3a. God’s power in the raising of Christ from the dead (1:19-23)
Chapter 1
1. Salutation (1:1-2)
Verse 1: Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God
Ancient letters regularly commenced with some such formula as “X to Y, greeting.” Paul’s letters are introduced by salutations based on this skeleton-formula, but the three elements in the formula (the sender’s name, the addressees, and the greeting) are variously amplified in accordance with the circumstances. Paul’s designation of himself here is identical with that in Colossians 1:1; the phrase “through the will of God” in relation to his apostleship appears also in 1 Corinthians 1:1; 2 Corinthians 1:1; 2 Timothy 1:1. The term “apostle” (Gk. apostolos), as used of Christians in the New Testament has two meanings, a wider and a narrower. In the wider sense it is used of Christian missionaries in general (eg of Timothy and Silvanus in 1 Thessalonians 2:6, or of Barnabas in Acts 14:14), or of “messengers of the churches” (as in 2 Corinthians 8:23). But in the narrower sense, in which Paul uses it of himself here and elsewhere, it is confined to those who have received their commission directly and independently from Christ, apart from any mediation – that is to say, to Paul and to the Twelve.
to the saints which are at Ephesus, and the faithful in Christ Jesus:
The recipients of the letter are characterized by two terms frequently used of the followers of Christ in the New Testament; they are “saints” or “holy people” (Gk. hagioi), ie the people whom God has set apart for himself, and they are “faithful” or “believers” (Gk. pistoi), ie those who have placed their wholehearted trust in Jesus as Son of God, Lord and Savior. The expression “in Christ Jesus,” however, does not denote him as the One in whom they have believed so much as the One in whom they are brought together into a living fellowship. The solidarity of sin and death which members of the old creation have inherited “in Adam” has given way to a solidarity of righteousness and life “in Christ Jesus” (or “in Christ”) for those who by faith have entered into the new creation.
“Because Christ himself is now exalted in the heavenly realm, those who are ‘in him’ belong to that heavenly realm, too, in the mind of God.”
Ephesians 1:7
The words “at Ephesus” are omitted by Papyrus 46 (the oldest authority for the text of the Pauline epistles), by the first hands in the Sinaitic and Vatican codices, and several other early witnesses. This omission is best explained by the view mentioned in the Introduction, that the epistle was intended not only for the Ephesian church but also for other churches of the province of Asia, and that some early copies had the name “Ephesus” left out in order, possibly, that names of some other cities might be inserted in its place. The mention of some particular place here was no doubt intended from the beginning; it is most improbable that the recipients were addressed simply as “the saints who are also faithful in Christ Jesus” (which would be the rendering of the Greek if “at Ephesus” were omitted and nothing put in its place).
Verse 2: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
The regular Greek greeting was “Rejoice!” (chaire); the regular Jewish greeting was “Peace!” Paul commonly combines the two, but he likes to replace chaire by the similarly-sounding but richer greeting charis (“grace”). The regular collocation of “the Lord Jesus Christ” with “God our Father” as the source of these blessings bears eloquent witness to the place which Paul and other early Christians gave to our Lord in confession and worship.
2. A doxology (1:3-14)
The doxology with which this new paragraph begins is amplified by Paul’s contemplation of God’s eternal purpose (verses 4-12), and this leads him on in turn to contemplate the wonder of the unity of Jew and Gentile in Christ (verses 13-14).
Verse 3: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ:
A similar ascription of blessing follows the salutation in 2 Corinthians 1:3 and 1 Peter 1:3; the explicit reason for praising “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” varies in accordance with the purpose and theme of the epistle. Here the keynote of the Epistle to the Ephesians is struck at once. The writer and his readers are “in Christ”-members of Christ, sharers of his resurrection-life – and because Christ himself is now exalted in the heavenly realm, those who are “in him” belong to that heavenly realm, too, in the mind of God. It is there that they enjoy “every spiritual blessing” that God has bestowed upon them as the people of Christ. Temporally they continue to live here on earth; spiritually they live already in the heavenly realm where Christ lives. It is this twofold relation that constitutes the special tension of Christian existence in the world between the two advents.
The “heavenly places” in which believers receive the divine blessings “in Christ” are mentioned in four other places in this epistle. From these the character of these regions in or above the heavens (Gk. ta epourania) may be more fully gathered. They constitute the sphere to which the risen Christ has been exalted, where he sits enthroned at God’s right hand (1:20), where those who have died and risen with Christ sit along with him (2:6), where principalities and powers see the many-hued wisdom of God exhibited through the church (3:10), and where spiritual forces of wickedness must be resisted and vanquished by believers armed with the panoply of God (6:12). The adjective epouranios occurs several times in the New Testament, but this particular use of the neuter plural is specially characteristic of Ephesians.
