Welcome to a reading of John Calvin's Commentary on Ephesians, this Reformation MP audio resource, a production of Stillwater's Revival Books. Many free Reformation resources, as well as our complete online catalogue, containing classic and contemporary Puritan and Reformed books, the Puritan hard drive, digital downloads, MP3s, DVDs and much more. at great discounts, are on the web at www.puretandownloads.com Also, please consider, pray and act upon the important truths found in the following quotation by Charles Spurgeon. As the Apostle says to Timothy, so also he says to everyone, give yourself to reading. He who will not use the thoughts of other men's brains proves that he has no brains of his own. You need to read. Renounce as much as you will all right literature, but study as much as possible sound theological works, especially the puritanic writers and expositions of the Bible. The best way for you to spend your leisure is to be either reading or praying. And now to SWRB's reading of Calvin's Commentary on Ephesians, which we hope you find to be a great blessing, and which we pray draws you nearer to the Lord Jesus Christ, for he is the way, the truth and the life and no man cometh unto the Father but by him John 14 verse 6 I'm reading from page 216 verse 21 far above all principality and power and might and dominion all these names there can be no doubt are applied to angels who are so denominated because, by means of them, God exercises his power and might and dominion. He permits them to share, as far as he is competent to preachers, what belongs to himself, and even gives to them his own name, for we find that they are called Elohim, gods. From the diversity of names we conclude that there are various orders of angels, but to attempt to settle these with exactness, to fix their number, or to determine their ranks, would not merely discover foolish curiosity, but would be rash, wicked and dangerous. But why did he not simply call them angels? My answer was to convey exalted views of the glory of Christ that Paul employed those lofty titles. As Isileas said there, is nothing so elevated or excellent by whatever name it may be named that is not subject to the majesty of Christ. There was an ancient superstition prevalent among Jews and Gentiles falsely attributing to angels many things in order to draw away their minds from God himself and from the true mediator. Paul constantly labours to prevent this imaginary lustre of angels from dazzling the eyes of men, or obscuring the brightness of Christ, and yet his utmost exertions could not prevent the wilds of the devil, Ephesians 6, 11, from succeeding in his matter. Thus we see how the world, through a superstitious dread of angels, departed to Christ. It was indeed the unavoidable consequence of the false opinions entertained respecting angels that the pure knowledge of Christ disappears. Above every name that is named, name is here taken for largeness or excellence, and to be named means to enjoy celebrity and praise. The age that is to come is expressly mentioned to point out that the exalted rank of Christ is not temporal but eternal. and that it is not limited to this world that shines illustriously in the kingdom of God. For this reason too, Isaiah calls him Isaiah 9-6, the father of the future age. In short, the glories of men and angels are made to hold an inferior place that the glory of Christ, unequaled and unapproached, may shine above them all. Verse 22 and gave him to be the head. He was made the head of the church on the condition that he should have the administration of all things. The apostle shows that it was not a mere honorary title, but was accompanied by the entire command and government of the universe. The metaphor of a head denotes the highest authority. I am unwilling to dispute about a name, but we are driven to it by the base conduct of those who flatter the Romish idol. Since Christ alone is called the head, all others, whether angels or men, must rank as members, so that he who holds the highest place among his fellows is also still one of the members of the same body. And yet they are not shamed to make an open avowal that the church will be without a head. if there is not another head on earth besides Christ so small is the respect which they pay to Christ that if he obtain undivided the honour which his father has bestowed upon him the church is supposed to be disfigured this is the basis sacrilege but let us listen to the apostle who declares that the church is his body and consequently that those who refuse to submit to him are unworthy of its communion, for on him alone the unity of the church depends. Verse 23. The fullness of him that filleth all in all. This is the highest honor of the church, that until he is united to us, the Son of God reckons himself in some measure imperfect. What consolation is it for us to learn that, not until we are along with him, does he possess all his parts, or wish to be regarded as complete? Hence, in the first epistle to the Corinthians, when the apostle discusses largely the metaphor of a human body, he includes under the single name of Christ the whole church, that filleth all in all. This is added to guard against the supposition that any real defect would exist in Christ if He were separated from us. His wish to be filled, and in some respects made perfect in us, arises from no want or necessity, for all that is good in ourselves, or in any of the creatures, is the gift of His hand, and His goodness appears the more remarkably in raising us out of nothing, as He in like manner may dwell and live in us. There is no impropriety in limiting the word all to its application to this passage. For though all things are regulated by the will and power of Christ, yet the subject of which Paul particularly speaks is the spiritual government of the Church. There is nothing, indeed, to hinder us from viewing it as referring to the universal government of the world, but to limit it to the case at hand is a more probable interpretation. Chapter 2 And you, has he quickened to a dead interest, Mrs. Sins, wherein