CHAP. 2.―NEW CREATION, GENESIS, OR POWER EFFECTUATING COUNSEL.
WE have already seen (chap. 1.) the eternal purpose of God respecting the man and his possessions accomplished in power as far as regards the person of Christ, seated in supremacy and headship at God’s right hand. The second chapter shows us the same power acting towards the saints, and in their case with surpassing greatness. For not only were we spiritually dead as regards God, but were active only in connection with a world away from God, and in subjection to that spirit who is the source of all disobedience. Whether Gentiles or Jews, we were alike sons of disobedience and children of wrath.
The new-creation work of God therefore takes a double character in our case. Because of His great love He quickens us with the Christ dead in grace, we being dead in sins, raising up Jew and Gentile together, and making us sit down together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus. This He does in order that He may display in the coming ages the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. His love is peculiarly displayed towards those who were, except to Him, the impossible objects of it; and the coming ages (not this one) are the scene proper to the public manifestation of this surpassing grace. Grace is the source of this salvation which through faith is ours already.
The second great character of this work of God as such, is the creating in Christ Jesus; not quickening a dead man but creating a new one. Here power creates for good works, as previously it was love quickening the dead so as the more gloriously to express itself. Now, however, it is a work of power in new creation with the object to display in us suitable and corresponding works.
As before noticed, the man alone is in question here; and it is God acting simply as such who creates him in Christ Jesus, to effectuate His counsels in Christ. From chap. 2:11 This effectuation is viewed in connection with the Lord Jesus Christ and His especial work to this end. Just as in Genesis 1, the first creation is attributed simply to God (Elohim), but in chap. 2. to Jehovah Elohim, the relationships of the creature with the Creator and with each other being in question; so in the first part of Ephesians 2. (vers. 1-10) we have the new creation presented as God’s work, but in the second portion (vers. 11-22) as Christ’s work, the subject being the relationships of the new man mutually as well as towards God.
Here too, as in Genesis 2:77And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. (Genesis 2:7), the materials from whence the man is formed are first before the mind of the Spirit. Nations in the flesh, of the uncircumcision, without Christ, aliens and strangers, without hope and without God in the world, how thoroughly were we in the dust of death morally, ceremonially, and spiritually! Now we are become nigh by the blood of Christ. Once as Gentiles we were ceremonially afar off, and the Jew was near; but both are now made one in Him by Christ, our peace, who has broken down the middle wall of enclosure; which made the difference between the privileged Jew and the profane Gentile, having annulled by His death that law of commandments in ordinances which was an occasion of pride to the one and of hatred in the other. He has thus annulled the enmity which existed between them, as men in the flesh, in order to form the two into one new man. In the old creation Jehovah Elohim formed man out of dust of the ground (Gen. 2:77And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. (Genesis 2:7)), and God created man in His image (1:27). In the new creation the Christ takes up Jew and Gentile and forms them in Himself into one new man. It was no mere act of creative power, for the divine Archetype and great living Exemplar, as well as the sustaining Source of the new man, was the Christ who formed him in Himself.
Remark, too, that the cross, not the perfection of the new-creation work, is the cause of their reconciliation to God. The believing Jew and Gentile alike enjoy this grace, but it is in one recognized and divinely formed company they do so, the cross having slain the natural enmity to God which was in the heart, perhaps unknowingly, of each.
The new man being thus formed in Christ after the character of His glorified life and relationship, and moral qualities, the apostle proceeds to declare the means of the effectual communication to the soul of this immense blessing. It is not by breathing into the nostrils of inanimate man the breath of life. Thus Adam became a living soul, but to apostate and ruined men, whether afar off or nigh, Christ comes and preaches, in effectual life-giving power, the glad tidings of peace. It is this, and this alone, that introduces through redemption into new-creation blessing. For the first creation the breath of Jehovah Elohim sufficed; but for the new man the word of a redeeming Christ alone avails.
