Edited and supplied by the Golden Candlestick Trust.
Reading: Ephesians 1:2,7; 2:5,7,8; 3:2,7,8; 4:7,29; 6:24.
Zechariah 4:7.
I think you will have been impressed with the number of times in
which that word grace occurs in the letter to the Ephesians. I
must confess that I was greatly impressed as I noticed it, and it
conveyed to my own heart a very blessed significance. I think the
higher we go in Divine revelation, the more subtle the perils
become, and when we come to a contemplation of what we may call
Ephesian truth and the Ephesian position, it is there that we meet
one of our greatest perils, our greatest spiritual perils. And the
peril there is that of losing, to some extent, the realisation
that everything is of grace. In Ephesians we are not particularly
occupied with the matter of salvation. When we are in Romans and
salvation is so very much more in view, then of course the matter
of grace is before us all the time and grace has a large place in
our consciousness. In Ephesians we are dealing more with position
and vocation and more of the active side of our own spiritual
life, and it is just there that we come into the realm of the
danger of letting grace in its more intensive form fall away from
our consciousness. That is indeed our supreme peril as we advance
into the higher and the deeper things of the life to which the
Lord has called us.
And so we are brought back almost with a startling reminder as we
gather up a dozen references to grace in the six chapters of this
Ephesian letter. And it is rather the cumulative effect of that
that I want to deal with, not studying each occurrence with its
own peculiar connection, but just that we might remind our hearts
of the fact that it does not matter how far we may advance, into
whatever altitudes of spiritual life we may ascend, whatever may
be the honour conferred upon us and the service to which we are
called, we never for one moment in the slightest degree get beyond
the range of grace or beyond the limit where all is of grace.
Here in this letter, as you know, three things in the main occupy
us. The first is identification with the Lord Jesus, the second is
revelation, and the third is vocation. We are early reminded of
our identification with the Lord Jesus. United with Him in the
likeness of His death: "For if we have been planted together in
the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His
resurrection" - a theme with which most of us are very familiar.
But we must come back to this matter from this standpoint of
grace, and realise that identification with the Lord Jesus in His
death is a matter of grace. I am not sure that we have recognised
that sufficiently. We have rather taken it on as something extra
that we had by way of consecration and surrender, giving ourselves
to the Lord in a fuller and deeper way than perhaps the average;
that we accept all the meaning of the cross for the entire setting
aside of the old man, and very often associated with that position
and that acceptance is the thought (if it is not clearly defined,
it is in the background of our minds) that we are doing something
extra, we are going an extra bit of the way, and to do that, of
course, means that we are putting ourselves in the way of special
favour from the Lord, that we are taking up a special position
which must be followed, of course, by special blessing.
Now, it may be that you are able to follow beyond what I have said
and see what I mean, but I want to bring that thing right back to
this point of grace again. We do recognise, of course, that the
cross of the Lord Jesus is God's eternal "NO". The mighty and the
all-inclusive "NO" which issues from God. A race, a world, a
mankind fallen, no longer according to the original thought of
God, and to the whole God has issued His uncompromising "No".
"Impossible" is written from God's side over that whole state and
that whole realm so that an impasse is made and there is no
prospect whatever of the Lord realising any of His intentions and
designs in that race, in that state, and Calvary is God's mighty
and final "No" to everything in the creation from the time of
Adam's sin. What are you going to do in such an impasse, when you
come to such a deadlock? Well, on the one side it does spell
hopelessness and despair, but God has always had a way of making
the valley of Achor a door of hope.
The valley of Achor was indeed a hopeless situation: Achan with
all his kith and kin, all his property and estate, everything in
any way related to or associated with him was brought forth and
utterly destroyed. A "No" issued from God: not one fragment to
remain. The prophet tells us that the Lord makes the valley of
Achor a door of hope. And Calvary is just that, by the grace of
God, because the resurrection of the Lord Jesus is God's emphatic
and all-inclusive "Yes". There is a "No" on one side, but there is
a "Yes" on the other, and into that "Yes" we are admitted through
death in resurrection, and God goes on with His eternal thought
and intention through resurrection union with the Lord Jesus. And
identification proves to be not something that you and I have
meritoriously accepted, but something out of which we could not
escape, for whether we will or not, we did die in Christ from
God's standpoint. It is not something we do; it has already been
accomplished. We cannot get out of it. We come under the final
uncompromising "No" of God. All that there is left for us to do is
in faith to accept that, but to see that God's "Yes" lies in the
direction of our acceptance, and that which looks like a firmly
closed door becomes through faith an opened door in the grace of
God. And identification, with which this letter opens, is based
upon grace, as you notice: having forgiven us all our trespasses.
Identification with the Lord Jesus is the grace of God and not
something that we do by way of special merit. God has found a way
in the resurrection of the Lord Jesus out of an impasse, out of a
deadlock, and brought us from a negative into a positive, from a
"No" into a mighty "Yes", and what I am feeling is that you and I
have got to make more of God's "Yes". I am seeing the great
message of the Bible from start to finish is resurrection. It is
not death; it is resurrection.
