Chapter V: AUTOGRAPH CONCLUSION.--1. The Judaisers' motive (ch. vi. 12, 13) (10)

Again, in ch. iii. 2 Paul, at the word "Gentiles," enters into a digression about his specific commission as their apostle. Just as to the Galatian Church he expatiates on the special grace bestowed by God and recognised by the "pillars" of the Church, so here he magnifies his office, and his words here no more prove that he had never seen his readers than the section of Galatians (Gal. ii. 6-9) proves that he did not know the Galatians. Even supposing they did, it surely would not be an astonishing thing that in the ever-shifting population of a seaport many may have joined the Church since St. Paul was in Ephesus. That this was the place to which St. Paul sent his messenger with the letter before us cannot be demonstratively shown; but we feel something like conviction by considering: (_a_) that the preponderant evidence of the MSS. says "Ephesus"; (_b_) that the versions are unanimous as an echo of the MSS.; (_c_) that the entire ancient Church has spoken of the epistle as "to the Ephesians," Marcion's voice being the only exception; (_d_) the improbability of St. Paul writing _"to the saints which are"_ without adding the name of some place; (_e_) "Ephesus" more easily meets internal difficulties than any other place. This, in substance, is Bishop Ellicott's view. Still, we cannot regard it as impossible that "Ephesus" may comprise many Churches in the vicinity, and therefore regard the letter as really encyclical, even though it were proved that St. Paul wrote "to the saints at Ephesus."

+Analysis of the Epistle.+

i. 1, 2. Salutation. Joy and well-being to those in Christ.

3-14. Hymn of praise to the Father, who worked out in Christ
His pre-temporal designs of beneficence, and gave pledge
of the yet more glorious consummation of His Divine will
in the bestowal of the Holy Ghost.

15-23. Thanksgiving of the apostle over their fidelity, and his
prayer for their complete illumination in the
incorporation of the Gentiles in the mystical body of
Christ, "the Head."

ii. 1-10. The power that delivered Christ from bodily corruption
in the tomb saved His members out of the corruption of
fleshly lusts, thus silencing every human boast and
magnifying the Divine grace.

11-22. Wholesome reminder of their former distance from Christ
as contrasted with present union with Him, and union
with the Jews in Him, being led to the Father with them.

iii. 1-13. Paul's familiar statement of the origin of his
apostolate as specially commissioned--"ambassador
extraordinary" to the Gentiles.

14-19. Prayer that by "power and faith and love" they may grasp
"the mystery," and become brimful of love Divine.

20, 21. Doxology to the doctrinal half of the epistle.

iv. 1-16. Exhortation to a practical observation of this doctrinal
unity by the thought that every member of Christ is
necessary in its full development to the perfection of
the body of which Christ is the Head.

17-24. Casting off the old and putting on the new man.

25--v. 21. Exhortation to conduct in harmony with the new nature.

v. 22--vi. 9. Relative duties of wives and husbands, children and parents,
servants and masters.

vi. 10-18. The Christian panoply.

19, 20. Apostle's request for prayers.

21, 22. _Personalia._

23, 24. A twin doxology, reversing the order of the
salutation--"Peace and grace."

+Genuineness of the epistle.+--Dr. Ellicott sums up the matter briefly by saying, "There is no just ground on which to dispute the genuineness." Arguments based on certain expressions in the body of the letter have been speciously urged against its genuineness by De Wette and others; and Holzmann has "learnedly maintained that the epistle is only the expansion of a short letter to the Colossians by some writer about the close of the first century" (_Godet_).

"We have, on the other hand, subjective arguments, not unmixed with arrogance, but devoid of sound historical basis; on the other hand, unusually convincing counter-investigations and the unvarying testimony of the ancient Church." Adverse arguments have been answered so satisfactorily and sometimes so crushingly as to leave no room for doubt. Those who cannot read the epistle without being moved by the peculiar loftiness, by the grandeur of conception, by the profound insight, by the eucharistic inspiration they recognise in it, will require strong evidence to persuade them that it was written by some other man who wished it to pass as St. Paul's.

+The practical design of the epistle.+--The object is to set forth the ground, course, aim, and end of the Church of the faithful in Christ. The Ephesians are a sample of the Church universal. The key to the epistle may be found in the opening sentence (ver. 3). Fixing his eyes on the Lord Jesus Christ, the apostle opens his mind to the blessings which radiate forth from Him, and from the Father through Him, upon the whole world. The mind of God towards men unveiled in Christ, the relation of men towards God exhibited in Christ, the present spiritual connection of men with Christ, the hopes of which Christ is the ground and assurance, the laws imposed by the life of Christ upon human life--these are the blessings for which he gives thanks. Christ embracing humanity in Himself is the subject of the epistle. St. Paul tells with strict faithfulness what he has read and seen in Christ; Christ fills the whole sphere of his mind.

+CHAPTER I.+

_CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES._

Ver. 1. +To the saints.+--Dismiss the commonly accepted meaning. Not men who by hard and rigorous methods have reached the heights where but few abide, but those who, as the elect of God, are separated from everything unholy and kept for God's peculiar possession (1 Pet. ii. 9). +And faithful.+--Sometimes the word may mean "believers," sometimes "trustworthy." "The use of the adjective for the Christian brotherhood cannot be assigned rigidly either to the one meaning or the other. Its very comprehensiveness was in itself a valuable lesson" (_Lightfoot_).

Ver. 2. +Grace . . . and peace.+--The light-hearted Greek salutation was, "Rejoice"; the more sober Hebrew--our Lord's own--was, "Peace be to you." Here both unite.

