CHAPTER FOUR

IN HIS LETTER TO THE EPHESIANS

the word of the truth, the gospel of your salvation

(Eph. i. 13).

the Gentiles are fellow-heirs, and fellow-members of the body, and

fellow-partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel, whereof I

was made a minister (iii. 6, 7).

having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace... "

(vi. 15).

" . . . praying ... on my behalf, that utterance nay be given unto me in

opening my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for

which I am an ambassador in chains . . . " (vi. 19, 20).

WHEN WE COME TO CONSIDER 'the Gospel according to Paul ' in the letter to the

Ephesians, we find that we have the word' gospel' in the noun form four times.

We have it also, on one or two other occasions, in verb form, as in chapter ii.

17- ...and he came and preached peace to you that were far off...

You notice the margin says "preached good tidings of peace ". Now that is

just an English Way Of juggling with a Greek word. The Greek word is the verb

of which 'the gosPel' is the noun ; and, as I have tried to point out before,

what it really says-it cannot be translated literally into English-is: " came

and 'good-tidinged' or 'goodnessed ' peace". That is impossible in English,

but it is just the verb of the noun 'gospel'. It occurs again in chapter iii,

verse 8 -

". . . to preach unto the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, . . . "

-that is, " to good-news unto the Gentiles to pro-

claim unto the Gentiles the good tidings of . . . It is the

verb again for 'gospel'. I think that gives us ground for

saying that this letter is about the gospel.

Many people have the idea that when you reach the letter to the Ephesians

you have left the gospel behind, you are further on than the gospel, you must

really now have got a long way beyond the gospel. I do not think we can get

further than this letter, so far as Divine revelation is concerned: as we shall

see, it takes us a very long way indeed in Divine things ; but it is still the

gospel. The gospel is something very vast, very comprehensive, very far-reach-

ing indeed.

A LETTER OF SUPERLATIVES

This leads us to note that the letter to the Ephesians is the letter of

superlatives. An expressive adjective has come into vogue of recent years, by

which people try to convey the idea that a thing is very great, or of the

highest quality. They say it is 'super'. Now here, in this letter, everything

is-may I use the word? -'super'! The whole letter is written in terms of what

is superlative; and I must take it for granted that you can recall something of

what is here. Superlatives relate to almost everything in this letter.

There is the superlative of time. Time is altogether transcended: we are

taken into the realm of timelessness. By this letter we are taken back into

eternity past, before the foundation of the world, and on into eternity to

come, unto the ages of the ages. It is the superlative of time transcending

time.

There is the superlative of space. One phrase runs through this letter-"

in the heavenlies ". When you come into the heavenlies, you are just amazed at

the immensity of the expanse. In the natural realm that is true, is it not,

even of the very limited 'earthly heavens', as represented by the earth's

atmosphere. If you travel a good deal by air, you pass through the airports

and see the 'planes coming and going, coming and going, every few minutes, all

day long and all night long and day after day - and yet when you get up into

the air you rarely meet another machine. It is quite an event to pass another

'Plane in the air, so vast are the heavens in their expanse. And this letter

is written in the realm of the superlatives of space, in the spiritual

heavenlies, altogether above the limitations of earth.

Again, it is written in terms of the superlative of power. There is one

clause here, so familiar to us, which touches that: " the exceeding greatness

of his power to us-ward who believe " (Eph. i. 19). There is much about that

power, superlative power, and its operation, in this letter.

Further, this letter is the letter of the superlative in content. How to

approach and explain that is exceedingly difficult. You see, some of us have

been speaking, giving talks, giving addresses, about this letter to the

Ephesians -and it is only a little letter so far as actual chapters or words

are concerned-for over forty years, and we have not got near it yet. I defy

you to exhaust the content of this letter. It does not matter how long you go

on with it -you will always feel, 'I have not begun to approach that yet'. I

know what some of you think about me over this letter. I am almost afraid to

mention the very name ' Ephesians'! Even as I have once again meditated over

this letter at the present time, I have been saying to myself: ' I would like

to start now to give a long, long series of messages on the letter to the

Ephesians, and I should not touch much of the old ground!' It is like that.

But when you look into it and consider it, you find that you are in the realm

of superlatives so far as contents are concerned, and it begins with " hath

blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ " (i. 3).

Can you get above or outside that? You cannot!

Again, it is in the realm of the super-mundane. The earth here becomes a

very small thing, and all that goes on in it. All its history and all that is

here becomes very small indeed. The earth is completely transcended.

It is super-facial, as we shall see in a moment. It is not just dealing

with one race or two races. It is all one race here.

It is super-natural. Look again, and you find that everything here is on

a plane that is altogether above the natural. You cannot naturally grasp it,

comprehend it, explain it. It is Divine revelation. It is by " the Spirit of

wisdom and revelation ". That is super-natural. The knowledge that is here is

super-naturally obtained.

