“Chapter 1―Strong in The Lord, and in the Power of His Might.”
“FINALLY, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might.” “Finally,” i.e., “all that remains”―is now, that we should realize that we are “in the Lord,” as united to Him in heaven, and that we should “be strong” in Him, by the Holy Ghost now on earth― “the power of His might.”
We are “in the Lord,” and therefore alive in Him. Only a living, healthy, strong man was fitted to be a soldier, and carry the ancient armor, at least the panoply, or “whole armor.” We are alive, for we have been “quickened together with Christ,” and we are here enjoined, as living men, to “be strong in the Lord,” as a branch is strong in a tree, or as a limb is strong in a living body. As the vigor of our members is derived from the strength of our bodies, so we, who believe, being “members of His body,” should be “strong in the Lord.”
The Christian conflict is to be maintained by us as already in Christ, and as living Christians, and not in order to be made Christians. Israel’s tribes were redeemed, brought out of Egypt, preserved, fed and trained in the desert, taken through the parted waters of the Jordan, and put in possession of the land of Canaan; and then they were enjoined to maintain themselves in the possession of their inheritance, by determined and uncompromising warfare with the original inhabitants of the country, who would not go out of their own accord, but must be driven out. These inhabitants had taken unrighteous possession of that land, and meant to keep it, and hence the needed warfare to dispossess them of it. But it should be observed that their warfare was according to their calling and place―an earthly warfare with “flesh and blood”―in earthly places, where they had their inheritance. Our warfare is according to our calling and standing. It is not like theirs, “with flesh and blood,” or men; nor is it in an earthly inheritance we are placed and fight, but in a heavenly one; for we are “in heavenly places,” and are blessed “with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ;” and “we wrestle with principalities, and powers, and spiritual wickedness’s, in heavenly places.” But just as Israel’s tribes had passed through the Jordan, and were actually settled in Canaan by the grace and power of God, and “ate of the old corn of the land” before they engaged in a single battle with their enemies therein; so we, who have died and risen in Christ, are quickened tether, and seated in Him in heavenly places, and are actually enjoying the precious fruits of the heavenly land, which has been made our own, before we are called upon to enter upon the spiritual conflict.
This shows us very clearly that there is no fighting of ours needed to obtain the very highest position and the most exalted blessings that God can bestow upon us; for they are all given us “freely by His grace,” “in Christ Jesus;” but our standing in the conflict is necessary in order to the experimental enjoyment of these privileges which God has bestowed upon us in Christ Jesus.
The enemy of our souls strives, by his plausible wiles, to induce us to give up our title to so high a place as God has given us. Everything that he can do, either by force or craft, will certainly be attempted by him to entice, allure, and ensnare us; and then by our failure to challenge our standing and privileges: and human wisdom, strength, or skill are of no use in meeting him; our only hope of success is to be “strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might,” and to “put on the whole armor of God”―the panoply of His providing.
Generally speaking, it may be said that to live in the Spirit, in the living power of the precious truths contained in the Epistle to the Ephesians, as giving us a knowledge of what we are by the grace of God in Christ Jesus, is, “to be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might: the Holy Ghost given us.”
“The wiles of the devil.” Principalities, and powers, and spiritual wickedness’s are all opposed to God and Christ; and as good angels in their variety of grades have all been spoken of in connection with the exaltation of Christ, as Head of His body, the Church, in chapters first and third, evil angels in their various grades are now spoken of.
The light of God is in full blaze in this epistle. It is the fullest discovery of God (and “God is Light”), the fullest display of God’s counsels, grace, and ways, which the Word of God contains, and consequently the opposing kingdom of darkness is also brought out in its full range and power.
This world of ours is enveloped in moral darkness. Just as there was light in the dwellings of Israel in Goshen, when darkness was over all the land of Egypt, so now there is light only in the dwellings of the “Church of God,” and darkness over all the world besides; and demons rule in this moral darkness. The age, or “world,” is theirs, though God overrules they have access everywhere, and it is the display of their power in the sphere which they now occupy, as allowed by God, that makes this present time to be to us the “evil day.”
This time of the absence of our Beloved is to us an evil day throughout, The kingdom of heaven is going on in a mystery, and the enemy is at present corrupting Christianity by a great variety of means and practices, and by this corrupted thing, degrading men more than by any other instrumentality. He is deceiving men, and this he is doing generally by means of religious appearances and specious pretenses to religiousness. The power which made the world reject its King is still in force, and Satan brings all his power against us, and we have no power to resist his evil influences, except by the Spirit, which we have of God (1 John 2:20, 2120But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things. 21I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the truth. (1 John 2:20‑21)). The place which we who believe, and are “blest with all spiritual blessings, in heavenly places, in Christ,” at present occupy, is that of being “accepted in the Beloved;” and what is now expected of us, in spite of Satan and all his wiles, is that we live in consistency with that: “That ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called.”
