Chapter 3

The road to super-grace has four basic doctrines which are found in this passage. The first is the doctrine of the mystery which is given to us in the first six verses. Secondly, we have the doctrine of the ministry in verses 7-13. The third doctrine in this chapter is the doctrine of GAP in verses 14-18. The fourth is the doctrine of the super-grace life in verses 19-21. The subject of this chapter is “the road to super-grace,” it is paved with four doctrines.

We must remember that the Church Age is an interruption of the Jewish dispensation, the Age of Israel. The Age of Israel has not been completed, it is interrupted. The interruption caused trauma in Israel.

a) Israel was a period of a specialised priesthood. By way of contrast the Church Age has a universal priesthood. The specialised priesthood was from a non-royal line but the universal priesthood under the Church is strictly a royal priesthood.

b) Then we have a contrast in the field of Christology. In the Age of Israel we have shadow Christology because the cross had not occurred, it was anticipated. There were many ways in which Christology was revealed — the tabernacle, all of the articles of furniture in the tabernacle, the structure of the tabernacle, the function of the Levitical priesthood, the actual uniform of the Levitical priesthood, the holy days, the Levitical offerings. All of these were shadows. Now, in the New Testament we have an historical Christology which is retrospective.

c) The unconditional covenants to Israel formed their positional truth. The position of the Jew was not union with Christ, that is the Church. The Jews, when they were born again, entered into the provision of the Abrahamic, Palestinian, Davidic, and New covenants, all of which were unconditional covenants. This made the unconditional covenants the position of the born again Jew (in the previous dispensation) the custodian of the Word and the missionary representing the Lord. In the Church Age the Church is the custodian of the Word and missionary representative.

d) In the previous dispensation there was no indwelling of the Holy Spirit and no indwelling of Christ. Instead of the indwelling of the Spirit they had the Spirit with them, i.e. enduement. Instead of the indwelling of Christ there was Christ coming in the angel of Jehovah. On the other hand, in the Church Age every believer is indwelt by God the Holy Spirit and every believer starts out by being indwelt by the person of Christ, and as long as he is on the road to super-grace he continues to be indwelt by Christ. You cannot lose the indwelling of the Spirit but reversionists lose the indwelling of Christ.

e) Spirituality in the Age of Israel was basically the faith-rest technique, whereas in this dispensation spirituality is God the Holy Spirit controlling the life. He indwells every believer but does not necessarily control every believer. The control is called the filling of the Spirit, walking in the Spirit, and so on.

These differences are enough to make us realise that we must be oriented time-wise. If we are going to continue on the road to super-grace we must understand what has transpired in the past in human history and what is going to occur in the future in human history, and where we are located in this picture of human history. This is called the doctrine of the mystery. The first six verses deal with this doctrine.

Verse 1 — begins with an idiom which is not understood at all — Toutou xarin. Xarin is the accusative singular of xarij, the noun for grace. Toutou is the genitive singular of the demonstrative pronoun o(utoj. Toutou means “of this”; xarin means grace as the object of some kind of a verb. It is in the accusative. In this particular idiom xarij doesn’t even mean grace at all. All this is is an idiom which means “for this reason.” The genitive singular of o(utoj, the accusative singular of xarij. O(utoj is used with reference to what precedes; xarij is used as a preposition, and the preposition follows this object in this idiom. It means “For this reason.” This is an idiom to show that there is a relationship between the content at the last half of the second chapter and what is coming up. In other words, verses 18-22 of the previous chapter are definitely related and this is an advance on that subject. If you have mastered the contents of verse 18-22 you are now ready to make a further advance in doctrine. Why is it necessary to explain this? Because doctrine is built upon doctrine. Advanced doctrine cannot be understood until you understand basic doctrine.

Because the Church is an interruption dispensation we now have an interrupting doctrine before prayer. This is what the idiom brings up. We took up in verses 19 through 22 especially the fact that the Age of Israel was putting along and then it was interrupted ten days after Jesus Christ ascended. All of a sudden the dispensation of Israel comes to a crashing halt. On the other side the Church Age picked up and went right on.

Now Paul is about to pray. Paul was about to start the greatest of all apostolic prayers of which there are three, one in Colossians and two in Ephesians. Just as he is about to start he is going to interrupt himself with doctrine and that doctrine is going to take 13 verses, and it is going to cover the doctrine of the mystery and the doctrine of the ministry, both of which must be explained before he can offer his prayer for GAP and super-grace. He can’t offer a prayer for these until they understand that there are two ways that you get there. There must be doctrine and there must be a communicator of doctrine. Because Israel is an interrupted dispensation we now have with it an interrupted prayer. And what Paul does in his genius is that he shows the interrupted dispensation by interrupting his prayer, and when he starts his prayer he will also tell the purpose of this dispensation. Paul is about the begin a prayer for the Church but he interrupts it for two doctrines which teach the interruption. So he says “For this reason,” and he will repeat this idiom in verse 14 when he begins his prayer. He started to bow his knees at this point but he can’t, something must be taught first.

“I Paul” — e)gw Pauloj. E)gw is simply the first person singular pronoun but it is also something else, it represents the self-consciousness of the soul. E)gw is not ego in the sense of pride. Pride is a sin; ego is self-consciousness. Ego can have confidence, poise, it can know where the individual is going and be oriented to life, and give the impression of pride without having one ounce of pride. Application: Don’t judge people who have confidence, don’t judge people who are dogmatic, don’t judge believers with good posture, who looked scrubbed and clean, etc. as proud. If you do you only intensify your own discipline as well as add to your own confusion. Pride has nothing to do with confidence, dogmatism, good posture.

And from this comes a divine viewpoint concept, a very simple one: Paul is not a complainer because he has enough doctrine to know that complaining is useless. If ever a person could say E)gw Pauloj and then go right into how terrible things were, he was the prisoner of Nero, etc., it was Paul. But he doesn’t say that. He says “I Paul, the prisoner.”

“the prisoner” — desmioj which refers to Paul’s status in Rome. He is under house arrest awaiting trial.

“of Jesus Christ” — tou Xristou I)hsou. All of these genitives are genitives of relationship, genitive of possession. Both are true here. Paul is related to Christ through positional truth, therefore he possesses the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul has believed in Christ and Christ is now his royal high priest, therefore he has a relationship with Christ. This is an expression of his relationship with Christ which he is able to do only because he is in super-grace. No man can express his relationship to Christ unless he is in super-grace. So the principle is that you can lead people to super-grace if you haven’t been there yourself. You can’t lead people where you haven’t been when it comes to spiritual leadership.

“for you Gentiles” — u(per plus the ablative of e)qnoj, “on behalf of you the Gentiles,” literally.

Translation: “For this reason I Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you the Gentiles.”

In verse 1 we meet the human writer, we meet the communicator of doctrine, we meet the man with authority, we meet the one who is already there; he is in super-grace as he writes. And he tells us something else. In the trauma of the interrupted dispensation there is a need not only to square away Israel with regard to the change in dispensation but to read the Gentiles into the picture, to explain to them the plan. Therefore the greatest Jew who ever lived is a minister to the Gentiles. Because he is a minister to the Gentiles and because he must explain the dramatic interruption of the dispensation of Israel, he at the same time brings in a dramatic interruption to his own prayer.

Note that the prayer which should have been begun in verse 1 is postponed to verse 14 where we again have totou xarin. Principle: Only doctrine can postpone a prayer in order to make that prayer more effective. Second principle: The effectiveness of prayer is based upon doctrine residing in the soul. While Paul is ready to pray those to whom he addresses this epistle are not ready to hear his prayer. He is going to write down his prayer, but why write it down if they are not ready for it? There is no sense in seeing his prayer until they can understand it. So the prayer is interrupted just as the dispensation of Israel is interrupted. The prayer will begin in verse 14 and the prayer is a prayer for believers throughout the Church Age to move down the road to super-grace. In the meantime two doctrines explain the interruption.

Verse 2 — we meet the new dispensation head on. “If” is a conditional particle e)i used as a conjunction to introduce a first class condition, plus the indicative plus the verb, first class condition. Paul assumes that they have heard before. He assumes correctly because he has taught in Ephesus and in many of the local churches in the Roman province of Asia. They have heard dispensational teaching. The verb is the aorist active indicative of a)kouw — “If you have heard.” The indicative also helps us to identify the first class condition. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. It takes the teaching of the dispensation of grace, the Church Age, to these believers and it gathers it up into a single entirety. In other words, he assumes that they have heard, heard, heard, and heard; they have GAPed it in the field of dispensations and the assumption is correct, first class condition. The active voice: the royal priests of the Roman province of Asia to which this letter was directed produce the action of the verb by the function of GAP. But by the function of GAP first of all they have heard this because they came to a classroom, the e)kklhsia. It is a classroom to worship God. Worshipping God comes through learning Bible doctrine. The intake of the Word of God is the ultimate in worship. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality. It is used for the first class condition.

“of the dispensation” — the accusative singular from o)ikonomia which means “management, administration.” It means the arrangement of a plan, stewardship in the sense of administration. The word was first used in the Attic Greek by Plato and Xenephon where it indicated providing for an army or administering for an organisation. So the word “dispensation” means administration.

“of the grace of God” — “of the grace” is the descriptive genitive singular of the noun xarij; plus the possessive genitive of qeoj, plus the definite article, which means God owns the dispensations.

“which is given” — aorist passive participle of didomi, plus the definite article: “having been given me to you-ward” — the aorist tense is a culminative aorist, it views the event in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of its existing results. In other words, as a result of learning these things himself Paul is now in the process of communicating them under his spiritual gift of apostleship. The event in its entirety is the dispensation being communicated to Paul. Then Paul as a result teaches it to others. (Don’t teach what you don’t know) Paul is teaching what he knows, it has been given to him. The culminative aorist indicates the result. He learned it, now he teaches. This is the story of the life of any pastor. The passive voice: Paul receives the action of the verb which is the divine communication of dispensational doctrine from God to Paul. The participle has antecedent action to the main verb. The main verb: “ye have heard.” In other words, they didn’t hear it until Paul learned it and taught it. Paul could not teach what he did not know.

“me” is a dative singular from e)gw. It is the dative of indirect object which indicates the one in whose interest the communication of doctrine is. It is also a dative of advantage.

“to you-ward” — the preposition e)ij plus the accusative plural of the personal pronoun su.

Translation: “If you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of the God having been given to me for you.”

Notice God’s way. God doesn’t give it directly to you. In every dispensation God has chosen to use the same system, to use intermediaries as communicators. That’s grace and God’s sense of humour.

The doctrine of dispensations

1. Definition.

a) A dispensation is a period of human history expressed in terms of divine revelation.

b) Therefore dispensations are the divine outline of human history as well as divine categories of human history.

c) At the same time the dispensations become the divine interpretation of history. Therefore God’s plan for man is related to time.

d) The believer’s orientation to time and history is vitally necessary for understanding God’s plan and reaching the objective of the super-grace life.

e) In every dispensation God administers His plan through specific agencies or stewards. For example, in the Age of the Gentiles the progeny of Seth; in the Jewish Age, the patriarchs and under the nation the prophets; in the Church Age, first the apostles in the pre-Canon period, then the pastor-teachers in the post-Canon period.

f) While salvation is always the same in each dispensation (faith in Christ), the tactical objective of reaching the super-grace life is also the same. Each dispensation, however defines the function and the ministry of the believer in terms of divine revelation pertinent to that period of history.

2. The vocabulary of dispensations: Xronoj, kairoj, and a)ion.

a) Xronoj is sometimes used for dispensations, it means time as a succession of events, one following the other. This is where we get our English word “chronology.” It is used to portray the chronological history of Israel in their administration.

b) Kairoj connotes time as an epoch or an era and it emphasises the character of the time which follows one event after another in chronological order. Kairoj categorises the chronological events.

Both of these words are used together for dispensations in 1 Thessalonians 5:1 where we have the translation “times and seasons.”

c) A)ion refers to a dispensation as an age or a period of time. It basically means “age.” Therefore, a)ion is usually used in the sense of a divine category of human history and it is often and correctly translated “age.” Ephesians 3:2; Colossians 1:25 are illustrations.

d) O)ikonomia refers to the management or the administration of an estate or business. It also connotes policy administration which is a part of God’s function in this area.

3. The Age of the Gentiles.

a) Scripture: Genesis chapters 1-11.

b) Outline:

i) The period of positive volition which is known theologically as innocence.

ii) The period of negative volition, the period of the fall and conscience.

iii) The period of divine establishment, the beginning of human government.

c) The general characteristics of this age are seven: One language, one race (Gentiles only), a special angelic attack upon establishment (free will: Genesis 3; marriage and the family: Genesis 6; nationalism: Genesis 11:1-9)

d) The scope of this dispensation is from creation to the tower of Babel, the first united nations building. God expresses His attitude toward it by destroying that building.

e) During this dispensation there was no written canon of scripture. God communicated His doctrine in other ways.

f) There was no specific missionary agency.

g) Salvation was by faith in Jesus Christ as He was revealed in that dispensation.

4. The Age of the Jews (Israel).

a) Scripture: Most of the Old Testament minus the Millennial passages, and the Gospels minus John chapters 13-17.

b) Outline: The period of the patriarchs, the period of the new race from Abraham to Moses; the period of the nation from Moses to Christ; the period of the Tribulation.

c) Characteristics: i) There are many languages; ii) Many races; iii) The development of Israel from a race to a nation; Israel becomes the custodian of the written Canon as well as the missionary agency representing God.

d) Security for Israel was given through the unconditional covenants — the Abrahamic, Palestinian, Davidic, and New covenants to Israel which acted as both spiritual and eternal security.

e) National security, prosperity, and blessing came through the establishment teaching of the Mosaic law.

f) National discipline was given to this nation under five cycles — Leviticus 26.

g) Salvation was by faith in Jesus Christ.

h) Spirituality was the faith-rest technique. This is demonstrated in the New Testament in Hebrews 11 & Romans 4:17-21.

5. The doctrine of intercalation: The Church Age.

a) Intercalation means basically “insertion.” The Jewish dispensation was interrupted by the strategical victory of Christ. Intercalation is the insertion of doctrine not previously known so that people can orient in this age — the Church Age. Whatever there was for this age we had to know about it, so we have the epistles of the New Testament as the concept of intercalation.

b) A new dispensation was brought about: the Church Age.

c) Intercalation or the insertion of information goes with the dispensation. Intercalation is the intensified stage of the angelic conflict.

d) Intercalation is expressed in another way: mystery. The Church Age is a mystery in the Greek sense of the word musthrion. It was something hidden in the past but known to others. The Church Age is a mystery not known to the Old Testament writers.

e) Doctrines pertaining to the Church Age were not found in the Old Testament. Where Church Age information would have occurred the Old Testament simply skipped over it. The Old Testament would talk about the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ and then it would stop, it would move over to the Tribulation and talk about the second advent and the Millennium. But it would never talk about anything between the ascension of Christ and the beginning of the Tribulation. So now we must have intercalation, the insertion of doctrine were before there was a complete blank.

f) Doctrine pertinent to the Church Age is therefore intercalated, inserted, by the New Testament epistles.

g) We have a large number of the great parenthesis passages. The great parenthesis occurs between Daniel 2:40 and 41; between 7:23 and 24; between 8:22 and 23; between 11:35 and 36; between Hosea 3:4 and 5; between 5:15 and 6:1; between Psalm 22:22 and 23; between Isaiah 61:2a and 2b.

6. The Church Age.

a) The scripture: John chapters 14-17 and the New Testament epistles.

b) The outline: Broken down into two parts, the pre-Canon period which is the book of Acts and the post-Canon period which is the New Testament epistles.

Characteristics:

a) The baptism of the Holy Spirit produced union with Jesus Christ and/or positional sanctification.

b) The universal royal priesthood of all believers.

c) The universal indwelling of Christ — but you can lose the indwelling of Christ by reversionism and regain it by repentance in the area of reversionism, which is what Revelation 3:20 is all about. Christ is on the outside in reversionism and is knocking on the door. He comes back in when the believer repents and recovers.

d) The universal indwelling of the Holy Spirit which never occurred before.

e) The completed Canon of scripture. All divine revelation is now reduced to writing, there is no extra-biblical revelation such as dreams, trances, visions, voices, and so on.

f) Every believers is in full time Christian service; every believer is an ambassador representing the Lord Jesus Christ on earth in the devil’s world.

g) The intensification of the devil’s world in the angelic conflict is a characteristic of this dispensation.

h) Salvation is by faith in Jesus Christ.

i) All believers are commanded to GAP it to super-grace as the means of glorifying God.

