CHAP. 3. — THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE MYSTERY, OR THE CALLING OUT AND THE GOING IN.
ONE might have thought that nothing could be added to the revelation given in the first two chapters, the one declaring the counsels of God and the other their divine effectuation. Indeed it would seem that the apostle in chapter 3. I was about to begin exhorting the saints, as in chapter 4:1, but breaks off to introduce the subject of his ministry, or the administration of the grace of God of which he was the divinely appointed servant. For in the wisdom of God the glory of the new creation consists not in bringing matter out of non-existence, but in bringing out of what was morally and spiritually antagonistic to Himself that which is perfectly conformed to Himself in nature and character. The creature as such indeed already existed, but, in man, fallen and apostate.
His word, ever that by which He works in life and power, is here addressed to that in which moral death and darkness is realized and centered, namely, to the heart and conscience. For this reason Paul was a prisoner of Jesus Christ for the nations. He had carried the Word of God directly to the Gentiles, as, equally with the Jew, needing and brought under the eye of the Father for blessing (ver. 14), entirely apart from the special place and privilege of the Jew, and the promises made to the fathers. This exposed him to the implacable hatred of the Jew, and even to suspicion from those of the circumcision who believed; and at length occasioned the murderous assault upon him by the Jews in the temple, and his imprisonment in Rome as a malefactor. For this reason too he prayed that where once death and darkness reigned alike in Jew and Gentile, there now by His Spirit Christ might dwell through faith (vers. 4-16).
But to this end the administration of the grace of God had been given to him, especially towards the Gentiles; for the mystery, hitherto unknown to the sons of men, was this, that the nations should be joint-heirs and a joint body and joint partakers of His promise in Christ by the gospel. It is no longer that in which the Jew had any prior right or special place. By the grace of God they needed to be called out of all that was peculiar to Jehovah’s people; even as the Gentile by the same grace was brought out of his distance. It was an Exodus for both alike, which needed faith, and left behind entirely and forever both Jewish privilege and Gentile disabilities.
The heirship was a joint one, in which Christ’s rights alone availed; the body likewise was not a national one, nor formed by ordinance. No prior link with God gave precedence in it, or right to enter it. All there were brought in equally by the grace of God and set in it without preference.
The promise also was “in Christ”; not that made to Abraham, that he should be heir of the world; in which indeed the saints share as his spiritual seed (Rom. 4:13-1813For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. 14For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect: 15Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression. 16Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all, 17(As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were. 18Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be. (Romans 4:13‑18)). Nor was it the promise confirmed by covenant to the one seed of Abraham, that is Christ. Though in this too the saints as “of Christ” participate, and are thus Abraham’s seed, heirs according to promise (Gal. 3:2929And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. (Galatians 3:29)). The promise in Christ relates to far higher and eternal things, an inheritance according to the counsel of His own will, embracing the heavens and the earth, the whole domain of the universe. In it all who believe are joint-partakers, equally without right in themselves, and equally by grace.
The unsearchable riches of Christ were thus announced among the nations, as that in which by faith they were individually and corporately possessors, and that jointly in a common, if an infinite sphere, and upon a common principle.
This was the mystery hidden throughout the ages in God, but which was now administered among men on earth in order that now, to the principalities and authorities in the heavenlies, might be made known through the assembly the all-various wisdom of God.
It is true we are not ourselves actually brought in yet to possess the inheritance; but we are already in Christ; and this fully suffices to display to the heavenly intelligences that wisdom which, in passing by angels, has taken up the lowest intelligent creature, sunken, moreover, in the lowest depths of ignorance and hatred Of God, to manifest most gloriously His highest moral attributes, and this according to His purpose. Nor this only, but to set them in the highest place and the nearest relationships of life with Himself, after a pattern and character to be found only in the Person of Christ Jesus our Lord. But as Israel, called out of Egypt and not yet come to the land, were nevertheless permitted to approach to the tabernacle of Jehovah, so, in Christ Jesus, we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of Him. All is characterized for us by the glorious place and ineffable acceptability of the blessed Lord Himself. We draw near to the Father without doubt or difficulty. None can say us nay; and our welcome is assured. The simplicity of our Leviticus flows from the intimacy of our relationship and place in Christ.