And what more shall I say about the 'super'? The list could very easily be

extended. Have I said enough? Can I go on pointing out in what a realm this

is, what a range? You see, you have some very great words here. I give you

three of them.

" Unto me, who am less than the least of all taints, was this grace

given, to preach unto the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ "

(iii. 8).

This letter is written in terms of the unsearchable, the untraceable.

". . . and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that

ye may be filled unto all the fullness of God " (iii. 19).

" The knowledge-surpassing love of Christ ". Here we have the

incomprehensible.

" Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that

we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us . . ." (iii.

20).

Here it is the transcendental. These are big words, but you need big

words throughout for this letter, and I am seeking to make an impression upon

you.

THE GREATEST CRISIS IN RELIGIOUS HISTORY

Now, let us come more to the inward side of this. This letter, in its

content, represents perhaps the greatest crisis in religious history. That is

saying a great deal. There have been many crises in religious history, and

very big ones, but this letter represents the greatest of them all. Before the

Lord Jesus was raised from the dead and went to Heaven, and the Holy Spirit

came on the day of Pentecost, there were only two classes of people on the

earth. The whole of the human race was divided into two classes of PeOple, the

Gentiles and the Jews. When the Holy Spirit came, a third class came into

being which, from God's standpoint, is neither Gentile nor Jew: it is the

Church of God. They are taken out of nations of Gentiles and taken out from

among the Jews, but, so far as God is concerned, they are neither Jew nor

Gentile, or as Paul puts it, " neither Jew nor Greek " (Gal. iii. 28). 'Greek'

was a representative word comprehending the Gentiles. When the Lord Jesus

comes again, as H,- is coming, and takes the Church away, the two others will

remain here. There will be a reversion in the earth to what was before. The

whole world will be divided again into Gentiles and Jews.

So this that came into being on the day of Pentecost, this third and

spiritually quite separate class of people called the Church, represents the

greatest of all crises in human history for this reason, and in this way-that

that Church is not something just of earthly history. The Apostle makes it

perfectly clear, right at the beginning of this Ephesian letter, that this

Church had its existence in the foreknowledge of God before the world was.

This Church is a super-temporal thing, transcending all time and transcending

the earth. This Church, the Apostle makes clear, will be there in the ages of

the ages, still super-temporal, super-earthly, when Jews and Gentiles go on.

Yes, there will be saved nations in the earth: but this other goes on in a

relationship which is altogether outside of this world and outside of time ;

and it is concerning this particular class, this people, this Church, that all

these things are said in this letter. It is this Church which takes the

character of all these superlatives. This is itself something superlative,

this is the supreme thing in the economy of God, this is the supreme thing in

all God's sovereign activities from eternity to eternity. We live in the

dispensation of something absolutely transcendent God taking out of the

nations, both Jew and Gentile, this people called the Church, which is " the

body of Christ ".

A SUPERLATIVE VESSEL AND A SUPERLATIVE CALLING

Now this superlative vessel or instrument or people has a superlative or

transcendent calling. The Jews had an earthly calling to serve an earthly

purpose, a vocation of time on this earth. Many believe very strongly that

they are yet to serve such a purpose. There are others, and amongst them

outstanding Bible teachers, who believe that the day of the Jew is finished as

in the economy of God, and that everything has been transferred to the Church

now because of the Jew's failure. I am not going to argue that ; that does not

come into our consideration at all. The fact remains that the Jews were raised

up to serve an earthly and temporal purpose in the economy of God. But this

Church, eternally saved-eternally chosen, as the Apostle says, in Christ Jesus

before the world was-this has a superlative calling to serve the purposes of

God in Heaven. It is something timeless, superlative in calling, in vocation.

It is a tremendous thing that is here.

We have often put it in this way, and indeed it is what the letter to the

Ephesians teaches-we have to touch on this in another way presently-that this

world, as to its conduct, is influenced by a whole spiritual hierarchy. Even

men who have not a great deal of spiritual discernment, men whom we would

hardly think of as Christian men, in the essential sense of being born-again

children of God, have recognized this and admit it: that behind the behavior of

this world there is some sinister force, some evil power, some wicked

intelligence. They may hesitate to name it, to call it Satan, the Devil, and

so on, but the Bible just calls it that. Behind the course of this world's

history, as we know it-behind the wars, the rivalries, the hatred, the

bitterness, the cruelty, all the clash and clamour of interests, and everything

else-there is an evil intelligence, a power at work, a whole system that is

seeking to ruin the glory of God in His creation. And that whole system is

here said to be in what is called "the heavenlies", that is, something above

the earth; in the very air, if you like, in the very atmosphere. Sometimes you

can sense it: sometimes you can almost 'cut the atmosphere with a knife', as we

say; sometimes you know there is something in the very air that is wicked,

evil. You cannot just put it down to people; there is something behind the

people, something about. It is very real-sometimes it seems almost tangible,

you can almost smell it-something evil and wicked. It is that which is

governing this world system and order.

