Chapter V: AUTOGRAPH CONCLUSION.--1. The Judaisers' motive (ch. vi. 12, 13) (11)

Vers. 11, 12. _Christ the Inheritance of the Saints._--1. Christ the Mediator is that person in whom believers have this heavenly inheritance, as they have all their other spiritual blessings leading to heaven in Him. Every believer hath already obtained this glorious inheritance, though not in complete personal possession. 2. As God is an absolute worker, sovereign Lord of all His actions, His will being His only rule, so His will is always joined with and founded upon the light of counsel and wisdom, and therefore He can will nothing but what is equitable and just. 3. It is no small privilege for any to be trusters in Christ before others. It is a matter of their commendation; it glorifies God in so far as their example and experience may prove an encouraging motive to others. It carries several advantages; the sooner a man closes with Christ, the work will be done more easily, he is the sooner freed from sin, the sooner capacitated to do more service to God, and his concernments are the sooner out of hazard.--_Fergusson._

Ver. 13. _The Gospel of your Salvation._

+I. The import of the salvation proclaimed in the Gospel.+--It is deliverance from all the evils that have been brought on us by the Fall. 1. From ignorance, not of science, but of God. 2. From guilt, or the penalty which the law inflicts. 3. From the power of sin, of which we are slaves. 4. From the sorrows and calamities of life, which it does not remove, but alleviate and transform. 5. From the power and fear of death. 6. From everlasting perdition.

+II. The persons to whom this view of the Gospel is specially applicable.+--1. To the unconverted. It teaches them what they are. 2. To the awakened. It teaches them what they need. 3. To believers. It awakens their gratitude, it reproves their lukewarmness, it stimulates their charity.

+III. The reflections to which this view of the Gospel gives rise.+--How precious in our estimation should be--1. the Gospel, 2. the Saviour, 3. the Saviour's work, 4. the Saviour's ordinances, 5. the Saviour's servants and people, 6. the Saviour's second coming.--_G. Brooks._

_The Truth and Divinity of the Christian Religion._

+I. It is reasonable to suppose that God should at some time or season fully and clearly reveal unto men the truth concerning Himself and concerning them as He and they stand related to each other, concerning His nature and will, and concerning our state and duty.+--Argued from 1. His goodness, 2. His wisdom, 3. His justice, 4. His Divine majesty.

+II. That no other revelation of that kind and importance has been made, which can with good probability pretend to have thus proceeded from God, so as by Him to have been designed for a general, perpetual, complete instruction and obligation of mankind.+--1. _Paganism_ did not proceed from Divine revelation, but from human invention or diabolical suggestion. All the pagan religions vanished, together with the countenance of secular authority and power sustaining them. 2. _Mohammedanism_ an imposture. 3. _Judaism_ was defective. (1) This revelation was not general--not directed, nor intended to instruct and oblige mankind. (2) As this revelation was particular, so was it also partial--as God did not by it speak His mind to all, so did He not therein speak out all His mind. (3) It was not designed for perpetual obligation and use.

+Conclusion.+--No other religion, except Christianity, which has been or is in being, can reasonably pretend to have proceeded from God as a universal, complete, and final declaration of His mind and will to mankind.--_Barrow._

Vers. 13, 14. _The Assurance of the Christian Inheritance._--By the first act of faith the whole tendencies of man's life are reversed. Until then the present has been his world and the earth his place of rest; then, by the inspiration of the cross, a spiritual world draws upon his view, that everlasting region becomes his home, and life assumes the character of a pilgrimage. We need to have the deep assurance of the immortal kingdom in order to live an earnest life in a world like this.

+I. The nature of the assurance.+--The voices of promises in the Christian's soul--the longings, aspirations, hopes, rising from the Spirit of God within us--are more than promises; they are earnests, _i.e._ most certain assurances of the inheritance to come. This inheritance of spiritual life consists of three great elements--love, power, blessedness.

+II. The necessity of the assurance.+--The inheritance is given, but not reached. Between the gift and its attainment there lies a long path of conflict in which the old struggle between the flesh and the Spirit reveals itself in three forms: 1. Sense against the soul; 2. The present against the future; 3. Steadfast work against the roving propensities of the heart.--_E. L. Hull._

_The Holy Spirit and the Earnest of the Inheritance._

+I. The character of the inheritance.+--The teaching of the passage is that heaven is likest the selectest moments of devotion that a Christian has on earth. Heaven is the perfecting of the life of the Spirit begun here, and the loftiest attainments of that life here are but the beginnings and infantile movements of immature beings.

+II. The grounds of certainty that we shall ultimately possess the fulness of the inheritance.+--The true ground of certainty lies in this, that you have the Spirit in your heart, operating His own likeness and moulding you, sealing you, after His own stamp and image. 1. The very fact of such a relation between man and God is itself the great assurance of immortality and everlasting life. 2. The characteristics that are produced by this Holy Spirit's indwelling, both in the perfectness and imperfection, are the great guarantee of the inheritance being ours. 3. The Holy Spirit in a man's heart makes him desire and believe in the inheritance.--_A. Maclaren._

_The Faith of the Early Christians._

+I. The object of their faith.+--The Word of truth and the Gospel of salvation. It is the Word of truth. It contains all that truth which concerns our present duty and our future glory. It comes attended with demonstrations of its own Divinity. It is the Gospel of our salvation. It discovers to us our ruined, helpless condition, the mercy of God to give us salvation, the way in which it is procured for us, the terms on which we may become interested in it, the evidences by which our title to it must be ascertained, and the glory and happiness it comprehends.