times past ye walked according to the cause of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, among whom also we had our conversation in times past in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. First one, and you who are dead. This is an ephexadasia of the former statements, that is, an exposition accompanied by an illustration. To bring home more effectively to the Ephesians the general doctrine of grace, he reminds them of their former condition. This application consists of two parts. He was formerly lost, but now, by his grace, has rescued you from destruction. And here we must observe that in laboring to give an impressive view of both these parts, the apostle makes a break in the style by operant zapton and transposition. There is some perplexity in the language, but if we attend carefully to what the apostle says about those two paths, the meaning is clear. As the first, he says that they were dead, and states at the same time the cause of the death, trespasses and sins. He does not mean simply that they were in danger of death, but he declares it was a real and present death under which they laboured. as spiritual death is nothing else than the alienation of the soul from God, we are all born as dead men, and we live as dead men until we are made partakers of the life of Christ, agreeably to the words of our Lord, the hour is coming, and there is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live. The Papists, who are eager to seize every opportunity of undervaluing the grace of God, so that while we are out of Christ we are half dead. But we are not at liberty to set aside the declarations of our Lord and of the Apostle Paul, that while we remain in Adam we are entirely devoid of life, and that regeneration is a new life of the soul by which it rises from the dead. Some kind of life, I acknowledge, does remain in us while we are still at a distance from Christ. For unbelief doesn't altogether destroy the outward senses, or the will, or the other faculties of the soul. But what has this to do with the Kingdom of God? What has it to do with a happy life, so long as every sentiment of the mind and every act of the will is death? Let this then be held as a fixed principle, that the union of our soul with God is the true and only life, and that out of Christ we are altogether dead, because sin, the cause of death, reigns in us. 2. In which for a sometime he walked. From the effects or fruits, he draws a proof that sin formerly reigned in them. For until sin displays itself in outward acts, men are not sufficiently aware of its power. When he adds, according to the course of this world, He indicates that the death which he had mentioned rages in the nature of man and is a universal disease. He does not mean that course of the world which God has ordained, nor the elements such as the heaven and earth and air, but the depravity with which we are all infected, so that sin is not peculiar to a few, but pervades the whole world. according to the Prince of the Power of the Air. He now proceeds farther and explains the cause of our corruption to be the dominion which the devil exercised over us. A more severe condemnation of mankind could not have been pronounced. What does he lead to us when he declares us to be the slaves of Satan and subject to his will so long as we live out of the Kingdom of Christ? Our condition, therefore, though many treat it with ridicule, or at least with little disapprobation, may well excite our horror. Where is now the free will, the guidance of reason, the moral virtue about which hapless babble so much? What may they find that is pure or holy under the tyranny of the devil? On this subject, indeed, they are extremely cautious. and denounces doctrine of Paul as a grievous heresy. I maintain, on the contrary, that there is no obscurity in the Apostles' language, and that all men who live according to the world, that is, according to the inclinations of their flesh, are here declared to fight under the reign of Satan. In accordance with the practice of the inspired writers, the devil is mentioned in singular number. As the children of God have one head, so have the wicked. For each of the classes forms a distinct body. By assigning to him the dominion over all wicked beings, godliness is represented as an unbroken mass. As to his attributing to the devil power over the air, that will be considered when we come to the sixth chapter. at present we shall merely adhere to the strange absurdity of their manichaeans in endeavouring to prove from this passage the existence of two principles as if Satan could do anything without the designs of his will. Paul does not allow him the highest authority which belongs to the will of God alone but merely a tyranny which God permits him to exercise. What is Satan but God's executioner? to punish man's ingratitude this is implied in Paul's language when he represents the success of Satan as confined to unbelievers for the children of God are thus exempted from his power if this be true he borrows that Satan does nothing but under the control of a superior and that he is not autocrato and an unlimited smog We may now draw from it also his inference that ungodly men have no excuse in being driven by Satan to commit all sorts of crimes. Whence comes it that they are subject to deterning? That because they are rebels against God, if none are the slaves of Satan but those who have renounced the service and refuse to yield to the authority of God, let them blame themselves for having so cruel a master. But the children of disobedience, according to a Hebrew idiom, are meant obstinate persons. Unbelief is always accompanied by disobedience, so that it is the source, the mother of all stubbornness. Three. Verse three. Among whom also we all had our conversation. Thus it should be supposed that what he had now said was a slanderous reproach against the former character of the Ephesians, or that Jewish pride had led him to treat the Gentiles as an inferior race, he associates himself and his countrymen along with them in the general accusation. This is not done