We have already seen the twofold title in which God blesses His saints now; in both the form of the blessing being found only in Christ. Had God merely revealed Himself as the God of Abraham or Isaac for instance, He would not ensure a blessing beyond that promised to the fathers. Now He does. Instead of having merely the Jewish blessing before Him, He has Christ in His eye, whom He raised from the dead and set at His own right hand, where He never put David nor any one else. It is a place that belongs to Him in virtue of His personal glory and His suffering unto death. We may sit with Christ on His throne, but that is a very different thing from Christ’s sitting at God’s right hand. Now it is as the God of the Lord Jesus Christ that He blesses it is the full blessing that would be suitable to Christ Himself as the object of blessing. Grace puts us as common objects with Christ in order to be blessed by God who blesses after this manner and measure. Nor this only. He is the Father of the Lord Jesus, and as such also He blesses us. So that these two characters, the very highest possible in which to look at God, are those according to which we are blessed. The characters of God, both as God and as Father, as they deal with Christ, issue in a blessing, a commensurate blessing which He gives to us. Hence there is no limit. He has blessed us “with all spiritual blessings,” (vs. 3) and moreover too, as we saw, not on the earth, the comparatively lower part of the universe, but in the highest scene of God’s power, “in the heavenly places;” (vs. 20) and in order to crown and complete all, it is “in Christ;” secured in His person.
Verse 4 particularly belongs to the first of these characters in which God has revealed Himself, as verse 5 belongs rather to the second. “According as He hath chosen us in Him (that is, in Christ) before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love” (vs. 4). Now it is as the God of Christ that He thus blesses us; not as Father but as God. In verse 5 it is as Father, because we there read, “Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself” (vs. 5). There at once is that which answers to the character of the Father. It brings in special relationship to Him. “Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children;” (vs. 5) not merely chosen, but “predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of His will” (vs. 5). Now that language is not used in verse 4. He does not say that He has predestined us to be holy and without blame before Him in love. Neither does He say that He has called us into this wonderful place according to the good pleasure of His will. And the reason is most manifest. When we hear of the good pleasure of His will, we have language suitable to sovereign special love—that which He displays in order to manifest His own favor. But when we hear of “holy and without blame,” (vs. 4) it is God who has chosen us for it. It could not be otherwise. If God would have any brought near Him, and so near as to be in His presence in heaven, if chosen in Christ at all, somehow they must be holy and without blame before Him in love. And all is really of His grace. The one verse flows from the necessary character of God as God; the other flows from the special relationship into which He enters towards us through our Lord Jesus. Choosing us is a necessary part, because it is evident there was no one but God to choose. It was before the foundation of the world, when God alone was. Man had no voice nor choice in the matter. It was purely God acting from Himself. It was a matter of God’s own choice that He would have others to be in heaven besides Himself. But if they were to be near Him and before Him, how could they be so with sin upon them? Impossible. How could God have persons, even in the most distant part of His dominion, with sin upon them? Still less could it be in heaven, the throne of His majesty. The day is coming when all evil must be banished into the lake of fire. How much less then could He tolerate sin in those who are to be brought into His very presence? It was the positive necessity of His character and nature, that if He chooses to have persons with Him in heaven, they must be there “holy and without blame before him” (vs. 4). But that could not be all: it must be “in love,” because nothing could be more miserable than that they should not be able to enter into His own affections. Merely to be in the most blessed place of creatures without taint, without anything that could sully the presence of God, would not be enough. Man was made to have a heart, to have affections, and there could not be happiness in creatures, who know what affection is, unless there were that on which affection could rest. If God had such beings brought into His presence, and necessarily without sin in any form, it must be in love also. He will give them a nature not only capable of being before Him without reproach and fear, but also answering to His own love. “We love him because he first loved us” (1 John 4:1919We love him, because he first loved us. (1 John 4:19)). In Christ alone that love is known; but St. John so speaks of God and Christ, that there is great difficulty in deciding which is meant. He uses “Him” thus indiscriminately, and slides from one into the other. This flows from their oneness: “I and my Father are one,” (John 10:3030I and my Father are one. (John 10:30)) which is said by John only.