Spiritual blessings are those which are appropriate to people who have their true home in the heavenly realm; they are the Christian counterpart to those temporal blessings which the Old Testament promised to those who were pressing on to an earthly inheritance (cf. Deuteronomy 28:1-14).
2a. The mystery of God’s eternal purpose (1:4-12)
Verse 4: even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world,
So far as the personal experience of believers is concerned, their entry into the relationship described by the words “in Christ” took place when they were born from above, and was symbolized in baptism; but from God’s point of view it has no such temporal limitation. They have been objects of his eternal choice, and that eternal choice is so completely bound up with the person of Christ that in the light of the divine purpose they are described as being “in Christ” before the world’s foundation. Here we are confronted by the mystery of God’s grace. In the presence of such mystery we do well to be humble, acknowledging the limitations of our own understanding and paying heed to the solemnly practical purpose of God’s electing grace –
“Spiritual blessings are those which are appropriate to people who have their true home in the heavenly realm.”
that we should be holy and without blemish before him in love:
The punctuation of the marginal variant in RV (“that we should be holy and without blemish before him: having in love foreordained us …”) is probably to be preferred to the punctuation given in the text. In any case, the purpose which God had in view in making choice of his people in Christ was nothing short of their entire sanctification. True, this purpose will not be fully realized until the resurrection: “we know that, if he shall be manifested, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2). But the glorification which awaits believers on that day is the completion of that sanctification which is wrought within them by the Spirit now; it is the will of God that those who are “in Christ” should also be like Christ – in increasing measure here, in fullness hereafter. The predestinating love of God is commended more by those who lead holy and Christlike lives than by those whose attempts to unravel the mystery partake of the nature of pedantic logic-chopping.
Verse 5: having foreordained us unto adoption as sons through Jesus Christ unto himself,
The words “in love” at the end of verse 4 should probably come at the beginning of this verse, closely attached to the verb “having foreordained.” This foreordination is part of what is involved in our pre-mundane election in Christ. God marked us out in advance as those who were to receive a highly honored status as his sons. This “adoption” is more than our relationship to God as his children which is ours by the new birth; it embraces all the privileges and responsibilities which belong to those whom God has acknowledged as his freeborn, full-grown sons. It is a status which we receive in Christ our Redeemer, through faith (Galatians 3:26; 4:5); which we appropriate in practice through obedience to the Spirit’s guidance (Romans 8:14 f.; Galatians 4:6 f.); which will be given full and universal recognition at the Second Advent of Christ, for the day when the Son of God is revealed will also be the day of “the revealing of the sons of God” (Romans 8:19). And when that day dawns, Paul assures us, all creation will share in its joy. God’s foreordaining some to be his sons does not shut his other creatures out from blessing, but is the very means of their ultimate blessing, and that on a cosmic scale (Romans 8:21). What a poverty-stricken view of God’s predestinating grace is taken by those who think of it solely in terms of being sealed for heaven and delivered from hell! It is, moreover, “through Jesus Christ” – through the eternal Son of God – that we have been predetermined as sons of God; and God’s ultimate object in so predetermining us is his own glory: he has foreordained us “unto himself.”
according to the good pleasure of his will,
The ground of God’s choice, of his foreordaining us to be his sons, cannot be found in us. It was not because he foresaw something acceptable in us, not even because he foreknew that we would believe the gospel, that he singled us out for such an honor as this. The ground must be sought exclusively in his own gracious character: being the God he is, he willed and decreed our adoption as his sons, our conformity to his image, and in the fullness of time he sent his Son through whom alone this loving purpose could be made effective.
Verse 6: to the praise of the glory of his grace, which he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved:
The multiplication of genitival phrases like “the praise of the glory of his grace” is a noteworthy feature of the style of this Epistle, especially where Paul wishes to emphasize the superlative majesty of God’s grace and glory and wisdom and power. The grace of God in redeeming sinful children of Adam and adopting them as his own sons will be throughout eternity the most glorious theme of praise to his name. And with this grace, says the apostle, he has “be-graced” us in the Beloved – for thus we may literally translate the verb charitoō, rendered “freely bestowed” in RV “The Beloved” (corresponding to “the Son of his love” in Colossians 1:13) is probably a recognized messianic designation. We may compare the voice which our Lord heard at his baptism: “Thou art my son, my beloved, in Thee I am well pleased” (Mark 1:11). Variant renderings of what is basically one and the same messianic title appear elsewhere in the New Testament; thus God’s Beloved is also his “chosen One” (cf. Luke 9:35, RV) and “his own One” (Acts 20:28). Be it noted again that all the blessings which are ours by God’s grace are ours in Christ; there is no way apart from him in which God either decrees or effects the bestowal of his grace on men.