Now what. is here in this letter is this, that this Church, eternally

conceived, foreknown, chosen, and brought into existence in its beginnings on

the day of Pentecost, and growing spiritually through the centuries since-this

Church is to take the place of that evil government above this earth. It is to

depose it and cast it out of its domain, and itself take that place to be the

influence that governs this world in the ages to come. That is the teaching

here: a superlative calling, a superlative vocation, because of a superlative

people in their very nature. There is something different about them from

other people. That is the secret of the true Christian life-of the true ones

in Christ: there is something about them that is different. To this world,

Christians are a problem and a conundrum. You cannot put them into any earthly

class. You cannot just pigeon-hole a Christian. Somehow or other, they elude

you all the time. You cannot make them out.

Now, in this letter Paul speaks first of all of that superlative calling,

and then he says that, because of the greatness of that calling, this Church

must behave itself accordingly. " I . . . beseech you to walk worthily of the

calling wherewith ye were called " (Eph. iv. 1). Conduct has to be adjusted to

calling. Oh, that Christian people behaved correspondingly to their

calling-to their great, eternal, heavenly vocation! But because of this

calling, this destiny, this vocation, this position, that mighty evil hierarchy

is set to its last ounce to destroy this vessel called the Church, and

therefore there is an immense and terrible conflict going on in the air over

this thing, and Christians meet it. The more you seek to live according to

your calling, the more you realize how difficult it is, and what there is set

against you. It is fierce and bitter spiritual conflict.

SUPERLATIVE RESOURCES

Now, mark you, this is what Paul calls the gospel -all this is the gospel!

Did you ever get an idea of the gospel like that? did you ever think of the

gospel in such terms? Yes, it is still the gospel, the same gospel; not an-

other, the same. Now, because all this is true as to the gospel, surely the

demands are very great. The reaction of so many, when you say things like

this, is: 'Oh, I cannot rise to that-that is altogether beyond me, that is too

much for me, that is overpowering, that is overwhelming! Give me the simple

gospel!' But I wonder if we realism what we involve ourselves in when we talk

like that. For it is just there that the true nature of the gospel comes in,

in this whole letter. Yes, the calling is great, is immense; the conduct must

be on a high level; the conflict is fierce and bitter. And that makes

tremendous demands. If that is the gospel, then how shall we stand up to it,

how shall we face it, how shall we rise to it, how shall we get through?

Well, we come back to the phrase to which I am gathering the whole of this

letter. It is here: "to ' good-news ' the unsearchable riches of Christ ". It

is translated' preach' in our Bibles, but it is the same word, as you know, in

the verb form. " To ' good-news ' the unsearchable riches of Christ ". The

good news is that the riches are unsearchable! Oh, this is something for us in

which to rejoice, being hard pressed, hard put to it; feeling we shall never

rise to it, never go through with it. The superlative riches are for a

superlative vocation and for a superlative conflict and for superlative

conduct.

" Unsearchable riches ". Now that is a characteristic word that you find

scattered through this letter. Riches! Riches! In chapter i, verse 7, it is

the riches of his grace ".

That phrase is enlarged in ii. 7 - the exceeding riches of his grace ". And

then in i. 18 it is the inheritance-" the riches of the glory of his

inheritance in the saints ". That just means that the saints are the

inheritance of Jesus Christ, and in them, in His Church, He has a tremendous

wealth. Now, if He is going to have wealth in this Church, it is He who must

supply the wealth, and it is " according to the riches of his grace " that He

will find " the riches of his inheritance " in the Church. There is much more

said about that. In iii. 16 the word is used again-" the riches of his glory

". Riches! Riches! Very well: if the demands are great, there is a great

supply. If the need is superlative, the resources are superlative. All this

sets forth and indicates the basis and the resources of the Church for its

calling, for its conduct, and for its conflict.

So what is 'the gospel according to Paul' in the letter to the Ephesians?

It is the gospel of the " unsearchable riches " for superlative demands,

and when you have said that, you are left swimming in a mighty ocean. Go

to the letter again, read it carefully through, note it. Yes, there is a

high standard here, there are big demands here, tremendous things in view

here ; but there are also the riches of His grace, the unsearchable riches

of His grace for it all. There are the fiches of His glory: it is put

like this" according to the riches of his glory ". Now, if you can

explore, fathom, exhaust, God's riches in glory, then you put a certain

limit upon possibilities and potentialities. But if, after you have said

all that you have tried to say in human language, as the Apostle did here,

you find that you have not got enough superlatives at your command when

you are talking about the resources that are in God by Christ Jesus, then

everything is possible according to the riches of His grace and of His

glory.

That is a gospel, is it not? Surely that is good tidings, that is good

news! And, dear friends, we shall get through -and we ought not just to scrape

through. If it is like that, we ought to get through superlatively. The lord

bring us into the good of the superlatives of the gospel, of the good news.