“Paul, apostle of Jesus Christ by God’s will, to the saints and faithful in Christ Jesus who are at Ephesus. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” (verses 1 and 2, New Translation by J. N. Darby). So begins the Epistle to the Ephesians, written during the two years, approximately 61 and 62 A. D., following the apostle’s arrival as a prisoner in Rome, in which he was permitted to dwell in his own hired house; it was in this time that he also wrote the Epistles to the Colossians, to Philemon and to the Philippians. It will be interesting to refer to Acts 28:16-3116And when we came to Rome, the centurion delivered the prisoners to the captain of the guard: but Paul was suffered to dwell by himself with a soldier that kept him. 17And it came to pass, that after three days Paul called the chief of the Jews together: and when they were come together, he said unto them, Men and brethren, though I have committed nothing against the people, or customs of our fathers, yet was I delivered prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans. 18Who, when they had examined me, would have let me go, because there was no cause of death in me. 19But when the Jews spake against it, I was constrained to appeal unto Caesar; not that I had ought to accuse my nation of. 20For this cause therefore have I called for you, to see you, and to speak with you: because that for the hope of Israel I am bound with this chain. 21And they said unto him, We neither received letters out of Judea concerning thee, neither any of the brethren that came showed or spake any harm of thee. 22But we desire to hear of thee what thou thinkest: for as concerning this sect, we know that every where it is spoken against. 23And when they had appointed him a day, there came many to him into his lodging; to whom he expounded and testified the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses, and out of the prophets, from morning till evening. 24And some believed the things which were spoken, and some believed not. 25And when they agreed not among themselves, they departed, after that Paul had spoken one word, Well spake the Holy Ghost by Esaias the prophet unto our fathers, 26Saying, Go unto this people, and say, Hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and not perceive: 27For the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed; lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. 28Be it known therefore unto you, that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and that they will hear it. 29And when he had said these words, the Jews departed, and had great reasoning among themselves. 30And Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house, and received all that came in unto him, 31Preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence, no man forbidding him. (Acts 28:16‑31) in this connection. Paul was liberated in A. D. 63 but was arrested in 66 and suffered martyrdom, it is believed, in 67, in which year Peter also was martyred. The cruel Nero, emperor of Rome, committed suicide in 68, ending his fourteen years’ reign; and in A. D. 70, Jerusalem was destroyed.
The saints and faithful in Christ Jesus in the first verse are simply the believers as they are referred to in many other Scriptures,—saints, or set apart, separate or holy ones; faithful, or those who have living faith; such is God’s way of describing His children. They are those who know God as their Father, and His Son as their Lord Jesus Christ (verse 2).
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ; according as He has chosen us in Him before the world’s foundation, that we should be holy and blameless before Him in love; having marked us out beforehand for adoption through Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace wherein He has taken us into favor in the Beloved” (verse 3-6, JND)
This Epistle, it is at once evident, is vastly different in subject from that to the Galatians. In the latter we had God’s exposure of the now common and altogether inexcusable error of combining law and grace. The Epistle to the Ephesians, it has been well said, gives us the richest exposition of the blessings of the saints individually, and of the assembly, setting forth at the same time the counsels of God with regard to the glory of Christ. There must have been in the assembly at Ephesus at the time that the epistle was written, a state of soul which the Holy Spirit judged to be such that the full communication of the mind of God, which we have here, might be made to them. That that state did not last is evident from Revelation 2:1-71Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write; These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks; 2I know thy works, and thy labor, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars: 3And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast labored, and hast not fainted. 4Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. 5Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent. 6But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. 7He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God. (Revelation 2:1‑7).
