"...the
word of the truth, the gospel of your salvation..."
(Eph. 1:13).
"...the Gentiles are fellow-heirs,
and fellow-members of the body, and fellow-partakers of
the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel, whereof I
was made a minister..." (3:6,7).
"...having shod your feet with the preparation of
the gospel of peace..." (6:15).
"...praying... on my behalf, that utterance may be
given unto me in opening my mouth, to make known with
boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an
ambassador in chains..." (6:19,20).
When we come to consider 'the
Gospel according to Paul' in the letter to the Ephesians,
we find that we have the word 'gospel' in the noun form
four times. We have it also, on one or two other
occasions, in verb form, as in chapter 2:17 -
"...and he came and preached peace to
you that were far off..."
You
notice the margin says "preached good tidings of
peace". Now that is just an English way of juggling
with a Greek word. The Greek word is the verb of which
'the gospel' is the noun; and, as I have tried to point
out before, what it really says - it cannot be translated
literally into English - is: "came and
'good-tidinged' or 'goodnewsed' peace". That is
impossible in English, but it is just the verb of the
noun 'gospel'. It occurs again in chapter 3, verse 8 "...to preach unto the
Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ..." -
that is, "to good-news unto the Gentiles",
"to proclaim unto the Gentiles the good tidings
of...". It is the verb again for 'gospel'. I think
that gives us ground for saying that this letter is about
the gospel.
Many people have the
idea that when you reach the letter to the Ephesians you
have left the gospel behind, you are further on than the
gospel, you must really now have got a long way beyond
the gospel. I do not think we can get further than this
letter, so far as Divine revelation is concerned: as we
shall see, it takes us a very long way indeed in Divine
things; but it is still the gospel. The gospel is
something very vast, very comprehensive, very
far-reaching indeed.
A
Letter of Superlatives
This leads us to note
that the letter to the Ephesians is the letter of
superlatives. An expressive adjective has come into vogue
of recent years, by which people try to convey the idea
that a thing is very great, or of the highest quality.
They say it is 'super'. Now here, in this letter,
everything is - may I use the word? - 'super'! The whole
letter is written in terms of what is superlative; and I
must take it for granted that you can recall something of
what is here. Superlatives relate to almost everything in
this letter.
There is the
superlative of time. Time is altogether transcended: we
are taken into the realm of timelessness. By this letter
we are taken back into eternity past, before the
foundation of the world, and on into eternity to come,
unto the ages of the ages. It is the superlative of time
- transcending time.
There is the
superlative of space. One phrase runs through this letter
- "in the heavenlies". When you come into the
heavenlies, you are just amazed at the immensity of the
expanse. In the natural realm that is true, is it not,
even of the very limited 'earthly heavens', as
represented by the earth's atmosphere. If you travel a
good deal by air, you pass through the airports and see
the planes coming and going, coming and going, every few
minutes, all day long and all night long and day after
day - and yet when you get up into the air you rarely
meet another machine. It is quite an event to pass
another plane in the air, so vast are the heavens in
their expanse. And this letter is written in the realm of
the superlatives of space, in the spiritual heavenlies,
altogether above the limitations of earth.
Again, it is written in
terms of the superlative of power. There is one clause
here, so familiar to us, which touches that: "the
exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who
believe" (Eph. 1:19). There is much about that
power, superlative power, and its operation, in this
letter.
Further, this letter is
the letter of the superlative in content. How to approach
and explain that is exceedingly difficult. You see, some
of us have been speaking, giving talks, giving addresses,
about this letter to the Ephesians - and it is only a
little letter so far as actual chapters or words are
concerned - for over forty years, and we have not got
near it yet. I defy you to exhaust the content of this
letter. It does not matter how long you go on with it -
you will always feel, 'I have not begun to approach that
yet'. I know what some of you think about me over this
letter. I am almost afraid to mention the very name
'Ephesians'! Even as I have once again meditated over
this letter at the present time, I have been saying to
myself: 'I would like to start now to give a long, long
series of messages on the letter to the Ephesians, and I
should not touch much of the old ground!' It is like
that. But when you look into it and consider it, you find
that you are in the realm of superlatives so far as
contents are concerned, and it begins with "hath
blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the
heavenlies in Christ" (1:3). Can you get above or
outside that? You cannot!
Again, it is in the
realm of the super-mundane. The earth here becomes a very
small thing, and all that goes on in it. All its history
and all that is here becomes very small indeed. The earth
is completely transcended.
It is super-racial, as
we shall see in a moment. It is not just dealing with one
race or two races. It is all one race here.
It is super-natural.
Look again, and you find that everything here is on a
plane that is altogether above the natural. You cannot
naturally grasp it, comprehend it, explain it. It is
Divine revelation. It is by "the Spirit of wisdom
and revelation". That is super-natural. The
knowledge that is here is super-naturally obtained.