7. The Age of Christ.

Scripture: Isaiah 11, 35,62,65; Psalm 72; Revelation 20.

Outline: The second advent of Christ, Armageddon where Jesus Christ breaks His record in killing the enemy, the baptism of fire, 1000 years of perfect environment, the second advent of Satan and the Gog revolution, the destruction of the universe and the great white throne or final judgement.

Characteristics:

a) We have perfect environment because Satan is bound. Demons are removed from the earth. There is no religion in Christ’s kingdom. Revelation 20:1-3. However, in this perfect environment people are still saved the same way by faith in Christ and the objective is still to go to super-grace in this dispensation — super-grace giving the capacity to enjoy the environment as well as the blessings.

b) Optimum spirituality will exist among believers during that dispensation — Isaiah 65:24; Joel 2>28,29; Zechariah 14:16,17.

c) Israel will be restored as a nation — Isaiah 5:26-30; 10:19-23; 11:11-16; 65:19; Joel 2:16ff; Zechariah 8:20-23; 10:6-12.

d) There will the fulfillment of the unconditional covenants to Israel — Daniel 9:24.

e) The nations of the earth enjoy perfect environment under the reign of Christ. This includes: For the first time in history there will be universal peace — Psalm 46:9; Isaiah 2:4; Hosea 2:18; Micah 4:3. There will be universal prosperity — Psalm 72:7,16. There will be a perfect world government under Christ — Isaiah 11:1,2; Zechariah 14:9. There will be a universal knowledge of God — Isaiah 11:9. There will be perfect environment which is reflected in longevity. People will live a thousand years easily — Isaiah 65:20.

f) There will be perfect objectivity in the administration of justice. Therefore there will be no crime — Isaiah 11:3-5; Psalm 72:12-14.

g) Perfect environment will exist in nature. This means creation will be released from the bondage of sin — Romans 8:19-22. Plant life will abound — Isaiah 35:1,2,7. Animals will lose their ferocity — Isaiah 11:6-9; 65:25.

h) The human population in the Millennium. The baptism of fire removes all unbelievers from the earth so the population begins with believers only — Ezekiel 20:34-38; Matthew 25:31-46. As the Millennium continues with perfect environment and there will be a population explosion. This will result in a population of believers and unbelievers, and the unbelievers will be involved in the Gog revolution at the end of the Millennium.

i) The Gog revolution terminates the Millennium — Revelation 20:7-10. It starts with the second advent of Satan and terminates with the great white throne judgement. The Gog revolution indicates once again that perfect environment is not the solution to man’s problems.

Verse 3 — “How that” is simply the conjunction o(ti used to denote a system of perception transferred from God the Holy Spirit to the apostle Paul. As usual, o(ti is translated “that.” I(na is translated “in order that” because it introduces a final clause. Here o(ti is translated not “How that” but “that,” and i(na introduces with the subjunctive a final clause, the final clause denotes a purpose, an aim, or an objective and therefore should be translated “In order that.” In this way you can actually tell in the English what is going on in the Greek.

“by revelation” is the preposition kata plus the accusative of a)pokaluyij which actually means here “disclosure.” “Revelation” is all right if you understand that revelation means enlightenment from God to man. Kata plus the accusative can also mean “from,” and that is what it means here — “that from disclosure.” That is, divine disclosure.

“he made known” should be “it was made known” — the aorist passive indicative of gnwrizw which means to make known or to be revealed. Paul is about to tell how he got clued in on this dispensation so that he could reveal the doctrine of the mystery to us so that we will have the first increment on the road to super-grace well firmed up in the soul. “That from divine disclosure it [the doctrine of the mystery] was revealed to me.” The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of God’s revealing of mystery doctrine — doctrine which is peculiar to the Church Age only — in its entirety. The passive voice: Paul receives the disclosure of doctrine from God the Holy Spirit. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality.

“unto me” — the dative singular of e)gw, and in three verses we have e)gw three times. This is a dative of advantage, it is to Paul’s advantage to have this information so that from the area of the self-consciousness of the soul he can actually communicate these things.

“the mystery” — the nominative singular of murthrion. This is the subject of gnwrizw. The verse thus far should read, “That from divine disclosure the mystery was revealed to me.”

The doctrine of the mystery

1. The Greek word musthrion is derived from an Attic noun (the Classical Greek of the age of Pericles) musthj. This is a person who has been initiated into a fraternity in the ancient world. These fraternities had doctrines and policies, and these policies are called doctrines or mysteries. Once a person had memorised these things and has passed all the tests he is then a musthj, a member of the fraternity. It is also derived from a verb in the Classical Greek, muew, which means to initiate, to instruct in the doctrines of the fraternity. Therefore the doctrines of the fraternity were only instructed to those who were in. The people on the outside never knew what was taught, the doctrines of the fraternity were kept secret and they were called musthrion — hidden from the outside but known to the members of the fraternity. Jesus used this meaning with the disciples in Matthew 13:11 and Mark 4:10,11. The word “mystery” in the Bible is simply a series of doctrines hidden from the Old Testament.

2. In the epistles of the New Testament the word “mystery” refers to Church Age doctrine, either all of it or some specific part of it — Ephesians 3:2-6.

3. Mystery doctrine of the Church Age was not revealed to the Old Testament prophets — Romans 16:25,26; Colossians 1:26,27.

4. Part of the mystery doctrine includes the blindness or hardness of Israel during the Church Age. It also includes part of the 5th cycle of discipline to Israel — Romans 11:25.

5. The mystery as Church Age doctrine was a part of the divine decrees in eternity past — 1 Corinthians 2:7.

6. The pastor or minister is responsible for communicating Church Age doctrine as his stewardship of the mysteries — 1 Corinthians 4:1. That means that he must be able to teach everything from the baptism of the Spirit, to positional truth, to every detail of the road to super-grace, what the super-grace life is all about, all about the Rapture of the Church and how it isn’t in the Tribulation, what happens after the Rapture and what time the Church becomes the body of Christ and the bride of Christ at another time, and what the analogy is all about.

7. The Rapture of the Church is part of the mystery doctrine — 1 Corinthians 15:51.

8. The mystery doctrine is always related to the dispensation of the Church — Ephesians 1:9; 3:2.

9. Mystery doctrine is understood through the function of GAP — Colossians 2:2; 1 Timothy 3:9.

“as” usually used as an adverb of comparison, kaqwj, but here it is a causal conjunction. “insofar as” is a better translation.

“I wrote afore in few words” — should be “I have previously written in brief.” The aorist active indicative of prografw [grafw = to write; pro = before] which means to write before. The aorist tense is a dramatic aorist used for a result which has just been accomplished or is on the point of being accomplished, that is, the clarification of the doctrine of the mystery. The active voice: Paul produces the action of the verb by teaching what he has learned about the doctrine of the mystery. And again, you can’t teach what you don’t know. The indicative mood is the declarative indicative which represents the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality. Since the epistle is addressed to the Roman province of Asia it indicates that Paul has been teaching this before in Colossians 1:25,26. Colossians, therefore, had to be written before Ephesians; “in few words” is e)n plus the locative of o)ligoj, an idiom for “in brief.”

Translation: “That from divine disclosure the mystery was revealed to me; (just as I have previously written in brief.”

Verse 4 — the knowledge of the mystery. “Whereby” — the prepositional phrase proj plus the accusative singular of o(j, which means “Face to face with which.” The relative pronoun o(j refers to the doctrine of the mystery. The issue is: you cannot reach super-grace without understanding the main principles in the doctrine of the mystery. The main principles begin with the baptism of the Spirit and they go all the way to doctrines we will see in this chapter and in the remainder of the epistle.

“when ye read” — the present active participle of a)naginwskw which doesn’t mean to read. It was used in the Classical Greek for public reading or speaking — reading aloud, in other words. Actually, the word means to gather exact knowledge of some passage and then teach it. So we will simply use the technical word “exegesis.” The present tense is a customary present used to denote that which is expected to occur. When this epistle is read and studied by pastor-teachers it is exegeted and communicated. The active voice: the epistle will be studied by many pastors throughout history. The participle is a temporal participle used in the sense of a temporal clause. Since a)naginwskw means to exegete the verb here connotes analysis and teaching. The phrase says literally, “Face to face with which [doctrine of the mystery] when you study and teach.”

“ye may understand” — two verbs here: “you may” is the present active indicative of dunamai which means “you may be able.” The present tense is a tendencial present used for an action which is purposed or attempted but not actually taking place at the moment. The active voice: the local pastors of congregations in the Roman province of Asia will have the ability to GAP this chapter and to communicate it to their congregations. People get the idea that the letter was read to the entire congregation. Not at all. The pastor reads it and studies it and explains it. The indicative mood is a potential indicative, it is associated with three ideas: the idea of contingency in the areas of obligation, impulse, and condition. Here we have a potential indicative expressing obligation. In the future, pastors of local churches will have the obligation of communicating this, therefore this is translated, “you ought to be able.” The second verb, “understand,” is in the infinitive form, the aorist active infinitive of noew. Generally the word means to think, sometimes it means to imagine. Here it means to think. It actually means here thinking in the sense of concentration, to concentrate or direct one’s mind to a subject. In this case the subject is the doctrine of the mystery and the verb comes to mean to perceive, to understand through concentration. The doctrine of the mystery and its importance is understood through concentration. The aorist tense is an ingressive aorist used to contemplate the action of the verb from the standpoint of its beginning. The active voice: when the pastor-teacher communicates this the congregation will understand it. The infinitive denotes a purpose.

“my knowledge” — the accusative singular from sunesij which means categorical knowledge. It means to understand technical information in its categories.

“in the mystery” — e)n plus the locative of musthrion, “in the sphere of the mystery.”

“of Christ” — the genitive singular of Xristoj plus the definite article which is translated “of the Christ.” This is a possessive genitive which denotes ownership. The mystery doctrine is owned by Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is what this dispensation is all about. His strategic victory caused this dispensation to dramatically interrupt the Age of Israel. So Jesus Christ owns Church Age doctrine.

Translation: “Face to face with which [doctrine of the mystery] when you exegete you ought to be able to begin to understand my categorical knowledge in the sphere of the mystery of the Christ).”

Principle: You cannot teach what you do not understand.

Principle: Paul had the doctrine of the mystery in his frame of reference, in his memory centre; it was a part of his own vocabulary, he had completely categorised it in his right lobe before he attempted to communicate any part of it. In other words, he had a complete saturation.

Now it becomes a case of face to face teaching, necessary for this doctrine to be communicated to the royal priesthood.

Verse 5 — the doctrine of the mystery. “Which” is the nominative neuter singular of the relative pronoun o(j which has as its antecedent the doctrine of the mystery.

“in other ages” — the locative plural of the adjective e(teroj means other of a different kind. This adjective indicates that the Church Age is a dramatic and very traumatic interruption of the Age of Israel. The Age of the Gentiles came to a close with the destruction of the first United Nations building. Internationalism is a part of the Satanic conspiracy in this stage of the angelic conflict, as well as in every dispensation. With the destruction of the first UN building (Babel) we have the beginning of the Age of Israel, starting with the age of the patriarchs (from Abraham to Moses), the period in which the race is developed. Then we have the race becoming a nation in the period of the law. This was interrupted by the tactical victory of the Lord Jesus Christ dying on the cross and bearing our sins, resurrection and ascension and session. Jesus Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father waiting for the second stage of the strategic victory which is operation footstool. In the meantime, ten days after the ascension and session of Christ, the Church Age interrupts the Age of Israel. The Church Age will be complete before the Age of Israel is completed. The Church Age takes precedence over Israel, it is the age of the intensification of the angelic conflict. Christ was always the target from the seed of the woman passage in Genesis 3:15 until His ascension. Once He is ascended the target now moves to every member of the royal priesthood. Therefore the Church Age is an intensification of the angelic conflict and the special type of super-grace life which is provided by God in the divine decrees is every important. The word “ages” indicates that there were at least two dispensations before the Church Age.

“was not made known” — the aorist passive indicative of gnwrizw, which in the passive voice actually means to be revealed. “Was not revealed” is the correct translation. The strong negative o)uk here indicates that there was no leak anywhere. The aorist tense here is a constative aorist, it takes the revelation of the doctrine of the mystery and gathers it up into a single entirety. The passive voice plus the negative o)uk indicates there was no revelation prior to the Church Age. The indicative mood is the declarative indicative which represents the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality. This is an unqualified assertion of fact, no doctrine of the Church Age was ever revealed before apostolic times.

“unto the sons of men” — the dative plural of u(ioj is a dative of reference and takes the interest concept out of the dative and reduces it to a mere idea of reference. There is no concept here of advantage. With it is a descriptive genitive, a)nqrwpoj, which refers to believers in the human race. “Uioj indicates positional truth. So those members of the human race who have accepted Jesus Christ as saviour in the Church Age receive immediately 36 things. In one of them they are entered into union with Christ and never get out. Here the sons of men simply indicates that now in the human race there is a category of individuals who can understand these doctrines. “Men” is strictly the human race, but u(ioj in the human race indicates those who have personally believed in Jesus Christ as saviour with emphasis on positional sanctification. “[The doctrine of the mystery] which in other periods of time [dispensations] was not revealed to the sons of men.”

The negative o)uk becomes very important at this point because we have the word “as.” In the Greek this is generally a comparative particle. The comparative particle is o(j. It also has some special uses, as here. It is used, for example, as a conjunction denoting comparison. It is used to introduce the character, the quality or the aspect of an action, a thing, or a person. It is used of an actual quality or a quality which exists in someone’s imagination, or sometimes even for a quality wrongly claimed. It is used of a temporal conjunction, “when,” but it is also used as a final particle denoting some kind of a purpose, and here we have exactly that concept — “so that now” rather than “as it is now.” God has a purpose, as it were, in keeping Church Age doctrine under wraps. There are many purposes actually but the one which is important to us is the fact that something neither Moses nor any of the great prophets, like Isaiah or Jeremiah, ever even had a clue existed now is known to every member of the royal priesthood.

“it is now revealed” should be “it has been revealed” — the aorist passive indicative of a)pokaluptw. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist, employed to regard the action of the verb in its entirety but emphasise the existing results. Here is the constant revelation of the doctrine of the mystery to Paul, that is the constative aorist. As a result of that he has learned it and it is a culminative aorist. The passive voice: the doctrine of the mystery or Church Age doctrine is now received revelation to the Church through first the apostles and then pastor-teachers. The indicative mood is a declarative indicative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality and certainty. It is unqualified assertion of a fact.

“unto his holy apostles” — this is for the writing, for the purpose of getting it recorded in the canon of scripture. Now it is the job of the pastor-teacher to dig this out and teach it. But at this point we are talking about the apostles. This is a dative plural toij a(gioij a)postoloij which is a dative of indirect object. The dative of indirect object indicates the one in whose interest the revelation of the mystery doctrine is performed. First of all it is in the interest of the apostles. Then it is recorded in the Word of God as we now see it, under the doctrine of inspiration. Once the canon of scripture is completed it becomes a matter of the gift of pastor-teacher studying and teaching it. The word “and” is the ascensive use of kai and it is incorrectly translated in the King James version. The ascensive use of kai should be translated “even.” The reason we know this is ascensive is that we have one article for both nouns. It indicates here that the word “apostles” and the word “apostles” here are synonymous. In other words, “prophets” is in apposition to “apostles.” Why is it important? Prophets aren’t usually emphasised in the Church Age but prophets are emphasised in the formation of the Old Testament canon. All those who wrote the Old Testament canon were called prophets and it must be understood that in the formation of the New Testament the writers had a special gift called apostle. Therefore, to show that we are talking here not just about any apostles but the apostles who wrote the New Testament we have the ascensive use of kai and link it with the Old Testament gift, and therefore it should be translated “the holy apostles, even prophets.”

“by the Spirit” — e)n plus the instrumental of pneuma. This refers to God the Holy Spirit.

Translation: “Which in other periods of time [dispensations] was not revealed to the sons of men, so that now it has been revealed to his holy apostles [the doctrine of mystery must be entered into the canon of scripture before pastors can teach it] by means of the Spirit.”