Verse 7: in whom we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,
As he contemplates God’s grace conveyed to us in Christ, Paul enumerates some of the blessings which we owe to that grace (possibly using the language of a primitive Christian confession of faith). Among these blessings is our “redemption” (Gk. apolytrosis) – the redemption which we have in Christ, because it is only as those who share his risen life that we have made effective in us what he has done for us. This redemption is something that he has procured on our behalf; the word implies that our former existence was one of slavery from which we required to be ransomed. The ransom-price is expressly mentioned (as it is not in the best-authenticated texts of the parallel passage in Colossians 1:14); it was a price of immeasurable costliness, nothing less than the blood of Christ (cf. Romans 3:24 f.; 1 Pet. 1:18 f.). If, even under the shadow-economy of the Levitical ritual, sacrificial blood was accepted for the worshipers’ atonement “by reason of the life” (Leviticus 17:11), then the price at which our emancipation was purchased was the infinitely more acceptable life of the Incarnate Son, freely offered up on the cross as a sacrifice to God in behalf of men. With this redemption our forgiveness is closely linked, as in the words of Jesus in Matthew 26:28: “this is my blood of the covenant, which is shed for many unto remission of sins.” Here it is our “trespasses” (Gk. paraptoma, “falling by the way,” “false step,” “deviation”) that are remitted; in Colossians 1:14 (as in Matthew 26:28, just quoted) the word is “sins” (Gk. hamartia, “missing the mark,” the most general term in the New Testament for failure to conform to God’s will). Both terms denote the same ugly reality under slightly differing figures; in either case pardon and restoration are freely granted to us in Christ; so rich is his grace.
“The grace of God in redeeming sinful children of Adam and adopting them as his own sons will be throughout eternity the most glorious theme of praise to his name.”
Verse 8: which he made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence,
That the “manifold wisdom of God” is displayed to the universe by means of his redeemed people is something which Paul affirms later in this letter (Ephesians 3:10). But here it is more likely that the “wisdom and prudence” are gifts which the believer receives in consequence of the divine grace. Not only are redemption and forgiveness bestowed on us, but spiritual wisdom (Gk. sophia) and discernment (Gk. phronesis) are imparted as well, so that we may grasp something of the divine purpose of the ages and of the place which we occupy therein. In 1 Corinthians 2:6 Paul says that he speaks wisdom among those who are full-grown, but he could not teach it to the Corinthians because of their spiritual immaturity. Here, however, he brings to light that “hidden wisdom which God foreordained before the world unto our glory” (1 Corinthians 2:7).
Verse 9: having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he purposed in him
In this Epistle as elsewhere in the New Testament, a “mystery” is something hitherto concealed but now unveiled. Here Paul speaks of a purpose which God has set before himself – a purpose conceived in Christ and to be fulfilled in Christ – of which at best only faint adumbrations had hitherto been perceived. But now it has been revealed in its glorious fullness, first to Paul, and then through Paul to the Church at large. What this fullness comprises we may learn in greater detail as we continue to read this Epistle; in the present place Paul sums it up concisely.
Verse 10: unto a dispensation of the fulness of the times, to sum up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens, and the things upon the earth;
There is no punctuation between this verse and the preceding one (see RV). The progress of Paul’s thought may be expressed by such a paraphrase as the following, beginning in the middle of verse 9: “And this is in accordance with God’s purpose which has its origin and its accomplishment in the person of Christ – a purpose to be carried into effect when the time is ripe for it – that all things, in heaven and on earth alike, should find their one true head in Christ.” This is the grand purpose of God which embraces all lesser aspects of his purpose within itself – the establishment of a new order, a new creation, of which Christ shall be the acknowledged head. If here and now Christ is “head over all things to the, church” (verse 22), this is a promise of the day when he will be head of a completely redeemed creation. We have a parallel thought in James 1:18: “Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.” The word translated “dispensation” is oikonomia, which properly means “stewardship” or “administration”; it is used here of the administration of God’s grand purpose, the putting of that purpose into effect. The “fulness of the times” (cf. “the fulness of the time” in Galatians 4:4) denotes the completion of an appointed period of time and hence the arrival of a new epoch. At the end of one appointed period of time God sent forth his Son (Galatians 4:4); when all the times and seasons which the Father has fixed by his own authority have run their course, God’s age-long purpose which he planned in Christ will attain its full fruition. Everything in heaven and earth will then be summed up in Christ; the verb used is anakephalaioo (to “head up,” “sum up” or “recapitulate”), which here implies “the entire harmony of the universe, which shall no longer contain alien and discordant elements, but of which all the parts shall find their center and bond of union in Christ.”