Ver. 3. +Blessed be the God and Father.+--The Hebrew form for "hallowing the Name" was, "The Holy One, blessed be He." The Prayer Book version of Psalm c. gives, "Speak good of His name." +Who blessed us.+--When old Isaac pronounces the blessing uttered on Jacob unwittingly to be irreversible, he depends on God for the carrying out of his dying blessing: the Divine blessing _makes_ whilst _pronouncing_ blest. +In the heavenly places.+--Lit. "in the heavenlies"--so, as A.V. margin says, either places or _things._ Perhaps the _local_ signification is best; "relating to heaven and meant to draw us thither" (_Blomfield_).

Ver. 4. +Even as He chose us in Him.+--Whatever be the manifestation of the Divine goodness, it is _"in Christ"_ that it is made. "This sentence traces back the state of grace and Christian piety to the eternal and independent electing love of God" (_Cremer_). There is always the connotation of some not chosen. +Before the foundation of the world.+--St. Paul, like Esaias, "is very bold." His Master had only said "from," not "before," the foundation (Matt. xxv. 34), reserving the "before" for the dim eternity in which He was the sharer, with the eternal Spirit, of the Father's love (John xvii. 24). +Without blemish+ (R.V.), or, in one word, "immaculate." A sacrificial term generally; used by St. Peter (1 Pet. i. 19) to describe that "Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world." This word serves to guard "holy," just before it; a separated (holy) people must also be a spotless people.

Ver. 5. +Having predestinated us.+--By pointing as the R.V. margin does, we get Love Divine as the basis on which our foreordination rests. "There is no respect of persons with God," and so _arrière pensée_ in the invitation, "All that labour and are heavy laden." +Unto adoption as sons.+--The end, as regards man. Perhaps St. John's word goes more deeply into the heart of the mystery, "That we should be called the _children_ of God"--"_born_ of God." +Through Jesus Christ.+--Mediator of this and every implied blessing. +According to the good pleasure of His will.+--The word for "good pleasure" characterises the will as one whose intent is something good; the unhampered working of the will lies in the expression too. The measure of human privilege in the adoption is _according to_ the Divine Graciousness.

Ver. 6. +To the praise of the glory of His grace.+--The ultimate end, "that God may be all in all." +Wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved.+--The change in the R.V., considerable as it seems, turns on the rendering of one word, the meaning in the New Testament being "to bestow favour." Compare Luke i. 28 and the A.V. marginal alternative "much-graced." Chrysostom's beautiful interpretation must not be lightly rejected, "to make love-worthy"--just as if one were to make a sick or famished man into a beautiful youth, so has God made our soul beautiful and love-worthy for the angels and all saints and for Himself.

Ver. 7. +In whom we have redemption.+--Release in consideration of a ransom paid--"deliverance effected through the death of Christ from the retributive wrath of a holy God and the merited penalty of sin" (_Grimm_). +Through His blood.+--St. Paul quite agrees with the author of Hebrews (Heb. ix. 22) that apart from the pouring out of blood, the putting away of sin cannot be brought about. +The forgiveness of our trespasses.+--Another way of stating in what the redemption consists. Notice the "forgiveness" as compared with the "passing over" (Rom. iii. 25, R.V.). The one is the remission of punishment; the other the omission to punish sin that has been observed, "leaving it open in the future either entirely to _remit_ or else adequately to punish them as may seem good to Him" (_Trench_).

Ver. 8. +In all wisdom and prudence.+--"Wisdom embraces the collective activity of the mind as directed to Divine aims to be achieved by moral means. Prudence is the insight of practical reason regulating the dispositions" (_Meyer_).

Ver. 9. +The mystery of His will.+--"Mystery" is here to be taken not so much as a thing which baffles the intellect as the slow utterance of a long-kept secret, which "the fulness of time" brings to birth.

Ver. 10. +The fulness of times.+--The word for "times" denotes "time as brings forth its several births." It is the "flood" in the "tide of affairs." +To sum up all things.+--"To bring together again for Himself all things and all beings (hitherto disunited by sin) into one combined state of fellowship in Christ, the universal bond" (_Grimm_). "It is the mystery of God's will to gather all together for Himself in Christ, to bring all to a unity, to put an end to the world's discord wrought by sin, and to re-establish the original state of mutual dependence in fellowship with God" (_Cremer_). +The things which are in heaven and which are on earth.+

"The blood that did for us atone
Conferred on them some gift unknown."

Ver. 11. +In whom also we have obtained an inheritance.+--R.V. _"were made a heritage."_ "The Lord's portion is His people, Jacob is the lot of His inheritance," sang dying Moses (Deut. xxxii. 9). The verbal paradox between A.V. and R.V. is reconciled in fact. "All are yours, and ye are Christ's" (1 Cor. iii. 22, 23). "Before the _Parousia_ an ideal possession, therefore a real one" (_Meyer_). +After the counsel of His own will.+--"The 'counsel' preceding the resolve, the 'will' urging on to action" (_Cremer_).

Ver. 12. +That we should be to the praise.+--R.V. _"to the end that we should be."_ "_Causa finalis_ of the predestination to the Messianic lot" (_Meyer_). "We" in antithesis to "you" in ver. 13--We Jewish--you Gentile Christians.

Ver. 13. +In whom ye also, etc.+--The word "trusted," supplied by A.V., is dropped by R.V. It seems best to regard the words after "ye also" as one of the frequent breaks in the flow of the apostle's language, the second "ye" taking up the first. "In whom ye were sealed." "The order of conversion was: hearing, faith, baptism, reception of the Spirit" (_Meyer_). +Ye were sealed.+--"This sealing is the indubitable guarantee of the future Messianic salvation received in one's own consciousness" (_Meyer_).