And what more shall I
say about the 'super'? The list could very easily be
extended. Have I said enough? Can I go on pointing out in
what a realm this is, what a range? You see, you have
some very great words here. I give you three of them.
"Unto me, who
am less than the least of all saints, was this grace
given, to preach unto the Gentiles the unsearchable
riches of Christ" (3:8).
This letter is written
in terms of the unsearchable, the untraceable.
"...and to know
the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that ye may
be filled unto all the fulness of God" (3:19).
"The
knowledge-surpassing love of Christ". Here we have
the incomprehensible.
"Now unto him
that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we
ask or think, according to the power that worketh in
us..." (3:20.
Here it is the
transcendental. These are big words, but you need big
words throughout for this letter, and I am seeking to
make an impression upon you.
The
Greatest Crisis is Religious History
Now, let us come more
to the inward side of this. This letter, in its content,
represents perhaps the greatest crisis in religious
history. That is saying a great deal. There have been
many crises in religious history, and very big ones, but
this letter represents the greatest of them all. Before
the Lord Jesus was raised from the dead and went to
Heaven, and the Holy Spirit came on the day of Pentecost,
there were only two classes of people on the earth. The
whole of the human race was divided into two classes of
people, the Gentiles and the Jews. When the Holy Spirit
came, a third class came into being which, from God's
standpoint, is neither Gentile nor Jew: it is the Church
of God. They are taken out of nations of Gentiles and
taken out from among the Jews, but, so far as God is
concerned, they are neither Jew nor Gentile, or as Paul
puts it, "neither Jew nor Greek" (Gal. 3:28).
'Greek' was a representative word comprehending the
Gentiles. When the Lord Jesus comes again, as He is
coming, and takes the Church away, the two others will
remain here. There will be a reversion in the earth to
what was before. The whole world will be divided again
into Gentiles and Jews.
So this that came into
being on the day of Pentecost, this third and spiritually
quite separate class of people called the Church,
represents the greatest of all crises in human history
for this reason, and in this way - that that Church is
not something just of earthly history. The Apostle
makes it perfectly clear, right at the beginning of this
Ephesian letter, that this Church had its existence in
the foreknowledge of God before the world was. This
Church is a super-temporal thing, transcending all time
and transcending the earth. This Church, the Apostle
makes clear, will be there in the ages of the ages, still
super-temporal, super-earthly, when Jews and Gentiles go
on. Yes, there will be saved nations in the earth: but
this other goes on in a relationship which is altogether
outside of this world and outside of time; and it is
concerning this particular class, this people, this
Church, that all these things are said in this letter. It
is this Church which takes the character of all these
superlatives. This is itself something superlative, this
is the supreme thing in the economy of God, this is the
supreme thing in all God's sovereign activities from
eternity to eternity. We live in the dispensation of
something absolutely transcendent - God taking out of the
nations, both Jew and Gentile, this people called the
Church, which is "the body of Christ".
A
Superlative Vessel and a Superlative Calling
Now this superlative
vessel or instrument or people has a superlative or
transcendent calling. The Jews had an earthly calling to
serve an earthly purpose, a vocation of time on this
earth. Many believe very strongly that they are yet to
serve such a purpose. There are others, and amongst them
outstanding Bible teachers, who believe that the day of
the Jew is finished as in the economy of God, and that
everything has been transferred to the Church now because
of the Jew's failure. I am not going to argue that; that
does not come into our consideration at all. The fact
remains that the Jews were raised up to serve an earthly
and temporal purpose in the economy of God. But this
Church, eternally saved - eternally chosen, as the
Apostle says, in Christ Jesus before the world was - this
has a superlative calling to serve the purposes of God in
Heaven. It is something timeless, superlative in calling,
in vocation. It is a tremendous thing that is here.
We have often put it in
this way, and indeed it is what the letter to the
Ephesians teaches - we have to touch on this in another
way presently - that this world, as to its conduct, is
influenced by a whole spiritual hierarchy. Even men who
have not a great deal of spiritual discernment, men whom
we would hardly think of as Christian men, in the
essential sense of being born-again children of God, have
recognised this and admit it: that behind the behaviour
of this world there is some sinister force, some evil
power, some wicked intelligence. They may hesitate to
name it, to call it Satan, the Devil, and so on, but the
Bible just calls it that. Behind the course of this
world's history, as we know it - behind the wars, the
rivalries, the hatred, the bitterness, the cruelty, all
the clash and clamour of interests, and everything else -
there is an evil intelligence, a power at work, a whole
system that is seeking to ruin the glory of God in His
creation. And that whole system is here said to be in
what is called "the heavenlies", that is,
something above the earth; in the very air, if you like,
in the very atmosphere. Sometimes you can sense it:
sometimes you can almost 'cut the atmosphere with a
knife', as we say; sometimes you know there is something
in the very air that is wicked, evil. You cannot just put
it down to people; there is something behind the people,
something about. It is very real - sometimes it seems
almost tangible, you can almost smell it - something evil
and wicked. It is that which is governing this world
system and order.