in hypocrisy, but in a sincere prescription of glory to God. It may excite wonder, indeed, that he should speak of himself as having walked in the lusts of the flesh, while on other occasions he boasts that his life had been thawed throughout irreproachable, touching the righteousness which is in the law blameless, Philippians 3.6. And again, ye are witnesses, and God also, how wholly and justly and unblameably we behave ourselves among you that believe, 1 Thessalonians 2.10. I reply, the statement applies to all who have not been regenerated by the Spirit of Christ. However praiseworthy in appearance the life of some may be, because their lusts do not break out in the sight of men, there is nothing pure or holy which does not proceed from the fountain of all purity, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind. To fulfill these desires, is to live according to the guidance of our natural disposition and of our mind. The flesh means here the disposition, or what is called the inclination of the nature. And the next expression, ton-dyn-noyon, means that proceeds from the mind. Now the mind includes reason, such as it exists in men by nature, so that lusts do not refer exclusively to the lower appetites, or what is called the sensual part of man, that extends to the whole. And we're by nature children of wrath. All men, without exception, whether Jews or Gentiles, Galatians 2, 15 and 16, are here pronounced to be guilty until they are redeemed by Christ. So that out of Christ there is no righteousness, no salvation, and in short, no excellence. Children of wrath are those who are lost and who deserve eternal death. Wrath means the judgment of God, so that the children of wrath are those who are condemned before God. Such, the Apostle tells us, have been the Jews. Such have been all the excellent men that were now in the Church, and they were so by nature, that is, from their very commencement, and from their mother's womb this is a remarkable passage in opposition to the views of the Palladians and of all who deny original sin what dwells naturally in all is certainly original but Paul declares that we are all naturally liable to condemnation therefore sin dwells naturally in us for God does not condemn the innocent Pelagians were wont to object that sin spread from Adam to the whole human race, not by descent, but by imitation. But Paul affirms that we are born with sin, as serpents bring their venom from the womb. Others who think that it is not in reality sin, are not less at variance with Paul's language. For where condemnation is, there must unquestionably be sin. It is not with blameless men but with sin that God is offended. Nor is it wonderful that the depravity which we inherit from our parents is reckoned as sin before God, for the seeds of sin, before they have been openly displayed, are perceived and condemned. But one question here arises. Why does Paul represent the Jews equally with the others as subject to wrath and curse? while they were the blessed seed? I answer, they have a common nature. Jews differ from Gentiles in nothing but this, that through the grace of the promise God delivers them from destruction, but that is a remedy which came after the disease. Another question is, since God is the author of nature, how comes it that no blame attaches to God if we are lost by nature? I answer there is a twofold nature the one was produced by God and the other is the corruption of it this condemnation therefore which Paul mentions does not proceed from God but from a depraved nature we are not born such as Adam was at first created we are not wholly a rotten seed but are turned into the degenerate Jeremiah 2.21 offspring of a degenerate and sinful man. Verse 4, 5, 6, 7. For God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, by grace he hath saved, and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness towards us through Christ Jesus. Verse 4. But God, who is rich in mercy, now follows the second member of the sentence. The sentence, the substance of which is that God had delivered the Ephesians from the destruction to which they were formerly liable, but the words which he employs are different. God, who is rich in mercy, hath quickened you together with Christ." The meaning is that there is no other life than that which is breathed into us by Christ, so that we begin to live only when we are engrafted into Him and enjoy the same life with Himself. This enables us to see what the Apostle formally meant by death, for that death and this resurrection are brought into contrast. to be made partakers of the life of the Son of God, to be quickened by one's spirit, is an inestimable privilege. On this ground he praises the very mercy of God, meaning by its riches that it had been poured out in a singular, large and abundant manner. The whole of our salvation is here ascribed to the mercy of God. But he presently adds for his great love wherewith he loved us this is a still more expressed declaration that all was owing to undeserved goodness for he declares that God was moved by the single consideration herein says John his love not that we love God but that he loved us we love him because he first loved us 1 John 4 10 19 verse 5 even when we were dead in sin. These words have the same emphasis as similar expressions in another epistle. For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. But God commended His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5, 6, 8. Whether the words, by grace ye are saved, have been inserted by another hand, I know not, but as they are perfectly agreeable to context, I am quite willing to receive them as written by Paul, to show us that he always feels as if he had sufficiently proclaimed the rituals of divine grace, and accordingly expresses, by a variety of terms, the same truth that everything connected with our salvation ought to be ascribed to God as his author. And certainly, he who duly weighs the ingratitude of man will not complain that this parenthesis is superfluous. Sixth, and have raised us up together. The resurrection and sitting in heaven, which