PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
Expositions of Holy Scripture
Alexander Maclaren, 1826-1910 · 240,917 words · 342 reading sections
Contents
E-text prepared by Charles Franks, Colin Bell, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) Transcriber's note: A number of typographical errors have been corrected, and two minor changes have been made to the book's formatting. There is a full list of emendations at the end.…
507 wordsSECTION 2Saints And Faithful
'The saints which are at Ephesus and the faithful in Christ Jesus.'--Eph. i. 1. That is Paul's way of describing a church. There were plenty of very imperfect Christians in the community at Ephesus and in the other Asiatic churches to which this letter went. As we know, there were heretics amongst them, and many othe…
803 wordsSECTION 3Saints And Faithful
The Old Testament ritual had one sacrifice which carried this truth in it. It is the first prescribed in the Book of Leviticus, the ceremonial book--namely, the burnt offering. Its especial meaning was this, that the whole man is to be laid upon God's altar and there consumed in the fire of a divine love. It began with…
691 wordsSECTION 4Saints And Faithful
And notice, too, how there is suggested here also, the blessedness of that faith, inasmuch as it is a faith _in_ Christ. The New Testament speaks in diverse ways about the relation between the believing soul and Jesus Christ. It sometimes speaks of faith as being _towards_ Him, and that suggests the going out of a hand…
909 wordsSECTION 5'All Spiritual Blessings'
'Blessed be God ... who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.'--Eph. i. 3. It is very characteristic of Paul's impetuous fervour and exuberant faith that he begins this letter with a doxology, and plunges at once into the very heart of his theme. Colder natures reach such heights …
754 wordsSECTION 6'All Spiritual Blessings'
'better to have loved and lost, Than never to have loved at all.' It is but a quavering voice of praise, with many a sob between, that goes up to bless God for anything but spiritual blessings. Though it is true that all which comes from the Father of Lights is light, the sorrows and troubles that He sends have the l…
813 wordsSECTION 7'All Spiritual Blessings'
III. In the next place, notice the one place where all these blessings are kept. 'Blessed be God who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places.' 'In heavenly places.' Now that does not merely define the region of origin, the locality where they originated or whence they come. It does do that, but …
651 wordsSECTION 8'All Spiritual Blessings'
IV. Lastly, note the one Person in whom all spiritual blessings are enshrined. 'In the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.' You cannot separate between Him and His gifts, neither in the way of getting Him without them, nor in the way of getting them without Him. They are Himself, and in the deepest analysis all spiritual…
632 wordsSECTION 9'According To'--I.
'According to the good pleasure of His will, ... According to the riches of His grace.'--Eph. i. 5, 7. That phrase, 'according to,' is one of the key-words of this profound epistle, which occurs over and over again, like a refrain. I reckon twelve instances of it in three chapters of the letter, and they all introduc…
728 wordsSECTION 10'According To'--I.
Paul would have us believe that if we will take the work of Jesus Christ in the facts of His life, and its results upon humanity, as our horn-book and lesson, we shall draw from that some conceptions of the great thing that underlies it, 'the good pleasure of His will.' We stand in front of this complex universe, and s…
949 wordsSECTION 11'According To'--I.
But that is not all. Another of the forms in which this phrase occurs tells us that that great purpose, the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord, was that, 'Now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known' by the Church 'the manifold wisdom of God.' And so we get another t…
801 wordsSECTION 12'According To'--Ii.
Is it accomplished with you? I have been speaking about the divine counsel which is a 'good pleasure,' which runs through the whole history of mankind. But it is a divine purpose that you can thwart as far as you are concerned. 'How often would I have gathered ... and ye would not,' and your 'would not' neutralises His…
921 wordsSECTION 13'According To'--Ii.
God gives 'according to the riches of His grace.' You do not expect a millionaire to give half-a-crown to a subscription fund; and God gives royally, divinely, measuring His bestowments by the abundance of His treasures, and handing over with an open palm large gifts of coined money, because there are infinite chests o…
653 wordsSECTION 14'According To'--Ii.
The standards of length are kept at Greenwich, the standards of capacity are kept in the Tower; but there are local standards distributed throughout the land to which men may go and have their measures corrected. And so besides all these lofty thoughts about the grace and the glory which measures His gift, we can turn …
708 wordsSECTION 15'According To'--Ii.