The doctrine of apostleship

1. Apostleship is the highest spiritual gift sovereignly bestowed by the Holy Spirit to recipients of salvation or those who were already saved at the beginning of the Church Age — 1 Corinthians 12:11,28; Ephesians 4:11. This gift stopped in 96 AD but while it lasted the apostle was the only communicator of doctrine, either by writing or verbally, who had control of more than one local church. A pastor-teacher does not have authority over all the churches. The idea today of archbishops, bishops, and other types of people controlling a lot of churches is strictly erroneous. It is non-biblical and even blasphemous in the way it is carried out. It inevitably to destroying Bible doctrine or to the introduction of false doctrine. For example, there was a time when the pastor-teacher (250 years after the apostles were gone) in Ephesus, a lot of them in Jerusalem, and there was one in Rome who became very prominent. His name was Gregory and he decided he was going to be “poppa” over all the churches so he called himself “poppa.” He would sit down in his chair and make some pronouncements. Some church out on the periphery would say it was not doctrinal, it doesn’t line up with the Bible. But “poppa” would say, “When I sit down on my throne it is just like God speaking to you, so shape up!” And he either shaped up or he shaped out. This is the way abuses began. Inevitably, as soon as someone controls a group of churches he makes policy for a group of churches, and sooner or later he is going to get in trouble with his policy and it is going to get non-biblical. Then when someone calls it to his attention he establishes himself by putting them down and saying, “I speak excathedra.” There is no such thing as a clergyman who speaks excathedra for God. God has spoken to us in this dispensation through His Word, and the highest authority left today is a pastor-teacher and he has the absolute authority over one local church only. A pastor-teacher who gets off-base with regard to doctrine can be removed from that congregation and the heresy doesn’t spread all over the world. So denominations are abominations!

2. Apostleship is a temporary gift. A temporary gift is designed to carry the church until the canon of scripture was completed. There were a lot of temporary gifts, some were cut off earlier than others. The least of all temporary gifts was the gift of tongues and it was the first one to be cut off. It was only designed to warn Israel of the coming of the fifth cycle of discipline. The Jews were evangelised in Gentile languages, that was the gift of tongues. In August of 70 AD Jerusalem fell and no one ever spoke in tongues again. There were other gifts but the last one to go was apostleship. This was apostleship was necessary to complete the canon of scripture.

3. The time of appointment. The apostles were not appointed until after the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the completion of His strategic victory — Ephesians 4:8,11. Therefore the apostles must be distinguished from another group of peoples called apostles, the apostles to Israel — Matthew 10:2-4. The problem is that in the Age of Israel, at the end of the age before the Church, Jesus Christ in His earthly ministry appointed apostles to go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. It just so happens that 11 of them also became apostles to the Church.

4. The extent of the gift. This spiritual gift exercised authority over all local churches until the canon was completed. Then the gift was removed. Today, all local churches should be autonomous with authority vested in the canon and the local pastor-teacher.

5. Qualification for the apostles. The apostles had to be eyewitnesses to the resurrection of Christ. This qualified the eleven, and Paul was also qualified by seeing Christ on the Damascus road — Acts 1:22; 1 Corinthians 9:1; 1 Corinthians 15:8,9.

6. The authority of apostleship was established by possession of certain additional temporary gifts. There were three gifts which were used to establish the authority of an apostle before he was well known. They were the gifts of miracles, healing, and tongues — Acts 5:15; 19:16-18; 28:8,9. Once the authority was established the gift was removed.

7. The roster of apostles was 12, the eleven minus Judas Iscariot. Matthias was elected but not an apostle. Paul was the twelfth apostle to replace Judas Iscariot — 1 Corinthians 15:7-10.

8. Others were given delegated authority and therefore occasionally had apostolic authority without having the gift. For example, Barnabas — Acts 14:14; Galatians 2;9. James, the Lord’s half brother — 1 Corinthians 15:7; Galatians 1:19. James was not an apostle but he was given the authority of an apostle to write the book of James. Apollos — 1 Corinthians 4:6,9. Sylvanus and Timothy — 2 Thessalonians 1:1; 2:6. Actually, there were only twelve apostles to the Church just as there were twelve apostles to Israel. Mark was not an apostle, he was writing for Peter. Mark’s Gospel is the gospel as Peter saw it. He had the temporary authority of an apostle. The same was true of James and Jude, the half brothers of Jesus Christ. They carried the authority of an apostle in writing the book of James and the book of Jude.

The job of the apostles in the Old Testament was carried on by the apostles in the New testament. Since the prophets who wrote the Old Testament were called prophets when we get to the apostles who wrote the New Testament they are called apostles and prophets to indicate their relationship and to indicate that the Old Testament is not the completion of the canon of scripture, but the New Testament is.

The doctrine of inspiration

1. The principle of inspiration is found in a Greek noun, qeopneutoj. It means “God-breathed.” 2 Timothy 3:16 should be translated, “All scripture is God-breathed ...” Breathing involves two factors: inhale and exhale. The inhale is God the Holy Spirit communicating to human authors, like Paul and the other apostles, God’s complete and coherent message under the doctrine of the mysteries. In the case of the Old Testament of the Holy Spirit communicated to the prophets His complete and coherent message, exactly what he wanted them to communicate. The passages that deal with the inhale concept, from the Holy Spirit to the human writers — 2 Samuel 23:2,3; Isaiah 59:21; Jeremiah 1:9; Matthew 22:42,43; Mark 12:36; Acts 4:24,25; 28:25. The exhale: the human writers took the information, the doctrine, and they comunicated it in writing. They thought in a language, they wrote in that language. The human writers of scripture so wrote that without waiving their human intelligence, their vocabulary, their personality, their individuality, their personal feelings, God’s complete message to man was permanently recorded in writing with perfect accuracy in the original languages of scripture.

2. The origin of scripture is not human viewpoint but God the Holy Spirit using human agency and human language — 2 Peter 1:20,21.

3. Remember that the Bible as we have it is the mind of Christ. Therefore the Bible is an absolute criterion for believers. Psalm 138:2; 1 Corinthians 2:16.

4. Consequently, the Bible as the mind of Christ existed in eternity past prior to its being reduced to writing — Proverbs chapter eight.

5. Pre-canon revelation from God occurred through the Holy Spirit. Before Moses there was no Bible, so God the Holy Spirit and God the Son communicated directly with people. For example, the Lord Jesus Christ communicated with Adam and the woman in the garden — Bible class every evening. The Lord Jesus Christ appeared in theophanies to communicate. Angels were used to communicate. 2 Samuel 23:2; Ezekiel 2:2; 8:3; 11:1,24; Micah 3:8; Hebrews 3:7.

6. There are four categories of Old Testament revelation. a) The spoken word: “Thus saith the Lord.” These we might classify as dictation directly from God; b) Dreams. God revealed Himself in dreams in Genesis 15:12; 31:10-13; Numbers 12:6; Daniel 10:9. However, it must be pointed out that once the canon is completed there are no more dreams for divine revelation; c) Visions — Isaiah 1:1; 6:1; 1 Kings 22:19; d) Angelic teaching — Deuteronomy 33:2; Psalm 68:17; Acts 7:53; Galatians 3:19. Eventually there was also writing.

7. The extent of inspiration in the canon.

a) The unknown past. The Bible portrays past history and details unknown to man, unconfirmed by human records. E.g. the first eleven chapters of Genesis. God the Holy Spirit provided this information to Moses so that we have what God intends for us to have about early history.

b) Ancient history. The Bible is not an historical textbook but it does mention portions of history. So the Bible contains historical citations which are accurate and form the basis and the background for communication of certain doctrines. We call this principle in hermeneutics the principle of isagogics, the principle of interpreting scripture from its historical background.

c) Objective-type law. The Bible contains many laws for individual, social and national life. These laws perfectly express the essence of God. They contain His will for the people to whom they are given. Repetition of these laws and subsequent recording of them demonstrates application to other generations.

d) Dictation. Some portions of the scriptures contain direct quotation from God. Genesis 2:17. The doctrine of inspiration guarantees that such commands or quotations are recorded exactly as they were heard by the individual to whom they were recorded.

e) Devotional literature — like the Psalms, Song of Solomon. God uses the problems, the pressures, the prosperity, the failures, the successes of certain individuals to reveal principles of grace and His divine provision for life.

f) We have a lot of things that are false in the Bible: statements and things that are not true. Certain parts of Ecclesiastes are not true, they simply represent what Solomon was thinking in reversionism. But inspiration does not guarantee that something that is not true is true because it is found in the Bible, it simply guarantees that this is what he thought, this is the wrong thinking that he had, this is the lie that he spoke. Inspiration guarantees the accuracy of the lie, the accuracy of pseudo thinking.

g) Prophecy. Inspiration involves both the selection of prophetic materials and their complete accuracy. Some of these things in the Old Testament have been fulfilled, other will not be fulfilled until the Tribulation, second advent, or the Millennium.

Verse 6 — “That” is no conjunction. Generally the word “that” is used to translate i(na plus the subjunctive mood. However that is not the case here and occasionally the translators used “that” to indicate that they are taking an infinitive and transferring it into a purpose clause of a final clause. This is a legitimate function, however it is used primarily to smooth out the translation and doesn’t always work out. Here it works out pretty well.

“the Gentiles” — the accusative plural from the noun e)qnoj. This accusative plural is the subject of the infinitive under the accusative of general reference. Under the accusative of general reference we actually have the accusative describing the persons connected with the action of the infinitive, but it is easier to say subject of the infinitive. Because of the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the resultant positional sanctification every Gentile believer in the Church Age is in union with Christ and coequal with all Jewish believers. The dramatic and traumatic interruption of the Jewish Age by the insertion of the Church Age came as a great shock to Israel. The shock finally dwindled down in the first 40 years of the Church Age to the fifth cycle of discipline to Israel. That knocked them out completely. Paul already, before that period begins, is the apostle to the Gentiles and what he points out to the Gentile believers of that day applies right now. Your life as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ has meaning, purpose, and definition. You are not only a priest, you are a royal priest; your objective is to reach the super-grace life. You will know when you are there because of three characteristics. First of all, super-grace is characterised by occupation with the person of Jesus Christ. Secondly, super-grace is characterised by having super-grace capacity which is doctrine in the soul. Thirdly, God pours. God has your name in the paragraph of the super-grace blessing part of the divine decrees, and it is the objective of God to pour, He wants to pour, He is waiting to pour. And it is your objective to stay with Bible doctrine, to be consistent, to GAP it until you reach the super-grace life.

The Gentiles were hanging back in this thing because they felt that they still were suffering from the effects of the Jewish Age. The Gentiles immediately upon accepting Christ as saviour saw the validity of the Old Testament scriptures but it sort of gave them a little bit of a personal setback when they realised that Jews had all of these responsibilities for many centuries. Therefore they had a tendency to look at the Jewish believers as still possessing the monopolies of the previous dispensation. But that dispensation is over and now Jew and Gentile are one in Christ. Now Jew and Gentile are priests, and that means that every believer, whatever he does in this life, is in full time Christian service. His full time Christian service in his job, his business, his profession, his activities in life; and as a member of the royal priesthood it is God’s objective to bless him in these activities and to utilise these activities for his promotion, his happiness, and for his success in life. Since this is the objective and since the only way to reach it is by the intake of Bible doctrine every believer must have a right pastor to communicate the doctrine of the mystery which is the doctrine pertaining to the Church Age.

“That the Gentiles.” These Gentiles include yourself as members of the body of Christ and as members of a congregation. In the accusative of general reference they are connected with the infinitive, given next.

“should be” — present active indicative of the verb e)imi, the absolute status quo verb. In the present tense we have the static present which represents a condition perpetually existing in the Church, and as a matter of fact forever, with regard to believers of the royal priesthood. There is no question how the royal priesthood will live in phase three. We are going to have blessings that are beyond description but it is God’s objective to give us those blessings now, we do not have to wait for eternity. The active voice: Gentile believers of the Church Age produce the action of the verb by moving toward super-grace. The infinitive is used for both purpose and a part of the accusative of general reference.

We now have the threefold description of Gentile believers in the Church Age. They have the same rights and privileges as Jewish believers and, as a matter of fact, God has provided for all believers super-grace blessings.

“fellowheirs” — the accusative plural from sunklhronomoj which means to have the same opportunity as anyone else who is in this particular group called the royal priesthood.

“and of the same body” — the word for “body” here, swma, is used to describe the church on earth during this dispensation. With it is the accusative plural of susswmoj [sus = the same]. The first Adam was provided by Jesus Christ with a right woman. At the same time Jesus Christ said, “Not good that Adam should be alone.” The same principle applies to the last Adam, Jesus Christ. So God the Father provided for the last Adam, the Lord Jesus, a body, a right woman. The Church is the right woman. Who is this last Adam? First of all by physical birth He is the son of David, the royal line of Israel. Secondly He is promised by God in the divine decrees that He will reign forever, the Millennium being only the first 1000 years. Thirdly, if He is, as it were, single and does not have a right woman, whoever becomes His right woman becomes royalty. And so we are the body of Christ and therefore we are royalty. We will reign with Him forever as royalty, but we are royalty by grace and royalty by grace demands the accouterments of royalty. These are found in the super-grace life. So we have “of the same body,” this is an advance on the doctrine of royalty. We are fellowheirs, which means we are heirs of royalty, but we are of the same body, we are members of the royal family.

“and partakers of his promise in Christ” — the word “partakers” is a little misleading. It is the word summetoxoj which really means joint possessors. This means every one of us has a joint account with God. This means that we can draw on Him for anything and everything, and also it means He has unlimited resources. The joint account of His promise means that we as believers should have in time happiness, God’s happiness, blessings, prosperity, success, promotion. This is the normal Christian life, whatever you are doing in life. The word e)paggelia means promise of blessing.

“in Christ” — this is where we entered into the royal family, e)n plus the locative of Xristoj. This refers to positional truth, union with the Lord Jesus Christ. The word “Jesus” is added in the Greek.

“by the gospel” is how we entered into the royal family. Good news started it, there is good news afterwards. The good news is that once we have accepted Jesus Christ as saviour the next objective is the super-grace life. This is dia plus the genitive of e)uaggelion and should be translated “through the gospel.”

Translation: “That the Gentiles are joint heirs, and fellow members of the body, and joint possessors of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.”

Summary

1. Not only is the gospel the information by which every believer enters the plan of God but in this Church dispensation it is the means of providing equal spiritual privileges for both Jews and Gentiles who are believers. This was never true in the Old Testament.

2. The content of the gospel is the same in every dispensation, but response to it in different dispensations results in different modus operandi and different privilege. Certainly the Jews in the Old Testament had the greatest of spiritual privileges but there is a setup even greater than that. In this dispensation we have something that the average Jewish believer did not have. We have royalty, we are members of the royal family. We have the same objective. For every Jewish believer there was the objective of reaching super-grace. Again, we have that same objective right now. The privileges now are greater than they have ever been but, of course, the battle is greater, we live in the intensified stage of the angelic conflict.

3. This means that in previous dispensations when anyone believed in Christ he did not have the baptism of the Spirit which immediately enters him into union with Christ. He had spiritual privileges but the spiritual privileges of this dispensation are absolutely unique.

4. Furthermore, in the dispensation of Israel Jewish believers had privileges and responsibilities that contemporary Gentile believers did not have. That was the Age of Israel, the age of spiritual monopoly of Israel. This no longer exists.

One more thing should be noted. All of this royalty starts with positional truth — “in Christ Jesus.”

The doctrine of positional truth

1. Positional truth starts with the baptism of the Spirit, one of five things that God the Holy Spirit does for every believer in this dispensation only. We have spiritual privilege in this dispensation which is different from any other. The five things are:

a) Regeneration — John 3:1-16; Titus 3:5. However, God the Holy Spirit did this for all of the Old Testament saints from the time of Adam and Eve. At the point that any person believes God the Holy Spirit regenerates them. He is the agent of regeneration. So this first one is not unique, it is something the Holy Spirit has always done at any time in any dispensation when a person believes in the Lord Jesus Christ.

b) The sealing of the Holy Spirit — 2 Corinthians 1:22; Ephesians 1:13; 4:30. This is unique. The purpose of the sealing of the Holy Spirit is to guarantee your royalty forever. You are royalty forever, regardless of how you live. This is the security of the royal priesthood.

c) The indwelling of the Holy Spirit — John 7:37-39; Romans 8:9; 1 Corinthians 3:16; 6:19,20; Galatians 3:2; 4:6. This is God the Holy Spirit making your body His temple. This guarantees that you are going to remain royalty in time; you are protected by the indwelling of the Spirit.

d) The baptism of the Spirit is how we enter the royal family — 1 Corinthians 12:13. We enter the family of God by being born again but we enter as a royal family by the baptism of the Spirit.

e) He provides a spiritual gift for every believer. He never did this before, He does it for every one of us because we are members of the royal family. Not only are we members of the royal family, royal priests, but God the Holy Spirit gave us at the point of salvation a spiritual gift — 1 Corinthians 12:11.

2. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is the mechanics of positional sanctification — Acts 1:5; 1 Corinthians 12:13; Ephesians 4:5.

3. Positional truth belongs to the carnal as well as the spiritual believer, it belongs to the reversionist as well as the super-grace believer. In other words, positional truth belongs to every believer — 1 Corinthians 1:2,30.

4. Positional truth guarantees no judgement for the believer in eternity — Romans 8:1.

5. Positional truth qualifies the believer to live with God forever. If we are going to live with God forever we must have forgiveness of all sins. This was accomplished at the cross when Christ bore our sins in His own body on the tree. But we have to have more than that, we have to be as good as God is good because remember it is His righteousness which was propitiated by the cross. But if we are going to live with God forever we cannot get there with our -R, that has to be changed to +R. The moment we believe He credits to our account His righteousness, and therefore He looks at us and says, “Justified.” Then, God is eternal life. All these things are received by union with Christ. We have to have the same life that God has, we have eternal life — 1 John 5:11,12. We receive the imputation of divine righteousness in union with Christ — 2 Corinthians 5:21.

6. Positional truth is the key to both election and predestination — Ephesians 1:3-6.

7. Positional truth creates a new creature, something that has never existed before on the earth, a royal spirituality — 2 Corinthians 5:17. The new creature concept is based on who and what Christ is, therefore what grace accomplishes is the issue, not what we accomplish. All changes that are bona fide in the Christian life are wrought by doctrine in the soul, not by giving up things.

8. Positional truth guarantees the eternal security of the believer — Romans 8:38,39.

9. Positional truth is classified under two categories: retroactive and current. Retroactive is identification with Christ in His death, this is our rejection of human good. When Christ was on the cross our sins were poured out upon Him and judged but human good was rejected. When we believe in Christ we are identified with Christ in His death, therefore positionally we have rejected human good. Then there is current positional truth which is identification with Christ at the point of His strategic victory. Current positional truth: we are in union with Christ, seated at the right hand of the Father.

10. The implications of current positional truth are nine-fold:

a) When we enter into union with Christ we enter the life of Christ. Jesus Christ has eternal life; we share His life — 1 John 5:11,12.

b) We share His righteousness — 2 Corinthians 5:21.

c) We share His election — Ephesians 1:4. Christ was elected in eternity past, we now share His election by union with Him.

d) We share His destiny — Ephesians 1:5.

e) We share His sonship — 2 Timothy 2:1.

f) We share His heirship — Romans 8:16,17.

g) We share His sanctification — 1 Corinthians 1:2,30.

h) We share His kingdom (our royalty) — 2 Peter 1:11.

i) We share His priesthood — Hebrews 10:10-14.

11. Some general characteristics of positional truth:

a) It is not an experience, it is neither emotional nor ecstatic.

b) It is not progressive. Positional truth which we receive at salvation can never be improved, it is perfect at the point of salvation.

c) It is not related to human merit, human ability, human good, or human activity of any kind.

d) It is eternal in nature. Positional truth will last forever, it cannot be changed by God, by angels, or by any combination of powers in the human race.

e) Positional truth is known only by the Word of God.

f) Positional truth is obtained in total at the moment of salvation. This is accomplished by the baptism of the Holy Spirit, it is one of those 36 things we receive at salvation.

Verse 7 — the doctrine of the ministry. “Whereof” is the genitive singular from the relative pronoun o(j and should be translated in this case “Of which.” The antecedent is the gospel of the previous verse. The genitive case of the relative pronoun is possessive.

“I was made” — the aorist passive indicative from ginomai which really means to become: “Of which I have become.” The aorist tense is a gnomic aorist. A gnomic aorist is one in which the truth is regarded as so absolute, so axiomatic in its character, that it is described by the aorist tense. It is very similar to the culminative aorist and can also be regarded as one. The culminative aorist indicates the fact that Paul, like many who have this gift, had become something. This is the appointment by God the Holy Spirit, that is constative. The culminative point is the result that Paul is now functioning in the ministry. The passive voice: Paul receives the action of the verb at salvation through receiving the gift. The indicative mood is declarative, the mood of unqualified assertion, the mood of dogmatism. The mood represents the verbal idea from the standpoint of absolute certainty.

“a minister” — diakonoj. This word is used in many ways.

The doctrine of the ministry

1. Greek synonyms of service.

a) Douleuw which means to serve as a slave.

b) Qerapeuw, which means to serve in a medical sense, medical practice. This is where we get the word “therapy.”

c) Latreuw, which means to serve for wages. A bona fide system of service.

d) Leitourgew, which refers to public service — police, military, government administration, etc.

e) U(perterew, means to be helpful to someone.

f) Diakonew, the verb. The noun is diakonia. One other is diakonoj. Sometimes this word is transliterated “deacon.” Sometimes it is translated “minister” and that is a good translation.

2. The usage of diakonoj and diakonia. There are five different uses in the Bible:

a) The political use. This is for the head of a state in Romans 13:14. The word diakonoj is used once in the Bible for those who are in charge of a country.

b) A general use. It is the universal ministry of every believer in the Church Age as a royal priest — 2 Corinthians 3:6; 4:1; 6:3,18.

c) It is used of church administrators or deacons — Philippians 1:1; 1 Timothy 3:8-13. Deacons administer the activities of the church, so it connotes administration.

d) It is used in a specialised way for the pastor-teacher of the local church. It is used in the sense of his authority, his communication of the Word of God, and his policy-making — 1 Corinthians 3:5; Ephesians 3:7; Colossians 1:7, 23; 4:7; 1 Thessalonians 3:2; 1 Timothy 1:12; Hebrews 6:10; Acts 6:4.

e) There is also an evil usage of the word in 2 Corinthians 11:15 where it is used for Satan’s ministers. This is a counterfeit of the local church concept and Satan uses his ministers in religion.

3. There are other words which identify the pastor-teacher or the minister of the local church. The function of the pastor-teacher is not religious, he is the teacher of the Word of God. It is his objective to so communicate doctrine that the royal priesthood under his jurisdiction in the local church will move to super-grace status which is the normal function of the priesthood and at which point the believer becomes spiritually self-sustaining.

So we have three different words in addition. These three Bible words all indicate something different in the pastor-teacher.

a) The first is the authority of his person. The Greek word is presbuteroj, often translated “elder.” It is found in 1 Timothy 5:17,19; Titus 1:5; James 5:14; 1 Peter 5:1. It always refers to the pastor, it does not refer to a church officer in the Bible. The distortion of this is to utilise this for a church officer. There is only one elder in a local church. The word means originally, “old man,” not in the sense of age but in the sense of title. It is a title of authority, it means the one in command of the local church. So this is the authority of his person.

b) The authority of his policy. The Greek word for this is e)piskopoj. Unfortunately this is translated “bishop.” The reason for that is because of the Church of England and the translators being related to the Church of England who saw fit to translate this word (which means “inspector”) “bishop.” But actually it refers to the one who is an overseer, the one who has charge of observing what is going on, the one who sets up the policy for the workers on the plantation. So it comes to means the authority of his policy. Philippians 1:1; 1 Timothy 3:2; Titus 1:7.

c) The authority of his message is found in two words: pastor-teacher of Ephesians 4:11. The first word, poimhn, means shepherd. So shepherd-teacher would be a better translation. This had the connotation that the sheep need feeding and need to be led properly and the shepherd has to find food for them. This is the first part of it. Secondly, we have his function, didaskaloj which means to teach a group. This means that a pastor doesn’t have to run around and personally spend time with members of his congregation.

4. We also have some synonymous identification with these words. In Acts 20:17,28 we discover that all of these words are synonymous, referring to one person. In verse 17 the elders of Ephesus are called pastors in Acts 20:28. In this same context we have presbuteroj, e)piskopoj, and poimainw; they are told to feed the sheep, and all three of them are words used in the previous point.

5. The appointment of the pastor is described in 1 Corinthians 12:11,28. God the Holy Spirit sovereignly bestows this gift on the pastor-teacher apart from human merit. The appointment of the pastor has nothing to do with the people. No congregation makes a pastor, a pastor makes a congregation. A pastor makes a great congregation by sticking to his job of teaching the Word of God and not allowing any portion or any individual in the congregation to run over him. Ephesians 4:11 — the gift of the pastor-teacher is strictly a gift of the Holy Spirit, not of the individual involved.

6. The principle of the right pastor-teacher, right congregation is taught in 1 Peter 5:2. Every believer has a right pastor. Geography is usually the issue but there has to be a right pastor, your right pastor, the one who gets to you with doctrine, the one who causes you to be occupied with the person of Christ because you see who and what He is.

7. The authority of the right pastor is given in Hebrews 13:7,17; 1 Thessalonians 5:12. His authority is absolute.

8. The concept of the pastor as the total product of God’s grace is taught in 1 Corinthians 15:10; Ephesians 3:7; 1 Timothy 1:12-16.

9. The reward of the pastor — Hebrews 6:10; 1 Peter 5:4.

10. The biblical documentation for the existence of pastors: Colossians 1:23-29; 1 Timothy 2:24-26; 3:1-9; Titus 1:6-9; Ephesians 3:7-13.

A minister is a male believer in a local congregation. As he grows spiritually he becomes aware of the existence inside of him of the residence of a spiritual gift. The spiritual gift was received at salvation. His awareness of the gift is based upon his daily intake of doctrine, the daily function of GAP causes him to become aware of this gift. It is not an emotional thing although certainly he has the right to get emotional about it if he is enjoying what he is doing in life.

“according to the gift” — the preposition kata plus the accusative singular of dwrea which means free gift. Kata is the preposition of norm or standard, so “according to the norm or standard of the gift from the grace of the God.” The gift of pastor-teacher, like all spiritual gifts, is a sovereign gift from the Holy Spirit. As a result it is often like other spiritual gifts. In the Church Age every believer is said to be born again at the moment of salvation and is entered into union with Christ. So not only are we born again spiritually but we are born into the royal family. We are members of the royal priesthood now, we are also members of the royal family and at the return of Jesus Christ we will rule with Him. That is why the Church is called in the Bible the body of Christ here on earth and the bride of Christ in heaven.

“of the grace of God” — the ablative of source of xarij and should be translated “from the grace.” The source of this gift is the source of every blessing to the believer — grace. Plus the genitive of possession of qeoj plus the definite article. This means that God owns grace.

No one ever reaches super-grace status in the Church Age apart from the ministry of the pastor-teacher. The appointment of the pastor-teacher is a grace gift and no male believer has ever earned or deserved this gift. Ministers are not a profession of spiritual giants, they are not supermen, they are recipients of God’s grace like everyone else. So there is no secret to the minister’s success apart from God’s grace and apart from doing his job properly which is study and teach. While the royal priesthood is made up of believer priests in full time Christian service there are relatively few who have the gift of pastor-teacher. God the Holy Spirit only distributes enough to keep people in doctrine in every generation. Because some generations are so negative there are often pastor-teachers who are really not functioning as such. But this is not their fault, it is the fault of negative volition in their particular generation. God makes other provisions for those people.

“given” — the aorist passive participle of didomi. This is the normal word for giving and this is a culminative aorist, it views the events in entirety but emphasises the existing results. The aorist participle usually has antecedent action and here we have antecedent action to the main verb, “I have become a minister.” First of all came the spiritual gift, then he became a minister. The gift precedes the ministry. The gift is the commission for the ministry. No commission, no ministry.

“unto me” — dative singular of the personal pronoun e)gw. E)gw is used for a personal pronoun, it is also used for self-consciousness of the soul. This is the dative of indirect object which indicates the one in whose interest the action of the verb is performed. It is in the interest of Paul that before he ever tried to communicate doctrine he had the gift of pastor-teacher. This is also a dative of possession in that Paul possesses the spiritual gift.

“by the effectual working” is a prepositional phrase, kata plus e)nergeia — “according to the operational function.”

“of his power” — genitive singular from dunamij and it refers to inherent power. It actually refers to the omniscience of God.

Translation: “Of which I have become a minister, according to the gift from God’s grace having been given to me according to the operational function of his omnipotence.”

The first thing we notice of importance in this passage is the gift from God’s grace. All the way through Ephesians we have noticed the concept of grace.

The doctrine of grace

1. Definition. Grace is all that God is free to do for man on the basis of the cross. Grace is God’s freedom to express His love to mankind without jeopardising His essence. Grace is both God’s plan and God’s policy for mankind.

2. The concept of grace. Grace depends upon the essence or the character of God, therefore grace depends always on who and what God is and never who and what man is. Grace is what God can do for man and be consistent with His own essence. God can save man and be consistent with His own essence, that is propitiation. Once the person has believed in Christ God can do more than that — super-grace. Under super-grace God’s objective is to keep you in time in order the bless you to the maximum.

3. The issue. The believer must sort out the difference between grace and legalism. Legalism is man’s ability and works intruding into the plan of God. Anything man throws into the plan, if it was accepted by God, would destroy the plan because grace depends on who and what God is. However, the plan of God is neither destroyed nor neutralised by grace because under the concept of grace God is doing the working and grace rejects human energy, human ability, human genius, human talent, human viewpoint ideas of any kind. Man’s works cannot coexist with God’s works and they are therefore mutually exclusive. Man’s plans and God’s plans cannot coexist and the issue is: In your life since you have accepted Christ as saviour, since you have come under the plan called grace, which way are you going? Are you going the way of human works and human ability? Are you going the way of God’s plan? Doctrine in the soul is the only way you can go with God’s plan.

4. Grace, sanctification and the angelic conflict are all related. The greatest thing God can do for a believer is to make him exactly like His Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the only celebrity of the Church Age. Man was created to resolve the angelic conflict and therefore when the first Adam sinned he sinned through free will. He sinned by the use of his own negative volition. Therefore Jesus Christ, not an angel, had to come to bail him out — Hebrews 2:14-16. In other words, the first Adam lost the victory through the fall and the last Adam won the victory through the cross — Colossians 2:14; Hebrews 2:14. Grace found a way to take man created inferior to angels and make him superior. He does this in three stages of sanctification. Stage one: Positional sanctification. The believer enters into union with Christ after His strategic victory. Believers are in union with Christ, therefore believers are positionally higher than angels — Hebrews 1 & 2. Stage two: The tactical victory which is to GAP it to construct an edification complex and then to enter into the super-grace life. This is called experiential sanctification and the objective is the super-grace life. This is impossible apart from the filling of the Spirit and apart from the communication of Bible doctrine. Stage three: The body of Christ becomes the bride of Christ at the Rapture or the resurrection of the Church. When this takes place the believer will have a resurrection body exactly like that of the Son of God, minus the old sin nature, minus all human good. Therefore we have the third stage when we are exactly like the Son of God and, as members of the royal family, live with Him forever.

5. The entrance factor. Every believer has tasted the grace of God at least once — Hebrews 6:4; 1 Peter 2:3. Tasting is a picture of believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. The moment of salvation occurs at the point you believe. At that moment God gives you 36 things and you have them forever. This grace package of salvation cannot be canceled either by God or by you. Maximum love frees God to pour out maximum grace, but grace can only find a place to lodge where there is capacity for grace. This capacity comes from the super-grace life. The filling of the Spirit gives the new believer minimal capacity for grace but GAPing it on a daily basis brings him around to maximum. The construction of the ECS further increases capacity for grace but ultimately capacity for grace is tied into the super-grace life. Grace never goes, however, where grace is not wanted. Some will never know the wonderful things that God has for them because they are negative toward Bible doctrine.

6. The occupational hazard. Disorientation to grace in the field of reversionism is the believers greatest occupational hazard — Galatians 5:4; Hebrews 12:15. Reversionism is the great danger to entering into the super-grace life.

