Check Your Panoply
Chapter Four
Divine Declarations
WHEN WE OPEN up our printed Word of God
and come to the first page of Ephesians, many of us will find it well worn from much
reading. We would probably point to the first chapter of this epistle if we were asked to
show where the most precious divine declarations for us today are to be found. Some of us
have learned these verses by heart and have been quoting them in our prayers ever so long,
in the evening and in the morning, at times of affliction, distress and turbulence,
whenever we wanted to see things in their proper perspective, not only God and His Christ,
but also ourselves, and others, as well as the events around us.
As long as we are in this
body of humiliation, we will always be in need of reminding ourselves over and over of the
divine declarations which are referred to as the sword of the spirit in Ephesians
6:17. Whenever we prayerfully concentrate our renewed minds on our celestial blessings, we
are leaving the fleshly and soulish level behind us, and are, in spirit, setting our feet
on our celestial allotment. This is why we praise the Supreme with His own sublime words:
“Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Who blesses us with every spiritual blessing among the celestials, in Christ!”
THE MYSTERIOUS MYSTERY
All the
blessings are ours jointly, and they are in spirit. In order to become
thoroughly acquainted with them, we will have to make a daily effort, studying carefully
these words of faith and of the ideal teaching. Perhaps there are a few among us to whom
the celestial blessings still seem to be wrapped up in a Mysterious Mystery; but
all of us will be interested in an article under this title which was published in volume
21 (still available!), starting on page 561. Even more light is shed on this topic in our
booklet, “To Enlighten all as to the Secret.”
PAUL’S FIRST EPHESIAN PRAYER
Prayerful
study of the first half of Ephesians and the above mentioned commentaries will certainly
help toward a fuller realization of the Ephesian secret which actually is no longer a
mystery since Paul was commissioned to enlighten all his readers about it (Eph.3:9).
So let us join the apostle
in his first Ephesian prayer (1: 16-23) to the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of
glory, that He may be giving us a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the realization of
God that we all may perceive
(1) what is the
expectation of God’s calling,
(3) what are the
riches of the glory of the enjoyment of God’s
allotment among the saints,
(2) what is the
transcendent greatness of God’s power for us
who are believing.*
IN THE LORD
At the
beginning of the second half of Ephesians, Paul is no longer an apostle of Christ Jesus,
as in 1:1, nor the prisoner of Christ Jesus, as in 3:1; he is now speaking as the prisoner
of the Lord (4:1) who entreats his readers to walk worthily of the celestial
calling of which he has spoken before. He refers to those of the nations who are walking
in the vanity of their mind (4:17); we, however, should not cause sorrow to the holy
spirit of God but should rather deal graciously among ourselves (4:30,32) and walk in
love, as imitators of God, as children of light, wisely reclaiming the era (5:1,2,8,16).
In the first half of the
epistle, the apostle had covered our new status as joint enjoyers of a celestial
allotment, since we are members of a joint body and joint partakers of the promise in
Christ Jesus. All of this comes under the doctrinal part of Ephesians in chapters 1 to 3.
However, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit
with the tie of peace, making all grow into Him, and putting on the new humanity
(4:2,2,15,24), begins with chapter four; thus, all the blessings which are ours in Christ
(in chapters one to three) are balanced by our deportment (in chapters four to six); and
here the pages of our printed Word of God usually show less evidence of repeated study.
Starting with 5:21, our
relations with others are dealt with in detail. Paul shows the ideal conduct of the wives,
the husbands, the children, the fathers, the slaves, and the masters, ending with the
declaration that there is no partiality with the Lord since everybody will be requited by
Him for whatsoever good each one should be doing, whether slave or free (6:8,9). From this
statement it would seem that the apostle has now covered everything in the line of
deportment . . . or who else might take special interest in us, and in the fact that we
have a celestial status and are supposed to walk accordingly?
SPIRITUAL FORCES IN THE CELESTIAL REALM
At this
juncture we are reminded of Romans 8:38,39, For I am persuaded that neither death nor
life, nor messengers, nor sovereignties, nor the present, nor what is
impending, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creation, will
be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord.”