So try to get a little more of some different type of excellence than that to which you are naturally inclined. Seek, and consciously endeavour, to appropriate into your character uncongenial excellences, and be very charitable in your judgments of the different types of Christian conformity to Christ our Lord. The cry…
676 wordsSECTION 16God'S Inheritance And Ours
'In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, ... the earnest of our inheritance.'--Eph. i. 11, 14. A dewdrop twinkles into green and gold as the sunlight falls on it. A diamond flashes many colours as its facets catch the light. So, in this context, the Apostle seems to be haunted with that thought of 'inheriting' …
839 wordsSECTION 17God'S Inheritance And Ours
Then again, in this same thought of mutual possession there lies a mutual surrender. For to give is the life-breath of all true love, and there is nothing which the loving heart more desires than to be able to pour _itself_ out--much rather than any subordinate gifts--on its object. But that, if it is one-sided, is mis…
857 wordsSECTION 18God'S Inheritance And Ours
God's possession of us not only demands consecration, but it ensures safety. Remember that great word, 'No man is able to pluck them out of My Father's hand.' God is not a careless owner who leaves His treasures to be blown by every wind, or filched by every petty robber. He is not like the king of some decrepit monarc…
650 wordsSECTION 19The Earnest And The Inheritance
'The earnest of our inheritance, until the redemption of the purchased possession.'--Eph. i. 14. I have dealt with a portion of this verse in conjunction with the fragment of another in this chapter. I tried to show you how much the idea of the mutual possession of God by the believing soul, and of the believing soul…
704 wordsSECTION 20The Earnest And The Inheritance
That is a matter of experience. We know that only too well. 'I have God'--have I? I have a drop at the bottom of a too often unsteadily held and spilling cup, and the great ocean rolls unfathomable and boundless at my feet. How partial, how fragmentary, how clouded with doubts and blank ignorance, how intermittent, and…
811 wordsSECTION 21The Earnest And The Inheritance
So, dear brethren, seeing that by our own faults the possession is incomplete, and seeing that in the incompleteness there is given to each of us, if we rightly use it, a mighty power which is working ever towards the completion, it becomes us day by day to draw into our spirits more and more of that divine influence, …
744 wordsSECTION 22The Earnest And The Inheritance
And if the incompleteness is so blessed, what will the completeness be? A shilling to a million pounds, Knowledge which is partial and intermittent, like the twilight, as contrasted with the blaze of noonday, Joy like winter sunshine as compared with the warmth and heat of the midday sun at the zenith on the Equator. T…
681 wordsSECTION 23The Hope Of The Calling
'That ye may know what is the hope of His calling.'--Eph. i. 18. A man's prayers for others are a very fair thermometer of his own religious condition. What he asks for them will largely indicate what he thinks best for himself; and how he asks it will show the firmness of his own faith and the fervour of his own feel…
740 wordsSECTION 24The Hope Of The Calling
God is 'not a man that He should lie, nor the son of man that He should repent.' Men begin grand designs which never get further than the paper that they are drawn on; or they build a porch, and then they are bankrupt, or change their minds, or die, and the palace remains unrealised, and all that pass by mock and say, …
683 wordsSECTION 25The Hope Of The Calling
The triad of Christian graces is completed by Hope. Without her fair presence something is wanting to the completeness of her elder sisters. The great Campanile at Florence, though it be inlaid with glowing marbles, and fair sculptures, and perfect in its beauty, wants the gilded, skyward-pointing pinnacle of its topmo…
653 wordsSECTION 26The Hope Of The Calling
If we only kept that hope bright before us, how little discomforts and sorrows and troubles would matter! Life would become 'a solemn scorn of ills.' It does not matter much what kind of cabin accommodation we have if we are only going a short voyage; the main thing is to make the port. If we, as Christian people, cher…
767 wordsSECTION 27God'S Inheritance In The Saints
Surely God did not endue us with the power of hoping that we might fling it all away on trivial, transient things. We are all far too short-sighted; our fault is not that we do not hope, but that we hope for such near things, for such small things, like the old mariners who had no compass nor sextant, and were obliged …
674 wordsSECTION 28God'S Inheritance In The Saints
So, then, if there were realised all the accumulated changes of progress in blessedness, and the withdrawal of all external causes of disquiet and weariness and weeping, still the heart would hunger and be empty of its true possession unless God Himself had flowed into it. It were but a poor advancement and the gain of…
683 wordsSECTION 29God'S Inheritance In The Saints
And if that be so, then these accumulated words with which the Apostle, in his fiery, impetuous way, tries to set forth the greatness of what he is speaking about, receive a loftier meaning than they otherwise would have. 'The riches of the glory of His inheritance'--now that word 'riches,' or 'wealth,' is a favourite…
797 wordsSECTION 30God'S Inheritance In The Saints
