt Judæi deinde gentes, Acts 19:46). So Chrysostom, Erasmus, Harless, Stier, Meyer and others. But προελπίζειν ἐν τῷ χριστῷ is not=προσδέχεσθαι (Luk_2:25; Luk_2:28), notwithstanding Act_28:20; Act_26:6-7. This phrase is added to what precedes in order, as in Eph_1:6, to furnish at the same time a point of connection for what follows, a transition; hence at the close (Eph_1:14) no such addition is made.
[The view defended above is that of De Wette,55 and of Eadie (in his first edition). Nearly all modern commentators accept at this point a distinction between ἡμεῖς and ὑμεῖς, referring the former to Jewish Christians, the latter to Gentile Christians. (The other view refers the former to Christians in general, the latter to the readers.) I am constrained to differ from Dr. Braune here, and adopt the common opinion. (1) No other view allows to προ its proper meaning. To refer the participle to the earthly life, seems far-fetched. The word would not be an appropriate characteristic of all Christians in this connection. Nor is the reference to before the time of writing, worthy of the context. (2) The antithetical καὶ ὑμεῖς (Eph_1:13) is well-nigh conclusive, especially if it be taken as the direct subject of the verb ἐσφραγίσθητε. The Jews had in the Messianic prophecies a ground for their hoping before, but a sealing was more prominent in the case of the Gentiles to whom no such promise had come. (3) The form ἐν τῷ Χριστῷ, instead of εἰς τὸν Χριστόν, is not against this view: “to have hoped in Christ was a higher characteristic than to have directed hope towards Christ, and designated them as more worthy exponents of the praise of God’s glory” (Ellicott).—If this view be accepted, then we can with propriety retain the article in translating: in the Christ, as indeed Braune himself insists on the emphatic force of the article in the similar phrase, Eph_1:10. Any emphasis upon it here would tell against his view.—R.]
Third Foundation. Eph_1:13-14 : The personal appropriation of salvation.
Eph_1:13. In whom ye also.—Ἐν ᾧ, in Christ, viz., “ye were sealed,” since the repetition of ἐν ᾧ is justified by the added phrase: “after that ye heard,” etc. Comp. Winer, p. 545, 1. [For a capital defence of this view of the construction, see Ellicott in loc.—R.] Evidently neither ἐστέ (Meyer) [Alford], nor ἠλπίκατε (Erasmus, Calvin, Beza [E. V., Estius] and others), nor ἐκληρώθητε (Anselm, Koppe, Harless, Olshausen)56 should be supplied. The last is manifestly too remote, the second could only be προηλπίκατε, and the first is unnecessary. It is impossible to take the participle ἀκούσαντες as a finite verb (Syriac, Luther: have heard) [i.e., as the predicate of ὑμεῖς]; just as little should ἐν ᾧ be explained as ideo (Morus).
“Ye also” refers to the readers, and places them in antithesis to “we:” that is, the Christians specially addressed, the local church, written to, over against Christendom in general, the church as a whole. There is no ground whatever for the reference to Gentile Christians, which is accepted by nearly all modern expositors, except Rueckert; nor does the context justify it. [See my note on Eph_1:12. The passage is markedly antithetical, and this is a ground for the reference to the Gentile Christians. As for the context: while hearing and believing and sealing belong to all Christians, there was undoubtedly in the previous circumstances of the Gentile Christians, a good reason for emphasizing these facts in their case.—R.]
Having heard the word of truth, ἀκούσαντες τὸν λόγον τῆς ἀληθείας.—This points to the external situation, in which the apostolic preaching came to them, and they accepted it. This is by no means a token that they are Gentile Christians (Stier, Schenkel and others), but is chiefly applicable rather to the Jews. (Act_13:46; Act_18:5-6; Rom_1:16; Rom_15:8).57 That which is imparted, “the word of truth,” is so termed on account of its contents (2Ti_2:15), as it is called “of God,” on account of its origin (Act_13:46); “of life,” 1Jn_1:1, on account of its effect. In Col_1:6 : “in the word of the truth of the Gospel” (comp. Gal_2:5 : “the truth of the gospel”) the shading of the thought is somewhat different; here the reference is less to the antithesis in Judaism (the “shadow” of the O. T.), as Chrysostom, Stier think, or to that in heathenism with its lies (A-Lapide and others), or to both (Grotius), than to Christ, who is the Truth, so that the word as to its contents and origin is τῆς ἀληθείας (Harless, Schenkel [Eadie, Alford, Ellicott, Hodge] and others). But the phrase is never=doctrina vera (Morus, Koppe), institutio in vera religione (Wahl).
The gospel of your salvation, τὸ εὐαγγέλιον τῆς σωτηριας ὑμῶν.—This is appositional, defining what precedes, and in such a way that “word” corresponds to “gospel,” “truth” to “salvation;” the latter word sets forth the power of saving, which is joined to the gospel, which operates through it (Rom_1:16; 1Co_1:18; 1Co_4:20); hence it is the contents to be imparted; “salvation” is more comprehensive than “forgiveness of sins,” redemption (Eph_1:7); it is “the certain, complete rescuing” Stier). [Ellicott distinguishes between the two genitives; taking ἀληθείας as genitive substantiæ, σωτηρίας as “a genitive of the (spiritual) contents or subject-matter, etc., ‘the gospel which turns upon, which reveals salvation,’ thus forming one of that large class of genitives of remoter reference.”—R.]
In whom I say having also believed, ye were sealed [ἐν ᾧ καὶ πιστεύσαντες ἐσφραγίσθητε]. Ἐν ᾧ, “in whom,” stands in the anaphora and, as in the beginning of this verse and in Eph_1:11, refers to Christ; this is required by καὶ πιστεύσαντες, since καί connects with the preceding ἀκούσαντες: “the inward state of being permeated by the word of truth is expressed by the advance from ἀκούσαντες to καὶ πιστεύσαντες, they have heard it and at the same time really appropriated it” (Matthies); hence both words have the same reference. Although it is grammatically allowable that ἐν ῷ be connected with πιστεύσαντες and applied to the gospel (Mar_1:15; πιστεύετε ἐν τῷ εὐαγγελίῳ); yet as a matter of syntax it should be referred to ἐν τῷ Χριστῷ (Eph_1:12) which is dialectically justified at the same time, because the vital fellowship with Christ is the pre-supposition for the σφραγισθῆναι, and faith is only the condition, the subjective means of appropriation. “Not in virtue of faith, but by means of faith in virtue of what the word proffers to him who hears and what he apprehends” (Delitzsch), comes the new life in Christ.
Πιστεύσαντες may be understood, as in Rom_13:11 of the act of acceptance (Rueckert), or taken as=διὰ τῆς πίστεως, as in Eph_1:7; διὰ τοῦ αἴματος αὐτοῦ; Eph_3:12 : διὰ τῆς πίστεως αὐτοῦ. Comp. Rom_5:2; 1Co_4:15. [It is best taken absolutely.—R.] We may then say with Harless: the notion of the participle as to its temporal occurrence coincides with that of the finite verb. Meyer ought not to separate and sever temporally hearing, believing, baptism, reception of the Holy Ghost, although dialectically they are to be sharply distinguished.
[These aorist participles may express either contemporaneous or antecedent action. The latter relation seems to be most in accordance with the nature of the actions referred to. Alford takes them as indicating the terminus a quo, rendering: since, from the time when ye heard, on your believing, remarking further that the participle is and is not contemporaneous with the verb: “it is not, inasmuch as in strict accuracy, faith preceded baptism, and baptism preceded the gift of the Spirit: but it is, inasmuch as on looking back over a man’s course, the period of the commencement of his faith includes all its accidents and accompaniments.”—R.]
Ἐσφραγίσθητε is more closely defined by the context. It means in Eph_4:30; Joh_3:33; Joh_6:27; 2Co_1:22, to seal, to confirm, as σφραγίς (Rom_4:11; 1Co_9:2; 2Ti_2:19) is the attesting seal. By means of the faith which is joined with your hearing, ye have been also sealed and certified in Christ; referring to Eph_1:11 : ἐν ᾧ καὶ ἐκληρώθημεν. The κληρωθῆναι moves on to the σφραγισθῆναι (Chrysostom); it is not evident, how this should be particularly true of the Gentile Christians, over against the Jewish Christians, among whom Paul reckoned himself.58 There is not merely an intended inheritance and an attestation thereto conceded, but this is presented with a certifying seal; since the heritage is in them, they in it, and it growing into them, they are themselves made sure as heirs, are confirmed and certified in this possession. The immediate meaning is, that they have been assured of this grace for themselves; “ye have been assured by the Holy Ghost, as by a letter and seal” (Rueckert).
The change of person (ἠμεῖς—ὑμεῖς) marks, that they have been attested in this possession for others also, strongly enough designated, to be recognized as companions. [This is equally true, if “we,” “you,” be referred to Jewish and Gentile Christians, for it was precisely the gift of the Holy Ghost (Act_10:47; Act_11:17), which demonstrated to Peter, that the Gentiles should be thus recognized.—R.] Theophylact: ὤστε εἷναι σῆλον, ὄτι θεον͂ ἐστε λάχος καὶ κλῆρος.) It is only a sequel and an inference, that they have been secured from future wrath, ruin, loss and condemnation.59 The passive indicates an experience, which does not proceed from themselves, is not developed out of them, but is the act of another, of God. All this is so natural and so accordant with the use of the word, which is a common one in the Old Testament, that there is no reason for supposing here an allusion to heathen customs, such as branding slaves with the name of their master (Flatt), or the stigmata of idolatrous worship (Grotius), or, because the letter is addressed to Ephesus, to the σφραγίς of Diana (Ametius), or to Jewish circumcision (Schoettgen, Wetstein, Tholuck and others). Nor is it equivalent to: the salvation or inheritance (in Rueckert) is sealed to you; since they themselves are attested documents.
With the Spirit of promise, the holy One [τῷ πνεύματι τῆς ἐπαγγελίας τῷ ἁγίῳ].—The dative τῷπνεύματι, marks that with which they have been sealed, certified; Eph_4:30; ὲν ᾧ, wherein “ye are sealed unto the day of redemption,” denotes the fellowship with the Holy Ghost. The Spirit is here the attesting “seal,” that God affixes to those who in fellowship with Christ have heard His word and become believers: πιστεύσαντες designates the subjective means, τῷ πνεύματι the objective. In Rom_8:16, without the figure: “the Spirit beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.” [With (E. V.) as indicating that the Holy Spirit is the seal, is preferable to by (Alford, Ellicott), which might imply that the Spirit was the Sealer; God is the Sealer, we are the sealed, the Spirit is the Seal.—R.]
The phrase τῷ ἁγίῳ compels us to accept a reference to the Holy Spirit; it is added with emphasis, so as to guard against the mistake, that the spirit inherent in the promise was meant.60 But because τῆς ἐπαγγελίας is emphasized, it comes first; it is otherwise in Joh_7:37 : ἐν τῇ ἐσχάτῃ ἡμἐρᾳ τῇ μεγάλῃ τῆς ἑορτῆς. Comp. Winer, p. 488 f. Of course we cannot take it as referring to special miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost (Grotius, Estius), as though only those thus endowed were assured of the adoption and inheritance. Nor does it refer to the donum sanctificationis (Pelagius, Romanists) since τῷ ἁγίῳ denotes, not the effect, but the attribute of the Spirit.
The genitive τῆς ἐπαγγελίας accordingly cannot possibly designate the promise as that in which the Spirit is immanent, inheres, but refers to that the object of which is the Spirit, viz., the Holy Spirit. Bengel is excellent: per verbum promissus erat spiritus sanctus; dato igitur spiritu sancto, ii., qui credidere verbo, obsignati sunt; et qui spiritum sanctum habent, omnem promissionem sibi præstitum iri sciunt. So most expositors: the promised Spirit.61 “The promise of the Spirit” (Gal_3:14) is the promise which has the Spirit as its aim, or its object. The “promise” here should not, however, be limited to Christ’s last words (Luk_24:49; Act_1:4), as is done by Baumgarten Crusius, nor yet to the Old Testament promises (Joe_3:1-5; Isa_32:15; Isa_44:3; Eze_36:25; Eze_39:29), as Harless supposes, following Chrysostom; it includes both what is prophetical and apostolical (Luk_24:44-47). The context definitely decides against the view, that the Spirit brings the promise, or that the notion of a testimonium reddere, obsignare is found in the genitival connection (Theophylact [who, however, also gives this correct explanation: ο͂τι ἐξ ἔπαγγελίας ἐδόθη.—R.] Calvin, Beza.)
Eph_1:14. Who is the earnest of our inheritance. [ὄς ἐστιν ἀῤῥαβὼν τῆς κληρονομίας ημῶν].—Ὃς refers, logically to τὸ πνεὺμα, marking its personality, which the Apostle has in mind, constructio ad sensum), as Mat_28:19 : τὰ ἔθνη—αὐτούς; 2Jn_1:2 : τοὶς τέκνοις—οὔς. Comp. Winer, p. 133. [A better explanation of ο͂ς, than the constructio ad sensum, is that of its agreement in gender with ἀῤῥαβών. So Meyer, Alford, Ellicott. (See Winer, p. 157.) The last named remarks that “τὸ πνεῦμα in its most distinct personal sense is invariably used with the neuter relative.”—R.] It is not to be referred to Christ (Polycarp); that is too remote (Winer, p. 149) and the sense will not admit of it, since the Spirit is the ἀῤῥαβων; 2Co_1:22 : “Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts” (Eph_5:5). From the Hebrew עֶרָבוֹן (Gen_38:3; Gen_38:17-18; Gen_38:20)=pignus,62 there probably arose through the agency of Phœnician traders ἀῤῥαβών in Greek, arrhabo and arrha in Latin (without the h also), with the sense of “earnest-money,” the beginning of the payment which should take place in full afterwards. Hence Hesychius:—πρόδομα, Chrysostom: μέρος τοῦ παντός; Jerome: Arrabo futuræ emtioni quasi quoddam testimonium et obliga-mentum datur. It is=ἀπαρχὴ τοῦ πνεύματος, Rom_8:23.
What the Spirit promises to vouchsafe to us in the future, in eternity, is indicated by the genitive τῆς κληρονομίας ἡμῶν, “of our inheritance.” The inheritance which is the necessary consequence of sonship (Rom_8:17; Gal_4:7) is an eternal one (Gal_3:18; Heb_9:15; comp. Eph_5:5; Col_3:24). Thus then believers obtain the certainty that they are heirs and have an inheritance in eternity, not through an assurance from without, but chiefly through the reality of the possession, not at once in its entire extent, but in an earnest (Harless). “Our” includes the Apostle, his readers and all Christendom (1Co_2:12), because it stands at the end of the paragraph, not Gentile and Jewish Christians (Stier, Schenkel and others.)
Unto the redemption of his purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory, εἰς ἀπολύτρωσιν τῆς περιποιήσεως, εἰς ἔπαινον τῆς δόξης αὐτοῦ.—These two qualifying phrases, introduced by the same preposition, are to be taken as parallel, the first referring to the objective aim of the church of God, the second to the subjective aim of the redeemed member (Schenkel). Comp. Eph_1:6; Eph_1:12. Hence αὐτοῦ is to be joined to περιποιήσεως as well as to δόξης (Meyer, Hofmann), who however in Schriftbeweis, II. 2, p. 28, understands it of Christ, when it obviously refers to God the Father, (Schenkel). The preposition εἰς marks a goal, which is nearer at hand, more definitely described in the phrase “the earnest of our inheritance,” than in “ye were sealed,” so that the connection with the relative clause is more natural than to pass over it back to the verb of the main clause, Eph_1:13 (Meyer, [Hodge, Ellicott] and others). Thus the explanation of ἀπολύτρωσις as ἡ τέλεια is required. [That is, as in Eph_4:30; Rom_8:23 (comp. my note in loco) the full final redemption, the accomplishment of all that is included in the word (Alford).—R.] The context, however, gives a further definition with τῆς περιποιήσεως (αὐτοῦ.)
Περιποιεῖν=to cause something to remain, to let remain, to deliver; περιποιεῖσθαι, to cause to remain for one’s self, hence to acquire, to gain. The substantive therefore=acquisition, possession. In 2 Thess. 5:9: εἰς περιποίησιν σωτηρίας; 2Th_2:14 : el; εἰς περιποίησιν δόξης, it is acquisition as the genitives indicate; 1Pe_2:9 : λαὸς εἰς περιποίησιν, it is evidently possession (comp. Mat_3:17; Act_20:28; Isa_43:21), hence=סְגֻלָּה as the people of Israel were termed, which is elsewhere designated by περιούσιος (Exo_19:5; Deu_7:6; Deu_14:2; Deu_26:18, λαὸς περιούσιος, LXX. and Tit_2:14), peculium Dei. Hence the “redemption” applies to God’s possession, to the people already acquired by Him, and cannot be the first redeeming act, “the forgiveness of sins” (Eph_1:7; Col_1:14; Rom_3:24), by which the people are acquired, but must be the completed work, to which the Holy Ghost, as earnest, pledge, points and leads. So most expositors from Theophylact (οἳ τινές ἐσμεν περιποίησις καὶ κτῆσις καὶ περιουσία θεοῦ) and Œcumenius (διὰ τὸ περιποιήσασθαι ἡμᾶς τὸν θεόν) to Erasmus and the latest time. Hence εἰς is not=ἔως, usque ad (Morus), nor ἀπολύτρωσις=mors, liberatio a malo (Morus), nor is the genitive τῆς περιποιήσεως a designation of the effect (Luther: to our redemption, that we become His possession; Stier: to the redemption, that we become and because we are His possession.)
[It rarely occurs that a passage presenting a number of difficulties is interpreted with so great an approach to unanimity as in this case. Modern English and American commentators, almost without an exception take the same view as Braune. Stier, among the Germans, does not reject it, but puts other meanings upon the passage as usual. Eadie gives his Trinitarian division as follows: “The Father seals believers, and His glory is the last end; in the Son they are sealed, and their redemption is His work while the Spirit ‘which proceedeth’ from the Father, and is sent by the Son—is the Seal and Earnest.”—For a very full discussion of the word περιποίησις, see Harless, whose comments have largely contributed in producing the unanimity respecting this passage among modern interpreters.—R.]
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. The importance of the doctrine of predestination. The Apostle speaks in great emotion, as is unmistakably shown by the remarkably complicated structure of his sentences, and with special emphasis, as the repetition and strength of his expressions (Eph_1:4-5; Eph_1:9; Eph_1:11) equally prove. Chemnitz says, in a sermon on Matthew 22 (in Frank’s Theologie der Form. Concord., iv. 268): “Therefore (on account of the contests arising out of the doctrine of election) it has occurred to some, that we ought not to preach at all to Christians in the church about the foreknowledge and choice of God, because it is dangerous to both sides, as it is said, leading either to security or despair; but because God has revealed this very doctrine to us so often and in so many parts of the Scripture, we must not put it under the table, may not and should not say, that it is unprofitable, obnoxious or injurious, yet we must so look into it, as not to run too far or climb too high, but have and hold in all simplicity the true understanding and proper use thereof.” [It may well be added, that such use is for Christians alone (Eph_1:5 : “us”), and that this use will lead on the one hand to trustful security in view of the fixedness of God’s purpose, on the other hand to profound humility in view of the entire freedom of God’s choice irrespective of our merit. Others may, nay some must speculate on this subject, but they find no solution of this problem save so far as God’s word gives one; and this solution can be fully apprehended only by a believing soul; it is above logic and philosophy, and even technical, theology, even as on many subjects, and these the most important, the heart is a better teacher than the head. Still even the most advanced Christian, seeing that God’s word alone gives any solution, may well say with the martyr Ridley: “In these matters I am so fearful, that I dare not speak further; yea almost none otherwise than the text does, as it were, lead me by the hand” (from Eadie).—R.]
2. The starting-point. It must by no means be overlooked, that the Apostle first expresses in praise the consciousness of salvation, though in a summary way, and then passes to predestination. Even the transition (“even as he chose us”) does not place predestination in the first rank; it only marks the actual relation, and that the possession of salvation becomes our portion according to the election and fore-ordination; yet it still remains true, that from the consciousness of salvation we should look into the eternal will of God, and be lifted up to it. This is done in the confession of the Lutheran church, Form. Concord., article xi. In that symbol we begin with sin and the natural powers of man (i. ii.), then follows Justification and its consequences (iii. iv.), next the means of grace in the Word and the Lord’s Supper (v. vi. vii.); to these are joined the Christological articles (viii. ix.), and De ceremoniis ecclesiasticis (10) seems to form the conclusion. But last of all there is added further: De æterna prædestinatione et electione Dei. See Frank, Theologie, 1:48; 4:138. The Reformed in their confessions (Basle, Belgic, Westminster, Helvetic and others) proceed from the speculative idea of God, which is neither Pauline, biblical, nor advisable. [This objection as regards abstractness does not hold against the Heidelberg Catechism. Still the Lutheran symbols go to the opposite extreme. That the order in the Reformed confessions is Pauline, Dr. Braune unconsciously admits in the order he himself adopts in these notes (Eph_1:4 follows Eph_1:3 very closely, be it observed). If it be Pauline, it is Scriptural, though this Apostle is not alone in putting God and His will so prominently in advance. As to its advisableness: some minds demand the Reformed order, which is at all events that of logical statement, of systematic theology. Others object to it, but the great difficulty is not met by any change of position. If we claim that believing hearts, “blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.,” alone are competent for the discussion, we have claimed all that our section warrants us in doing. Let each systematize as he will; we cannot make God’s truth dependent on the order of our symbols. Let us be charitable, since some minds are so constituted as to accept or even demand Calvinism, and others prefer to take the difficulty in another form. Let each hold, indeed, that God’s truth is objective truth independent of our subjective statements, and hope for the time when a higher synthesis will reconcile what seems now to be contradictory, all the more because neither Calvinism nor Arminianism has solved the problem presented in this chapter, though one may in its efforts embrace more of the facts of the rule of grace and providence than the other. Comp. the Doctr. Notes on Romans 9 in the Bible work.—R.]
3.The object of the predestination is set forth in “us” (Eph_1:4-6; Eph_1:8-9; Eph_1:12; Eph_1:14) and “you” (Eph_1:13), and in such a way that no ground for the predestination is to be found in those predestinated, hence nothing indicates a limitation of it. It is rather to be extended as widely as sin reaches, and the “forgiveness of sins” (Eph_1:7) is necessary, and the hearing of “the word of truth, the gospel of salvation” (Eph_1:13) is designed to extend. Hence the whole human race is the object of the predestination, and as the words “we” and “you” require, not in a mass, but down to each individual. This is entirely in accordance with 1Ti_2:4 (πάντας ἀνθρώπους θέλει σωθῆναι), with the Lord’s word, Joh_3:16 (ἠγάπησεν ὁ θεὸς τὸν κόσμον), and the saying of Peter (2Pe_3:9 : μὴ βουλόμενός τινας ἀπολέσθαι, ἀλλὰ πάντας εἰς μετάνοιαν χωρῆσαι). It is precisely the section before us which marks the Divine will of mercy as directed toward all. We must maintain the universality of grace, universalis voluntas Dei, quod non tantum prædicatio pænitentiæ, verum etiam promissio evangelii sit universalis, hoc est, ad omnes homines pertineat (Form. Conc. xi. 28). The word πάντας (1Ti_2:4) cannot be explained by cujusvis status atque conditionis homines, tam illustres ac potentes in mundo, quam obscuros (Piscator), neither can we understand under κόσμον (Joh_3:16) the elect, on the ground that God never loved the damned (Beza), nor limit πάντας (2Pe_3:9) by nempe credentes (Piscator). Thus the Form. Conc, (xi. 23); et quidem Deus suo illo consilio—non tantum in genere salutem suorum procuravit, verum etiam omnes et singulas personas electorum—præescivit—eligit (comp. ibid. § 54). The Lutheran confession, it is true, besides the universality of the grace of God notes also with a reference to this section a particularity of the election of grace, of which not all, good and bad, are the objects, but only the Children of God: Æterna vero electio seu prÆdestinatio Dei ad salutem non simul ad bonos et ad malos pertinet, sed tantum ad filios Dei, qui ad æternam vitam consequendam electi et ordinati sunt, priusquam mundi fundamenta jacerentur (xi. 5). Accordingly we should reject here the double predestination to salvation and damnation, which from the first was taught by Luther and Melanchthon (following Augustine, who, however, expressed himself very prudently and only in an infra-lapsarian sense, and Gottschalk in the ninth century with his duplex sive gemina prædestinatio), but in an infra-lapsarian sense, maintained however by Zwingle (see Hahn, Stud. u. Krit., 1837, pp. 765–805) and Calvin in a supralapsarian sense, and revived by the Jansenism of the Catholic Church in the 17th century, and by E. W. Krummacher in our day, and also the doctrine of Samuel Hubers, that God has in His Son ordained and elected each and every man to eternal life (see Frank, 4. pp. 165, 281 ff., Hagenbach in Herzog’s Real-Enc., 6. p. 293 ff.), a doctrine which Schleiermacher repeats in his discussion of the doctrine of election (Werke Theol. 2. p. 393 f.) and in his Glaubenslehre (§ 119, 2), and also the view of Hofmann (Schriftbeweis, I. p. 257 ff.), followed by Luthardt (Compendium der Dogmatik, p. 85), which denies the reference of the decree of grace to a definite number. [Dr. Braune seems to avoid a definite statement. Whatever may be deduced from the other passages referred to, Paul here declares that individual persons are chosen by God, predestinated unto adoption. How many those persons are is a question which when asked of the Son of God led only to personal exhortation. Who they are, manifests itself only in the exercise of faith, though even this is not always manifest to others (nor, as in the case of infants, is this a decisive test). Practically, the question is respecting our personal appropriation of the blessings of redemption, which are according as (καθώς, Eph_1:4) the election. Logically and theologically, the fact that some are partakers of blessing and others not, when taken in connection with the statement of Eph_1:4-5, leads to the conclusion, that of God’s free will some have been chosen and others not chosen. The negation is, however, all that any ought to deduce from our passage. The difficulties arising from this conclusion cannot be fully met save by a heart so trustful in its affection to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, as to know it to be right because He has so ordered. The same difficulty meets us in God’s providential dealings, aye, in the workings of His natural laws, for as a brilliant author has well said: “Nature is a terrible Calvinist.” Paul concerns himself here only with the positive side, which presents but one difficulty, viz. that of fully responding in love to the gracious fact.—R.]
