FROM HEAVEN TO EARTH -AN OUTLINE OF THE EPHESIAN LETTER
Our heading tells us that Ephesians is in some ways the converse of Hebrews. The Hebrews Part 1 of our book were exhorted to run the race from earth to heaven. In Ephesians Part 2 of our book we are viewed as seated in heavenly places in Christ at the beginning, but standing on earth wearing the full armor of God at the end. However these are generalizations. Since God gives us His richest thoughts at the beginning, we must examine the opening of Ephesians carefully.
The letter to the Ephesians is one of the two generic or "parent" epistles of the Apostle Paul the other being Romans. By "parent" we do not mean the chronological order in which the Pauline letters were written, for such a statement would be incorrect. What we mean is that these two letters stand by themselves, like twin pillars, as exponents of fundamental truth, not having their origin, like so many of Paul's letters, in the need to correct error in doctrine or practice in the primitive Church. As an inlet to the study of Ephesians, then, a few brief words contrasting this letter with Romans might be helpful.
Ephesians and Romans—Some Contrasts
As a created intelligence man has a unique place in the universe. In the order of creation the angels, who are heavenly beings, were given a home in the heavens; man who is an earthly being, a home on earth. But in redemption and at the cross itself, man was provided with a home both on earth John 19:26-2726When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son! 27Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home. (John 19:26‑27) and in heaven Luke 23:4343And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise. (Luke 23:43). God had this in mind when Moses, under divine inspiration, penned the Genesis record of creation. This opens with the creation of the heavens and the earth and ends with the creation of man. For man was destined to fill both spheres, although Moses could not know this when he wrote his inspired account. It remained for Paul to complete the Word of God, the secret hidden from ages and generations, but now made manifest to us see Col. 1:25, 2625Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God; 26Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: (Colossians 1:25‑26). In Romans Paul takes up man on earth in Ephesians the heavenly man. Romans is the justified man on earth Ephesians the heavenly man chosen in Christ before there was a world. Romans considers the question of man's responsibility to God; Ephesians introduces us to the counsels of God in eternity before there was a responsible man. In Romans man and his world occupy center stage in Ephesians they largely disappear so God's thoughts and interests can dominate everything.
In Scripture man's relationship to God is expressed two ways man's responsibility to God, which is Romans, and the purpose of God for man which is Ephesians. Christianity properly begins when the questions raised in Romans are closed to God's satisfaction. In Romans man is alive in sin, in Ephesians dead toward God and needing a new creation. From this viewpoint justification, the great question in Romans, is never considered, for God does not justify His new creation "if any man be in Christ he is a new creature old things are passed away behold all things are become new" 2 Cor. 5:1717Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. (2 Corinthians 5:17). Because of these global considerations concerning man's relationship to God it is appropriate that neither of the two parent epistles is addressed to a Church. That would have reduced to too narrow a scope the subjects under consideration. The Apostle, instead, teaches his great foundation truths to "all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called saints" and "to the saints who are at Ephesus and to the faithful in Christ Jesus." The characteristic truth in each epistle met the need of the Christians at Rome and Ephesus respectively. The believers in Rome did not have direct apostolic teaching like those in Ephesus so the foundation truths of the gospel are the subject of the letter to the Romans. Ephesus, however, was a teaching center of the Apostle the crown of his ministry and the believers there were ready to receive the highest truth. So in his letter to the Ephesians Paul unfolds the mind of God in an unique way from the mountain tops, so to speak. He is not concerned with how the will of God brings us to heavenly places in Christ as he opens his letter. Indeed he omits all mention of the second coming of Christ in the Ephesian letter. He covers that subject adequately in his other epistles. Here Paul's grand subject is not the detail of how we will ultimately arrive in heavenly places but the will of God which has decreed that this is our destiny. More than anything else Ephesians is the epistle of the will of God.*1
The Opening of the Ephesian Letter—1:1, 2
The Ephesian letter opens with "Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God" in contrast to Romans "Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an Apostle." In Romans Paul stresses his service, for the gospel needs servants to preach it; in Ephesians he stresses his Apostleship by the will of God, for in this letter he is a heavenly man sent to the Gentiles by the will of God. Paul, (after Christ) is the pattern heavenly man, as we learn from his defense before Agrippa. At that time he quoted the Lord's own words to define the scope of his apostleship "delivering you from the people (that is from God's people, the Jews) "and from the Gentiles, unto whom NOW I SEND YOU." Acts 26:1717Delivering thee from the people, and from the Gentiles, unto whom now I send thee, (Acts 26:17). Since the world's population is made up of Jews and Gentiles, if a man is delivered from both he cannot be a man of this world. He is still a man, but a man after a new order a heavenly man. For the present, though, this heavenly man is not practically to reside in heaven. It is the home of his heart, the place from which he has received his commission to preach. But that commission, which Christ gave him, concerns the Gentiles only. This is the will of God for him. Paul, then, is an Apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God. He strikes the characteristic note in his letter at the beginning for the overriding thought in the Ephesian letter is always the will of God. Then the first verse closes with a reference to his readers "the saints who are at Ephesus and to the faithful in Christ Jesus." To these he gives a salutary message of grace and peace "from God our Father and (from) the Lord Jesus Christ." God was made known to us as our Father by the Lord Jesus Christ when He gave Mary Magdalene this message after His resurrection "go to My brethren and say unto them I ascend unto My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God" John 20:1717Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God. (John 20:17).
To summarize, we have been introduced to Paul, who is to unfold the counsels of God, men who receive blessing as a result of them, a message of grace to such from a God known to them as Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the center of the divine counsels. Ephesians is a divine communication of the union of God and Man in Christ. Christ was the Man of God's counsels in a past and distant eternity and we are in Him in the Man in whom God's purposes centered in past eternal ages. Our union with this Man is the inlet to the fullness of blessing which belongs to the Church. The subject of the Church is not yet introduced although this is the epistle of the Church. This is because the Holy Spirit would first bring each of us as individuals into peace rest and happiness in the knowledge of God's thoughts towards us. Only then does He proceed to the collective thing the Church.