“This is the grand purpose of God which embraces all lesser aspects of his purpose within itself – the establishment of a new order, a new creation, of which Christ shall be the acknowledged head.”
in him, I say,
These final words of verse 10 are to be taken closely together with the opening words of verse 11.
Verse 11: in whom also we were made a heritage,
This is a preferable rendering to that of AV, “in whom also we have obtained an inheritance.” Both statements are true, but the apostle is thinking here of “God’s own possession” (verse 14), “his inheritance in the saints” (verse 18). So, in Old Testament days, it was revealed that “the Lord’s portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance” (Deuteronomy 32:9). In Christ, then, we have been admitted to the ranks of the chosen people, the holy heritage of God.
having been foreordained according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his will;
As in verse 5 believers are said to have been foreordained “unto adoption as sons,” so here it is implied that their inclusion in the heritage of God was an object of divine foreordination. From all eternity it was the purpose of God to bring into being a community of men and women who would be in a peculiar sense his own possession. And whatever God has purposed is sure of fulfillment; he is described here as the One “who worketh all things after the counsel of his will.” That is to say, when once his will has decreed that something shall be so, his wisdom and power and love combine to order and overrule the course of events so that all things are made to work together for the accomplishment of what he has planned. Even sin and other evils, however contrary to his will, can be turned by him to serve his purposes of glory and blessing. This is pre-eminently manifested by the way in which that sin of sins, the rejection and murder of his incarnate Son, has become in his hands the means by which all the blessings of the gospel are secured to those who believe.
Verse 12: to the end that we should be unto the praise of his glory, we who had before hoped in Christ:
However we may contemplate the foreordaining purpose of God, his own glory is displayed therein – in its conception as well as in its accomplishment. In verse 6 the foreordination of believers to adoption as sons tends “to the praise of the glory of his grace”; so here their foreordination to be his special heritage means that “the praise of his glory” will shine forth in them: that is to say, the glory of God unveiled in his people is to draw forth the admiring praise of the universe (cf. Ephesians 3:10). It is plain that in verses 11 and 12 Paul has primarily in mind believers of Jewish origin, the more immediate heirs of “the covenants of the promise.” It has, indeed, been suggested that the term “before” in the clause “who had before hoped in Christ” means “before the summing up” of verse 10, in which case the expression would embrace all who are to believe in Christ before the grand consummation. But the words “ye also” in verse 13, with their evident allusion to Gentile Christians, indicate clearly enough that “we” in verses 11 and 12 are Jewish Christians. They represent the people of God, the believing remnant of Israel, whose hope was fixed on the Messiah before he came, and who accepted him when he appeared either immediately (like the original disciples) or after an interval (like Paul himself). The gospel order, “to the Jew first, and also to the Greek” (Romans 1:16; cf. 2:9 f.), is illustrated historically by the fact that for the first few years after the death and resurrection of Christ, the message of life through faith in him was proclaimed “to none save only to Jews” (Acts 11:19); its direct presentation to Gentiles marks a second stage in its progress.
2b. The unity of Jew and Gentile in Christ (1:13-14)
Verse 13: in whom ye also, having heard the word of the truth, the gospel of your salvation,
After “ye also” we should supply “were made a heritage” (understood from verse 11). Paul points to the distinction between Jewish believers (“we”) and Gentile believers (“ye also”) in order to bring out more fully the central emphasis of this epistle – that Gentile believers have been incorporated along with Jewish believers as members of the body of Christ and sharers of the heritage of God. In the old order there were blessings enjoyed by Israel in which the Gentiles had no part; in the new order there is no blessing enjoyed by a Jewish believer to which a Gentile believer has not an equal claim. Perhaps today, when Gentile Christianity has been predominant for so many centuries, it may be necessary to reverse that statement and insist that in the new order there is no blessing enjoyed by a Gentile believer to which a Jewish believer has not an equal claim. One way or the other, there are no second-class members of the Church of Christ. The message which Paul’s Gentile readers heard is called “the word of the truth” because it proceeds from the God of truth and conveys the highest truth that he has to reveal; it is called “the gospel of your salvation” because, as they knew very well from their own experience of it, it was the good news which brought the way of salvation home to them.
in whom, having also believed, ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise,
The phrase “in whom” does not so much imply that Christ was the One in whom they believed (that was true, of course), as that he was the One in whom they were sealed with the Spirit. The sealing with the Spirit is not an isolated and individual matter; it has reference to the new life which they share “in Christ” with all their fellow-believers. The words “having also believed” mean “when you Gentiles believed in your turn, as we Jewish Christians had already done.” The participle “having believed” is identical with that occurring in Paul’s question to the disciples at Ephesus in Acts 19:2: “Did ye receive the Holy Ghost when ye believed?” It is called by grammarians the “coincident” aorist participle because it denotes an action coincident in time with that of the main verb.