Here we have God’s choice of us personally. For it is not merely to have a people, as if it were some vague thing, or as if there were a certain number of niches to be filled up in heaven. There is no such notion in the Bible. It is persons He chooses. There cannot be such love without a person to be its object. And if it is true even among men, that love is not a vague feeling—which is rather a fancy—much more is it true with God. He loves us individually. Hence He has chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world, to show how entirely it was a thing independent of our character and ways; and if so, it must always flow back to God in a way according to Him. And so it does. If there is this choice of God in Christ before the foundation of the world, He will have them before Him in such a way as God alone could. He will never have what is unworthy of His love and presence. Hence then it is said, “that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love” (vs. 4). This is not merely holiness, or blamelessness, or love, any or all in part. Hence it does not refer to what we have been. If we look at a person now, we shall find grievous faults in him. Even as a Christian, he is very far indeed from being what is due to God. He is ashamed of himself—grieving over the little his heart responds to the favor God has shown him. And would this suit His presence? Will God be satisfied with that which even a Christian finds fault with? Impossible. It is not looking at the complex man here, but at what He makes us in Christ, His Son. In the saint now there is that which is very unsaintly indeed, unlike God and His beloved Son: pride, vanity, foolishness, all kinds of evil ways and thoughts that never flow from Christ, and have no kind of resemblance to Him. But for all this, are they not saints? God forbid they should not be. And yet this is the steady thought of God. He has chosen us in Christ that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. How can that be? The answer is because God looks at us here according to that which He gives us in Christ, and nothing less. All is ignored in this verse save that new nature which flows from His own choice, His own grace. He has chosen us to be so, and He will have us so perfectly, and nothing else, when the time comes for us to be in His presence. But even now it is true in the essence of the thing, inasmuch as we have the life of Christ in us. Can I find any fault in Christ? If Christ is without blame in love, in the very nature of God Himself, He is precisely the life of every Christian, let a man be called by what name he may among men.
But even this is not all. Blessed as it is to answer to the holy character and nature of God—and that is what every saint will do by and by in the glory, and what every saint ought to say in the spirit of his mind now—yet this is not enough. We might be there holy and without blame before Him in love, yet simply as servants. Her Majesty the Queen may surround herself with servants to do her will; she may bring one and another into her presence, and they ought of course to think themselves greatly honored by being thus made the ministers of her pleasure, though no family relationship of course exists between them. But nothing less than this will do in heavenly things. This is the wonder of God’s grace. In the very next verse we have the fact that God is not only acting from Himself to call into this wonderful place, to be the reproduction of His own moral nature and character. God is holy and without blame, and He is love in His own nature. This belongs to our life now, and will belong to us altogether when we are brought into heaven by the power and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, shortly. But it is not as mere servants, but as sons we shall be there—consciously as sons: not merely standing there, like angels, as ministers of His pleasure, but there as those who take an interest in what He is interested in. We shall feel not merely for Him, but with Him. We shall have a common interest with Him—the same kind of feeling, if I may use the same illustration, that members of the royal family have with the crown.
This is what the Holy Spirit brings before us in verse 5. We are planted in Christ before God, and we have a holy and a loving nature. But besides this, there is a positive relationship formed; and that relationship, in which we are brought to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, is nothing less than being sons according to the pattern of the risen Son of God. As the eternal Son of the Father, none could have such a place with Him. The very thought would be repulsive to a renewed mind. But Christ was pleased to call us His brethren when He rose from the dead, and not before. And it is on earth, the place of our sins, where we have been servants of Satan—it is here that, through the faith of Christ, we leave behind us all that we were and enter into this blessed and glorious and most intimate relationship with God. “He hath predestinated us unto the adoption of children.” The word predestinated is a more special one than “chosen,” which signifies God’s electing us out of the world. None but an unbeliever could fancy that every one is to be in such a place as this, or that men who have lived in blasphemy against God all their days are to be holy and without blame when they die. God has a choice, and our business is to bless God for His great love—not to judge or find fault with His ways. “Who art thou that repliest against God?” (Rom. 9:2020Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? (Romans 9:20)). That is the answer of God to all vain thoughts and reasonings. But then if He chooses according to His nature and holiness, He has predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ unto Himself. So that now we find the special privilege and glorious relationship of sons before God in His presence by Jesus Christ. He might not have done it, but it was “according to the good pleasure of his will” (vs. 5). It is not merely that He would have persons and that He chose persons; but here is a peculiar display of His pleasure, and therefore He puts them in this blessed place “to the praise of the glory of His grace wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved” (vs. 6). This 6th verse shows us that which answers to both the verses before. I think “to the praise of the glory of his grace” (vs. 6) takes in both the choice of verse 4 and the predestination of verse 5—the character of the choice of God, and the special favor of the predestination of the Father. “To the praise of the glory of His grace wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved” (vs. 6). “Accepted” is rather a cold word to express what is meant here. It is not what persons doctrinally call acceptance, which is rather more of the nature of reconciliation. But here it seems to me there is the fullness of divine favor, which goes far beyond merely acceptance. It is God making us objects of favor according to all that is in His heart, and in order that this should be most fully brought out, He says, “in the Beloved,” not merely “in Christ.” There was one object that satisfied God, that met every thought, every desire of His heart; and this was Christ, the Beloved One, of course in a sense in which none could be so in Himself. In order to bless us fully, God has made us the objects of His favor in this Beloved One, and all is “to the praise of the glory of His grace” (vs. 6). This takes in all the heights and depths of His grace who is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, blessing us in Christ. In fact He could not go farther. Could He show favor to any one so much as to Christ? Just so He loves and blesses us. He could not do more and He will not do less. He has risen up to the fullest character of love and blessing in the way wherein He regards us in the Beloved.