+II. The forwardness and yet the reasonableness of their faith.+--They trusted in Christ after they heard the Word. They acted as honest and rational men: they did not trust before they heard it, nor refused to trust after they heard it. They did not take the Gospel on the credit of other men without examination; nor did they reject it when they had an opportunity to examine it for themselves. Their faith stood not in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

+III. The happy consequence of their faith.+--They were "sealed with the Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance." They became partakers of such a Divine influence as sanctified them to a meetness for heaven, and thus evidenced their title to it.

1. _The sealing of the Spirit._--Sealing literally signifies the impression of the image or likeness of one thing upon another. A seal impressed on wax leaves there its own image. Instruction is said to be sealed when it is so impressed on the heart as to have an abiding influence. So, the sealing of believers is their receiving on their hearts the Divine image and character by the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit. The Word of truth is here considered as the seal, the believing heart as the subject, the Holy Spirit as the agent or sealer, and the effect produced as a Divine likeness. By a like metaphor Christians are represented as cast in the mould of the Gospel. The same idea is conveyed by the metaphor of writing the Word on the heart.

2. _The earnest of the Spirit._--The Spirit, having sealed believers or sanctified them after God's image, becomes an earnest of their inheritance. The firstfruits were pledges of the ensuing harvest; earnest-money in a contract is a pledge of the fulfilment of it. So, the graces and comforts of religion are to Christians the anticipations and foretastes of the happiness which awaits them in heaven. (1) The virtues of the Christian temper, which are the fruits of the Spirit, are to believers an earnest of their inheritance because they are in part a fulfilment of the promise which conveys the inheritance. (2) They are an earnest as they are preparatives for it. (3) The sealing and sanctifying influence of the Spirit is especially called an earnest of the inheritance because it is a part of the inheritance given beforehand. It is the earnest till the redemption of the purchased possession. When we actually possess the inheritance the earnest will be no longer needed.

+Lessons.+--1. _All the operations of the Spirit on the minds of men are of a holy nature and tendency._ 2. _We are strongly encouraged to apply to God for the needful influences of His grace._ 3. _We can have no conclusive evidence of a title to heaven without the experience of a holy temper._ 4. _Christians are under indispensable obligations to universal holiness.--Lathrop._

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 15-18.

_Prayer for Higher Spiritual Knowledge_--

+I. Thankfully acknowledges the grace already possessed+ (vers. 15, 16).--The possession of some grace prompts the prayer for more. The apostle recognises the faith of the Ephesians in the person and work of Christ and the love they displayed towards the saints. Knowing the source of that grace and that the supply was unlimited, he thanks God and is encouraged to pray for its increase. How slow we are to see the good in others and to thank God for any good found in ourselves! Ingratitude dulls our sensibilities and chills the breath of prayer. If we were more thankful, we should be more prayerful. The way to excite gratitude is to interest ourselves in the highest welfare of others.

+II. Invokes the impartation of additional spiritual insight+ (vers. 17, 18).--The apostle prays, not for temporal good or for prosperity in outward things, or even for the cessation of trouble or persecution, but for an accession of mental and spiritual blessings. He prays for the opening of the eye of the mind that the vision of spiritual realities may be more clear and reliable, and that the soul may be possessed with a fuller knowledge of Christ. The highest wisdom is gained by a more accurate conception of Him "in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." Sin enters the heart through the avenue of the senses and passions, grace through a spiritually enlightened understanding. Pride, prejudice, and error are expelled from the mind not so much by the repression of evil tendencies as by the entrance and maintenance of superior moral truths. The revelation of the Spirit in the Word will not suffice unless the light of the same Spirit shines through every faculty and power of the inquiring soul. "Man's knowledge is not perfect within the domain of creation, still less can he know the things of the invisible world. Only by living in a sphere does he gather knowledge of what is found there: knowledge comes from experience of occurrences. Without a disposition of the heart the sense of the understanding is not enlarged and sharpened. Sensible, mental, spiritual knowledge refers to life spheres in which he who knows must move. Only the believing, loving, longing one knows and grows in knowledge unto knowledge." We need, therefore, continually to pray for the Spirit of wisdom--a keener spiritual insight.

+III. Unveils the grandeur of the Divine inheritance in believers.+--"That ye may know what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints" (ver. 18). The increase of spiritual knowledge is an ever-widening revelation of the value and splendour of Divine blessings already possessed and in prospect of possession. Faith enjoys the inheritance now, and hope anticipates an ampler revelation and richer experience of its unspeakable blessedness. The phrase "the riches of the glory of His inheritance" indicates how utterly inadequate human language is to describe its boundless spiritual wealth. It is an inheritance implying union to Him who only hath immortality and is eternal. Rust cannot corrupt it, nor decay consume, nor death destroy. We have not only an inheritance in Christ, but He has also an inheritance in us. He finds more in us than we find ourselves, and we should never know it was there but for the revelation of Himself within us.

+Lessons.+--1. _Prayer and thanksgiving go together._ 2. _The soul needs a daily revelation of truth._ 3. _The highest spiritual truths are made known to the soul that prays._

_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._

Vers. 15-18. _Clearer Discernment in Divine Things desired._

+I. The things for which the apostle commends the Ephesians.+--Their faith in Jesus and love to the saints (ver. 15). 1. Faith is such a sensible, realising belief of the Gospel in its general truth and in its particular doctrines and precepts as gives it a practical influence on the heart and life; it looks up to God through Christ; it is made perfect by works. 2. Faith is accompanied with love. Viewing and applying the examples and doctrines of the Gospel, it purifies the soul unto unfeigned love of the brethren. The Gospel requires us to love all men, sinners as well as saints, enemies as well as friends. If we love God for His moral perfections, we shall love the saints as far as they appear to have these Divine qualities wrought into their temper. Our love is not to be confined to a party, to those who live in the same city and worship in the same sanctuary but embraces all.