7. There is a divine attitude, therefore, in grace. God is constantly waiting to pour out His grace on every believer — Isaiah 30:18,19.

8. The various phases of grace. Grace is divided into phases. Phase one is salvation, it takes a second, long enough to believe in Jesus Christ at which point you receive 36 things from God which you have forever. Phase two is the believer in time. This is where we move to the road of super-grace, the tactical objective. Phase three is eternity, absent from the body, face to face with the Lord. Phase one: Ephesians 2:8,9. Phase two: Grace in prayer — Hebrews 4:16; grace in suffering — 2 Corinthians 12:9,10; grace in growth — 2 Peter 3:18; grace in stability — 1 Peter 5:12; Hebrews 13:9; grace in modus vivendi — the super-grace life, 2 Corinthians 1:12; Hebrews 12:28; grace in the production of divine good — 1 Corinthians 15:10; 2 Corinthians 6:1.

9. The concept of grace and giving — 2 Corinthians 8:9; Philippians 4:14-18. Grace orientation is the bona fide motivation and the thought pattern for giving in the Church Age.

10. Grace in suffering — 2 Corinthians 12:7-10.

11. The axioms of grace.

a) God is perfect, therefore His plan is perfect.

b) A perfect plan can only originate and function from a perfect God.

c) If man can do anything meritorious in the plan of God it is no longer perfect.

d) A plan is no stronger than its weakest link. For this reason grace excludes all human merit and all human ability. Grace also excludes human good.

e) Legalism and human good is the enemy of grace always.

f) Therefore works of human righteousness have no place in the plan of God.

g) All human good is associated with the greatest of the mental attitude sin of pride.

12. There are three areas of pride which reject grace. This explains Satan’s pride; this explains human pride. This explains why pride is the worst and the most devastating mental attitude sin when it comes to relationship with God.

a) Pride of the believer who rejects the doctrine of eternal security.

b) Pride of the believer who succumbs to pressure in adversity. He thinks his sufferings are greater than God’s grace provision. The answer to him is found in 2 Corinthians 12:8-10.

c) Pride of pseudo spirituality, the believer who thinks his human systems are God’s ministry of grace.

13. Grace is related to divine assets — John 1:14,16,17; 1 Corinthians 1:4,5; Ephesians 1:6,7.

14. The principle of super-grace is found in James 4:6 where the comparative translated “more grace” is really “greater grace.” He has given us greater grace. Under that concept the humanity of Jesus Christ reached the super-grace life — John 1:14-17. Super-grace believers in phase two are encouraged to move in that direction — Philippians 4, James 4, Ephesians 3, 2 Corinthians 12:8-10.

15. The pursuit of grace is our objective. This objective is stated from a corrected translation of Ephesians 1:6 — “Resulting in recognition of glory from the source of his grace, from which he has pursued us with grace in the beloved.”

16. Under super-grace the believer reaps what God sows.

Verse 8 — “Unto me” is the dative singular from the personal pronoun e)gw. It is the dative of indirect object which indicates the one for whom or in whose interest the action is performed. Very close is the dative of advantage. It is to our advantage to have a pastor-teacher who communicates Bible doctrine so that we can assimilate and reach the super-grace life. Every pastor even has been taught by someone else. There is no such thing in this time as a self-taught pastor, and that means that everyone who reaches super-grace will get there because of a pastor-teacher communicating the Word of God. There is no other way to get there. So this is both dative of indirect object and dative of advantage.

“who am less” — dative of a comparative word e)laxistoteroj which means the very least, less than the least. It describes the apostle Paul perfectly, he is also described as the chief of sinners, the worst man who ever lived before salvation. He is here also described as less than the least even though humanly speaking he was a genius.

“is this grace — h( xarij a)uth, a technical reference here to his super-grace. It refers to every type of grace he received. First of all, the spiritual gift of apostleship. Secondly, he was actually the twelfth apostle. “Super-grace” would be a better translation here.

“has been given” — the aorist passive indicative of didomi indicates the fact that the apostle Paul first of all reached super-grace before he tried to lead anyone in that direction. Didomi is in the aorist tense, it is a culminative aorist which views an event such as super-grace in its entirety. It views every time that Paul studied the Word, took in doctrine, until he himself reached super-grace. No pastor can lead people to super-grace unless he is there himself. The passive voice: Paul is the recipient of super-grace blessings in the realm of doctrine. The indicate mood is declarative which represents the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality. This is the mood of unqualified assertion. The verb is compatible with the principle of grace. Paul cannot earn or deserve anything, he has arrived at his objective, super-grace, before he tries to lead anyone in that direction.

“that” — used here to express an infinitive of purpose. Once he himself has assimilated enough doctrine to teach the super-grace life then he makes an issue out of it.

“I should preach” — aorist active infinitive of e)uaggelizw, translated many times “preach” but there is no such word actually. It means to communicate information which is of the best possible news. In other words, the super-grace life is good news for every member of the royal priesthood. You are a member of royalty, you are in the royal family because you live in the dispensation of the Church. The objective of your life is to live like royalty and the blessings of heaven are yours in time. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. It takes Paul’s teaching ministry and regardless of extent or duration gathers it up into one entirety. The active voice: Paul produces the action of the verb by communicating doctrine. The infinitive is a telic infinitive, it denotes a purpose. It is Paul’s job to communicate the super-grace life.

“among the Gentiles” — the locative plural of sphere of the noun e)qnoj.

“the unsearchable” — Bible doctrine can never be classified as unsearchable. This is a compound adjective, a)necxanistoj. This word means inexhaustable, incalculable, unlimited. It is a reference to the super-grace life. This means that there is something ahead for each believer. First of all, it is inexhaustable — spiritual blessing; incalculable — materialistic blessing; unlimited — there is no end to what God can do for a super-grace believer.

The doctrine of the super-grace life

1. Definition. Super-grace is the final stage of spiritual growth in the Christian life. It is the stage beyond the construction of the ECS. It is the ultimate in spiritual achievement and it is the normal area for the function of the royal priesthood. The nomenclature for this term “super-grace” is taken from James 4:6 where the word “more grace” is really “greater grace.”

2. Characteristics. The super-grace life is characterised by the analogy of a cup running over — Psalm 23:5,6; 16:5. The cup is super-grace capacity. There are actually three basic characteristics: occupation with the person of Christ which comes from the construction of the ECS; the super-grace capacity which is doctrine in the soul; the pouring of super-grace blessing. The cup is super-grace capacity through Bible doctrine taken in the soul, the pouring is God providing the super-grace blessings. The believer reaps what God sows in eternity past.

3. The related categories of grace — four:

a) Salvation grace (phase one) — everything the Trinity has done to save man. There is non-meritorious involvement by the believer, it is faith in Jesus Christ which is the way of salvation. The salvation grace involves the strategic victory in the angelic conflict as well — Hebrews 2:14; Colossians 2:14,15.

b) Living grace (phase two) — everything that God does to keep you alive as a believer to give the opportunity of going to the super-grace life. There is no involvement by the believer since this is a matter of the sovereignty of God.

c) Super-grace — maximum growth resulting in occupation with Christ and God providing certain blessings. The involvement: non-meritorious volition expressed by the daily function of GAP, positive volition toward Bible doctrine. This time it is an attitude toward the written Word.

d) Surpassing grace (phase three) — called “the exceeding riches of his grace” in Ephesians 2:7. This is all that God will do for us in eternity. No volition is involved since the angelic conflict by that time has been terminated.

4. Illustrations of the super-grace life.

Abraham had super-grace, which means he had wealth, success, spiritual blessings. But there is one key in each illustration — super-grace sexual prosperity from which came a new race and many Gentile nations in the case of Abraham.

Joseph is a picture of super-grace promotion and prosperity with emphasis on ruling and blessing a Gentile empire which received its peak blessing under the administration of Joseph as Prime Minister. The key in Joseph’s case was a phenomenal administrative ability over an empire.

Moses is a picture of super-grace leadership making him the father of the Jewish nation.

David was so blessed of God in so many way that it would be hard to select a key were it not for the fact that up to this moment David is the greatest king who ever lived, and will be until the Lord Jesus Christ returns to break that record. So again, David had super-grace leadership but he also had everything else, the whole realm of super-grace blessings.

Isaiah in the realm of Bible doctrine represents the greatest information and knowledge over more subjects of doctrine of anyone in the Old Testament. Isaiah comes closer to representing the whole realm of doctrine as the apostle Paul does in the New Testament. He was the greatest prophet and greatest Bible teacher during the time of Israel’s kingdom.

Jeremiah is little different. He did not have all of the super-grace blessings that the others had. He represents super-grace blessings when one is in old age, super-grace blessings in time of national disaster, greatness under pressure.

Daniel represents super-grace blessing and promotion outside of the land.

5. The promotion of super-grace. Super-grace always means promotion — Psalm 84. The super-grace believer is God’s man for the crisis — 1 Samuel 17. Promotion comes at the point of super-grace.

6. The love problem in super-grace.

a) God loves every believer with a maximum love because of propitiation.

b) However, the believer does not love God until he knows Him.

c) No believer gets to know God apart from the consistent intake of Bible doctrine.

d) This means that the believer’s love varies according to the amount of doctrine in his soul.

e) The super-grace believer does love God. He has the capacity to love God, the ability to love God, from doctrine in the soul. Romans 8:28; Ephesians 3:19; 1 John 4:19.

7. The role of happiness in super-grace.

a) The key to super-grace is happiness or God’s +H given to the believer at that point.

b) Therefore the super-grace life is characterised by the happiness spectrum — all realms of happiness are found between ecstatics and tranquillity.

c) The same doctrine which provides +H provides the super-grace life.

d) The top floor of the ECS is the beginning of the super-grace life — Philippians 4:4; 1 Thessalonians 5:16.

e) The fulfillment of +H through doctrine is the entrance into the super-grace life — 1 John 1:4.

8. The reality of the celebrityship of Jesus Christ. Remember that super-grace is so wonderful because for the first time the believer is occupied with the person of Jesus Christ. He understands who and what Christ is.

9. Areas of super-grace capacity.

a) Capacity for freedom. This comes from Bible doctrine — Romans 8:21; 2 Corinthians 3:17; Galatians 5:1; James 1:25-2:12.

b) Capacity for life — 1 Samuel 17:47.

c) Capacity for love: Category #1, toward God — Deuteronomy 6:6; 30:20; Category #2, — Song of Solomon 8:7; Category #3 — 2 Samuel 1:26.

d) Capacity for happiness — Psalm 9:1,2; 21:1; 31:7; 43:4; 97:12; John 17:13; 1 John 1:4.

e) Capacity for suffering. This means we are always on top of any suffering that comes our way when we are in the super-grace life — 2 Corinthians 12:7-10.

“riches of Christ” — the word “riches” is the noun ploutoj. It means not simply financial wealth, it means wealth of other types — wealth in land, wealth in possession materialistic things as well as money. It is used for the fact that God owns all the money trees, provides all of the promotion, provides all of the wealth, all of the materialistic things of life for the believer; plus the genitive singular of possession of Xristoj. In other words, this belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ. This is super-grace benefit. Also with it is the definite article which indicates that Jesus Christ is the key because it is what Jesus Christ thinks that is the Bible doctrine of the mystery found in the New Testament epistles.

Translation: “To me, the very least of all the saints, this super-grace blessing has been given to communicate to the Gentiles the inexhaustible [incalculable, unlimited, infinite] riches of the Christ.”

Summary

1. Here is the sum total of super-grace blessing provided in eternity past for every believer. God provides for every believer super-grace blessings.

2. This blessing can only be acquired through Bible doctrine in the soul. That means the function of GAP, that means you have to have a right pastor, that means you have to be under the ministry of that right pastor consistently.

3. It is impossible to love Jesus Christ unless you know Him.

4. It is one thing to be saved by believing in Christ but it is an entirely different matter to love the one who saved you.

5. This love for Christ comes the same way as super-grace blessing — through the daily intake of Bible doctrine through GAP.

6. Paul has been blessed with super-grace status — reached through doctrine.

7. Therefore it is his responsibility ( having a spiritual gift compatible) to communicate this doctrine to the royal priesthood so that they, too, can reach the inexhaustible riches of Christ.

8. The function of Paul’s ministry is to teach doctrine so that believers of the royal priesthood can reach super-grace status.

We move now to the dispensational orientation of the ministry.

Verse 9 — “And” is a transitional or continuative use of the conjunction kai. The second purpose is now given for the ministry, the first being to bring the believer to the super-grace status and the normal function of the royal priesthood. The second purpose is to orient the believer to the uniqueness of the Church Age and the resultant intensification of the angelic conflict. The two purposes are related but they are separated in the context.

“all men” is not found in the original. It simply says “And to make see,” the aorist active infinitive of fwtizw. This word means to bring to light or to make known. We translate this, “And to shed light on.” The aorist tense of fwtizw is a constative aorist which contemplates Paul’s teaching of the dispensations in its entirety. It gathers all the teaching of dispensations into one whole. The active voice: Paul produces the action of the verb through teaching and bringing to light the various facets of the mystery dispensation which is the Church Age, which is the intensified stage of the angelic conflict. The infinitive expresses Paul’s purpose in teaching.

“that” — the interrogative pronoun of direct inquiry is often translated “what is.”

“the fellowship” — incorrect. The word “fellowship” is o)ikonomia which means the dispensation, not fellowship.

“of the mystery” — the descriptive genitive singular from mustherion used to describe doctrine of the Church Age. The dispensation of the mystery is a reference to the Church Age with emphasis on the fact that Church Age truth was not previously revealed to the Old Testament prophets or to the Old Testament saints. Next to doctrine which leads to super-grace status the teaching of dispensations is most important. It helps to orient us to the time in which we live, the circumstances under which we live as members of the royal family on this earth.

“hath been hid” — this is an appositional genitive perfect passive participle of the verb a)pokruptw. The appositional genitive simply indicates that the mystery having been hid is a part of the description of it in the past. The perfect tense is a consummative perfect. This denotes a completed action. Here the action is not on the existing results as we often think of the perfect tense, but simply on the fact that the action has been completed. Therefore the consummative perfect does not emphasise the existing state, it emphasises the process by which the state was completed. Here the process is emphasised, and the process means that up until the time of the Church Age this doctrine was completely hidden from all members of the human race. This doctrine was only known for the first time when it was announced by the Lord Jesus Christ during the upper room discourse where He merely outlined what was to come. The detailed announcement was given by the apostle Paul. The doctrine of the mystery in past dispensations was concealed so that no one even had a clue as to what it was all about, and furthermore the Church Age is the only dispensation that comes in as an interruption. The passive voice: the mystery doctrine of the Church Age receives the action of the verb. This is a telic participle which indicates God’s purpose to hide Church Age doctrine until the Church Age interrupts the Age of Israel. It is translated “having been hidden” or “having been concealed.”

“from the beginning of the world” — a)po followed by the ablative plural of a)iwn means “from the ages.” This is the ablative of separation. In other words, the mystery doctrine was separated from all dispensations. We live in the most unique time in all of human history. Uniqueness is normal in the dispensation in which we find ourselves.

“in God” is incorrectly translated. This is not e)n plus the locative, it is e)n plus the instrumental of qeoj. There is also a definite article and it should be translated “by the God.” It is a reference to the Lord Jesus Christ who is the creator of all things, according to John 1:3; Hebrews 1:10; Colossians 1:16,17.

“who created” is an aorist active participle. The aorist tense is a gnomic aorist which states an absolute fact of dogmatic doctrine which is axiomatic. Jesus Christ is the creator of everything in the universe that has ever been created. Jesus Christ ordered the concealment of Church Age doctrine until His own incarnation and until as the God-Man in His humanity He Himself revealed this information. In hypostatic union Christ made the first declaration of Church Age doctrine in John chapters 14-17. The active voice: Christ produced the action of the verb which is the creation of all things. The creator of all things is the initial revealer of Church Age doctrine. The participle has antecedent action as an aorist participle, it is antecedent to the main verb which is found in verse 8 — “is given.”

“by Jesus Christ” is not found in the original.

Translation: “And to shed light on what is the dispensation of the mystery, having been hidden from the ages [previous dispensations] by the God, having created the all things.”

Verse 10 — orientation to the angelic conflict. It is the responsibility of the pastor-teacher to orient his right congregation with regard to the angelic conflict.