But, then, what was our previous state? It is said, “In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace” (vs. 7). It is only alluded to passingly, but it supposes that we were wretched slaves of Satan. In the same person, in whom we become the objects of such favor, we have redemption. God does not in the least degree forget what our condition was when He thus blessed us. He is aware that we had to be brought out of all we were, for indeed we had nothing but sins. With only the previous verses, there might have been the idea that such blessedness and glory could not have been mixed with such as we were. But he adds, we have redemption in Christ. Still, he never touches on redemption and forgiveness of sins, till he has brought us into the height and depth of all privilege flowing from God Himself: so entirely is all question here of what man is out of sight, that we only as it were incidentally get hold of the sad truth of his condition. It might not have been known from the first few verses that persons so blessed had ever been guilty of a single sin. But here we find that they needed to be redeemed, to have their sins forgiven; and the same Christ, in and through whom we have all our other blessings, is He in whom also we have “redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.” There is a difference between “the glory” and “the riches” of His grace. “The glory of His grace” (vs. 6) takes in all these privileges referred to before. The Holy Spirit has brought out in the seventh verse the riches of His grace—the means and provisions for us as poor sinners. But this would not suffice for God, if He is acting so as to show not merely His rich resources in dealing with poor wretched individuals, but the glory of His grace. He would show His own character—what He is, and not merely provide for what we were. The praise of the glory of His grace flows from what God feels, and in consequence will do, in order to manifest Himself for us. Observe, before we have done with this, that later we have another redemption, that “of the purchased possession,” (vs. 14) two very different things. We have redemption as far as the forgiveness of sins is concerned: we are waiting for redemption as concerns the inheritance, which depends on the coming of Christ in order to take it actually under His government. The purchased possession has to do with the inheritance, not merely with what affects our souls. As regards the soul, we have redemption now as completely as we ever can have it; which we do well to bear in mind. The soul cannot be more forgiven than now, nor could God do more to put away our sins than He has done already. He has given His Son, and the blood of His Son was shed, and it is impossible that God Himself could do more to blot out sin from before His face. What a comfort for our souls! If we think of our sins, we may also enter into the comfortable assurance that all is gone from before the face of God. We may fall into sin: it does exist; but it is a matter of self-judgment, instead of a fearful looking for of judgment by and by. There is just the difference. As a matter of divine judgment, sin is gone in Christ; as a matter of self-judgment, it is always there if we slip into it. Nor is self-judgment ever thorough until we know that God’s judgment of sin is ended for us in the cross. Under the Old Testament there was no such self-judgment because of sin, as there ought to be under the New. We find accordingly that although God never could treat any sin with indifference, yet is it often left without a word of comment. But this is not light dealing, God leaves the thing to speak for itself. He exercises so much the more the hearts of His children. If they are in a willful state, they may use the fact of sin to make light of their own evil ways; otherwise conscience is brought into exercise. It is not until the full condition of man comes out in the cross of Christ that we see what God’s judgment of sin is. Since then we first hear of “the flesh” in the sense in which the New Testament speaks of it. You may find the expression in the Old Testament, but it never wears the same strong, determined, full character of wickedness as it does in the New. It had not yet proved itself, and God always waits till a person or thing proves its real character, before He pronounces judgment. And we ought to learn from God as to this. The patience of God in judgment is one of the most marvelous of His ways; and we ought to be, as to this, imitators of God. He awaited the cross of His Son before the full character of man’s iniquity was fully brought out. Under the Old Testament we read of things borne with because of the hardness of men’s hearts; but in the New Testament there is a different measure, and no evil tolerated for a moment. The mind of God is pronounced upon evil: the darkness is past, the true light now shines. There is no hiding either of God or man; all is out; man is lost. God is known not merely as a lawgiver, but as a Saviour-God; and if I do not know Him thus, I do not know Him at all. “This is life eternal: to know thee, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.”
