The Pulpit Commentary — Ephesians — Section 82

GREAT:s-Ess A?\"D FREENESS OF DIVINE LOVE. Where sin did much II.bound, we have found t.lrnt i;;rnce did much more abound. Ill. IT TENDS TO INSPIRE US WITH A STONGER LOVE FOR CHRIST, WHO HAS PLACED US so mGH n, HEAVE?\'LY PLACES. The woman in the gospel loved much when she remembered how much was forgiven her. "The grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant in faith and love" (1 Tim. i. 14) to the .Apostle Paul in the remembrance of his old blasphemies and injuries to the gospel. IV. 1T TEXDS TO QUICKEN us TO GREATER ZEAL AND ACTIVlTY IN THE Lonn's SERVICE. We think sadly of our lost time in the service of sin, and are led now to work with increased energy for the cause of our Redeemer. Y. IT TQ."DS TO MAJ.E US MORE HOPEFUL OF THE CO~'TERSION OF OTHERS WHO ARE NOW 'll""BAT WE ONCE WERE AS =~.:Rs. Yet this remembrance of our past condition is not to be a rneful, self-accusing thing that will kill hope and heart, but rather that which leads onward to a higher joy and a more complete consecration to the Lord's work.-T. C. Ver. 12.-The religious posi,tion rf the heathen. The apostle does not speak of the distinguished ;ilace of the heathen as to art and science, culture, and worldly civiliza- tion-in which they far surpassed Israel-but he describes the utter destitution of their religious life by contrast mainly with the privileged superiority of Judaism. The points of contrast are six in number. . I. Tmrr WERE UNCIRCUMCISED--were "Gentiles in the flesh." Circumcision, accord- ing to the apostle, might mean very little or very much. It might mean very much, in so far as it was A "seal of the righteousness of faith" (Rom. iv. 11) and was a spiritual thing-" the circnmcision of the heart" (Rom. ii. 29), involving "the worship of God in the Spirit, rejoicing in Christ Jesns, and having no confidence in the flesh" (Phil iii. 3). But it might mean "the circumcision in the letter," after the ha.bit of those Jews who ascribed objective power to the mere external rite, regarding it as a. channel of grace, irrespective of the subjective condition of the recipient. It was only in the spiritual sense of the rite that the Gentiles were disadvantaged by their want of it, not only because it meant the obligation of withdrawing all the relations of life from the dominion of nature, but because it implied a covenant union with God, involving the blessings of redemption itself. II. Tmrr WERE WITHOUT CHRIST. The Jews were not without him; for "salvation was of the Jews;" .Abraham, the first Jew, saw the day of Christ afar off, "and was glad" (John viii 56); the Jews drank, in the wilderness, of the "Rock which was Christ" (1 Cor. L 4). But the Gentiles were without him, because (1) they had no knowledge of him ; (2) they had no faith in him ; (3) they had no union with him; (4) they were therefore withont pardon, life, grace, hope, and comfort. How dark and cheerless was heathenism even under its reign of culture I It had no experience of the threefold blessing of the gospel-" Christ for us, Christ in us, Christ with ·us "-the grand totality of Christianity. III. 'l'HEY WERE ALIENS FBOJII THE COIOIONWEALTH OF ISRAEL. They were BO civilly as well as spiritually, for the Jews had no dealings with Gentiles. 1. 'l'he word "aliens" points in the original to a lapse from o former unity or fellowship. Universalism characterized the first dispensation of the race of man: deliverance was to come through the Seed of the woman; but when the race took a direction contrary to the will of God and fundamentally wrong, the circle was narrowed into particularism, which in its turn tended toward a universalistic goal, for all nations of the earth are to be blessed in Abraham's seed. Jew and Gentile thus stood apart for ages, till, "in the fulness of times," they met at last round the cross of Christ in an act of supreme rebellion, only to be united in Christ for ever in the future develqpment of the kingdom of God. 2. '!'heir estrangement from the Israelitish commonwealth was an immense spiritual loss; fnr to it belonged the oracles of God {Rom. iii. 2), and "the adoption, and the glc.ry, and the covenants, and the giving of the Law, and the service of God, and the prr,mi9-:15" (Rom. ix. 4). It was a privilege t.o belong to a people expecting nothing from tb,,;r c,wn power or wisdom, but everything from the interposition of their Goe. It is a great b:e51;ing to be born within the pale of the visible Church, so as to pa~...ah <Jf i.r::-i,:i·.-iiP.;;e,. The Gentiles were outside the who'll;! e.pparatua of religious instructi<Jn 1,r,J·. i,~,,,.l L·r the special guidance of the Jews. 0B, II, 1-22.] THE EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS. 79