“To the intent that” — one word in the Greek, the conjunction i(na which introduces a final clause. A final clause always denotes a purpose, an aim, or a goal. It is used with the subjunctive to denote that goal. “In order that” is a better translation.

“now” — the adverb nun indicates the role of the Church Age in the angelic conflict. It is to orient the Church with regard to the angelic conflict.

“unto the principalities and powers” — this does not occur next in the sentence. The verb follows the adverb. We will take up principalities and powers at the point at which they occur. They do not occur at this point.

“might be known” — should be translated “might be made known.” We have an aorist passive subjunctive of gnwrizw. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of God’s wisdom being made known to the fallen angels in its entirety. The passive voice: fallen angels receive the knowledge of God’s wisdom by means of the Church. The subjunctive mood is the potential subjunctive, with i(na, to indicate the aim or goal of hiding Church Age doctrine or mystery doctrine until the church Age began.

Notice: “in order that now might be made known” — there is the omission of any subject. The verb must have a subject. The subject of the verb is found at the end of the verse. It was placed at the end of the verse out of place for emphasis. So whatever the subject that might be made known it is right down at the end of the verse: “the manifold wisdom of God.”

“manifold” is polupoikiloj, a compound adjective [polu = much or many; poikiloj = diversified, variegated].

“wisdom” is the noun sofia which often refers to insight into spiritual things. God is omniscient, He has insight into everything. So this is the total sum of everything that omniscience knows or ever has known or ever will know. Omniscience doesn’t learn anything new.

So far we have: “In order that now the manifold wisdom of the God might be made known.” It has been made known to us through doctrine, but angels are learning it too.

“unto the principalities and powers” — throughout Ephesians this refers to angels. “Principalities” is the dative plural from a)rxh, used for highest rank. It has a number of meanings — “beginning, eternity past which was not a beginning, the greatest eminence or highest authority.” Here it is used of the highest authority in connection with fallen angels. It refers to demon general officers. The dative plural of “powers” from the word e)cousia means “authority.” It is used for commissioned officers. The two categories together constitute the entire demon leadership under the command of Satan. Both are datives of disadvantage. The demon generals and commissioned officers are on the losing side in the angelic conflict.

“in heavenly places” is e)n plus the locative of e)pouranioj which means “heavenlies” and it should be translated “in the heavenlies.”

The doctrine of the heavenlies

1. “The heavenlies” — e)pouranioj — refers to the third heaven, the abode of God; the courtroom of heaven, the place of trying the case called the angelic conflict. Satan’s case was tried in heaven. The third heaven is the place of angelic convocation and that means that the angelic conflict not only occurs on this earth — this is the battleground — but it also occurs in heaven as well.

2. The use of “heavenlies” in Ephesians.

a) It is the sphere of divine blessing — Ephesians 1:3.

b) It is the sphere of strategic victory of Christ in the angelic conflict — Ephesians 1:20.

c) It is the sphere of positional victory for the believer — Ephesians 2:6

d) It is the sphere of angelic judgement — Ephesians 3:10.

e) It is the sphere of the angelic conflict — Ephesians 6:12.

“by the church” — dia plus the genitive singular of e)kklhsia should be translated “through the church.”

Translation: “In order that now [Church Age] the manifold wisdom of the God might be known to demon rulers and authorities in the heavenlies by means of the church.”

Summary

1. Part of the mystery doctrine is the fact that the Church Age with its royal priesthood is the means of resolving the angelic conflict.

2. The Church is used to make known to fallen angels the validity of divine judgement on Satan and his adherents in the angelic realm.

3. The angels learn through the Church that God’s wisdom has many sides.

4. The Church is also an integral part of operation footstool.

5. The Church teaches fallen angels in the future that it will remove them under operation footstool.

Verse 11 — the emphasis of the ministry. “According to the eternal purpose is a prepositional phrase,” kata plus the accusative of proqesij. Proqesij is with the descriptive genitive of a)iwn and altogether this should be translated, “According to a predetermined plan of the ages.” The decrees of God are constructed around dispensations, that is why we have proqesij with the descriptive genitive of a)iwn for the ages or dispensations. The emphasis of the ministry is that God has a plan for your life but you will never understand that plan for your life unless you understand the dispensation in which you live, and unless you understand the doctrine of the mystery you are never going to understand that this is the only dispensation that is an interrupted dispensation. This dispensation broke right in on another dispensation and stopped it. The Age of Israel is an interrupted dispensation. The predetermined plan of God contains all the grace provision for the human race.

“which” — the accusative feminine singular of the relative pronoun o(j. This refers back to proqesij, the predetermined plan.

“he purposed” — aorist active indicative from poiew. Poiew means to do but it has many similar type meanings. For example, it means to accomplish and it means to execute. Here it means to carry out — “he has carried out.” The aorist tense is the culminative aorist, it views the action of the verb in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of the existing results. God has carried out the plan. The doctrine of the mystery actually presents the principles and the mechanics by which the plan is carried out or executed. Grace means God carries out the plan, our part is always a grace response. The active voice: God produces the action of the verb. God the Father is the author of operation grace. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality.

“in Christ Jesus our Lord” — this is how it is accomplished. One thing is added in salvation that was never given in the salvation of any Old Testament saint, nor will it occur in the Tribulation or the Millennium, and that is the baptism of the Spirit.

Translation: “According to a predetermined plan of the ages which he has carried out in the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Principle

1. Because of positional sanctification accomplished through the baptism of the Holy Spirit at the point of salvation every believer is a member of the royal family. This was never true before the day of Pentecost and will never be true after the Rapture.

2. The Lordship of Christ is positional, not experiential. And it is the Lordship of Christ which we have as members of a spiritual nobility that will never die out.

3. Under the Lordship of Christ all believers of this dispensation are in the plan of God.

4. This means that in the eternal decrees there is a super-grace paragraph with your name on it, and it is for time, not for eternity.

5. Therefore at this point all believers are encouraged to go on to super-grace.

Verse 12 — the life of the ministry. This means that the communicator, also being a member of the royal priesthood, having a different spiritual gift, also has a life to live. The principle here is that he is in for more pressure than most.

“In whom” — reference to union with Christ, e)n plus the locative of the relative pronoun o(j which refers to the Lord Jesus Christ.

“we have” — present active indicative of e)xw which means to have and to hold. The static present represents a condition which is assumed as perpetually existing. We always have this status. The active voice: the believer in union with Christ produces the action of the verb. This is for the royal family only. The royal family has access to the palace. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality.

“boldness” — the accusative singular plus the definite article from the noun parrhsia. Parrhsia means outspokenness, frankness, plainness of speech, freedom of speech, courage, confidence, boldness. These meanings are all in relationship to those who have to communicate doctrine. In relationship to God the noun also means happy, confidence or assurance. It should be translated here, “In whom we keep having the confident assurance.” Positional truth provides confident assurance for every royal priest of the Church Age.

“and access” — the accusative singular from prosagwgh [proj = face to face; agwgh = to be led in] which is used for royalty permitted into the presence of the king. To be led in face to face comes to mean access, admission into the presence of the ruler, of royalty. Here it means we have admission into the presence of God. The noun only occurs three times in the New Testament — Romans 5:2; Ephesians 2:18; 3:12. It is used primarily for having an audience with the king or being in the presence of the king. It can also be translated “entree.”

“with confidence” is e)n plus the locative of pepoiqhsij. This is built upon the perfect tense of poiew. Poiew in the perfect tense means to have confidence, so the noun means confidence. It should be translated “in confidence.” Confidence is a characteristic of royalty — not confidence in the sense if ignorance but confidence in the sense of a strange situation.

“by the faith of him” — dia plus the genitive of pistij which means doctrine here, what is believed. It should be translated “though his doctrine.”

Translation: “In whom [Christ] we have confident assurance and entree in confidence through his doctrine.”

Summary

1. The life of the ministry is Bible doctrine.

2. The purpose of the pastor-teacher is to exegete, analyse, interpret and communicate. In this way the whole realm of doctrine is extracted by analysis from the scripture, put into the soul of the pastor-teacher, so that he is familiar with the palace and then starts to communicate. The faithful teaching of Bible doctrine leads to fulfilling the goal of the ministry. The goal of the ministry is to lead through teaching believers, members of the royal priesthood, to super-grace status.

Verse 13 — “Wherefore” is an inferential conjunction, dio. It should be translated “therefore” or “for this reason.” The inference is derived from the life of the ministry which is communication of Bible doctrine. Doctrinal communication on a consistent basis means a great deal of pressure to the pastor Just communicating doctrine becomes a source of great pressure.

“I desire” — the present middle indicative of a)itew means to ask, to make a request. He asked them something. The present tense is a retroactive progressive present which denotes that which was begun in the past and continues into the present time. Paul has been studying and teaching and it is still going on. Also, this is called the present tense of duration. This could also be construed as an iterate present describing what recurs at consistent successive intervals. The middle voice is an indirect middle which lays stress on the agent as producing the action. In other words, it is like Paul saying, “I myself personally ask you.” The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality.

“that you faint not” — the present active infinitive of e)gkakew. The present tense is an iterative present, it describes that which recurs at successive and consistent intervals, it is the present tense of repeated action. The active voice: believers of the Roman province of Asia were very fond of Paul. This doesn’t have to be but they did love Paul. The infinitive here is an imperative infinitive. He commands them not to be despondent or discouraged, or to despair over his pressures.

“at my tribulations” — this is a prepositional phrase, e)n plus the instrumental of the noun qlipyij. The preposition e)n plus the instrumental means “because of.”

The pressures of a communicator are both normal and abnormal. They range from self-induced misery to the specialised function of the pastor-teacher in the angelic conflict. Normal pressures centre around the concept of constant study and teaching regardless of anything else. The abnormal pressures are related to the fact that the pastor receives double discipline for being out of line. And by virtue of his spiritual gift he is heavily involved in the angelic conflict and therefore there is the principle of double discipline as well.

“for you” — the preposition u(per plus the ablative of the personal pronoun su. It means “on your behalf.” In other words, the pressure Paul is mentioning here is limited to the communicating type. It is dealing with the fact that they are very concerned about the fact that Paul is apparently having a great deal of pressure, having difficulty in study and teaching and continuing a consistent communicating ministry. In the Greek this type of phraseology is idiomatic for Don’t feel sorry for me, don’t have adverse or painful attitudes in your soul because I am undergoing pressure.

“which” is a nominative singular from a qualitative relative pronoun, o(stij; “is” is the present active indicative of e)imi and should be “keep on being.” This is a static present and it represents a quality of pressure which by its very nature is taken for granted as a fact, and Paul lives with it constantly. The active voice: normal and continuous pressures derived from the function of constantly studying and teaching produce the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative.

“your glory” — doca. By that he means they are going to super-grace glory.

Translation: “Therefore I personally ask you not to despair because of my pressures on your behalf, which by their very nature keep on being your glory.”

The doctrine of glory

1. The noun doca means brightness, radiance, splendour, glory, magnificence, fame, renown, honour. In the plural — docai — it is used for both angels and illustrious persons. There is also a verb, docazw, which means to praise, to honour, to glorify, to magnify.

2. The usage of doca.

a) It is used for the essence of God — Deuteronomy 5:24; Psalm 21:5; Romans 3:23; Ephesians 1:17.

b) It is used for the super-grace status of the believer. We have “the glory of his grace” — Ephesians 1:6; “the riches of his glory” — Ephesians 1:18; 3:16; 4:19; Colossians 1:27, referring to the super-grace life; “full of glory” — 1 Peter 1:8.

c) It is used in the right man, right woman relationship. It is used of the right woman, she is the glory of her right man — 1 Corinthians 11:7,15.

d) It is used for the indwelling of Jesus Christ and is related to the super-grace life because Christ indwells all super-grace believers — Colossians 1:17.

e) It is used to describe the wonders of the universe — 1 Corinthians 15:40,41.

f) It is used to describe the believer’s resurrection body — 1 Corinthians 15:43; 2 Thessalonians 2:14.

g) It is used to describe heaven and eternal life — 1 Timothy 3:16; 1 Peter 5:10; 2 Peter 1:3.

h) It is used to describe the strategic victory of operation footstool — Hebrews 2:10.

i) It is used for a description of human glamour — 1 Peter 1:24; Philippians 3:19.

Verses 14 and 15 indicate that we are actually beginning an apostolic prayer.

Verse 14 — “For this cause” is a repetition of the Greek idiom which we saw in the first verse, Toutou xarin, and idiom which means “For this reason.” Since the idiom was first used in verse one when Paul was about to begin his apostolic prayer it actually becomes an idiom of interruption, and idiom of postponement. In verse 1 Paul postponed his prayer to brief us on the doctrine of the mystery and the doctrine of the ministry. The digression has been completed, the subject now resumes. The postponed prayer of verse 1 now begins.

“I bow” — present active indicative of kamptw. The word means to bow and should be, as it were, the posture of the priesthood. One of the functions of the priesthood is the proper use of prayer. Bowing represents the concept of prayer. The concept of prayer is true principle of humility. Humility is an objective recognition of the greatness of someone outside of one’s self and a true orientation to that greatness. One of the most basic principles of prayer is the principle of humility. God is everything, we are nothing. We address prayers to Him because He is totally capable and we are incapable. This is the iterative present tense, it describes what recurs at successive intervals. It is known as the present tense of repeated action. The active voice: Paul produces the action of the verb as his second apostolic prayer. The principle is important. Many people think you have to get on your knees to pray but that is ridiculous. You do not have to get on your knees. Prayer requires concentration. Posture is not important.

“unto the Father” — proj plus the accusative of pathr should be translated “face to face with the Father” because prayer puts you face to face with the Father. The posture is not necessary for effective prayer. Paul really here is not writing with his knees bowed, he is dramatising the importance of doctrine in effective prayer function. God the Father is the only recipient of prayer from the royal priesthood. The phrase “of our Lord Jesus Christ” is not found in the original.

Verse 15 — “Of whom” is the preposition e)k plus the ablative of o(j, whose antecedent is God the Father. It should be translated “From whom.”

“the whole family” — the nominative singular of paj plus the nominative singular of patria. The whole family refers to the royal family, it does not refer to the family of God in previous dispensations. This should be “the entire royal family.”

The paronomasia

1. A paronomasia is a literary word for a pun. This paronomasia is developed from two words. In the previous verse, “Face to face with the Father [pathr].” Then the word “family [patria].”

2. This is the paronomasia of spiritual descent based upon regeneration. However, our spiritual descent is royalty. This is the only dispensation in which there is royalty in the family of God. 3. We are the patria; the first person of the Trinity is the pathr.

4. The entire human race is not the family of God, only those who are born again, and in this dispensation, royal family.

5. To be born again one must believe in the Lord Jesus Christ who is the only saviour — John 3:1-18, 36; Galatians 3:26; John 20:31.

6. We are also distinguished from other members of the family of God in that we are royalty.

7. Pathr communicates to patria through Bible doctrine; we communicate with Him through prayer.

8. Our daily relationship with Pathr is based upon the daily function of GAP, not on prayer. Prayer is a result of the relationship. The daily function of GAP makes prayer, witnessing, and all other production effective. We must know Him before we try to communicate with Him. You must know the person with whom you are communicating before you seek to communicate with Him in prayer.

“in heaven” — the preposition e)n plus the locative plural of o)uranoj. There is no definite article. This emphasises th qualitative aspect of the noun. In other words, heaven is a marvellous, perfect place.

“and earth” — it should be “and on the earth” because there is a preposition after “and,” e)pi plus the genitive of gh. It refers to the royal priesthood still alive on planet earth, the devil’s world. It is only the ones on earth that He communicates with through doctrine.

“is name” — the present passive indicative of o)namazw means to derive a name. The present tense is retroactive progressive present denoting that which was begun in the past and continues into the present. The passive voice indicates the derivation of the name. The first person of the Trinity is Pathr and He gives His name [patria] to the royal family only. The indicative mood is a declarative indicative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality and certainty.

Translation: “Our from the source of whom the entire family in heaven and on earth derives its name.”

The doctrine of prayer

1. There are three categories of prayer received by God the Father:

a) Prayer from the high priest. The royal high priest is Jesus Christ, and right now at the right hand of the Father he offers prayer — Hebrews 7:25.

b) Prayer is from God the Holy Spirit. This is the age of the royal priesthood, the royal family. We are members of the body of Christ, Christ is royalty, we are one with Him, we are royalty spiritually. Therefore God the Holy Spirit does something in this dispensation He has never done before and will never do again, He offers prayer on our behalf. Romans 8:26,27.

c) Prayer is always addressed to God the Father.

