Perhaps
one of the most mysterious statements in the Bible is
that made by Paul in the "Ephesian Letter"
(3:10) that "how unto the principalities and the
powers in the heavenlies might be made known through the
Church the manifold wisdom of God."
At least
it implies that the Apostle had been given a very special
revelation, for this is one of the things that could
never be arrived at by study, reasoning or deduction.
What it all means we do not know, but we can see
something.
Firstly,
we find it difficult to believe that these principalities
and powers are the same as those mentioned in Ephesians
6. Why the Lord should want to display His manifold
wisdom to the evil powers would indeed be hard to
understand. If His all-governing object is the expression
and diffusion of His glory in the universe so that
worship comes back to Him in adoration, wonder, and
amazed rejoicing, then we have the clue to this
statement. The Church here is represented as seated
together with Christ in the heavenlies, not in the realm
of the evil powers, but above them, amongst the angelic
hosts. There, intelligences having absolute confidence in
the wisdom and ability of God are nevertheless capable of
being instructed and learning. They are aware of the
unspeakably great and immense problems that have arisen
through Satan's interference and man's complicity with
him - the problems of man's disrupted and twisted nature;
of the resultant power of Satan over him and man's own
utter helplessness; the problem of sin, enmity, hatred,
pride, selfishness, warfare, death, etc. It is like a
mountainous argument built up for God to answer. They are
sure that He can do it, but there is breathless suspense
as to HOW He will do it. They behold the Church as
the vessel in which He will give the answer. The
components of the Church are humanly as manifold and
diverse in dispositions, temperaments, natures, and
propensities as there are persons. In them by nature are
found all the results and effects of the Fall. Then GRACE
gets to work; calls them, chooses them, saves them,
sanctifies them, and changes them so that they go
altogether "contrary to nature." They no longer
do what they used to do. They do what they never would
have done. This is operating and developing every day.
Grace, grace, grace! The word occurs a dozen times in
"Ephesians," and its glorious issue is that
"in the ages to come He might show the exceeding
riches of His grace... toward us in Christ Jesus"
(2:7). So the Church and its members pass into every kind
of trial and testing - persecution, reproach, adversity,
sorrow, loneliness, disappointment, physical suffering,
frustration, etc. - and the reactions through the grace
of God are quite other than they would be apart from it.
There,
where things are known for their eternal value and right
meaning, this "manifold wisdom of God" is
causing principalities and powers to worship and glorify
God. And because the Church serves Him in this way it is
destined to share His glory, and come down "out of
heaven... having the glory of God." It can be easily
seen how the Cross relates to this. Initially it secures
for God the vessel. Progressively as a principle it
empowers to put aside all that works against His glory.
The Cross lies at the heart of every disappointment
triumphantly borne, and every adversity meekly endured.
Because
of the great solution which the Cross is to the problem
which has filled the universe, angels and archangels and
all the host of heaven adore Him Who thought of it -
Whose unsearchable wisdom found expression in "Jesus
Christ and Him crucified" (1 Cor. 2:2).