If that be true, and I do not think it can be effectively denied, then the next step is a very plain one, and that is that for the perfect possession of God, which is heaven, the same thing is needed in its perfection which is required for the partial possession of Him that makes the Christian life of earth. And just a…
674 wordsSECTION 31God'S Inheritance In The Saints
What, then, does Paul mean by framing such a petition as this? The answer is found in noticing that the knowledge which he is imploring here is a consequence of a previous knowledge. For, in a former verse, he prays that these men may have 'the spirit of wisdom in the knowledge of God'; and when they have got the knowl…
493 wordsSECTION 32The Measure Of Immeasurable Power
'That ye may know ... what is the exceeding greatness of His power to usward who believe, according to the working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ.'--Eph. i. 19, 20. 'The riches of the glory of the inheritance' will sometimes quench rather than stimulate hope. He can have little depth of religion who…
724 wordsSECTION 33The Measure Of Immeasurable Power
But such a thought, glorious as it is, still leaves room for doubt as to my personal attainment of such an ideal. Possibility is much, but we need solid certainty. And we find it in the truth that the bond between Christ and those who truly love and trust Him is such as that the possibility must become a reality and be…
677 wordsSECTION 34The Measure Of Immeasurable Power
How do we know a power? By thrilling beneath its force. How are we to know the greatness of the power but because it comes surging and rejoicing into our aching emptiness, and lifts us buoyant above our temptations and weakness? Paul was not asking for these people theological conceptions. He was asking that their spir…
683 wordsSECTION 35The Measure Of Immeasurable Power
The same knowledge is our refuge from our own consciousness of weakness. We look up, as a climber may do in some Alpine ravine, upon the smooth gleaming walls of the cliff that rises above us. It is marble, it is fair, there are lovely lands on the summit, but nothing that has not wings can get there. We try, but slip …
685 wordsSECTION 36The Resurrection Of Dead Souls
There are two measures of the immeasurable power--the one is that infinite limit, of 'the power which He wrought in Christ,' and the other the practical limit. The working measure of our spiritual life is our faith. In plain English, we can have as much of God as we want. We do have as much as we want. And if, in touch…
736 wordsSECTION 37The Resurrection Of Dead Souls
Let me remind you that the phrase of my text is by no means confined to Christian teachers, but that, in common speech, we hear from all high thinkers about the lower type of humanity being dead to the loftier thoughts in which they live and move and have their being. It has passed into a commonplace of language to spe…
696 wordsSECTION 38The Resurrection Of Dead Souls
There are three lives possible for each of us; two of them involuntary, the third requiring our consent and effort, but all of them sustained by the same cause. The first of them is that which we call life, the activity and the consciousness of the bodily frame; and that continues as long as the power of God keeps the …
723 wordsSECTION 39The Resurrection Of Dead Souls
The Apostle might well expatiate in these two varying forms of speech, both of them intended to express the same thing--'rich in mercy' and 'great in love.' For surely a love which takes account of the sin that cannot repel it, and so shapes itself into mercy, sparing, and departing from the strict line of retribution …
658 wordsSECTION 40The Resurrection Of Dead Souls
And, on the other hand, the life of Jesus Christ is available for all of us. If we will put our trust in Him, His life will pass into our deadness; He Himself will vitalise our being, dormant capacities will be quickened and brought into blessed activity, a new direction will be given to the old faculties, desires, asp…
366 wordsSECTION 41'The Riches Of Grace'
'That in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.'--Eph. ii. 7. One very striking characteristic of this epistle is its frequent reference to God's purposes, and what, for want of a better word, we must call His motives, in giving us Jesus Christ. The Ap…
809 wordsSECTION 42'The Riches Of Grace'
But our text leads us still farther into mysteries of glory, when it defines what it is in God that he most desires to set forth. It is the 'exceeding riches of Grace,' in which wonderful expression we note the Apostle's passionate accumulation of epithets which he yet feels to be altogether inadequate to his theme. It…
852 wordsSECTION 43'The Riches Of Grace'
God's kindness is all 'in Christ Jesus'; in Him is the great channel through which His love comes to men, the river of God which is full of water. And that kindness is realised by us when we are 'in Christ.' Separated from Him we do not possess it; joined to Him as we may be by true faith in Him, it is ours, and with i…
564 wordsSECTION 44Salvation: Grace: Faith
'By grace have ye been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.'--Eph. ii. 8 (R.V.). Here are three of the key-words of the New Testament--'grace,' 'saved,' 'faith.' Once these terms were strange and new; now they are old and threadbare. Once they were like lava, glowing and cast up fro…
669 wordsSECTION 45Salvation: Grace: Faith
Along with them we may take the other thought, that salvation, as the New Testament understands it, is not only the rescue and deliverance of a man from evils conceived to lie round about him, and to threaten his being from without, but that it is his healing from evils which have so wrought themselves into his very be…