+II. Paul expresses his great thankfulness to God for the success of the Gospel.+--"I cease not to give thanks" (ver. 16). He rejoiced in the honour which redounded to the crucified Jesus. He rejoiced to think how many were rescued from the power of Satan, and in the consequences which might ensue to others. If the prevalence of religion is matter of thankfulness, we should spare no pains to give it success.

+III. He prays for the future success of the Gospel+ (ver. 16).--The best Christians have need to make continual improvement. Paul was no less constant in his prayers than in his labours for the spiritual interest of mankind. He knew that the success of all his labours depended on God's blessing; he therefore added to them his fervent prayers. When ministers and people strive together in their prayers, there is reason to hope for God's blessing on both.

+IV. He prayed for spiritual enlightenment+ (vers. 17, 18).--That they may seek wisdom from God to understand the revelation He has given, and such an illumination of mind as to discern the nature and excellence of the things contained in this revelation. Christians must not content themselves with their present knowledge but aspire to all riches of the full assurance of understanding.

+V. He prayed for power to appreciate Christian privileges+ (ver. 18).--To know the hope of the Divine calling, the possibility and assurance of attaining the heavenly kingdom. To know what a rich and glorious inheritance God has prepared for and promised to the saints. Though we cannot comprehend its dimensions nor compute its value, yet when we consider the grace of the Being who conveys it, the riches of the price which bought it, and the Divine preparation by which the heirs are formed to enjoy it, we must conceive it to be unspeakably glorious.--_Lathrop._

_The Apprehension of Spiritual Blessings._

+I. Further spiritual blessings are to be apprehended by the saints, therefore their condition is a relative one.+--The Ephesians had already received spiritual blessings (vers. 11-15). How much more is here. The possessed bears some proportion to what is to be received. Without this relative view the estimate is vague and erroneous. The further gifts consist specially in the clearer sight and more certain and enlarged experience of what they already saw and possessed. "Him," "His calling," "His inheritance," "His mighty power"--these were to be theirs in a degree of exceeding greatness and glory.

+II. Unless saints apprehend blessings now attainable, they live below their privilege.+--"If thou knewest the gift of God, thou wouldst have asked of Him" (1 John iv. 10). Without some knowledge there is neither faith nor desire. With these unveilings the heart is deeply moved with the sense of obligation to possess, it is attracted and filled with desire and animation. Otherwise, with an ignorant satisfaction, the condition must remain relatively lean and impoverished.

+III. The spiritual apprehension of these blessings is the gift of God.+--This is needed because of their Divine nature. As we cannot properly see what the sun has called into life and beauty without his light, so these blessings are truly seen only in the light of the Sun of Righteousness. Through the Redeemer the Spirit is given. He gives the Spirit to enlighten both the object and the eye, to "testify," to "show," to "glorify," to reveal, "that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God." Thus, these blessings are seen, not distantly and dimly, but in their nearness and unveiled glory, whilst He creates in the heart corresponding sympathy, desire, and assurance. Nothing can compensate for this gift--no mere intelligence, no reflection upon past experience, no mere help from others.

+IV. This gift is bestowed in answer to prayer.+--This particular bestowment comes under the promise of the Spirit to believing prayer. This is a gift. Gifts are asked for, not made ours in any other way. This gift is awaiting and challenging prayer, importunate prayer. That an ever-deepening desire for these spiritual gifts may be ours, let us often ask--What truths are given to me, which, if the eyes of my understanding were enlightened, would not exert the most positive influence over me, lifting me into the clearer light of God's relations, thus empowering me to live above the standard of natural strength, and so to fulfil His present designs? Think of the alternative.--_J. Holmes._

Vers. 15, 16. _True Religion self-revealing_--

+I. In its moral results.+--"Faith and love" (ver. 15).

+II. Is evident to others.+--"I heard of your faith" (ver. 15).

+III. Is the occasion of constant thanksgiving.+--"Cease not to give
thanks for you" (ver. 16).

+IV. Calls forth a spirit of prayer.+--"Making mention of you in my
prayers" (ver. 16).

Vers. 17, 18. _Spiritual Enlightenment._--1. The wisdom which Christians are to seek is not that carnal wisdom which is enmity to God, nor natural wisdom or knowledge of the hidden mysteries of nature, nor the wisdom of Divine mysteries, which is only a gift and floweth from a common influence of the Spirit, but that whereof the Spirit of God by His special operation and influence is author and worker, and is more than a gift, even the grace of wisdom, which is not acquired by our own industry, but cometh from above. 2. It is not sufficient for attaining this grace of wisdom that the truths be plainly revealed by the Spirit in Scripture. There must be the removal of natural darkness from our understandings, that we may be enabled to take up that which is revealed, as in beholding colours by the outward sense there must be not only an outward light to make the object conspicuous, but also the faculty of seeing in the eye. A blind man cannot see at noonday, nor the sharpest-sighted at midnight. 3. Though those excellent things which are not yet possessed, but only hoped for, are known in part, yet so excellent are they in themselves, and remote from our knowledge, and so much are we taken up with trifles and childish toys, that even believers who have their thoughts most exercised about them are in a great part ignorant of them. 4. As the things hoped for and really to be enjoyed in the other life are of the nature of an inheritance not purchased by us but freely bestowed upon us, so they are properly Christ's inheritance, who has proper right to it as the natural Son of God and by virtue of His own purchase; but the right we have is communicated to us through Him, in whom we have received the adoption of children and are made heirs and co-heirs with Christ. 5. It is a glorious inheritance, there being nothing there but what is glorious. The sight shall be glorious, for we shall see God as we are seen, the place glorious, the company glorious, our souls and bodies shall be glorious, and our exercise glorious, giving glory to God for ever and ever.--_Fergusson._

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 19-23.

