CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES
Ephesians 1:18-19. The eyes of your understanding being enlightened … to us-ward who believe.—Three pictures for heaven-illumined eyes:
1. The hope of His calling.—Meyer says “the hope” is not here (nor anywhere) the res sperata, “the object on which hope fastens, but the great and glorious hope which God gives”—a statement too sweeping for other scholars, though here they agree that it is the faculty of hope “which encourages and animates.”
2. The riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.—“What a copious and grand accumulation, mirroring, as it were, the weightiness of the thing itself!” (Meyer). “Riches of the glory” must not be watered down into “glorious riches.”
3. The exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward.—The amazing and wholly unexpected working of the same Hand that wrought our first deliverance: the Power that smites the oppressor with dismay opens the path through the sea (see Isaiah 40:10-11). According to the working of His mighty power.—This may be regarded as a specimen of the divine power, the norm or standard by which we may gain an idea of the “exceeding greatness” of it—that from the tomb of His humiliation Christ was raised by that power to an unrivalled dignity in God’s throne. The R.V. gives “working of the strength of His might”: “working”—“the active exertion of power” (Meyer); “strength”—might expressing itself in overcoming resistance, ruling, etc.; “might”—strength in itself as inward power.
Ephesians 1:20. Set Him at His own right hand.—“Dexter Dei ubique est.” We cannot dogmatise about the relations to space which a glorified body holds. The transcendent glory of God in that body links God to man, the humanity in the glory gives man his claim in God. “The true commentary on the phrase is Mark 16:19, ‘He was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God’ ” (Meyer).
Ephesians 1:21. Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion.—R.V. “Rule, and authority, and power, and dominion.” “To be understood of the good angels, since the apostle is not speaking of the victory of Christ over opposing powers, but of His exaltation above the existing powers of heaven” (Meyer). “Powers and dominions, deities of heaven,” as Milton calls them, ranged here, perhaps, in a descending order. And every name that is named.—“God hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name.” “Let any name be uttered, whatever it is, Christ is above it, is more exalted than that which the name affirms” (Meyer). Not only in this world.—“This age.” “No other name under heaven given among men.” But also in that which is to come.—There Zechariah’s word will have its fullest application. “The Lord shall be King over all the earth; there shall be one Lord, and His name one.”
Ephesians 1:22. And hath put all things under His feet.—Compare 1 Corinthians 15:27.
“Strong Son of God, immortal Love, …
Thou madest Death; and lo Thy foot
Is on the skull which Thou hast made.”
In Memoriam.
Ephesians 1:23. The fulness of Him that filleth all in all.—“The Church, viz., is the Christ-filled, i.e. that which is filled by Him in so far as Christ penetrates the whole body and produces Christian life” (Meyer). “The brimmed receptacle of Him who filleth all things with all things” (Farrar). “Among the Gnostics the supersensible world is called the Pleroma, the fulness or filled, in opposition to ‘the empty,’ the world of the senses” (Meyer).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Ephesians 1:19-23
The Church Complete in Christ.
I. The Church is the creation of divine power (Ephesians 1:19).—The Church does not consist in massive architecture or ornate decorations, not in ecclesiastical organisations and councils. It is not the offspring of the most elaborately constructed creed. It is not confined within the limits of the most expansive ecclesiastical epithet. It is a divine, spiritual creation. It consists of souls redeemed by the sacrifice of Jesus, clinging to Him for pardon, peace, and righteousness, and created in Him, by “the working of the mighty power” of the divine Spirit, for good works, and therefore continually striving to disseminate the good they have themselves received. The apostolic idea of the Church was coloured by the leading characteristic of the man. To St. Peter it was the Church as influenced by law—the confessing Church; to St. Paul it was the Church influenced by the freedom of faith—the witnessing Church; to St. John it was the Church as filled with the ideality of faith—working and keeping joyful holiday, the adorned Bride (Revelation 19:7-8). The Church is a constant revelation of “the exceeding greatness of His power” who first originated it and sustains its ever-widening growth.