The remainder of Ephesians 2. from verse 18 sets forth the varied relationships in which the new man is set. Not now a pleasant garden with all that could charm the natural tastes, and where the sources lay of fruitfulness and refreshment for the earth, involving a charge which the natural man could well fulfill in a relationship of obedience to Jehovah Elohim, and, alas! could fail in it. Instead of this we are placed in relationship with the Father, to whom we have access through Him whom the gospel of peace reveals, who sustained the glory of God in the very place of His judgment against sin, where every question of good and evil was settled forever. We have access, not as the innocent man who was tried and failed, but through Him who in love and obedience took the place of the sinful man upon the cross, and has brought us thereby into His own relationship and blessing with the Father. Moreover, the power for this intercourse in grace is not the flesh, but the one Spirit. The former, even in its innocence, was weighted with the sad possibility of death; the latter is God Himself, the living and eternal One.
But more, we of the Gentiles are not only placed in relationship with the Father, to whom we have access, but also with our brethren from among the Jews. No longer strangers and foreigners, we are fellow-citizens of the saints and of the household of God.
In this new scene there is no tie, as in the old, like Marriage (Gen. 2:2424Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. (Genesis 2:24)), which separates and appropriates the individual; but instead there is a spiritual commonwealth of which all are fellow-citizens, and a household, which is the scene of divine affections, where each one is related immediately with God and one another through Jesus Christ, ministered by the inspired word of the apostles and prophets.
But this introduces another divine thought which is now in process of accomplishment. God would not only have a household but a habitation — indeed a holy temple in the Lord. The conscience of man aroused perceives the propriety of this, and seeks to answer to it as Jacob did in a fleshly way (Gen. 28:2222And this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God's house: and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee. (Genesis 28:22)). Under law God condescended to meet man’s conscience, and commanded a tabernacle to be built as the representation and shadow of heavenly things. All was of this old creation and made with hand; but now we have to do with the better and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hand. Or rather the saints are built together in Christ already for a habitation of God in the Spirit; and in Him, too, the building fitted together, increases to a holy temple in the Lord.
What this will be when gloriously displayed is set forth in Revelation 21:9-27, 22:1-5 the first eight verses of chapter 21. describing the character of it in eternity. There we learn that God will then have His rest and residence with man, and they shall be His people, not as Jews, for eternity obliterates all national distinctions. Moreover, He will have his family, sons and heirs (ver. 7), such as have overcome. Ephesians 2:19-2219Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God; 20And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; 21In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: 22In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit. (Ephesians 2:19‑22), declares the present realization of this in divine grace and for faith. We are fellow-citizens of the saints, and thus of His people; of His household, and thus His sons; built together a habitation of God in the Spirit, and increasing to a holy temple in the Lord.
These last are two phases of one great and eternal counsel of God, namely, to dwell with men, with whom His delights ever were in purpose; among whom indeed He came in the flesh, though to tabernacle only, but in dying to lay the divine enduring foundation for its accomplishment in an eternal scene and a new creation. Meanwhile it is realized in the Spirit and is said precisely to be “in Christ” (Eph. 2:21, 2221In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: 22In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit. (Ephesians 2:21‑22)), and therefore is the peculiar privilege special to the assembly alone gathered from Jew and Gentile in the day of Christ’s rejection, while He is hidden in the heavens.
This closes the revelation of the present divine and effectual work for the accomplishment of the eternal counsels made known in chapter 1. It is the formation of the new man in and after Christ, setting him in divine and eternal relationships according to life out of death and new creation power. The work is seen to be purely divine, and creature agency is entirely out of the account; even the preaching peace is viewed simply as the work of Christ glorified. In fact, we have in this chapter 2. the Genesis of the new creation. The body is just introduced at the end of chapter 1. as the complement of the Head exalted in universal supremacy, in which it shares.
The house, which is the other corporate character in which the saints are seen, is shown at the close of chapter 2.
Chapter 3. will set before us the means employed, and the man, the divinely inspired vessel, appointed to bring souls out into the enjoyment of this condition of eternal blessing.