_The Church Complete in Christ._

+I. The Church is the creation of Divine power+ (ver. 19).--The Church does not consist in massive architecture or ornate decorations, nor in ecclesiastical organisations and councils. It is not the offspring of the most elaborately constructed creed. It is not confined within the limits of the most expansive ecclesiastical epithet. It is a Divine, spiritual creation. It consists of souls redeemed by the sacrifice of Jesus, clinging to Him for pardon, peace, and righteousness, and created in Him, by "the working of the mighty power" of the Divine Spirit, for good works, and therefore continually striving to disseminate the good they have themselves received. The apostolic idea of the Church was coloured by the leading characteristic of the man. To St. Peter it was the Church as influenced by law--the confessing Church; to St. Paul it was the Church influenced by the freedom of faith--the witnessing Church; to St. John it was the Church as filled with the ideality of faith--working and keeping joyful holiday, the adorned Bride (Rev. xix. 7, 8). The Church is a constant revelation of "the exceeding greatness of His power" who first originated it and sustains its ever-widening growth.

+II. The Divine power that creates the Church installs Christ as the supreme authority.+--1. _This power raised Christ from the deepest humiliation to the highest dignity_ (vers. 20, 21). It raised Him from the cross to the throne, from the domain of the dead to the life and everlasting glory of the heavenly world. "God ascended with jubilation, and the Lord with the sound of the trumpet. Certainly, if when He brought His only begotten Son into the world He said, 'Let all the angels worship Him' (Heb. i. 6); much more, now that He ascends on high and hath led captivity captive, hath He given Him a name above all names, that at the name of Jesus all knees should bow. And if the holy angels did so carol at His birth in the very entrance into that estate of humiliation and infirmity, with what triumph they receive Him now returning from the perfect achievement of man's redemption! And if, when His type had vanquished Goliath and carried the head into Jerusalem, the damsels came forth to meet him with dances and timbrels, how shall we think those angelic spirits triumph in meeting the great Conqueror of hell and death! How did they sing, 'Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in'!" (Ps. xxiv. 7-10).

2. _This power invests Christ with supreme rule and authority_ (ver. 22). On the night when Christ was born what a difference was there in all outward marks of distinction between the child of the Hebrew mother as He lay in His lowly cradle, and the Augustus Cæsar, whose edict brought Mary to Bethlehem, as he reposed in his imperial palace. And throughout the lifetime of the two there was but little to lessen that distinction. The name of the one was known and honoured over the whole civilised globe, the name of the Other scarce heard of beyond the narrow bounds of Judea. How stands it now? The throne of the Cæsars, the throne of mere human authority and power, has perished. But the empire of Jesus, the empire of pure, undying, self-sacrificing love, will never perish; its sway over the consciences and hearts of men, as the world grows older, becomes ever wider and stronger (_Hanna_). The rule of Christ will last till all enemies are subdued, and obedience to Him becomes a reverential and joyous experience.

Transcriber's Note: Please search the Internet for videos
that explore the properties of elemental mercury
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+III. The Church is complete as it is endowed with the Divine fulness of Christ+ (ver. 23).--The Church to-day seems broken into fragments, torn by divisions and strife; but by-and-by it will blend in a glorious unity. Take a mass of quicksilver, let it fall on the floor, and it will split into a vast number of distinct globules; gather them up, and put them together again, and they will coalesce into one body as before. Thus, God's people below are sometimes divided into various parties, though they are all in fact members of one and the same mystic body. But when taken up from the world and put together in heaven they will constitute one glorious, undivided Church for ever and ever. The completeness of the Church is not the aggregation of all the virtues of the saints blended in beauteous and harmonious unity, but the glory of the Divine fulness that pervades every part.

+Lessons.+--1. _The Church as a Divine creation is a revelation of Christ._ 2. _The Church is composed of those who are created anew in Christ Jesus._ 3. _Christ is everything to His Church._

_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._

Vers. 19-23. _The Dignity and Dominion of Christ._

+I. The first step in Christ's exaltation was the resurrection from the dead.+--This miracle is an incontestable evidence of the truth of the Christian religion, and an evidence of the great doctrine of the resurrection of the body and a future life, and of the efficacy of Christ's blood to expiate the guilt of our sins. If we believe that Jesus died and rose again, we must believe that the same mighty power which wrought in Him can also work in us to raise us from the dead.

+II. The next step is His ascension to heaven and session at God's right hand+ (ver. 20). The right hand is the place of honour and respect and denotes superior dignity. Christ sitting at God's right hand signifies He has ceased from His labours and sufferings and entered into a state of repose and joy, and imports authority and power. He is exalted not only as Ruler, but also as Intercessor.