Until we see that, we have not learned the secret of hope. We
have not learned God's secret, for God has come out from eternity
not with a "No", but with a "Yes", and God has been pursuing His
"Yes" through history. His "No" is unto His "Yes". It does seem so
often as you read so much of the Word that it is all negativity,
it is all a mighty "No", a subduing, a refusing, but we have got
to see that God has never abandoned His "Yes". He is pursuing His
"Yes" and even though Calvary from one standpoint may seem to be a
"No", hopeless despair, it is God's way through to the realisation
of His "Yes". And Calvary, because it sees the removal of the
thing which created the impasse for us and for God, becomes the
door of Grace into God's eternal "Yes". And the note (study it
anew, take it up afresh with me) from Genesis to Revelation is the
note of "Yes" - of resurrection. That is the message of the Word of
God through and through, and everything that seems to be to the
contrary, everything that seemed to be of death and setting aside
is only (and you will find it to be so every time) God's way of
getting through to His "Yes".
Now, if the Lord deals with us along the death line of setting
aside and saying "No" and "No" and "No"; if He is sifting, if He
is breaking, if He is emptying, if He is pouring out, if it seems
that His way is a way of refusing all the time and bringing to
nothing - remember God is pursuing His "Yes" and not His "No". It
is with His "Yes" in view then, to make a way for His eternal
"Yes", and God's "Yes" is always in terms of resurrection. You see
the Lord Jesus in death under God's mighty "No" representatively,
as the race under God's mighty: "No, that can never be, that is
finished with." But then you have the reaction of God coming in on
that, and the mighty, persistent declaration: "God raised Him -
God raised Him". And when God had said His "No", He came in and
said: "Yes, I do not leave it there."
If we are going on with the Lord we may come to a place where
from one standpoint it looks as though a mighty "No" has been
written over our entire lives, but God is going to come in with
His "Yes"; God is pursuing His "Yes". Hold on to God's "Yes"; do
not be over-occupied with the "No". Recognise the "No" is the only
way to the "Yes" - another way of saying the death is the way to
the life. But the note is the note of resurrection. The note is
the note of God's "Yes". God is out for something positive and not
for a negative. So identification is a matter of Divine grace.
Then in the next place in this letter you have the matter of
revelation, for in this letter the revelation which is given is
tremendous, and the prayer of the apostle for the saints is a
tremendous prayer in the matter of revelation. He prays here that
the eyes of their hearts may be enlightened, that they may be
strong to apprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and
length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ. And
there is much more here prayed for: that they might know the
exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe - and so
on. Now, revelation is as much a matter of grace as is salvation.
Revelation is not something that you and I attain unto. It is not
something which belongs to a superior understanding and
intelligence which is ours. It is not something which we acquire.
Revelation is purely by the grace of God. I should like to pursue
that much more extensively than we are able, but I remind you of
the apostle himself. You remember what he said concerning the
revelation that came to him: "And lest I should be exalted above
measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh
was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be
exalted above measure. Concerning this thing I pleaded with the
Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He said to me,
'My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect
in weakness'". Grace came in with the superior revelation. The two
things always go together.
What was the fear in Paul, and shall we say in the Lord about
Paul? It was that having this great revelation he might
consciously, or unconsciously, give other people to think that it
was superior intelligence on his part; that it was something that
he had acquired, something which had come to him which he had
merited, perhaps by reason of the greatness of his sacrifice - what
he had given up and suffered for the Lord. And now the Lord
allowed suffering to come alongside of the revelation in order to
show it was not the man at all. It was not what the man was. This
was a matter of the grace of God, and the apostle reminds us on
several occasions that what he had he did not get by his own
ability on any ground of superior natural intelligence. It was
given to him by revelation of the Spirit. He is dependent entirely
upon the Lord for it all. It was all of grace.
Now that puts us all on one level doesn't it? It means that the
grace of God can work out in that way for us all if our natural
abilities do not count here, if it is no question whatever of what
we are by nature but all a matter of the grace of God; well, we
can all come into this revelation through grace. But of course, we
begin to deny the grace of God immediately we have the slightest
suspicion of being teachers, experts, specialists, those who know
something. It is a denial of the very foundation of revelation.
And I believe that explains why a great many who started by the
Lord giving them real revelation in grace through His Word, have
finished by simply having knowledge which is cold and dead. That
which was once revelation and full of life, health, helpfulness to
others, is now the same phraseology, the same truth, the same
doctrine, but just as dead as anything could be. It has now become
merely mental knowledge. It has lost all its life, all its
unction. Why? Because they traded upon it; because they allowed it
to constitute them authorities, to make them something, and did
not continue to recognise that every fragment of light was the
grace of God. And the Lord would keep us very often in that
position where we simply have to cling to Him for every bit of
knowledge, truth, revelation that comes to us; very often keeps us
right up to the last moment clinging to Him, holding on to Him, so
that no expert human wisdom is of avail. We need something that
only the Lord can give by revelation, and He keeps us close with
Himself so that when it comes we shall say it was the grace and
goodness of the Lord, not something of ourselves. The grace of God
in ministry, the grace of God in knowledge.
