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Choice exposition.
Excerpt- Hence there is no preface nor proof of what man’s state is. This is not necessary, nor is it the starting point of his teaching there. In Romans it is; and nothing can be more simple. But in Ephesians, instead of our being raised up from the pit of corruption, in which man lay buried, the very first thing the apostle does is to speak of God in heaven. It is God showering blessing upon man, and not man brought up to God. It is God shown in the ways of His grace and the thoughts of His heart before even there was a world at all, entirely apart from all questions of Jews or Gentiles. It is God forming a scheme of glory and blessedness for His own praise. God delights in the display of His goodness, and this for the purpose of blessing, and the very highest, fullest character of blessing. Hence you will find that it is not simply God as God acting towards man, but He has Christ before Him, and hence there is no limit to the blessing. He would have some channel of grace toward us to the full content of His own heart. Now there is no object that could draw out and sustain the delight of God, none that could be in itself an adequate object to look upon with complacency but one, even Christ. As for the angels, He charges them with folly, and yet were they holy. If He scanned lower than the angels, what is there but a world lost in sin? Thus there is but one capable of satisfying the heart and affections of God — Christ Himself.
Having therefore introduced this great truth — God blessing, and Christ the object before God, through whom God is going to bless according to all that is in His heart, now we find that He names Himself as a Blesser in a twofold way. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” These two titles are the key to the epistle. And I must be permitted to press strongly the importance of weighing words in Scripture. When we have to do with mankind, we must not make man an offender for a word. But God needs no excuses for His word. Whatever allowance we might make for the slips of one another, with Scripture the occasion can never arise. When we draw near and listen to Him, the only proper attitude is to bow and worship. And therefore in this epistle, which is so full an expression of His love, the apostle opens it thus, “Blessed be the God and Father” (vs. 3). He could not write to the Ephesians without breaking out into the praise and Worship of God. Elsewhere you will find him blessing God, but where he does so, as in 2 Corinthians 2:14, there were special circumstances that called it out. But not so here. At Corinth there was a blessed intervention of God’s grace, breaking down the proud hearts of those wayward disciples, making them ashamed of themselves. But in Ephesians it was apart from passing circumstances, save that he saw them in such a condition of soul that they were capable of going on with God, entering into His thoughts and counsels. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (vs. 3) was not because of some special mercy or comfort; but it flows from what He always is to us. For this very reason many saints may be unable to enter in. Some are apt to be particularly alive to, and touched by, sensible tokens from day to day, and now and then peculiar providential interventions of God. Perhaps they are in great trial, and God brings them a fresh blessing too out of it. But here the Ephesians were so simple and willing to go on with God that the apostle, instead of being detained by their state, could but speak in praise and thanksgiving. It is very blessed when there is such happy communion given in having to do with one another.
Table of Contents
1. Ephesians 1:1-3, Remarks on
2. Ephesians 1:4-14, Remarks on
3. Ephesians 1:13-14, Remarks on
4. Ephesians 1:15-23, Remarks on
5. Ephesians 2:1-3, Remarks on
6. Ephesians 2:4-10, Remarks on
7. Ephesians 2:11-22, Remarks on
8. Ephesians 3:1-13, Remarks on
9. Ephesians 3:14-21, Remarks on
10. Ephesians 4:1-6, Remarks on
11. Ephesians 4:7-11, Remarks on
12. Ephesians 4:11-13, Remarks on
13. Ephesians 4:12-16, Remarks on
14. Ephesians 4:17-27, Remarks on
15. Ephesians 4:28-30, Remarks on
16. Ephesians 4:31-32, Remarks on
17. Ephesians 5:1-7, Remarks on
18. Ephesians 5:8-21, Remarks on
19. Ephesians 5:22-24, Remarks on
20. Ephesians 5:25-33, Remarks on
21. Ephesians 6:1-9, Remarks on
22. Ephesians 6:10-12, Remarks on
23. Ephesians 6:13-17, Remarks on
24. Ephesians 6:18-24, Remarks on