4. The Subject of the predestination is God, the Father of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ (Eph_1:3), and that, top, in His “love” (Eph_1:4) according to “the good pleasure of His will” (Eph_1:5; Eph_1:9), or “the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His will” (Eph_1:11); reference being made to His “grace” (Eph_1:11), and “the mystery of His will” (Eph_1:9) being recognized as the subject of the revelation. A duplex state in God Himself is by no means indicated, but rather excluded. In Him there are not two wills, one revealed, according to which God wills the salvation of all men, and another secret (occulta illa et metuenda voluntas Dei ordinantis suo consilio, quos et guales prædicatæ et oblatæ misericordiæ capaces et participes esse velit), nor do His mercy and justice exist merely beside each other, the latter respecting the damned and the former the elect. It is not that God is gracious, and at the same time just, or just and yet gracious, but in that He provides a satisfaction for His justice, He is gracious, and because He will satisfy His grace, He appeases His justice, so that justice as satisfied is the ground of grace, and grace as to be satisfied is the ground for the satisfaction of justice (Frank, iv. 191). The secret will is not here asserted beside the revealed, nor can the secret will detract aught from the revealed; the latter, “as the real, unitedly efficient” will, stands “constantly over against the apparently contradicting secret” will and “conditions and controls” “the reality of the secret will.” “A secret will in abstracto, not having at the same time in itself as substantial elements the substantial determinations of the revealed will, does not exist” (Frank, iv. pp. 198–200). “The Scriptures, however, teach, that the Providence of God has not such a manner and meaning as if a master cook determines he will strangle some of the pheasants lying before him and let others fly, a figure Gerson uses, but predestination comprises in itself totum decretum redemptionis, vocationis, justificationis, guber-nationis et glorificationis, as Paul throughout the first chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians thus treats and expounds this doctrine in detail” (Chemnitz in Frank). The omnipotence and executive energy of God is conditioned and bound by His will, by His Nature, as well as by the regulations He has Himself established, which will be spoken of hereafter (notes 6, 7, 8). It is not the Absolute in itself, nor yet the purely Absolute One, but the self-conditioning Unconditioned One. Accordingly the Scriptures and the Lutheran Confession distinguish from the prædestinatio Dei ad salutem, taken as identical with the electio, the præscientia Dei, according to which He prævidet et novit etiam mala, sed non ea ratione, quasi Dei voluntas propitia illa sit, ut fiant (Form. Conc. xi. 6); principium autem et causa mali non sit ipsa Deipræscientia, Deus enim non creat, procurat, efficit aut operatur malum, sed neque illud juvat aut promovel (Ibid. 7).
[The theory of the self-conditioning of God is a favorite one with many German theologians. Such self-conditioning may be assumed as the basis of creation, especially the creation of free moral agents, but the mystery yet remains: an Almighty God from whose freedom none of His creatures dare detract aught, and moral, yet sinful, men, from whose freedom of will God will detract nothing. If foreknowledge be assumed as the basis of the predestination, the difficulty is increased: “If God foresaw this faith and holiness, then these qualities were either self-created, or were to be bestowed by Himself; if the former, the grace of God is denied, and if the latter, the question turns upon itself—what prompted God to give them the faith and holiness which He foresaw they should possess” (Eadie). Braune only hints at this explanation, however. Sir Wm. Hamilton’s “Philosophy of the Unconditioned” encounters the problem63 as directly as Calvinism. Assuming as we must that “God’s grace fits men for heaven, but men by unbelief prepare themselves for hell,” we still insist: that St. Paul here teaches the entire freedom of choice on the part of God, that choice being in accordance with the nature of the Sovreign Chooser; and at the same time in Eph_1:13 assumes the free faith on the part of those addressed, while the state of blessing which moves his thanksgiving is expressly said to be in accordance with the choice of God. So much a fair exegesis allows, as Dr. Braune himself admits in his exegetical notes. “Whether this doctrine be identified with Pagan Stoicism or Mohammedan fatalism, and be rudely set aside, and the world placed under the inspection of an inert omniscience; or whether it be modified as to its end, and be declared to be privilege, and not holiness; or as to its foundation, and that be alleged to be not gratuitous and irrespective choice, but foreseen merit and goodness; or as to its subjects, and they be affirmed to be not individuals, but communities; or as to its result, and it be reckoned contingent, and not absolute; or whether the idea of election be diluted into mere preferential choice:”—“such hypotheses leave the central difficulty still unsolved, and throw us back on the unconditioned and undivided sovereignty of Him ‘of whom, to whom, and through whom are all things,’—all whose plans and purposes wrought out in the Church, and designed to promote His glory, have been conceived in the vast and incomprehensible solitudes of His own eternity.”—Eadie.—R.]
5. The end of the predestination is defined in a threefold way:
a. For the predestinated: “unto adoption” (Eph_1:5), in which “redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Eph_1:7; Eph_1:14) are given to them in grace (“His grace which He freely bestowed upon us,” Eph_1:6), so that they as the “possession” of God (Eph_1:14) become partakers of the inheritance (Eph_1:11), of the salvation which the gospel brings (Eph_1:13) and “holy and without blame” (Eph_1:4).
b. For the entire world, in the history of which through various periods of development (“dispensation of the fulness of times,” Eph_1:10), it is accomplished: “to gather up together all things in Christ.”
c. For God the Lord: “unto the praise of the glory of His grace” (Eph_1:6), “unto the praise of His glory” (Eph_1:12; Eph_1:14). The aim is accordingly as much moral as religious, and as much individually-personal as world-historical. The synthesis of the moral and religious factors, which is in the main peculiar to the Sacred Scriptures (Schenkel), appears all the more prominently here, as the emphatic εἰς ἔπαινον is at once both religious and moral. The same is true of the glory of God and the blessedness of man, and so much so that it is not correct to affirm that the glory of God and it alone is “the final and most exalted end of the creation and redemption of the world” (Schenkel).
What is world-historical must be combined with what is personal, the individual life with the whole; it is however unmistakable, that the relation of the creature to the Creator is arranged in order to regulate the demeanor of the former, and that the whole is wrought upon by the individual parts becoming the object of activity, as these are wrought upon through the whole, and thus the totality is brought to completion.
6. The Mediator is Christ, “our Lord and Saviour” (Eph_1:3), “the Beloved” (Eph_1:6), and it is “through His blood” (Eph_1:7) thus in conformity to His eternal Person and His relation to God, as well as according to His atoning and redeeming sufferings in time. Æterna igitur prædestinatio in Christo et nequaquam extra mediatorem Christum consideranda est (Form. Conc. xi. 65). Since then God, who is the Father of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, the Beloved, formed the decree of redemption in Christ, He must be conceived of as existing before the purpose, and hence the Person of Christ as that eternal person, in whom the Father chose us, as He created us in Him despite the foreseen fall. Accordingly Christ is the causa meritoria of our election, both of the purpose and its accomplishment, to which latter the suffering of death, mentioned in Eph_1:7, especially refers. Although the Reformed agree with the Lutherans in formal statement on this point, all their symbols describing the election of grace as taking place in Christo and propter Christum, yet they deviate from scriptural truth, in regarding Him as the object of the predestination: ut ipse quoque ἐκλεκτός (Helvet. Conf. V.), and not as fundamentum ipsam electionem præcedens, not as causa meritoria. So that they not only refer with propter Christum to the idea of satisfaction, which should not be the causa impulsiva, rather merely the condition chosen by God for the actualization of the predestination in eternal blessedness, but also with in Christo wish to designate only the medium of the accomplishment. According to this view only for those elected by God’s mercy is there a Christ and an atoning death, and it cannot be perceived whence there should then arise any necessity of the atoning act of redemption for the satisfaction of Divine wrath; for the grace has not to be rendered possible, but the determined gracious purpose has only to be carried out. Comp. Schneckenburger, Vergleichende Darstellung, I. p. 192 ff.; Frank, iv. p. 192 ff. [It is scarcely fair to take the strongly partisan work of Heidegger (Formula Consensus Helvetica, 1675, see Biblework, Romans, pp. 191, 192) as a representative of the Reformed Confessions on this point. There has been, since the days of the Reformation, a tendency in the Reformed Church to bald forensic statements on this point, but to-day the full significance of the phrase: “in Christ,” is perhaps better understood than ever before.—R.]
7. The means of grace in carrying out the decree of redemption the Apostle indicates with γνωρίσας, “having made known” (Eph_1:9), and calls them also: “the word of truth, the Gospel of your salvation” (Eph_1:13). To neither designation of the Divine word is there attached any limitation as respects the sphere of its effect, while the genitives describe rather, partly (“of truth”) an efficient truth, calculated for all, as the purport of this word, partly (“of your salvation”) the power and effect, which it bears in itself and exercises. At all events we should maintain, as respects this chapter, what is said in the Form. Conc. xi. 16, 29, 33 (where the German version has “verleiht,” the Latin expressing it more weakly: largiri vult, though meaning quite as much): For it should not be thought, that God spoke thus: Externally through the word I call all of you, to whom I give my word, into my kingdom, but in my heart I do not intend it for all, but only for a certain few; for it is my will, that the greater part of those whom I thus call through my word should not be enlightened and converted, but be and remain condemned, although I declare otherwise respecting them in the invitations of my word. “Hoc enim esset Deo contradictorias voluntates affingere” (xi. 24). [This is the old difficulty in another form. It is a difficulty of fact, too. For a large portion of those who have the word of God in their hands and hear it, even while it is the Gospel of salvation to those who sit beside them, are “not enlightened and converted.” Why not? The question is not a merely theoretical one, but comes out of agonized hearts often enough. An answer which charges God with folly, or which accepts His purpose as thwarted, will not satisfy the heart, however theologians may philosophize; the resting place in this strait, as in all others, is in God. “He worketh all things after the counsel of His will”—but is “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”—R.]
8. The condition of the saving effect of these means the Apostle marks with ἀκούσαντες, to which he adds with emphasis καὶ πιστεύσαντες (Eph_1:13), and with προηλπικότας ἐν τῷ Χριστῷ. The Formula of Concord aptly states these thoughts (xi. 17): Decrevit etiam se spiritu sanctu suo per verbum annuntiatum auditione perceptum et memoriæ commendatum velle in nobis efficacem esse, et corda ad veram pœnitentiam agendam inflectere et vera fide conservare. There is at least nothing to be derived from these propositions in favor of the Synergism of Melanchthon and his followers. The word of God develops in the hearer that power which he has placed in it, and in this power he apprehends, being himself first apprehended, what is bidden him, and thus gains hope and confidence through the power of the word which has become vital and active in him. But it is indicated definitely enough that man can resist; he is not forced to hear and accept what is proclaimed, nor to believe in it and hope in it. Since God will save only in Christ, and only through the Word will create faith and hope in Him, this does not accord with the statement of the Reformed and the Predestinarians, that God wills nothing which He does not do. If the Ninevites could avert His punitive will by repentance, so His gracious will may be thwarted through resistance. This is Scriptural truth, and it is confirmed by Christian experience, which knows of no necessity for obeying the will of God, but too well of a possibility of resisting it (Frank, iv. p. 205). The gratia irresistibilis of Augustine is a fiction arising from an abstract conception of the purely Absolute. The unconditioned yet self-conditioning Personality of God does not will, as the predestinarians think that He wills, but with a self-restraining almightiness within the sphere of redemption, so that salvation, is not gained without His will, but the proffered salvation is lost through man’s own fault against His earnest gracious will, which He offers in His Word. Both must be maintained: God has willingly given men of His will and conditioned Himself, in placing conditions before men in the hearing and believing of His Word, and man has the power of continued resistance, so that an entire apocatastasis of all things, the ultimate salvation of all, although God’s revealed will points thereto, is scarcely conceivable, as Origen, Schleiermacher and others suppose. A final resistance is to be maintained as possible. Nitzsch, System, p. 416.
9. Assurance of election is definitely pointed out in Eph_1:13-14 : “ye were sealed with the Spirit of promise, the Holy One, who is the earnest of our inheritance,” and although in consequence of faith (πιστεύσαντες), still on the ground of the promise of the Holy Ghost and the resulting bestowal of the same—in the means of grace, the word, and baptism (which, though not expressed, is to be understood) and through which Christ’s merit, that is and suffices for all, is attributed to us. On the ground of the certainty, that God’s word is true, that God has loved the world, that Christ has died for the sins of the whole world, and that God has called you also, must have called you, because He has loved you in Christ, and I have been baptized, accepted as a child, endowed with the Holy Ghost, renewed, regenerated, even though it be but germinally, potentially, I am certain of my election before the foundation of the world, and my inheritance in eternity. [Rightly enough the doctrine of election is for the comfort of believers, but they will derive far more comfort from a more definite conception of the matter. If “baptismal regeneration” is a ground for the assurance of election, then many thus assured are not sanctified in this world, and such an assurance is not likely to further such a result. The Augustinian view is here the practical one.—R.]
10. The possibility of apostasy is indicated by the phrase “unto the redemption of the purchased possession.” It marks chiefly the goal to which the Holy Ghost, as “earnest of our inheritance,” points. But the Christian has the consciousness, that his life-development is an ethical, not a physical, process, that he can withdraw himself, can resist the Divine will, can fall and fall away too. God will preserve us to the end and complete His work on and in us, si modo non ipsi nos ab eo avertamus (Form. Conc., xi. 32, 75). Hence the warnings in the hortatory part of this Epistle (chap. 4–6). Comp. Heb_6:4-6, where the fall of the regenerate is assumed, and only the return of such is called impossible. Accordingly there inheres in the reference to election and the possession of salvation a strong means of incitement to sanctification, on the ground and in virtue of the existing ethical matter of fact in faith. [An “earnest” is generally a safeguard against failure to fulfil the agreement, nor does the preposition εἰς (Eph_1:14), rendered “until” in the E. V., indicate any possibility of failure, but rather with its strong final sense, and that too in parallelism with “unto the praise of his glory,” implies the very opposite. The doctrine of the perseverance of the saints stands or falls with that of personal predestination, and both are parts of the theological system, which makes “His glory” the chief end.—R.]
11. Concluding remark. A mystery remains here until eternity. It is analogous to a miracle, which is not such in the sight of God nor of the redeemed any longer, but only for those in lower stages. Thus it is with the mystery of God’s will, which is ever dissolving and in the higher degrees of revelation becomes ever more manifest. The completion of revelation like that of the inheritance lies beyond this world. Hence we have not contradictions,64 that inhere in the Scripture or the truth, but only those which belong to human statement, and are such to our understanding. Let us then be humble! [This is the best guard against dogmatism. Especially let those who hold those views of Divine Sovereignty which are most humbling learn the lesson!—R.]
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Begin always with thanksgiving to God, and neither forget nor overlook the benefits He has conferred upon you; but above all consider the spiritual gifts with which He has blessed you and yours.—The beginning, middle, and end of the Christian life, or its ground, path and goal, is the praise and adoration of God. Before God created men, He willed that they should be His children; it is just in being or becoming God’s children, that we foster the human in us, and we should be Christians, in order to be really men. He who does not fully become a man, is no proper Christian or child of God. The ultimate end of God is His glory; this is attained, when we become holy and blameless. He wills His glory only in our blessedness; the Father’s honor is linked with the children’s blessedness.—Everything is to be traced back to the will of God: what is manifest, revealed, experienced is the guide into the secrecy of God and His will; we must let ourselves be led from His revealed will into His secret will.—God accomplishes His will, but only according to the purpose of His will; hence not in a physical, chemical, “natural” process, but in an ethical life-process of men created after His image and for sonship with Him does He effect the desired and determined redemption of the same.—In Christ, the Beloved, is the counsel of salvation formed, in Christ it is to be carried out, and in such a way that Christ dies for the sake of sinners as a sacrifice of reconciliation, as an atoning sacrifice, and with the forgiveness of sins is begun that redemption, which leads to the throne and heart of God, since the Spirit of God works on our spirit, and His work not being in vain, confirms us in sonship, in regeneration and renewal even unto the inheritance. The process is from above to beneath, then from within to without, in order to lead from the depths up on high. The mystery of the Divine will is not in itself an incomprehensible, inconceivable enigma, entirely uncomprehended; it is only a mystery for us, rising so far above us, who cannot fathom its depth nor measure its infinitude, considering the majesty and the kindness of the same. For our reason it is a mystery; not contrary to, but above our reason; the reason of man and of God are two very different things. The mystery of the Divine will is only the manifestation of what is conditioned, limited, finite and imperfect in our knowledge, which bears to what in itself is clearest of all the same relation as the eyes of night birds to bright daylight. It is a proof of a Divine revelation, if we seem, when confronted with His will and truth, to be transferred to a shoreless sea, a fathomless depth. That is at once the mystery and the revelation of God. Without revelation knowest thou nothing of God, canst know nothing of Him; whoever rejects the revelation in Christ, in the sacred Scriptures, rejects also the science of God Himself; to him the mystery of God ever becomes a riddle without solution, while the Christian ever knows and feels it with greater joy. It is not unreasonable to believe on the mystery in God, since this disappears ever more and more; like children, we grow into the truth which was at first so mysterious.—As Christ is the point of beginning for the Father’s gracious decree in eternity, so He is the middle-point of its accomplishment in history, and the terminal point in its consummation.—All things, the creation of heaven and earth, the maintenance and administration of the world are subordinate and subservient to the counsel of God’s grace respecting our redemption in Christ: the Father is concerned for His children, not for His servants and His possessions; these are employed and rightly placed, when the children are cared for.—The word of revelation must be proclaimed and accepted: this is the chief duty of men ordered by God.—Here believers have no lack of germs, beginnings, earnest; but fruit, completion, full payment come not here, but above.
Starke:—The wealth of the elect is inconceivable, indescribable, incomparable.—See the final point of this election of grace, and its tokens too. Prove yourselves thereby, ye Christians!—Believers have sonship with God through Christ, not from their own worthiness: it brings with it the noblest treasures, yes, the eternal inheritance.—The forgiveness of sins is the most glorious fruit of Christ’s redemption; it is the basis of all other benefits: for where it is, there is life and blessedness.—The fountain of grace will never be drained, but is and remains inexhaustible, so that of its fulness we receive grace for grace.—Christ is the true ladder whose top touches heaven and its end the earth, thus linking and binding heaven and earth, God and men. Let him, who will be united to God, hold to Christ.—Angels and men stand again in friendship through Christ. Hence Christ is concerned with the angels, not that He must gain something for them of which they do not stand in need, but that they may have friendship again with men, when these again attain to grace.—The work of our election and salvation is full of wisdom, because it has taken place according to the counsel of Him who is wisdom itself; it is pure grace, because it appertains to an inheritance; infallible, because it is founded on the purpose of the Almighty; full of righteousness, because all comes to us through Christ, the righteous. Excellent tokens of the Divine truth of the Christian religion: it brings that with it, which the whole world cannot give and which makes man blessed, in the germ here in time, in perfection in eternity. This makes believers joyful in all tribulation, even in martyrdom.
Rieger:—They shall be blessed is the sum of all the promises of the Old Testament; He has blessed us is the Gospel laud for the fulfilment of these promises in the New Testament. With these spiritual blessings in heavenly places the gospel conquers the whole world and the earthly mind, in which Jews and Gentiles lay captive.—In this are the honor of God and our salvation inseparably joined: God seeks His honor or the praise of His glory in us through our pardon.—In the Old Testament, it was often said: the Lord do thee good for Abraham’s sake, for His servant David’s sake; but now all is in and through the Beloved, who became the propitiation for the sins of the whole world. Once obtain in Him the forgiveness of sins, and then all other spiritual blessings flow without ceasing.—By the frequent phrase: according to His good pleasure, according to the counsel of His will, the Apostle bows down our mistrustful heart, so apt to strive for the mastery with the Holy One of Israel.—In the repeated expressions: through Himself, in whom, in Christ, the Apostle manifests an unusual zeal and care, to bind us ever to Christ, to accustom us to seek and find our glory in this alone, that we belong to Christ and are numbered in His inheritance; we may have reason hereafter to praise more the truth of God, like the Jews, descending from the fathers, whose are the promises; or to magnify rather His mercy, like the Gentiles, who unexpectedly have been favored with the gracious call. It is a word of truth, searched by every one, who is of the truth, concerned about the truth, that thus he may be helped to the truth; it is the Gospel of our salvation, not only bringing us tidings of it, but containing a Divine power for actual blessing, through the faith to which it inclines the heart, giving also the Spirit, which affords what redounds to our own certainty and steadfastness in the truth, serving at the same time as a witness to others, that we have attained a position in true grace, and especially assuring us of our preservation, which we are to enjoy as the redeemed possession of the Lord, but which with the crown thereto appertaining we will lay at the feet of Him, who has accepted us to the praise of His glory.
Bengel:—Ultra hoc beneplacitum nobis neque in salutis nostræ neque in ullis operum divinorum causis rimandis ire licet. Quid philosopharis de mundo optimo? Cave, ne tute sis malus!
Kleuker:—The entire Pauline theology rests mainly on what he calls the Divine mystery, terming its execution the economy of God. No Apostle speaks with such a sweep and fulness of spirit, as Paul, whose revelation is in this economy.
Gerlach:—The riches of Divine grace in the forgiveness of sins makes itself known to us chiefly through the illumination, which thus becomes ours, the knowledge of God and our salvation,—this we include under wisdom; under prudence especially the insight into our condition and the life of the world, the practical, Christian wisdom for living. In neither should we think merely of the one-sided intellectual knowledge.
Heubner:—Christ, the eternal Son of God, has been the ground, why God created the world, and delivered and blessed the fallen world. Christ is the eternal ground of the Divine complacency toward the world, the ground of our blessedness.—The highest grace is Redemption. God decreed it, Christ accomplished it, earning it. It is of a purely spiritual character, the forgiveness of sins. That is true redemption, which releases us not from earthly need, but from anxiety and disquietude of conscience, from enmity to God, from incapacity for good and fear of hell. It is the fundamental condition of all other possessions, which we have through Christ. The general decree of God is the basis of the calling of individuals; for God overlooks no one. Man can bring either honor or shame to God, as a child to its parents. Christians should bring honor to God, He desires to get honor through us before the world.—The Holy Spirit is the seal of Christians, the stamp which they receive, that they are real children of God, the token by means of which they appear and pass current as Christians before the celestial spirits. Without this character (“express image”) faith is vain and all Christianity mere sham. How many sham Christians there are, who have not this Seal!—This Spirit is to the Christian the strongest proof also of eternal life, because in itself it is something eternal, imperishable.
Passavant:—The eternal counsel of the Father respecting the election of souls is first carried out and consummated in the Son and through Him in the course of time. It is a work and miracle of love, unsearchable and unfathomable, carried on at once on earth and in heaven, in a human breast, and in a Divine heart. This election does not rest in man or angel, not in the will of man or angel’s thought; not in human or angelic holiness or righteousness, purity or greatness or fidelity, not in any virtue, glory or love of the creature.—By nature we are not the children of God; even though so many may, flatly and godlessly enough, think and affirm otherwise, calling God Father and All-father.—But God now makes us His children; He has exalted us to the joys, the blessednesses, the treasures, the eternities, the glories of the heavenly nature; we are children, beloved children, heirs of God, heirs of heaven! This is the doing of the Lord’s grace.—Nothing makes so poor in all true good and worth and blessing, as sin and all that belongs to and proceeds from sin.—The gospel traces our thoughts and feelings back to and into ourselves, so that we perceive the cunning of our hearts and the deceit of sin, and come to the footprints of God, to the springs of what is eternally true and good. It reveals to us, what we were, what we are, and what we should become; what are our deepest needs, the eternal ones; what our internal injury, the worst of all; what our heaviest sorrows might be, here and hereafter. It reveals to us, where the true, certain aid is, where salvation, light, peace, life are, a Divine salvation, an unerring light, an eternal peace, an everlasting life.—It is out of this light, that its opponents and enemies have borrowed or stolen all the rays of truth and wisdom, which shine here and there in their proud writings and philosophies.—It is the Holy Spirit, who gives man to God in this life, and gives God to man in eternal life; who here sketches the features of the children in likeness to their heavenly Father, and will complete the picture in eternity: who begins their redemption here with their release from the servile yoke of the creature, and will complete it in the unity and love of the Creator.
Stier:—An Apostle prays for his church, teaches and exhorts out of the promise and petition of his apostolic prayer, but does not lord it, does not establish eternal forms, does not urge and carry to excess the external phenomena of the church, which is forming itself deeply and inwardly in view of its goal.—Each after his manner! As Christ is now our Head in another way than that of the holy angels, so is He in another way Lord and King, and Crown, too, of the material world also. The condemned and evil spirits lie at His feet in another manner than the adoring saints and angels—yet still all really, all finally before Him.
Beecher65:—Those who are willing are always the elect, those who will not, are not elected. Many men are wrapped up in the doctrines of election and predestination, but that is the height of impertinence. They are truths belonging to God alone, and if you are perplexed by them, it is only because you trouble yourself about things which do not concern you. You only need to know that God sustains you with all His might in the winning of your salvation, if you will only rightly use His help. Whoever doubts this is like the crew of a boat working with all their might against the tide and yet going back hour after hour; then they notice, that the tide turns, while at the same time the wind springs up and fills their sails. The coxswain cries: pull away boys! wind and tide favor you! But they answer: What can we do with the oars, don’t the wind and tide take away our free agency?
Schelling:—It is a vacuity of ideas, that ventures to call itself Rationalism. Not to hate one’s enemies, not to persecute them, but to do them good, aye, to love them, is above Reason. The supreme commands of a generous morality, exalting humanity, could not be fulfilled, if man could not act above Reason. Why then should not God act above Reason? In tins sense it is by no means irrational to say,—the will of God as respects the human race estranged from Him is above Reason. We can, with J. G. Haman, answer the good-natured people who want to have a rational God after their notions: whether they have never noticed, that God is a genius, who asks very little about what they call rational or irrational.
Hofacker:—The wide range which Christmas Day opens to our eye of faith: 1) How far back; 2) How high up; 3) How far ahead it teaches us to look.
Ahlfeld:—Thank the Lord, who hath blessed thee with all spiritual blessings in heavenly things! 1) For what should I be thankful? 2) How should I thank Him?—(Sermon for Whitsunday): The Holy Ghost, as Steward of the possessions of Christ, pours out His treasures upon us. He (1) proclaims, (2) entails, (3) seals to us salvation in Jesus Christ.
Palmer:—Our election in Christ: 1) It is an eternal one, but linked to the temporal Incarnation of Christ; 2) It is a mysterious act of God, but each may have a clear consciousness respecting it; 3) It has taken place without our help, but does not permit us to be idle.
Kapff (on St. Thomas’ Day):—What a mighty strengthening of our faith lies in the Divine election! 1) in its goal, 2) in its ground, 3) in the mode of its accomplishment.
[Schenkel:—The eternal election of the Christian: 1. A work of Divine love; 2. With the effect of presenting him ever more and more pure and holy before God.—Jesus Christ the Saviour of the world: He is (1) the Centre of the world’s history, (2) the Key to the understanding of the mystery of God’s providential rule.—How in the Person of Jesus Christ, beginning and end, heaven and earth harmoniously unite.—No predestination save unto holiness, no election outside of the Mediator, Jesus Christ.—All events in time depend on the decree of God in eternity.—The Holy Ghost as the earnest of our heavenly inheritance: 1. A balm of consolation for the weak; 2. A weapon of victory for the strong.—R.]
[Eadie:
Eph_1:3. We bless Him because He has blessed us.—Christianity is the dispensation of the Spirit, and as its graces are inwrought by Him, they are all named “spiritual” after Him.
Eph_1:4. The pulsation of a holy heart leads to a stainless life, and this is the avowed purpose of our election.—Sovereignty is but another name for highest and benignest equity.
Eph_1:5. The returning prodigal does not win his way back into the paternal mansion. This purpose to accept us existed ere the fact of our apostacy had manifested itself, and being without epoch of origin, it comes not within the limits of chronology. It pre-existed time.—Adoption has its medium in Christ: but it has its ultimate enjoyment and blessing in God. Himself is our Father.—His household we enter—His welcome we are saluted with—His name and dignity we wear—His image we possess—His discipline we receive—and His home, secured and prepared for us, we hope forever to dwell in. To Himself we are adopted. The origin of this privilege and distinction is the Divine love.
