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From the book The Wealth, Walk and Warfare of the Christian by Ruth Paxson
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Part One: THE WEALTH OF THE CHRISTIAN
by Ruth Paxson
There is one word that has
been on the lips of mankind these past few years [written in 1939].
The whole world has talked depression. I even heard of parents who
gave their baby girl "Depression" as her middle name. Has
it been the middle name of any reader of this book? Has the financial
depression with its debilitating atmosphere caused within any of us a
mental or a spiritual depression?
If so, it is time for us
to move into the epistle to the Ephesians and take up our permanent
residence there, where not the slightest trace of down heartedness is
found, even though it was written in a Roman prison. On the contrary,
one step over its threshold brings one into an atmosphere of
unbounded spiritual affluence that creates within one's heart deepest
peace and assurance. It is impossible to live habitually in Ephesians
and be depressed.
A vast deposit of riches
has been made for the Christian in the bank of heaven. It is the
oldest bank in existence. It dates way back to B.W. -- before the
world was. It does not belong to time and earth, but to eternity and
heaven. Unlike the banks of earth, it is as unshakable and steadfast
as the triune God who founded it. Its doors are never closed day or
night to a child of God, and as for a run on it nothing would please
the heavenly Father more than to have a daily, hourly,
moment-by-moment demand for its treasures.
He has placed a deposit
for us in Christ of unsearchable riches that can be drawn upon
according to our need and our desire. In the recent depression a bank
in which I had a small sum of money deposited was hard pressed. A
notice was received from it that only ten per cent a month could be
drawn from my account. Now here in God's Word do we find a ten per
cent limit imposed upon those who have any riches in the bank of
heaven? On the contrary, God has put in our possession His own
promises, given in the name of our adorable Saviour, which we may
claim any time and to any limit by an act of appropriating faith.
The Resources of Heaven's Bank
These resources are ample
for the saint to cover all past debts; to meet all present
liabilities, and to provide for all future needs.
They are three-fold.
| The
Riches of | { His grace 1:7
{ His Glory 3:16
{ Christ 3:8 |
The very words and phrases
of Ephesians all speak of wealth. Let us examine some of them. They
are indeed gilt-edged: "grace" used twelve times; "glory"
eight; "inheritance" four; "riches" five;
"fulness" three; "fill" or "filled"
four; and the incomparable phrase "in Christ," or its
equivalent, twenty-seven.
Ephesians also shows us
some of the current coins which the Christian may use daily in
claiming his wealth. They are such words as "blessed";
"abounded"; "obtained"; "worketh";
"give"; "know"; "saved"; "made
nigh"; "access"; "strengthened"; "filled";
"loved"; "able to stand"; "able to
withstand"; "able to quench"; "praying always."
The Reserves of Heaven's Bank
Recently I noted on the
stationery of a national bank these words: "Capital, Surplus and
Reserves $2,250,000." During the recent depression one bank was
forced to close its doors, not because of insufficient capital, but
because of inadequate reserves. Can any spiritual depression ever
lessen the power of God to meet the needs of His child, however great
these may be? Will the reserves of heaven's bank be unequal to any
demand made upon them? What, then, are these reserves? Ephesians
tells us they are the fulness of the triune God.
The
Fulness of God 3: 19
The Fulness of Christ 4:13
The Fulness
of the Spirit 5:18
May not our hearts rest
quietly and confidently in the assurance of the all-sufficiency of
our spiritual resources and reserves? Dear reader, if you are in
Christ you are a child of a King who owns heaven and earth and all
that is therein. If a child, then an heir and a j oint-heir with
Christ.
The Security of Heaven's Bank
There is great fear in
these days of all financial institutions; in many countries even the
finances of the government are in such a precarious condition as to
cause alarm and a haunting sense of insecurity. An insidious fear
often possesses even the Christian's heart and makes him doubt a bit
the absolute safety of the bank of heaven. If anyone who reads
Ephesians is the victim of spiritual jitters and needs to have his
sense of security in his unlosable wealth restored, let his mind be
riveted for a while upon an oft-repeated, three-lettered word which,
connected with ten other words, furnishes a guarantee of absolute
security:
| HIS
| will 1:5,9,11
grace 1:6,7
glory 1:12,14
power
1:19
love 2:4 | good pleasure 1:9
purpose
1:11; 3:11
calling 1:18
inheritance 1:18
workmanship 2:10 |
Is this not a sufficient
guarantee to everyone who is a member of His Body of the
security of His riches?