are here mentioned, are not yet seen by mortal eyes. yet as if those blessings were presently in our possession, he states that we have received them, and illustrates the change which has taken place in our condition when we were led from Adam to Christ. It is as if we have been brought from the deepest hell to heaven itself. And certainly, although as respects ourselves, our salvation is still the object of hope, yet in Christ we are already possess a blessed immortality and glory and therefore he adds in Christ Jesus. Hitherto it does not appear in the members but only in the head. Yet in consequence of the secret union it belongs truly to the members. Some render it through Christ. But for the reason which has been mentioned it is better to retain the usual meaning in Christ We are thus furnished with the richest consolation of everything which we now want. We have a sure pledge and foretaste in the person of Christ. 7. That in the ages to come the final and true cause, the glory of God, is again mentioned that the Ephesians, by making it the subject of earnest study, might be more fully assured of their salvation He likewise adds that it was the design of God to hallow in all ages the remembrance of so great goodness. This exhibits still more strongly the hateful characters of those by whom the free calling of the Gentiles was attacked, for they were endeavouring instantly to crush that scheme which was destined to be remembered through all ages. But we too are instructed by it. that the mercy of God, which had us pleased to admit our fathers into the number of his own people, deserves to be held in everlasting remembrance. The calling of the Gentiles is an astonishing work of divine goodness, which ought to be handed down by parents to children and to their children's children, that it may never be forgotten or unacknowledged by the sons of men. the riches of his grace in his kindness, the love of God to us in Christ that he approved, or again declared, to have had its origin in mercy, that he might show, says he, the exceeding riches of his grace, how, in his kindness towards us, as the tree is known by his fruit, not only therefore does he declare that the love of God was free, but likewise that God displayed it, the riches, the extraordinarily preeminent riches of His grace. It deserves notice also that the name of Christ is repeated, for no grace, no love, must be expected by us from God except through His mediation. Verses 8, 9, 10 For by grace are ye saved through faith, and let not of yourselves it is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. 8. For by grace are ye saved. This is an inference from the former statements. Having treated of election and of effectual calling, he arrives at this general conclusion that they had obtained salvation by faith alone. First he asserts that the salvation of the Ephesians was entirely the work, the gracious work of God, but then they had obtained this grace by faith. On one side we must look at God, and on the other at man. God declares that he owes us nothing, so that salvation is not a reward or recompense, but unmixed grace. The next question is, in what way do men receive that salvation which is offered to them by the hand of God? The answer is, by faith. And hence, he concludes, that nothing connected with it is our own. If on the part of God it is grace alone, and if we bring nothing but faith, which strips us of all commendation, it follows that salvation does not come from us. Ought we not then to be silent about free will, and good intentions, and fancied preparations, and merits, and satisfactions? There is none of these which does not claim a share of praise in the salvation of men, so that the praise of grace would not as Paul shows, remain undiminished. When, on the part of man, the act of receiving salvation is made to consist in faith alone, all other means on which men are accustomed to rely are discarded. Faith, then, brings a man empty to God, that he may be filled with the blessings of Christ. And so he adds, not of yourselves, that, claiming nothing for themselves, they may acknowledge God alone as the author of their salvation. 9. NOT OF WORKS Instead of what he had said, that their salvation is of grace, he now affirms that it is the gift of God. Instead of what he had said, not of yourselves, he now says, not of works. Hence we see that the apostle leaves nothing for men in procuring salvation. In these three phrases, not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, he embraces the substance of his long argument in the epistle to the Romans and to the Galatians, that righteousness comes to us from the mercy of God alone, is offered to us in Christ by the gospel, and is received by faith alone, without the merit of works. This passage affords an easy reputation of the idle carol of which Pappus attempts to evade the argument that we are justified without works. Paul, they tell us, is speaking about ceremonies. But the present question is not confined to one class of works. Nothing can be more clear than this. The whole righteousness of man, which consists in works, made a whole man. and everything that he can call his own is set aside. We must attend to the contrast between God and man, between grace and works. Why should God be contrasted with man if the controversy related to nothing more than ceremonies? Habits themselves are compelled to omit Paul or scribe to the grace of God, the whole glory of our salvation, but endeavour to do away with his omission by another contrivance. This mode of expression, they tell us, is employed because God bestows the first grace. Is it really foolish to imagine that they can succeed in this way, since Paul excludes man and his utmost ability, not only from the commencement, but throughout, from the whole work of obtaining salvation? but it is still more absurd to overlook the Apostle's inference lest any man should boast. Some room must always remain for man's boasting so long as, independently of grace, merits are of any avail. Paul's doctrine is overthrown unless the whole praise is rendered to God