Eph_1:8. A mystery is not to be flung abroad without due discrimination. The revealer of it wisely selects his audience, and prudently chooses the proper time, place and method for his disclosure.
Eph_1:10. This re-capitulation of all things is declared a second time to be in Christ—a solemn and emphatic re-assertion. His mediative work has secured it, and His mediatorial person is the one centre of the universe. As the stone dropped into the lake creates those widening and concentric circles, which ultimately reach the farthest shore, so the deed done on Calvary has sent its undulations through the distant spheres and realms of God’s great empire.
Eph_1:11. His desire and His decrees are not at variance, but every resolution embodies His unthwarted pleasure.
Eph_1:13. The gospel is wholly truth, and that very truth which is indispensable to a guilty world. And it comes as a word, by special oral revelation, for it is not gleaned and gathered: there is a kind and faithful oracle.—The gospel is good news, and that good news is our salvation.—That seal unbroken remains a token of safety. Whatever bears God’s image will be safely carried home to His bosom.
Eph_1:14. The earnest, though it differ in degree, is the same in kind with the prospective inheritance. The earnest is not withdrawn, nor a totally new circle of possessions substituted. Heaven is but an addition to present enjoyments. The prelibation will be followed by the banquet.—“We have redemption” so soon as we believe; we are ever having it so long as we are on earth; and when Jesus comes again to finish the economy of grace, we shall have it in its full and final completion.—All issues “to the praise of His glory,” His grace having now done its work. The church receives its complement in extent at the very same epoch at which it is crowned with fulness of purity and blessedness. “May it please Thee of thy gracious goodness shortly to accomplish the number of Thy elect, and to hasten Thy kingdom,” is an appropriate petition on the part of all saints.—R.]
Footnotes:
[15]Eph_1:3.—B. omits καὶ πατήρ, א. inserts καὶ σωτῆρος [after κυρίου, to complete the well-known phrase], which is disapproved by the later reviser [א.3].
[16]Eph_1:3.—[“The aorist here ought certainly to he maintained in translation, as the allusion is to the past act of redemption. The idiom of our language frequently interferes with the regular application of the rule, but it is still no less certain that the English preterite is the nearest equivalent of the Greek aorist.” A slavish application of this rule has much marred the version of the Amer. Bible Union. This section presents a number of cases where the proper rendering of the Greek tense is a matter of some delicacy, though rarely of great difficulty.—R.]
[17]Eph_1:3.—[The singular should be retained, as in the Genevan, Bishops’, and Rhemish versions. Alford and Ellicott (following the Syriac version) render: blessing of the Spirit, but this is a correct interpretation rather than a translation. With (E. V.) need not be changed to in, but the English reader should be reminded that the Greek preposition is ἐν.—R.]
[18]Eph_1:4.—[See Exeg. Notes.—R.]
[19]Eph_1:5.—[Unto adoption through Jesus Christ unto himself; the variations from the E. V. are all necessary; the adoption of children is pleonastic; διά should, as a rule, be rendered through, and εἰς unto. Himself is to be retained, because, although the reading is not αὑτόν but αὐτόν, the reference is to God, and this will not appear if the simple pronoun Him is substituted. Ellicott’s rendering is peculiar: having foreordained us for adoption through Jesus Christ into Himself. He justifies the last preposition by the English idiom “adopt into.”—R.]
[20]Eph_1:6.—א. A. B. have ἧς, corrected in the first to ἐν ᾗ, as D. E. F. G. K. L. read; the former is, however, lectio difficilior, and it is more likely that the latter arose from it, than the reverse. [The reading of the Rec. (ἐν ᾗ) is found in a great majority of cursives, many versions and fathers; it is adopted by Tischendorf and Ellicott. The other is received by Lachmann, Meyer, Alford. It is very difficult to decide, but the above rendering is based on the reading ἧς.—R.]
[21]Eph_1:7.—[The emphatic article τῶν before παραπτωμάτων is best rendered by the possessive pronoun our, as indeed is often necessary in translating the article from the German. Transgressions is more exact than sins, and thus the distinction between this verse and Col_1:14 is maintained.—On τὴν before ἀπολύτρωσιν see Exeg. Notes.—R.]
[22]Eph_1:7.—[Instead of τὸν πλοῦτον (Rec., א.3 D.3 K. L.) read τὸ πλοῦτος (א.1 A. B. D.1), which is adopted by Lachmann, Rückert, Tischendorf (see his Prolegg. p. Leviticus 7 th ed.), Alford, Ellicott. Comp. Winer, p. 64.—R.]
[23]Eph_1:10.—[Among the multitude of emendations suggested in regard to this part of Eph_1:10. I have felt that it was only necessary to adopt this one, which literally translates the preposition εἰς. The phrases, for, with a view to, in regard of, with reference to, are not more intelligible than the simple unto providing the pointing be properly altered (as above) to indicate the close connection with “purposed.” Ellicott omits even the comma.—Dispensation was once an improper translation, but is perhaps now the nearest equivalent to the Greek οἰκονομία; fulfilment might be substituted for fulness, and seasons for times, but the gain would be slight. The omission of that requires a change in the finite construction of the remainder of the verse.—R.]
[24]Eph_1:10.—[The τε after τα in the Rec. is to be rejected, having scarcely any support (א.3). A much more difficult question is, whether we should read ἐπί or ἐν before τοῖς οὐρανοῖς. For the first, which is very unusual in this connection, the authorities are: א.1 B. D. L. and 40 cursives, accepted by Lachmann, Rückert, Meyer, Alford and others; for the second (Rec.), A. F. G. K., majority of cursives, fathers, accepted by Griesbach, Scholz, Harless, De Wette, Tischendorf, Ellicott, Eadie, Braune. If the former be adopted, it must be as an ἅπαξ λεγόμενον; and is so remarkable a one, that we may well incline to the latter, especially as a careless copyist would find ἐπί so close at hand. Comp. Exeg. Notes.—R.]
[25]Eph_1:11.—א. B. K. L. [all modern editors]: ἐκληρώθημεν. A. D. E. F. G.: ἐκλήθημεν. which is the easier reading. [Braune takes this verb to mean: made an inheritance, not obtain an inheritance, as in E. V.—R.]
[26]Eph_1:12.—[For a justification of this translation now generally adopted, see Exeg. Notes.—R.]
[27]Eph_1:13.—[This view of the construction is the simplest, and most defensible. The participles: ἀκούσαντες—πιστεύσαντες, are best rendered by the English past participles; after that, etc. (E. V.), is, too, pronounced in its temporal reference.—R.]
[28]Eph_1:14.—ὅς according to א. D. E. K. is lectio dificilior over against ὅ, A. B. F. [The latter is the reading of the Rec., Lachmann, Rückert, Alford. The former is accepted by Tischendorf, Ellicott, Meyer, who remarks on the readiness with which the latter reading would arise, owing to the neuter πνεῦμα.—R.]
[29][The verb is usually omitted in this and similar forms of doxology. “Understand εἴη (Job_1:21; Psa_112:2) or ἔστω (2Ch_9:8).” So Alford, Ellicott. It is from this word that Dr. Lange derives his view respecting Paul’s use of liturgical forms; comp. Rom_9:5; and the O. T. passages cited above.—R.]
[30][This is true in N. T. usage. In the LXX. it is almost universally true, though in Gen_26:29; Deu_7:14; 1Sa_15:13; 1Sa_25:33 as Ellicott remarks, εὐλογητός is applied to man. The distinction is sufficiently marked to justify Dr. Braune’s remark. See Harless in loco.—R.]
[31][Meyer’s view: “God who is also the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,” would require, if a strict construction be insisted on: ὁ θεός, ὁ καὶ πατήρ, as Alford intimates. Ellicott admits that there are no grammatical or doctrinal objections to the view defended above, but prefers the other, mainly on the ground that the phrase “the God of Christ” is singular. Hodge and Eadie join the genitive to both nouns.—R.]
[32][Eadie at first took this aorist as marking “a customary or repeated act,” an interpretation he seems to have given up in his 2d edition, where, however, a trace of it is found in a footnote which has no corresponding number in his text. To take it as having the sense of the present, which Hodge seems to favor (though his view would require the perfect in Greek), is untenable. The aorist participle, retaining as usual its aoristic force, “refers to the counsels of the Father as graciously completed in the Redemption.”—R.]
[33][Alford is fully justified in saying: “πνευματικός in the N. T. always implies the working of the Holy Spirit, never bearing merely our modern inaccurate sense of spiritual as opposed to bodily.” Hodge apparently accepts both, which is not allowable, even if the correct meaning be given the greater prominence. Eadie concedes the latter meaning in the New Testament, but improperly in every passage cited. He justly opposes the exclusive reference of our passage to charismata (Whitby), alluding to the transitory character of these gifts. Theodoret: “The blessings referred to here are, the hope of the resurrection, the promises of immortality, the kingdom of heaven in reversion, and the dignity of adoption.”—R.]
[34][Alford prefers to render the verb: selected, as best indicating the middle sense, and the choosing out of the world. See Ellicott in loco on this word.—R.]
[35][Eadie also discusses Hofmann’s view, which is simply this, that the election is only a choosing for and unto something, not a choosing out of. Meyer says most emphatically regarding Hofmann’s position: “This is impossible from the notion of the word. A reference to others, to whom the chosen ones would still have belonged without the ἐκλογή, the verb ἐκλέγεσθαι always has, and as a logical necessity must have it.” How true this is, will appear from the unsatisfactory and confusing character of all attempts to explain away this reference.—R.]
[36][Ebrard (Christliche Dogmatik, § 560) denies the individual reference in the verb ἐκλέγ., but, as Eadie well remarks: “The choice of a multitude is simply the choice of each individual composing it. That multitude may be regarded as a unity by God, but to Him it is a unity of definite elements or members. On the Divine side the elect, whatever their number, are a unity, and are so described—πᾶν ὃ δέδωκέ μοι, Joh_6:39; πᾶν ὃ δέδωκας αὐτῷ, Joh_17:2—a totality viewed by Omniscience as one; but on the human side, the elect are the whole company of believers, but thus individualized—πὰς ὁ θεωρῶν τὸν υἱὸν καὶ πίστεύων, Joh_6:40.” Paul says so distinctly that God chose us out, as to put men at their wits’ end to make Him say anything else.—R.]
[37][Ellicott says that this phrase “here serves to define the archetypal character of the New Dispensation, and the wide gulf that separated the πρόθεσις πρὸ χρόνων αἰωνίων (2Ti_1:9) of God with respect to Christians, from His temporal ἐκλογή of the Jews.”—R.]
[38][The question respecting the use of αὑτοῦ is discussed on this page of Winer’s Grammar. The sweeping assertion that it is never used, is not accepted by Winer. It appears, however, that under the influence of Griesbach, this pointing became too frequent, the tendency now being against it, Ellicott says: “The distinction, however, between the proper use of these two forms cannot be rigorously defined.”—R.]
[39][Dr. Braune seems to refer Col_1:22 to the future Judgment, in his notes on that passage.—R.]
[40][“As there is here no sacrificial allusion, direct or indirect (comp. Eph_5:27), it seems best to retain the simple etymological meaning: inculpatus” (Ellicott).—R.]
[41][Braune says: dem gemüthlichen Akt des Wollens, thus indicating his acceptance of Buttmann’s distinction between βούλομαι and ἐθέλω (the former more an act of inclination, the latter of deliberation, choice). On this see Eph_1:11. The word gemüthlich has no English equivalent, so far as I am aware.—R.]
[42][The article here points to something well known; if the verb ἔχομεν has a reference mainly objective, then this means the redemption promised, etc., but if it be subjective, then it means our redemption. So Conybeare. Ellicott objects to this, but sanctions it in the Revision by Four Ang. Clergymen. Such a rendering by no means implies that the ἀπολύτρωσιν is merely subjective.—R.]
[43][On this distinction, comp. Trench, Synonymes, N. T., § 33; Cocceius has a special treatise, De utilitate distinctionis inter πάρεσιν et ἄφεσιν (Opp. t. vii.) See Schaff, Romans, p. 128, Textual Note8.—R.]
[44][On παράπτωμα see Dr. Schaff’s note (Rom_5:15) p. 182, and the subsequent discussions. The positions taken there forbid any such wide reference as that of Olshausen, Ellicott, while not laying much stress upon the distinction between παρπτώματα and ἁμαρτίαι, takes the former as pointing more to sins on the side of commission, sinful acts, the latter to sins as the result of a state, sinful conditions.—R.]
[45][Ellicott renders this word: discernment or intelligence, adding a very discriminating note.—R.]
[46][Alford argues at some length in favor of the reference to the whole gospel dispensation, “the giving forth of the gospel under God’s providential arrangements.” Against his view, see Eadie.—R.]
[47][It is certainly true that God comprehended this development in His plan, and that it was an important factor in carrying out “the dispensation of the fulness of times,” though its importance has not been recognized until lately by theologians and church historians. Eadie well observes: “The πλήρωμα is regarded as a vast receptacle into which centuries and milleniums had been falling, but it was now filled.” “That fulness of the time in which this economy was founded, is the precise period, for the Lord has appointed it; and the best period, for the age was ripe for the event.” The view of Dr. Braune is so well stated and agrees so entirely with that of the most exact of modern commentators, that further supplement is needless.—R.]
[48][The force of ἀνά, again, should be retained, it would seem, for Rom_13:9, can include such a notion irrespective of the forced assumption of Harless. Hodge and Alford indeed are timid about admitting it, lest it be turned to an improper use, but there is undoubtedly a restoration implied in Redemption, although restoration falls very far short of the latter idea.—R.]
[49][Harless takes it as depending on “the mystery of his will.” The general idea is the same, but such a connection would give to the intervening words too much of a parenthetical character.—R.]
[50][Perhaps the most restricted view is that of Dr. Hodge: “The redeemed from among men, some of whom are now in heaven and others are still on earth.” This he defends by a number of reasons, all of which I am forced to consider irrelevant. The great mistake is in his giving too wide a scope to the anacephalaiosis, insisting that it means such a gathering together as implies redemption in its fullest sense, for which there is no authority, save the assumed paranomasia in the word. Granting this position, the restriction of τὰ πάντα follows as a matter of course. It would seem to be a far better method to take τὰ πάντα in its appropriate sense, all things, even at the risk of limiting a doubtful word like ἀνακεφαλαιοῦσθαι, than to give it the sense of the masculine, which it never has. This restricted view seems to be adopted more from doctrinal than exegetical reasons.—R.]
[51][Comp. Meyer in loco. He says: “The doctrine of restoration, according to which even those who have remained unbelieving, and finally devils, shall yet attain to blessedness, contrary as it is to the whole tenor of the New Testament, finds no support in our passage either (against Chrysostom and others), where in ἀνακεφαλ, etc., the exclusion of the unbelieving and the demoniacal powers and their banishment to Gehenna is self-evident in connection with the Christian consciousness of faith, so that the anacephalaiosis does not apply to every single individual, but to the whole complex of things heavenly and earthly, which, after the anti-christian individuals have been excluded and transferred to hell, shall be joined in unity under God in the renewed world again, as formerly before sin all in heaven and on earth was thus united. Olshausen therefore incorrectly thinks our passage (like Col_1:20) is to be placed in accord with the general type of Scriptural teaching, by finding in the infinitive ἀνακεφ. the purpose of God, ‘which, in the founding of redemption furnished with unlimited power, has in view the establishment of universal harmony, the restoration of all that is lost.’ Irrespective of the fact that the infinitive is epexegetical, it is altogether unscriptural to assume that in redemption there is purposed a restoration of all that is lost, even of the devils. For those passages which speak of the universality of redemption and such sayings as 1Pe_4:6; Php_2:10 f., leave entirely untouched the constant doctrine of the New Testament respecting eternal damnation. As regards the devils, the purpose of God in the economy of redemption was to conquer them (1Jn_3:8; 1Co_15:24), and to deliver them to the punishment of eternal torment already passed upon them (Mat_25:41; Judges 6; 2Pe_2:4; Rev_20:1 ff.; comp. Bertholdt, Christologie, p. 223). In the New Testament there is no single thought of the restoration of devils, as this is conceived of as an impossibility in the case of the radically antitheistic spirits. The prince of this world is only judged.” No one can accuse Meyer of theological bias, or of ungrammatical exegesis, hence his opinion is quoted entire.—R.]
[52][Alford: “Energizes; but especially in and among material previously given, as here, in His material creation, and in the spirits of all flesh, also His creation.” The same author remarks on the repetition of the notion of predestination: “Here first the Apostle comes to the idea of the universal church, the whole Israel of God, and therefore here brings forward again that fore-ordination which he had indeed hinted at generally in Eph_1:5, but which properly belonged to Israel, and is accordingly predicated of the Israel of the church.”—R.]
[53][In my note on Colossians, p. 35, 1 refer to Dr. Hitchcock’s views on this point. While it is a matter of regret as regards this work as a whole that Prof. Hitchcock, owing to ill health, was obliged to abandon his intention to edit Ephesians, it is especially unfortunate that his studies on this distinction could not be incorporated here. His conclusions, however, agree in the main with those of Tittmann, as given above.—R.]
[54][Ellicott objects to this as inexact, observing that “this would imply a participle Without, not as here with the article.” He refers to Donaldson, Cratylus, § 304, Grammar, § 492 sq. It should be noticed that the perfect participle expresses here as so often a past act continuing to the present, the perfect of permanent state.—R.]
[55][It should be noticed, that De Wette, who is the principal supporter of this view, is also the chief opposer of the Pauline origin of our Epistle. Naturally enough the latter opinion would influence his judgment on this point, for one who believes that this verse was written by a pupil of the Apostle Paul, in all probability a Gentile, would fail to see the appropriateness of giving prominence to the antithesis between Jewish and Gentile Christians accepted by most commentators.—R.]
[56][So Hodge, who misapprehends the difficulties attending the construction accepted by Braune.—R.]
[57][It is difficult to see how these passages prove the correctness of Dr. Braune’S statement. The Jews were the first hearers, but of the, ὑμεῖς “believing” also is here predicated, the reference being to the same persons; hence these passages which speak of the Jews hearing and not believing, prove rather that ὑμεῖς refers to Gentile Christians—R.]
[58] [The sealing was the same in the case of both, but the antecedents of the Gentile Christians, the fact that they had no previous seal of God’s covenant, makes this prominent in their case, but this does not require us to find here any definite allusion to circumcision.—R.]
[59][Hodge combines the three meanings: (1) To authenticate or confirm as genuine and true; (2) To mark as one’s property; (3) To render secure.—R.]
[60][Meyer well remarks that Paul wishes to give emphatic and solemn prominence to that by means of which the sealing takes place, and hence speaks with a corresponding pathos. This should be preserved in the English rendering as above (so Alford).—R.]
[61][Ellicott: “The Spirit which came from, i. e., was announced, by promise.” Eadie: “The genitive is almost that of ablation.” Meyer takes it as “a genitive of quality, designating the promise as a characteristic of the Holy Spirit.” Alford would retain the article in English: “the Spirit of the promise.”—R.]
[62][Pignus, pledge, differs from arra, earnest; the former is restored when the contract has been performed, the latter is a part of the purchase money. The custom of paying “earnest-money” obtains still in legal transactions, but more especially in the popular usage of most nations.—R.]
[63][Eadie, whose notes on this subject are as judicious as they are apt, quotes from Sir Wm. Hamilton (Discussions, etc. p. 598): “It is here shown to be as irrational as irreligious, on the ground of human understanding, to deny, either, on the one hand, the fore-knowledge, predestination, and free grace of God, or, on the other, the free will of man; that we should believe both, and both in unison, though unable to comprehend even either apart. This philosophy proclaims with St. Augustine, and Augustine in his maturest writings:—‘If there be not free grace in God, how can He save the world? and if there be not free will in man, how can the world by God be judged?’ (Ad Valentinum. Epist. 214.) Or, as the same doctrine is perhaps expressed even better by St. Bernard: ‘Abolish free will and there is nothing to be saved: abolish free grace, and there is nothing wherewithal to save.’ (De Gratia et Libero Arbitrio.)” See the list of authors of all opinions given by Eadie, pp. 28, 29.—R.]
[64] [The position to be taken is not that the future will reconcile propositions which are contradictory, but which seem to be contradictory, the whole question transcending the limits of human thought.—R.]
[65] [This is no doubt Henry Ward Beecher. Dr. Braune gives no further clue to the discovery of the original passage than the single word “Beecher,” which might apply to any one of a large family. As this is the only American citation in any part of the volume, it is retained, even though at the disadvantage of being a translation of a translation.—R.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv3–23 The doxologies in almost all the Epistles imply the…
The doxologies in almost all the Epistles imply the real sense of grace experienced by the writers and their readers (Pe1 1:3). Eph 1:3-14 sets forth summarily the Gospel of the grace of God: the FATHER'S work of love, Eph 1:3 (choosing us to holiness, Eph 1:4; to sonship, Eph 1:5; to acceptance, Eph 1:6): the SON'S, Eph 1:7 (redemption, Eph 1:7; knowledge of the mystery of His will, Eph 1:9; an inheritance, Eph 1:11); the HOLY SPIRIT'S, Eph 1:13 (sealing, Eph 1:13; giving an earnest of the inheritance, Eph 1:14).
the God and Father of . . . Christ--and so the God and Father of us who are in Him (Joh 20:17). God is "the God" of the man Jesus, and "the Father" of the Divine Word. The Greek is, "Blessed us," not "hath blessed us"; referring to the past original counsel of God. As in creation (Gen 1:22) so in redemption (Gen 12:3; Mat 5:3-11; Mat 25:34) God "blesses" His children; and that not in mere words, but in acts.
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us--all Christians.
blessings--Greek, "blessing." "All," that is, "every possible blessing for time and eternity, which the Spirit has to bestow" (so "spiritual" means; not "spiritual," as the term is now used, as opposed to bodily).
in heavenly places--a phrase five times found in this Epistle, and not elsewhere (Eph 1:20; Eph 2:6; Eph 3:10; Eph 6:12); Greek, "in the heavenly places." Christ's ascension is the means of introducing us into the heavenly places, which by our sin were barred against us. Compare the change made by Christ (Col 1:20; Eph 1:20). While Christ in the flesh was in the form of a servant, God's people could not realize fully their heavenly privileges as sons. Now "our citizenship (Greek) is in heaven" (Phi 3:20), where our High Priest is ever "blessing" us. Our "treasures" are there (Mat 6:20-21); our aims and affections (Col 3:1-2); our hope (Col 1:5; Tit 2:13); our inheritance (Pe1 1:4). The gift of the Spirit itself, the source of the "spiritual blessing," is by virtue of Jesus having ascended thither (Eph 4:8).
in Christ--the center and source of all blessing to us.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23 THE DIVINE SIDE OF THE PROCESS OF FOUNDING A…
THE DIVINE SIDE OF THE PROCESS OF FOUNDING A HOLY, GLORIOUS CHURCH, Eph_1:3 to Eph_3:21.
I. ITS ETERNAL DIVINE ORIGINATION IN PURPOSE, Eph_1:3-23.
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1. An eternal election of all believers, Eph_1:3-8.
St. Paul opens by an affirmation of God’s abounding goodness in that he has chosen us to, (Eph_1:4,) predestinated us to, (Eph_1:5-8,) and made revelations to us of, (Eph_1:8-9,) the grand final summation of all things in Christ (Eph_1:10).
3. Blessed—First emphatic word and keynote to the rich and joyous tone of the whole paragraph. As the Greek word in both the New Testament and Septuagint is applied to God alone, so it signifies blessed, as God alone is blessed, divinely blessed. This eucharistic word the apostle uses to indicate, with holy gratitude, that the election for which he gives thanks is based in the eternal nature of God. For God does eternally, by his very nature and affinity, prefer and elect that which is holy, or freely consents to become so. See our note on “the true doctrine of the Church” touching election, vol. iii, p. 349.
God… of… Christ—Ellicott decides that most probably Father is only applied to Christ, and not God… God and the Father of, etc.
Blessed us—Alford well says, that “God’s blessing is in facts, ours only in words.”
Heavenly places—Places is not in the original, but is supplied by the translators, as is shown by the italics. The Greek adjective επουρανιοις, signifying pertaining to the heavenly regions, may imply either places or things: in Eph_1:20; Eph_2:6; Eph_3:10; Eph_6:12, places is required. The same Greek adjective in Mat_18:35 (which in the Lord’s prayer, Mat_6:9, is rendered “who art in heaven”) includes the entire comprehension of God’s omnipresence. In Php_2:10, it implies the heavenly inhabitants, the angels. In 1Co_15:48 it twice designates those from heaven—who are heavenly in nature. In 2Ti_4:18, it denotes the heavenly kingdom, and in Heb_3:1, heavenly calling. So in Heb_6:4; Heb_8:5; Heb_9:23, the adjective presupposes things heavenly in nature, origin, or relation, yet earthly in place.
The adjective may, therefore, imply place, that is, the heavenly region; or it may mean things on earth that are redolent of that place. As place, the word as variously used by St. Paul is very generic in its applications, embracing, if we collect all its uses, the entire spirit-world, all that is super-mundane or superhuman. So Eph_1:20, it implies the highest heavens, the right hand of God. In Eph_3:10, the angelic abodes. In Eph_6:12, it takes in the aerial battlefield with demoniac powers: that is, the air of Eph_2:2, where see note. In this verse it means clearly things on earth which are heavenly in quality. Hence, differing from Alford, Ellicott, and others, we think that here the phrase should be rendered heavenly things. For surely it was not in supermundane localities that the Ephesians enjoyed their spiritual blessings. They lived and enjoyed on earth.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22 3–14. Ascription of Praise, in view of the Election…
3–14. Ascription of Praise, in view of the Election and Redemption of the Saints
3. Blessed be the God, &c.] The same Benediction occurs (verbatim in the Greek, nearly so in A. V.), 2Co_1:3; 1Pe_1:3. Observe the different motive of the same phrase in each case.—The word rendered “Blessed” occurs eight times in the N. T., and always of a Divine Person. In Mar_14:61 “The Blessed” appears without an explicit Name, as often by the Rabbis.
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For the sacred Formula “the God and Father of, &c.” cp. further Rom_15:6 (where the Greek, though not the A. V., is the same); and see Joh_20:17; Heb_1:8-9; and note below, on Eph_1:17.
who hath blessed us] Better, Who blessed us. The reference is to the heavenly world and the eternal purpose of God towards the saints. See just below, on “before the foundation, &c.” This Benediction on the New Creation may be illustrated by that on the Old; Gen_1:22; Gen_1:28; Gen_9:1. It is the utterance (in whatever way) of a fixed Divine purpose of good. “When we bless God, we speak well of Him; when He blesses us, He powerfully confers blessings on us” (Scott). “Us”:—the members of the New Race; “the saints and faithful;” those who “are Christ’s.”
with all spiritual blessings] Better, with (lit. in) all spiritual blessing.—“Spiritual:”—the Benediction supremely affected the “spirit” of its objects, not merely their externals. It bore upon their spiritual Birth (Joh_3:6); Life (Rom_8:9-10); and Consummation (Rom_8:11; 1Co_15:44).
in heavenly places] Lit., “in the heavenlies”; an adjective without a noun. So below, Eph_1:20, and Eph_2:6, Eph_3:10, Eph_6:12. The noun is rightly supplied in A. V. The region of utterance of the Blessing was heaven; the eternal abode of the Covenant-Head of the blessed ones is heaven; and the final issue of the blessing will be their own abode there “in glory.” See Heb_11:16. The form of the adjective suggests not only a heavenly origin, or nature, but a heavenly locality.
in Christ] as the Covenant-Head, Root and Source of Life, and Representative, of the saints. Cp. 2Ti_1:9.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv3–23 (3) It may be noted, as bearing on the…
(3) It may be noted, as bearing on the question of the general or special character of this Epistle, that (with the single exception of the Second Epistle to the Corinthians, which may be looked upon as virtually a continuation of the First Epistle) all St. Paul’s Epistles addressed to particular churches pass at once from the salutation to refer to the particular circumstances, gifts, and needs of the Church, generally in the form of thanksgiving and prayer, sometimes (as in Gal_1:6) in rebuke. In St. Peter’s First Epistle, on the other hand, addressed to those “scattered” through many churches, we have an opening exactly similar to the opening of this Epistle. There is, indeed, here a thanksgiving below (Eph_1:15-22), but it is entirely general, belonging to the whole Church.