So we see that the wealth
of the Christian is royal, munificent and unlosable; altogether
sufficient to meet the requirements of his moral and spiritual
delinquency and bankruptcy, and wholly adequate for even the greatest
trial, financial, physical, mental or spiritual.
Only as we go deeper into
Christ and He goes deeper into us will we know increasingly just how
rich we are. But even eternity will not suffice for us to plumb the
deepest depths or to measure the magnitude of our wealth in Christ
(2: 7).
Let us continue with
receptive mind and eager heart a more detailed study of our
unsearchable riches in Christ.
1. The Wealth Glimpsed
1:3. "Blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all
spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ."
In this cryptic sentence
the apostle Paul opens the door into Ephesians, and gives us a
glimpse of what awaits us. It is the key to this house of spiritual
treasures. Paul could not wait to unfold gradually these riches, so
he places, as it were, a nugget of gold in our hands at the
threshold, an earnest of what we shall find within.
We shall see the Christian
pilgrim's journey from grace to glory; the Christian's biography from
the eternity of the past to the eternity of the future; the Christian
wrestler's warfare with the Satanic hosts. It takes time for Paul to
write all this, and it will take time for us to comprehend it. So in
this one sentence he gives us the revelation in anticipation. The
rest of the epistle is the unfolding of these words.
2. The Wealth Bequeathed
1:3. "Blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us."
The Blesser
For His beloved Son's sake
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ blessed us. We shall miss
one of the deepest truths in Ephesians if we fail to see that
everything the Father does for the Church and for the Christian, He
does primarily for the glory of His own grace and for the sake of His
dear Son who voluntarily laid down His human body on the Cross in a
moment of time that He might possess His mystical Body in the
heavenlies now and in all the ages to come.
Years ago a very dear
friend of mine died, the only child of her parents. I had gone in and
out of the home as another daughter. Among her papers was an envelope
addressed to her parents, to be opened in case of her death. It
contained just one request, that they would regard me as a daughter
and do for me as they would have for her.
Is this not the request
which the Son made of His Father for all the other sons who had
believed on Him? Did He not express His desire to share with them all
that was His, even to His oneness with the Father and their home in
glory?
John 17:21 "That...
as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be
one in us."
John 17:24. "Father,
I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I
am; that they may behold my glory."
The Blessed
How can we know whether or
not we qualify as recipients of the blessing? Two personal pronouns
give us the answer.
"Our Lord
Jesus Christ." Is He yours? To those who receive Christ as their
Saviour and Lord, the Father opens His household and takes them into
the family circle. Then the Father fulfils His Son's request and, as
sons, shares with them the Son's blessings and, as heirs, grants them
their part in the inheritance of the saints.
"Who hath blessed
us." The "us" very evidently refers to a
distinct and restricted group of people. 1: 1 tells who they are:
"The saints at Ephesus." A saint is one who is set
apart specially unto God as His own by union with Jesus Christ
through the baptism with the Spirit. The saints to whom Paul wrote
had their temporal abode in Ephesus while pilgrims on earth. "The
faithful in Christ Jesus," -- are those who have made Christ
Jesus the object of their faith and who live by faith in Him. They
are in Christ as their other worldly abode as citizens of heaven.
From this salutation and from the content of the whole epistle we see
that this oft-repeated "us" refers to all saints. Ephesians
is really a family letter from the heavenly Father to all His
children everywhere.
While on the very
threshold of Ephesians your chief concern and mine is to know if we
are indeed in this "us." We may know with unquestioning
certainty. Have you received Jesus Christ as your personal Saviour
from sin through faith in His atoning blood? If so, then you are one
of the "us" and are eligible for the wealth bequeathed.
The Blessing
One question remains: When
is the blessing ours, now or in the future? The tense of the verb
gives the answer. "Hath blessed." It is all ours
now. "All things are yours." All that God
ever can give to His children is already given in Christ, who became
poor that we through His poverty might become rich. To live as
spiritual paupers when God has bequeathed us such unsearchable riches
must grieve our Father deeply.
3. The Wealth Designated
1:3. "With all
spiritual blessings."
The word "spiritual"
designates the character of the blessings bestowed. A saint is one
who has left the sphere of the natural and has come into the sphere
of the spiritual. Henceforth his paramount needs are spiritual. He
has become the possessor of a heaven-born nature, so he must have
heaven-sent supplies to nourish and develop it. The saint has had
implanted within him the eternal life of the Holy One, but he is
traveling through an ungodly world, so moment by moment he needs life
from above that he may live holily. Living in a non-spiritual world,
he needs a spiritual atmosphere in which to breathe; spiritual food
to eat; spiritual garments to wear; spiritual companions with whom to
fellowship, spiritual exercise to keep fit and strong; spiritual
strength to endure suffering and affliction; spiritual weapons with
which to war.
