Commentary on Galatians Ephesians Philippians Colossians Thessalonians Timothy Titus and Philemon John Calvin
John Calvin to the judgment of God, we are bound by miserable chains, and therefore our exemption from guilt, becomes an invaluable freedom.
According to the riches of his grace. He now returns to the efficient cause, --- the largeness of the divine kindness, which has given Christ to us as our Redeemer. Riches, and the corresponding word overflow, in the following verse, are intended to give us large views of divine grace. The apostle feels himself unable to celebrate, in a proper manner, the goodness of God, and desires that the contemplation of it would occupy the minds of men till they are entirely lost in admiration. How desirable is it that men were deeply impressed with ``the riches of that grace'' which is here commended! No place would any longer be found for pretended satisfactions, or for those trifles by which the world vainly imagines that it can redeem itself; as if the blood of Christ, when unsupported by additional aid, had lost all its efficacy. 125
8. In all wisdom. He now comes to the formal cause, the preaching of the gospel, by which the goodness of God overflows upon us. 126 It is through faith that we receive Christ, by whom we come to God, and by whom we enjoy the privilege of adoption. Paul gives to the gospel the magnificent appellations of wisdom and prudence, for the purpose of leading the Ephesians to despise all contrary doctrines. The false apostles insinuated themselves, under the pretense of imparting views more elevated than the elementary instructions which Paul conveyed. And the devil, in order to undermine our faith, labors, as far as he can, to disparage the gospel. Paul, on the other hand, builds up the authority of the gospel, that believers may rest upon it with unshaken confidence. All wisdom means --- full or perfect wisdom.
9. Having made known to us the mystery of his will. Some were alarmed at the novelty of his doctrine. With a view to such persons, he very properly denominates it a mystery of the divine will, and yet a mystery which God has now been pleased to reveal. As he formerly ascribed their election, so he now ascribes their calling, to the good pleasure of God. The Ephesians are thus led to consider that Christ has been made known, and the gospel preached to them, not because they deserved any such thing, but because it pleased God.
Which he hath purposed in himself. All is wisely and properly arranged. What can be more just than that his purposes, with which men are unacquainted, should be known to God alone, so long as he is pleased to conceal them, --- or, again, that it should be in his own will and power to fix the time when they shall be communicated to men? The decree to adopt the Gentiles is declared to have been till now hidden in the mind of God, but so hidden, that God reserved it in his own power until the time of the revelation. Does any one now complain of it as a new and unprecedented occurrence, that those
125"Comme si le sang de Christ sechoit et perdoit sa vigueur." "As if the blood of Christ were dried up, and lost its force."
126{ἧς} {ἐπερίσσευσεν} --- ``{ἧς} for {ἧ}, (by a common Grecism, in which the relative is attracted by the antecedent,) if, at least, we take {ἐπερίσσευσεν}, with many modern expositors, in a neuter sense, `in which he hath renewed his abundant goodness to us;' but if, with the ancient and some modern ones, in an active sense, `to make to abound,' (as in 2 Corinthians 4:15; 9:8,) the {ἧς} will be for {ἥν}, meaning, `which he has bountifully bestowed upon us.'`` --- Bloomfield.