The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.—On this phrase (used in Rom_15:6; 2Co_1:3; 2Co_11:31; 1Pe_1:3) see Note on Rom_15:6. It is, however, to be noted here, that in the Vatican MS. the words “and Father” are omitted, and that the phrase “the God of our Lord Jesus Christ” occurs below in Eph_1:17.
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Blessed be . . . who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings.—The frequent phrase “Blessed be God” (Luk_1:68; Rom_1:25; Rom_9:5; 2Co_1:3; 2Co_11:31; 1Pe_1:3) is here used with an unique antithesis. We can “bless” God only in thanksgiving of heart and voice, with which He deigns to be pleased, as He “rejoices over the works of His hands.” God blesses us in real and life-giving “spiritual blessing,” i.e., blessing of the gift of the Spirit, for which we can return nothing except thanksgiving. So in Psa_116:12-13, the natural question of the thoughtful soul—“What shall I render unto the Lord for all His benefits towards me?”—is answered simply by the words, “I will receive the cup of salvation, and call on the name of the Lord.”
Who hath blessed us . . . in heavenly-places.—It should be, who blessed us (once for all), in the election and predestination spoken of in the next verse. If this be noted, the sense of the phrase “in heavenly places” becomes far clearer. It has been doubted whether we ought to supply the word “places” or “things” (as in Joh_3:12) in rendering this phrase, which is peculiar to this Epistle, and used in it no less than five times. In three out of the other four places (Eph_1:20; Eph_2:6; Eph_3:10) the local sense is manifest; in the fourth (Eph_6:12) and in this it might be doubtful. But (1) it is altogether unlikely that so unique a phrase would be used in two different senses; (2) the original word for “heavenly” has most properly and most usually a local meaning; (3) the transference of the thoughts to heaven above suits especially the whole tone of this Epistle and the parallel Epistle to the Colossians; and (4) the local sense agrees best with the context here, for the Apostle is speaking of the election “before the foundation of the world” as made by the foreknowledge of God in heaven, where Christ is “in the beginning with God.”
It has been noticed here that we have one of those implicit references to the Holy Trinity—the blessing from God the Father, in Christ, and by the Spirit—with which St. Paul’s Epistles abound.
In Christ—i.e., in the unity with Christ, which is “the life eternal,” ordained for us in the foreknowledge of God, and viewed as already existing. (See the whole of John 17, especially Eph_1:21-23.)
(3) In Eph_1:15-23, this introductory chapter ends in a prayer for the enlightenment of the readers of this Epistle, that they may understand all the fulness of the blessings of the gospel. In accordance with the heavenward direction of the thought of the whole Epistle, these blessings are viewed in their future completeness of glory and power, of which the present exaltation of the risen Lord to the right hand of God, as the Lord of all creatures, and the Head of the Church His body, is the earnest and assurance.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv3–23 Vers. 3-14. THANKSGIVING FOR THEIR DIVINE ORDINATION TO THE…
Vers. 3-14. THANKSGIVING FOR THEIR DIVINE ORDINATION TO THE BLESSINGS OF GRACE. In this glorious anthem, in which the apostle, tracing all to the Divine Fountain, enumerates the glorious privileges of the Church, and blesses God for them, he first (ver. 3) states summarily the ground of thanksgiving, expanding it with glowing fullness in vers. 4-14.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with every blessing of the Spirit, in heavenly places in Christ. Here we have
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(1) the Author of our blessings;
(2) their nature and sphere;
(3) the Medium through whom we have them.
1. The Author is "the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." Jesus called God his God and his Father (Joh_20:17) in virtue of the state of subjection to him in which, as the Son of man, he had voluntarily placed himself. In this aspect and relation to Christ, God is here thanked because he hath blessed us in him.
2. En pash eujlogia pneumatikh: not merely spiritual as opposed to material, but as applied by the Holy Spirit, the office of the Third Person being to bring Divine things into actual contact with human souls to apply to us the blessings purchased by Christ; which blessings are ejn toiv ejpouranioiv in heavenly places. They belong to the heavenly kingdom; they are therefore the highest we can attain to. The expression occurs three times, and with the same meaning.
3. En Crista. The Medium or Mediator through whom they come is Christ; they are not fruits of the mere natural bounty of God, but of his redeeming bounty fruits of the mediatorial work of Jesus Christ. Thus, in this summary, we recognize what is eminently characteristic of this Epistle the doctrine of the Trinity, and the function of each Person in the work of redemption. No other writing of the New Testament is so pervaded with the doctrine of the Trinity. The three great topics of the Epistle will be found to be considered in relation to the three Persons of the Trinity. Thus:
1. Origin and foundation of the Church, referred to the eternal counsel and good pleasure of the Father.
2. The actual birth or existence of the Church with all its privileges, to the atoning grace and merit of the Son.
1. The transformation of the Church, the realization of its end or purpose, in its final holiness and glory, to the sanctifying grace of the Holy Spirit. This throws light on the expression, "every blessing;" it includes
1. all that the Father can bestow;
2. all that the Son can provide;
3. all that the Spirit can apply.
The resources of all the three Persons thus conspire to bless the Church. In the verses that follow, the First Person is prominent in vers. 4-6; the second is introduced in vers. 6-12; and the third in vers. 13, 14. But all through the First Person is the great directing Power.
Vers. 3-14.
The thanksgiving.
The condition of believers is fitted to excite the profoundest emotions of gratitude and praise in all who know them. Grounds of this thankfulness are
I STATED SUMMARILY. (Ver. 3.) (For outline discourse on this text, see Exposition.)
II STATED IN DETAIL. (Vers. 4-14.) The chief elements of blessing are:
1. Holiness and blamelessness in love, secured by God"s eternal election (ver. 4).
2. Adoption, secured in the same way (ver. 5).
3. Acceptance in the Beloved (ver. 6).
4. Redemption through Christ"s blood, especially forgiveness of sin (ver. 7).
5. Abundance of grace, regulated by wisdom and knowledge (ver. 8).
6. Enlightenment in the mystery of God"s will as to the Gentiles (ver. 9).
7. Especially, knowledge of Jesus Christ as the predestined Centre or Head of all things (ver. 10).
8. Fellowship with Christ in the enjoyment and purpose of his inheritance (vers. 11, 12).
9. The seal of the Holy Spirit, or earnest of our inheritance, the pledge and assurance of the eternal glory. Observe the constant allusions to the glory of God"s grace, the riches of his grace, the abundance of his grace, the riches of his glory; the munificence of God. It is the narrowness of our hearts that will not take in this boundless generosity.
The blessings of redemption.
Full minds overflow in long sentences. The sentence which begins with the third verse runs on continuously to the fourteenth, marked all the way by many rich and happy turns of expression. The apostle pours forth his thoughts with a splendid exuberance, which dazzles common readers, but is kindling to congenial minds. The whole passage is "a magnificent anthem," in which the ideas "suggest each other by a law of powerful association." It takes up the spirit of the psalmist, "Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy Name". (Ps 103)
I THE BLESSINGS ARE TRACED UP TO THE FATHER AS THEIR SOURCE. It is he who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus. It is a mistake to represent the Father as a harsh creditor, who has no point of contact with his debtor except at the moment when the bond is being discharged; or to represent the Son as the tender and compassionate Redeemer, who prevails with his Father to grant a salvation he is unwilling to bestow. The true source of salvation is in the Father"s heart, and the mission of the Son was to execute the loving will of the Father who is in heaven. The atonement was the effect, not the cause, of Divine love. Jesus did not die on the cross that God might be induced to love us, but because he did love us. The cross could not originate Divine love, which is an eternal perfection of the Divine nature, seeking an object on which to exhaust its riches. But the cross was the mode in which, for reasons known to himself and partially discernible to us, it was expedient and necessary that his love should be expressed. But then the same God who exacted the atonement has also provided it; and therefore we may glorify the love of the Father; for "herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and gave his Son to be the Propitiation for our sins.
II BUT IF THE FOUNTAIN OF ALL OUR BLESSINGS IS IN THE FATHER"S HEART, THEY FLOW DOWNWARD TO US IN THE CHANNEL OF CHRIST"S MEDIATION. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is our covenant God. God, being his Father, becomes our Father; for we are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus". (Gal_3:26) The blessings flow first from the Father to Christ, and then from Christ to us. Jesus said to Mary, "I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; to my God, and your God"; (Joh_20:17) not, says Augustine, "I ascend to our Father and our God," but first mine, then yours, as if to indicate the distinction between his own essential sonship and their derivative sonship by adoption. But it is a distinguished part of the Christian"s privilege that not only "he is Christ"s," but "Christ is God"s", (1Co_3:23) according to the prayer of Jesus himself, "All mine are thine, and thine are mine;" for it was an idea near to the apostle"s heart that Christ and the Church are one one Head and one body and that Christ in the Church and the Church in Christ are God"s possession. Therefore we can understand the grandeur of the conception that all God"s blessings descend to us in Jesus Christ.
III THEY ARE SPIRITUAL BLESSINGS. There is no allusion to earthly blessings riches, honors, beauty, pleasures as if New Testament believers had ascended to a higher platform than that held by Old Testament saints. God "has provided some better thing for us." The spiritual blessings include all that is involved in the Father"s electing love, the Son"s satisfaction for sin, and the Holy Spirit"s application of redemption. We thus see the relation of believers to the three Persons of the blessed Trinity. It is "all spiritual blessings," but they are so linked together in the Divine order that if you have one you have all: "Whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified." Christ"s ministry began with words of blessing, in the eight beatitudes of his first sermon; his gospel brings with it fullness of blessing; (Rom_15:29) and the final glorification of the saints is accentuated in the glorious words of the Judge, "Come, ye blessed of my Father.
1. THESE BLESSINGS CONNECT US WITH HEAVES. They are spiritual blessings in heavenly places. The reason is that Jesus Christ, as our Forerunner, has gone within the veil, with the anchor of our hope in his hands, to fasten it upon the "two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lie the promise and the oath of God, so that we might have a strong consolation who have fled for refuge to the hope set before us. (Heb_6:18-20) His forerunnership is identified with his representative position as the Head of all true believers; and his presence in heaven is not only a sublime guarantee of spiritual blessings accruing to us while on earth, but a pledge that "where he is we shall be also." Thus we can understand why our hope should be laid up "in heaven" with its "many mansions"; (Col_1:5) why our hearts ought to be there in supreme aspiration; (Col_3:2) why our citizenship should be on; (Php_3:20) and why we should identify the scene of our future blessedness with all that is spiritually aspiring on earth.
2. THE RECIPIENTS OF THESE BLESSINGS, "Us" emphatically Jewish and Gentile believers, with special reference to those who loved Christ, and maintained their integrity in the great focus or center of Grecian vice and Eastern fanaticism, to which the Epistle was addressed. There is no depth of iniquity to which God"s mercy and grace cannot descend. T.C.
Vers. 3-6.
The electing and adopting love of God.
As soon as the salutation of the saints is over, Paul proceeds to speak about the blessings he and they have received from God. One curious expression meets us and constitutes the key of the whole passage; it is "the heavenly places" (ejn toiv ejpouranioiv) wherein the spiritual blessing is experienced. This cannot mean merely that out of the heavenly places the gracious Father pours his spiritual blessings upon selected souls; but, as a comparison of Eph_2:6 will show, it means that the adopted ones are elevated in spirit even to the heavenly places, where they as spiritually ascended ones can survey the Divine purposes and appreciate the Divine blessings in a way impossible otherwise. Let us, then, betake ourselves to these heavenly places" by the blessing of the Spirit, and see how the Divine plan looks from such a vantage-ground. It is in this way we shall escape much of the obscure thinking which prevails upon the electing love of God. And we are here taught
I THE FOUNTAIN-HEAD OF BLESSING IS GOD THE FATHER. (Ver. 3.) Paul puts "the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ" at the head of all things. Out of that paternal heart all spiritual blessing comes. The dispensation of grace is overshadowed by a Father. All the love which wells up out of parents" hearts for their children, all the love they lavish with varying success upon their prodigals, but faintly images the wondrous love that wells out of the heart of God. Yet the image, though but faint, is real, and we may climb by the firm footing of analogy up from human experience to some comprehension of the Divine love and plan. Just as earthly fathers plan blessings of all kinds for their children, and give them these on certain understandings, so is it with the infinite Father above. It is a Father with whom we have to deal, the "Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
II THE RULE OF BLESSING WAS THE GOOD PLEASURE OF HIS WILE. (Ver. 5.) Now, when we get up in spirit to the heavenly places, we have no difficulty in seeing the truth and propriety of this arrangement. For the world above is one whose inhabitants have all learned to acquiesce in the good pleasure of the Father"s will. They know that the pleasure of his will can be nothing else than good; they are content to abide by it. They assure themselves of everlasting blessedness in accepting of it as their rule and law. And we have only to get to their standpoint and to perceive how good God is, to acquiesce at once in the good pleasure of his will God is so good that be could not will anything but what is good. If he has to will vengeance against any of his creatures, it is because vengeance is better than impunity; it is better that he should strike home than that he should be still. Of course, it is hard for our natural hearts which are so opposed to God to acquiesce off-hand in such an arrangement. We think it hard to have to depend absolutely upon the good pleasure of God"s will; but we have only to climb up a little by the Spirit"s help and see how good he is, and then shall we gladly and gratefully adore his pleasure as always good.
III THE FATHER PLANNED THE BLESSING OF HIS ADOPTED CHILDREN BEFORE THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD. (Ver. 4.) Starting from the sovereignty of the good God, as the rule of all blessing, we have next to notice that the blessing of his adopted children was deliberately planned from all eternity the foundation of the world." The foresight of a father when carried into every detail of the children"s needs glorifies him in our estimation. We would not honor an earthly father who left anything to haphazard, which he could have foreseen. Hence we conceive of the infinite Father as leaving nothing to chance, but arranging all down to the minutest details. He did not leave a loose thread in the whole arrangement. Why should he, if he is the omniscient and almighty God? What is contended for in predestination, therefore, is that the almighty Father left nothing to chance, but provided for everything in his plan. How this is compatible with human freedom is beyond our feeble comprehension; but that it is compatible we do most firmly believe. There are many problems of advanced mathematics which as rusty mathematicians we cannot now see how to solve, and there are many problems of science which are to the most splendid scientists still unsolved; but we should be foolish in the extreme to pronounce either insoluble. So is it with the Divine predestination and the freedom of the creature. There is a solution somewhere, but it is beyond our terrestrial calculus. We believe in both as Facts, and we leave the future to bring the reconciliation. And in the heavenly places to which the Spirit helps us to soar, we rejoice in the thought of that Divine plan which left nothing out, but embraced everything.
IV THE ELECTION OF INDIVIDUALS WAS TO HOLINESS AND BLAMELESSNESS OF CHARACTER BEFORE HIM IN LOVE. (Ver. 4.) Holiness and perfection are the ends aimed at in God"s electing love. It is because this is lost sight of that we have so much confusion on this subject. God could not elect any soul to a salvation without holiness; the idea has no meaning in the Divine mind. Men may desire to separate salvation from holiness, to carry their sins with them into the heavenly world; but such desires are vain, and under God"s government they can have no realization. The election is unto holiness. So long as a soul loves sin and hates holiness, he has no warrant to affirm any election. He may subsequently turn from sin to God, and thus receive the evidence within him; but a soul that loves sin and hates holiness has no business in dabbling with this doctrine of election. God saves no man except in the process he makes him holy. Hence we must remember "they were not chosen because they were viewed as holy, and therefore deserving to be distinguished as God"s favorites, on account of their obedience or personal purity, but that they should be holy.
V AND THESE INDIVIDUALS FIND THEMSELVES ADOPTED INTO THE DIVINE FAMILY AND ACCEPTED IN CHRIST THE BELOVED. (Vers. 5, 6.) We have seen that the infinite Father is the Source of all blessing. But that Father has one only Son, the only begotten, in his Divine family. The eternal Father had an eternal Son, and they held fellowship from all eternity through the eternal Spirit. This Son was and is the well-beloved. He always did the things which pleased the Father. (Joh_8:29) But, blessed be his Name, he was content to have "jointheirs" with himself in his inheritance. (Rom_8:17) Jesus showed no jealousy about enlarging the family circle and about an abundance of brethren. Hence the Father set about adopting children, bringing into the charmed circle those who had no claim to the position or to its rewards. But every adopted child is made to feel that he is accepted of the Father for the elder Brother"s sake. Jesus as the Firstborn in the mighty family has so endeared himself to the Father that for his sake the Father accepts the persons of the prodigals who are adopted into his family. There is no reason in us for our adoption there can never be; it is owing simply and entirely to Jesus Christ that we are accepted and adopted. Hence there is in the plan, as so far brought before us, no ground for boasting. Election and adoption alike rest on the good pleasure of God"s will. They are sovereign acts. They have their root in sovereignty; and as we rise into the heavenly places, we see that this is exactly as it should be. R.M.E.
Ascription of praise by the Church.
I THE BLESSED OF THE CHURCH.
1. God. "Blessed be the God." It seems better to read, "Blessed be God." Thinking of God as infinitely glorious, how can we add to him by our praises? how can we by any words or deeds make him more glorious than he is? And yet he is pleased to say, "Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me." Our praises are pleasing to God, according as they are sincere and intelligent. When we come upon new and more impressive views of the Divine character, we cannot help saying with lowly adoring hearts, "Blessed be God." There is this outburst of adoration here at the beginning, and there will be flesh outbursts as we proceed.
2. God in relation to the Churchs Lord. And Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." The Lord of the Church is he who was anointed Savior of mankind. He is in the Church, not like a servant, as Moses was, but as a Son over his own house. He has absolute authority to act in the Father"s Name in the making of all arrangements, in the dispensing of all blessings. And in all that Christ has done, or is doing, for the Church, God has the glory, and is to be adored as Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
II FOR WHAT THE CHURCH BLESSES GOD? "Who hath blessed us with every spiritual blessing." We are not to think merely of blessing that has been actually enjoyed. It is rather blessing without respect to time. It is all that God has in store for the Church, and that is really inexhaustible blessing. "In our Father"s house there is enough and to spare." He is not exhausted in blessing one, but has more than enough for all; and he has not one kind of blessing merely, but every kind all that we can possibly need to complete our happiness. And he has an infinite willingness and longing to bestow. He is glorified in our coming to him with large petitions, in his bestowing on us large blessings. The blessing being characterized as spiritual seems to point to the connection of the blessing with the Spirit. For, as there has been repeated reference already to the Father and the Son, so now there is reference, though not very explicit, to the Third Person of the Godhead. It is by the Spirit"s instrumentality, and with the Spirit"s blessed influences, that the Church is enriched.
III CENTER FROM WHICH THE CHURCH IS BLESSED. "In the heavenly places." This indicates the center or height from which the blessing proceeds.
Come, thou holy Paraelete, And, from thy celestial seat, Send thy light and brilliancy.
It also indicates the Church"s destination in being blessed. For, though the Church can bless God for what it has under earthly conditions, there is not yet the full realization of the idea. It is when drawn to the center, taken up to the Father"s house, that it will be known how God can bless.
IV HISTORICAL CONNECTION OF THE BLESSING. "In Christ." It is in the historical Christ that the treasury is opened out of which the Church is blessed. R.F.
Vers. 3-6.
The redemptive predestination of God a reason for man"s exultant gratitude.
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the Beloved." The leading subject of these words is the redemptive predestination of God a reason for mans exultant gratitude. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ," etc. We say redemptive predestination, for there is predestination in every department of Divine operation; from the most microscopic objects to the massive systems of immensity. Before we go on to notice the reasons suggested in the passage why man should adore the Eternal for his redemptive predestination, it may be well, in order to remove much of erroneous sentiment and terrible feeling that exist in the minds of some men in relation to this great subject, to state the following things.
1. The predestination of God contemplates good, and good only.
(1) The benevolence of his nature proves this. He is Love, and it is eternally antagonistic to love to plan for misery.
(2) The structure of the universe proves this. True science sees a Divine plan in every part of nature, from the minutest to the largest objects. Yet it has never discovered, as Archbishop Paley has well said, any contrivance for suffering. Not a single "vessel" has been discovered that has been "made for dishonor.
(3) The declarations of the Bible prove this. The Bible only reveals God"s will concerning man, and it tells us that his will is that we shall all be saved.
(4) Consciousness proves this. All men feel that God intends their happiness. If they did not, moral sense would be an impossibility.
2. The predestination of God never interferes with the free agency of moral beings. It is true that no philosophy has yet harmonized, to the satisfaction of the human understanding, the doctrine of free agency with the doctrine of eternal predestination. This is the great intellectual puzzle of the ages. But that the one interferes not with the other in the slightest degree is attested:
(1) By history. Amongst the many examples that might be selected, take one the crucifixion of Christ. That stupendous evil was predetermined. Yet were not his crucifiers free? "Him being delivered," etc.
(2) By Scripture. The Bible everywhere appeals to men as responsible beings appeals to their choice, and warns them of a judgment, when every one "must give an account of himself.
(3) By consciousness. Men feel that they are free. This feeling defies all logic. It is the ultimate argument. Beyond its decisions there is no appeal.
1. The predestination of God is not exclusively confined to human redemptions. This we have already intimated. It does not follow, because Paul refers God"s predestinating agency in man"s salvation to an eternal plan, that he would not have referred it in any other department to an eternal plan. It is a characteristic of a pious man that he traces all that is good to God; and of a truly intelligent man, he would trace everything to the Divine plan. Had Paul been writing on botany, he would have traced every blade and flower and plant that grew to the predestination of God. Had he been writing on anatomy, he would have traced every organ, limb, joint, vein, nerve, and sinew to the predestination of God. But he was writing of mans salvation, and it was only to his purpose to refer to predestination in connection with that. Predestination is not a dream of the schoolman, or a dogma of Calvin, but an eternal law of the universe.
2. The predestination of God is revealed in Scripture according to forms of human thought. As no finite being can comprehend the Infinite, no finite mind can give a representation of his acts that is absolutely correct. What, for example, in the predestination of God, is there answering to our ideas of that act? The ideas of commencement, observation, resolve, enter into our conceptions of it. But these are foreign to the subject. What is there, too, in God"s choice, answering to our ideas of choice? The ideas of beginning, comparison, rejection, acceptance, enter into our conception of choice; but in God"s choice there was no beginning, no comparison, etc. What conception can we have of the processes and the workings of a mind that knows no succession, to whom all the future is as the past, who has but one eternal thought? Alas! that men should be so impious as to dogmatize upon a subject like this! "Who by searching can find out God?" We now pass on to the question Why should we exultingly adore the Eternal on account of his redemptive predestination? Paul suggests three reasons in the text.
I HAPPINESS IS ITS EXCLUSIVE AIM. What are the "spiritual blessings in heavenly places," which the apostle in the text traces to it?
1. Moral excellence. "That we should be holy and without blame." The two words represent spiritual excellence.
(1) Negatively. "Without blame." Perfectly free from all that is wrong in thought, feeling, and practice. Appearing before God "without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing.
(2) Positively. "Holy." Consecrated to the will and service of God.
1. Spiritual elevation. "Heavenly places." A truly Christian man is now in heavenly regions. Though on the earth, he is not of the earth, he is of heaven. His fellowships, ideas, services, aspirations, are heavenly. He is come to an "innumerable company of angels." "Our citizenship is in heaven," etc.
2. Divine sonship. "The adoption of children." All men are the offspring of God, but none are his true children but those who have the true filial spirit. To possess this involves man"s highest blessedness. This is the work of Christ. "As many as received him to them gave he power to become the sons of God the true sons of God, and joint heirs with Christ." These are some of the "spiritual" blessings which flow to man through God"s redemptive predestination. Paul does not refer to a single evil or woe as coming to man from that source. Good, and good only, he saw flowing from that fountain. The inhuman, the blasphemous dogma of reprobation never entered his mind in connection with this grand subject. What reason for exultant thankfulness is here! Well may we exclaim, "Blessed be God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
II JESUS CHRIST IS ITS MEDIUM. Predestination, which in nature makes the sun the medium of lighting, quickening, and beautifying the earth, in redemption makes Christ the Medium of conveying all those spiritual blessings which constitute the happiness and dignity of man. The "heavenly places" to which we are raised are "in Christ Jesus." The adoption of children is "through Jesus Christ." All the Divine grace favor bestowed on man is through "Christ Jesus, the Beloved." What a Medium is this! This is the great gift of predestination. God"s only begotten, well-beloved Son: "He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? What reason for exultant thankfulness is here! Well may Paul exclaim, "Blessed be God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ," etc.
III ETERNAL LOVE IS ITS SPRING. "In love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ.
1. This love existed before the objects of it came into actual being. Millions of ages before mankind came into existence, before the "foundation of the world," he loved them. His love created them, organized them for happiness as creatures, and provided for their spiritual recovery as sinners. The uncreated, those that are to be, are as real to God as the created that are.
2. This love is the happiness of his own nature. Its manifestations are the "good pleasure" of his own will. The good pleasure of malevolence is misery; the good pleasure of love is happiness. Are not the reasons suggested by Paul for gratefully exulting in God"s redemptive predestination abundant? "Predestination," "choice," "counsel," "purpose," "decree"! The more ignorant men are, the more they profess to have fathomed the meaning of these terms, as representing the mental acts of the Eternal; and the more flippant they are in their use. But what do they stand for when applied to God? Volition will, nothing more. "God is love," and his will must be happiness. He is of one mind," and his will must be unalterable. A certain theology, which, thank God, is dying out, has invested these grand old words with attributes of hideousness, before which weak souls in all ages have trembled with horror. But they only indicate the will of infinite love to flood immensity with bliss. "Love is the root of creation, God"s essence; worlds without number Lie in his bosom like children; he made them for this purpose only, Only to love and to be loved again; he breathed forth his Spirit Into the slumbering dust, and upright standing, it laid its Hand on its heart, and felt it was warmed with a flame out of heaven. D.T.
HOMILIES BY W.F. ADENEY Ver. 3.
The Christian blessings.
I CHRISTIANS HAVE BEEN BLESSED WITH MANY BLESSINGS.
1. Christianity involves blessedness. The declaration of its truths is a gospel. It is the religion of the cross; yet it is far happier to bear Christ"s
2. cross than to wear the yoke of sin, and there is no other alternative. The way of the cross is itself the way of peace and highest happiness.