Ver. 14. +Who is the earnest.+--The guarantee. The word represented by "earnest" was derived from the Phœnician merchants, and meant money which in purchases is given as a pledge that the full amount will be subsequently paid (_Grimm_). The word is found in the Hebrew of Gen. xxxviii. 17, 18, and means "pledge." F. W. Robertson makes a distinction between "pledge" and "earnest"--the grapes of Eshcol were an "earnest" of Canaan. He who receives the Holy Spirit partakes the powers of the age to come (Heb. vi. 4, 5). +Until the redemption.+--The final consummation of the redemption effected by the atonement of Christ. The "until" is faulty, the "earnest" being "something towards" the redemption. +Of the purchased possession.+--R.V. "of God's own possession." "The whole body of Christians, the true people of God acquired by God as His property by means of the redeeming work of Christ" (_Meyer_).

Vers. 15, 16.--St. Paul is always ready to give a prompt acknowledgment of all that is best in his readers and to pray for something better. +Cease not to give thanks.+--My thanksgiving knows no end.

Ver. 17. +That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ.+--The connection or unity of the Father and the Son is the basis of the plea for those who are in the Son. Christ said, "I ascend unto My Father and your Father, to My God and your God" (John xx. 17). +The Father of glory.+--Compare the phrases, "the Father of mercies" (2 Cor. i. 3), "the Father of lights" (Jas. i. 17), "our Lord Jesus Christ, the glory" (Jas. ii. 1). +The spirit of wisdom and revelation.+--The wisdom which is from above is the heritage of all the redeemed in Christ (1 John iv. 20); but this day-spring, which gladdens the eyes of the heart, grows to mid-day splendour by successive apocalypses. +In the knowledge.+--The word means a complete knowledge. It is a word characteristic of the four epistles of the first Roman captivity.

Vers. 18, 19. +The eyes of your understanding being enlightened . . . to us-ward who believe.+--Three pictures for heaven-illumined eyes: 1. +The hope of His calling.+--Meyer says "the hope" is not here (nor anywhere) the _res sperata,_ "the object on which hope fastens, but the great and glorious hope which God gives"--a statement too sweeping for other scholars, though _here_ they agree that it is the _faculty_ of hope "which encourages and animates." 2. +The riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.+--"What a copious and grand accumulation, mirroring, as it were, the weightiness of the thing itself!" (_Meyer_). "Riches of the glory" must not be watered down into "glorious riches." 3. +The exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward.+--The amazing and wholly unexpected working of the same Hand that wrought our first deliverance: the Power that smites the oppressor with dismay opens the path through the sea (see Isa. xl. 10, 11). +According to the working of His mighty power.+--This may be regarded as a specimen of the Divine power, the norm or standard by which we may gain an idea of the "exceeding greatness" of it--that from the tomb of His humiliation Christ was raised by that power to an unrivalled dignity in God's throne. The R.V. gives _"working of the strength of His might"_: _"working"_--"the active exertion of power" (_Meyer_); _"strength"_--might _expressing itself_ in overcoming resistance, ruling, etc.; _"might"--strength in itself_ as inward power.

Ver. 20. +Set Him at His own right hand.+--_"Dexter Dei ubique est."_ We cannot dogmatise about the relations to space which a glorified body holds. The transcendent glory of God in that body links God to man, the humanity in the glory gives man his claim in God. "The true commentary on the phrase is Mark xvi. 19, 'He was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God'" (_Meyer_).

Ver. 21. +Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion.+--R.V., "Rule, and authority, and power, and dominion." "To be understood of the _good_ angels, since the apostle is not speaking of the victory of Christ over opposing powers, but of His exaltation above the existing powers of heaven" (_Meyer_). "Powers and dominions, deities of heaven," as Milton calls them, ranged here, perhaps, in a descending order. +And every name that is named.+--"God hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name." "Let any name be uttered, whatever it is, Christ is above it, is more exalted than that which the name affirms" (_Meyer_). +Not only in this world.+--"This age." "No other name under heaven given among men." +But also in that which is to come.+--There Zechariah's word will have its fullest application. "The Lord shall be King over all the earth; _there shall be one Lord, and His name one._"

Ver. 22. +And hath put all things under His feet.+--Compare 1 Cor. xv. 27.

"Strong Son of God, immortal Love, . . .
Thou madest Death; and lo Thy foot
Is on the skull which Thou hast made."--_In Memoriam._

Ver. 23. +The fulness of Him that filleth all in all.+--"The Church, viz., is _the Christ-filled, i.e._ that which is filled by Him in so far as Christ penetrates the whole body and produces Christian life" (_Meyer_). "The brimmed receptacle of Him who filleth all things with all things" (_Farrar_). "Among the Gnostics the supersensible world is called the Pleroma, the fulness _or filled,_ in opposition to 'the empty,' the world of the senses" (_Meyer_).

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 1, 2.

