The power of God in salvation.
"The exceeding greatness of his power to usward who believe." This is the third thing the apostle wished them to know "for their furtherance and joy of faith."
I. THE SPHERE OF THIS WORKING. "TO usward who believe." Power will always excite our admiration, but it will not inspire comfort unless it is exerted on our behalf. The devils know the power of God, but its exercise inspires them with no comfort. This power is manifested in the various parts of Christian life, both in grace and in glory, from conversion to glorification. It provides all things that pertain to life and godliness. It is God's saving power.
1. At the beginning of Christian life—in our conversion. God "hath delivered us from the kingdom of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son" (Colossians 1:13). The apostle speaks of this power in relation to his own conversion and apostleship: "Whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given to me by the effectual working of his power" (Ephesians 3:7). The gospel is the instrument of Divine power. It is "the power of God unto salvation" (Romans 1:16); for "our gospel came unto you, not in word only, but in power" (1 Thessalonians 1:5).
2. In its progress—in our sanctification. The thought of preserving grace is, perhaps, uppermost in the passage. Believers are "kept by the power of God unto salvation" (1 Peter 1:5). Therefore the apostle prays that God would "fulfill all the good pleasure of his goodness and the work of faith with power" (2 Thessalonians 1:11). God "is able to do exceeding abundantly above all we ask or think" (Ephesians 3:20). The apostle prays for himself that 'he may know "the power of his resurrection' (Philippians 3:10). There is power everywhere at work in our salvation; for it is thus that" the whole body increaseth with the increase of God by the effectual working- in the measure of every part" (Ephesians 4:16).
3. At our final glorification. "Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like to his own glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself" (Philippians 3:21).
II. THE NATURE OF THIS POWER. "The exceeding greatness of his power." It was power that could overcome all obstacles. "If God be for us, who can be against us?" (Romans 8:31); "My Father is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hands" (John 10:29). We argue from his power to his forgiveness, and, therefore, in the Lord's Prayer, after we have asked for the forgiveness of our sins, we plead for it on the ground, "Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory." Let us not hesitate to accept the fullness of Biblical teaching through any fear of trenching on the free-will of man. Man's freedom works freely within the sphere of God's power. But the apostle does not content himself with merely piling up a succession of phrases expressive of the wonderful effects of this power. He places it side by side with the power manifested in the resurrection and glorification of the Redeemer.—T.C.
The power of the Resurrection.
"According to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead." The resurrection of Christ was at once an illustration and a pledge of our resurrection, spiritually and physically, with himself. It seems a strange thing to find an exercise of purely physical power compared with an exercise of purely spiritual power. The strangeness disappears when we consider the place of the Resurrection in the scheme of Christian doctrine. The fact of Christ's resurrection is to us both doctrine and life—"the very pillar and ground" of Christianity.
I. IT IS THE CONSTITUTIVE ESSENCE OF CHRISTIANITY, HISTORICALLY AND MORALLY. Strauss admits that "Christianity in the form in which Paul, in which all the apostles understand it, as it is presupposed in the confessions of all Christian Churches, falls with the resurrection of Jesus." In this fundamental fact we have the concurrent witness of the apostles, of Paul in his gospel and his life, of the Gospels, of Jesus himself, of the belief of the disciples, of the attitude of Jewish enemies, of the founding of the Church among Jews and Gentiles. If the Resurrection is denied, Vinet's remark becomes true: "A new history is manufactured for us in the interest of a new theology."
II. IT HAS GREAT THEOLOGICAL VALVE; FOR IT IS THE SEAL AND CROWN OF CHRIST'S REDEEMING SACRIFICE. "He was raised again for our justification" (Romans 4:25). If he was not raised, we are yet in our sins.
III. HIS RESURRECTION SUPPLIES THE IMAGE AND THE GROUND OF OUR RENEWAL INTO HIS FELLOWSHIP. (Romans 6:1-13; Colossians 2:10-13; Colossians 3:1-10; Galatians 2:20.) Jesus himself expressively blends together the historical and the moral constituents of our faith in the sublime sentence, "I am the Resurrection, and the Life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die" (John 11:25). It is not simply that resurrection is the truest description of the living personal experience of the believer from day to day, but by virtue of his oneness with Christ he is "quickened together with Christ, and raised up together with him, and made to sit together with him in heavenly places" (Ephesians 2:5). Jesus' extinction of the penalty of sin, his breaking the seal of death, his recovery for man of the power of the Holy Spirit, all attested by the Resurrection, reveal it to us at the same time as a source of moral light and power. This is "the power of the Resurrection" that the apostle prays for (Philippians 3:10).