3. Christian blessedness is now enjoyed. "Hath blessed us literally, did bless us." The gifts of the gospel are not all reserved for the future world. Indeed, if we enjoy none now, we are not likely to be able to appreciate any after death. (1Ti_4:8) For
(1) Christ has already done all that is necessary to secure us the highest blessings; and
(2) many of the best blessings are already within our reach, and do not depend upon any change of state to be produced by death.
4. The Christian blessings are numerous and various. Every spiritual blessing? If we have received some blessings there are more to follow. Already what we have had is beyond reckoning. All do not receive just the same kind of blessings. Each may look for fresh varieties.
II THE CHRISTIAN BLESSINGS ARE SPIRITUAL AND HEAVENLY.
1. They are spiritual. This word describes them subjectively; it shows what they are in us. They are inward graces, not material possessions. We may receive temporal prosperity, and, if so, should ascribe it to the Source and Author of every good gift. But we may be denied it, and yet be none the less blessed of God. It is a mistake for any of us to look for specially Christian blessings in this category, or to be perplexed at not receiving them. The true Christian blessings are such things as peace and joy, light and love, purity and power.
2. They are heavenly. This word describes them objectively; it points to what they are in themselves and in relation to their Divine origin. Coming from God, they belong to "heavenly places." They are such things as the forgiveness of sins, and the sympathy and fellowship of Christ, the beatific vision vouchsafed to the pure in heart, and the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Because they are heavenly things they are not beyond our reach; for heaven is let down to earth now that the kingdom of heaven is in our midst, and we are lifted up to heaven when we have our treasure there, for there our heart is. But it is only the upward gaze that will discern true Christian blessings. Kirke White writes of "this low-thoughted world of darkling woe." The woe is so darkling" just because the world is so lowthoughted." We cannot find the stars by searching in the dust.
III THESE BLESSINGS DESCEND UPON US FROM GOD THROUGH CHRIST.
1. The source of them is in God. Christianity has its origin in God. He conceived the first thought of it. He sent his Son to bring it to us.
2. The blessings come especially from God in his character of Father. God is revealed as Creator, King, Judge; from none of these Divine characteristics could we expect the blessings of mercy which as Christians we receive. They are given by a Father.
3. These blessings flow directly from Gods relations with Christ. He is the "Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." The blessings are given to us through Christ"s great work of mediation.
4. It is through our relations with Christ that we enjoy the Christian blessings. They are "in Christ." He first receives them, and we have them by union with him. We must be "in Christ" ourselves in order that the blessings may be ours.
IV THE ENJOYMENT OF THE CHRISTIAN BLESSINGS SHOULD INSPIRE OUR MOST HEARTFELT PRAISES. The whole verse is an utterance of thanksgiving. Surely it is fitting that we should bless God for such wonderful blessings to us. We cannot repay, but we can at least thank. "Where are the nine?" must often be the sad question that should shame our gross ingratitude. The essence of religious worship. Yet our age has forgotten to worship. We pray, begging favors for ourselves; we discuss truth, seeking light for ourselves; we work let us hope sometimes unselfishly; but where is our worship, adoration, praising of God? See the grounds for thus blessing God
(1) in the richness of the blessings;
(2) in our total ill desert;
(3) in the greatness of God, and the consequent depth of his condescension in stooping to our low estate;
(4) in the cost of the blessings the precious blood of Christ (ver. 7); and
(5) in the wonderful Divine love which inspired the whole work of redemption. W.F.A.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 19, 20, 22, 23 Blessed he the God and Father of our Lord…
Eph_1:3
Blessed he the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.
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Blessed be God
Observe well, that the same word is used in reference to our wish towards God and Gods act towards us: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us. It is a very striking thing that our poor pebble stones of wishes should be valued so much that the same word should be used in reference to them as in reference to the priceless diamonds of grace which the Lord hath bestowed upon us. We bless God because He blesses us. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits. Now, it is easy to understand how the Father of mercies, from whom every good and perfect gift proceeds, really blesses us; but how can we be said to bless Him?--and what is the distinction between that and praising Him? For there is such a distinction, since we read, All Thy works shall praise Thee, O Lord, and Thy saints shall bless Thee. Praise rises even from lifeless objects, as they display the power and wisdom of their Creator; but intelligence, will, and intent are needful for blessing God. Praise is the manifestation of our inward reverence and esteem: it adores and magnifies; but in blessing God we think well of Him, and wish well to Him, and desire that others may do the same. In blessing God there is the desire to do good to God even as He doth to us, if it were possible for us to do so. We fail in the power wherewith to accomplish such a desire, but it is well that it is in our hearts. When we wish other men to love and serve the Lord, and do Him homage, we are blessing Him. When we desire to love Him more ourselves, and feel our hearts burn with aspirations after fellowship with Him, we are blessing Him. When we are zealous to make known the truth of the gospel which glorifies God, and to make known His Son in whom especially He is revealed, we are blessing God.
I. Here we have, first of all, God the Father viewed aright. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
1. When the Divine Father is viewed aright He becomes the object of our gratitude, not of our dread. Instead of trembling before Him as before an austere judge, we rejoice in Him as a tender Father.
2. Next, if we would view the Father aright we must regard Him as the God of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is a wonderful title. It is blessed to view God as the God of Abraham, but how much more as the God of our Lord Jesus Christ! Jesus, after His resurrection, called Him My Father, and your Father: My God, and your God.
3. The text title is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which may respect the double filiation of Christ. First, as to His Godhead: there is that mysterious sonship which we cannot understand, but which is nevertheless clearly revealed. He is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ as Jesus is God. And then there is that second sonship which belongs to Christ as man, in which again He is said to be the Son of God. God sent forth His Son, made of a woman. The Father thrice said, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Even as Jacob blessed Ephraim and Manasseh because of his love to Joseph even so the great Father lays His mighty hand in benediction upon all His chosen, and blesses the very least believer as He blesses His Son Jesus.
II. We come, secondly, to notice the blessing which comes from the Father as viewed by faith. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.
1. The blessing of God even the Father has fallen from all eternity upon all who are in Christ, and that in the most copious manner, for the one blessing includes all spiritual blessings. This is a very pleasant thing to me, because there can be no blessing like that of God. I wet, said one of old, whom He blesseth is blessed. Satan may curse you; you may already be suffering the curse of the Fall; but, if God blesses you, what of all this? The blessing of God maketh rich, safe, happy.
2. I would call your attention very particularly to the fact that it is here stated that God has already given the blessing. Strictly speaking, I suppose it should be read, God blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus; and He continues still to do the same. Like as when the Lord blessed Abraham He gave him the land of Canaan, so has He given to you all covenant blessings.
3. These blessings are ours personally, for He hath blessed us. It is not upon the clouds that the blessing falls, but upon individuals. He loved me, and gave Himself for me. The Lord hath said to His people, Ye are the blessed of the Lord and your offspring with you. Personal appropriation is the main thing that we need; all else lies ready to our hand.
4. Furthermore, note well that our heavenly Father has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. Spiritual blessings are heavenly things; they come from heaven, they lead to heaven, they are of a heavenly nature, and are such as are enjoyed in heaven itself. It is a wonderful thing that, even here on earth, the saints enjoy and experience heavenly blessings; for a new nature is a heavenly thing, and love, and joy in God, and rest, and safety, and acceptance in the Beloved are all heavenly things. When God made the covenant with Abraham which gave to him the land of Canaan, Abraham had not yet a foot of land that he could call his own, and when he died he only possessed a cave for burial; but yet, in truth, according to the decrees of heaven, the land of Canaan belonged to Abraham and his seed; forbad not the Lord said, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates? They had the title deeds of it, though for a while the Canaanites held it as tenants upon lease. Now, all the spiritual blessings which belong to the heavenly estate at this moment are the property of the heirs of heaven, and God hath said to each one el them, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward: for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
All blessings derived from and ascribed to God
1. A good heart must be ready, on consideration of Gods benefits, to break forth into praise. St. Paul cannot speak or think of them, but his heart and mouth glorify God.
2. Every Christian heart is to magnify God, in that He has been the God of Christ our Lord.
3. The sense and knowledge of God blessing us is that which makes Him bless us again.
4. God blesses all His children, and bestows on them many gifts.
5. The faithful ones and sanctified are they who are blessed of the Father.
6. Spiritual blessings make the regenerate man thankful.
7. All our blessings are given us in the heavens.
(1) There they are first framed.
(2) From thence they come to us.
(3) There the consummation of them is reserved.
(4) How secure, then, they are.
(5) This should stir up our hearts heavenward.
(6) A great ground of patience.
8. God deals liberally with His children, giving them all kinds of spiritual blessings.
(1) Good things conferred;
(2) evil things warded off;
(3) election, predestination, etc.
9. We come to be blessed in and through Christ our Lord.
(1) To Christ, then, we must give praise for all we have received.
(2) We must strive to attain closer communion with Christ. (Paul Bayne.)
Spiritual blessings from the Father
I. The apostle begins with blessing; three times in the one verse does he use the same word: God is the blessed one who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places. Our condition as fallen creatures is cursed; the vengeance of a violated law is suspended over us; and the original malady, spreading like a poison through all the members of our race, and through all the fountains of our being, hath laid us under the law of the curse; so that death must feed upon us, and sin and Satan have triumphed over us, because we are cursed. He that created alone can deliver. The blessing of the Creator was pronounced over us at the beginning (Gen_1:28), and the stability of the new creation stands only in the blessing of God (1Pe_1:5). How beautiful and natural is this word of the apostle: Blessed be the God who has blessed us! He is the ocean source from which all blessings flow, and the ocean home to which all holy and blessed creatures must return with their songs of gratitude and praise. He is the Blessed God, because He is the universal Blesser.
II. The name of God is here contrasted with the Old Testament name, which is the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; but in this name there is no paternity. He is their God, and they are His people; their Creator, King, and Preserver, whom they are bound to worship and obey. But His name in relation to the Gentile Church is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
III. But what are those spiritual blessings with which He has blessed us? These are the gifts and graces, and manifold operations of the Holy Spirit (Rom_1:11; Rom_15:29; 2Co_9:5; Gal_3:8-9; Act_3:16); they are in Christ as their centre, and descend to us from the heavenly regions or abodes. All our glories are concentrated there. (W. Graham, D. D.)
Spiritual blessings
You will observe that the word places is printed in italics. It has no existence in the original, and, as the margin suggests, we may read either heavenly places or heavenly things; and heavenly things seems to be, upon the whole, the better rendering here. And the word heavenly probably has reference more to character than to locality. He hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly things; that it to say, spiritual heavenly blessings, as contrasted with the earthly and temporal blessings. He hath blessed us with all these spiritual heavenly blessings--with all of them. Now, friends, there are some earthly temporal blessings with which God does not bless. Do not let us grumble, or be unthankful at all; but I suppose that every man feels that there is something in his temporal lot that gives him dissatisfaction. He knows that God has some good gift in this world that He has not bestowed upon him. He would like a little more bodily health and strength; he would like a little more money--everybody would, or nearly everybody I have met with, when he is honest; and this and that we should like to have this and that that we do not possess, and more of this and that that we do possess. But no; God will not give us all the temporal and earthly blessings, and undoubtedly for very good reasons, for He knows, and every man of common sense also knows, that it would be the easiest thing in the world to spoil him utterly by giving him a very large amount of this worlds good. So He does not bless us with all temporal blessings; but when it comes to the spiritual blessings there is no need of His dealing scantily and carefully here--no need of His withholding any one of them; and He does not withhold any one of them, but He has blessed us with all the spiritual blessings. There is not one of these that can do us any harm; there is not one of these but must do us good. And so God gives them all, and with a right royally liberal hand. (H. S. Brown.)
Counting the blessings
There is a story of an American scholar of high character and strong mind who finally became eminent, that in early life he went with his bride to a remote and unattractive part of the country to enter on his profession, both of them leaving behind great social advantages, a brilliant group of friends, charming homes, beautiful scenery, and fine libraries. Both of them were homesick. One calamity after another fell upon them--ill-health, loss of eyesight, the death of a child, poverty. Some months of discouragement and depression had passed, and the courage, patience, and cheerfulness of the delicately bred and desolate young mother were nearly gone. One evening, after a peculiarly hard day, the husband called his wife into his darkened room, where he was lying with his eyes bandaged, and said to her, as she sat down by him dejected and complaining, My dear, suppose we try together to make out a complete list of our mercies. They went about it; it lengthened a good deal beyond their expectations; and the result was what everybody sees it must have been. In that family, and in a somewhat wider circle, it has become a maxim repeated in trying times, Lets count our blessings.
Through Jesus Christ
The disciple--the true believer--stands to Christ in the relation of at once a faithful subject and a younger brother. But God above is the God and Father of Jesus Christ. This relation is also indissoluble. He is Gods Christ. He is the Fathers Eternal Son. We are not called on to deal with God, in the first instance, as the absolute Jehovah, or to approach to Him in any case in our own right or name. But coming to Christ, as sinners yet in faith, and then through Him to God--our prayers, our praises, our whole service ascends to His Father and to ours, to His God and to ours. That this is not a mere idea, or one that has no practical significance, might be shown from the most familiar experiences in life. Do you not consider that the relatives of those who are related to you are from this very circumstance rendered accessible at all times, and more particularly when any emergency arises, and you need their help? Nay, suppose you could claim with the sovereign a connection of only a very distant sort, through some one intermediate between you width whom you are more nearly connected, and that you desired for some purpose to engage the sovereigns interest in your behalf, would not the fact of such a connection at once embolden you in your errand, and form a prevailing motive on the part of the sovereign to admit you into his presence, and grant your request? In like manner (to illustrate things Divine by things human), when you are animated with the spirit of praise or the spirit of prayer--when you either come with your offering to God or would secure from God the desire of your hearts--then the fact that He is the God and Father of your Lord Jesus Christ must both encourage you, and must move towards you the Divine regards, and render you acceptable. Your prayers, your praises, are accepted in the Beloved. (W. Alves, M. A.)
Spiritual blessing
The expression with all spiritual blessings would be better translated with all spiritual blessing--this word being in the singular in the original. The idea is a comprehensive one; it being evidently intended not merely to indicate a diversity or multiplicity of blessings which, as believers, we receive from God, but also to denote the totality of such blessings in a single word. It is the blessing of the covenant of grace in all its parts--salvation from its origin to its consummation, for which Paul here blesses God, in the name of each true believer. The various privileges, honours, and possessions, of a spiritual nature which God confers on us in Christ, all hang together--one is not without the rest--and all together make up one blessing. He who has received a part may be sure of the whole. There are two senses in which the term spiritual may be understood, as descriptive of the nature of the blessing. It may either be taken as referring to that department of our being which is undoubtedly chiefly affected by the blessings of salvation, namely, our spirit or soul; or it may be taken as referring to the source or origin of these blessings, namely, that Holy Spirit of God, who takes of the things that are Christs, and bestows them on us. In the former of these senses the blessings of salvation would be extolled on the ground that they do not principally or mainly refer to the body and its necessities and wants, which are of a lower and more earthly character, but to the soul or spirit, which is the nobler pair of us, and whose wants and necessities are of a vastly higher order. This is indeed true. But the word spiritual generally describes that which is produced by the Spirit of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. It leads our minds to that blessed Divine agent as the author of a gracious work in the soul of each redeemed sinner, when He comes and takes up His abode there, and produces all the peaceable fruits of righteousness to the praise and glory of God. In this view, which is the true meaning of the passage, we are not called on to make any distinction between our souls and bodies, as if the blessings of salvation affected the former only, and not at all the latter. The blessing is spiritual because it comes from, and is applied by, the Holy Spirit of God; and we are blessed just as we are, and in whatever may we live and move and have our being. We are brought body as well as soul under the blessing. We are justified, sanctified, glorified, soul, body, and spirit. The body participates in the redemption of Christ. It also will at last become a spiritual body--adapted to, and fitted for, the exercises of a perfected soul. Even now it is the temple of the Holy Ghost; and, as affected directly or indirectly by His indwelling presence, it is less or more a spiritual body. Everything is here included, whether it relate to that nobler and higher part--the soul, or to that gross and earthly tabernacle, that body--provided only it come from the Spirit of God, whose nature is holy, and whose work must also be holy. (W. Alves, M. A.)
Seven blessings of being in Christ
I. The first blessing is deliverance from the deadly curse which sin entails. There is therefore now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus. The sentence of eternal death is removed from every one who accepts Christ, in faith, as an atoning Saviour. Such an one is no longer under the law to be eternally punished, but under grace he is a forgiven man.
II. Of this life Christ is the single source. Paul addresses the Church at Rome as alive unto God in Jesus Christ our Lord. The Master said, Because I live ye shall live also. At the very acme of his assurance the great apostle could say no more than It is not I, but Christ that liveth in me. If the nurseryman inserts the graft of a golden pippin into an apple tree, that graft might say truly, It is not I that live, but the whole tree liveth in me; the trunk itself is pledged to send me sustaining sap. The reason why so many of our Church members are such poor, stunted, sapless creatures is that they are trying to keep alive out of Christ.
III. So Divine a thing is this life of holiness in its origin, that it is described as a new creation. Man can construct out of materials at his hand; God alone can create out of nothing. If any man be in Christ he is a new creature. And this word new signifies also what is fresh, and unimpaired, and unworn, like a bright garment from its makers hands.
IV. A fourth blessing is acceptance in the beloved. If we are received into favour, it is solely for Christs sake.
V. Peace is the fifth blessing in this casket of jewels. The peace of God which passeth comprehension shall guard your hearts and thoughts in Christ Jesus. Happiness beyond the reach of outside disturbance is assured to the believer, and harmony with God.
VI. The next blessing is fulness of spiritual supply. Paul writes to his Colossian brethren, Ye are complete in Him. Dean Alfords reading is a happy one--Ye are filled full in Christ. This is the pleroma, the inexhaustible reservoir which no giving doth impoverish. Why need I hunger when in my Fathers house and in my Saviours heart are such wealth beyond a whole universe to drain?
VII. After reviewing all these priceless blessings, the exultant believer shouts--Thanks be unto God who always causeth us to triumph in Christ! This is the believers battle cry and paean of victory. (T. L. Cuyler, D. D.)
Spiritual blessings in Christ
There is a blessing from God in the health of our bodies and in the comforts of our homes, in the bounty of the seasons and the variety of our pleasures; but believers in Christ tenderly and adoringly acknowledge far other blessings than these. Our earthly blessings are but the shadows of blessings. Corruption and vanity attach to them all. They cannot abide with us. They comfort us, much as the gourd did Jonah: but there is a worm at the root of them all. They win upon our hearts, we are held by them, as in a delicious snare; but while we dream of delights and delights, the withering season has already commenced, and the hour hastens which will see us stript and broken hearted. Our Heavenly Fathers blessings in Christ Jesus will never wither, nor leave us. Has Christ a glorious body? has He an incorruptible kingdom? will He reign in life and glory forever? His blessedness and ours are the same. The glory which Thou hast given Me, I have given them The kingdom of the Incarnation is a universality. It includes all things. (John Pulsford.)
In the heavenlies
The key word of this Epistle. Found nowhere else in Scripture. It stands in four different connections; and in all the four it denotes a place; an ideal locality; a sphere of action, experience, and discovery; a stage, a platform, or arena, on which different movements are going on, and different scenes of interest are enacted.
I. In the heavenlies you have a blessed home; a home in which you are greatly blessed, and bless Him who blesses you. The blessings are the Spirits. And they are in Christ.
1. He has chosen you to be the objects of His eternal, sovereign, pure, and holy love.
2. He has predestinated or appointed you unto the adoption of children to Himself.
3. You are accepted in the Beloved.
4. You have redemption.
5. You become members of the great family of all the faithful in heaven and on earth.
6. You obtain an inheritance in Christ.
7. You have a present seal and earnest of the inheritance; a foretaste of future glory.
II. A seat of lofty eminence (See Eph_1:20; Eph_2:6).
1. God quickens you together with Christ.
2. He raises you up together.
3. As the result of His thus quickening you together with Christ, and raising you up together, God makes you sit together at His own right hand.
III. A theatre, or place of exhibition (See Eph_3:10). The holy inmates of heaven see, as it were, a dramatic movement, illustrating the manifold wisdom of God. What can this movement mean, but the history of the Church? Not its outer history of events merely, but its inmost history of spiritual experiences.
IV. A field of battle (See Eph_6:12). Paradise was once the heavenlies. The eyes of the pure angels were riveted on that spot. With interest wound up to the highest pitch, they watched the experiment of the garden. But alas! the eyes of fallen angels also were attracted thither. Satan sought and found an entrance into the heavenlies; disguised probably as an angel of light. He came; and paradise was gone. The heavenlies, however, were again set up on the earth. This world was still to have in it what might furnish a platform, on which a refuge might be provided for the weary, needing to be blessed; on which a tower might be reared, rising and raising them to the very throne of God. Holy angels look on and sympathise, and rejoice to see the manifold wisdom of God. But the heavenlies now are not, any more than the heavenlies before the Fall, secure from the invasion of the spoiler and the foe.
Application:
1. Consider what is your position in the heavenlies in respect of privilege and duty. A very high and a very holy life. Alongside of the risen Christ--seeing things from His point of view, judging by His standard, your heart as His heart. Your home with Him in God.
2. Consider your position with reference to the other spiritual intelligences who take an interest in you and in your experience. On the one hand, is it not an animating and spirit stirring thought that you live your spiritual life as forming part of that great Divine drama by means of which, through the Church, the holy principalities and powers have male known to them in the heavenlies the manifold wisdom of God? Nor is the effect of this high thought diminished by the fact that over against these benevolent and sympathising onlookers from above, coming up from below, frown the pit, a dark host is mustered by the prince of darkness; crowding all earthly scenes and circles, and invading even the heavenly places themselves. Be not unduly afraid of them. But be not ignorant of their devices. Especially remember always their double character. (R. S. Candlish, D. D.)
Spiritual blessings unrecognized
If one should give me a dish of sand, and tell me there were particles of iron in it, I might look for them with my eyes, and search for them with my clumsy fingers, and be unable to detect them; but, let me take a magnet and sweep through it, and it would at once draw to itself the most invisible particles by the mere power of attraction. The unthankful heart, like my finger in the sand, discovers no underlying blessings; but let the thankful heart sweep through the day; and as the magnet finds the iron, so it will find in every hour some spiritual blessings hitherto unrecognized; only the iron in Gods sand is gold. (Holmes.)
All spiritual blessings in Christ
How little of the sea can a child carry in his hand! As little do I take away of my great sea, the boundless love of Christ. I am pained with wondering at new opened treasures in Christ. Our best things have a worm in them; our joys, besides God, in the inner half are but woes and sorrows. Christ, Christ is that which our love and desires can sleep sweetly and rest safely upon. Christ hath made me content with a borrowed fireside, and it casteth as much heat as my own. How sweet is the wind that bloweth out of the airth where Christ is. Every day we may see some new thing in Christ: His love hath neither brim nor bottom. Oh that I had help to praise Him. (Rutherford.)
We must appropriate spiritual blessings
Going to church is like going shopping: you generally get what you go for: no more, no less. A woman will go into a store with a hundred thousand dollars worth of goods all around her, buy a paper of pins, and walk out; that is all she came for. I have seen the storehouse of Gods grace packed from cellar to ceiling, and I have seen men go in and gather up an expression of the preacher and go home. Let us take a broader view of these things. (S. Jones.)
Origin and nature of redemption
I. The origin of the great system, and all the blessings of the economy of redemption.
1. It is the office of the Father to devise the plan.
2. It is His prerogative to provide the means.
3. It is His province to select the objects of deliverance.
4. It belongs to Him to determine the benefits to be conferred, their nature and extent, and the degree in which every one, who is a saved object of the Redeemers work; shall enjoy the blessing of that work.
5. It is the part of the Father to receive the highest and ultimate glory of the plan.
II. The design of this part of the heavenly economy.
1. To impress on us the entirely heavenly origin of the whole system of Christianity.
2. He impress on us the fact, that the blessings of this great redemption cannot be enjoyed as the reward of human merit.
3. To show us that this scheme cannot be frustrated by human opposition or indifference. (W. Orme.)
In Christ
The union of believers and Christ is--
I. Ideal. The Divine mind in eternity made the destiny one.
II. Legal. Their debts and merits are common property.
III. Vital. The connection with Christ supplies the power of a holy life.
IV. Moral. In mind and heart, character and conduct, Christians are like Christ. (James Stalker, M. A.)
Every spiritual blessing comes through Christ
When Paul wrote this Epistle, five and twenty or thirty years had passed by since Christ appeared to him near Damascus. They had been very wonderful years. None of them had been wasted. It is evident from his Epistles that his religious thought was constantly extending its control from one region of truth to another, as well as constantly securing a firmer hold of the truth which he had already mastered; and with the growth of his religious knowledge there was a corresponding growth of his religious life.
1. He attributes to Christ the whole development of his spiritual life. The larger knowledge of God and of the ways of God, which came to him from year to year, had come from Christ; and he felt sure that whatever fresh discoveries of God might come to him would also come from Christ. Faith, hope, joy, peace, patience, courage, zeal, love for God, love for men--he had found them all in Christ.
2. He defines the blessings with which God has blessed us in Christ as spiritual blessings. He does not intend simply to distinguish them from material, physical, or intellectual blessings; he means to attribute them to the Spirit of God. Those who are in Christ receive the illumination and inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Whatever perfection of righteousness, whatever depth of peace, whatever intensity of joy, whatever fulness of Divine knowledge reveal the power of the Spirit of God in the spiritual life of man, every spiritual blessing has been made ours in Christ.
3. These blessings have been conferred upon us in heavenly places in Christ. To the apostle the visible order of human life was merely temporary, and was soon to pass away. Cities, empires, the solid earth itself, sun and stars, had for him no enduring reality. But the blessings which God has conferred upon us in Christ have their place among unseen and eternal things.
4. These blessings were ordained for the elect before the creation of the universe. The elect are those who are in Christ; being in Him they enter into the possession of those eternal blessings which before the foundation of the world it was Gods purpose to confer upon all Christians. (R. W. Dale, LL. D.)
Blessing through Christ
Blessings given in, and obtained by Christ, for all true believers. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, etc. (Eph_1:1; Eph_1:12-13; Eph_1:15).
I. The Spirit (Eph_1:13-14; Joh_16:7-11).
II. Remission of their sins (Eph_1:7).
III. Reconciliation with God (Rom_5:10).
IV. Access to God (Eph_2:18; 1Pe_3:18).
V. Adoption of sons (Eph_1:5; Joh_1:12).
VI. The ministers and ordinances of the gospel (Eph_4:7-12; 1Co_3:1).
VII. Supplies of grace (Php_4:19).
VIII. The conversion of curses into blessings (Rom_5:3; 1Pe_1:6-7; 2Co_4:1).
IX. Victory over death (1Co_15:1). X. Heaven (Rom_6:1-23). (H. Foster, M. A.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On vv3, 6, 12, 15, 20 Chapter 2
Chapter 2
THE ETERNAL PURPOSE
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Eph_1:3-19
WE enter this epistle through magnificent gateway. The introductory Act of Praise, extending from verse 3 to 14, {Eph_1:3-14} is one of the most sublime of inspired utterances, an overture worthy of the composition that it introduces. Its first sentence compels us to feel the insufficiency of our powers for its due rendering.
