When the children of Israel got beyond the fear and the sword of the destroying angel, and under the conduct of the cloud had reached the neighborhood of the Red Sea, they were commanded to stand still and see the salvation of God (Exod. 14). They did so, and that salvation displayed itself in vast and wondrous forms of grace and power which till then had been hidden. They had already known redemption by blood. The first-born had been already delivered, and the judgment of God was now left behind. It had spent itself, and they were safe. But the glory in the cloud, the rod of Moses, the angel that waited in the camp, all had now to disclose some rare and wondrous virtues which as yet, up to that moment, had not been told. The angel changed his place and came between the camp of Israel and the host of Egypt, to keep the one apart from the other all the night. The rod of Moses commanded the waters of the sea to stand up as a heap. The glory looked out from the cloud and troubled the Egyptian army. Strange, mysterious powers, new and surpassing revelations of grace! Israel is safe and quiet and triumphant, and has only to go forward and sing the song of victory and deliverance, of present service in the sanctuary, and of coming glories in the kingdom.
So in the epistle to the Ephesians, the sinner has already been rescued by the blood of Jesus. Sins are forgiven; and the saints, thus beyond judgment, are summoned to listen till the high calling of the Church in Christ Jesus under the exceeding riches of the grace of God, like the salvation of God at the Red Sea, discloses itself in their hearing. They have but to listen. If they talk of responsibility, this is it—to listen, to accept, to be happy and thankful, because all this is what it is, and the God of all grace is to them what He is. And the Apostle, who teaches them these rich and marvelous secrets, only prays for them, that as they listen, they may have hearts to understand.