IV. THE RESURRECTION IS THE PLEDGE TO US OF PERSONAL IMMORTALITY, AND HIS RESURRECTION-BODY THE TYPE OF THE FUTURE GLORIFIED MAN. (Philippians 3:21.) The apostle says, "If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies through his Spirit that dwelleth in you" (Romans 8:11). Thus, first and last, the resurrection of Christ is more than a mere illustration of the power of God "to usward who believe;" it is a pledge of the continuance and consummation of all that is involved in the redemption of Christ.—T.C.
The exaltation of Christ.
"And set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places." There was power both in the resurrection and in the ascension of our Lord. As the Resurrection was the seal of his redeeming sacrifice, his ascension was the seal of the Resurrection, usually linked with it in Bible allusions, but specially referred to by Peter (Acts 2:33-36; 1 Peter 3:22). In John's Gospel there is an emphatic reference to the event: "I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world; again, I leave the world, and go to the Father" (John 16:28). In the Epistle to the Hebrews it receives greater prominence than the Resurrection itself (Hebrews 2:9; Hebrews 4:14, 19). It was a phrase in one of the earliest hymns of the Church—he was "received up into glory" (1 Timothy 3:16). The sitting at the right hand of God is the immediate and necessary sequel of the ascension from the earth. Several important facts are implied in this heavenly session.
I. KINGLY DIGNITY. This accrues to him from his obedience unto death (Philippians 2:9-11), and is never referred to Christ before his incarnation, but only to the God-Man after his ascension. Yet he was in reality King as well as Priest before his incarnation. If he saved men from the beginning, he was King from the beginning. The dominion of the Mediator was conferred upon him in consequence of his obedience unto death, and was yet enjoyed and exercised by him long before his death; just as he saved men from the beginning by the blood of the cross, as being the "Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." The exaltation he received after death was not an accession of new glory or power, but the manifestation under new conditions of a glory he had from the beginning. This was the position assigned to him in the hundred and tenth psalm, "The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand." Its fulfillment is manifest in such sentences as the following:—"Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and Savior" (Acts 5:31); "He was made higher than the heavens" (Hebrews 7:26); he "sits on the right hand of power" (Mark 14:62); he is "now set down at the right hand of the throne of God" (Hebrews 12:2). Thus, though "crucified in weakness," he "liveth by the power of God" (2 Corinthians 13:14).
II. KINGLY AUTHORITY. Over all the principalities and powers, evil and good, in two worlds; for not only is he far above all these, but God "hath put all things under his feet." He had himself declared immediately before his ascension, "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth" (Matthew 28:18). There is nothing excepted from the vast sweep of his power. All things whatsoever are his footstool. The brow that was once crowned with thorns wears the crown of universal dominion. The pierced hand holds the scepter of the universe. Herein lies the sublime guarantee for the preservation and completion of his Church on earth. He will ultimately triumph over all his enemies (Hebrews 10:13).
III. BLESSEDNESS. This points to "the joy set before him" (Hebrews 12:2), the joy of holy love, because "he has received of the travail of his soul and is satisfied" (Isaiah 53:11). It was in allusion to himself that the bright words are used, "Thou wilt show me the path of life: in thy presence is fullness of joy; at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore" (Psalms 16:11).
IV. PERPETUITY. He liveth ever to God without dying again (Romans 6:10). We have to do with a risen Christ who dieth no more, and therefore can be ever helpful, unlike our friends of earth, whose death ends all their relations to us.
V. INTERCESSORY WORK. He is our heavenly Advocate (1 John 2:1). He has entered heaven "for us," now "to appear in the presence of God for us" (Hebrews 9:24). It is this presence of our High Priest which is so helpful to us in our many infirmities, and is the guarantee of our daily pardon in virtue of the great sacrifice on Calvary. Thus, being reconciled to God by his death, we are saved by his life, in consequence of the power which is unceasingly passing forth from the Head to the members (Romans 5:10). The salvation of Christ on earth and in heaven is one inseparable whole. Thus the session of Christ is connected with the peace, the sanctification, the security, the hope of all believers.