II. The divine power that creates the Church instals Christ as the supreme authority.—
1. This power raised Christ from the deepest humiliation to the highest dignity (Ephesians 1:20-21). It raised Him from the cross to the throne, from the domain of the dead to the life and everlasting glory of the heavenly world. “God ascended with jubilation, and the Lord with the sound of the trumpet. Certainly, if when He brought His only begotten Son into the world He said, ‘Let all the angels worship Him’; much more, now that He ascends on high and hath led captivity captive, hath He given Him a name above all names, that at the name of Jesus all knees should bow. And if the holy angels did so carol at His birth in the very entrance into that estate of humiliation and infirmity, with what triumph they receive Him now returning from the perfect achievement of man’s redemption! And if, when His type had vanquished Goliath and carried the head into Jerusalem, the damsels came forth to meet him with dances and timbrels, how shall we think those angelic spirits triumph in meeting the great Conqueror of hell and death! How did they sing, ‘Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in’!”
2. This power invests Christ with supreme rule and authority (Ephesians 1:22). On the night when Christ was born what a difference was there in all outward marks of distinction between the child of the Hebrew mother as He lay in His lowly cradle, and the Augustus Cæsar, whose edict brought Mary to Bethlehem, as he reposed in his imperial palace. And throughout the lifetime of the two there was but little to lessen that distinction. The name of the one was known and honoured over the whole civilised globe, the name of the Other scarce heard of beyond the narrow bounds of Judea. How stands it now? The throne of the Cæsars, the throne of mere human authority and power, has perished. But the empire of Jesus, the empire of pure, undying, self-sacrificing love, will never perish; its sway over the consciences and hearts of men, as the world grows older, becomes ever wider and stronger (Hanna). The rule of Christ will last till all enemies are subdued, and obedience to Him becomes a reverential and joyous experience.
III. The Church is complete as it is endowed with the divine fulness of Christ (Ephesians 1:23).—The Church to-day seems broken into fragments, torn by divisions and strife; but by-and-by it will blend in a glorious unity. Take a mass of quicksilver, let it fall on the floor, and it will split into a vast number of distinct globules; gather them up, and put them together again, and they will coalesce into one body as before. Thus God’s people below are sometimes divided into various parties, though they are all in fact members of one and the same mystic body. But when taken up from the world and put together in heaven they will constitute one glorious, undivided Church for ever and ever. The completeness of the Church is not the aggregation of all the virtues of the saints blended in beauteous and harmonious unity, but the glory of the divine fulness that pervades every part.
Lessons.—
1. The Church as a divine creation is a revelation of Christ.
2. The Church is composed of those who are created anew in Christ Jesus.
3. Christ is everything to His Church.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
Ephesians 1:19-23. The Dignity and Dominion of Christ.
I. The first step in Christ’s exaltation was the resurrection from the dead.—This miracle is an incontestable evidence of the truth of the Christian religion, and an evidence of the great doctrine of the resurrection of the body and a future life, and of the efficacy of Christ’s blood to expiate the guilt of our sins. If we believe that Jesus died and rose again, we must believe that the same mighty power which wrought in Him can also work in us to raise us from the dead.
II. The next step is His ascension to heaven and session at God’s right hand (Ephesians 1:20). The right hand is the place of honour and respect, and denotes superior dignity. Christ sitting at God’s right hand signifies He has ceased from His labours and sufferings and entered into a state of repose and joy, and imports authority and power. He is exalted not only as Ruler, but also as Intercessor.
III. The exaltation of Christ is supreme.—His kingdom extends to all creatures in heaven, earth, and under the earth. The government of the natural world is in His hands, as well as the government of the Church. He has dominion over devils. His last and most glorious act is the judgment of the world.
IV. The end for which Christ exercises His high and extensive dominion (Ephesians 1:22-23).—All His government is managed in reference to the good of the Church. See how criminal and dangerous it is to oppose the interest of the Church. If the Church is Christ’s body, let us honour it, study to preserve unity in it, labour for its edification and comfort. Let us honour and reverence our Head, and never presumptuously lift up ourselves against the Church.—Lathrop.
Ephesians 1:19. The Power of God in Conversion.—
1. The power God exercises in converting and carrying on the work of grace to glory is not only great, but exceeds all power that might impede that work, so that there is no power in the devil, the world, sin, or death which this power does not overcome, nor any impotency in believers which this greatness of power will not help and strengthen. There is no more pregnant proof of God’s omnipotent power than in converting sinners from sin to holiness.
2. This mighty power of God extends to all times. It works in the first conversion of believers, preserves them in a state of grace, actuating their graces that they may grow, and continues till their graces are perfected.