“All the blessings which are ours by God’s grace are ours in Christ; there is no way apart from him in which God either decrees or effects the bestowal of his grace on men.”
What is meant by being “sealed” with the Holy Spirit? The expression occurs here and in Ephesians 4:30, where the present passage is echoed. An owner seals his property with his signet to mark it as his; if at a later time he comes to claim it and his right to it is questioned, his seal is sufficient evidence and puts an end to such questioning. So, the fact that believers are endowed with the Spirit is the token that they belong in a special sense to God. If the twelve disciples of Acts 19:1-7 were among those who heard this epistle read when it reached its destination, they would have thought immediately of that day when Paul met them and told them about the Holy Spirit of whom they had never heard before, the day when they received the Spirit after being baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus and having Paul’s hands laid upon them. And others among their fellowChristians would similarly think of the day when the Spirit came upon them, although to many of them this had happened as soon as they believed, before they entered the baptismal water as the outward and visible sign of the inward and spiritual grace which they had received. One way or the other, they had thus been incorporated into that living fellowship which was inaugurated when the Spirit came down to take possession of the new people of God on the first Christian Pentecost. Other seals, literal or figurative (like circumcision, the seal of the covenant with Abraham), were affixed externally; the seal of the new covenant is imprinted in the believing heart.
Then why is the Spirit called “the Holy Spirit of promise” here and in Ephesians 4:30? Partly, no doubt, because he is the promised Holy Spirit, promised from days of old (compare the prophecy of Joel 2:28 and its fulfillment according to Acts 2:16 f.). For this reason the gift of the Spirit is called “the promise of the Father” in Acts 1:4 – that is to say, the gift which the Father has promised. There “of the Father” is an example of what grammarians call the “subjective genitive”; the Father is the One who has made the promise. In Galatians 3:14 we read of “the promise of the Spirit,” where “of the Spirit” is an example of the “objective genitive”; the Spirit is the One who has been promised. But the title here, “the Holy Spirit of promise,” reminds us not only that we are living in the age of the fulfillment of God’s promises of old but also that our possession of the Spirit is itself a promise that God will bring to final consummation that good work which he has already begun in us.
Verse 14: which is an earnest of our inheritance,
The possessive pronoun “our” here includes Jewish and Gentile believers together. The truth which is expressed in one way by the figure of “sealing” is expressed in another way by the use of the word “earnest.” This Greek word (arrhabon) is derived from a Semitic root represented in the Hebrew Bible by the term rendered “pledge” three times in Genesis 38:17-20. There Judah gave his daughter-in-law Tamar certain articles of his personal property as a pledge until he could redeem his promise to present her with “a kid of the goats.” The word is used in Modern Greek for an engagement ring, a fact which speaks for itself. So our possession of the Spirit here and now is the guarantee divinely given that we shall one day enjoy in its fullness all that inheritance which God has reserved in heaven for those that love him (cf. 1 Corinthians 2:9; 1 Peter 1:4).
unto the redemption of God’s own possession, unto the praise of his glory.
Believers are God’s redeemed possession already, but the consummation of his redeeming work remains to be experienced by us. We “have the first fruits of the Spirit,” but the harvest still lies in the future; meanwhile we are “waiting for our adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body” (Romans 8:23). The word for “God’s own possession” (Gk. peripoiesis) appears in much the same sense in 1 Peter 2:9; the corresponding verb is rendered “purchased” in Acts 20:28. Such Old Testament passages as Exodus 19:5; Deuteronomy 14:2; Psalm 74:2 and Malachi 3:17 form a background to these New Testament expressions (cf. also Titus 2:14, where another word of similar meaning, periousios, is used). Not only our inheritance in Christ, but God’s inheritance in the saints, will be finally realized in that coming age, and “the praise of his glory” will be complete.
3. A prayer for wisdom (1:15–2:10)
Verse 15: For this cause I also, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which is among you, and which ye shew toward all the saints,
With these words the apostle introduces a prayer that his readers may be granted wisdom and spiritual understanding, so that they may grasp truths which the unregenerate or unenlightened intellect is unable to appreciate. The reading of this verse in RV follows those texts which omit the words “the love” (Gk. ten agapen) between “and” and “which ye shew.” The weight of the evidence favors the omission; the longer reading (found, eg, in AV) is probably due to an assimilation of this verse to the parallel passage in Colossians 1:4. As the Thessalonians’ faith had gone forth in every place, so the faith of the Ephesians and other recipients of the present epistle was a manifest example to all their fellow-Christians. The news of it filled the apostle with joy and grateful praise.