The apostle speaks of what is the privilege and portion of every believer, and associates himself with them in it; but, when the question is of the practical results down here of this heavenly place, he refers only to his own personal path, but seeks to encourage them as sympathizing with him in it. For the principle of the Christian path is unalterable, however circumstances may vary. It is one of tribulation. The apostle was experiencing this; and at any time the assembly generally may be called upon to do so. He was suffering, moreover, particularly, because of insisting on the equality for the Gentiles of the blessing and privilege in Christ, as that which was prior to and beyond all worldly dispensation or promise. It was their glory; and ever calls out the enmity and opposition especially of the religious world. Those who draw near in Christ must expect tribulations of this kind in the world. It is the true character of the Christian journey onward to the inheritance.
Yet, when realizing our nearness to the Father, we are brought already in spirit to the end of our sojourn; for the riches of the Father’s glory are for faith fully displayed in the glorified Christ. In Him is seen the full setting forth of the Man of the Father’s good pleasure and of God’s purpose.
The position of the apostle, as he bows his knees, not now to the God, as in chapter 1:17, but to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, has a moral similarity to that of Moses in Deuteronomy 34., yet how great the contrast! The vast extent of the promise in Christ unrolls before his eyes. It is not an earthly scene that transports his soul, nor does the solemn barrier of death, the judgment of God on man in the flesh, prohibit his entering in. On the contrary, strengthened by His (God’s) Spirit in the inner man, Christ dwells in the heart by faith. The Christ in all the glory in which the Father has set Him reigns equally supreme in the heart that by faith apprehends the Father’s counsels concerning Him. He dwells there, the heart being thus rooted and grounded in love, taking in therefore to the full the objects of Christ’s love, and looking forth in anticipation upon the illimitable scene of glory which that love, which surpasses knowledge, designs to bestow upon its objects. Thus are we filled even to all the fullness of God; for He has no other, no higher, no fuller thought than to glorify Christ, whether personally at the right hand or in His saints.
But of all the fullness of God, the riches of His glory is realized in the glory of Christ, which His love participates with all His saints, and faith, apprehending this, is filled to the fullness of God; it is equally true that according to the power that works in us there is also glory to God in the assembly in Christ Jesus unto all generations of the ages of ages. It is the perfect, eternal and divine response of love between God and man in the Person of His own Son. And into this the assembly is brought, to be filled on the one hand to all the fullness of God, and on the other to be the vessel and perfect mouthpiece by the Spirit of the praises of Christ.
From this, death does not separate us, as a thing yet to be encountered. For Moses it was an inseparable bar to entering the land; but the Christ in glory who was raised from among the dead dwelling in our heart by faith, we are filled to the fullness of God; and there is glory to God in the assembly even now and forever.
As yet, however, all is to the view of faith, and according to the power that worketh in us, not according to the power of the things around us in the body. As in it in spirit but not in body we see all from the top of a heavenly Pisgah; as in the Spirit, from the “top of the rocks” (Num. 23:1414And he brought him into the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah, and built seven altars, and offered a bullock and a ram on every altar. (Numbers 23:14)), where the people, stiff-necked and disobedient, from the time Moses knew them hitherto, are viewed as blessed without iniquity or perverseness. It is the crowning scene of our new-creation Deuteronomy, and completes its Pentateuch.
As a type it is remarkable that Moses at the point of death, and Balaam speaking the word which Jehovah put into his mouth, both take their view from the top of Pisgah, and see the thoughts of God about the people of His choice. Thus also the apostle, and so we, according to the power that works in us, of Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or think.