+III. The exaltation of Christ is supreme.+--His kingdom extends to all creatures in heaven, earth, and under the earth. The government of the natural world is in His hands, as well as the government of the Church. He has dominion over devils. His last and most glorious act is the judgment of the world.

+IV. The end for which Christ exercises His high and extensive dominion+ (vers. 22, 23).--All His government is managed in reference to the good of the Church. See how criminal and dangerous it is to oppose the interest of the Church. If the Church is Christ's body, let us honour it, study to preserve unity in it, labour for its edification and comfort. Let us honour and reverence our Head, and never presumptuously lift up ourselves against the Church.--_Lathrop._

Ver. 19. _The Power of God in Conversion._--1. The power God exercises in converting and carrying on the work of grace to glory is not only great, but exceeds all power that might impede that work, so that there is no power in the devil, the world, sin, or death which this power does not overcome nor any impotency in believers which this greatness of power will not help and strengthen. There is no more pregnant proof of God's omnipotent power than in converting sinners from sin to holiness. 2. This mighty power of God extends to all times. It works in the first conversion of believers, preserves them in a state of grace, actuating their graces that they may grow, and continues till their graces are perfected. 3. The experimental knowledge of God's way of working is to be carefully sought after, to make us thankful for His gracious working in us, in order that our knowledge of God may be increased and our faith and hope in Him strengthened.--_Fergusson._

Ver. 20. _The Future Life._

+I. Our virtuous friends at death go to Jesus Christ.+--Here is one great fact in regard to futurity. The good on leaving us here meet their Saviour, and this view alone assures us of their unutterable happiness. The joys of centuries will be crowded into that meeting. This is not fiction. It is truth founded on the essential laws of the mind. Their intercourse with Jesus Christ will be of the most affectionate and ennobling character. They are brought to a new comprehension of His mind and to a new reception of His Spirit. They will become joint workers--active, efficient ministers--in accomplishing His great work of spreading virtue and happiness. They retain the deepest interest in this world. They love human nature as never before, and human friends are prized as above all price.

+II. Our virtuous friends go not to Jesus only, but to the great and blessed society which is gathered round Him.+--The redeemed from all regions of earth. They meet peculiar congratulations from friends who had gone before them to that better world, and especially from all who had in any way given aids to their virtue. If we have ever known the enjoyments of friendship, of entire confidence, of co-operation in honourable and successful labours with those we love, we can comprehend something of the felicity of a world where souls, refined from selfishness, open as the day, thirsting for new truth and virtue, endowed with new power of enjoying the beauty and grandeur of the universe, allied in the noblest works of benevolence, and continually discovering new mysteries of the Creator's power and goodness, communicate themselves to one another with the freedom of perfect love. They enter on a state of action, life, and effort. Still more, they go to God. They see Him with a new light in all His works. They see Him face to face, by immediate communion. These new relations of the ascended spirit to the universal Father, how near, how tender, how strong, how exalting! Heaven is a glorious reality. Its attraction should be felt perpetually. They who are safely gathered there say to us, "Come and join us in our everlasting blessedness!"--_Channing._

Vers. 21, 22. _The Supremacy of Jesus_--

+I. Acquired by His resurrection power.+

+II. Places Him above the highest created intelligences and
potentates.+

+III. Is expressed in a name that surpasses in dignity and greatness
that which has ever been or can be celebrated in earth or
heaven.+

+IV. Gives Him absolute control over all worlds.+--"And hath put all
things under His feet" (ver. 22).

Vers. 22, 23. _Christ the Head of the Church._

+I. The Church depends on Him for life, guidance, activity, and
development.+--"Which is His body" (ver. 23).

+II. He governs all things in the interest of His Church.+--"And
gave Him to be the Head over all things to the Church" (ver.
22).

+III. The Church is a revelation of the greatness and glory of
Christ.+--"The fulness of Him that filleth all in all" (ver.
23).

Ver. 22. _The Headship of Christ._

+I. The extent of His headship.+--1. Over all worlds. 2. Over the
whole human race. 3. Over the Church.

+II. The subserviency of its administration to the interests of His
Church.+--1. For the edification of His Church. 2. For its
defence. 3. For its increase.

+III. Its grounds.+--1. His merit. 2. His qualifications. Whom do ye
serve?--_G. Brooks._

_The Headship of Christ._--The verse consists of two statements:--

+I. That Christ is Head over all things.+--The Father hath given Christ to be Head over all things. 1. Originally involved in a covenant or agreement between the Father and the Son. 2. Now a matter of history. 3. The path of Christ to the mediatorial throne capable of being traced. 4. He there laid deep the foundations. 5. The whole universe is under His sway--heaven, earth, hell, all worlds, all elements. 6. He is qualified for such dominion--Divine attributes, angelic spirits, believers, the devil and wicked men, the Holy Spirit.

+II. That Christ is Head over all things, to the Church.+--Christ sits upon the throne in the same character in which He trod the earth and hung upon the cross. 1. It is as Mediator. 2. The same ends which He contemplated. It was for the Church He clothed Himself in human form. 3. He gives a peculiar character to the entire Divine government. He Christianises it. 4. He employs all His attributes, resources, creatures.