“From all eternity it was the purpose of God to bring into being a community of men and women who would be in a peculiar sense his own possession.”
Verse 16: cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers;
This is a recurring note at the beginning of Paul’s epistles; we may compare Romans 1:8 f.; 1 Corinthians 1:4; Philippians 1:3 f.; Colossians 1:3; 1 Thessalonians 1:2; 2 Thessalonians 1:3; Philemon 4. What an intercessor he must have been!
Verse 17: that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him;
Here, then, is his prayer to God on his converts’ behalf. God has already been called “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” in verse 3 (although even there the Vatican Codex omits the words “and Father”); here the title is shortened but the reference to God’s fatherhood is supplied by the added title “the Father of glory.” By this new title Paul wishes to emphasize the unique glory of God’s fatherhood as the archetypal fatherhood; as he says it Ephesians 3:15, all fatherhood in heaven or on earth is in one way or another derived from his fatherhood. He prays that God may impart to them a spirit of wisdom and revelation. While the reference is not actually to the personal Spirit of God here, yet such a spirit of wisdom and revelation cannot be possessed apart from him who is “the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord” (Isaiah 11:2). Knowledge without wisdom can be a menace; wisdom is that insight into the nature of things, that sense of what is fitting, which enables one to coordinate and use one’s knowledge aright. Men who know many things are all around us; men of spiritual wisdom are so rare that they are worth far more than their weight in gold. But the knowledge of which the apostle speaks is not primarily a knowledge of things or facts; it is the personal knowledge of God. And this knowledge is impossible unless God is pleased to make himself known. Hence the spirit which the apostle desires for his readers is a spirit of revelation as well as one of wisdom. “The things of God none knoweth, save the Spirit of God” (1 Corinthians 2:11); “but unto us God revealed them through the Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God” (1 Corinthians 2:10). If theology, knowledge about God, is impossible without divine revelation, how much more so is that acquaintance with God himself, that epignōsis, of which the apostle speaks here!
Verse 18: having the eyes of your heart enlightened,
The heart in Scripture is the seat of the intelligence and will, and it is this inward vision which needs to be illuminated by the Spirit if we are to know God and appreciate his revealed truth and his eternal purpose. It is unlikely that the word “enlightened” here has any direct reference to the early Christian use of “enlightenment” in the sense of baptism.
that ye may know what is the hope of his calling,
Three things are proposed for spiritual men to learn, and they embrace past, present and future in their scope. The first is the hope of the calling of God. The calling of God finds its source in his choice of his people in Christ before the world’s foundation (verse 4); it begins to become effective in personal life when those whom he foreordained to be conformed to the image of his Son respond to his persuasive and enabling call as Christ is freely presented to them in the gospel (Romans 8:30); it points on to the hope of ultimate consummation when God’s purpose is achieved in his people and they are glorified with Christ. To see him face to face and to be conformed to his image – what more blessed hope could be set before men than this? And it is to the attainment of this hope that believers have been called.
what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,
Here is the second thing which they are to learn. The hope of God’s calling involves a glorious inheritance for his people, but we must not overlook the fact (of which we have already been reminded in verses 11 and 14) that his people constitute an inheritance for God, his own possession, in whom he will display to the universe the untold riches of his glory. We can scarcely realize what it must mean to God to see his purpose complete, to see creatures of his hand, sinners redeemed by his grace, reflecting his own glory.
3a. God’s power in the raising of Christ from the dead (1:19-23)
Verse 19: and what the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to that working of the strength of his might
The third thing which the apostle desires his readers to know is the power of God. But when he thinks of the power of God, he presses all the terms for power in his vocabulary into service in order to convey something of its all-surpassing character. Paul is the only New Testament writer to use this participle translated “exceeding” (Gk. hyperballon), and he does so in five places altogether. In the other four it is used of the surpassing glory of the new covenant (2 Corinthians 3:10), the grace of God manifested in his people’s liberality (2 Corinthians 9:14), the riches of God’s grace displayed “in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:7), and “the love of Christ which passeth knowledge” (Ephesians 3:19). But not content with this superlative word, he piles synonym on synonym as he describes how God’s “power” (dynamis) operates according to the inworking (energeia) of the strength (kratos) of his might (ischys). Why this attempt to exhaust the resources of language to convey something of the greatness of God’s power? Because he is thinking of one supreme occasion when that power was exerted.
“But if the death of Christ is the chief demonstration of the love of God, the chief demonstration of his power is the resurrection of Christ.”