And then briefly, a final word on vocation, for Ephesians brings
us into our heavenly vocation, and in the matter of vocation it is
still grace. Vocation has two aspects. There is that active side
of ours, the active on our own part, and then there is what we
might call the exhibitive on God's part. Ephesians brings both
these into view. The active on our part. The sixth chapter puts us
into our active vocation in the heavenlies in Christ. But, do you
think that we can fulfil our heavenly calling, do the Lord's work,
be anything effective for the Lord, by anything that we are or
have in ourselves? We are brought to a very high position here. We
are brought in this chapter to dealing with no less forces than
principalities and powers and world-rulers, spiritual hosts of
wickedness in the heavenlies. That is a high vocation, that is a
tremendous vocation, where these great spiritual, intelligent
forces governing this world in its sinful state are being dealt
with directly through the spiritual vocation of the saints as they
are in prayer, and in the position which they occupy by faith in
the Lord, equipped with the whole armour; a tremendous vocation,
getting back of world conditions, men, flesh and blood.
How many have slipped there into the danger, into the trap of
thinking that that vocation, that work, that business represents
some superior place which they occupy, something which they are?
And so they use language, and they put on manners, and they lift
their voice in such a way as to give the impression that this work
is done out of something unto which they have attained as an
office, as a position. It's nothing of the kind. And the Lord has
very often allowed such people to be knocked all over the place by
the Devil to show them that this whole thing is all of grace; not
an acquired position, not something that we are, not something
that can be officially fulfilled, but something which is based
upon the grace of God. The active side is upon the grace of God
and there is no room whatever for man, for the flesh, for man by
nature in this.
Then there is the other side of vocation which is what I have
called the exhibitive, God's side, for this letter shows us that
God is doing something from His side along the line of grace,
which is apart altogether from our activity and very largely apart
from our understanding, intelligence, or consciousness. He is
making known unto principalities and powers His grace. They, the
higher spiritual intelligences are able to read the grace of God
in our lives as no others can read that grace of God and are
compelled to marvel at the grace of God as it is shown in us. They
know our value. They know our worth. We may have conceits about
ourselves, there may be pride about us, but the higher spiritual
intelligences know the truth about us, and very often they must
smile at the pride, the conceit of these human hearts when there
is some suggestion of being something in ourselves, and being able
to do something. Oh, they know their superior power over us apart
from the protection of God; they know what they could do with us
if the Lord took His hedge from us. They can smile at us, when
they see that which they can rightly now by reason of our fallen
state, rightly and justly regard as worthless, counting for
nothing even where they are concerned, even fallen spirits. If it
were not for God it would go ill with us, where they can justly
see our utter worthlessness, but they see God take that up and
through an experience confound them, bring them to the place where
they have to answer to Him, where they no longer have a leg to
stand upon before the Lord, where a Job is taken up by God to
answer the challenge of the prince of the princes of the fallen
hierarchy - and there is something of the grace of God in that.
God, taking up the nothings, the things which are not, the weak
things, the foolish things and there displaying His grace.
What is the grace of God if it is not taking up a worthless thing
and displaying His glorious wisdom and power through that? That is
the grace of God, and higher intelligences are instructed in the
grace of God through the experiences which come to us in God's
sovereignty, in God's wisdom. The grace of God is being exploited,
and we are told that in the ages to come the exceeding riches of
His grace will be shown to principalities and powers through us -
the exceeding riches of His grace. Everything is of grace right
the way through. Not only salvation, but everything right on to
the end. See the word in Zechariah, the top stone being put upon
the temple is placed in its position with shoutings of "Grace,
Grace unto it". And Ephesians is just the House of God brought
into view and when the House of God is perfected, completed, the
last thing that is going to be said about the completed and
perfected House of God is "Grace".
There is no more merit in service than there is in salvation, no
more merit in spiritual knowledge than in our justification: it is
all of grace. I want to emphasise that God must have that ground
before He can do things. We have such a way of returning to the
Lord and after all seeking to in some way suggest a claim upon
Him, a right, a merit, a worthiness, presenting Him ground upon
which we feel the Lord ought to do this and ought to do that, and
the Lord demands that we shall come for every phase and aspect of
our spiritual life and relationship to Him to the place where:
"Lord, if You do it, it will be all of grace"; "If the work is
done, it will be all of grace." The Lord demands that ground. You
find it through the Old and the New Testaments, the ground upon
which the Lord works is, whether we wholly and fully recognise
that, whatever the Lord does it will be all His grace, and while
in Christ we have privileges and the Lord will sometimes call upon
us to lodge a claim to the fulfilment of His promises - after all,
on His side it is all of grace. So let us let go to His grace and
give Him the ground that He needs for doing His continual
enlarging things, and never ourselves become anything as believers
or as workers, or as having any knowledge, but holding all things
as of the grace of God.