_Apostolic Salutation._

+I. He declares the Divine source of his authority.+--"Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God" (ver. 1). The faithful ambassador scans his commission with the utmost care and is solicitous to clearly understand the will of his Sovereign. If he examines his own fitness for the office, it is only to be humbled under a sense of unworthiness, and to express surprise that he should be chosen to such a dignity and be entrusted with such powers. His supreme ambition is to sink his own personal predilections in the earnest discharge of his duty. Paul does not dilate on his own mental capabilities or spiritual endowments. He accepts his appointment to the apostleship as coming directly from the hand of God and recognises the Divine will as the source of righteousness and of all power to do good. This lofty conception of his call gave him unfaltering confidence in the truth he had to declare, inspired him with an ever-glowing zeal, rendered him immovable in the midst of defection and opposition, and willing to obliterate himself, so that the Gospel committed to him might be triumphant. The true minister, in the onerous task of dealing with human doubt and sin, feels the need of all the strength and prestige conferred by the conscious possession of Divine authority. He seeks not to advance his own interests or impose his own theories, but to interpret the mind of God to man and persuade to submission and obedience. The power that makes for righteousness has its root in the Divine will.

+II. He designates the sacred character of those he salutes.+--"To the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus" (ver. 1). The Ephesian saints were made so by their faith in Christ Jesus. They were not saints because Paul called them so. Sanctity is not the result of human volition, nor can it be created by a college of cardinals. "Many saints have been canonised who ought to have been cannonaded." Sanctity is the gift of God and is bestowed on those who believe in Christ Jesus and maintain their allegiance by continued faith in Him. They are holy so long as they are faithful. The saints of God! "Think," says Farrar, "of the long line of heroes of faith in the olden times: of the patriarchs--Enoch the blameless, Noah the faithful, Abraham the friend of God; of the sweet and meditative Isaac, the afflicted and wrestling Jacob; of Moses, the meekest of men; of brave judges, glorious prophets, patriotic warriors, toiling apostles; of the many martyrs who would rather die than lie; of the hermits who fled from the guilt and turmoil of life into the solitude of the wilderness; of the missionaries--St. Paul, Columban, Benedict, Boniface, Francis Xavier, Schwartz, Eliot, Henry Martyn, Coleridge, Patteson; of the reformers who cleared the world of lies, like Savonarola, Huss, Luther, Zwingli, Wesley, Whitefield; of wise rulers, like Alfred, Louis, Washington, and Garfield; of the writers of holy books, like Thomas-à-Kempis, Baxter, Bunyan, Samuel Rutherford, Jeremy Taylor; of the slayers of monstrous abuses, like Howard and Wilberforce; of good bishops, like Hugo of Avalon, Fénélon, and Berkeley; of good pastors, like Oberlin, Fletcher of Madeley, Adolphe Monod, and Felix Neff; of all true poets, whether sweet and holy, like George Herbert, Cowper, Keble, and Longfellow, or grand and mighty, like Dante and Milton. These are but few of the many who have reflected the glory of their Master Christ, and who walk with Him in white robes, for they are worthy."

+III. He supplicates the bestowal of the highest blessings.+--"Grace be to you, and peace" (ver. 3). Grace and peace have a Divine source. _Grace_ is the rich outflow of God's goodness, made available for man through the redeeming work of Christ. There is sometimes the thought that grace implies God's passing by sin. But no, quite the contrary; grace supposes sin to be so horribly bad a thing that God cannot tolerate it. Were it in the power of man, after being unrighteous and evil, to patch up his ways and mend himself so as to stand before God, there would then be no need of grace. The very fact of the Lord's being gracious shows sin to be so evil a thing that man, being a sinner, is utterly ruined and hopeless, and nothing but free grace can meet his case. This grace God is continually supplying. Grace, like manna, will rot if kept overnight. "Wind up thy soul," says George Herbert, "as thou dost thy watch at night." Leave no arrears from day to day. Give us this day's food; forgive us this day's sins. _Peace_ is first peace with God, with whom the soul was at enmity; then peace of conscience, troubled on account of repeated sins, and peace with all men. All our best wishes for the welfare of others are included in the all-comprehensive blessings of grace and peace.

+Lessons.+--1. _The will of God is the highest authority for Christian service._ 2. _The saintly character is the outgrowth of a practical faith._ 3. _Grace and peace describe the rich heritage of the believer._

_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._

Vers. 1, 2. _Paul's Introduction to the Epistle._--The design of this epistle is more fully to instruct the Ephesians in the nature of that Gospel they had received, to guard them against certain errors to which they were exposed from the influence and example of unbelieving Jews and Gentiles, and to inculcate upon them the importance of a conversation becoming their faith and profession. It contains the substance of the Gospel.

+I. Paul here calls himself an apostle of Jesus Christ.+--The word "apostle" signifies a messenger sent on some particular business. Jesus Christ is called an Apostle because He was sent of God to instruct and redeem mankind. Paul and others are called apostles because they were sent of Christ to teach the doctrines they had received from Him. To confirm this commission, as well as to give their ministry success, Christ, according to His promise, wrought with them and established their words with signs following.

1. _Paul was an apostle by the will of God._--He received not his call or commission from man; nor was he, as Matthias was, chosen to his apostleship by men; but he was called by Jesus Christ, who in person appeared to him for this end that He might send him among the Gentiles, and by God the Father, who revealed His Son in him, and chose him that he should know His will and be a witness of the truth unto all men.

2. _He was called of God by revelation._--It was not a secret revelation known only to himself, like the revelation on which enthusiasts and impostors ground their pretensions, but a revelation made in the most open and public manner, attended with a voice from heaven and a light which outshone the sun at noonday, and exhibited in the midst of a number of people to whom he could appeal as witnesses of the extraordinary scene. The great business of Paul and the other apostles was to diffuse the knowledge of the Gospel and plant Churches in various parts of the world.