From all this we learn that the full character of evil has only now come out. The Old Testament commanded that evil should not be done; but, as we shall see in the next chapter, the full issue of the trial comes out here: and what is the issue? That man is dead—morally, spiritually—dead in trespasses and sins. God perfectly understood the character of man before, and He wants us to understand it. We needed redemption and we have it; forgiveness and we have it. But we are waiting to have the redemption of the purchased possession. This takes in the whole creation of God, including, perhaps, our bodies too, as a part of the creation of God. But the redemption of verse 7 is a closer thing, and we are put in a position now of thoroughly judging ourselves, because we know that we shall not be judged of God. He puts us thus into a common interest with Himself; put us on His own side, to take His part against ourselves. And this is what repentance means; and therefore it is called repentance towards God.
But the next verse opens up another subject: “Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence” (vs. 8). It is not said, “abounded toward us in forgiving us,” because the forgiveness is simple and complete. But when we hear of “wisdom and prudence,” (vs. 8) it is a question of God’s counsels about His Son. So to speak, you are able now to enter into My thoughts, and understand them when I speak. You are delivered from anxiety about your sins, and are free now to enter into My purpose. “Having made known unto us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He hath purposed in himself” (vs. 9). And this secret of His will is “that in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in Him: in whom also we have obtained an inheritance” (vss. 10-11). We have clearly here, in this central verse, the fact that we are capacitated (the question of sin being settled in our souls) to hear what God has to say to us about all other things. He has not now merely to tell us what He is going to do upon the earth, as He dealt with Abraham. The relationship is higher than that which was made known to the patriarchs. Now He abounds toward us in all wisdom and prudence. Whatever brings out God’s character and glory, He makes known to us. He treats us, not as servants, but as friends. He has one thing nearer than aught else— what He is going to do for His Son: and He imparts to us the secrets nearest to His own heart. If a person say, I do not want to understand mysteries, I answer, You do not want to know what God wishes to teach you. Unbelief always shows itself in some character of hostility to God. He, in His perfect wisdom, gives the comfort of salvation, and then opens out these other things. “Having made known unto us the mystery of His will” (vs. 9). This does not mean something you cannot understand, but what you could not know before God told you. Do not turn away and say, All I want to know is to be saved. We ought to desire to know all God desires us to learn. The word “mystery” means what God was pleased to keep secret—something that He had not before revealed, but quite intelligible when it is told. “Mystery,” in popular sense, is totally different from its use in the Word of God. There are many things very wonderful in the prophecies, but they are not called mysteries. Brought out now for the first time, it is the mystery of His will. There are many mysteries explained in the New Testament as those of the kingdom of heaven. Babylon, too, is called a mystery. The mystery here is, that God means to unite all things in heaven and in earth under the headship of our Lord. He does not mean to have the heavens, as they are now, completely severed from the earth, but to have a united system of heavenly and earthly glory, all under Christ—this is the mystery of His will.
