speaks of that union which is effected by the redemp- tion of Christ ; and secondly, that the church alone is the subject of redemption.
That the passage does speak of that union which is effected by redemption, may be argued—1. From the context. Paul, as we have seen, gives thanks first for _the election of God’s people ; secondly, for their actual redemption ; thirdly, for the revelation of the gracious purpose of God relative to their redemption. It is of the redemption of the elect, therefore, that the whole context treats. 2. Secondly, the union here spoken of is an union in Christ. God has purposed “ to ga- ther together all things in Christ.” The things in heaven and the things on earth are to be united in Him. But believers alone, the members of his body, are ever said to be in Christ. It is not true that angels good or bad, or the whole mass of mankind are in Him in any scriptural sense of that expression. 3. The word here used expresses directly or indirectly the idea of the union of all things under Christ as their head. Christ is not the head of angels, nor of the material universe in the sense in which the context here de- mands. He is the head of his body, i. e. his church. It is therefore only of the redemption of the church of which this passage can be understood. 4, The obviously parallel passage in Colossians 1, 20 seems decisive on this point. It is there said: “It pleased the Father .... having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, Z say, whether they be things in earth, or