The apostle surveys in this thanksgiving the entire course of the revelation of grace. Standing with the men of his day, the new-born community of the Sons of God in Christ, midway between the ages past and to come, {Eph_2:7, Eph_3:5, Eph_3:21 Col_1:26} he looks backward to the course of mans salvation when it lay a silent thought in the mind of God, and forward to the hour when it shall have accomplished its promise and achieved our redemption. In this grand evolution of the Divine plan three stages are marked by the refrain, thrice repeated, "To the praise of His Glory, of the glory of His Grace" (Eph_1:6, Eph_1:12, Eph_1:14). St. Pauls psalm is thus divided into three strophes, or stanzas: he sings the glory of redeeming love in its past designs, its present bestowments, and its future fruition. The paragraph, forming but one sentence and spun upon a single golden thread, is a piece of thought-music, -a sort of fugue, in which from Eternity to eternity the counsel of love is pursued by Pauls bold and exulting thought.
Despite the grammatical involution of the style here carried to an extreme, and underneath the apparatus of Greek pronouns and participles, there is a fine Hebraistic lilt pervading the doxology. The refrain is in the manner of Psalms 42-43, and 99, where in the former instance "health of countenance," and in the latter "holy is He" gives the keynote of the poets melody and parts his song into three balanced stanzas. In such poetry the strophes may be unequal in length, each developing its own thought freely, and yet there is harmony in their combination. Here the central idea, that of Gods actual bounty to believers, fills a space equal to that of the other two. But there is a pause in it, at Eph_1:10, which in effect resumes the idea of the first strophe and works it in as a motif to the second, carrying on both in a full stream till they lose themselves in the third and culminating movement. Throughout the piece there runs in varying expression the phrase "in Christ-in the Beloved-in Him-in whom," weaving the verses into subtle continuity. The theme of the entire composition is given in Eph_1:3, which does not enter into the threefold division we have described, but forms a prelude to it.
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ: who hath blessed us, In every blessing of the Spirit, in the heavenly places, in Christ."
Blessed be God!-It is the song of the universe, in which heaven and earth take responsive parts. "When the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy," this concert began, and continues still through the travail of creation and the sorrow and sighing of men. The work praises the Master. All sinless creatures, by their order and harmony, by the variety of their powers and beauty of their forms and delight of their existence, declare their Creators glory. That praise to the Most High God which the lower creatures act instrumentally, it is mans privilege to utter in discourse of reason and music of the heart. Man is Natures high priest; and above other men, the poet. Time will be, as it has been, when it shall be accounted the poets honour and the crown of his art, that he should take the high praises of God into his mouth, making hymns to the glory of the Supreme Maker, and giving voice to the dumb praise of inanimate nature and to the noblest thoughts of his fellows concerning the Blessed God. Blessed be God!-It is the perpetual strain of the Old Testament, from Melchizedek down to Daniel, -of David in his triumph, and Job in his misery. But not hitherto could men say, Blessed be "the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!" He was "the Most High God, the God of heaven,"-"Jehovah, God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things,"-"the Shepherd" and "the Rock" of His people, -"the true God, the living God, and an everlasting King"; and these are glorious titles, which have raised mens thoughts to moods of highest reverence and trust. But the name of "Father," and "Father of our Lord Jesus Christ," surpasses and outshines them all. With wondering love and joy unspeakable St. Paul pronounces this "Benedictus." God was not less to him the Almighty, the High and Holy One dwelling in eternity, than in the days of his youthful Jewish faith; but the Eternal and All-holy One was now his Father in Jesus Christ. Blessed be His name: and let the whole earth be filled with His glory!
The apostles psalm is a psalm of thanksgiving to God blessing and blessed. The second clause. rhythmically answers to the first. True, our blessing of Him is far different from His blessing of us: ours in thought and words; His in mighty deeds of salvation. Yet in the fruit of lips giving thanks to His name there is a revenue of blessing paid to God which He delights in, and requires. "O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel," grant us to bless Thee while we live and to lift up our hands in Thy name!
By three qualifying adjuncts the blessings which the Father of Christ bestowed upon us is defined: in respect of its nature, its sphere, and its personal ground. The blessings that prompt the apostles praise are not such as those conspicuous in the Old Covenant: "Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and in the field; in the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy ground, and in the increase of thy kine; blessed shall be thy basket, and thy kneading trough." {Deu_28:3-5} The gospel pronounces beatitudes of another style: "Blessed are the poor in spirit; blessed the meek, the merciful, the pure in heart, the persecuted." St. Paul had small share indeed in the former class of blessings, a childless, landless, homeless man. Yet what happiness and wealth are his! Out of his poverty he is making all the ages rich! From the gloom of his prison he sheds a light that will guide and cheer the steps of multitudes of earths sad wayfarers. Not certainly in the earthly places where he finds himself is Paul the prisoner of Christ Jesus blessed; but "spiritual blessing" and "in heavenly places" how abundantly! His own blessedness he claims for all who are in Christ.
Blessing spiritual in its nature is, in St. Pauls conception of things, blessing in and of the Holy Spirit. In His quickening our spirit lives; through His indwelling health, blessedness, eternal life are ours. In this verse justly the theologians recognise the Trinity of the Father, Christ, and the Holy Spirit. Blessing in the heavenly places is not so much blessing coming from those places- from God the Father who sits there-as it is blessing which lifts us into that supernal region, giving to us a place and heritage in the world of God and of the angels. Two passages of the companion epistles interpret this phrase: "Your life is hid with Christ" in Col_3:3; and again, "Our citizenship is in heaven." {Php_3:20} The decisive note of St. Pauls blessedness lies in the words "in Christ." For him all good is summed up there. Spiritual, heavenly, and Christian: these three are one. In Christ dying, risen, reigning, God the Father has raised believing men to a new heavenly life. From the first inception of the work of grace to its consummation, God thinks of men, speaks to them and deals with them in Christ. To Him, therefore, with the Father be eternal praise!
"As He chose us in Him before the worlds foundation, That we should be holy and unblemished before Him: When in love He foreordained us To filial adoption through Jesus Christ for Himself, According to the good pleasure of His will, -To the praise of the glory of His grace." (Eph_1:4-6 a)
Here is St. Pauls first chapter of Genesis. "In the beginning was the election of grace." There is nothing unprepared, nothing unforeseen, in Gods dealings with mankind. His wisdom and knowledge are as deep as His grace is wide. {Rom_11:33} Speaking of his own vocation, the apostle said: "It pleased God, who set me apart from my mothers womb, to reveal His Son in me." {Gal_1:15-16} He does but generalise this conception and carry it two steps further back- from the origin of the individual to the origin of the race, and from the beginning of the race to the beginning of the world-when he asserts that the community of redeemed men was chosen in Christ before the worlds foundation. "The world" is a work of time, the slow structure of innumerable, yet finite, ages. Science affirms on its own grounds that the visible universe had a beginning, as it has its changes and its certain end. Its structural plan, its unity of aim and movement, show it to be the creation of a vast Intelligence. Harmony and law, all that make science possible, is the product of thought. Reason extracts from nature what Reason has first put there. The longer, the more intricate and grand the process, the farther science pushes back the beginning in our thoughts, the mare sublime and certain the primitive truth becomes: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." The world is a system; it has a method and a plan, therefore a foundation. But before the foundation there was the Founder. And man was in His thoughts, and the redeemed Church of Christ. While yet the world was not and the immensity of space stretched lampless and unpeopled, we were in the mind of God; His thought rested with complacency upon His human sons, whose "name was written in the book of life from the foundation of the world." This amazing statement is only the logical consequence of St. Pauls experience of Divine grace, joined to his conviction of the infinite wisdom and eternal being of God. When he says that God "chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world"-or before founding the world-this is not a mere mark of time. It intimates that in laying His plans for the world the Creator had the purpose of redeeming grace in view. The kingdom which the "blessed children" of the Father of Christ "inherit," is the kingdom "prepared for them from the foundation of the world". {Mat_25:34} Salvation lies as deep as creation. The provision for it is eternal. For the universe of being was conceived, fashioned, and built up "in Christ." The argument of Col_1:13-22 lies behind these words. The Son of Gods love, in whom and for whom the worlds were made, always was potentially the Redeemer of men, as He was the image of God. {Col_1:14-15} He looked forward to this mission from eternity, and was in spirit "the lamb slain from the foundation of the world". {Rev_13:8} Creation and Redemption, Nature and the Church, are parts of one system; and in the reconciliation of the cross all orders of being are concerned, "whether the things upon the earth or the things in the heavens."
Evil existed before man appeared on the earth to be tempted and to fall. Through the geological record we hear the voice of creation groaning for long aeons in its pain.
"Dragons of the prime
That tare each other in their slime,"
Grim prophets of mans brutal and murderous passions, bear witness to a war in nature that goes back far towards the foundation of the world. And this rent and discord in the frame of things it was His part to reconcile "in whom and for whom all things were created." This universal deliverance, it seems, is dependent upon ours. The creation itself lifts up its head, and is looking out for the revelation of the sons of God. {Rom_8:19} In founding the world, foreseeing its bondage to corruption, God prepared through His elect sons in Christ a deliverance the glory of which- will make its sufferings to seem but a light thing. "In thee," said God to Abraham, "shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed": so in the final "adoption, -to wit, the redemption of our body," {Rom_8:23} all creatures shall exult; and our mother earth, still travailing in pain with us, will remember her anguish no more.
The Divine election of men in Christ is further defined in the words of Eph_1:5 : "Having in love predestined us," and "according to the good pleasure of His will." Election is selection; it is the antecedent in the mind of God in Christ of the preference which Christ showed when He said to His disciples, "I have chosen you out of the world." It is, moreover, a foreordination in love: an expression which indicates on the one hand the disposition in God that prompted and sustains his choice, and on the other the determination of the almighty Will whereby the all-wise Choice is put into operation and takes effect. In this pre-ordaining control of human history God "determined the fore-appointed seasons and the bounds of human habitation". {Act_17:26} The Divine prescience-that "depth of the wisdom and knowledge of God"-as well as His absolute righteousness, forbids the treasonable thought of anything arbitrary or unfair cleaving to this predetermination-anything that should override our free-will and make our responsibility an illusion. "Whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate". {Rom_8:29} He foresees everything, and allows foreverything.
The consistence of foreknowledge with freewill is an enigma which the apostle did not attempt to solve. His reply to all questions touching the justice of Gods administration in the elections of grace-questions painfully felt and keenly agitated then as they are now, and that pressed upon himself in the case of his Jewish kindred with a cruel force {Rom_9:3} -his answer to his own heart, and to us, lies in the last words of Eph_1:5 : "according to the good pleasure of His will." It is what Jesus said concerning the strange preferences of Divine grace: "Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight." What pleases Him can only be wise and right. What pleases Him must content us. Impatience is unbelief. Let us wait to see the end of the Lord. In numberless instances-such as that of the choice between Jacob and Esau, and that of Paul and the believing remnant of Israel as against their nation-Gods ways have justified themselves to after-times; so they will universally. Our little spark of intelligence glances upon one spot in a boundless ocean, on the surface of immeasurable depths.
The purpose of this loving fore-ordination of believing men in Christ is two-fold; it concerns at once their "character" and their "state": He chose us out-"that we should be holy and without blemish in His sight," and "unto adoption as sons through Jesus Christ for Himself." These two purposes are one. Gods sons must be holy; and holy men are His sons. For this end "we" were elected of God in the beginning. Nay, with this end in view the world was founded and the human race came into being, to provide God with such sons and that Christ might be "the firstborn among many brethren". {Rom_8:28-30}
"That we should be holy"-should be saints. This the readers are already: "To the saints" the apostle writes (Eph_1:1). They are men devoted to God by their own choice and will, meeting Gods choice and will for them. Imperfect saints they may be, by no means as yet "without blemish"; but they are already, and abidingly, sanctified in Christ Jesus {1Co_1:2} and "sealed" for Gods possession "by the Holy Spirit" (Eph_1:13-14). In this fact lies their hope of moral perfection and the impulse and power to attain it. Their task is to "perfect" their existing "holiness," {2Co_7:1} "cleansing themselves from all defilement, of flesh and spirit." Let no Christian say, "I do not pretend to be a saint." This is to renounce your calling. You are a saint if you are a true believer in Christ; and you are to be an unblemished saint.
Thus the Church is at last to be presented, and every man in his own order, "faultless before the presence of His glory, with exceeding joy." God could not invite us in His grace to anything inferior. A blemished saint-a smeared picture, a flawed marble-this is not like His work; it is not like Himself. Such saint-ship cannot approve itself "before Him." He must carry out His ideal, must fashion the new man as he was created in Christ after His own faultless image, and make human holiness a transcript of the Divine. {1Pe_1:16}
Now this Divine character is native to the sons of God. The ideal which God had for men was always the same. The father of the race was made in His image. In the Old Testament Israel receives the command: "You shall be holy, for I, Jehovah your God, am holy." But it was in Jesus Christ that the breadth of this command was disclosed, and the possibility of our personal obedience to it. The law of Christian sonship, manifest only in shadow in the Levitical sanctity, is now pronounced by Jesus: "You shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect." Eph_1:4 and Eph_1:5 are therefore strictly parallel: God elected us in Christ to be perfect saints; for He predestined us through Jesus Christ to be His sons.
Sonship to Himself is the Christian status, the rank and standing which God confers on those who believe in His Son; it accrues to them by the fact that they are in Christ. It is defined by the term "adoption," which St. Paul employs in this sense in Rom_8:15, Rom_8:23, as well as in Gal_4:5. Adoption was a peculiar institution of Roman law, familiar to Paul as a citizen of Rome; and it aptly describes to Gentile believers their relation to the family of God. By adoption under the Roman law an entire stranger in blood became a member of the family into which he was adopted, exactly as if he had been born in it. He assumed the family name, partook in its system of sacrificial rites, and became, not on sufferance or at will, but to all intents and purposes, a member of the house of his adopter This metaphor was St. Pauls translation into the language of Gentile thought of Christs great doctrine of the New Birth. He exchanges the physical metaphor of regeneration for the legal metaphor of adoption. The adopted becomes in the eye of the law a new creature. He was born again into a new family. By the aid of this figure the Gentile convert was enabled to realise in a vivid manner the fatherhood of God, the brotherhood of the faithful, the obliteration of past penalties, the right to the mystic inheritance. He was enabled to realise that upon this spiritual act "Old things passed away and all things became new."
This exalted status belonged to men in the purpose of God from eternity; but as a matter of fact it was instituted "through Jesus Christ," the historical Redeemer. Whether previously (Jewish) servants in Gods house or (Gentile) aliens excluded from it, {Eph_2:12} those who believed in Jesus as the Christ received a spirit of adoption and dared to call God "Father"! This unspeakable privilege had been preparing for them through the ages past in Gods hidden wisdom. Throughout the wild course of human apostasy the Father looked forward to the time when He might again through Jesus Christ make men His sons; and His promises and preparations were directed to this one end. The predestination having such an end, how fitly it is said: "in love having foreordained us."
Four times, in these three verses, with exulting emphasis, the apostle claims this distinction for "us." Who, then, are the objects of the primordial election of grace? Does St. Paul use the pronoun distributively, thinking of individuals-you and me and so many others, the personal recipients of saving grace? or does he mean the Church, as that is collectively the family of God and the object of His loving ordination? In this epistle, the latter is surely the thought in the apostles mind. As Hofmann says: "The body of Christians is the object of this choice, not as composed of a certain number of individuals-a sum of the elect opposed to a sum of the nonelect- but as the Church taken out of and separated from the world."
On the other hand, we may not widen the pronoun further; we cannot allow that the sonship here signified is mans natural relation to God, that to which he was born by creation. This robs the word "adoption" of its distinctive force. The sonship in question, while grounded "in Christ" from eternity, is conferred "through" the incarnate and crucified "Jesus Christ"; it redounds "to the praise of the glory of His grace." Now, grace is Gods redeeming love towards sinners. Gods purpose of grace toward mankind, embedded, as one may say, in creation, is realised in the body of redeemed men. But this community, we rejoice to believe, is vastly larger than the visible aggregate of Churches; for how many who knew not His name, have yet walked in the true light which lighteth every man.
There lies in the words "in Christ" a principle of exclusion, as well as of wide inclusion. Men cannot be in Christ against their will, who persistently put Him, His gospel and His laws, away from them. When we close with Christ by faith, we begin to enter into the purpose of our being. We find the place prepared for us before the foundation of the world in the kingdom of Divine love. We live henceforth "to the praise of the glory of His grace!"
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv3–23 3–6. Blessed be the God. The word rendered “blessed”…
3–6. Blessed be the God. The word rendered “blessed” is one from which our word eulogize is derived. It means, therefore, primarily, to praise. “Praised be the God,” etc., gives the idea. Who hath blessed us. The blessed is here from the same root. The word means, as above, “to praise,” or to “speak” good things of one; then to “speak” good things to, or bestow blessings, as a secondary meaning. This is the meaning here. With all spiritual blessings. All came from God, and he has withheld none from those in Christ. In the heavenly. In the kingdom of heaven.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On vv3, 15, 19 Eph_1:3. Blessed be the God and Father.—The Hebrew form…
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES
Eph_1:3. Blessed be the God and Father.—The Hebrew form for “hallowing the Name” was, “The Holy One, blessed be He.” The Prayer Book version of Psalm c. gives, “Speak good of His name.” Who blessed us.—When old Isaac pronounces the blessing uttered on Jacob unwittingly to be irreversible, he depends on God for the carrying out of his dying blessing: the divine blessing makes whilst pronouncing blest. In the heavenly places.—Lit. “in the heavenlies”—so, as A.V. margin says, either places or things. Perhaps the local signification is best; “relating to heaven, and meant to draw us thither” (Blomfield).
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Eph_1:4. Even as He chose us in Him.—Whatever be the manifestation of the divine goodness, it is “in Christ” that it is made. “This sentence traces back the state of grace and Christian piety to the eternal and independent electing love of God” (Cremer). There is always the connotation of some not chosen. Before the foundation of the world.—St. Paul, like Esaias, “is very bold.” His Master had only said “from,” not “before,” the foundation (Mat_25:34), reserving the “before” for the dim eternity in which He was the sharer, with the eternal Spirit, of the Father’s love (Joh_17:24). Without blemish (R.V.), or, in one word, “immaculate.” A sacrificial term generally; used by St. Peter (1Pe_1:19) to describe that “Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world.” This word serves to guard “holy,” just before it; a separated (holy) people must also be a spotless people.
Eph_1:5. Having predestinated us.—By pointing as the R.V. margin does, we get Love divine as the basis on which our foreordination rests. “There is no respect of persons with God,” and no arrière pensée in the invitation, “All that labour and are heavy laden.” Unto adoption as sons.—The end, as regards man. Perhaps St. John’s word goes more deeply into the heart of the mystery, “That we should be called the children of God”—“born of God.” Through Jesus Christ.—Mediator of this and every implied blessing. According to the good pleasure of His will.—The word for “good pleasure” characterises the will as one whose intent is something good; the unhampered working of the will lies in the expression too. The measure of human privilege in the adoption is according to the divine Graciousness.
Eph_1:6. To the praise of the glory of His grace.—The ultimate end, “that God may be all in all.” Wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved.—The change in the R.V., considerable as it seems, turns on the rendering of one word, the meaning in the New Testament being “to bestow favour.” Compare Luk_1:28 and the A.V. marginal alternative “much-graced.” Chrysostom’s beautiful interpretation must not be lightly rejected, “to make love-worthy”—just as if one were to make a sick or famished man into a beautiful youth, so has God made our soul beautiful and love-worthy for the angels and all saints and for Himself.
Eph_1:7. In whom we have redemption.—Release in consideration of a ransom paid—“deliverance effected through the death of Christ from the retributive wrath of a holy God and the merited penalty of sin” (Grimm). Through His blood.—St. Paul quite agrees with the author of Hebrews (Heb_9:22) that, apart from the pouring out of blood, the putting away of sin cannot be brought about. The forgiveness of our trespasses.—Another way of stating in what the redemption consists. Notice the “forgiveness” as compared with the “passing over” (Rom_3:25, R.V.). The one is the remission of punishment; the other the omission to punish sin that has been observed, “leaving it open in the future either entirely to remit or else adequately to punish them as may seem good to Him” (Trench).
Eph_1:8. In all wisdom and prudence.—“Wisdom embraces the collective activity of the mind as directed to divine aims to be achieved by moral means. Prudence is the insight of practical reason regulating the dispositions” (Meyer).
Eph_1:9. The mystery of His will.—“Mystery” is here to be taken not so much as a thing which baffles the intellect as the slow utterance of a long-kept secret, which “the fulness of time” brings to birth.
Eph_1:10. The fulness of times.—The word for “times” denotes “time as brings forth its several births.” It is the “flood” in the “tide of affairs.” To sum up all things.—“To bring together again for Himself all things and all beings (hitherto disunited by sin) into one combined state of fellowship in Christ, the universal bond” (Grimm). “It is the mystery of God’s will to gather all together for Himself in Christ, to bring all to a unity, to put an end to the world’s discord wrought by sin, and to re-establish the original state of mutual dependence in fellowship with God” (Cremer). The things which are in heaven and which are on earth.
“The blood that did for us atone
Conferred on them some gift unknown.”
Eph_1:11. In whom also we have obtained an inheritance.—R.V. “were made a heritage.” “The Lord’s portion is His people, Jacob is the lot of His inheritance,” sang dying Moses. The verbal paradox between A.V. and R.V. is reconciled in fact. “All are yours, and ye are Christ’s” (1Co_3:22-23). “Before the Parousia an ideal possession, thereafter a real one” (Meyer). After the counsel of His own will.—“The ‘counsel’ preceding the resolve, the ‘will’ urging on to action” (Cremer).
Eph_1:12. That we should be to the praise.—R.V. “to the end that we should be.” “Causa finalis of the predestination to the Messianic lot” (Meyer). “We” in antithesis to “you” in Eph_1:13—We Jewish—you Gentile Christians.
Eph_1:13. In whom ye also, etc.—The word “trusted,” supplied by A.V., is dropped by R.V. It seems best to regard the words after “ye also” as one of the frequent breaks in the flow of the apostle’s language, the second “ye” taking up the first. “In whom ye were sealed.” “The order of conversion was: hearing, faith, baptism, reception of the Spirit” (Meyer). Ye were sealed.—“This sealing is the indubitable guarantee of the future Messianic salvation received in one’s own consciousness” (Meyer).
Eph_1:14. Who is the earnest.—The guarantee. The word represented by “earnest” was derived from the Phœnician merchants, and meant money which in purchases is given as a pledge that the full amount will be subsequently paid (Grimm). The word is found in the Hebrew of Gen_38:17-18, and means “pledge.” F. W. Robertson makes a distinction between “pledge” and “earnest”—the grapes of Eshcol were an “earnest” of Canaan. He who receives the Holy Spirit partakes the powers of the age to come (Heb_6:4-5). Until the redemption.—The final consummation of the redemption effected by the atonement of Christ. The “until” is faulty, the “earnest” being “something towards” the redemption. Of the purchased possession.—R.V. “of God’s own possession.” “The whole body of Christians, the true people of God acquired by God as His property by means of the redeeming work of Christ” (Meyer).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Eph_1:3-14
Praise for the Work of the Trinity in the Gospel of Grace.
These verses are an outburst of descriptive eloquence that even the ample resources of the Greek language seem too meagre to adequately express. The grandeur and variety of ideas, and the necessary vagueness of the phrases by which those ideas are conveyed in this paragraph, create a difficulty in putting the subject into a practical homiletic form. It may help us if we regard the passage as an outpouring of praise for the work of the Trinity in the gospel of grace, the part of each person in the Trinity being distinctly recognised as contributing to the unity of the whole.
I. The gospel of grace originated in the love of the Father.—
1. He hath chosen us to holiness. “Blessed be the God and Father … who hath chosen us … that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love” (Eph_1:3-4). The love of God the Father gave Christ to the world, and in Him the human race is dowered with “all spiritual blessings in heavenly places.” The blessings from heaven link us to heaven, and will by-and-by bring us to heaven, where those blessings will be enjoyed in unrestricted fulness. Before time began, in the free play of His infinite love, God the Father, foreseeing the sin and misery that would come to pass, resolved to save man, and to save him in His own way and for His own purpose. Man was to be saved in Christ, and by believingly receiving Christ; and his salvation was not to free him from moral obligation, but to plant in Him principles of holiness by which he could live a blameless life before God. He chose us for Himself that we might love Him, and find our satisfaction in the perpetual discovery of His great love to us. The true progression of the Christian life is a growth of the ever-widening knowledge of the love of God. Love is the essence and the crown of holiness.
2. He hath ordained us to sonship.—“Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Christ Jesus Himself” (Eph_1:5). The sonship is not by natural right of inheritance, but by adoption. It is an act of divine grace, undeserved and unexpected. It is said that, after the battle of Austerlitz, Napoleon adopted the children of the soldiers who had fallen. They were supported and educated by the State, and, as belonging to the family of the emperor, were allowed to attach the name of Napoleon to their own. This was not the adoption of love, but as a recognition of service rendered by their fathers. None can adopt into the family of God but God Himself, and it is an act on His part of pure, unmerited love. He raises us to the highest dignity, and endows us with unspeakable privileges, when He makes us His children; and our lives should be in harmony with so distinguished a relationship.
3. He hath accepted us in Christ.—“Wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved” (Eph_1:6). Christ, the beloved One, is the special object of the Father’s love, and all who are united to Christ by faith become sharers in the love with which the divine Father regards His Son. It is only in and through Christ that we are admitted into the divine family. God loves us in Christ, and the more so because we love Christ. We are accepted to a life of holiness and a service of love. Christ is the pattern of our sonship and the means of our adoption. The love of God to the race finds an outlet through the person and gracious intervention of His Son.
II. The gospel of grace was wrought out by the sufferings of the Son.—
1. In Him we have forgiveness of sins. “In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins” (Eph_1:7). How little do we realise the greatness and blessedness of the pardon of sin! It may seem difficult to explain how the forgiveness of sins is connected with the sufferings and death of Christ; but there is no fact in the New Testament writings more clearly revealed or more emphatically repeated than this. “The death of Christ was an act of submission on behalf of mankind to the justice of the penalties of violating the eternal law of righteousness—an act in which our own submission not only received a transcendent expression, but was really and vitally included; it was an act which secured the destruction of sin in all who, through faith, are restored to union with Christ; it was an act in which there was a revelation of the righteousness of God which must otherwise have been revealed in the infliction of the penalty of sin on the human race. Instead of inflicting suffering God has elected to endure it, that those who repent of sin may receive forgiveness, and may inherit eternal glory. It was greater to endure suffering than to inflict it” (Dale). The forgiveness is free, full, and complete.
2. In Him we have the revelation of the mystery of the divine will.—“Wherein He hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence; having made known to us the mystery of His will” (Eph_1:8-9). The will of God is to advance the ultimate glorious destiny of the whole creation. This sublime purpose was for ages an unrevealed mystery, unknown to the prophets, psalmists, and saints of earlier times. In the depths of the divine counsels this purpose was to be carried out by Christ, and it is revealed only through and in Him. The believer in Christ discovers in Him, not only his own blessedness, but also the ultimate glory of all who are savingly united to the great Redeemer. The abounding grace of God bestows wisdom to apprehend a larger knowledge of the ways and will of God, and prudence to practically apply that knowledge in the conduct of life.