Now what is here in
this letter is this, that this Church, eternally
conceived, foreknown, chosen, and brought into existence
in its beginnings on the day of Pentecost, and growing
spiritually through the centuries since - this Church is
to take the place of that evil government above this
earth. It is to depose it and cast it out of its domain,
and itself take that place to be the influence that
governs this world in the ages to come. That is the
teaching here: a superlative calling, a superlative
vocation, because of a superlative people in their very
nature. There is something different about them from
other people. That is the secret of the true Christian
life - of the true ones in Christ: there is something
about them that is different. To this world, Christians
are a problem and a conundrum. You cannot put them into
any earthly class. You cannot just pigeon-hole a
Christian. Somehow or other, they elude you all the time.
You cannot make them out.
Now, in this letter
Paul speaks first of all of that superlative calling, and
then he says that, because of the greatness of that
calling, this Church must behave itself accordingly.
"I... beseech you to walk worthily of the calling
wherewith ye were called" (Eph. 4:1). Conduct has to
be adjusted to calling. Oh, that Christian people behaved
correspondingly to their calling - to their great,
eternal, heavenly vocation! But because of this calling,
this destiny, this vocation, this position, that mighty
evil hierarchy is set to its last ounce to destroy this
vessel called the Church, and therefore there is an
immense and terrible conflict going on in the air over
this thing, and Christians meet it. The more you seek to
live according to your calling, the more you realise how
difficult it is, and what there is set against you. It is
fierce and bitter spiritual conflict.
Superlative
Resources
Now, mark you, this is
what Paul calls the gospel - all this is the gospel! Did
you ever get an idea of the gospel like that? did you
ever think of the gospel in such terms? Yes, it is still
the gospel, the same gospel; not another, the same. Now,
because all this is true as to the gospel, surely the
demands are very great. The reaction of so many, when you
say things like this, is: 'Oh, I cannot rise to that -
that is altogether beyond me, that is too much for me,
that is overpowering, that is overwhelming! Give me the
simple gospel!' But I wonder if we realise what we
involve ourselves in when we talk like that. For it is
just there that the true nature of the gospel comes in,
in this whole letter. Yes, the calling is great, is
immense; the conduct must be on a high level; the
conflict is fierce and bitter. And that makes tremendous
demands. If that is the gospel, then how shall we stand
up to it, how shall we face it, how shall we rise to it,
how shall we get through?
Well, we come back to
the phrase to which I am gathering the whole of this
letter. It is here: "to 'goodnews' the unsearchable
riches of Christ". It is translated 'preach' in our
Bibles, but it is the same word, as you know, in the verb
form. "To 'good-news' the unsearchable riches of
Christ". The good news is that the riches are
unsearchable! Oh, this is something for us in which to
rejoice, being hard pressed, hard put to it; feeling we
shall never rise to it, never go through with it. The
superlative riches are for a superlative vocation and for
a superlative conflict and for superlative conduct.
"Unsearchable riches".
Now that is a characteristic word that you find scattered
through this letter. Riches! Riches! In chapter 1, verse
7, it is "the riches of his grace". That phrase
is enlarged in 2:7 - "the exceeding riches of his
grace". And then in 1:18 it is the inheritance -
"the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the
saints". That just means that the saints are the
inheritance of Jesus Christ, and in them, in His Church,
He has a tremendous wealth. Now, if He is going to have
wealth in this Church, it is He who must supply the
wealth, and it is "according to the riches of his
grace" that He will find "the riches of his
inheritance" in the Church. There is much more said
about that. In 3:16 the word is used again - "the
riches of his glory". Riches! Riches! Very well: if
the demands are great, there is a great supply. If the
need is superlative, the resources are superlative. All
this sets forth and indicates the basis and the resources
of the Church for its calling, for its conduct, and for
its conflict.
So what is 'the gospel
according to Paul' in the letter to the Ephesians? It is
the gospel of the "unsearchable riches" for
superlative demands, and when you have said that, you are
left swimming in a mighty ocean. Go to the letter again,
read it carefully through, note it. Yes, there is a high
standard here, there are big demands here, tremendous
things in view here; but there are also the riches of His
grace, the unsearchable riches of His grace for it all.
There are the riches of His glory: it is put like this -
"according to the riches of his glory". Now, if
you can explore, fathom, exhaust, God's riches in glory,
then you put a certain limit upon possibilities and
potentialities. But if, after you have said all that you
have tried to say in human language, as the Apostle did
here, you find that you have not got enough superlatives
at your command when you are talking about the resources
that are in God by Christ Jesus, then everything is
possible - according to the riches of His grace and of
His glory.
That is a gospel, is it
not? Surely that is good tidings, that is good news! And,
dear friends, we shall get through - and
we ought not just to scrape through. If it is like that,
we ought to get through superlatively. The Lord bring us
into the good of the superlatives of the gospel, of the
good news.