723 wordsSECTION 46Salvation: Grace: Faith
It goes far deeper down than any of the superficial constructions of what humanity requires, which are found among non-Christian, social and economical, and intellectual and political reformers. It includes all that is true in the estimate of any of these people, and it supplies all that they aim at. But it goes far be…
848 wordsSECTION 47Salvation: Grace: Faith
Now, I am sure that there are some of you who are saying to yourselves, 'This is that old, threadbare, commonplace preaching again!' Well! shame on us preachers if we have made a living Gospel into a dead theology. And shame no less on you hearers if by you the words that should be good news that would make the tongue …
679 wordsSECTION 48God'S Workmanship And Our Works
Oh, dear friends! open your eyes to see your dangers. Let your conscience tell you of your sickness. Do not try to deliver, or to heal yourselves. Self-reliance and self-help are very good things, but they leave their limitations, and they have no place here. 'Every man his own Redeemer' will not work. You can no more …
734 wordsSECTION 49God'S Workmanship And Our Works
For it is something done in you; it is _not_ something that you get, but it is something that you become. The teaching of this letter, and of the whole New Testament, is that the profoundest and most precious of all the gifts which come to us in Jesus Christ, and which in their totality are summed up in the one word th…
827 wordsSECTION 50God'S Workmanship And Our Works
And now there is another step to take, and that is that this union with Christ, which results in the communication of a new life, or, as my text puts it, a new creation, depends upon our faith. We are not passive in the matter. There is the condition on which the entrance of the life into our spirits is made possible. …
728 wordsSECTION 51God'S Workmanship And Our Works
Contrast that with other notions of the purpose of revelation and redemption. Contrast it with what I have already referred to, and so need not enlarge upon now, the miserably inadequate and low notions of the essentials of salvation which one hears perpetually, and which many of us cherish. It is no mere immunity from…
774 wordsSECTION 52'The Chief Corner-Stone'
And so, dear brother, take heed that you are fulfilling the purpose for which you receive this new life. And let us all remember the order in which being and doing come. We must _be_ good first, and then, and only then, shall we _do_ good. We must have Christ for us first, our sacrifice and our means of receiving that …
653 wordsSECTION 53'The Chief Corner-Stone'
I. The process of building. In the previous clauses the Apostle has represented the condition of the Ephesian Christians before their Christianity as being that of strangers and foreigners, lacking the rights of citizenship anywhere, a mob rather than in any sense a society. They had been like a confused heap of stone…
813 wordsSECTION 54'The Chief Corner-Stone'
But the Apostle, in the immediately following words, goes on to pass beyond the bounds of his metaphor, and with complete indifference to the charge of mixing figures, speaks of the building as growing. That thought leads us into a higher region than that of effort. The process by which a great forest tree thickens its…
784 wordsSECTION 55'The Chief Corner-Stone'
The Apostle's strongest conviction was that he himself had become more and not less of a Jew by becoming a Christian, and that the Gospel which he preached was nothing more than the perfecting of that Gospel before the Gospel, which had come from the lips of the prophets. We know a great deal more than he did as to the…
713 wordsSECTION 56'The Whole Family'
If in reality He is so to us, and He is so if we have been builded upon Him through our faith, the metaphor of corner-stone and building will fail to express the reality of our relation to Him, for our corner-stone has in it an infinite vitality which rises up through all the courses of the living stones, and moulds ea…
656 wordsSECTION 57'The Whole Family'
Hence, the only ground on which the Church rests is this common possession of the life of Christ, and that ground makes, and ought to be felt to make, Christian union a far deeper, more blessed, and more imperative bond than can be found in any shallow similarities of aim--or identities of opinion or feeling. The deepe…
771 wordsSECTION 58Strengthened With Might
'That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory; to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man.'--Eph. iii. 16. In no part of Paul's letters does he rise to a higher level than in his prayers, and none of his prayers are fuller of fervour than this wonderful series of petitions. They op…
668 wordsSECTION 59Strengthened With Might
Oh, brethren! we who know how, 'if any power we have, it is to ill'; we who understand the weakness, the unaptness of our spirits to any good, and our strength for every vagrant evil that comes upon them to tempt them, should surely recognise as a Gospel in very deed that which proclaims to us that the 'everlasting God…
724 wordsSECTION 60Strengthened With Might
So, Christian men and women, do you set clearly before you this: that God's purpose with you is but begun when He has forgiven you, that He forgives you for a design, that it is a means to an end, and that you have not reached the conception of the large things which He intends for you unless you have risen to this gre…
667 wordsSource & rights
Public domain in the USA; original historical text digitized by Project Gutenberg.
Project Gutenberg source record →
Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.