alone and to His mercy. And here we must advert to a very common error in the interpretation of this passage. Many persons restrict the word gift to faith alone, but Paul is only repeating, in other words, the former sentiment. His meaning is not that faith is the gift of God, but that salvation is given to us by God, or that we obtain it by the gift of God. 10. We are His work. By setting aside the contrary supposition, He proves his statement that by grace we are saved, that we have no remaining works by which we can merit salvation. For all the good works which we possess are the fruit of regeneration. Hence it follows that works themselves are a part of grace. When he says that we are the work of God, this does not refer to ordinary creation by which we are made men, we are declared to be new creatures because not by our own power but by the Spirit of Christ we have been formed through righteousness this applies to none but believers as the descendants of Adam they were wicked and depraved by the grace of Christ they are spiritually renewed and become new men everything in us therefore that is good is the supernatural gift of God The context explains his meaning, we are his work, because we have been created, not in Adam, but in Christ Jesus, not to every kind of life, but to good works. What remains now for free will, if all the good works which proceed from us are acknowledged to have been the gifts of the Spirit of God? Let godly readers weigh carefully the Apostle's words. He does not say that we are assisted by God. He does not say that the will is prepared as if then left to run by its own strength. He does not say that the power of choosing the right is bestowed upon us and that we are afterwards left to make our own choice. Such is the idle talk in which those persons who do their utmost to undervalue the grace of God are accustomed to indulge. that the apostle affirms that we are God's work and that everything good in us is his creation by which he means that the whole man is formed by his hand to be good it's not the mere power of choosing a rite or some indescribable kind of preparation or even assistance but the rite will itself which is his workmanship otherwise Paul's argument would have no force He means to prove that man does not in any way procure salvation for himself, but obtains it as a free gift from God. The proof is that man is nothing but by divine grace. Whoever then makes the very smallest claim for man, apart from the grace of God, allows him to that extent ability to procure salvation. Created to good works, They hear widely from Paul's intention, who torture this passage for the purpose of injuring the righteousness of faith. Ashamed to affirm in plain terms, and aware that they could gain nothing by affirming that we are not justified by faith, they shelter themselves under this kind of subterfuge. We are justified by faith because faith, by which we receive the grace of God, is the commencement of righteousness. but we are made righteous by regeneration, because being renewed by the Spirit of God we walk in good works. In this manner they make faith the door by which we enter into righteousness, and imagine that we obtain it by our works, or at least they define righteousness to be that uprightness by which a man is formed anew to a holy life. I care not how old this error may be, but they heard egregorously who are endeavoured to support it by this passage. We must look to Paul's design. He intends to show that we have brought nothing to God by which He might be laid under obligation to us. And he shows that even the good works which we perform have come from God. Hence it follows that we are nothing except through the pure exercise of His kindness. Those men, on the other hand, infer that the half of our justification arises from works. But what has this to do with Paul's intention, or with the subject which he handles? It is one thing to inquire in what righteousness consists, and another thing to follow up the doctrine that it is not from ourselves, by this argument, that we have no right to claim good works as our own, but have been formed by the Spirit of God, through the grace of Christ, through all that is good. When Paul lays down the cause of justification, he dwells chastely on this point that our consciences will never enjoy peace till they rely on the propitiation for sins. Nothing of this sort is ever alluded to in the present instance. This whole object is to prove that by the grace of God we are all that we are, 1 Corinthians 15.10, which God hath prepared Beware of applying this, as the Pelagians do, to the instruction of the law, as if Paul's meaning were that God commands what is just and lays down a proper rule of life. Instead of this, he follows up the doctrine which he had begun to illustrate, that salvation does not proceed from ourselves. He says that before we were born, the good works were prepared by God, meaning that in our own strength we are not able to lead a holy life, and only so far as we are formed and adapted by the hand of God. Now if the grace of God came before our performances, all ground of boasting had been taken away. Let us carefully observe the word prepared. On the simple ground of the order of events, Paul rests to prove that, with respect to good works, God owes us nothing. How so? Because they were drawn out of His treasures, in which they had long before been laid up. For whom He called, then He justifies and regenerates. Verses 11, 12 and 13. Wherefore remember that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision by that which is called the circumcision in the flesh made by hand, that at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made now by the blood of Christ. 