The third verse speaks of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ as He who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ. Does not this title, or these titles, do they not lead us to consider the words spoken by the Lord to Mary Magdalene in the morning of His resurrection:
A quotation from William Kelly’s “Lectures on the Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Ephesians, with a new translation”, written about 1860, will be helpful to the young Christian in an understanding of the above:
“Our Lord stood in a two-fold relation to God; He was Son of God, not only as a divine person, but as man in the world (Luke 1); besides His highest personal glory which shines through John’s gospel. ‘That holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God’. This last title refers to Christ, viewed in humanity in this world; and it is therefore stated only in the Gospel of Luke, which is pre-eminently the human biography, if I may so speak, of Christ. But it might not have been known, unless God has told us, that He carried that same relationship as man into His resurrection. He teaches us that death and resurrection gave Him title in God’s righteousness to put us in His position. So that He could, for the first time, say, in the fullness of meaning which those words convey, ‘I ascend to My Father and your Father, to My God, and your God’, He is now not merely ‘My Father’ and ‘My God’, but ‘your Father’ and ‘your God.’”
“The death of Christ had completely obliterated all that was against the children of God; the resurrection of Christ, after redemption was effected, enabled Him to give them His place of resurrection and sonship before God. And what a wonderful place is this! To think that now, even while we are in this world, our Lord would have us to know that we are sons, in and through Him, before our God, and that we are instinct with resurrection-life,—alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord; that we stand before God without a single charge or condemnation, and this, because He had taken by grace the ‘same condemnation’ with the guilty on the cross. He was the ‘holy thing’ —we unholy, altogether undone. But on the cross He was made sin for us, and entered the same condemnation—made it His own on the cross; and now there is none for me. I am brought into the same place that He had as the risen one before God.
Of course, I am not speaking now of His divine glory. The notion of the creature, no matter how blest, being in any other position than that of looking up to God and worshipping Him, could not enter a renewed mind. The Lord Jesus was Son in His divine nature from all eternity, but as man, too, He was Son: and also as risen from the dead. And by His death and resurrection He brings us in before God and His Father, having the same position as Himself, so far as to be sons, absolutely without sin in our new nature, and freed from condemnation before God because the old nature is already judged. The new nature requires none to die for it, but the old one did; and all is done. In Christ crucified, God condemned sin in the flesh, and to faith all the evil is gone. The blessedness of Christ is now made ours, and we can look up and say, ‘Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.’”
The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, is then the God of Christ, when Christ is looked at as man; He is the Father of Christ, when Christ is looked at as His Son, the Son of His love. In the first character the nature of God is revealed; in the second, we see the intimate relationship which we enjoy to Him who bears this character of Father, and that according to the excellence of Christ’s own relationship to Him. It is this relationship to the Father, as well as that in which we stand to Christ as His body and His bride, that is the source of blessing to the saints and to the assembly of God, of which grace has made us members as a whole.
The apostle’s heart goes out in praise in verse 3 to Him who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ. Note that He has blessed, not will bless in eternity; the work is done. And what are the spiritual blessings? Everything that belongs to Christ. The scene of our blessing is not like Israel’s, on earth, but in heaven, where He is.
Verse 4, we can see, is associated with the first of the characters in which God has revealed Himself—as the God of our Lord Jesus Christ. “According as He has chosen us in Him before the world’s foundation, that we should be holy and blameless before Him in love.” How wonderful, how amazing this is! A choice He has made of us in Christ before the foundation of the world, and we by nature lost, ruined, enemies of God; dead in sin too, but quickened by His grace,—made to live by grace, and given so glorious a prospect.
Verse 5 is linked with the second of the characters in which God has revealed Himself—that of the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ: “Having marked us out beforehand for adoption (of children) through Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good pleasure of His will.” There is a special relationship in which we stand, children of the Father.
Verse 6 belongs to both of the verses which precede it: “to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein he has taken us into favor in the Beloved”—both the choice of verse 4 and the marking out beforehand of verse 5.
Let us give further thought to what we have read in the early verses of this epistle, and may the Holy Spirit lead our hearts into a deeper enjoyment of what God has done, is doing, and will do for His glory and His Son’s glory and our blessing.
