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Part One: THE WEALTH OF THE CHRISTIAN
(continued) by Ruth Paxson
9. The Wealth Unfolded
A wondrous spiritual panorama now unfolds before us; God's grace and power in operation in the creation of a Christian and in the constitution of the Church; the Master-Workman at work forming "the new man."
It is sometimes helpful in understanding a portion of Scripture to let it fall loosely into fragments, and then to gather up these parts and put them together. By using this method in this study we discover four sharply-drawn contrasts. Two Persons 2:2. "The prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience."
"The prince" - The word shows the Holy Spirit is speaking of a person. Surely 2:2 teaches that he is a person of mighty, supernatural power; the ruler in the realm of evil, which has two spheres of activity: the air, the abode of evil spirits; and the earth, the abode of unregenerate men. This prince is the No. 1 public enemy of the whole universe.
2:6. "Christ Jesus."
The Son; the Father's Beloved; the sinner's Saviour; the saint's Lord and Life; Satan's Conqueror.
Satan is the source of all in the life of the sinner. Christ is the source of all in the life of the saint. Out of these two sources flow two streams; one the putrid stream of sin and death, and the other the pure stream of salvation and life. These two streams are the exact opposite, both in direction and in destiny. Two Parties Open your Bible to Ephesians 2 and let your eye run down the page. "Ye -- We" -- Here we find a marked personal contrast between two parties. It would be a great help at this point to turn to the epistle to the Romans and read the first three chapters where God says that all humanity, whether Gentiles or Jews, are sinners. In the whole world of mankind "there was not one righteous, no, not one"; "all have sinned and come short of the glory of God," so that all the world is guilty before God.
This may seem to some like a too sweeping and almost unwarranted indictment of mankind, and we need to go further into Romans 5 if we would understand God's basis for it. Here we see two men in sharp contrast, -- Adam and Christ. Adam is the federal head of a race of sinners by natural generation; Christ is the federal head of a company of saints by supernatural regeneration. By disobedience Adam himself became a sinner, and all men who remain in him are "the children of disobedience." By obedience Christ be came the sinner's Saviour, and in Him believers are made righteous.
So here in 2:1-3 the Gentiles, "ye," and the Jews, "we," as individuals, are in the same position and condition of sin and death. They are on an equality as sinners. The individual Jew is as great a sinner as the individual Gentile. As sinners they are equally "far off" from God, and need to be "made nigh" through reconciliation. "By nature" both Gentile and Jew are "the children of wrath," both facing the same awful destiny.
Let your eye run a second time over Chapter two, and we see a marked racial contrast between Gentile and Jew.
|
|
|
| Uncircumcision |
Aliens |
Strangers |
| Circumcision |
Commonwealth
of Israel |
Covenants
of promise |
Still a third time glance down the page and make a
wonderful discovery: a wholly different and a very
pleasing contrast.
| Twain |
Both |
Foreigners |
Far off |
| One new man |
One body |
Fellow-citizens |
Made nigh |
| We both -- |
|
{ household of God
{ holy temple in the Lord -- One new man
{ habitation of God |
Is it not fascinating to trace these very sharp, exclusive contrasts followed by such clear, all-inclusive unity? What is the meaning of it all? Scripture throws light on the meaning. [It would be helpful also to read Romans 9-11 and the Acts, especially chapters 2,10,11, and 15.] In another of Paul's epistles noonday light is shed on this entire section.
Let us quote it:
I Corinthians 10:32. "Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God."
Here the whole of mankind is divided into three races of people as distinct from each other as black from white. The Jew and the Gentile are the two divisions of mankind on earth. They are separated from each other nationally, racially, socially and religiously. The Church of God is neither Jew nor Gentile, yet is composed of both. It is a super-race, above all nationalities, classes, and religions; heavenly in origin and nature, though composed of men of earth.
How and why in God's economy did the human race, which had its origin in Adam, become divided into two such mutually hostile parties? This necessarily takes us back to God's explanation in Genesis. The entire human race had its origin in God's first man, Adam, who for two thousand years of human history was the only recognized head of mankind. Sin, which entered into mankind through Adam, brought God's judgment first upon Satan and his tool, the serpent. An age-long conflict was declared between two persons and between their seed.
Genesis 3:15. "And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel."
How helpful it would be to trace "the seed" of the serpent and that of the woman on down through the Bible. It would throw much light on our previous study of the two persons. But we can go only as far as Genesis 12, where we find the beginning of the two parties.