11. Wherefore remember, the apostle never once loses sight of his subject, marks it out clearly and pursues it with increasing earnestness. He again exhorts the Ephesians to remember what their character had been before they were called. This consideration was pitted to convince them that they had no reason to be proud. He afterwards points out the method of reconciliation, that they might rest with perfect satisfaction on Christ alone, and not imagine that other aids were necessary. The first clause may be thus summed up. Remember that when he was uncircumcised, he was alien to Christ, for the hope of salvation, and from the Church, the Kingdom of God, so that he had no friendly intercourse with God. The second may run thus, that now engrafted into Christ, he at the same time reconciled to God. What is implied in both parts of the description? and what effect the remembrance of it was fitted to produce on their minds has been already considered. Gentiles in the flesh. He first mentions that they had wanted the marks of God's people. Circumcision was a token by which the people of God were marked out and distinguished from other men. Uncircumcision was the mark of a profane person. since therefore God usually connects his grace with the sacraments. Their want of the sacraments is taken as an evidence that neither were they partakers of his grace. The argument, indeed, doesn't hold universally, though it does hold as to God's ordinary dispensations. Hence we find the following language, And the Lord God said, Behold, a man is become one of us, to know good and evil. And now lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever, therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man. Genesis 3, 22, 23. Though he had devoured the whole tree, he would not, by merely eating it, have recovered the possession of life. But by taking away the sign, the Lord took from him also life itself. Uncircumcision is thus held out to the Ephesians as a mark of pollution. By taking from the Ephesians the token of sanctification, he deprives them also of the thing sanctified signifies. Some are of opinion all these observations are intended to throw contempt on outward circumcision. but this is a mistake. At the same time I acknowledge that the qualifying clause, the circumcision in the flesh made by hands, points out a twofold circumcision. The Jews were thus taught that they should no longer indulge in foolish boasting about the literal circumcision. The Ephesians, on the other hand, were instructed to abstain from all spooples on their account, since the most important privilege made the whole truth expressed by the outward sign, was in their possession. He calls it uncircumcision in the flesh, because they bore the mark of their pollution, but at the same time he suggests that their uncircumcision was no hindrance to their being spiritually circumcised by Christ. The words may likewise be read in one clause, circumcision in the flesh made by hands, or in two clauses, circumcision in the flesh, meaning that it was carnal, made by hands, meaning that it was done by the hand of man. This kind of circumcision is contrasted with that of the spirit, or of the heart, Romans 2.29, which is also called the circumcision of Christ, Colossians 2. 11. By that which is called circumcision, may be viewed here either by a collective noun for the Jews themselves or literally by the thing itself. And then the meaning would be that the Gentiles were called uncircumcision because they wanted the sacred symbol, that is, by way of distinction. The latter sense is countenanced by the qualifying phrase, but the substance of the argument is little affected. Twelfth, that at that time he were without Christ he now declares that the Ephesians had been excluded not only from the outward badge but from everything necessary to the salvation and happiness as men as Christ is a foundation of hope and of all promises he mentions first of all that they were without Christ but for him that is without Christ there remains nothing but destruction. On him the commonwealth of Israel was founded, and in whom but in himself could the people of God be collected into one holy society. A similar oscillation might be made as to the tables of the promise. On one great promise lay to Abraham all the others hanging, and will as if they lose all their value, in thy seat shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. Genesis 20 to 18. Hence our Apostle says elsewhere, all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him are men. 2 Corinthians 1.20. Take away the covenant of salvation, and there remains still hope. I have translated tone dfa tone by the tables, or in ordinary legal phrase, the instruments. By a solemn ritual did God sanction his covenant with Abram and his posterity that he would be their God forever and ever at Genesis 15.9 Tables of this covenant were ratified by the hand of Moses and entrusted as a peculiar treasure to the people of Israel to whom and not to the Gentiles pertain the covenants Romans 9.4 And we let God in the world But at no period were the Ephesians or any other Gentiles destitute of all religion. Why then are they styled Atheoi, Atheists, or Atheos? An Atheist, strictly speaking, is one who does not believe and who absolutely ridicules the being of a god. That appellation certainly is not usually given to superstitious persons. but to those who have no feeling of religion and who desire to see it utterly destroyed. Pianta Paul was right in giving them this name, for he treated all the notions entertained respecting false gods as nothing, and with the utmost propriety do godly persons regard all idols as nothing in the world, 1 Corinthians 8.4. Those who do not worship the true God, whatever may be the variety of their worship, or the multitude of laborious ceremonies which they perform, are without God. They adore what they know not. Acts 17.23. Let it be carefully observed that the Ephesians are not charged with atheism in the same degree as Thyagoras and others of the same stamp who were subject to that reproach. Persons who imagine themselves to be very religious are charged with that crime. For an idol is a forgery, an imposition, not of divinity. From what has been said the conclusion will be easily drawn that out of Christ there are none but idols. Those who formerly declared to be without Christ are now declared to be without God. As John says, whoever has not the Son That's not the Father, 1 