+Lessons.+--1. _Redemption is a wide and extended plan, not so easily accomplished, not so limited._ 2. _All creatures and dominions should do Christ homage._ 3. _The Church is secure from real danger._ 4. _Believers may well glory in Christ as their Head.--Stewart._

* * * * * * * *

+CHAPTER II.+

_CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES._

Ver. 1. +And you did He quicken.+--The italics in A.V. and R.V. show a broken construction of St. Paul's meaning, the verb being supplied from ver. 5, where the broken thread is taken up again. +Dead in trespasses and sins.+--"Dead through," etc. (R.V.). "What did they die of?" it might be asked; and the apostle answers, "Of trespasses and sins" (so _Alford_). "The word for trespasses is one of a mournfully numerous group of words" (_Trench_). It has sometimes the milder meaning of "faults," "mitigating circumstances" being considered. It makes special reference "to the subjective passivity and suffering of him who misses or falls short of the enjoined command" (_Cremer_). Meyer denies any "_real_ distinction between the words for 'trespasses' and 'sins.' They denote the same thing as a 'fall' and a 'missing.'"

Ver. 2. "Shadows," says Meyer, "before the light which arises in ver. 4." +Wherein in time past ye walked.+--It is a sombre picture--men walking about "to find themselves dishonourable graves" in the "valley of the shadow of death," knowing not whither they go because the darkness--the gloom of spiritual death--"hath blinded their eyes" (1 John ii. 11). +According to the course of this world.+--Well translated by our modern "zeit-geist," or "spirit of the age." +The prince of the power of the air.+--However contemptuous St. Paul may be of the creations of the Gnostic fancy, he never dreams of saying there is nothing existent unless it can be seen and felt. The dark realm and its ruler are not myths to the apostle.

Ver. 3. +Among whom also we all had our conversation.+--St. Paul does not glorify himself at the expense of his readers' past life. True his had not been a life swayed by animal delights (Acts xxvi. 5), but it had been marked by implacable enmity to the Son of God. +And were by nature children of wrath.+--"For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, . . . whether it be Jewish or Gentile."

Ver. 4. +But God, who is rich in mercy.+--"Unto all that call upon Him" (Rom. x. 12). "He hath shut all up into disobedience, that He might have mercy upon all" (Rom. xi. 32), +For His great love wherewith He loved us.+--"A combination only used when the notion of the verb is to be extended" (_Winer_).

Ver. 5. +Even when we were dead in sins.+--The phrase which closes ver. 3, difficult as it is, must receive an interpretation in harmony with this statement. It is the very marrow of the Gospel that, "while we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly." That the wrath of God is real we know, but "God is love." +By grace ye are saved.+--"Grace" is as truly characteristic of St. Paul's writing as his autograph signature; it, too, is the token ("sign-manual") in every epistle (2 Thess. iii. 17, 18).

Ver. 6. +In heavenly places.+--As in ch. i. 3.

Ver. 7. +The exceeding riches of His grace.+--The wealth of mercy mentioned in ver. 4 more fully stated. Grace is condescension to an inferior or kindness to the undeserving. +In kindness toward us.+--"Kindness" here represents in the original "a beautiful word, as it is the expression of a beautiful grace" (_Trench_). It is that "fruit of the Spirit" (Gal. v. 22) called "gentleness" in the A.V., but which would be better named "benignity."

Ver. 8. +For by grace are ye saved, through faith.+--"'By grace' expresses the motive, 'through faith' the subjective means" (_Winer_). The emphasis is on "by grace."

Ver. 9. +Not of works, lest any man should boast.+--The more beautiful the works achieved the more natural it is for a man to feel his works to be meritorious. One can understand that a man jealous for the honour of God, like Calvin, should speak of the excellencies of those out of Christ as "splendid vices," even though we prefer another explanation of them.

Ver. 10. +For we are His workmanship.+--We get our word "poem" from that which we here translate workmanship, lit., "something made." Every Christian belongs to those of whom God says, "This people have I formed for Myself, that they should show forth My praise" (Isa. xliii. 21). The archetype of all our goodness lies in the Divine thought, as the slow uprising of a stately cathedral is the embodiment of the conception of the architect's brain.

Ver. 11. +Wherefore remember, that ye, etc.+--All that follows in the verse serves to define the "ye," the verb following in ver. 12 after the repeated "ye"--"ye were without Christ." "Called Uncircumcision . . . called the Circumcision." As much rancour lies in these words as generally is carried by terms of arrogance on the part of those only nominally religious, and the scornful epithets flung in return. They can be matched by our modern use of "The world" and "Other-worldliness."

Ver. 12. +Without Christ.+--Not so much "not in possession of Christ" as "outside Christ," or, as in R.V., "separate from Christ." The true commentary is John xv. 4, 5. The branch "severed from" the trunk by knife or storm bears no fruit thenceforth; disciples "apart from Christ can do nothing." +Being aliens from the commonwealth.+--What memories might start at this word! Did St. Paul think of the separation from the Jewish synagogue in Ephesus or of the fanatical outburst created in Jerusalem when "the Jews from Asia" saw Trophimus the Ephesian in company with the apostle? To such Jews the Gentiles were nothing but _massa perditionis._ Like vers. 2, 3, this is a reminder of the dark past, the misery of which did not consist in a Jewish taunt so much as in a life of heathenish vices. +Having no hope, and without God in the world.+--To be godless--not sure that there is any God--this is to take the "master-light of all our seeing" from us; to live regardless of Him, or wishing there were no God--"that way madness lies." To be "God-forsaken" with a house full of idols--that is the irony of idolatrous heathenism.

Ver. 13. +Ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh.+--The Gentile may sing his hymn in Jewish words: "Doubtless Thou art our Father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not: Thou, O Lord, art our Father, our Redeemer; from everlasting is Thy name." _"Lo-ammi"_ ("not My people") is no longer their name (Hos. ii. 23; Rom. ix. 24, 25).