VI. LESSONS AND ENCOURAGEMENTS TO BELIEVERS. Our Savior assumes and exercises a lordship over the lives and over the deaths of all his disciples; "for whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's" (Romans 14:8); and in the ease of two eminent disciples, Peter and John, he claimed this lordship, "And if I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?" (John 21:18, John 21:22). Therefore all the energy and devotion of our lives are to be given to him. He demands of us a heavenly direction of mind (Colossians 3:2), with a sense of our heavenly citizenship to keep us apart from the sins and vanities of life. We ought to cherish a sentiment of holy fear, on account of our relation to a Redeemer so highly exalted in glory; and yet a sentiment of holy boldness, knowing that our High Priest is on the throne of glory and of grace.—T.C.
Christ's headship.
The Resurrection was the point of conjunction between his crucifixion and his coronation. The headship to which he was exalted had a twofold relationship: he was made "Head over all things to the Church," and he was made Head of the Church itself.
I. HIS HEADSHIP OVER ALL THINGS. It is no new thought that our Lord is at the head of the natural order of things; for" without him was not anything made that was made;" "By him all things consist;" he upholds "all things by the word of his power," for "the government is upon his shoulders." But by virtue of his mediatorship the elements are made subject to him—all kings and nations, all angels in heaven, all fallen angels, all the advances and discoveries of science, are made tributary to the welfare of the Church. Therefore no weapon formed against her shall prosper Christian people ought to derive comfort and aspiration from the thought that he who is the Foundation of their religious hopes holds in his hands all the complicated threads of providence and directs the course of human history. It is the one Divine hand which clasps together the two great books of nature and revelation. This thought ought to give fresh breadth and strength and healthiness to all our thoughts about him. Above all, let us see in this fact the Divine guarantee for the safety of the Church. "If God be for us, who can be against us?" Jesus "filleth all in all," and therefore has the inexhaustible resources of the universe at his disposal for the good of the Church.
II. HEADSHIP OF THE CHURCH. There is a double relationship involved in this headship—one representative, the other vital.
1. The representative relation. He was Head as he was Savior (Ephesians 5:23). Believers were in him from eternity, for they were chosen in him (Ephesians 1:4). "The covenant which was confirmed before of God in Christ" (Galatians 3:17) was that in the terms of which they are saved; the promise of life is said to be in him (2 Timothy 1:1), as all the promises are "yea" and "amen" in him (2 Corinthians 1:20). Thus grace is said to be given us in Christ Jesus before the world began (2 Timothy 1:9); and believers are said to suffer with him, to be quickened and raised together with him, to sit together in heavenly places in Christ (Ephesians 2:6). Christ, indeed, as Head, stands for the whole body: So also is Christ (1 Corinthians 12:12). Thus the representative relation extends from eternity to eternity. These passages of Scripture prove the groundlessness of the notion that Christ only became Head after his resurrection with the view of proving that the saints of the Old Testament dispensation do not belong to the body or Church of Christ. He was Head just as he was Savior; for "he is the Head of the Church, and he is the Savior of the body" (Ephesians 5:23). Christ was not and could not be Savior without death, yet he was the Savior of Old Testament saints ages before his death. There is no passage asserting that he became Head through resurrection. The resurrection only declared his headship as it declared his sonship. If Christ was not Head before his incarnation, the Old Testament saints had no Mediator. Christ was the Head of all believers because, as being the last Adam, all believers were in him.
2. The vital relation. Christ is the Head of the body, the Church, holding the same relation as the head does to the natural body.
III. THE CHURCH AS THE BODY OF CHRIST. The Church thus regarded refers not to any one body of Christians; for there is no denomination on earth that contains all the disciples of Christ, nor is there any denomination of which it can be said that all its members are disciples of Christ. It refers to the whole number of God's people, redeemed by the blood of Christ (Ephesians 5:25). The Ephesian Epistle sets forth the doctrine of the Church in this sense. We never read in it of Churches, but of the Church. The idea is that of one organic whole, represented under various images, borrowed at one time from a temple, at another from a house, at another from the head with its different members, but it always signifies a union of those united to Christ by faith, whether they belong to earth or heaven. The Church is here described as at once the body and the fullness of Christ.
1. The body of Christ; The most impressive illustration of the body is supplied by the same apostle in 1 Corinthians 12:12-27. He shows an analogy between the Church and the human body in important particulars.
