[177] [These words, en agape, are in the Revised Version and in the text of Westcott and Hort joined with what precedes, hagious kai amomous. So also Alford. Meyer and Ellicott, however, are in accord with Chrysostom and probably right in joining en agape with proorisas, following.--G.A.]
[178] [The good pleasure of His will means, "God's free self-determination, independent of all human desert, as regulative of the proorizein."--Meyer.--G.A.]
[179] ["As love was the motive for the divine predestination, so is the glorifying of the divine love, here designated grace,' its divinely conceived ultimate aim."--Meyer.--G.A.]
[180] ["The word does not here mean to make love worthy,' as Chrys., referring to inherent righteousness, but to grant grace,' just as ver. 7 sets forth simply the work of pardoning grace.'"--Meyer.--G.A.]
[181] Different usages were observed as regards the Baptismal Confession. In all cases there was one before Baptism. In some places it was made three times; and in some it was written after it was spoken. vid. Bingham Antique, xi. 7. &c.
[182] ["The designation of Christ by hoegapemenos makes us feel the greatness of the divine grace."--Meyer.--G.A.]
[183] ["More precise elucidation of what has been said, on the basis of experience (echomen). Meyer.--G.A.]
[184] ["Through His Blood' is a more precise definition of the preceding en ha in whom.'"--Meyer. "We have redemption not in His work without His Person but in His Person which with His work is a living unity."--Olshausen in Lange.--G.A.]
[185] ["In all wisdom and prudence' is not to be joined, as Chrysostom does, with having made known' (gnorisas), because it would thus denote the attribute of God operative in the gnorizein, which on account of the pase, every,' is not admissible. Paul in making known the mystery had to set forth not the display of grace in itself but as revealed.' Hence some definition to the clause, which he made to abound toward us,' is necessary and this is the in all wisdom and prudence.'"--Meyer.--G.A.]
[186] ["According to His good pleasure' belongs to gnorisas, stating that God has accomplished the making known in pursuance of His free self-determination, cf. ver. 5."--Meyer.--G.A.]
[187] ["Which He purposed in Him,' in itself redundant, serves for the attaching of that which follows."--Meyer. G.A.]
[188] E.G. of the Angels by way of contrast, "Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister," eis diakonian. Hebr. i. 14. However S. Irenæus says, "Ministral ei ad omnia sua progenies et figuratio sua, id est Filius et Spiritus Sanctus." Hær. iv. 17. And St. Justin Martyr applies to our Lord the word huperetein. Tryph. 61, as scripture does the word Angel or Messenger. The distinction is obvious; our Lord may be named the Minister or Instrument of the Father in the sense in which our reason may be called the instrument of our mind, as being one with it and in it. In this sense St. Hilary calls the Son obedientem dictis Dei Deum. de Trin. v. vid. Petav. De Trin. ii. 7. §. 7.
[189] [Which he purposed in him' (i.e. Christ' according to Rev. Ver. and W. and H.; but God' according to Meyer and Ellicott, who have hauto) "with a design to the dispensation of the fullness of the times, i.e., the dispensation to be established at the setting in of the fulness of the times. Gal. iv. 4; Mark i. 15."--Meyer.--G.A.]
[190] ["A distinction at variance with Scripture."--Meyer.--G.A.]
[191] ["This illustration has been again employed by Harless whose view of this passage is that the apostle speaks thus: The Lord and Creator of the whole body of which heaven and earth are members, has in the restoration of one member restored the whole body; and in this consists the greatest significance of the reconciliation that it is not merely a restoration of the life of earth but a bringing back of the harmony of the universe. This concedes to the ta epi tois ouranois merely an indirect participation in the anakephalaiosis and the de facto operation of the Messianic oikonomia on the heavenly world is set aside,--which appears the less admissible inasmuch as the ta epi tois ouranois has the precedence (in position)."--Meyer. "Heaven and earth have become places of sin (vi. 12;) indeed heaven was the first theatre of sin when a part of the angels fell into sin and away from God (1 Tim. iii. 6; 1 John iii. 8; James ii. 19; 2 Peter ii. 4;) thence it came to earth (2 Cor. xi. 3; 1 Cor. x. 20, 21.) Thus the state originally appointed by God and the development He wished to be without disturbance, ceased (Rom. viii. 18-24,) so that a renewing of the heavens and the earth was taken into view (2 Peter iii. 13.) The center of this renewal is Christ and His redeeming work. Here we may certainly apply what Bengel so aptly remarks on Rom. viii. 19. that pro suo quodque genus captu, every kind according to its capacity,' participates in this Anacephalaiosis, the evil (angels) as conquered and rejected opponents, the good angels as participating friends, the redeemed as accepted children, the rest of creation as subordinate companions."--Braune in Lange. Similarly Eadie: "Not only has harmony been restored to the universe and the rupture occasioned by sin repaired, but beings still in rebellion are placed under Christ's control, as well as the unconscious elements and spheres of nature. This summation is seen in the form of government: Jesus is universal regent."--G.A.]