John 2.23, and again, whosoever transgresses and abides not in the doctrine of Christ, that's not God. Let us know, therefore, that all who do not keep this way wonder from the true God. We shall next be asked, did God never reveal himself to any of the Gentiles? I answer, no manifestation of God or that Christ was ever made among the Gentiles. any more than among the Jews. It is not to one age only, or to one nation, that the saying of our Lord applies, I am the way, for he adds, no man cometh unto the Father but by me, John 14, verse 6. Thirteen, that now in Christ Jesus we must either supply the verb verse 13, but now in Christ Jesus we must either supply the verb now that he had received in Christ Jesus or connect the word now with the conclusion of the verse now through the blood of Christ which would be a still clearer exposition in either case the meaning is that the Ephesians who were far off from God and from salvation had been reconciled to God through Christ and made nigh by his blood But the blood of Christ hath taken away the enmity which existed between them and God, and from being enemies hath made them sons. Verse 14, 15 and 16. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us, having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances, or to make in himself of twain one new man still make him peace, and that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby. Fourteen, for he is our peace. He now includes Jews in the privilege of reconciliation, and shows that through one Messiah all are united to God. This consideration was fitted to repress the false competence of the Jews, who, despising the grace of Christ, boasted that they were the holy people and chosen inheritance of God. If Christ is our peace, all who are out of Him must be at variance with God. What a beautiful title is this which Christ possesses, the peace between God and men. That no one who dwells in Christ entertain a doubt that he has reconciled to God. hath made both one. This distinction is necessary. All intercourse with the Gentiles was held to be inconsistent with their own superior claims. To subdue this pride, he tells them that they and the Gentiles have been united into one body. Put all these things together and you will frame the following syllogism. If the Jews wish to enjoy peace with God, They must have Christ as their mediator. But Christ will not be their peace in any other way than by making them one body with the Gentiles. Therefore, unless the Jews admit the Gentiles to fellowship with them, they have no fellowship with God. I'm breaking down the middle wall of partition. To understand this passage, two things must be observed. The Jews were separated for a certain time from the Gentiles by the appointment of God, and ceremonial observances were open and avowed symbols of that separation. Passing by the Gentiles, God had chosen the Jews to be a peculiar people to himself. A wide distinction was thus made, when the one class were fellow-citizens of the household, Ephesians 2.19, of the Church, and the other were foreigners. This is stated in the Song of Moses. When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel. For the Lord's portion is his people. Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. Deuteronomy 32.8.9 Bounds were thus fixed by God to separate one people from the rest. and hence arose the energy which is here mentioned. The separation is thus made. The Gentiles are set aside. God is pleased to choose and sanctify the Jewish people by freeing them from the ordinary pollution of mankind. Ceremonial observances were afterwards added, which, like walls, enclosed the inheritance of God, prevented it from being open to all or mixed with other possessions, and thus excluded the Gentiles from the Kingdom of God but now the Apostle says the enmity is removed and the wall is broken down by extending the privilege of adoption beyond the limits of Judea Christ has now made us all to be brethren and so is fulfilled the prophecy God shall enlarge Japheth and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem Genesis 9.27 15 Having abolished in his flesh the enmity the meaning of Paul's words is now clear the middle wall of partition hindered Christ from forming Jew and Gentile into one body and therefore the wall has been broken down the reason why it is broken down is now added to abolish the enmity by the flesh of Christ, the Son of God, by assuming a nature common to all, has performed in his own body a perfect unity. Even the law of commandments contained in ordinances. What had been metaphorically understood by the wall is now more plainly expressed. The ceremonies by which the distinction was declared have been abolished through Christ. What were circumcision? sacrifices, washings, and abstaining from certain types of food, but symbols of sanctification, reminding the Jews that their lot was different from that of other nations, just as the White and the Red Cross distinguished the French, the present day, from the inhabitants of Burgundy. Paul declares not only that the Gentiles are equally with the Jews admitted to the fellowship of grace, so that they no longer differ from each other, but that the mark of difference has been taken away, for ceremonies have been abolished. If two contending nations were brought under the dominion of one prince, he would not only desire that they should live in harmony, but they would remove the badges and marks of their former enmity. When an obligation is discharged, the handwriting is destroyed, a metaphor which Paul employs on this very subject in another epistle, Colossians 2.14. Some interpreters, though in my opinion erroneously, connect the words in ordinances with abolished, making the ordinances to be the act of abolishing the ceremonies. This is Paul's ordinary phrase for describing the ceremonial law in which the Lord not only enjoined upon the Jews a simple rule of life, but also bound them by various statutes. It is evident, too, that Paul is here treating exclusively of the ceremonial law, for the moral law is not a wall of partition separating