Verse 20: which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead,
When the New Testament writers wish to show the fullness of God’s love, they point to the death of Christ. “God commendeth his own love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). But if the death of Christ is the chief demonstration of the love of God, the chief demonstration of his power is the resurrection of Christ. And it is specially important that believers should know the power of God, because the power by which he raised Jesus from the dead is “the power that worketh in us” (Ephesians 3:20), the power by which we are enabled to repudiate the dominion of sin and walk with Christ “in newness of life” (Romans 6:4-14). (Compare Paul’s prayer in Philippians 3:10 that he himself might come to know Christ “and the power of his resurrection.”)
and made him to sit at his right hand in the heavenly places,
But the raising of Christ from the dead was but the first stage in his exaltation. God raised him not only from the sepulchre but raised him higher still to share his throne. From the earliest days of the apostolic preaching the resurrection and enthronement of Christ were proclaimed side by side as integral to the good news, and both were interpreted as the fulfillment of prophecy. Thus Peter, on the first Christian Pentecost, announced the resurrection of Christ as the fulfillment of Psalm 16:10 and his enthronement at God’s right hand as the fulfillment of Psalm 110:1, and declared that this twofold fulfillment put it beyond question that the same Jesus whom his hearers had crucified was both Lord and Messiah (Acts 2:25-36). The demonstration of the power of God was also the vindication of the Lordship of Christ.
Verse 21: far above all rule, and authority, and power, and dominion, and every name that is named,
When the biblical writers spoke of the right hand of God, they knew as well as we do that God has no material body, and that his right hand is a figurative expression for the place of highest honor and authority. This is what Paul brings out in the words that follow. Christ is enthroned above the universe. As the Queen was reminded at her coronation when the orb was placed in her hand, “When you see this orb set under the cross, remember that the whole world is subject to the power and empire of Christ our Redeemer.” In the divine administration of the world there are many grades of authority, human and superhuman; Christ is above them all. He is above them all in the order of creation, for they were all created by him, as Colossians 1:16 emphasizes; he is above them all in order of redemption, for to him as the suffering and triumphant Son of Man God has given universal sovereignty (Daniel 7:13 f.). It is not necessary to draw fine distinctions between the terms “rule, and authority, and power, and dominion”; what is meant is that, whatever forms of government there may be and whatever names they may bear, they must confess the supremacy of him whom God has highly exalted, and to whom he has given “the name which is above every name” (Philippians 2:9 f.).
not only in this world, but also in that which is to come:
Whatever differences in administration may appear between this age and the coming age, they will involve no diminution of the sovereignty of Christ. On the contrary, his sovereignty will be more openly manifested and more universally acknowledged then than it is now. For the “world-rulers of this darkness,” who are mentioned in Ephesians 6:12, exercise considerable control over men and nations in the present age, but in the coming age their control will be a thing of the past. For Christ must reign till “he shall have abolished all rule and all authority and power … till he hath put all his enemies under his feet”(1 Corinthians 15:24 f.).
Verse 22: and he put all things in subjection under his feet,
Here, as in Hebrews 2:6 ff., the words of Psalm 8:6, first applied to Adam as he left the creative hand of God, are applied to the Second Man who has broken the deadly entail of the fall and by his redemptive work won the sovereignty which is his as Head of the new creation. As is pointed out in 1 Corinthians 15:27 and Hebrews 2:8, the complete fulfillment of these words in Christ will not come until death itself is destroyed and God is all in all; but Christ’s present enthronement at God’s right hand is assurance enough that this blessed consummation will come without fail.
and gave him to be head over all things to the church,
The crown rights of the Redeemer are twofold. He is not only by divine decree “the head of all principality and power” (Colossians 2:10) and “ruler of the kings of the earth” (Revelation 1:5); he also bears a unique relation to the new community that has been called into being by his death and exaltation. He is, by the appointment of his Father, “head over all things to the church.” The expression “head over all things” is as much as to say “supreme head.” But the title “head” is used here in a much richer sense than that which it bears in the passage just quoted from Colossians 2:10, where Christ is described as “head of all principality and power.” There the title denotes his sovereign authority; it is from him (as the One to whom all authority has been given in heaven and on earth) that all power in the universe is derived. But here it means all this and much besides; it expresses a vital unity. For the Church over which Christ has been appointed supreme head is the Church –
Verse 23: which is his body,
This is the first occasion on which the word “church” (Gk. ekklesia) appears in this epistle. In the Septuagint, the pre-Christian translation of the Old Testament into Greek, ekklesia is used as an equivalent of Heb. qahal (“assembly”) – the people of Israel viewed as a religious community. We are prepared for a change in the scope of the word when we hear our Lord saying in Matthew 16:18: “upon this rock I will build my church” – the reference being to the new ekklesia consisting of those who, like Peter, confessed him as Messiah and Lord. When ekklesia is used in a Christian sense in the New Testament, it most usually denotes the company of believers in Christ in some particular place – what we call a particular or local church. But there are a few passages (and this is one of them) where the term is used without any local restriction – as indeed it is used by our Lord himself in Matthew 16:18.