The Jews -- Called the Circumcision
"What advantage then had the Jew over the Gentile? Or what profit is there in circumcision? Much every way" (Romans 3:1,2). In Genesis 12 we see God doing a new thing. He chooses one man out of whom He promises to make a great nation. From this nation "the seed of the woman" will come. Thus God sovereignty chose one nation from among the nations for His own glory and use.
Deuteronomy 7:6. "For thou are an holy people unto the Lord thy God; the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all the people that are upon the face of the earth."
From Genesis 12 on the river of human life is divided into two distinct and distinguishable streams, flowing ever further and further apart. Israel, the chosen nation, and the Gentile nations are now distinct entities, nationally, socially and religiously.
As God's chosen people, the Jews became a privileged people above all other nations. To them was given a threefold trust; the conception of the coming Messiah, the custody of the oracles of God, and the covenants of promise. Through His chosen people the seed of the woman, Christ, the world's Saviour, will come forth Through them the revelation of Christ and of God's redemptive purpose in Him will be given in the Scriptures. Through them also the unconditional promise of blessing to the peoples of the whole earth will be fulfilled.
As God's chosen people, the Jews became not only a people of privilege, but of responsibility to keep the life-stream pure, and to be a true witness of the one Lord among all the other nations. To accomplish this God commanded a clean-cut division between this chosen nation and all other nations, and the rite of circumcision was to be its covenant sign.
Genesis 17:9-11. "God said unto Abraham, ... Every man child among you shall be circumcised ... and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you."
Thus we see the Jewish nation drawn nigh unto God, formed nationally into the "commonwealth of Israel," "called the circumcision," and made the possessor of God's special "covenants of promise."
The Gentiles -- Called Uncircumcision
The Gentile bore no sign in his flesh of his relationship to God, so he was "called Uncircumcision." Regarded by the Jew as "an alien" and "a stranger," he became an outcast. He was "far off" from God, for he had no share in nor claim upon the promises of God made in His covenants with Israel.
The Church of God
The Church of God according to Ephesians is constituted of Jew and Gentile, each individually reconciled unto God and so unto one another. "We both" made one in Christ. God again does a new thing. He creates a new race which is super-racial, super-national, super-social, and super-religious.
2:15. "For to make in himself of twain one new man." Two PositionsThe biggest little word and the most ubiquitous in Ephesians is the word "in." It is a preposition denoting position. God's Word gives our position precedence over our condition, because where we are determines what we are. Much of spiritual defeat and failure lies in our ignorance of and indifference to this fact. We are so concerned over what we are that we give no thought to where we are. Ephesians primarily emphasizes our position, and shows our condition to be the outgrowth of it. There are but two positions in which men may be: The sinner is in sin, and the saint is in Christ.
In Sin
The sinner is ensphered by and encased in sin. He is at home in sin. He lives and walks in sin.
2:1. "And you, who were dead in sins."
2:3. "Also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh."
As sinners, both Gentiles, "you," and Jews, "we," share the same position. All were dead in sins. However unequal the status of the Jew and the Gentile may be racially, as individual sinners they are on an absolutely equal footing. There is no privileged class in sin. High or low; educated or illiterate; Aryan or non-Aryan; occidental or oriental; professional or industrial; capitalistic or proletarian; all are brothers born in sin. The only place where all men meet on a common level and share the same position is in their natural birth in sin.
In Christ
The saint is ensphered by and encased in Christ. He is at home in Christ. He lives and walks in Christ.
2:5,6. "God hath quickened us together with Christ and raised us up... and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ."
Before his rebirth Paul was one of the most bigoted of Jews, thinking himself doing God's service to imprison and slaughter the Christians. Yet here he uses that word "us," which includes the Gentile Christians. All barriers are down now; all racial enmity is gone, and Paul is the arch-champion of the equality of all saints in Christ.
As there is no privileged class in sin, so there is none in Christ. Every sinner is a bankrupt and an outcast, and only by God's unmerited favour, shown to him in Christ, is he ever anything else. One's nth degree human pedigree; one's Ph.D. education; one's multimillionaire estate; one's highly refined culture; one's publicized philanthropies; one's name in Who's Who avail for nothing in grace. Clergy and laity; the aged believer and the newborn convert; the most noted citizen and the most notorious criminal, saved by grace, all have the same position in Christ. God has no favourites in Christ. Grace exalts all saints to the same high and heavenly position in Christ.
In sin is where all sinners are by nature. In Christ is where all saints are by grace. God is no respecter of persons, either in sin or in Christ.
  
This page Copyright © 2004 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/. Would you like your own copy of books by Peter Wade and other authors? Go to our Catalog. | |