We also recall that Paul
had written to the Corinthians (1 Cor.4:9), “For I suppose that God demonstrates with
us, the last apostles, as death-doomed, for we became a theater to the world and to messengers
. . . ” And we might remember that Peter knew of their interest in Christ’s
sufferings and glories, for he said: ” . . . into which messengers are yearning to
peer.” And he also knew that messengers and authorities and powers are
subjected to Jesus Christ, Who is at God’s right hand (1 Peter 1:11,12; 3:22); for
Christ’s celestial exaltation was revealed to both Peter and Paul. The existence of
celestial authorities and powers, however, was of minor importance to Peter’s
readers, since their Messiah will have the place supreme on earth where they will
reign with Him.
THE WICKED DAY
Among
the most precious divine declarations in Romans is the following (5:8,9), “While we
are still sinners, Christ died for our sakes. Much rather, then, being now justified in
His blood, we shall be saved from indignation, through Him.” And in all this, God is
commending His love to us. And as we read before, nothing shall ever separate us from His
love (Rom.8:35-39). No messengers, nor sovereignties, nor powers, nor height, nor any
other creation can wipe out the facts that God Himself justified us and that Christ is
pleading for our sakes. God’s love remains our treasured possession, even if our
lives are filled with affliction, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or
danger, or sword. “Nay! in all these we are more than conquering through Him Who
loves us,” meaning that our awareness of His love will enable us not only to endure
our distresses but even to enjoy them. So God does not want the hardships of life to
overwhelm and conquer us; our souls will feel them, but our spirits should rise above them
in view of God’s unshakeable love, thus making us more than conquerors in this
sphere of attack.
When even our basic
faith in God’s love, as shown in justification and conciliation, is in danger of
being subdued by events around us and powers beyond our perception, how much more
antagonistic will be the attitude of certain celestial powers toward us in view of our
celestial status? For, in spirit, we are already seated together among the celestials in
Christ Jesus; there is our allotment; we may enjoy it now if we hold it by faith. We shall
enter on its tenancy in fact when the Lord will call us above where He is seated at
God’s right hand, up over every power (Eph.1:20,21; 2:6). The hostile attitude of the
spiritual forces of wickedness among the celestials is due to these facts.
Vigilance is also necessary because of the stratagems of the Adversary who knows that the
God of peace will crush him under our feet swiftly, as Paul wrote to the Romans (16:20).
These are the reasons why we are supposed to put on the panoply of God in order to
withstand and stand in the celestial conflict. Here, too, we may be more than conquerors
if we adhere closely to the rules as laid down in Ephesians 6:10-18.
TRANSCENDENT RICHES OF GRACE
In the
celestial realm Christ’s position is up over every sovereignty and authority and
power and lordship, and every name that is named; He is higher than any of these spiritual
forces, even those of wickedness. Since God subjects all of them under His feet and gives
Him as Head over all to the ecclesia which is His body, it is evident that we as the
members will never be subordinated to any of these celestial potentates. We will rather
see to it that all of them accept Christ as their Head, too. This will be achieved by the
display of God’s grace to the whole universe, and we will be His display material.
The following quotation from UNSEARCHABLE RICHES, volume XL, page 92, will
help to elucidate our celestial status.
“In the on-coming eons
we will no longer be weak and weary mortals, but grand and glorious immortals, the special
objects of God’s kindness, whose former impotence and sinfulness are a perfect foil
for the transcendent riches of God’s grace. And this is not ours because of aught in
us, but because of the glory which it brings to God, in the eyes of the celestial hosts.
“Our hearts will be
God-centered, totally absorbed with His grace and glory, and fully engaged, not only in
worshiping Him, but in His great plan of bringing every knee to bow in adoration. This
will be revealed to the celestial realms not merely by words which we speak, but by
that which we were and what we have become. Utterly unworthy of our high
station in ourselves, we will be the prize exhibition of God’s grace, the revelation
of the power of His love.
“This will be our
felicitous function in the on-coming eons. During the millennium and the new heavens and
the new earth which follow it—the last two eons—God will display His
transcendent grace through us. This should humble us in the dust, for grace
demands, not our works or our worth, but utter degradation. If we had any glory of our
own, that would destroy this display.
“Right now, there is
very little outwardly visible of what God has done for us. Inwardly, our spirits may be
exulting in the glory of His grace, but this is not apparent to the celestial hosts.
Indeed, it is necessary now that they become acquainted with our mean estate, that
they realize the depth of our degradation, so that the contrast will be apparent when we
are glorified.”