The human personality
consists of spirit, soul and body, as God has shown in I
Thessalonians 5:23. In quoting man usually says "body, soul and
spirit." God's order cannot be reversed. He always begins with
the inner man, and works out to the outer man. To Him the spirit is
paramount and is always put first. So God's concern is for a daily
spiritual renewal which will cause the saint to grow up into Christ
in all things, working ever toward the goal of a greater perfection.
Life in Christ commences with a spiritual birth; continues through
spiritual growth; and consummates at His coming in spiritual
perfection.
3:16. "That he would
grant you... to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the
inner man."
4:15. "May grow up
into him in all things."
4:12. "For the
perfecting of the saints."
God's love is very
Fatherly and His care of us is very practical, His concern reaches to
the outermost rim of our every need and includes provision for the
needs of soul and body. The blessing includes things physical,
temporal and material, but always as related to and working toward
the spiritual goal He has set for us -- conformity to the image of
His Son. Sometimes He allows times of trial and testing because He
purposes our spiritual growth and perfecting through the process.
"For whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth that we might be
partakers of his holiness" (Hebrews 12:6,10).
The word "spiritual"
also designates the One through whom the blessing is procured.
Ephesians teaches very clearly that the blessings purposed by the
Father and provided in the Son are procured through the Spirit. Every
spiritual blessing bestowed upon the saint is Spirit-communicated.
4. The Wealth Measured
1:3. "With every
spiritual blessing" (R.V.)
"Every."Study
the word from the Godward side. What a revelation it gives of the
elasticity of God's grace, stretched full length to the uttermost of
our need; of the generosity of God's heart -- nothing that love can
give has been withheld from His children; of the amplitude of His
treasury -- not one thing that God wants to give is He unable to
give. For there is not one of the thousands of promises that He has
made that He has not the power to fulfil.
Study the word from the
manward side. What a conception it gives of the saint's capacity for
the infinite! If God has bequeathed to the Christian every spiritual
blessing in Christ, then He must have given him the capacity to
receive and to hold these blessings. What a call to an enlargement of
his whole being so that he may abound in the blessings of the Lord
and live an overflowing life! What a challenge to thirst for the
living water and to come to that fountain of life to drink and to
continue to drink that he may "be filled unto all the fulness of
God!"
Friends, is not the
trouble with most of us that we do not thirst? We are too
self-satisfied and self-complacent. We have the attitude of the
Laodicean who says, "I am rich, and increased with goods, and
have need of nothing." There is spiritual stagnancy in our lives
because we are content to live as beggars in the midst of plenty.
The life of the truly
spiritual Christian is quite otherwise. He is a paradox in that he is
always satisfied, yet ever seeking. He never thirsts, yet is always
thirsting. He is perfectly content; yet ever wants more. He enjoys to
the full what he possesses moment by moment, yet knows there is
always more beyond, and eagerly longs for it.
"Every"--
what a bountiful word! Every blessing needed for spirit, soul and
body; for the past, present and future; for salvation,
sanctification, sustenance, and service; for time and for eternity.
There is every blessing for all saints, for any saint.
From memory recall every
spiritual blessing mentioned in Ephesians which is yours in Christ;
then all you remember from any part of Scripture. How many of these
blessings are yours in practical possession? What ones do you
honestly desire? Sit quietly before your Lord and name them, one by
one, and then confidently appropriate each one by faith and thank Him
for it. Every spiritual blessing is already yours in
Christ!
5. The Wealth Located
1:3. "In heavenly
places" - (literally, in the heavenlies).
This phrase is used only
in Ephesians, where it is found five times. It is seen to be Christ's
seat of power (1:20); the Christians' sphere of life as identified
with Christ in position, privilege and power (2:6); and the
battlefield where Christ and His saints are in conflict with Satan
and his hosts (6:12). "The principalities and powers" of
both light (3:10) and darkness (6:12) have access to this sphere In
this phrase the Christian's wealth is definitely located.
As Scripture interprets
Scripture, it is thus clear that the heavenlies is not heaven, a
future place reached after death, but it is the sphere where Christ
is, which is heavenly in nature, privilege and blessing. Where Christ
is the Christian also is in virtue of his union with Christ. To be in
the heavenlies is to be living on a celestial level even while on the
earth and to be in a heavenly state of mind and heart, even in the
midst of earthly trials and sorrows. Dr. A.T. Pierson illustrates
this most beautifully in telling of a visit he once made to an
earnest Christian to condole her on the death of her saintly mother.