3. The experimental knowledge of God’s way of working is to be carefully sought after, to make us thankful for His gracious working in us, in order that our knowledge of God may be increased and our faith and hope in Him strengthened.—Fergusson.
Ephesians 1:20. The Future Life.
I. Our virtuous friends at death go to Jesus Christ.—Here is one great fact in regard to futurity. The good on leaving us here meet their Saviour, and this view alone assures us of their unutterable happiness. The joys of centuries will be crowded into that meeting. This is not fiction. It is truth founded on the essential laws of the mind. Their intercourse with Jesus Christ will be of the most affectionate and ennobling character. They are brought to a new comprehension of His mind and to a new reception of His Spirit. They will become joint workers—active, efficient ministers—in accomplishing His great work of spreading virtue and happiness. They retain the deepest interest in this world. They love human nature as never before, and human friends are prized as above all price.
II. Our virtuous friends go not to Jesus only, but to the great and blessed society which is gathered round Him.—The redeemed from all regions of earth. They meet peculiar congratulations from friends who had gone before them to that better world, and especially from all who had in any way given aids to their virtue. If we have ever known the enjoyments of friendship, of entire confidence, of co-operation in honourable and successful labours with those we love, we can comprehend something of the felicity of a world where souls, refined from selfishness, open as the day, thirsting for new truth and virtue, endowed with new power of enjoying the beauty and grandeur of the universe, allied in the noblest works of benevolence, and continually discovering new mysteries of the Creator’s power and goodness, communicate themselves to one another with the freedom of perfect love. They enter on a state of action, life, and effort. Still more, they go to God. They see Him with a new light in all His works. They see Him face to face, by immediate communion. These new relations of the ascended spirit to the universal Father, how near, how tender, how strong, how exalting! Heaven is a glorious reality. Its attraction should be felt perpetually. They who are safely gathered there say to us, Come and join us in our everlasting blessedness!—Channing.
Ephesians 1:21-22. The Supremacy of Jesus—
I. Acquired by His resurrection power.
II. Places Him above the highest created intelligences and potentates.
III. Is expressed in a name that surpasses in dignity and greatness that which has ever been or can be celebrated in earth or heaven.
IV. Gives Him absolute control over all worlds.—“And hath put all things under His feet” (Ephesians 1:22).
Ephesians 1:22-23. Christ the Head of the Church.
I. The Church depends on Him for life, guidance, activity, and development.—“Which is His body” (Ephesians 1:23).
II. He governs all things in the interest of His Church.—“And gave Him to be the Head over all things to the Church” (Ephesians 1:22).
III. The Church is a revelation of the greatness and glory of Christ.—“The fulness of Him that filleth all in all” (Ephesians 1:23).
Ephesians 1:22. The Headship of Christ.
I. The extent of His headship.—
1. Over all worlds.
2. Over the whole human race.
3. Over the Church.
II. The subserviency of its administration to the interests of His Church.—
1. For the edification of His Church. 2. For its defence.
3. For its increase.
III. Its grounds.—
1. His merit.
2. His qualifications. Whom do ye serve?—G. Brooks.
The Headship of Christ.—The verse consists of two statements:—
I. That Christ is Head over all things. The Father hath given Christ to be Head over all things.
1. Originally involved in a covenant or agreement between the Father and the Song of Song of Solomon 2. Now a matter of history.
3. The path of Christ to the mediatorial throne capable of being traced.
4. He there laid deep the foundations.
5. The whole universe is under His sway—heaven, earth, hell, all worlds, all elements.
6. He is qualified for such dominion—divine attributes, angelic spirits, believers, the devil and wicked men, the Holy Spirit.
II. That Christ is Head over all things to the Church.—Christ sits upon the throne in the same character in which He trod the earth and hung upon the cross.
1. It is as Mediator
2. The same ends which He contemplated. It was for the Church He clothed Himself in human form.
3. He gives a peculiar character to the entire divine government. He Christianises it.
4. He employs all His attributes, resources, creatures.
Lessons.—
1. Redemption is a wide and extended plan, not so easily accomplished, not so limited.
2. All creatures and dominions should do Christ homage.
3. The Church is secure from real danger.
4. Believers may well glory in Christ as their Head.—Stewart.