GOD SEATS US TOGETHER AMONG THE CELESTIALS
No
power, nor height, nor depth, can wipe out the glorious fact that in the future
eons God will seat us together among the celestials. But the declaration in Ephesians 2:6
implies even more, for the “fact” form, seats, includes both the past and
the present. It is in connection with the joint allotment that God chose us in Christ
Jesus before the disruption of the world; since this fact is valid for all times,
Scripture says explicitly, “He chooses us.” All the blessings were ours
even before we were existent and sinned! Thus, in God’s eyes, when Christ died, we
died with Him; we were in Him also when God roused Him from among the dead and seated Him
at His right hand up over all the celestial sovereignties (Eph.1:4,20,21). So, in Christ,
we too were vivified and seated together among the same celestials, long, long before we
were even born. This fact still stands today; thus, in spirit, we are seated there right
now, even if our present bodies of humiliation are enduring suffering through afflictions,
distresses and turbulences.
THE TRANSCENDENT GREATNESS OF GOD’s POWER
God is
teaching us to pray for a spirit of wisdom and revelation so that we may perceive our
blessings, one of which is the transcendent greatness of His power for us today
while we are believing all His precious promises as far as they are valid for the
present secret administration of grace. Most, if not all of us, are disbelieving in
some points.
Perhaps we believe that we
will be reigning together with Christ even though we cannot keep quiet when we are injured
or cheated by our brethren. We may be willing to serve others, but we cannot stand
humiliation. Whenever we are retorting we are as unjust as our revilers, and we
shall not be enjoying any allotment in the sovereign power of God’s kingdom;
only if we are enduring now, we shall be reigning together also (1 Cor.6:7-9;
Keyword Concordance, page 168: kingdom; 2 Tim.2:11-13). The members of Christ’s body
will certainly exercise a variety of functions in accordance with their high celestial
status while displaying the transcendent riches of God’s grace. This will certainly
be done by various ways and means; each of us will have a different story of grace to
tell. So far the allotments appear to be similar. But in addition, some of us will be
reigning together with Christ in the celestial realm, and thus enjoy a different allotment
than some others. We are disbelieving 2 Timothy 2:12 when we think the allotments will all
be identical.
The transcendent greatness
of God’s power is for us who are believing and not disbelieving in some
way or other. Any fraction of disbelief will hinder the outflow of this divine power which
comes to us through the Word of God; any amount of disbelief will also make us forget
about thanking God for each and every thing, and thanking Him in advance, even for sending
us through the school of endurance. If there is disbelief on our part as to any of the
celestial blessings in Ephesians, we will fail to praise God for them as we should and
thus rob ourselves of their enjoyment.
DIVINE DECLARATIONS ARE SPIRIT AND ARE LIFE
Our Lord
tells us in John 6:63 that the declarations which He has spoken are spirit and are life.
Additional spiritual life—this is what the transcendent greatness of God’s power
for us amounts to. Hence His declarations energize us and vitalize us spiritually. They
have no direct effect on our physical frames, but they put new life into our spirits.
There is no evidence in our flesh as to our celestial status; and the ever-changing
feelings of our souls do not affect our blessings either, since God blesses us with every spiritual
blessing among the celestials in Christ. We know God and His grace only through words;
but they are God’s words, and this is why they charge our spirits with divine
vitality and assure us of our celestial status.
It would be very foolish to
claim that every sentence in the Bible could serve a similar purpose. For there are many
human words, quite a few words of God are mistranslated in the popular versions, and
besides this, many divine declarations were spoken to other saints in other
administrations and do not pertain to us; so they could not assure us of our place in
God’s purpose.
Let us, therefore, point to
one of God’s most potent declarations for us today: “Yet God, being rich in
mercy, because of His vast love with which He loves us (we also being dead to the offenses
and the lusts), vivifies us together in Christ (in grace are you saved!) and rouses us
together and seats us together among the celestials, in Christ Jesus . . . ”
(Eph.2:4-8). This divine declaration is a fountainhead of spiritual vitality for us who
are believing so that we can indeed experience what is the transcendent greatness of
God’s power for us. To Him be all the glory!
______________
*D.V., we will explain on a later occasion why we numbered the three aspects of
the Ephesian secret in this order: 1, 3, 2.