"The woman said to me with a smile, 'For forty years, my dear
mother's mind has been in Heaven.'”
A very dear friend of
mine, now in her eighty-sixth year, suffered a stroke ten months ago
and has been gradually failing physically, and at times even her mind
has been clouded with hallucination. The one book she loves most to
read, understands best, and talks of most readily and lucidly is the
Book. This week the daughter who cares for her wrote: "From the
first of her illness I have noticed that Mother is clearer on all
spiritual things than on secular."
Paul was in prison in
Rome; yet just as truly, yes, even more so, he was in the heavenlies
in Christ. The tremendous reality to him of this other-worldly abode
explains the paradoxes of such language as he used, as:
"Sorrowful,
yet always rejoicing."
"Poor, yet making many
rich."
"Having nothing, yet possessing all
things."
"Troubled on every side, yet not
distressed."
"Perplexed, yet not in despair."
"Cast
down, yet not destroyed."
6. The Wealth Deposited
1:3. "In Christ."
In these two words we have
the whole of Ephesians in essence. They are the master key to
heaven's treasury. The wealth of the Church and of the Christian is
deposited wholly and only in Christ.
"In" -- the biggest, little word in Ephesians, a preposition
denoting position; the simplest of words, yet it introduces the
mightiest of thoughts. When connected with the word "Christ"
it forms the most significant expression in all Scripture. Of these
two words Dr. A. T. Pierson wrote: "A very small key may open a
very complex lock and a very large door, and that door may itself
lead into a vast building with priceless stores of wealth and beauty.
This brief phrase -- a preposition followed by a proper name -- is
the key to the whole New Testament. Those two short words, "in
Christ," are, without doubt, the most important ever written,
even by an inspired pen, to express the mutual relation of the
believer and Christ. They occur, with their equivalents, "in
him," or "in whom," over one hundred and thirty times.
Such repetition must have intense meaning. When in the Word of God a
phrase like this occurs so often and with such manifold applications,
it cannot be a matter of accident; there is a deep design. God's
Spirit is bringing a truth of the highest importance before us,
repeating for the sake of emphasis, compelling even a careless reader
to give heed as to its vital teaching."
Considering the number of
times these two words or their equivalents are used in Ephesians, --
fourteen times in Chapter 1 alone -- it is not exaggeration to say
that the whole message of the book is compressed within them.
"Without Christ," a sinner, spiritually dead and a moral
bankrupt: "In Christ," a saint, spiritually alive and a
joint-heir with Christ. "Without Christ" one is, has, and
can do, nothing. "In Christ" one is, has and can do,
everything. Is this not what the Lord said: "Without me ye can
do nothing"? Yet Paul said, "I can do all things through
Christ that strengtheneth me." Some one has put it tersely thus,
"If you take Christ out of Christ-i-a-n, what is left? I am
nothing!"
What, then, does it mean
to be in Christ? Primarily, it means a change of position. The
whole human race was in Adam in sin, and therefore subject to
death. The Church and the Christian are in Christ through
salvation, and therefore are the recipients of eternal life. The
saint has been wholly delivered from the old sphere of the devil, the
world, and the flesh, and has been translated into the new sphere of
Christ, the Church, and the Spirit.
Secondly, it means a
difference in possession. In Adam the sinner possesses only a
sinful nature, inherited from Adam, the federal head of the first
creation. In Christ the saint possesses also a divine nature,
imparted to him in Christ, the federal head of the new creation.
In Christ, the saint is
both ensphered and enriched. Christ is to be the source, sustenance,
and security of his life. In His Son the Father has stored up all the
riches of His Grace and of His glory which He purposes to bequeath to
His other sons. Outside of Christ the Father has nothing to give.
Outside of Christ there is
nothing the true Christian wants. Everything his heart could desire
is to be found in Him. Christ is his satisfaction and sufficiency. In
Him we are separated from the trinity of evil unto the triune God; we
are supplied with everything needed for a worthy walk; and we are
secured from defeat by our Satanic foes.
IN
CHRIST | denotes our position --
where He is, we are.
defines
our privileges --
what He is, we are.
describes
our possessions --
what He has, we share.
determines
our practice --
what He does, we do. |
  
This page Copyright © 2003 Peter Wade. The Bible text in this publication, except where otherwise indicated, is from the King James Version. This article appears on the site: http://www.peterwade.com/.
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