3. In Him we enjoy the unity and grandeur of the heavenly inheritance.—“That in the dispensation of the fulness of times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, … in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, … that we should be to the praise of His glory” (Eph_1:10-12). The fulness of times must refer to the gospel age and the glorious ages to follow, in which the accomplishment of the divine purpose will become more apparent. That purpose is to heal up the estrangement of man from God, and to restore moral harmony to the universe, which has been disordered by the introduction of sin. The great agent in the unifying and harmonising of all things is Christ, who is the centre and circumference of all. The angels who never sinned, and the saints who are made such by redeeming mercy, will share together the inheritance of bliss provided by the suffering and triumphant Christ. “Our final glory will consist, not in the restoration of the solitary soul to solitary communion with God, but in the fellowship of all the blessed with the blessedness of the universe as well as with the blessedness of God.”
III. The gospel of grace is confirmed and realised by the operation of the Holy Spirit.—
1. By Him we hear and understand the word of truth. “In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation” (Eph_1:13). The gospel is emphatically the word of truth; it is reliable history, not romance—a revelation of truths essential to salvation. It is the function of the Holy Spirit to illuminate the mind by the instrumentality of the truth, to apply the word to the conscience, and to regenerate the heart. He takes of the things of Christ and shows them unto us, and the vision leads on to a spiritual transformation.
2. By Him we are sealed as an earnest of possessing the full inheritance of blessing.—“Ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance” (Eph_1:13-14). The work of the Spirit broke down all class distinctions. The Jewish Christians discovered that the exclusive privileges of their race had passed away. All believers in Christ Jesus, whether Jew or Gentile, received the assurance of the Spirit that all the prerogatives and blessings of God’s eternal kingdom were theirs. The seal of the Spirit is the divine attestation to the believing soul of its admission into the favour of God, and the guarantee of ultimately entering into the full possession and enjoyment of the heavenly inheritance.
Lessons.—
1. The gospel of grace is the harmonious work of the blessed Trinity.
2. The grace of the gospel is realised by faith.
3. Praise for the gift of the gospel should be continually offered to the Triune God.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
Eph_1:3-6. The Doctrine of Predestination.—Neither Calvinism nor Arminianism has solved the problem presented in this chapter. Like difficulties meet us in God’s providential dealings—ay, in the workings of His natural laws; for, as a brilliant author has said, “Nature is a terrible Calvinist.”—Lange.
Election.—It is above logic and philosophy and even technical theology, even as on many, and these, the most important subjects, the heart is a better teacher than the head. In these matters I am so fearful that I dare not speak further—yea, almost none otherwise than the text does, as it were, lead me by the hand.—Ridley.
Mystery of election.—Those who are willing are always the elect; those who will not are not elected. Many men are wrapped up in the doctrines of election and predestination; but that is the height of impertinence. They are truths belonging to God alone; and if you are perplexed by them, it is only because you trouble yourself about things which do not concern you. You only need to know that God sustains you with all His might in the winning of your salvation, if you will only rightly use His help. Whoever doubts this is like a crew of a boat working with all their might against the tide and yet going back hour after hour; then they notice that the tide turns, while at the same time the wind springs up and fills their sails. The coxswain cries, “Pull away, boys! wind and tide favour you!” But they answer, “What can we do with the oars? don’t the wind and tide take away our free agency?”—H. W. Beecher.
Eph_1:3. Spiritual Blessings.
I. They are accommodated to our spiritual wants and desires, they come down from heaven, prepare us for heaven, and will be completed in our admission to heaven.—The influences of the Spirit are heavenly gifts, the renovation of the heart by a divine operation is wisdom from above, the renewed Christian is born from above and becomes a spiritual man, the state of immortality Christ has purchased for believers is an inheritance reserved for them in heaven, in the resurrection they will be clothed with a house from heaven, with spiritual and heavenly bodies, and they will sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
II. The blessings granted to the Ephesians are tendered to us.—He offers us the honours and felicities of adoption and the remission of all our sins through the atonement of His Son. He has proposed for our acceptance an inheritance incorruptible in the heavens. We have happier advantages to become acquainted with the doctrines and precepts of the gospel than the primitive Christians could enjoy. If they were bound to give thanks for their privileges, how criminal must be ingratitude under ours! We must one day answer before God for all the spiritual blessings He has sent us.—Lathrop.
Eph_1:4-6. The Nature, Source, and Purpose of Spiritual Blessings.
I. God chose and predestinated these Ephesian Christians before the foundation of the world.—We must not so conceive of God’s election and the influence of His grace as to set aside our free agency and final accountableness; nor must we so explain away God’s sovereignty and grace as to exalt man to a state of independence. Now, so far as the grace of God in the salvation of sinners is absolute and unconditional, election or predestination is so, and no farther. If we consider election as it respects the final bestowment of salvation, it is plainly conditional. To imagine that God chooses some to eternal life without regard to their faith and holiness is to suppose that some are saved without these qualifications or saved contrary to His purpose. God hath chosen us to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth.
II. Consider the spiritual qualifications to which the Ephesians were chosen.—“To be holy and without blame before Him in love” (Eph_1:4). Holiness consists in the conformity of the soul to the divine nature and will, and is opposed to all moral evil. Love is a most essential part of the character of the saint. Charity out of a pure heart is the end of the commandment. Without charity all our pretensions to gospel holiness are vain.
III. Consider the adoption to which believers are predestinated (Eph_1:5).—Our sonship is not our native right, but the effect of God’s gracious adoption.
1. It implies a state of freedom in opposition to bondage. Believers are free as being delivered from the bondage of sin, and as having near access to God and intimate communion with Him. Children are usually admitted to that familiar intercourse which is denied to servants.
2. Adoption brings us under the peculiar care of God’s providence.
3. Includes a title to a glorious resurrection from the dead and to an eternal inheritance in the heavens. If believers are the children of God, then their temper must be a childlike temper, a temper corresponding to their relation, condition, and character.
IV. That all spiritual blessings are derived to us through Christ (Eph_1:5-6).
V. The reason of God’s choosing believers in Christ and predestinating them to adoption is the good pleasure of His will (Eph_1:5).—If we admit we are sinful, fallen creatures, unworthy of God’s favour and insufficient for our own redemption, then our salvation must ultimately be resolved into God’s good pleasure. There is no other source from which it can be derived. If death is our desert, our deliverance must be by grace.
VI. The great purpose for which God has chosen and called us is the praise of the glory of His grace (Eph_1:6).—God has made this display of His grace that unworthy creatures might apply to Him for salvation. We are to praise the glory of God’s grace by a cheerful compliance with the precepts and thankful acceptance of the blessings of the gospel, by a holy life, and by encouraging others to accept that grace. Believers will, in a more perfect manner, show forth the praise of God’s glorious grace in the future world.—Lathrop.
Eph_1:5-6. The Glory of Divine Grace—
I. Is the sublime outcome of the divine will.—“According to His will” (Eph_1:5).
II. Is a signal display of joyous benevolence.—“According to the good pleasure of His will” (Eph_1:5).
III. Demands profound and grateful recognition.—“To the praise of the glory of His grace” (Eph_1:6).
Eph_1:5. The Adoption of Children by Jesus Christ.—Explain the nature of the privilege.
I. Its greatness.—
1. From the Being by whom it is conferred.
2. From the price at which it was procured.
3. From the inheritance which it conveys.
4. From the manner in which it is bestowed. The new birth.
II. Its benefits.—
1. The spirit of adoption.
2. Divine care and protection.
3. Divine pity and compassion.
4. Overruling all trials for spiritual good.
III. The evidences of its possession.—
1. The image of God.
2. The love of God.
3. The love of the brethren.
IV. Its appropriate duties.—The children of God ought—
1. To walk worthy of their high vocation.
2. To be subject to their Father’s will both in doing and in suffering.
3. To be mindful of what they owe to their spiritual kindred.
4. To long for their heavenly home.—G. Brooks.
Eph_1:6. The Adopting Love of God.
I. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the Beloved of the Father.—From eternity during the preparatory dispensation in the days of His flesh; now; for ever. An ineffable love.
II. The Father’s love of believers is on account of the Lord Jesus Christ.—He accepts them for the sake of Christ as united to Christ. Acceptance distinct from pardon.
III. The Father’s acceptance of believers is an act of sovereign grace.—Irrespective of their merit. Neither the necessity of the atonement nor the obligation of faith is inconsistent with acceptance by grace.
IV. The Father’s acceptance of believers for the sake of Christ promotes His own glory.—His glory is the end of all things. Implore all to seek acceptance with God through Christ.—G. Brooks.
Eph_1:7-8. Redemption through Christ.
I. The subjects of this redemption.—Redemption, though offered without distinction to all who hear the gospel, is actually bestowed only on those who repent of their sins and believe on the Saviour.
II. The nature of this redemption.—There is a twofold redemption—the redemption of the soul from the guilt of sin by pardon, and the redemption of the body from the power of the grave by the resurrection. The former of these is intended. But these two privileges are connected. The remission of sin, which is a release from our obligation to punishment, is accompanied with a title to eternal life.
III. The way and manner in which believers become partakers of this privilege.—Through the blood of Christ. The death of Christ is the ground of our hope. Jesus Christ, through whose blood we obtain forgiveness, is the Beloved. This character of Christ shows the excellence of His sacrifice and displays the grace of God in giving Him for us.
IV. Observe the foundation from which our redemption flows.—“The riches of His grace.” Every blessing bestowed on sinners is by grace; but the blessing of forgiveness is according to the riches, the exceeding, the unsearchable riches of grace.
V. In this dispensation of mercy God has abounded to us in all wisdom and prudence.—The most glorious display of God’s wisdom is in the work of our redemption. Here the perfections of God appear in the brightest lustre and most beautiful harmony. In this dispensation there is a door of hope opened to the most unworthy, believers have the greatest possible security, and it holds forth the most awful terrors against sin and the most powerful motives to obedience.—Lathrop.
Eph_1:7. Pardon an Act of Sovereign Grace.—This free and gracious pleasure of God or purpose of His will to act towards sinners according to His own abundant goodness is another thing that influences forgiveness. Pardon flows immediately from a sovereign act of free grace. This free purpose of God’s will and grace for the pardoning of sinners is that which is principally intended when we say, “There is forgiveness with Him”; that is, He is pleased to forgive, and so to do is agreeable to His nature. Now the mystery of this grace is deep; it is eternal, and therefore incomprehensible. Few there are whose hearts are raised to a contemplation of it. Men rest and content themselves in a general notion of mercy which will not be advantageous to their souls. Freed they would be from punishment; but what it is to be forgiven they inquire not. So what they know of it they come easily by, but will find in the issue it will stand them in little stead. But these fountains of God’s actings are revealed that they may be the fountains of our comforts.—John Owen.
Eph_1:8. The Harmony of Christianity in its Personal Influence.
I. The wisdom and prudence of the gospel are manifested by showing with equal distinctness the divine justice and mercy.—Justice does not arrest the hand of mercy; mercy does not restrain the hand of justice. They speak with a united voice, they command with a united authority, they shine with a united glory. Neither excels. The one does not overbear the other. Their common splendour is like the neutral tint, the effulgent colourlessness of the undecomposed ray.
II. By exhibiting the incarnate Son as alike the object of love and adoration.
III. By insisting most uniformly on divine grace and human responsibility.
IV. By the proposal of the freest terms of acceptance and the enforcement of the most universal practice of obedience.
V. By inspiring the most elevated joy in connection with the deepest self-abhorrence.
VI. By displaying the different conduct pursued by the Deity towards sin and the sinner.
VII. By combining the genuine humility of the gospel with our dignity as creatures and our conscientiousness as saints.
VIII. By causing all supernatural influence to operate through our rational powers and by intelligent means.
IX. By resting our evidence of safety and spiritual welfare upon personal virtues.
X. By supplying the absence of enslaving fear with salutary caution.
XI. The actual existence of our depraved nature and the work of sanctification in us pressing forward to its maturity tend to that regulated temperament of mind which we urge.
XII. Certain views of personal conduct are so coupled in the gospel with the noblest views of grace that any improper warping of our minds is counteracted.
XIII. While the distinctive blessings and honours of the Christian might tend to elate him, he is affected by the most opposite motives.
XIV. God abounds in this wisdom and prudence towards us by most strongly abstracting us from the things of earth and yet giving us the deepest interest in its relations and engagements.—All the truths of revelation are only parts of one system, but their effects upon the believing mind are common and interchangeable. There is no extraneous, no irreconcilable, no confusing element in Christianity. It is of One; it is one. And if we be Christians, our experience will be the counterpart of it. As it works out from apparent shocks and collisions its perfect unity, so shall our experience be wrought in the same way. In obeying from our hearts its form, whatever of its influence may seem to interfere with each other, they will all be found to establish our heart; as the opposing currents often swell the tide and more proudly waft the noble bark it carries, as the counterbalancing forces of the firmament bear the star onward in its unquivering poise and undeviating revolution.—R. W. Hamilton.
Eph_1:9-12. The Mystery of the Gospel.
I. The sovereign grace of God in making known to us the mystery of His will.—
1. The gospel is called the mystery of God’s will, the mystery which from the beginning was hid in God, and the unsearchable riches of Christ. Not that these phrases represent the gospel as obscure and unintelligible, but that the gospel scheme was undiscoverable by the efforts and researches of human reason, and could be made known to men only by the light of divine revelation. There are many things in the gospel which are and will remain incomprehensible to human reason; but though we cannot fully comprehend them, we may sufficiently understand them.
2. God has made known to us His will “according to the good pleasure which He purposed in Himself.”—Though the reason of His administration is not made known to us yet all His purposes are directed by consummate wisdom. He is Sovereign in the distribution of His favours; His goodness to us is no wrong to the heathen.
II. The purpose of God in making known to us the mystery of His will (Eph_1:10).—
1. The gospel is called “the dispensation of the fulness of times.” It was introduced at the time exactly ordained in the purpose, and expressly predicted in the word of God, and in this sense may be called “the dispensation of the fulness of times.”
2. One end of this dispensation was that God “might gather together in one all things in Christ” (Eph_1:10).—To form one body in Christ, to collect one Church, one great kingdom under Him.
3. The gospel is intended to unite in Christ all things both which are in heaven and which are in earth.—The Church of Christ consists of the whole family in heaven and earth. Here is a powerful argument for Christian love and for Christian candour.
III. In Him we have obtained an inheritance that we should be to the praise of His glory who first trusted in Christ.—The believing Jews were the first who trusted in Christ. They, with the believing Gentiles, were made heirs of God, not only to the privileges of His Church on earth, but to an inheritance also in the heavens. As they had first obtained an inheritance and first trusted in Christ, so they should be first to the praise of God’s glory.—Lathrop.
Eph_1:10. Christ and Creation.—If the divine purpose of salvation was regulative for the creation of the world, then must salvation as well as creation be grounded on the original Mediator. But that all creation should be thus grounded in Him includes a twofold idea—that not only were all things created by Him, but also for Him, who is to bring to completion both the saving purpose of God as also the whole development of the world which tends towards the realisation of the purpose of God. And because the world has not yet reached this goal, then all things have progressively their existence in Him; and it cannot fail, because the goal of the world established in Him must be realised. But how this goal of the world is conceived of, this verse shows, when it is mentioned as the final goal of the institution of God’s grace that all things may be gathered in Christ as in a centre. He has been appointed to be this central point of the universe, as the universe was created in Him; but here it is pointed out that He must again become so, because a dislocation in the original constitution of the world has taken place by sin, whose removal again the dispensation of grace must have in view. The goal of the world is no longer regarded as the perfected kingdom of God, in which the absolute, universal Lordship of God is realised, in contrast to the earthly, mediatorial Lordship of Christ, which the latter gives back to the Father, and that the exaltation of Christ is extended over everything which has a name both in this world and in the future. One cannot think of the goal of the world without Him in whom even creation has its root.—Weiss.
Eph_1:11-12. Christ the Inheritance of the Saints.—
1. Christ the Mediator is that person in whom believers have this heavenly inheritance, as they have all their other spiritual blessings leading to heaven in Him. Every believer hath already obtained this glorious inheritance, though not in complete personal possession.
2. As God is an absolute worker, sovereign Lord of all His actions, His will being His only rule, so His will is always joined with and founded upon the light of counsel and wisdom, and therefore He can will nothing but what is equitable and just.
3. It is no small privilege for any to be trusters in Christ before others. It is a matter of their commendation; it glorifies God in so far as their example and experience may prove an encouraging motive to others. It carries several advantages; the sooner a man closes with Christ, the work will be done more easily, he is the sooner freed from sin, the sooner capacitated to do more service to God, and his concernments are the sooner out of hazard.—Fergusson.
Eph_1:13. The Gospel of your Salvation.
I. The import of the salvation proclaimed in the gospel.—It is deliverance from all the evils that have been brought on us by the Fall.
1. From ignorance, not of science, but of God.
2. From guilt, or the penalty which the law inflicts.
3. From the power of sin, of which we are slaves.
4. From the sorrows and calamities of life, which it does not remove, but alleviate and transform.
5. From the power and fear of death.
6. From everlasting perdition.
II. The persons to whom this view of the gospel is specially applicable.—
1. To the unconverted. It teaches them what they are.
2. To the awakened. It teaches them what they need.
3. To believers. It awakens their gratitude, it reproves their lukewarmness, it stimulates their charity.
III. The reflections to which this view of the gospel gives rise.—How precious in our estimation should be—
(1) the gospel,
(2) the Saviour,
(3) the Saviour’s work,
(4) the Saviour’s ordinances,
(5) the Saviour’s servants and people,
(6) the Saviour’s second coming.—G. Brooks.
The Truth and Divinity of the Christian Religion.
I. It is reasonable to suppose that God should at some time or season fully and clearly reveal unto men the truth concerning Himself and concerning them as He and they stand related to each other, concerning His nature and will, concerning our state and duty.—Argued from
(1) His goodness,
(2) His wisdom,
(3) His justice,
(4) His divine majesty.
II. That no other revelation of that kind and importance has been made, which can with good probability pretend to have thus proceeded from God, so as by Him to have been designed for a general, perpetual, complete instruction and obligation of mankind.—
1. Paganism did not proceed from divine revelation, but from human invention or diabolical suggestion. All the pagan religions vanished, together with the countenance of secular authority and power sustaining them.
2. Mohammedanism an imposture.
3. Judaism was defective.
(1) This revelation was not general—not directed, nor intended to instruct and oblige mankind.
(2) As this revelation was particular, so was it also partial—as God did not by it speak His mind to all, so did He not therein speak out all His mind.
(3) It was not designed for perpetual obligation and use.
Conclusion.—No other religion, except Christianity, which has been or is in being, can reasonably pretend to have proceeded from God as a universal, complete, and final declaration of His mind and will to mankind.—Barrow.
Eph_1:13-14. The Assurance of the Christian Inheritance.—By the first act of faith the whole tendencies of man’s life are reversed. Until then the present has been his world and the earth his place of rest; then, by the inspiration of the cross, a spiritual world dawns upon his view, that everlasting region becomes his home, and life assumes the character of a pilgrimage. We need to have the deep assurance of the immortal kingdom in order to live an earnest life in a world like this.
I. The nature of the assurance.—The voices of promises in the Christian’s soul—the longings, aspirations, hopes, rising from the Spirit of God within us—are more than promises; they are earnests, i.e. most certain assurances of the inheritance to come. This inheritance of spiritual life consists of three great elements—love, power, blessedness.
II. The necessity of the assurance.—The inheritance is given, but not reached. Between the gift and its attainment there lies a long path of conflict in which the old struggle between the flesh and the Spirit reveals itself in three forms:
1. Sense against the soul;
2. The present against the future;
3. Steadfast work against the roving propensities of the heart.—E. L. Hull.
The Holy Spirit and the Earnest of the Inheritance.
I. The character of the inheritance.—The teaching of the passage is that heaven is likest the selectest moments of devotion that a Christian has on earth. Heaven is the perfecting of the life of the Spirit begun here, and the loftiest attainments of that life here are but the beginnings and infantile movements of immature beings.
II. The grounds of certainty that we shall ultimately possess the fulness of the inheritance.—The true ground of certainty lies in this, that you have the Spirit in your heart, operating His own likeness and moulding you, sealing you, after His own stamp and image.
1. The very fact of such a relation between man and God is itself the great assurance of immortality and everlasting life.
2. The characteristics that are produced by this Holy Spirit’s indwelling, both in the perfectness and imperfection, are the great guarantee of the inheritance being ours.
3. The Holy Spirit in a man’s heart makes him desire and believe in the inheritance.—A. Maclaren.
The Faith of the Early Christians.
I. The object of their faith.—The word of truth and the gospel of salvation. It is the word of truth. It contains all that truth which concerns our present duty and our future glory. It comes attended with demonstrations of its own divinity. It is the gospel of our salvation. It discovers to us our ruined, helpless condition, the mercy of God to give us salvation, the way in which it is procured for us, the terms on which we may become interested in it, the evidences by which our title to it must be ascertained, and the glory and happiness it comprehends.
II. The forwardness and yet the reasonableness of their faith.—They trusted in Christ after they heard the word. They acted as honest and rational men: they did not trust before they heard it, nor refused to trust after they heard it. They did not take the gospel on the credit of other men without examination; nor did they reject it when they had an opportunity to examine it for themselves. Their faith stood not in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
III. The happy consequence of their faith.—They were “sealed with the Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance.” They became partakers of such a divine influence as sanctified them to a meetness for heaven, and thus evidenced their title to it.
1. The sealing of the Spirit.—Sealing literally signifies the impression of the image or likeness of one thing upon another. A seal impressed on wax leaves there its own image. Instruction is said to be sealed when it is so impressed on the heart as to have an abiding influence. So the sealing of believers is their receiving on their hearts the divine image and character by the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit. The word of truth is here considered as the seal, the believing heart as the subject, the Holy Spirit as the agent or sealer, and the effect produced as a divine likeness. By a like metaphor Christians are represented as cast in the mould of the gospel. The same idea is conveyed by the metaphor of writing the word on the heart.
2. The earnest of the Spirit.—The Spirit, having sealed believers or sanctified them after God’s image, becomes an earnest of their inheritance. The firstfruits were pledges of the ensuing harvest; earnest-money in a contract is a pledge of the fulfilment of it. So the graces and comforts of religion are to Christians the anticipations and foretastes of the happiness which awaits them in heaven.
(1) The virtues of the Christian temper, which are the fruits of the Spirit, are to believers an earnest of their inheritance because they are in part a fulfilment of the promise which conveys the inheritance.
(2) They are an earnest as they are preparatives for it.
(3) The sealing and sanctifying influence of the Spirit is especially called an earnest of the inheritance because it is a part of the inheritance given beforehand. It is the earnest till the redemption of the purchased possession. When we actually possess the inheritance the earnest will be no longer needed.
Lessons.—
1. All the operations of the Spirit on the minds of men are of a holy nature and tendency.
2. We are strongly encouraged to apply to God for the needful influences of His grace.
3. We can have no conclusive evidence of a title to heaven without the experience of a holy temper.
4. Christians are under indispensable obligations to universal holiness.—Lathrop.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain On vv3, 5, 10, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 22 3. “Blessed be the God and Father of our…
ARGUMENT 1
THE HEAVENLIES AND SANCTIFICATION
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3. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us in all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies.” The Greek word is an adjective noun, and very infelicitously translated heavenly places. You see “places” is italicized in the English, showing that it is not in the original. Men always make a mistake when they undertake to help out God, as he does not need any help. Hence, in reading your English Bible, you would get better sense out of it if you omit all of the italicized words. Here we see what a limitation the added word “places” puts on the inspired word “heavenly,” restricting it to mere location; whereas it has a glorious, infinitesimal signification. It means heavenly peace, rest, comfort, happiness, submission, obedience, faith, joy, and victory. We are here in the kingdom of omnipotent grace, preparatory to a world of ineffable glory. This Greek word, heavenlies, occurs repeatedly in this epistle, ringing out the glorious battle-cry. Hence, it is the great salient truth of this wonderful letter, exhibiting the highest type of spirituality in the New Testament, a logical sequence from the glorious foundation laid by Paul in the sanctification of the twelve charter members whom he found on his arrival. Only the people having Heaven in them will ever pass the pearly portals. Equally true that the inmates of Hell all take their hell with them into the regions of endless woe. These heavenly graces are not reached in justification, but sanctification. Our Savior is the paragon Exemplar of Christian saintship. He never enjoyed the peace of pardon, from the simple fact that he had no sins to be pardoned. But he always enjoyed the peace of purity. Hence we must reach entire sanctification in order to enjoy our Savior’s peace, rest, submission, faith, obedience, joy, happiness, love, and victory. These constitute the heavenly experiences, only attainable in entire sanctification, and indispensable to our admission into heaven.
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
F. W. Grant 1903 · Public Domain On v15 Division 2. (Eph 1:15-23; Eph 2:1-10.)
Division 2. (Eph 1:15-23; Eph 2:1-10.)
Our participation with Christ in God’s work beyond death.
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We have had, then, the general outline of God’s purpose in Christ, not merely towards us, but embracing the subjection of all things to Him. We are now to see how He has, in fact, taken us up to link us with Christ for the fulfilment of blessing.
