In offering a few thoughts on these subjects in the Ephesian epistle and elsewhere, I would suggest, as a leading inquiry, whether there are not the unfolding of great purposes and counsels of God, by adoption and calling, as “the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,” prior to the doctrine of “the unity of the Spirit,” in the power of which they are kept, and to be kept, by us? Purposes which are, in fact, the occasion for these divine revelations of unity in Godhead—counsel, and in manifestation by Christ, arid the Holy Ghost? One might further ask, whether the grand subjects of the heavenly calling, and the vocation wherewith we are called (and in what these consist), do not occupy a prominent place, and in the order of their wonderful relation to “the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory,” as a necessary prelude to our knowing or walking worthy thereof? If this be so, they should neither be confounded nor separated by us. Indeed, the revelation by God of “the good pleasure of His will,” and what He had predestinated us unto by Jesus Christ to Himself, was so marvelous to Paul that he prays for the requisite qualifications to be bestowed, in order that the faithful may know “what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints;” viz., that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of Him, being enlightened in the eyes of your heart, so that ye should know, &c.
No doubt “the hope of his calling,” and the vocation wherewith we have been thus called, and the blessings wherewith we have been blessed in the heavenly places in Christ, must be all comprehended (for our present communion and enjoyment in love), and carried out by power in “the unity of the Spirit,” according to the purpose which God has purposed in Himself. Nor is there any doubt these will all be manifested in “the exceeding greatness of His power, which He wrought in Christ” when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in heavenly places, far above all principalities and powers and every name that is named, not only in this world, but in that to come, and which power is to us-ward who believe. The sonship in the epistles, and the calling of God, and our birthright as children of the Father, and our spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, do not primarily stand connected with the great fact of the unity of the Spirit (essential as this is in operation), but with “the good pleasure of God’s will,” which He hath purposed in Himself.
According “to His will,” as believers in Christ, we are called, and have been sealed as sons and heirs of God, and joint-heirs in this unity, by “that Holy Spirit of promise,” which is also the earnest of our inheritance. “The vocation” wherewith we are called opens itself out from the depths of the Father’s love, and is for the glory of God in all that He has counseled for Himself, and for the glory of His beloved Son from everlasting, and in whom we have part, and portion, and place, according to the riches of His grace. “In Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and ye are complete in Him who is the Head,” &c. All this blessedness and much more has been thus made known to us by “the spirit of wisdom” and revelation, in which God has now unveiled Himself, and the things which were kept secret before the world was, and declare to us “the will of God” through Christ, and in “the unity of the Spirit.”
The glorious incarnation of His Son, and the accomplishment of the work given Him to do below, opened the way by death and resurrection for His triumphant ascension to the right hand above, and to take His place as “the Head over all things to the Church, which is His body, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all.” Moreover, the revelation of this predeterminate counsel of wisdom and glory, subsisting in the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and carried out in this essential oneness and unity by sovereign power, is the comprehensive basis of Christianity. This revelation is likewise formative of the present economy, for faith and hope in “the unity of the Spirit,” and for our fellowship in the power of eternal life by Christ Jesus, and they go hand-in-hand together. It also takes its commanding place, as giving the true nature and character to every other glory, in union or unity, to which (as believers in Christ) we may have been predestinated, or called out, by effectual grace from this world, and sealed for the day of eternal redemption. Nor can the will of God, or Christ and the Church, or the unity of the Spirit, be rightly separated from each other.
It was not till the mystery of “the Word made flesh” that manhood and Godhead were gloriously united, and this “Son of man” no longer seen (to be like Adam) a creature outside of God, in mere human and responsible relationship with the Creator, but declared by the Father’s voice from the opened heavens, and by the descent of the Holy Ghost like a dove, to be “the beloved Son, in whom God was well pleased.” Beyond this, and in His own essential Sonship, He could say of Himself, “I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world;” and again, “I leave the world, and go to the Father.” By redemption through His blood we have the forgiveness of our sins, and are accepted in “the beloved One” as sons of God, and heirs and coheirs with Christ, being united to Him who is raised from the dead by “the glory of the Father,” and is crowned with glory and honor, all created things being put under His feet. Marvelous as the first creation was, and as those six-days’ work was, on account of which “the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy,” yet all was but a type of the new heavens and the new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness, and in which (through sin and Satan) the offended glory of God had to find a fresh its suited resting-place and everlasting home.
Adam, though created in the likeness of God, was but the image of Him that should come after; and now that the second man—Jesus, the Son of God—has glorified Him upon the earth (in which Adam dishonored Him), and finished the work that was appointed Him to do, God has given Him a name which is above every name that is named, not only in this world, but in that which is to come. The sovereignty, the majesty, the power, and the righteousness of God, which had been so outraged and violated by Satan, have been reinstated and illustrated in the life of our Lord Jesus Christ, when He took His place as man on this earth; and have been further vindicated against every outrage and blot, whether by the devil or mankind, in His sufferings and death upon the cross. All this work had to be done by Him in this ruined creation, before the power of that mighty change could operate, by which “old things should pass away, and all things become new, and all things be of God.” Other glories waited till He should come “who is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation; who is also the beginning, the first-born from the dead, that in all things He might have the pre-eminence; for it pleased that in Him should all the fullness dwell.” The Holy Ghost has been sent down from the Father (to the men whom He has called out of this world) as the only adequate witness of the glory which the Son has entered into, and to assure us that the infinite love and wisdom and power of God have found their delight and satisfaction and outlet, toward us in our vocation, in this exalted One.
God has glorified Him in Himself, and has come forth to glorify Him again, in the presence of angels and principalities and powers; and to form a unity with Himself by the Holy Ghost, of which Christ is. the glorified center and the beginning, having chosen us in Him (and created us according to Himself) that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. Moreover, God has predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the riches of His grace, wherein He hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known unto us “the mystery of His will.” Oneness, and union, and unity in Christ were purposed by the Father’s good pleasure for His own glory, and the glory of His Son, and the glory of the Holy Ghost, and the Church’s glory, from before the foundation of the world; and our vocation is connected with Christ in all this love.
J. E. E.
(To be continued, D. V)