+II. Paul directs this epistle to the saints and faithful.+--The phrases denote they had been called out of the world and separated from others that they might be a peculiar people unto God. The religion we profess contains the highest motives to purity of heart and life. If, content with a verbal profession of and external compliance with this religion, we regard iniquity in our hearts, we are guilty of the vilest prevarication, and our religion, instead of saving us, will but plunge us the deeper into infamy and misery. That which is the visible ought to be the real character of Christians.

+III. The apostle expresses his fervent desire that these Ephesians may receive the glorious blessings offered in the Gospel.+--1. _Grace._ Pardon is grace, for it is the remission of a deserved punishment. Eternal life is grace, for it is a happiness of which we are utterly unworthy. The influences of the Divine Spirit are grace, for they are first granted without any good disposition on our part to invite them, they are continued even after repeated oppositions, they prepare us for that world of glory for which we never should qualify ourselves.

2. _Peace._--By this we understand that peace of mind which arises from a persuasion of our interest in the favour of God. Our peace with God is immediately connected with our faith in Christ. Our peace of mind is connected with our knowledge of the sincerity of our faith. "If our heart condemn us not, we have confidence toward God." The way to enjoy peace is to increase in all holy dispositions and to abound in every good work. If the apostle wished grace and peace to Christians, surely they should feel some solicitude to enjoy them.--_J. Lathrop, D.D._

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 3-14.

_Praise for the Work of the Trinity in the Gospel of Grace._

These verses are an outburst of descriptive eloquence that even the ample resources of the Greek language seem too meagre to adequately express. The grandeur and variety of ideas, and the necessary vagueness of the phrases by which those ideas are conveyed in this paragraph, create a difficulty in putting the subject into a practical homiletic form. It may help us if we regard the passage as an outpouring of praise for the work of the Trinity in the Gospel of grace, the part of each person in the Trinity being distinctly recognised as contributing to the unity of the whole.

+I. The Gospel of grace originated in the love of the Father.+--1. _He hath chosen us to holiness._ "Blessed be the God and Father . . . who hath chosen us . . . that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love" (vers. 3, 4). The love of God the Father gave Christ to the world, and in Him the human race is dowered with "all spiritual blessings in heavenly places." The blessings from heaven link us to heaven, and will by-and-by bring us to heaven, where those blessings will be enjoyed in unrestricted fulness. Before time began, in the free play of His infinite love, God the Father, foreseeing the sin and misery that would come to pass, resolved to save man, and to save him in His own way and for His own purpose. Man was to be saved in Christ, and by believingly receiving Christ; and his salvation was not to free him from moral obligation, but to plant in him principles of holiness by which he could live a blameless life before God. He chose for Himself that we might love Him and find our satisfaction in the perpetual discovery of His great love to us. The true progression of the Christian life is a growth of the ever-widening knowledge of the love of God. Love is the essence and the crown of holiness.

2. _He hath ordained us to sonship._--"Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Christ Jesus Himself" (ver. 5). The sonship is not by natural right of inheritance, but by adoption. It is an act of Divine grace, undeserved and unexpected. It is said that, after the battle of Austerlitz, Napoleon adopted the children of the soldiers who had fallen. They were supported and educated by the State, and, as belonging to the family of the emperor, were allowed to attach the name of Napoleon to their own. This was not the adoption of love, but as a recognition of service rendered by their fathers. None can adopt into the family of God but God Himself, and it is an act on His part of pure, unmerited love. He raises us to the highest dignity, and endows us with unspeakable privileges, when He makes us His children; and our lives should be in harmony with so distinguished a relationship.

3. _He hath accepted us in Christ._--"Wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved" (ver. 6). Christ, the beloved One, is the special object of the Father's love, and all who are united to Christ by faith become sharers in the love with which the Divine Father regards His Son. It is only in and through Christ that we are admitted into the Divine family. God loves us in Christ, and the more so because we love Christ. We are accepted to a life of holiness and a service of love. Christ is the pattern of our sonship and the means of our adoption. The love of God to the race finds an outlet through the person and gracious intervention of His Son.

+II. The Gospel of grace was wrought out by the sufferings of the Son.+--1. _In Him we have forgiveness of sins._ "In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins" (ver. 7). How little do we realise the greatness and blessedness of the pardon of sin! It may seem difficult to explain how the forgiveness of sins is connected with the sufferings and death of Christ; but there is no fact in the New Testament writings more clearly revealed or more emphatically repeated than this. "The death of Christ was an act of submission on behalf of mankind to the justice of the penalties of violating the eternal law of righteousness--an act in which our own submission not only received a transcendent expression, but was really and vitally included; it was an act which secured the destruction of sin in all who, through faith, are restored to union with Christ; it was an act in which there was a revelation of the righteousness of God which must otherwise have been revealed in the infliction of the penalty of sin on the human race. Instead of inflicting suffering God has elected to endure it, that those who repent of sin may receive forgiveness, and may inherit eternal glory. It was greater to endure suffering than to inflict it" (_Dale_). The forgiveness is free, full, and complete.

2. _In Him we have the revelation of the mystery of the Divine will._--"Wherein He hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence; having made known to us the mystery of His will" (vers. 8, 9). The will of God is to advance the ultimate glorious destiny of the whole creation. This sublime purpose was for ages an unrevealed mystery, unknown to the prophets, psalmists, and saints of earlier times. In the depths of the Divine counsels this purpose was to be carried out by Christ, and it is revealed only through and in Him. The believer in Christ discovers in Him, not only his own blessedness, but also the ultimate glory of all who are savingly united to the great Redeemer. The abounding grace of God bestows wisdom to apprehend a larger knowledge of the ways and will of God, and prudence to practically apply that knowledge in the conduct of life.