us from the Jews, but lays down instructions in which the Jews were not less deeply concerned than ourselves. This passage affords a means of refuting an erroneous view held by some that circumcision and all the ancient rites They were not binding on the Gentiles, but in force at the present day upon the Jews. On this principle there would still be a middle wall of partition between us, which is proved to be false. Thus he might make in himself. When the Apostle says in himself, he turns away the Ephesians from viewing the diversity of men, and bids them look for unity nowhere but in Christ. To whatever extent the two might differ in their former condition, in Christ they are become one man. But he emphatically adds, one new man, intimating, or he explains at greater length on another occasion, that neither circumcision nor uncircumcision prevail in anything, Galatians 6.15, but that a new creature holds the first and the last place. The principle which cements them is spiritual regeneration. If then we are all renewed by Christ, let the Jews no longer congratulate themselves on their ancient condition, but let them be ready to admit that, both in themselves and in others, Christ is all. Verse 16, And that ye might reconcile both The reconciliation between ourselves, which has now been described, is not the only advantage which we derive from Christ. We have been brought back into favour with God. The Jews are thus led to consider that they have not less need of a mediator than the Gentiles. Without this, neither the law, nor ceremonies, nor their descent from Abraham, nor all their dazzling prerogatives would be of any avail. We are all sinners. and forgiveness of sins cannot be obtained but through the grace of Christ. He acts in one body to inform the Jews that to cultivate union with the Gentiles will be well-pleasing in the sight of God. By the cross. The word cross is added to point out the propitiatory sacrifice. Sin is a cause of enmity between God and us. and until it is removed we shall not be restored to the divine favour. It has been blotted out by the death of Christ in which he offered himself to the Father as an expiatory victim. There is another reason indeed why the cross is mentioned here as though through the cross that all ceremonies have been abolished. Accordingly he adds slaying the enmity thereby. These words which unquestionably relate to the cross they admit of two senses, either that Christ, by His death, has turned away from us the Father's anger, or that having redeemed both Jews and Gentiles, He has brought them back into one flock. The latter appears to be the more probable interpretation, as it agrees with a former clause, abolishing in His flesh the entity, verse 15. verses 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 to 22 in whom all the buildings thickly framed together groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord, in whom ye also are builted together for an habitation of God through the Spirit." Verse 17, "...and came and preached peace." All that Christ had done towards effecting a reconciliation would have been of no service if it had not been proclaimed by the Gospel and therefore he adds that the fruit of this peace has now been offered both to Jews and to Gentiles. Hence it follows that to save Gentiles as well as Jews with the design of our Saviour's coming and the preaching of the Gospel which is addressed indiscriminately to both makes abundantly manifest. The same order is followed in the second epistle to the Corinthians. He hath committed to us the word of reconciliation Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, for he hath made him to be sinned for us, who knew no sin, 2 Corinthians 5, 18-21. Salvation through the death of Christ is first announced, and a description is afterwards given of the manner in which Christ communicates to us himself, and the benefit of his death. And here Paul dwells cheaply on this circumstance. The Gentiles are united with Jews in the Kingdom of God. Having already represented Christ as a Saviour, common to both, He now speaks of them as companions in the Gospel. The Jews, though they possessed the Law, needed the Gospel also, and God had bestowed upon the Gentiles equal grace. Those therefore whom God has joined together, let no man put asunder. Matthew 19, 6 no reference to distance of places conveyed by the words afar off and nigh the Jews in respect of the covenant were nigh to God the Gentiles so long as they had no promise of salvation were afar offed were banished from the kingdom of God and preached peace not indeed by his own lips but by the apostles it was necessary that Christ should rise from the dead before the Gentiles were called to the fellowship of grace hence that our fast saying of our Lord I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel Matthew 15 24 the apostles were forbidden while he was still in the world to carry their first embassy to the Gentiles go not into the way of the Gentiles and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel Matthew 10, 5, 6. His apostles were afterwards employed as trumpets for proclaiming the gospel to the Gentiles. What they did, not only in his name, but by his command, but as it were in his own person, is justly ascribed to none other than himself. We do speak as if Christ himself exhorted you by us, 2 Corinthians 5, 20. The faith of the gospel would be weak indeed were we to look no higher than to men. Its whole authority is derived from viewing men as God's instruments, and hearing Christ speak to us by their mouth. Observe here the Gospel as the message of peace, by which God declares himself to be reconciled to us, and makes known his paternal love. Take away the Gospel, and war and enmity continue to subsist between God and men. And on the other hand, The negative tendency of the gospel is to give peace and calmness to the conscience, which would otherwise be tormented by a distressing alarm. This recording ends on page 241. Still Waters Revival Books is now located at PuritanDownloads.com. 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