2. Prayer approach for the royal priesthood.

a) All prayer is addressed to the Father — Matthew 6:9; Ephesians 3:14; 1 Peter 1:17. b) The channel of approach is through the high priest — John 14:13,14.

c) The power of approach is the filling of the Holy Spirit — Ephesians 6:18.

3. Extrapolation of prayer promises.

Prayer is related to the faith-rest technique — Matthew 18:19; 21:22; Mark 11:24. Prayer promises are to give you confidence as you approach the Father in the name of the Son in the power of the Spirit. OT promises — Psalm 116:1,2; Isaiah 65:24; Jeremiah 33:3. NT promises — Matthew 7:7,8; John 14:13,14; 15:7; Ephesians 6:18; Philippians 4:6; 1 Thessalonians 5:17; Hebrews 4:16.

4. There are eight basic principles of prayer.

a) Prayer effectiveness depends on the consistent function of GAP and resultant Bible doctrine in the soul. John 15:7; Ephesians 3:16-19.

b) Prayer is an extension of the faith-rest technique. It is actually a faith-rest exhale toward God — Matthew 21:22.

c) Prayer demands cognisance of the will of God and therefore demands maximum doctrine in the soul through GAP — 1 John 5:14.

d) Generally prayer must be offered in the spiritual status of the filling of the Spirit — Ephesians 6:18. The exception is a rebound prayer for a carnal believer or a repentance prayer for a reversionist.

d) Mental attitude sins result from both carnality and reversionism and these destroy the effectiveness of prayer — Psalm 66:18.

e) Efficacious prayer exists to the extent that the believer is grace oriented. Therefore the believer begins to be effective when he begins the construction of the ECS.

f) The eternal decrees took cognisance of all effective prayer in time.

g) Prayer effectiveness reaches its zenith at the time of super-grace status — Psalm 116:1,2.

5. The agenda for private prayer. Confession of sin or rebound — 1 John 1:9; 1 Corinthians 11:31; Thanksgiving — Ephesians 5:20; 1 Thessalonians 5:18; Intercession — Ephesians 6:18; Petition — Hebrews 4:16.

6. The doctrine of intercession.

a) The dynamics of intercessory prayer is taught in passages like 1 Kings 18:42-46, the principle being found in James 5:16-18.

b) The power of prevailing prayer — Acts 12.

c) The prayer for the unbeliever — Romans 10:1. (You cannot pray for something that will coerce their volition, so you pray that the gospel message will be made clear to them, will be revealed to them)

d) Prayer for an unknown believer — Colossians 1:3-11.

e) Prayer for the known believer — Ephesians 1:15-23.

g) The Lord’s prayer — John 17.

7. There are four categories for petition in prayer.

a) 1 Samuel 8:5-9, 19,20. The prayer petition was a simple one, they wanted a king. That was their desire. The petition was answered but the desire to be like other nations was not, they were in a jamb all the time.

b) The petition is not answered but the desire is — Genesis 17:18; 18:23-33; 2 Corinthians 12:17-10.

c) The ideal one where the petition is answered and the desire is answered — 1 Kings 18:36,37; Judges 16:28; Luke 23:42,43: John 11:41,42,45.

8. Nine reasons why prayer is not answered.

a) Carnality or reversionism, or both, causing failure to be controlled by the Holy Spirit — Ephesians 6:18.

b) Mental attitude sins caused by either carnality or reversionism — Psalm 66:18.

c) A specific Satanic sin of pride and a resultant self-righteous state — Job 35:12,13.

d) A lust type selfishness — James 4:2-4.

e) Malfunction or failure of faith-rest — Mark 11:24.

f) A general lack of obedience or subordination to God’s will — 1 John 3:22.

g) Insubordination to the known will of God — 1 John 5:14.

h) Malfunction of marriage, lack of domestic tranquillity — 1 Peter 3:7.

i) Reversionistic lack of compassion and grace orientation — Proverbs 21:13.

9. Principles of grace in prayer

a) Principle — Hebrews 4:16; 1 Peter 1:7.

b) Prayer is the privilege of the royal priesthood. Since grace is the basis of prayer no believer can come to God in prayer and expect to be heard on the basis of human merit, human ability, human function, human ingenuity.

c) Every believer approaches God in prayer on the basis of the merit of Jesus Christ, or the Father is propitiated with Christ but is no respecter of persons as far as believers are concerned.

d) In other words, God does not hear and answer prayer because I am good, moral, benevolent, sincere or religious.

e) God hears and answers prayer on the basis of who and what Christ is. Every believer is in union with Christ and gets through to the throne of grace on the basis of approach through the high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ.

The doctrine of GAP

1. GAP stands for grace apparatus for perception. it is a grace system whereby God has made it possible for all believers to learn doctrine and advance tactically to the super-grace status. Consequently it is the divine provision for spiritual growth and advancement. God has found a way for every believer regardless of his IQ, his educational background or his natural perspicacity, to understand and assimilate Bible doctrine. So GAP stands for learning doctrine, knowledge of doctrine, the assimilation of doctrine into the soul.

2. There is a distinction between the human and the spiritual IQ. Spiritual IQ is determined by the amount of doctrine, the amount of e)pignwsij, stored in the human spirit and in the right lobe — Colossians 1:9.

3. The exclusion of human IQ from GAP — 1 Corinthians 1:9-2:16.

a) Human IQ has often been considered a factor in learning doctrine.

b) This is a false statement, it would imply that a low IQ believer is handicapped in the perception of God’s Word. God never allows under grace human handicaps to keep a person from learning the Word.

c) However, in eternity past God found a way through grace for every believer, regardless of human ability of human handicap, to learn doctrine.

d) For this reason every believer receives at salvation the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and a human spirit is attached to his soul. The Holy Spirit is given primarily to indicate royalty in the family of God. The food of royalty is Bible doctrine, the sign of royalty is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, the means of royalty is the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

4. Receptive comprehension.

a) The believer’s soul possesses mentality. Mentality is divided into two frontal lobes. b) The left lobe is called nouj. It is designed to assimilate objective information. Knowledge or objective information in the nouj is called gnwsij.

c) However gnwsij cannot be applied to experience. This means that the left lobe is a staging area in learning doctrine.

d) The residence of doctrine in the perceptive lobe makes the believer a hearer of the Word but not a doer of the Word — James 1:21-25.

e) The thinking of the left lobe is called noew, the simple verb for thinking.

f) There are two kinds of thinking in the left lobe. When doctrine goes into the mind it is called gnwsij. There is firstly objective type thinking which is called fronew. Sometimes we have subjective thinking which is dokew.

g) All of this is receptive comprehension — understanding different types of data.

h) Receptive comprehension involves the following factors: a) attendance at a local church (which is a classroom when it functions properly); b) the ministry of God the Holy Spirit converting the content of what is communicated into receptive comprehension. As the pastor communicates the information goes into the left lobe, the vouj, and if you are filled with the Holy Spirit the Holy Spirit converts this to gnwsij. If you start to think about this gnwsij you are going to come up with either frwnew or dokew — are you going to think about it objectively or subjectively. If you think about it subjectively it dies right there. If you think about it objectively you are now in a position to move it on into the staging area of the human spirit. The residence of doctrinal data in the left lobe is only s staging area.

i) It must be remembered that gnwsij can exist to a large degree in the left lobe of any believer without spiritual benefit. Remembering that this is a staging area it must be moved on to be beneficial. Doctrine in the left lobe is not beneficial if it stays there.

j) However, gnwsij has no spiritual benefit nor application of divine viewpoint to this life.

5. Grace provision for learning doctrine.

a) The first grace provision is the formation and preservation of the canon of scripture.

b) We have divine authorisation of the local church as the classroom for learning that doctrine. All worship is centered around learning doctrine. The believer assembled in the local church is a student without portfolio under strict academic discipline under the ministry of God the Holy Spirit.

c) The spiritual gift of pastor-teacher is also a grace provision. This spiritual gift has both authority and ability to communicate doctrine in the local church. God sovereignly bestows this gift at the point of salvation. The gift is restricted to males only and the function of the gift in communication is by monologue.

d) The royal priesthood of the believer makes each believer a member of the royal family and therefore he has extreme privacy and freedom to receive and reject doctrine, and privacy and freedom if he is positive to take it in without interference. The royalty of the priesthood demands that the believer through doctrine also achieve the status of royalty which is the super-grace life.

e) The indwelling of the Holy Spirit for the function of GAP. GAP runs on the ministry of God the Holy Spirit — 1 Corinthians 2:9-16.

f) However the believer must be filled with the Spirit for GAP to be effective. Therefore the grace provision of the rebound technique.

g) The provision of the human spirit as the second target of GAP. The first target is the left lobe, the second in the human spirit — Job 32:8; 1 Corinthians 2:12.

h) The provision of the laws of establishment whereby a nation’s freedom and privacy is protected by these divine laws.

i) The anatomy of grace whereby certain non-meritorious functions of the human body provide the ability to think and concentrate; they are strictly grace provision.

6. The mechanics of GAP.

Stage one is operation ICE. I is for isagogics; C is for categories; E is for exegesis. The pastor communicates doctrine to the local church under the concept of the Greek verb didaskw. It means one person is communicating to a group. The system is monologue, no dialogue. We also have the word khrussw which means to announce something of great importance as the heralds of the king. Didaskw means to teach doctrine, one person teaching to a group.

The content is where we get ICE. First of all is isagogics which means the interpretation of the Bible within the framework of its historical setting. The Bible must be interpreted in the time in which it was written. For that reason isagogics demand that we reproduced the historical backgrounds and customs of the people, and these can be determined of etymology and extant literature, and so on.

Secondly, the categorical teaching is based upon a hermeneutical principle of comparing scripture with scripture to determine the classification of doctrine. Categories simply take a doctrine which is located in a passage and relate it to all the other passages dealing with the same doctrine. Exegesis is the analysis of each verse in its context, emphasising its grammar, its syntax, the etymology of the words in the original languages.

Stage two occurs simultaneously if and when believers concentrate on what is being taught. This is operation gnwsij. It is, in effect, the same as receptive comprehension. Based on objective perception of doctrine by listening we have doctrine coming into the left lobe and it is assimilated under the ministry of God the Holy Spirit. Prerequisites include positive volition toward doctrine, recognition of the authority of the pastor-teacher, good manners when in the assembly, poise, concentration and alertness. All of these must be accomplished through the filling of the Spirit plus certain other factors. Receptive comprehension does not mean that you agree or disagree with what is taught, it means you merely understand it.

Stage three is operation e)pignwsij. This is the important part of the assimilation of doctrine. This is where doctrine becomes usable. Under operation e)pignwsij doctrine is converted from gnwsij and it goes down into the human spirit. Volition comes into action. Volition is non-meritorious, so volition is really faith-rest. You actually believe what is residing in the nouj and the moment you believe it you transfer it down into the human spirit where it become e)pignwsij. The converter is non-meritorious. Doctrine is not applicable or usable to you personally until you convert it from gnwsij to e)pignwsij, and this is accomplished in compatibility with the concept of grace and that means you convert it by means of faith-rest. Negative volition locks it up in the left lobe. Positive volition transfers it to the human spirit where it is usable.

The moment that e)pignwsij hits the human spirit it begins to go into action. First of all there is the heart or the right lobe, the second lobe in the mentality of the soul. A vacuum comes out of the frame of reference into the human spirit and sucks e)pignwsij up into the frame of reference. E)pignowsij also begins to become building material for the construction of the ECS. So there are two actions of e)pignwsij. Immediately it is sucked into the right lobe and it begins to work on the ECS.

Stage four is operation heart.

a) The heart is the right lobe made up of a frame of reference, a memory centre, an area for vocabulary storage, an area for categorical storage, the conscience of the soul [norms and standards], and it has a launching pad. The right lobe is called kardia or heart. In the Bible kardia is never used for the physiological part of the body called the heart that circulates the blood, it is always used for the right lobe.

b) The essence of the right lobe. The frame of reference has in it a vacuum pump and that pulls e)pignwsij up from the human spirit into the frame of reference. Now it starts to be processed. The memory centre does the processing. It immediately sends anything off to vocabulary that must go there which isn’t there already. To learn doctrine you must have a technical vocabulary. The vocabulary will eventually become paragraphs and paragraphs will become chapters and chapters will become books. So there must also be categories. As you are able to put together the technicalities of theological vocabulary and to categories them your norms and standards begin to change and begin to comply with divine norms and standards. All of these have lines going out to the launching pad and every correct application you make in all of your life you will make on the basis of the frame of reference, on the basis of recalling from your categories, from your conscience, information. And doctrine on the launching pad is the dynamics of the Christian way of life. In other words, what you think is what counts. As a man thinketh in his right lobe, so he is. The real you is what goes on in your right lobe.

c) The heart or kardia is the dominant lobe of the soul. It is also the right man as far as the emotion is concerned. The emotion is designed to respond to what is in the right lobe — what is in the frame of reference, what is out on the launching pad, the vocabulary, the categories, every part of the right lobe. So the heart becomes the right man, the emotion becomes the right woman. In effect, emotion does not think, it responds to what you think in your right lobe. When emotion dominates the soul you stop thinking.

d) The storage of doctrine in the right lobe is called sofia or wisdom. When you utilise sofia that is distributed to the memory centre it is called sunhsij which is often correctly translated “discernment.”

e) The heart is the right man of the soul.

f) The emotion is the right woman of the soul designed to respond to what resides in the heart, it does not thinking.

g) Once again the word “heart” must never be confused with emotion. The heart is the thinking part of the soul in the Bible.

7. The function of the frame of reference.

a) It is the basis for comprehension of more advanced doctrine when such doctrine is taught.

b) It establishes a new conscience which is compatible with God’s norms and standards.

c) It forms divine viewpoint dynamics (the same as bringing every though into captivity for Christ).

d) It deals with problems of the subconscious and handles the guilt complex.

e) It provides an alarm system to detect and protect false doctrine and false teaching.

f) It provides soul capacity and discernment to detect right man or right woman.

g) It provides the furniture of the soul whereby God is able to share His happiness with the believer.

h) It provides the basis for the production of divine good.

i) It causes the proper function of the priesthood until the believer reaches super-grace, and then continues to cause the proper function of the priesthood.

8. The results of GAP.

a) GAP removes scar tissue from the soul and makes it possible for reversion recovery.

b) It is the basis for construction of the ECS which is necessary for super-grace.

c) It provides attainment of super-grace status which produces occupation with the person of Christ, super-grace capacity, and super-grace blessings.

d) It provides the basis for maximum production of divine good.

e) It glorifies God in this stage of the angelic conflict.

Verse 16 — the purpose of GAP. “That” is the conjunction i(na plus the subjunctive which introduces a final clause. A final clause denotes either a purpose, aim, or goal. It should be translated “In order that.”

“he would grant” — aorist active subjunctive of didomi which means to give, “grant” is simply an old English word for giving in the past tense. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist which views the action of the verb in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of its existing results. The existing result of GAPing it consistently is the super-grace status. The active voice: God the Father gives us super-grace status as a result of the intake of doctrine on a grace basis. The subjunctive mood is potential, it implies a future reference qualified by the element of contingency. The element of contingency is the daily function of GAP. If you don’t take it in daily you will never reach super-grace, you will never know the super-grace blessing.

“you” is the dative plural from the personal pronoun su. The dative of indirect object indicates the one in whose interest the action of the verb is performed and it also becomes a dative of advantage. In other words, “In order that he might give you” — it is for your benefit, for your advantage, that God has provided in eternity past a super-grace paragraph with super-grace listed for you. Again, the subjunctive is very important. God does not give what is here apart from the daily function of GAP.