The whole thought of unregenerate men, when they become alarmed about their state, is how to act in a religious and holy way, so as to get into the position of righteousness and security before God; but this is ours already, for our standing before God is Christ. This gives us “boldness and access,” and strength in conflict, and ensures holiness in the small things of life as well as in the great; for Christ is the measure of our separation from evil. In having Christ, we have every grace that is in Christ, but the realization of it is a matter of personal attainment; and it is against this, and the making good our portion, in Christ, that Satan fights.
The necessary result of being saved in Christ, and having holiness, is to put us in direct antagonism to the powers of darkness; for we now stand with God for us against them all. It is God’s purpose that His glory should be displayed in us. God is causing us to triumph eves now over the power, and even the snares and “wiles of Satan,” making it manifest that He has a people upon the earth who not only belong to heaven, as being “born of God,” but who also are, in the spirit of their mind and walk, heavenly.
It is against the wiles of the devil that we are here warned― “that ye may stand against the wiles of the devil.” We are delivered out of Egypt and from the wilderness, and placed in the land; we are in fact “saved by grace,” and “created in Christ Jesus, so that it is not deliverance from Satan’s power that is spoken of, but the maintenance of our ground as Christians against his many “wiles.” He will practice his “wiles” in every variety of form; they will be found such as are suited to engage our hearts, and to suit our circumstances―like his “wiles” in the case of Achan and the Gibeonites of old, when the Israelites were in conflict in the land of Canaan.
“This present world,” as has been already said, is practically Satan’s world, for Christ calls him “the prince of this world,” and of the “power of the air,” and the Holy Ghost in Paul calls him “the god of this world;” for he makes, guides and rules it, having power in us regenerate men similar to the power which the Holy Ghost has in Christians. He is called “the spirit which now worketh, in the children of disobedience.” But, blessed be God we are now “obedient children,” who have been “delivered from the power of darkness,” and “translated into the kingdom of God’s dear Son.” We are no longer in bondage to Satan as if we were mere men “in the flesh,” “under law,” “in the world,” or “in our sins;” but as delivered from his power by Christ Jesus, we are now in conflict with him, death and resurrection having taken us clean out of Egypt, and delivered us completely from its bondage; and as the nation who were once the slaves of Pharaoh fought, overcame, and drave out the Canaanites after they were put in possession of that land, so is it with us. The Canaanite is “still in the land;” but God hath delivered them all into our hands. “He will bruise Satan under our feet shortly.”
But we must not forget that, although God gave Israel the land, they had themselves to go over the Jordan, stand in it, and fight their enemies in detail before it was in their possession. The principle on which they took possession of it was thus laid down by God: “Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you:” so, in the spiritual warfare, we possess, morally and experimentally, only as much as we stand on, and thus make our own. The principle to us for possession of heavenly things, is the same as theirs for earthly things. God says to us respecting them, “Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you.”
“The devil,” by his “wiles,” would keep us from enjoying and living in the power of the blessings which God has given us; and now that we have only to stand against his “wiles,” let us not be “ignorant of his devices.” The deceit of his “wiles” is that against which we have especially to watch. He is always ready to give us something that will afford present pleasure to the flesh; and he will even use religion, translating himself into an angel of light, in order to deceive us. He may present redemption apart from holiness, and tempt us to Antinomianism, or holiness apart from redemption, to tempt us into his snare of Legalism. His “wiles” are to disproportionate, dislocate, or dissociate the truth of the Gospel. The great thing for us in conflict is, therefore, to have Christ as our center and our all, and to know that all He is, and all that is in Him, are ours, and that he is to be reproduced in our lives. When our hearts have their legitimate object, Christ Himself, “the flesh” is practically set aside and neglected; and for want of a basis of operation, Satan is defeated, for the knowledge of redemption and acceptance sanctifies us. We are “called” from our low state of ruin to the exalted condition we occupy, to be God’s witnesses of practical deliverance from the power of Satan. We are “not of the world,” but redeemed out of it, and we belong no longer to Satan’s kingdom, but to Christ’s body. The world is called “this present evil world,” and as to our moral character, we being pilgrims and strangers in it, to us this must of necessity be an “evil day.” Our portion, our object, and our inheritance are not here. Christ had His “evil day” when on earth; but He was prepared for it in the place of obedience and lowly dependence. He was “anointed with the Holy Ghost and with power,” and He lived as a man on earth, in continual fellowship with, and dependence on, the Father, as was manifested in His constant prayerfulness. We are in Christ saved by grace, and we know that God is for us, and we shall never perish, but have “everlasting life;” and ours is the place of dependence, obedience, and strength.
The Scriptures give us Divine certainty for our faith, and we need certainty, for uncertainty as to our state cannot stand in conflict with Satan. If you are inquiring, “Am I the Lord’s, or am I not?” you are gone at once, so far as success in the Christian warfare is concerned. In conflict with an enemy, it could not be otherwise, in the very nature of things. If a powerful enemy were invading our shores, our army could not oppose them if the soldiers were individually debating the question, whether they were this country’s soldiers or not. So we are to be in the Lord, and know it too, and be living by faith, and “always confident” that the Lord is on our side; for it is only as we are “strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might,” that we can overcome. Let us, then, be strong in Christ who died for us, and strong in the Spirit, who dwells in us. “Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.” “STAND, therefore!”