2. The Church the fullness of Christ. As the body is not complete without the head, so the head is not complete without the body. The Lord Jesus Christ is not complete without his Church. How can this be? He himself says, "My strength is made perfect in weakness;" but is his power not always perfect? It is declared to be perfect in our weakness. So the Church serves as an empty vessel, into which the Savior pours his mediatorial fullness. Every fresh convert added to the Church adds to his fullness. His fullness is manifested by the variety of gifts and graces he bestows on his members, who are always growing up into him who is the Head (Ephesians 4:15), growing to a stature, to a proportion, till we are filled with the fullness of God. This view of the Church suggests
HOMILIES BY R.M. EDGAR
The salutation of the saints.
In the present case Paul, without associating any brethren with himself, proceeds to state his apostleship, and to transmit his salutation to the saints at Ephesus. These saints had been gathered for the most part out of paganism, and this will account for the introduction, as well as many of the contents, of this magnificent Epistle. We note the following lessons as here suggested:—
I. THE APOSTLESHIP OF PAUL HAD BEEN RECEIVED DIRECTLY FROM JESUS CHRIST. (Ephesians 1:1.) The name "Paul" was the Roman counterpart of the Hebrew "Saul," and its use in these superscriptions to the Epistles was doubtless to conciliate those Christians who had once been heathen.f1 This Paul, then, the man who had made the interests of the Gentile world a chief concern, declares that he had received his apostleship from Christ directly. He thus repudiated any man-given or man-made apostleship. It is Jesus who alone could make an apostle, just as it is he alone who can make a minister. All that any Church can do is to recognize a God-given qualification.f2 Paul was the apostle of Jesus, the man sent forth by the risen and reigning Lord to evangelize the heathen. Such a consciousness of Christ's consecration gave him great power.
II. HE HERE SALUTES LIVING SAINTS. (Ephesians 1:1.) Monod has pertinently remarked that, while others seek their saints among the dead, Paul seeks saints, and so should we, among the living. Saintliness should characterize all Christians. In fact, a Christian is a "person set apart, separated from the world, and reserved for the service of Jesus Christ and for the glory of God, according as it is written, 'This people have I formed for myself, they shall show forth my praise.'" Accordingly, Paul did not hesitate to call the Christians at Ephesus "saints," for he expected from them saintly lives. The very name raised the standard of Christian profession throughout the Church at Ephesus. And would it not be well for us to use it, and to strive always to deserve its use? It is to be feared that our saints, like those of Rome, are for the most part dead and gone; whereas what the age needs is saintliness embodied in flesh and blood before it. It is only then that it shall come to acknowledge the power of the Christian faith. Of course, Paul did not imply that every professor at Ephesus was saintly. He used the term presumptively, as a charitable spirit will. But the very use of the term raised the whole standard of holy living there and did immense good.
III. THESE SAINTS ARE FULL OF FAITH IN CHRIST JESUS. (Ephesians 1:1.) We take πιστοί in this passage in the sense of men of faith. Paul thus states the principle of their saintliness. They had learned to trust Christ and to regard him as their King, and so they came to be consciously consecrated unto all good works. Fidelity flows from this living faith in Christ. They prove reliable men because they have first learned to rely upon the Savior (cf. John 20:28; Galatians 3:9). Let us apply this principle ourselves. If we trust Jesus as we ought, we shall find the trust working itself out into lovable and lovely lives, and we too shall be saintly.
IV. PAUL DESIRES FOR THESE SAINTS THE GRACE AND PEACE OF GOD. (Ephesians 1:2.) There is something beautiful in the old forms of benediction. We lose their fragrance in our cold "Good-byes." The Greeks and Romans were accustomed to wish their correspondents "Safety;" the Jews took the simpler form of" Peace." But the gospel came to give to both a deeper meaning and breathe grace and peace of the deepest character into human souls. Hence these salutations of the saints. God's undeserved favor coming forth as grace finds its effects in the responsive human heart in a heavenly peace, so that the once troubled spirit comes into wondrous calm. What Paul is about to state in his Epistle will not interfere with but rather deepen this holy peace.
It is well for us to see the Fountain-head of blessing in the Father's heart, to see the channel of communication in his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, and to experience its effect in the peace which passeth all understanding, which he has ordained should keep our hearts and minds by Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:6). The saints are meant to be peaceful spirits as they consecrate their energies to the service of the Lord.—R.M.E.