“One way or the other, there are no second-class members of the church of Christ.”
The Church of the New Testament is both old and new. It is old because of its living continuity with the people of God of Old Testament times (cf. Ephesians 2:19); it is new because it has died and risen with Christ into a new life in which the limitations of the past are left behind. The conception of the Church as the body of Christ is peculiar to the Pauline epistles in the New Testament. What led Paul to think of the Church in this way is a matter of considerable debate, but the essential thought which the figure conveys – the living power which unites the people of Christ to him and to one another – was borne in upon the apostle’s mind on the Damascus road when he heard the voice which said: “Why persecutest thou me?” In some of his earlier epistles (see 1 Corinthians 10:17; 12:12-27; Romans 12:4 f.), Paul develops the idea in relation to the harmonious functioning of believers within the Church as fellow-members of one body – the body of Christ. But in those earlier epistles Christ is not viewed as the head of this body. On the contrary, when Paul elaborates the figure of the body in 1 Corinthians 12, he compares an individual believer to the head (verse 21) or to part of the head (verse 16) as much as to any other member of the body. It is in Colossians and Ephesians that we find this further stage in the unfolding of the figure, in which Christ appears as the head from whom the other parts of the body derive life and power. All the aspects of Christ’s exaltation to the right hand of God are important, but the particular aspect which is important for Paul’s present purpose in his supremacy as “the head of the body, the church; who is the beginning, the first-born from the dead; that in all things he might have the pre-eminence” (Colossians 1:18). In the companion epistle to Colossae, from which these words are taken, the pre-eminence of Christ in creation and resurrection is emphasized; in the present epistle Paul draws out, more fully than he does there, the implications of Christ’s exaltation for those who are members of his body.
the fulness of him that filleth all in all.
The term “fullness” (pleroma) has a wide range of meaning in the New Testament. In the Gospels it is used of the patch which “fills up” the rent in an old garment (Matthew 9:16; Mark 2:21) and of the leftover fragments which filled several baskets after the two miraculous feedings (Mark 6:4-3; 8:20). In 1 Corinthians 10:26 it is used in a quotation from Psalm 24:1, to denote the “fullness” of the earth – ie everything that is in it. In Colossians it is applied to Christ as the One in whom the fullness of the Godhead is embodied (Colossians 2:9; cf. 1:19) ; and some expositors consider that this is the sense here – that Christ is the “fullness” of God. In that case the words “which is his body” must be taken as a parenthesis. But that involves a rather awkward construction, and it is more probable that “fullness,” like “body,” refers to “the church.” In this case the Church is described as the fullness or complement of Christ, just as the body is the necessary complement of the head in order to make up a complete man. The thought is rather similar to that in Colossians 2:10: “and in him ye are made full.” According to RV, Christ is then referred to as the One “that filleth all in all.” If this is the proper translation, it anticipates Ephesians 4:9, where Christ is said to have “ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.” Here the wording is more emphatic: he “fills all things in all things” – ie he completely fills the universe.
But there is an alternative rendering to the familiar one. Whereas in Ephesians 4:9 the verb “fill” is in the active voice, here “filleth” represents a Greek form of the verb which may be construed either as the middle voice or as the passive. If it is the middle voice, then the force is that of doing something in one’s own interest, and the leading English versions (AV, RV, RSV, etc.) understand it thus, as also did the Syriac versions in antiquity. The Latin versions, however, took it as passive, and so do a number of modern exegetes. In that case the closing words of verse 23 would mean “the fulness of him who, all in all, is being filled” – but what does this mean? One suggestion is that God has made Christ head of the body “which in turn fulfills and completes him; for to an absolute completeness he is still moving on” (J.A. Robinson). That is to say, the body of Christ (or, as it might be put, “Christ corporate”) is still advancing toward ultimate completeness. But a more probable interpretation of the passive voice would be to take it as denoting the fact that in Christ the fullness of deity is perpetually resident. The grammatical problem will probably never reach a universally agreed solution, and we may content ourselves for the present with the rendering of the English versions. The Church, the body of Christ, is the complement of him who fills the entire universe. Elsewhere in his epistles, Paul shows how the members of Christ recapitulate his experience of death, burial and resurrection (Romans 6:3-11; Colossians 2:11-13); this is one way in which they may be called his complement or fullness. In this epistle Paul enlarges on this idea (with an interesting modification) and carries it farther than he has done before. Not only do the members of Christ share his risen life; they share his exaltation at God’s right hand. This is the subject which he develops in the verses that follow.