God has chosen us in Christ before the world’s foundation (verse 4). Just think what this means! We speak of God’s sovereignty; that He does what He pleases; we learn this and more from Luke 4:16-3016And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read. 17And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, 18The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, 19To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. 20And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. 21And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. 22And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph's son? 23And he said unto them, Ye will surely say unto me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself: whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country. 24And he said, Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country. 25But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land; 26But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow. 27And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian. 28And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, 29And rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong. 30But he passing through the midst of them went his way, (Luke 4:16‑30), and Romans 9, 10 and 11; and other passages, but in this passage in Ephesians we are told of a choice that God has made of you and me, young Christian, not during one’s lifetime, nor earlier, even so far back as the time of the world’s foundation (Revelation 13:88And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. (Revelation 13:8) for instance) which you will find always refers to His earthy people, but in that former eternity of which the word of God gives almost no account. There are four passages which refer definitely to what belongs before the world’s foundation. These are in the language of the New Translation of J. N. D.:
John 17:55And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. (John 17:5) (the Lord’s prayer, uttered just before His betrayal and His cross, in which He spoke, not of His sufferings, but of His people who were to be left in the world when He should return to His Father).
“And now glorify Me, thou Father, along with Thyself, with the glory which I had along with Thee before the world was.”
And the 24th verse: “Father, as to those whom Thou hast given Me, I desire that where I am they also may be with Me, that they may behold My glory which Thou hast given Me, for Thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.”
1 Peter 1:18-2018Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; 19But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: 20Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, (1 Peter 1:18‑20). “Knowing that ye have been redeemed, not by corruptible things as silver or gold, from your vain conversation handed down from your fathers, but by precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, the blood of Christ, foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world, but who has been manifested at the end of times for your sakes.”
Three of these passages refer to the blessed eternal Son of God of whom the Gospel of John in chapter 1 Says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things received being through Him, and without Him not one thing received being which has received being” (John 1:1-31In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2The same was in the beginning with God. 3All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. (John 1:1‑3), JND).
Another has said, “We are chosen in Him before the foundation of the world. Now this expression is not simply that of the sovereignty of God. If God chose some out of men now, it would be as sovereign as if before the world (was formed); but this shows that we belong in the counsels of God to a system set up by Him in Christ before the world existed; which is not of the world when it does exist, and exist after the fashion of this world has passed away. This is a very important aspect of the Christian system. Responsibility came in (for man of course) with the creation of Adam in this world. Our place was given us in Christ before the world existed” (See J. N. Darby, Synopsis of the Books of the Bible, Ephesians, chapter 1).
Another writer says, on the same subject, “Choosing us is a necessary part, because it is evident there was no one but God to choose. It was before the foundation of the world, when God alone was. Man had no voice nor choice in the matter. It was purely God acting from Himself. It was a matter of God’s own choice, that He would have others to be in Heaven beside Himself. ... Here we have God’s choice of us personally. For it is not merely to have a people, as if it were some vague thing, a certain number of niches in heaven to be filled up with so many people. There is no such notion in the Bible. It is persons He chooses. There cannot be such love without a person distinctly before it. And if it is true even among men, that, love is not an uncertain feeling—which is rather a fancy, much more is it true with God. He loves us individually. Hence He has chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world, to show how entirely it is a choice, independent of our character and ways; and if so, it must always flow back to God in a way according to Him. And so it does. If there is this choice of God in Christ before the foundation of the world, He will have saints before Him in such a way as God alone could.”
“Having marked us out beforehand for adoption through Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good pleasure of His will.” This is God as the Father of the Lord Jesus blessing us; not merely choosing us, but marking us out beforehand for adoption as children through Jesus Christ to Himself. The word translated “adoption” (Greek, Huiothesia) is found five times in the Scriptures (Rom. 8:1515For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. (Romans 8:15) and 23; and 9:4; Gal. 4:55To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. (Galatians 4:5); Eph. 1:55Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, (Ephesians 1:5)) and means placing as a son or child. What this may mean when a man of the world adopts some boy or girl as a charitable act, or a duty he feels that he owes, makes a very poor comparison with the adoption God gives those whom he receives, as this chapter by itself discloses, and many other passages of Scripture besides. No earthly children of adoption could by any means have cost the man who adopted them so great a price as we; or be born again as we have and be held in such affection as we are.