Ver. 14. +For He is our peace, who hath made both one.+--"Not the Peacemaker merely, for indeed at His own great cost He procured peace, and is Himself the bond of union of both" (Jew and Gentile). +The middle wall of partition.+--M. Ganneau, the discoverer of the Moabite Stone, found built into the wall of a ruined Moslem convent a stone, believed to be from the Temple, with this inscription: "No stranger-born (non-Jew) may enter within the circuit of the barrier and enclosure that is around the sacred court; and whoever shall be caught [intruding] there, upon himself be the blame of the death that will consequently follow." Josephus describes this fence and its warning inscription (_Wars of the Jews,_ Bk. V., ch. v., § 2). It is rather the spirit of exclusiveness which Christ threw down. The stone wall Titus threw down and made all a common field, afterwards.

Ver. 15. +Having abolished in His flesh the enmity.+--The enmity of Jew and Gentile; the abolition of their enmity to God is mentioned later. "First be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift," for reconciliation to God. +The law of commandments contained in ordinances.+--The slave whose duty it was to take the child to his teacher might say, "Don't do that." St. Paul does not regard the function of the law as more than that (Gal. iii. 23-25). +One new man.+--Trench, in an admirable section, distinguishes between the new in time (_recens_) and the new in quality (_novum_). The word here means new in quality, "as set over against that which has seen service, the outworn." "It is not an amalgam of Jew and Gentile" (_Meyer_).

Ver. 16. +That He might reconcile both unto God.+--The word "reconcile" implies "a _restitution_ to a state from which they had fallen, or which was potentially theirs, or for which they were destined" (_Lightfoot,_ Col. i. 20). +The cross having slain the enmity.+--Gentile authority and Jewish malevolence met in the sentence to that painful death; and both Gentile and Jew, acknowledging the Son of God, shall cease their strife, and love as brethren.

Ver. 17. +Came and preached peace.+--By means of His messengers, as St. Paul tells the Galatians that Christ was "evidently set forth crucified amongst them." +To you afar off, and to them that were nigh.+--Isaiah's phrase (Isa. lvii. 19). The Christ uplifted "out of the earth" draws _all men_ to Him.

Ver. 18. +For through Him we both have access.+--St. Paul's way of proclaiming His Master's saying, "I am the door; by Me if _any man_ enter in he shall be saved"; including the other equally precious, "I am the way: no man cometh unto the Father but by Me." "Access" here means "introduction."

Ver. 19. +So then.+--Inference of vers. 14-18. +Strangers and foreigners.+--By the latter word is meant those who temporarily abide in a place, but are without the privileges of it. There is a verb "to parish" in certain parts of England which shows how a word can entirely reverse its original meaning. It not only means "to adjoin," but "to belong to." +Fellow-citizens with the saints.+--Enjoying all civic liberties, and able to say, "This is my own, my native land," when he finds "Mount Zion and the city of the living God" (cf. Heb. xi. 13, 14). +And of the household of God.+--The association grows more intimate. The words might possibly mean "domestics of God" (Rev. xxii. 3, 4); but when we think of the "Father's house" we must interpret "of the family circle of God."

Ver. 20. +Being built upon the foundation.+--From the future of a household St. Paul passes easily to the structure, based on "the Church's One Foundation." +The chief corner-stone.+--"The historic Christ, to whom all Christian belief and life have reference, as necessarily conditions through Himself the existence and endurance of each Christian commonwealth, as the existence and steadiness of a building are dependent on the indispensable cornerstone, which upholds the whole structure" (_Meyer_). The difference between our passage and 1 Cor. iii. 11 is one of figure only.

Ver. 21. +All the building.+--R.V. "each several building." +Fitly-framed-together.+--One word in the original, found again only in ch. iv. 16 in this form.

Ver. 22. +For a habitation.+--The word so translated is found again only in Rev. xviii. 2, a sharp contrast to this verse.

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 1-3.

_The Children of Wrath_--

+I. Are spiritually dead.+--"Who were dead in trespasses and sins" (ver. 1). The only life of which they are conscious, and in which all their activities are displayed, is a life of sin. They have no conception of a higher life. They are capable of a higher life and know it not. The spiritual, the higher form of life, is entombed and buried under a mass of sin. It is inert, dead, in process of corruption. Dante refers to such as, "These wretched ones who never were alive; I ne'er forsooth could have believed it true, that death had slain such myriads of mankind." Sin first benumbs, then paralyses, and finally slays our spiritual sensibilities. The soul dead to God shall not be insensible to the reality of the Divine wrath.

+II. Are under the spell of an unseen evil power+ (ver. 2).--"The children of disobedience" are those who are withholding their allegiance from the Lord Jesus Christ, all those who are unconverted; not mere gross sinners and open profligates, but such persons as are strangers to the spiritual life, although they may have many excellencies of nature and disposition. The apostle plainly asserts that before he was brought to the knowledge of Christ he was under the influence of the "prince of the power of the air." This is a startling statement. It is more startling still if we consider what sort of man Paul was before his conversion--how excellent, how earnest, how devoted to the external duties of a religious life. But startling as it is, it is the apostle who makes it of himself; and the inference is unavoidable, that all that mass of persons who are out of Christ and who are not partakers of His resurrection life, who have given their hearts to the world and not to the Saviour, are just the captives of Satan, and, without knowing it, are doing his lusts and accomplishing his will. The disease is not less deadly because it eats out the life without inflicting pain. The pestilence is not the less awful because it comes without giving notice of its presence, borne on the balmy breezes of the bright, cloudless, summer eve. The vampire does not do its work the less effectually because it fans its victim with its perfumed wings into an unconscious slumber whilst it drains away his life-blood and leaves him a corpse. And Satan is not the less real or the less destructive because he works his fatal work upon our souls without our even being conscious of his approach.