1. It takes the form. of a prayer from the apostle’s heart in behalf of those whom he is addressing. He longs for them and for us that we may have the spirit of wisdom and revelation with regard to all these things. In fact, how much has been hidden in this way through the lack of response on the part of God’s people to these wonderful communications! He has heard of their faith in the Lord Jesus and their love to all the saints. He gives thanks, therefore, for them, but that is not enough. He realizes that they are yet in a world in which Satan is busy, as by and by he will more fully show, to deprive the people of God of that which, in their knowledge of it now, would be power for them to glorify God in the scene through which they are passing. It is here, in fact, in the entering into these purposes of God, that the Christian character is practically acquired, and the Christian intelligence alone fully gained. It is no wonder, therefore, if here should be the sharpest possible contention, and that here the apostle should be in prayer that God’s people should lose nothing of that which He has designed for them. Accordingly, the prayer is to the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, the One who has purposed all this, and the One to whom belongs the power alone to accomplish it. He prays that this God may give them the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the "full knowledge," (as it should be) of Him. The deepest, sweetest character of the revelation of these things is that it gives the knowledge of Himself. For this we need, as he explains directly, the "eyes of our heart" to be enlightened. It is "heart," not "mind," for in the heart such eyes really are. It is not mere intelligence that can possess itself of these things. It is not any brightness of mind merely, as people would say. It is the heart for what is revealed that will lead to right intelligence as to the revelation. Could God possibly reveal these things with all their announced value for the soul, so that a human heart would kindle with desire to possess itself of them, only to find that the faculty had been denied of obtaining that which was sought for? How impossible to think of it! God’s people deprive themselves of what is the inheritance of every one of them, and they must, of necessity, connive at their being robbed of it, in order not to know. The Spirit of revelation, the Spirit of wisdom, the Spirit of understanding is in them already,and,as the apostle pictures it, it is the Spirit that searcheth the deep things of God. Can He do it in one and not in another? Or, if He be pleased still to have special human instruments, does He mean by that to deny the possession of the truth to any who seek it? Certainly, it would be impossible to think so. The apostle prays, therefore, that they might know what was the hope of this calling of God, that is, of all that, in fact, is hailing us from those blessed scenes which God is opening up to us, and that they might know what the riches are of the glory of His inheritance in the saints. It is God’s inheritance. No possession of it on our part could possibly deprive Him of what is in it, and how little would it be true inheritance if we did not inherit it with Him! It is God that inherits what is His, but it is the saints whom He puts in possession, just as He puts Israel in possession of the land which, nevertheless, He reserves as His, and which, therefore, cannot be taken away from Him. "The land is Mine," He says: "ye are strangers and sojourners," -guests therefore, as such, thrown upon the goodness and liberality of Him who, as such, is entertaining them, -"ye are strangers and sojourners with Me." We inherit after the same manner: a blessed thing to know that it is not the inheritance of a lost Father, but the inheritance of One who dwells with us in it, that belongs to us. But He desires that we should know also the greatness of His power which is working towards us with regard to these very things, according to the working of the might of His strength. How He multiplies words that we might realize the energy that is at work, a power in which He has wrought in Christ; for the work done in Him is done for us all, and the good of it belongs to us all. God has raised Christ from the dead then, and seated Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places. The work is perfectly accomplished, and He only awaits the full answer to it on the part of God. The present answer is only the pledge of the full carrying out of all. His place is already above every principality and power and dominion and every name named, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come. He has put all things under His feet. Here it is the One then who has in His own hand the fulness of blessing for us, and this accomplishment already with regard to Him must have its present bearing upon our condition also, even while we are here in the world. God has given Him, in fact, to be Head over all things to the assembly which is His body, -Head over all things, which is that inheritance itself of which Paul has been speaking. He is Head in the full power of such a place to the assembly. All that is implied by the place He has, implies the blessing which is to be to the Church, united as it is to Him now in the nearest way that could be attained -His body; the apostle does not hesitate to add "the fulness of Him who filleth all in all." What things to bring together! Here is One who is possessor of divine fulness; no other could fill all in all, and yet the body is His fulness. He is not complete without it. In God’s thought and purpose, Christ would be incomplete if His body had not its place too; how near and wonderful a place, -"His body," filled with His love, energized with His mind, working out His thoughts as our bodies work out the thoughts and purposes of our minds! It is in resurrection, of course, that He becomes this Head. It is a human Head, blessed be God, though He be much more than human. That is the fitting Head to this human Body. Thus, the Church could have no existence until after He had risen from the dead. Search throughout the Old Testament, you will find nowhere the first hint, even, of any company of people as the body of Christ. You will find saints put under Him for blessing, you will find His rule over man, but such a relationship is to be found nowhere, such a relationship could not, in fact, exist until Christ as Man had risen from the dead and become, therefore, the fitting Head for such a body. Then the body itself must be brought into being, and thus the descent of the Spirit follows the ascent of Christ to the throne of God.
2. The apostle carries us back now to what, alas, was our previous fellowship. We have been called to the fellowship of Christ, but how good for us to look back and see what He has called us out of. "And you," he says, "hath He quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins." This is the first time in the epistles that we find such a statement with regard to man’s condition. The epistle to the Romans speaks of our being under death as the penalty upon our sins. It speaks of our being dead to sin as the effect of the new place of identification with Christ in His death, which God has given us; but now there is something more than this. It is man himself who is dead. That state, impracticable of help to any except God, is his. There is no possibility of self-help. There is no possibility of working out of that condition. No work is conceivable in such a state. This death is Godward. There is not anything which for Him constitutes life at all. He says that this is not a condition of irresponsibility, however, but the reverse. It is "in trespasses and sins" that men are dead; active enough, fully active in this character in which the epistle to the Romans has spoken of them, but dead as to the hopelessness of it, as to the total absence of all response to God which it implies. Activity there is enough, "in which ye once walked," he says, "according to the course of this world, according to the ruler of the power," or authority, "of the air, the spirit which now worketh in the sons of disobedience." This is what gives its character then to the course of this world, age, as it is literally, as we have seen; the whole period characterized by that which is away from God, and with the ruler over it who, as the ruler of the power of the air, is exhibited to us as having that complete control of the earth which the heavens have for fruitfulness or for disturbance. This ruler is the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience. They are marked out as the sons of disobedience, as that which gives him title to the power which he manifests over them. How complete is this apostasy, then, from the blessed place in which God created man to be at the beginning, the one with whom He had come down to walk as with a friend. Nor was there any who did not share this place. "Among whom we also," he adds, we Jews as well as you Gentiles, "all once had our conversation in the lusts of our flesh." We had our common fellowship, terrible fellowship indeed, "in the lusts of the flesh, fulfilling the wills of the flesh and of the mind;" that is, the grosser or the more refined and spirit part of our nature, both alike evil and away from God. Thus we were "children of wrath by nature even as the rest." The Jew is in no wise exempt, but, on the contrary, as being in this condition in spite of all the blessing and privilege which God had bestowed upon him, is only, if possible, in a greater depth of evil than the Gentile. Such is man’s condition, then.
3. "But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love wherewith He loved us even when we were dead in sins," -that is where God’s love lays hold upon us, not when there has been something right in us, not when we have begun to waken up and respond to the love which greets us from Him, but simply out of His love itself. "He has quickened us with Christ," and "by grace it is that we are saved," he adds in parenthesis. grace surely. He has given us life when in that condition. There is no condition possible between death and life, no life which could be true life except by His gift for those so fallen, so that here His love met us, doing the whole work from the beginning, quickening us, as he says, with Christ. He looks at it all as part of that same work which brought Christ up from the dead. As to the point of time, of course, we are individually quickened and brought up, but as to the character of the quickening, it is this from its being part of that redemptive work which is the fruit of His intervention for us. It is a life which, in fact, is the life of Him with whom we are quickened. It is a life which makes Him to be the "Firstborn" among human brethren. Christ is looked at here, of course, as the Representative of His people, not, therefore, in the title which belongs to Himself personally, but in that which He had earned by the work to which He stooped. Thus it is all part of the same work. We are with Him in character by virtue of this quickening. Our condition is changed into the total opposite of what it was, and not only is our condition changed, our position is changed. He has "raised us up together." Quickening and resurrection are different things. Quickening is communication of life. Resurrection is the bringing of the life into the place of the living. Christ’s resurrection has, in fact, given us this new place before God, as Romans has already taught us to say that we were justified by His resurrection. As His people, although justified now of course, when we become His people and not before, yet we look back to that resurrection of His which was the public sentence of God with regard to this. He has delivered us from every charge that could be made, from every question against us, by the resurrection of Christ. He has given us, therefore, a new and unassailable position in the One whom He has raised up. "He has raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ." Notice the difference. He does not say with Christ" now any more. He is thinking simply of the representative character of Him who is seated in the heavenly places for us. We are actually quickened, we are actually raised up, we belong no more to the dead, whether as to the condition of our souls or as to the company in which we are.* We are actually quickened and raised up, but we are not actually sitting down in the heavenlies. We are virtually and representatively sitting there in the One who is before God for us. Thus we reach, as has. been said before, the height of Christian position. The epistle to the Romans has involved this already, for "in Christ" means the same thing there as here, but it is here put in the fullest and strongest way, it is developed in such a way as to make it practically a new thing for us. We would not be entitled to infer such things except we had divine warrant for them, but here we have the warrant. God has made us to sit together in the heavenly places in Christ. Now comes the display of His glorious purpose as to this. It is "that He might show forth in the ages to come the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness towards us in Christ Jesus." We need not be surprised then that the place should be such a place of wonder! If God is going to show that which is indeed the fruit of Christ’s work and the display of the full purposes of His heart, it will be surely true that the fullest blessing possible is necessitated for this. God is acting, as it were, though only grace could say so, on His own account; but then with regard to us it is grace and nothing but grace. He adds that all the way through here: "For ye are saved by grace, through faith"; and as if that were not enough, he adds, "and this not of yourselves:" that is, as surely is meant here, the faith itself is not of us. It is not of us, but it is God’s gift. There is no principle of works, therefore, that any one may boast; nay, if you talk of works, we are His workmanship, and in such a way as He worked at the beginning in creation itself. We are His new creation, "His workmanship created in Christ Jesus." Here is what brings us, of course, into that scene of which the epistle to the Galatians has spoken to us. It is God’s work in us that has accomplished this, and "He has created us unto good works," such works "as He has afore prepared that we should walk in them." He has given us a nature which will be fruitful in us after the manner that He desires. He knows what He is doing and His purposes cannot fail of accomplishment. Thus, poorly (if we look at ourselves,) as we may rightly think of ourselves, the glory to come will display the full accomplishment of all that He has had in His heart to do; and the brethren of Christ will be such as even in this way He will not be ashamed to call His brethren.
{*It will be noticed that "together" suggests the union of Jew and Gentile, as later on in ver. 16, they are spoken of as reconciled "in one body" by the cross. Thus we not only are quickened and raised individually, but by the very fact that all believers are so, we have a common life and position, into which the previous distinction of Jew and Gentile cannot enter. -S.R.}
F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On vv3, 5, 7, 11, 14, 18, 19
Ephesians
‘ALL SPIRITUAL BLESSINGS’
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Eph 1:3
It is very characteristic of Paul’s impetuous fervour and exuberant faith that he begins this letter with a doxology, and plunges at once into the very heart of his theme. Colder natures reach such heights by slow degrees. He gains them at a bound, or rather, he dwells there always. Put a pen into his hand, and it is like tapping a blast furnace; and out rushes a fiery stream at white heat. But there is a great deal more than fervour in the words. In the rush of his thoughts there is depth and method. We come slowly after, and try by analysing and meditation to recover some of the fervour and the fire of such utterances as this.
Notice that buoyant, joyous, emphatic reiteration: ‘Blessed,’ ‘blest,’ ‘blessings.’ That is more than the fascination exercised over a man’s mind by a word; it covers very deep thoughts and goes very far into the centre of the Christian life. God blesses us by gifts; we bless Him by words. The aim of His act of blessing is to evoke in our hearts the love that praises. We receive first, and then, moved by His mercies, we give. Our highest response to His most precious gifts is that we shall ‘take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord,’ and in the depth of thankful and recipient hearts shall say, ‘Blessed be God who hath blessed us.’
Now I think that I shall best bring out the deep meaning of these words if I simply follow them as they lie before us. I do not wish to say anything about our echo in blessing God. I wish to speak about the original sweet sound, His blessing to us.
I. And I note, first of all, the character and the extent of these blessings which are the constituents of the Christian life.
‘All spiritual blessings,’ says the Apostle. Now, I am not going to weary you with mere exegetical remarks, but I do want to lay stress upon this, that, when the Apostle speaks about ‘spiritual blessings,’ he does not merely use that word ‘spiritual’ as defining the region in us in which the blessings are given, though that is also implied; but rather as pointing to the medium by which they are conferred. That is to say, he calls them ‘spiritual,’ not because they are, unlike material and outward blessings, gifts for the inner man, the true self, but because they are imparted to the waiting spirit by that Divine Spirit who communicates to men all the most precious things of God. They are ‘spiritual’ because the Holy Spirit is the medium of communication by which they reach men’s spirits.
And I may just pause for one moment-and it shall only be for a moment-to point out to you how in-woven into the very texture of the writer’s thoughts, and all the more emphatic because quite incidental, and needing to be looked for to be found, is here the evidence of his believing that the name of God was God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. For it is the Father who is the Giver, the Son who is the Reservoir, the Spirit who is the Communicator, of these spiritual gifts. And I do not think that any man could have written these words of my text, the main purpose of which is altogether different to setting forth the mystery of the divine nature, unless he had believed in God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
But, apart altogether from that, let me remind you in one sentence of how the gifts which thus come to men by that Divine Spirit derive their characteristic quality from their very medium of communication. There are many other blessings for which we have to say, ‘Blessed be God’; for all the gifts that come from ‘the Father of Lights’ are light, and everything that the Fountain of sweetness bestows upon mankind is sweet, but earthly blessings are but the shadow of blessing. They remain without us, and they pass. And if they were all for which we had to praise God, our praises had need to be often checked by sobs and tears, and often very doubtful and questioning. If there were none other but such, and if this poor life were all, then I do not think it would be true that it is
‘better to have loved and lost,
Than never to have loved at all.’
It is but a quavering voice of praise, with many a sob between, that goes up to bless God for anything but spiritual blessings. Though it is true that all which comes from the Father of Lights is light, the sorrows and troubles that He sends have the light terribly muffled in darkness, and it needs strong faith and insight to pierce through the cloud to see the gleam of anything bright beneath. But when we turn to this other region, and think of what comes to every poor, tremulous, human heart, that likes to take it through that Divine Spirit-the forgiveness of sins, the rectification of errors, the purification of lusts and passions, the gleams of hope on the future, and the access with confidence into the standing and place of children; oh, then surely we can say, ‘Blessed be God for spiritual blessings.’
But if the word which defines may thus seem to limit, the other word which accompanies it sweeps away every limit; for it calls upon us to bless God for all spiritual blessings. That is to say, there is no gap in His gift. It is rounded and complete and perfect. Whatever a man’s needs may require, whatever his hopes can dream, whatever his wishes can stretch out towards, it is all here, compacted and complete. The spiritual gifts are encyclopaediacal and all-sufficient. They are not segments, but completed circles. When God gives He gives amply.
II. So much, then, for the first point; now, in the second place, note the one divine act by which all these blessings have been bestowed.
‘Blessed be God who has given’; or, still more definitely, pointing to some one specific moment and deed in which the benefaction was completed, ‘Blessed be God who gave.’
When? Well, ideally in the depths of His own eternal mind the gift was complete or ever the recipients were created to receive it, and historically the gift was complete in the act of redemption when He spared not His Own Son, but gave Him up unto the death for us all. A man may destine an estate for the benefit of some community which for generations long may continue to enjoy its benefits, but the gift is complete when he signs the deed that makes it over. Humphrey Chetham gave the boys in his school to-day their education when, centuries ago, he assigned his property to that beneficent purpose. So, away back in the mists of Eternity the gift was completed, and the signature was put to the deed when Jesus Christ was born, and the seal was added when Jesus Christ died. ‘Blessed be God who hath given.’
So, then, we may not only draw the conclusion which the Apostle drew, ‘how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?’ but we can draw an even grander one, ‘Has He not with Him also freely given us all things?’ And we possess them all to-day if our hearts are resting on Jesus Christ. The limit of the gift is only in ourselves. All has been given, but the question remains how much has been taken.
Oh, Christian men and women, there is nothing that we require more than to have what we have, to possess what is ours, to make our own what has been bestowed. You sometimes hear of some beggar, or private soldier, or farm labourer, who has come all at once into an estate that was his, years before he knew anything about it. There is such a boundless wealth belonging by right, and by the Giver’s gift, to every Christian soul; and yet, here are we, many of us, like the paupers who sometimes turn up in workhouses, all in rags, and with deposit-receipts for L200 or L300 stitched into the rags, that they get no good out of. Here are we, with all that wealth, paupers still. Be sure that you have what you have. Do you remember the exhortation to a valiant effort in one of the stories in the Old Testament-’Know ye that Ramoth-gilead is ours, and we take it not?’ And that is exactly what is true about hosts of professing Christians who have not, in any real sense, the possession of what God has given them. It is well to ask, for our desires are the measures of our capacities. It is well to ask, but we very often ask when what is wanted is not that we should get more, but that we should utilise what we have. And we make mistakes therein, as if God needed to be besought to give, when all the while it is we who need to be stirred up to grasp and keep the things that are freely given to us of God.
III. In the next place, notice the one place where all these blessings are kept.
‘Blessed be God who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places.’ ‘In heavenly places.’ Now that does not merely define the region of origin, the locality where they originated or whence they come. It does do that, but it does a great deal more. It does not merely tell us, as we often are disposed to think that it does, that ‘every good and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down’-though that is perfectly true, but it means much rather that in order to get the gift we must go up. They are in the heavenly places, and they cannot live anywhere else. They have been sticking shrubs in tubs outside our public buildings this last week. How long will they keep their leaves and their freshness? How soon will they need to be shifted and taken back again to the sweeter air, where they can flourish? God’s spiritual gifts cannot grow in smoke and dirt and a polluted atmosphere. And if a professing Christian man lives his life on the low levels he will have very few of the heavenly gifts coming down to him there. And that is the reason-the reason above all others-why, with such a large provision made for all possible necessities and longings of all sorts, people who call themselves Christians go up and down the world feeble and poor, and with little enjoyment of their religion, and having verified scarcely anything of the great promises which God has given them.
Brother, according to the old word with which the Mass used to begin, ‘Sursum corda’-up with your hearts! The blessings are in the heavens, and if we want them we must go where they are. It is not enough to drink sparing draughts from the stream as it flows through the plain. Travel up to the headwaters, where the great pure fountain is, that gushes out abundant and inexhaustible. The gifts are heavenly, and there they abide, and thither we must mount if we would possess them.
Now that this understanding of the words is correct I think is clearly shown by a verse in the next chapter, where we find the very same phrase employed. In this connection the Apostle says that ‘God hath raised us up together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.’ That is to say, the true ideal of the Christian life is that, even here and now, it is a life of such intimate union and incorporation with Jesus Christ as that where He is we are, and that even whilst we tabernacle upon earth and move about amongst its illusions and changing scenes, in the depth of our true being we may be fixed, and sit at rest with Christ where He is.
Do not dismiss that as mere pulpit rhetoric. Do not say that it is mystical and incomprehensible, and cannot be reduced into practice amidst the distractions of daily life. Brethren, it is not so! Jesus Christ Himself said about Himself that He came down from heaven, and that though He did, even whilst He wore the likeness of the flesh, and was one of us, He was ‘the Son of Man which is in Heaven,’ when He lay in the manger, when He worked at the carpenter’s bench in Nazareth, when He walked with weary feet those blessed acres, when He hung, for our advantage, on the bitter Cross. And that was no incommunicable property of His mysterious nature, but it was the typical example of what it is possible for manhood to be. And you and I, if we are to possess in any measure corresponding with the gift of Christ the spiritual blessing which God bestows, must have our lives ‘hid with Christ in God,’ and sit together with Him in the heavenly places.
IV. Lastly, note the one Person in whom all spiritual blessings are enshrined.
‘In the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.’ You cannot separate between Him and His gifts, neither in the way of getting Him without them, nor in the way of getting them without Him. They are Himself, and in the deepest analysis all spiritual blessings are reducible to one-viz. that the Spirit of Jesus Christ Himself shall dwell with us.
Now, that union by which it is possible for poor, empty, sinful creatures to be filled with His fulness, animated with His life, strengthened with His omnipotence, and sanctified by His indwelling-that union is the very kernel of this Epistle to the Ephesians.
I dare say I have often drawn your attention to the singular emphasis and repetition with which that phrase ‘in Christ’ occurs throughout the letter. Just take the two or three instances of it that I gather as I speak. In this first chapter we read, ‘the faithful in Jesus Christ.’ Then comes our text, ‘blessings in heavenly places in Christ.’ Then, in the very next verse, we read, ‘chosen us in Him.’ Then, a verse or two after, we have ‘accepted in the Beloved,’ which is immediately followed by, ‘in whom we have redemption through His blood.’ Then, again, ‘that He might gather together in one all things in Christ, in whom also we have obtained the inheritance.’ I need not make other quotations, but throughout the letter every blessing that can gladden or sanctify the human spirit is regarded by the Apostle as being stored and shrined in Jesus Christ: inseparable from Him, and therefore to be found by us only in union with Him.
And that is the point of all which I want to say-viz. that, inasmuch as all spiritual blessings that a soul can need are hived in Him in whom is all sweetness, the way, and the only way, to get them is that we, too, should pass into Him and dwell in Jesus Christ. It is His own teaching: ‘I am the Vine, ye are the branches. Abide in Me. Separate from Me ye can do nothing,’ and get nothing, and are nothing.
Oh, brethren! it is well that all our treasures should be in one place. It is better that they should all be in One Person. And if only we will lay our poor emptiness by the side of His fulness there will pass over from that infinite abundance and sufficiency everything that we can require.
We abide in Him by faith, by meditation, by love, by submission, by practical obedience, and, if we are wise, the effort of our lives will be to keep close to that Lord. As long as we keep touch with Him we have all and abound. Break the connection by wandering away, in thought and desire, by indulgence in sin, by letting earthly passions surge in and separate us from Him-break the connection by rebellion, by making ourselves our own ends and lords, and it is like switching off the electricity. Everything falls dead. You cannot have Christ’s blessing unless you take Christ.
And so, dear brethren, ‘abide in Me and I in you.’ There is nothing else that will make us blessed; there is nothing else that will meet all the circumference of our necessities; there is nothing else that will quiet our hearts, will sanctify our understandings. Christ is yours if ‘ye are Christ’s.’ ‘Of His fulness have all we received,’ for it all became ours when we became His, and Christian growth on earth and heaven is but the unfolding of the folded graces that are contained in Him. We possess the whole Christ, but eternity is needed to disclose all the unsearchable riches of our inheritance in Him.
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv3, 5, 7, 9, 10, 13 in heavenly places
in heavenly places
Literally, the heavenlies. The same Greek word is used in Joh 3:12 where "things" is added. In both places the word signifies that which is heavenly in contradistinction to that which is earthy. In Ephesians "places" is especially misleading. "The heavenlies" may be defined as the sphere of the believer’s spiritual experience as identified with Christ in nature. 2Pe 1:4, life,; Col 3:4; 1Jn 5:12, relationships; Joh 20:17; Heb 2:11 service,; Joh 17:18; Mat 28:20, suffering; Php 1:29; Php 3:10; Col 1:24 inheritance Rom 8:16; Rom 8:17 and future glory in the kingdom; Rom 8:18-21; 1Pe 2:9; Rev 1:6; Rev 5:10. The believer is a heavenly man, and a stranger and pilgrim on the earth.; Heb 3:1; 1Pe 2:11.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv3, 6, 11 Doxology to God for the blessings of His love…
Doxology to God for the blessings of His love and grace:
v. 3. Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ;
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v. 4. according as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love;
v. 5. having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of His will,
v. 6. to the praise of the glory of His grace.
Few passages in the Bible surpass these verses in lofty and sustained solemnity. The apostle’s words are arrayed in stately grandeur: Blessed the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavens in Christ. That is the attitude of the believers at all times, that God is to be praised, that He is worthy of all praise and honor for the manifold manifestations of His redeeming love in Jesus Christ. For it is of God as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ that we and all believers think. See Rom 15:6; 2Co 1:3; 1Pe 1:3. Through Jesus Christ, the God-man and Redeemer of mankind, God has entered into the relation of Father to us and to all believers: in Jesus, who was born from eternity out of the essence of the Father, who Himself is therefore true God, we have free access to the heart of the Father. We praise and bless God because He has blessed us, His blessings, however, not consisting in words of good, but in deeds of grace, not in a mere pious wish, but in a transmission of heavenly benefits. With every spiritual blessing God has remembered us, with blessing that agrees in kind with the Spirit of God, that is divine and heavenly. The spiritual blessings of the Christians are in the heavens, have their origin in heaven, as the dwelling-place of God. The blessings of the higher, of the perfect, of the future world are ours in Christ; Christ, as the Mediator between God and the lost world, has brought us the benefits and gifts which the Father intended for us in Him, through Him, on His account, by reason of His perfect merit. "In Him lay the cause that God blessed us with every spiritual blessing, since His act of redemption is the meritorious cause of this divine bestowal of blessing. " (Meyer.)
Of the wonderful blessings of God in Christ Jesus the apostle now enumerates those of the eternal election of grace: Even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world. God chose us, He picked us out, He selected us, He set us aside for Himself; it was a free act on His part. It was, however, not an act of God’s absolute power, but He chose us in Christ. The spiritual blessings have been appropriated to us on the basis of Christ’s work, but the election took place before the foundation of the world. It was an act which was done before the beginning of time, before the world was called into existence. "Before we were in existence, even before the foundation of the world was laid, God thought of us in grace; in His thoughts, in His counsel and determination He took us out of the lost and condemned generation of men (out of the total mass of men for whom the redemption of Christ was made); He firmly decided that we should be His own forever and live with Him in eternity. " For the object of his choosing was: That we should be holy and without reproach before Him in love. By virtue of our relation to God, into which we have entered in consequence of His call, we should he found in the state of sanctification before Him, pure and blameless, set aside from all impurity. Holiness, moral purity, and love are the fundamental characteristics of the Christian life. That is the interest which God has in us, that is the object for which He set us apart.
This aim of God includes still more: By determining us in advance for sonship through Jesus Christ toward Himself. The counsel and determination of God existed before the persons were created that were to become the recipients of His bounty. The counsel of election includes the predetermination to the relation of children to God by adoption, Rom 8:15-16. This sonship was actually brought about by Jesus Christ, whose work of atonement changed us from children of wrath to children of grace and mercy. This is our new relation to God, by virtue of which we have something of the manner, of the mind of the heavenly Father in ourselves, God’s holiness and love being reflected in our lives. And God’s only motive in this predetermination unto the sonship was: According to the good pleasure of His will. It was a resolution of God’s gracious will. "God’s fore-ordination of us unto adoption is not due to any desert in us or anything outside God Himself, but is an act of His own pure goodness, originating only and wholly in the freedom of His own thoughts and loving counsel. " And its final end is: To the praise of the glory of His grace. See vv. 12 and 14. In the blessedness of His elect the blessedness of God is enhanced. As His wonderful design is manifested to the astonished eyes of the Christians, they recognize His grace with grateful adoration, and they laud and magnify His name because of this revelation of His grace.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19, 22 Connecting Statement:
Connecting Statement:
Paul opens his letter by talking about the believers' position and their safety before God.
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General Information:
In this book, unless otherwise stated, the words "us" and "we" refer to Paul, the believers in Ephesus, as well as all believers. (See: Inclusive "We")
May the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ be praised
This can be stated in an active form. AT: "Let us praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ" (See: Active or Passive)
who has blessed us
"for God has blessed us"
every spiritual blessing
"every blessing coming from the Spirit of God"
in the heavenly places
"in the supernatural world." The word "heavenly" refers to the place where God is.
in Christ
Possible meanings 1) the phrase "in Christ" refers to what Christ has done. AT: "through Christ" or "through what Christ has done" or 2) "in Christ" is a metaphor referring to our close relationship with Christ. AT: "by uniting us with Christ" or "because we are united with Christ" (See: Metaphor)
holy and blameless
Paul uses two similar words to emphasize moral goodness. (See: Doublet)
translationWords
lord
Jesus
praise
bless
spirit
heaven
in Christ
create
chosen one
believe
holy
blameless
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22, 23 1:3–3:21 Ephesians is divided into two sections: Chs 1–3…
1:3–3:21 Ephesians is divided into two sections: Chs 1–3 praise God for his amazing grace, and chs 4–6 instruct believers on how to live in grateful response.
1:3-14 Paul praises God for all the spiritual blessings he has graciously provided through Jesus Christ, for Gentiles as well as for Jews. • This section is a single, complex sentence in Greek—one of the longest in Paul’s letters, with long sentences being typical of Paul’s writing (also in 1:15-23; 2:1-7, 14-16; 3:1-12, 14-19; Col 1:3-29; 2:1-3, 8-15). The interwoven nature of these sentences reflects the interconnectedness of their ideas.
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1:3 Paul describes every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms in 1:4-8, 13-14. Paul’s focus is not on physical blessings, but on what God has done through Christ to bring people into a saving relationship with himself.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.