3. _In Him we enjoy the unity and grandeur of the heavenly inheritance._--"That in the dispensation of the fulness of times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, . . . in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, . . . that we should be to the praise of His glory" (vers. 10-12). The fulness of times must refer to the Gospel age and the glorious ages to follow, in which the accomplishment of the Divine purpose will become more apparent. That purpose is to heal up the estrangement of man from God, and to restore moral harmony to the universe, which has been disordered by the introduction of sin. The great agent in the unifying and harmonising of all things is Christ, who is the centre and circumference of all. The angels who never sinned, and the saints who are made such by redeeming mercy, will share together the inheritance of bliss provided by the suffering and triumphant Christ. "One final glory will consist, not in the restoration of the solitary soul to solitary communion with God, but in the fellowship of all the blessed with the blessedness of the universe as well as with the blessedness of God."

+III. The Gospel of grace is confirmed and realised by the operation of the Holy Spirit.+--1. _By Him we hear and understand the Word of truth._ "In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation" (ver. 13). The Gospel is emphatically the Word of truth; it is reliable history, not romance--a revelation of truths essential to salvation. It is the function of the Holy Spirit to illuminate the mind by the instrumentality of the truth, to apply the Word to the conscience, and to regenerate the heart. He takes of the things of Christ and shows them unto us, and the vision leads on to a spiritual transformation.

2. _By Him we are sealed as an earnest of possessing the full inheritance of blessing._--"Ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance" (vers. 13, 14). The work of the Spirit broke down all class distinctions. The Jewish Christians discovered that the exclusive privileges of their race had passed away. All believers in Christ Jesus, whether Jew or Gentile, received the assurance of the Spirit that all the prerogatives and blessings of God's eternal kingdom were theirs. The seal of the Spirit is the Divine attestation to the believing soul of its admission into the favour of God, and the guarantee of ultimately entering into the full possession and enjoyment of the heavenly inheritance.

+Lessons.+--1. _The Gospel of grace is the harmonious work of the blessed Trinity._ 2. _The grace of the Gospel is realized by faith._ 3. _Praise for the gift of the Gospel should be continually offered to the Triune God._

_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._

Vers. 3-6. _The Doctrine of Predestination._--Neither Calvinism nor Arminianism has solved the problem presented in this chapter. Like difficulties meet us in God's providential dealings--ay, in the workings of His natural laws; for, as a brilliant author has said, "Nature is a terrible Calvinist."--_Lange._

_Election._--It is above logic and philosophy and even technical theology, even as on many, and these, the most important subjects, the heart is a better teacher than the head. In these matters I am so fearful that I dare not speak further--yea, almost none otherwise than the text does, as it were, lead me by the hand.--_Ridley._

_Mystery of election._--Those who are willing are always the elect; those who will not are not elected. Many men are wrapped up in the doctrines of election and predestination; but that is the height of impertinence. They are truths belonging to God alone; and if you are perplexed by them, it is only because you trouble yourself about things which do not concern you. You only need to know that God sustains you with all His might in the winning of your salvation if you will only rightly use His help. Whoever doubts this is like a crew of a boat working with all their might against the tide and yet going back hour after hour; then they notice that the tide turns, while at the same time the wind springs up and fills their sails. The coxswain cries, "Pull away, boys! wind and tide favour you!" But they answer, "What can we do with the oars? don't the wind and tide take away our free agency?"--_H. W. Beecher._

Ver. 3. _Spiritual Blessings._

+I. They are accommodated to our spiritual wants and desires, they come down from heaven, prepare us for heaven, and will be completed in our admission to heaven.+--The influences of the Spirit are heavenly gifts, the renovation of the heart by a Divine operation is wisdom from above, the renewed Christian is born from above and becomes a spiritual man, the state of immortality Christ has purchased for believers is an inheritance reserved for them in heaven, in the resurrection they will be clothed with a house from heaven, with spiritual and heavenly bodies, and they will sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

+II. The blessings granted to the Ephesians are tendered to us.+--He offers us the honours and felicities of adoption and the remission of all our sins through the atonement of His Son. He has proposed for our acceptance an inheritance incorruptible in the heavens. We have happier advantages to become acquainted with the doctrines and precepts of the Gospel than the primitive Christians could enjoy. If they were bound to give thanks for their privileges, how criminal must be ingratitude under ours! We must one day answer before God for all the spiritual blessings He has sent us.--_Lathrop._

Vers. 4-6. _The Nature, Source, and Purposes of Spiritual Blessings._

+I. God chose and predestinated these Ephesian Christians before the foundation of the world.+--We must not so conceive of God's election and the influence of His grace as to set aside our free agency and final accountableness; nor must we so explain away God's sovereignty and grace as to exalt man to a state of independence. Now, so far as the grace of God in the salvation of sinners is absolute and unconditional, election or predestination is so, and no farther. If we consider election as it respects the final bestowment of salvation, it is plainly conditional. To imagine that God chooses some to eternal life without regard to their faith and holiness is to suppose that some are saved without these qualifications or saved contrary to His purpose. God hath chosen us to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth.

+II. Consider the spiritual qualifications to which the Ephesians were chosen.+--"To be holy and without blame before Him in love" (ver. 4). Holiness consists in the conformity of the soul to the Divine nature and will and is opposed to all moral evil. Love is a most essential part of the character of the saint. Charity out of a pure heart is the end of the commandment. Without charity all our pretensions to Gospel holiness are vain.