+III. Are prompted to sin by the instincts of a depraved nature+ (ver. 3).--There is the twofold province of a man's being, by the lower of which he is allied to the brute creation, and by the higher to the angels, both being under the dominion of sin. There is the corrupt body of flesh, and in a higher sense there is the fleshly mind. Every unregenerate person lives more or less in one or the other of these provinces--either in the sphere of fleshly lusts or in the sphere of the fleshly mind. Either he lives simply an animal life, and is in consequence a fleshly man, whose life consists only in fulfilling the desires of his lower nature; or he lives in the higher province of the mind, but it is nevertheless the mind in darkness, in uncertainty, in doubt--mind and heart alike alienated from God through the unbelief which is in them. It would not do to argue from this that our passions are our sins. Sin is not in appetite but lies in the insubordination of appetite. There is need of a curbing and governing will, and our discipline consists in subjugating the lower to the higher. A due balance between the two regions must be preserved, and it is when passion becomes master and the lower invades the province of the higher, when the subordinate becomes insubordinate, that appetite and passion become sin. The flesh is the great rival of the Spirit, for it asserts that dominion over a man which the Holy Spirit alone ought to occupy, and these two are constantly opposed to each other. The depravity within, working in the thoughts of the mind and the passions of the flesh, prompts to a course of disobedience and sin.

+IV. Are exposed to condemnation.+--"And were by nature the children of wrath, even as others." "The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness and ungodliness of men." The apostle shows that even the Jews, who boasted of their birth from Abraham, were by natural birth equally children of wrath, as the Gentiles whom the Jews despised on account of their birth from idolaters. The phrase "children of wrath" is a Hebraism, meaning we are objects of God's wrath from childhood, in our natural state, as being born in sin, which God hates. Wrath abides on all who disobey the Gospel in faith and practice.

+Lessons.+--1. _Sin when it is finished bringeth forth death._ 2. _Your adversary the devil walketh about seeking whom he may devour._ 3. _Because there is wrath, beware!_

_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._

Ver. 1. _A State of Sin a State of Death._

+I. There are some respects in which the death of the soul does not resemble the death of the body.+--1. It does not involve the extinction of faculties and affections. The dead body moves not, nor feels, nor acts. The dead soul still thinks and feels and wills. 2. It does not exempt from responsibility. The dead soul is commanded to repent and believe and obey. 3. It is not incapable of restoration on earth. The spiritually dead may become spiritually alive here.

+II. There are some respects in which the death of the soul does resemble the death of the body.+--1. In its cause. Sin. 2. In its extent. All men without exception. 3. In its consequences. The dead are utterly insensible, they fulfil none of the functions or duties of the living, they can be reanimated only by Divine power. Address: (1) Those who are spiritually dead. (2) Those who have reason to believe that they are spiritually alive.--_G. Brooks._

Vers. 1-3. _The State of Men without the Gospel._

+I. The moral state of wicked men resembles a state of natural death+ (ver. 1).--From the metaphor used in the text we are not to conclude that all sinners are alike, for though all are in a sense dead some are under a greater death than others. The metaphor is usually applied to sinners of the most vicious character. When we speak of human nature as totally depraved we mean only a total destitution of real holiness, not the highest possible degree of vitiosity. In order to denominate one a sinner it is not necessary that he should be as bad as possible. Though natural death does not, yet spiritual death does, admit of degrees. Evil men wax worse and worse, add sin to sin, and treasure up wrath against the day of wrath.

1. _Sinners may be said to be dead in respect of their stupidity._--We read of some who are past feeling, whose conscience is seared, who have eyes which see not, ears which hear not, and a heart which is waxed gross. Their hearts are like a mortified limb which feels no pain under the scarifying knife.

2. _They are represented as wanting spiritual senses._--They savour the things of the world, not the things which are of God. They indeed love the effects of God's goodness to them, but they delight not in His character as a holy, just, and faithful Being. They may feel a natural pleasure in certain mechanical emotions of the passions excited by objects presented to the sight, or by sounds which strike the ear, as the artificial tears from the image of the Virgin Mary will melt down an assembly of Catholics, or as a concert of musical instruments will rapture the hearers; but they relish not the Word and ordinances of God, considered as means of holiness and as designed to convince them of their sins and bring them to repentance. If the Word dispensed comes home to their conscience, they are offended. They lose the music of the pleasant song and talk against it by the walls and in the doors of their houses.

3. _They resemble the dead in the want of vital warmth._--If they have any fervour in religion, it is about the forms and externals of it, or about some favourite sentiments which they find adapted to soothe their consciences, not about those things in which the power of religion consists. As death deforms the body, so sin destroys the beauty of the soul. It darkens the reason, perverts the judgment, and disorders the affections. To be carnally-minded is death.

4. _They may be denominated dead as they are worthy of and exposed to punishment._--This is called death because it is the separation of the soul from God and heaven, from happiness and hope, from all good and unto all evil. This is a death which awaits the impenitent.

+II. There is in ungodly men a general disposition to follow the way of the world.+--"According to the course of this world" (ver. 2). They, like dead carcases, swam down the stream of common custom, and were carried away with the general current of vice and corruption.