But there is another part of it—He means to have us to share it along with Christ. Thus there are two great parts in the mystery of His will. The first is Christ, and the second is the Church: and therefore it is said in this very Epistle, “This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the Church” (ch. 5:32). It is not “the Church” only that is the mystery, but “Christ and the Church” (ch. 5:32). The Church, however blessed, is but a subordinate part of it. That she is so at all is solely because she belongs to Christ, the heavenly Head of all things. “That in the dispensation of the fullness of times” (vs. 10)—when all the various times of God that are now running on have exhausted their course—when the time of the groaning of the earth is over—when the time for Israel to be blinded is over—when the time for Satan being allowed to torment men is over—the time when the Gentiles are allowed to rule as if God were taking no notice, and the Church of God to be broken in weakness here below. All these things are now going on—man himself subject to sickness and death—all creation groaning. But God Himself will put an end to everything of the sort. He means to bind Satan and deliver man from his power—to have Israel blessed and united under their Messiah—the Gentiles blessing God, and God sanctified among them—the earth itself no longer the poor, groaning, miserable earth that it is, but the curse removed, and the wilderness rejoicing and blossoming as the rose. All these things God will yet accomplish; and when the various times that now intervene are accomplished, He will change all, bringing forth Christ as the head, center, and means of every blessing. Christ is the strong man that is to bind Satan—the bruiser of the serpent’s head—the Lord of heaven and earth—the Messiah of Israel, and Son of man ruling supremely over the Gentiles. All these things are to be accomplished most simply and efficaciously, but not by the power of men—not even by the spread of the gospel.
If men had a just sense of the present state of the Church, they would put on sackcloth and ashes instead of blowing trumpets. What we have to do is to humble ourselves before God, because of what we are and see around us, even in the best. It requires a great deal of patience not only to bear and be borne with, but to go on in love. If we really have a heart for God and for His children we shall feel these things deeply, and shall seek the blessing of those who are led away by it, yea, thoroughly and heartily, remembering that the blessed day is coming when Christ will be exalted as the Head of all things, heavenly and earthly. While it becomes us to humble ourselves, we need not be disheartened. We know that our hope is one that maketh not ashamed. It is not founded upon what the Church or any society is going to do, for our hope is Christ. We know that God has made known unto us the secret of His will. Where there is not an exercised conscience, this truth May not be rejected; but it is not realized nor applied in such a state. God’s blessed cure for the world’s disorder is Christ brought out for His present hidden position, and the moment that He is so, what a change! All things in heaven and earth are united in Christ; and when that day comes, we shall enter visibly on our inheritance. We have the title already, but are not in manifest possession. “In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will; that we should be to the praise of His glory who first trusted in Christ” (vss. 11-12).
We have first of all (verse 5) our predestination as children and now as heirs—heirs of glory now and the inheritance, Christ being made the head of the universe. The prevalent interpretation is to apply it to Christ’s position now. People imagine that “the fullness of times” (vs. 10) here means the same thing as in Galatians 4, but “the fullness of the times” differs widely from “the fullness of time,” (vs. 10) which meant merely the time which closed with the incarnation of Christ, or was completed by it. Christ’s birth is a very different thing from Christ’s exaltation, as the Head of all. Deadly error is at work, putting the Son’s incarnation in the place of redemption. Our union with Christ is made to depend upon His bare incarnation, not upon His being risen from the dead and entering upon His headship thus. But if Christ’s union with us is founded upon His being a man, He unites Himself with human nature and there is no special union between the Christian and Christ, because humanity belongs to the whole race or man in sin. This naturally leads to the further heresy of making Christ take up humanity in its fallen condition. God looks that we should be making advance in His own ways. He calls us to diligence and desire of heart to enter into our privileges.
It is said, again, “That we should be to the praise of His glory who first trusted in Christ” (vs. 12). The meaning is, before the Jews (of whom it specially speaks) behold Christ in the appointed time and way. “They shall look upon Me whom they have pierced” (Zech. 12:1010And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. (Zechariah 12:10)). Now, he says, we are those who first trusted in Christ, whose hope was founded upon Christ before He is seen and believed in by the rest of the nation. The “we” in verse 12 does not go beyond believing Jews. “In whom ye also trusted” (vs. 13). The “we” and the “ye” refer, the one to Paul and his fellow-believers out of Israel, the other to believing Gentiles, such as the Ephesians. If this be so, the meaning is “that we [Christian Jews] should be to the praise of His glory who first trusted in Christ.” The nation of Israel will not be exactly “to the praise of His glory” (vs. 12). They will be the subjects of His glory. “Arise, shine, for thy light is come and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee” (Isa. 60:11Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. (Isaiah 60:1)). His glory will work for their salvation; but “the praise of His glory” (vs. 12) is that there were those out of that unbelieving nation who received Christ before they saw Him. Blessed those who receive Christ when they behold Him, but still more blessed those who, though they have not seen Him, yet have believed.