+III. Consider the adoption to which believers are predestinated+ (ver. 5).--Our sonship is not our native right, but the effect of God's gracious adoption. 1. _It implies a state of freedom in opposition to bondage._ Believers are free as being delivered from the bondage of sin, and as having near access to God and intimate communion with Him. Children are usually admitted to that familiar intercourse which is denied to servants. 2. _Adoption brings us under the peculiar care of God's providence._ 3. _Includes a title to a glorious resurrection from the dead and to an eternal inheritance in the heavens._ If believers are the children of God, then their temper must be a childlike temper, a temper corresponding to their relation, condition, and character.

+IV. That all spiritual blessings are derived to us through Christ+ (vers. 5, 6).

+V. The reason of God's choosing believers in Christ and predestinating them to adoption is the good pleasure of His will+ (ver. 5).--If we admit we are sinful, fallen creatures, unworthy of God's favour and insufficient for our own redemption, then our salvation must ultimately be resolved into God's good pleasure. There is no other source from which it can be derived. If death is our desert, our deliverance must be by grace.

+VI. The great purpose for which God has chosen and called us is the praise of the glory of His grace+ (ver. 6).--God has made this display of His grace that unworthy creatures might apply to Him for salvation. We are to praise the glory of God's grace by a cheerful compliance with the precepts and thankful acceptance of the blessings of the Gospel, by a holy life, and by encouraging others to accept that grace. Believers will, in a more perfect manner, show forth the praise of God's glorious grace in the future world.--_Lathrop._

Vers. 5, 6. _The Glory of Divine Grace_--

+I. Is the sublime outcome of the Divine will.+--"According to His
will" (ver. 5).

+II. Is a signal display of joyous benevolence.+--"According to the
good pleasure of His will" (ver. 5).

+III. Demands profound and grateful recognition.+--"To the praise of
the glory of His grace" (ver. 6).

Ver. 5. _The Adoption of Children by Jesus Christ._--Explain the nature of the privilege.

+I. Its greatness.+--1. From the Being by whom it is conferred. 2. From the price at which it was procured. 3. From the inheritance which it conveys. 4. From the manner in which it is bestowed. The new birth.

+II. Its benefits.+--1. The spirit of adoption. 2. Divine care and protection. 3. Divine pity and compassion. 4. Overruling all trials for spiritual good.

+III. The evidences of its possession.+--1. The image of God. 2. The love of God. 3. The love of the brethren.

+IV. Its appropriate duties.+--The children of God ought--1. To walk worthy of their high vocation. 2. To be subject to their Father's will both in doing and in suffering. 3. To be mindful of what they owe to their spiritual kindred. 4. To long for their heavenly home.--_G. Brooks._

Ver. 6. _The Adopting Love of God._

+I. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the Beloved of the Father.+--From eternity during the preparatory dispensation in the days of His flesh; now; for ever. An ineffable love.

+II. The Father's love of believers is on account of the Lord Jesus Christ.+--He accepts them for the sake of Christ as united to Christ. Acceptance distinct from pardon.

+III. The Father's acceptance of believers is an act of sovereign grace.+--Irrespective of their merit. Neither the necessity of the atonement nor the obligation of faith is inconsistent with acceptance by grace.

+IV. The Father's acceptance of believers for the sake of Christ promotes His own glory.+--His glory is the end of all things. Implore all to seek acceptance with God through Christ.--_G. Brooks._

Vers. 7, 8. _Redemption through Christ._

+I. The subjects of this redemption.+--Redemption, though offered without distinction to all who hear the Gospel, is actually bestowed only on those who repent of their sins and believe on the Saviour.

+II. The nature of this redemption.+--There is a twofold redemption--the redemption of the soul from the guilt of sin by pardon, and the redemption of the body from the power of the grave by the resurrection. The former of these is intended. But these two privileges are connected. The remission of sin, which is a release from our obligation to punishment, is accompanied with a title to eternal life.

+III. The way and manner in which believers become partakers of this privilege.+--Through the blood of Christ. The death of Christ is the ground of our hope. Jesus Christ, through whose blood we obtain forgiveness, is the Beloved. This character of Christ shows the excellence of His sacrifice and displays the grace of God in giving Him for us.

+IV. Observe the foundation from which our redemption flows.+--"The riches of His grace." Every blessing bestowed on sinners is by grace; but the blessing of forgiveness is according to the riches, the exceeding, the unsearchable riches of grace.

+V. In this dispensation of mercy God has abounded to us in all wisdom and prudence.+--The most glorious display of God's wisdom is in the work of our redemption. Here the perfections of God appear in the brightest lustre and most beautiful harmony. In this dispensation there is a door of hope opened to the most unworthy, believers have the greatest possible security, and it holds forth the most awful terrors against sin and the most powerful motives to obedience.--_Lathrop._

Ver. 7. _Pardon an Act of Sovereign Grace._--This free and gracious pleasure of God or purpose of His will to act towards sinners according to His own abundant goodness is another thing that influences forgiveness. Pardon flows immediately from a sovereign act of free grace. This free purpose of God's will and grace for the pardoning of sinners is that which is principally intended when we say, "There is forgiveness with Him"; that is, He is pleased to forgive, and so to do is agreeable to His nature. Now the mystery of this grace is deep; it is eternal, and therefore incomprehensible. Few there are whose hearts are raised to a contemplation of it. Men rest and content themselves in a general notion of mercy which will not be advantageous to their souls. Freed they would be from punishment; but what it is to be forgiven they inquire not. So what they know of it they come easily by, but will find in the issue it will stand them in little stead. But these fountains of God's actings are revealed that they may be the fountains of our comforts.--_John Owen._

Ver. 8. _The Harmony of Christianity in its Personal Influence._

+I. The wisdom and prudence of the Gospel are manifested by showing with equal distinctness the Divine justice and mercy.+--Justice does not arrest the hand of mercy; mercy does not restrain the hand of justice. They speak with a united voice, they command with a united authority, they shine with a united glory. Neither excels. The one does not overbear the other. Their common splendour is like the neutral tint, the effulgent colourlessness of the undecomposed ray.

