CHAP. 1. — THE COUNSELS OF GOD.
IN considering this epistle it is well to observe that the first fourteen verses of chapter 1. set before us the counsels of God regarding the saints; then, after a prayer for their spiritual knowledge of Christ, the apostle states the quickening and creative work of God for the effectuating of these counsels. This is continued in chapter 2:10. The remainder of chapter 2. speaks of the same accomplishment of counsel, but now viewed as that which is done by Christ. The Spirit’s especial part, as the power of access to the Father, and of building the saints together for a habitation of God, concludes the passage. It is the Genesis of the new creation.
Chapter 3. opens with Paul’s declaration of his share in the work, inasmuch as an adminiration had been committed to him of the mystery of Christ. He was commissioned to call out the nations to participate in this joint heirship and body. As Moses led the exodus of Israel from Egypt, so the apostle announces his divine credentials and mission for a heavenly exodus, according to God’s eternal purpose (vers. 1-11).
However, as yet it is but the administration of the mystery revealed to the apostle, and made known by him to us. We await the day of display; nevertheless we already have boldness and access to God, not merely priestly, as Aaron’s was, but according to the purpose of the ages, and in Christ Jesus our Lord (ver. 12). This is our Leviticus.
But if we draw near in such intimacy and grace, it has its answer in tribulation in the world (ver. 13). Such is the invariable and necessary history of Christian walk, and forms the new-creation book of Numbers.
The rest of chapter 3. gives the apostle’s survey, like Moses’ from the top of Pisgah, of the whole heavenly glory and inheritance, as seen by the heart of Christ for all His saints, to be realized for the glory of God. It is our Deuteronomy, and completes the new-creation Pentateuch.
In chapter 4:1-16 we have our “Joshua,” and see the Captain of the Lord’s host in the glory of His victory. But not alone is Christ personally supreme; the body is part of Himself, and derives all absolutely from Him; being, moreover, one with Him, in the unity of association, as His bride (vers. 23-33).
Finally, in chapter 6:10-19 the responsibility is insisted on of putting on the panoply of God, in order to withstand the spiritual power of wickedness in the heavenlies. This corresponds with Israel’s conflict with the Canaanites, and in the history of the Church has often found a counterpart in “Judges.”
Let us now return to look at chapter 1. more minutely. The apostle addresses the saints and faithful in Christ Jesus in his customary way, wishing them grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, but is immediately rapt by the spirit of worship into heavenly scenes and spiritual and eternal things. As in inditing 2 Corinthians and Colossians, he is filled, like Peter in his first epistle, with the sense of the preciousness of our Lord Jesus Christ to His God and Father. That we should know Him as our Father is blessed indeed, but it is incomparably so to apprehend in any measure of communion what His own Son is to Him. Nor is this too high and glorious for us to share, but on the contrary is necessary to the proper understanding of this epistle; for it is “in Him” we are blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies.
As before remarked, the subject here is the new creation, and, in contrast with the six days’ work, it begins with the man of the eternal counsel. In the first creation the man came last, the heavens and the earth being first created and formed. But in the new creation the man is first formed, while the proper scene of his existence, the new heavens and the new earth, have afterward to be introduced.
So here the character of the man takes precedence of all else in the mind of the Spirit. It is that of Christ Himself, and of us also as chosen in Him before the world’s foundation, that we should not merely exist as Adam did, by virtue of creative power, but be holy and blameless before Him in love. This is His own personal perfection of manhood which made the sacrifice of Himself ineffably acceptable (Heb. 9:1414How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? (Hebrews 9:14)) as well as efficacious (1 Pet. 1:1010Of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you: (1 Peter 1:10)), a character foreknown before the foundation of the world; and as we share the character (cf. Col. 1:2222In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight: (Colossians 1:22); Jude 2424Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, (Jude 24); Eph. 5:2727That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. (Ephesians 5:27)), so are we bore the Father in His love of complacency in it. He sees in manhood before Him that which answers perfectly to Himself in moral character and nature, and is according to the standard set up in His beloved Son become man.
The man’s relationship to Himself now follows as of all importance. This also was not simply that of a creature with the Creator, though we ever remain creatures, but He marked us out beforehand for adoption through Jesus Christ to Himself. It was not formed, nor could it be, by creation, but eternally sonship existed in the Son, through whom we are brought into it. Only in Him could the Father see what was according to the good pleasure of His will; and in Him, the Beloved, has He taken us into favor.
A third subject, for the man is greater than his property, is now presented to us, namely, the inheritance. The grace that bestows it is the same that forgives us our offenses — a redemption through His blood which takes its character from the Beloved, in whom we have it. Redemption therefore forms the link of the Heir with the inheritance. The mystery of the Father’s will, according to His good pleasure, was to head up all things in the Christ through redemption. The Heir was not to possess only an unfallen world, and certainly not a sinful and corrupt one, nor in His own personal title as Creator and Son merely, but all things, the things in the heavens and the things upon the earth, were to be gathered under His headship through redemption; so that we also might obtain an inheritance in Him, as wide as the universe, established abidingly in blessing. Infernal beings (Phil. 2:1010That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; (Philippians 2:10)) are not in question here.
Then shall we be to the praise of His glory, whether Jewish or Gentile believers, even as it is to the praise of the glory of His grace that He has marked us out for adoption. Redemption (here forgiveness) is according to the riches of His grace, because it is already accomplished and for our hearts to value, whereas sonship and the inheritance are particularly in view of the day of display yet future, when all shall redound to His praise, though sonship is also of grace as a present fact, He having already taken us into favor in the Beloved.
To complete the statement of these counsels of grace and glory, the Holy Spirit of promise is declared to be the sealing of the person and the earnest of the inheritance; thus connecting us already in divine power with the Man and His possession, as existing in the thoughts of God, though we await the moment of its redemption to enjoy that realm of glory which already is acquired.
All that relates to this new-creation Man is fully realized on our behalf now in the blessed person of our Lord Jesus Christ; and the apostle therefore prays that his God, the Father of glory, would so give us to know Him, that we might understand the hope in which God has called us. Of His inheritance, too, though not yet entered on, our souls may joyfully anticipate the riches of the glory, for in us “He will possess it.
But more, the needed power to perform His purpose is in exercise towards us in surpassing greatness, so that it is no longer a question of counsel merely but of effectuation. But this power has already been exerted in the Christ, so as to include and ensure the perfected results according to purpose in the case of every one who believes. For He has raised Christ from among the dead; and He set Him at His right hand in the heavenlies, supreme in the universe, both now and hereafter, putting all things under His feet. But in setting Him thus in headship over all things it is not without His body, the Assembly, which is the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
Here, then, opens a fresh subject, namely, the actual work of God in this new creation, as distinct from counsels merely, as well as from the inaugurating act in Christ, the great Exemplar and Head to the Assembly. Of this the following chapter treats.