+II. By exhibiting the incarnate Son as alike the object of love and adoration.+

+III. By insisting most uniformly on Divine grace and human responsibility.+

+IV. By the proposal of the freest terms of acceptance and the enforcement of the most universal practice of obedience.+

+V. By inspiring the most elevated joy in connection with the deepest self-abhorrence.+

+VI. By displaying the different conduct pursued by the Deity towards sin and the sinner.+

+VII. By combining the genuine humility of the Gospel with our dignity as creatures and our conscientiousness as saints.+

+VIII. By causing all supernatural influence to operate through our rational powers and by intelligent means.+

+IX. By resting our evidence of safety and spiritual welfare upon personal virtues.+

+X. By supplying the absence of enslaving fear with salutary caution.+

+XI. The actual existence of our depraved nature and the work of sanctification in us pressing forward to its maturity tend to that regulated temperament of mind which we urge.+

+XII. Certain views of personal conduct are so coupled in the Gospel with the noblest views of grace that any improper warping of our minds is counteracted.+

+XIII. While the distinctive blessings and honours of the Christian might tend to elate him, he is affected by the most opposite motives.+

+XIV. God abounds in this wisdom and prudence towards us by most strongly abstracting us from the things of earth and yet giving us the deepest interest in its relations and engagements.+--All the truths of revelation are only parts of one system, but their effects upon the believing mind are common and interchangeable. There is no extraneous, no irreconcilable, no confusing element in Christianity. It is of One; it is one. And if we be Christians, our experience will be the counterpart of it. As it works out from apparent shocks and collisions its perfect unity, so shall our experience be wrought in the same way. In obeying from our hearts its form, whatever of its influence may seem to interfere with each other, they will all be found to establish our heart; as the opposing currents often swell the tide and more proudly waft the noble bark it carries, as the counterbalancing forces of the firmament bear the star onward in its unquivering poise and undeviating revolution.--_R. W. Hamilton._

Vers. 9-12. _The Mystery of the Gospel._

+I. The sovereign grace of God in making known to us the mystery of His will.+--1. _The Gospel is called the mystery of God's will, the mystery which from the beginning was hid in God, and the unsearchable riches of Christ._ Not that these phrases represent the Gospel as obscure and unintelligible, but that the Gospel scheme was undiscoverable by the efforts and researches of human reason and could be made known to men only by the light of Divine revelation. There are many things in the Gospel which are and will remain incomprehensible to human reason; but though we cannot fully comprehend them, we may sufficiently understand them.

2. _God has made known to us His will "according to the good pleasure which He purposed in Himself."_--Though the reason of His administration is not made known to us, yet all His purposes are directed by consummate wisdom. He is Sovereign in the distribution of His favours; His goodness to us is no wrong to the heathen.

+II. The purpose of God in making known to us the mystery of His will+ (ver. 10).--1. _The Gospel is called "the dispensation of the fulness of times."_ It was introduced at the time exactly ordained in the purpose, and expressly predicted in the Word of God, and in this sense may be called "the dispensation of the fulness of times."

2. _One end of this dispensation was that God "might gather together in one all things in Christ"_ (ver. 10).--To form one body in Christ, to collect one Church, one great kingdom under Him.

3. _The Gospel is intended to unite in Christ all things both which are in heaven and which are in earth._--The Church of Christ consists of the whole family in heaven and earth. Here is a powerful argument for Christian love and for Christian candour.

+III. In Him we have obtained an inheritance that we should be to the praise of His glory who first trusted in Christ.+--The believing Jews were the first who trusted in Christ. They, with the believing Gentiles, were made heirs of God, not only to the privileges of His Church on earth, but to an inheritance also in the heavens. As they had first obtained an inheritance and first trusted in Christ, so they should be first to the praise of God's glory.--_Lathrop._

Ver. 10. _Christ and Creation._--If the Divine purpose of salvation was regulative for the creation of the world, then must salvation as well as creation be grounded on the original Mediator. But that all creation should be thus grounded in Him includes a twofold idea--that not only were all things created by Him, but also for Him, who is to bring to completion both the saving purpose of God as also the whole development of the world which tends towards the realisation of the purpose of God. And because the world has not yet reached this goal, then all things have progressively their existence in Him; and it cannot fail, because the goal of the world established in Him must be realised. But how this goal of the world is conceived of, this verse shows, when it is mentioned as the final goal of the institution of God's grace that all things may be gathered in Christ as in a centre. He has been appointed to be this central point of the universe, as the universe was created in Him; but here it is pointed out that He must again become so, because a dislocation in the original constitution of the world has taken place by sin, whose removal again the dispensation of grace must have in view. The goal of the world is no longer regarded as the perfected kingdom of God, in which the absolute, universal Lordship of God is realised, in contrast to the earthly, mediatorial Lordship of Christ, which the latter gives back to the Father, and that the exaltation of Christ is extended over everything which has a name both in this world and in the future. One cannot think of the goal of the world without Him in whom even creation has its root.--_Weiss._