“according to the riches of his glory” — the preposition kata plus the accusative of ploutoj. Ploutoj is something that most believers cannot understand. It is very simple. Ploutoj means that the source of all money and wealth and materialistic things is God, that God has limitless supplies that He is trying to give away but there is no place for it to go in the royal family. This is because the only members of the royal family who receive theses things are those who have capacity. Super-grace capacity is preceded by occupation with the person of Christ. Ploutoj does not have any spiritual connotation. The super-grace life is filled with spiritual blessings. A super-grace believer is going to have prosperity in those things which are related to time, those things in the devil’s world that are considered to be a blessing. It includes wealth and promotion and success and materialistic things. In other words, the principle here is that God has these things to give and He does so as a part of the tactical victory of the angelic conflict. It is related to the spiritual conflict and it is related to spiritual victory when God can actually pour into someone’s cup these things. Ploutoj refers to the materialistic blessings. The point is that God wants to bless you with materialistic things in time. But these materialistic things would be meaningless without the capacity to enjoy them and the capacity to enjoy them is the spiritual factor of super-grace. The spiritual factor in super-grace has to do with occupation with the person of Jesus Christ, with the capacity for life. These are related to Bible doctrine. The more doctrine you take in the greater becomes your capacity for life and the greater your capacity for life the more God is going to pour. God is glorified in pouring. “In order that he might give you according to the standard of his riches.”

“of his glory” is a descriptive genitive singular of doca. It refers here to the essence of God. God by His essence is perfect, eternal. Everything in the essence of God smacks of wealth, success, prosperity, royalty, greatness. There is nothing in the essence of God that talks of poverty, being down at the heels, running around in rags, begging, whining, complaining. And we are members of the royal family and God does not intend for us to act like peons. We are not here to imitate the kooks! There is suffering, but suffering in super-grace is a breeze. But we are living today with the fact that most believers are living with a defeatist attitude, human viewpoint attitude, that somehow it is spiritual to be down at the heels, to be without fun, to be broke all the time. It is going to happen from time to time but that is not the normal function of the super-grace life. The super-grace life is related to great spiritual assets followed by materialistic assets. With whom can God trust with materialistic blessings? Those who have the spiritual capacity for them — and He does. God is glorified, by the way, when God pours; and so the word “glory” here refers to the fact that the capacity in the soul is super-grace capacity which is maximum doctrine. So God starts pouring and the one who pours gets the glory. It is the host who gets the credit, not the one standing there with the cup in his hand.

Summary

1. The standard for providing super-grace blessings is the attainment of the super-grace status.

2. This is accomplished through a consistent daily intake of doctrine through GAP.

3. Therefore the purpose of GAP is to advance the believer to the tactical victory of the super-grace life.

4. God has provided the grace apparatus for maximum provision of grace benefits in the devil’s world.

5. Doctrine in the soul provides the capacity for super-grace blessings.

6. Super-grace blessings could never be enjoyed apart from occupation with the person of Christ and doctrinal capacity of the soul. These blessings include wealth, success, promotion, prosperity, happiness, and they are not generally associated with spiritual things or spiritual phenomena. But in the super-grace frame of reference these things are the result of spiritual phenomena. While they do not have a connotation of spiritual phenomena they are related to spiritual phenomena through the consistent intake of Bible doctrine.

7. Since the devil’s world does not give a frame of reference for the enjoyment of these things God provides a frame of reference in the heart or the right lobe of the soul.

8. This frame of reference filled to the maximum with doctrine provides capacity for every category of super-grace blessing.

9. “In order that He might give you according to the riches of His glory” — the “riches of His glory” is also found in Ephesians 1:18; Philippians 4:19; Colossians 1:27. The standard for divine giving to the believer is the highest possible norm — super-grace. This, by the way, is giving in time.

“to be strengthened” — aorist passive infinitive of krataiow. It actually means to become strong. On the basis of Luke 1:80 and 2:40 it denotes growth in childhood, especially from the standpoint of mental independence. In this passage in Ephesians it denotes spiritual growth to the point of super-grace status. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist, it regards the function of GAP in its entirety but emphasises the results of GAP in attaining the super-grace status. The passive voice: the believer through consistent function of GAP receives super-grace status. The infinitive denotes God’s purpose in setting up GAP — so the believers might receive super-grace blessing on a super-grace basis. “with might” — the instrumental singular from the noun dunamij. It refers to inner or inherent power and is consequently a reference to Bible doctrine in both the human spiritual and the heart or right lobe. The instrumental should be translated “by means of power.” Power here is doctrine in the soul.

“by his Spirit” — dia plus the genitive of pneuma. It should be translated “through his Spirit.” There is also an intensive pronoun a)utoj here.

“in the inner man” — the location. Here is the sign of royalty and the means of achieving super-grace all in one phrase. We have the preposition e)ij plus the adverb e)sw plus the accusative of a)nqrwpoj — “with reference to the inner man,” literally.

Translation: “In order that he might give you, according to the riches of his glory, to become strong [advance to super-grace] by means of power [doctrine in the soul] through his Spirit [Holy Spirit] with reference to the inner man.”

God the Holy Spirit indwells the believer to overcome all human IQ handicaps. Human IQ is not the issue. So we must therefore include that the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is to provide GAPability. In addition to that the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is to provide nobility.

The doctrine of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit

1. The reason for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. (It never happened before. God the Holy Spirit empowered believers in other dispensations prior to the Church Age. We call that indument, empowering. But now the Holy Spirit actually indwells every believer) The universal indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the Church Age is characteristic of this age only. It is necessary because of the strategic victory of the Lord Jesus Christ — His death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and session. The strategic victory is followed by the intensification of the angelic conflict.

Two things happen simultaneously. In heaven and in the angelic realm the session of Christ seated at the right hand of the Father causes intensification, the angelic conflict is intensified. Simultaneously the Age of Israel is interrupted; we now have the Church Age. When the Rapture of the Church occurs the intensification is over. The angelic conflict intensifies in the heavenlies as well as on the earth. That is not true in the Tribulation. The intensification of the angelic conflict and the Church Age started at the same time. The Age of Israel is actually interrupted to be continued again after the Rapture. The intensification of the angelic conflict causes the insertion of another dispensation — the Church Age. Up to this time no one in all of history was ever at the point of regeneration indwelt by God the Holy Spirit. But in the Church Age we have something new. On the day of Pentecost for the first time we have the baptism of the Holy Spirit whereby the believer enters into union with Jesus Christ. This causes the person to be born into the royal family. Abraham was born again, Moses was born again. Isaiah, Jeremiah, David, these people were all born again. But they are different from the royalty we have here, none of them were taken by the Holy Spirit and entered into union with Christ. We call this the baptism of the Holy Spirit and it is this that makes each one of us royalty. We are royalty as of the moment we are born again. It is the baptism of the Spirit that is the distinctive feature of the Church Age. It is the baptism of the Holy Spirit that puts us in union with Jesus Christ and makes us a part of the royal family. Jesus Christ is royalty in His deity, royalty in His humanity — descended from the line of David. Jesus Christ is royalty without being born again, He didn’t have to be born again. He was born physically into royalty and that’s it. What is the badge of royalty? Royalty always has a badge. A coat of arms has often been one of the badges of royalty, carrying some kind of a sceptre, the right to carry a certain type of sword, etc. We have a badge of royalty forever — the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. The baptism of the Holy Spirit makes us royalty; the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is the badge of royalty, the sign of nobility.

Why suddenly is every believer indwelt by the Holy Spirit? Not only is it a sign of royalty but it is related to the King of kings and Lord of lords. Jesus Christ has a double royalty, that is why He is called King of kings. The first time we have King it refers to His deity; He is sovereignty and deity. “Of kings” refers to the fact that he is in His humanity a king. And there must be a relationship to the royal family. Jesus Christ on earth was indwelt by the Holy Spirit and John 7:37-39 says that the Spirit was not yet given to believers because Christ was not yet glorified. Therefore we begin to glorify Jesus Christ at the point of salvation because we are indwelt by God the Holy Spirit. No matter how we may fail in the materialistic realm or in the humanistic realm or in any way we are still royalty and the badge of royalty can never be removed.

2. The documentation for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit: Romans 8:9; 1 Corinthians 3:16; 6:19,20; Galatians 3:2; 4:6; John 7:37-39; 14:16,17. We also have the anointing of the Spirit which merely indicates the indwelling of the Spirit relating Him to royalty. Anointing of the Spirit is synonymous with the indwelling of the Spirit in Acts 4:27; 10:38; 2 Corinthians 1:21; 1 John 2:20, 27.

3. The distinction between salvation and the post-salvation ministry of the indwelling Holy Spirit. There is a difference between His ministry at salvation and His post-salvation ministry.

God the Holy Spirit does five things for every believer at the point of salvation: baptism [how we enter the royal family], regeneration [how we enter the family of God], sealing [the security of our royalty], indwelling [the sign of our royalty], the provision of a spiritual gift. The first gift to royalty is a spiritual gift.

In the post-salvation ministry of the Holy is Spirit we have His inner control in order that we might assimilate doctrine and fulfill the purpose for remaining on the earth. What is that purpose? The blessings of the super-grace life, to reach the tactical objective of super-grace and to enjoy the blessings of it. Both carnality and reversionism result in the loss of the filling of the Spirit but never the indwelling of the Spirit. When a believer is out of fellowship he is said to be grieving the Spirit — Ephesians 4:30. That is equivalent to sinning. He is said to be quenching the Spirit — 1 Thessalonians 5:19. That is equivalent to producing human good.

4. Other nomenclature for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. In 1 John 2:20, “unction.” In 1 John 2:27, “anointing.” These both refer to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit but they emphasise the indwelling of the Holy Spirit as a sign of being a member of the royal family. Just as royalty wear the overt accouterments of nobility, so we wear inner accouterments of nobility. The believer in the Church Age is in the palace by means of the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is the sign of royalty.

5. The prophecy of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ the King of kings, as a prophet, declared it in John 7:37-39; 14:16,17.

6. The distinction between the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and the indwelling of Jesus Christ. The most obvious fact is that Jesus Christ is the second member of the Trinity and the Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity. As members of the Trinity they are coequal and co-eternal but they are different persons. They have the same essence but they are different in person. Christ indwells the believer for the purpose of fellowship on the road to super-grace. The Holy Spirit indwells the believer as a sign of royalty, a sign that we are members of the royal family of God. This means that the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is permanent. We are royalty forever. However, the indwelling of Christ is not permanent. We can lose the indwelling of Christ by reversionism for the purpose of the indwelling of Christ is for fellowship on the road to super-grace. If we are on the road to reversionism then the Lord Jesus Christ removes Himself from us and instead knocks on the door of the soul as a warning that we are on the wrong road. And when we start to get back on the right road we open the door and let Him in, as per Revelation 3:20.

7. The primary functional objective of the Holy Spirit’s indwelling is the function of GAP — John 14:26; 16:12-15; 1 Corinthians 2:9-16; 1 John 2:27. The universal priesthood of the believer demands the permanent indwelling of the Holy Spirit for the achievement of the objective of the super-grace life.

8. It is also the objective of the indwelling Holy Spirit to suppress, to control, and to neutralise the function of the old sin nature — Galatians 5:17.

9. Illustrations of the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit. One is taken from the Word of God — Elijah in the cave of 1 Kings 19:9-18; the second is taken from the picture of oil as anointing of the Holy Spirit. So oil becomes an illustration of the functions and ministries of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

a) For example, oil lubricates. Friction ruins machines. One of the ministries of the Holy Spirit is to remove friction among believers so that we function as a team as well as a royal family.

b) Oil heals. This was true in the ancient world where there was an extensive use of oil in healing. The ministry of God the Holy Spirit heals the sorrows, the sufferings, the pressures that come our way.

c) Oil was used as a system for lighting, just as the Holy Spirit illuminates the Word under the function of GAP.

d) Oil also propels. We learn this from diesel engines both on land and on sea. This illustrates the walking in the Spirit, moving toward our tactical objective.

e) Oil invigorates. For this reason athletes in the ancient world were anointed with oil before they entered their contest. The ministry of God the Holy Spirit invigorates the life of the believer.

f) Oil warms. Oil was used for heating fuel. The ministry of God the Holy Spirit warms the categories of love through His ministry indwelling.

g) Oil adorns. Oil has been used since time immemorial for grooming. The Holy Spirit produces the grooming of the soul through His indwelling.

Verse 17 — the purpose of the indwelling of Christ. The word “That” does not occur in the original Greek manuscript, it is used here as a translational device for the purpose of translating an infinitive. “Christ” is the first word, it is the accusative singular of Xristoj plus the definite article, so that we actually have “the Christ.” It is found in the accusative case and the reason for this is because we have an accusative of general reference, which is a relationship between an accusative and an infinitive in the Greek. The accusative is really not the subject of an infinitive, though it is often translated that way, it rather describes the person connected with the action of the infinitive. The person related to the action of the infinitive is the Lord Jesus Christ, called in this passage “the Christ.” “may dwell” — the aorist active infinitive of katoikew which is the type of a verb which has been under dispute for a long time. It is generally translated, as here, to “dwell.” However, it means a great deal more than simply to dwell or to settle down. The meaning can be understood only as we go back into the Greek language and find its use in others areas. There is an old Greek proverb which says: “The wise man dwells in the perceptible body like an alien resident in a foreign land (In other words, you live in this body now, you will not be here for long and you will be removed by death), but in spiritual virtue he dwells at home [katoikew] like a native in his own country.” So katoikew means both indwelling and to be at home. It means indwelling, however it means indwelling under very relaxed conditions. Therefore it means to be at home, it means to inhabit; it is used here for the indwelling of the person of Jesus Christ — not in the body as per the Holy Spirit but in the heart. The Lord Jesus Christ is said to indwell and the residence is said to be …

“in your hearts” — e)n plus the locative plural of kardia. E)n plus the locative means “in the sphere of” or “inside.” Kardia refers to the right lobe. Doctrine is distributed in the right lobe and it is here that the Lord Jesus Christ indwells. In other words, the indwelling of the Lord Jesus Christ has to do with fellowship until we reach the point of super-grace. So fellowship on the road to super-grace is the objective. It is significant that the Holy Spirit is said to indwell our bodies, our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. But Christ is said to indwell the mentality of the soul, specifically the heart. This is said to be accomplished …

“by faith” — the preposition dia plus the genitive of pistij. Ordinarily pistij can be translated “faith.” However, it is Arndt and Gingrich which brings out the fact that there is an objectivising of pistij and it means that which is believed or the body of faith or doctrine. So it comes to means doctrine. Dia plus the genitive means “through,” so we have “through doctrine” or through what is believed. This, therefore, helps us to understand that the ministry of the indwelling of the Lord Jesus Christ is related to the intake of Bible doctrine.

Katoikew is in the aorist tense here — going back to the verb for the indwelling of Christ. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. It takes the indwelling of the Lord Jesus Christ and regardless of its duration gathers it up into a single whole. The Lord Jesus Christ indwells as the individual believer is GAPing it to super-grace. This is the concept of the aorist tense. The active voice: Christ produces the action of the verb by indwelling the heart or right lobe of the believer. The infinitive expresses God’s purpose which is, of course, the purpose of the indwelling of Christ — fellowship with the believer on the road to super-grace. So far the verse says “That the Christ may be at home in your hearts [right lobes] through the doctrine.”

The doctrine of the indwelling of Jesus Christ

1. The prophecy of the indwelling of Christ — John 14:20,21. The prophecy of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is found in John 14:16,17. The prophecy anticipates that the Jewish Age would be interrupted and that the dispensation of the Church would begin, there would be the royal bride prepared for the Lord Jesus Christ, on earth the body of Christ, the royal priesthood, and that this royalty would also live during the intensified stage of the angelic conflict.

2. A distinction must be made between the indwelling of Christ and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. This distinction is brought out in the context of Romans 8:9-11. The Holy Spirit indwells every believer permanently — for functional reasons now, but the reason for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is that we will always be royalty. The moment we were born again we were born spiritually into a type of royalty, a type of nobility which has never existed in human history, a totally and completely spiritual nobility, a spiritual nobility based upon spiritual principles and spiritual origin, a nobility which began at the point of salvation. At the point of salvation, in order that we might have and carry forever the sign of nobility we have the indwelling of God the Holy Spirit — 1 Corinthians 3:16; 6:19,20. However, Christ indwells the believer for the purpose of fellowship. The objective of this life is not to run around and pray, to run around and be religious, to be concerned, to be a bleeding heart, to be socially involved in the social reform of the world, that is like trying to whitewash the devil’s world. Our objective is to reach the super-grace life, the point where Christ can be glorified. Therefore, in order that we might have fellowship and encouragement on the road to super-grace we are indwelt by the Lord Jesus Christ.

3. The fellowship concept of the indwelling of Jesus Christ is found in two passages, Romans 8:10 and Galatians 2:20.

4. The indwelling of Christ is the confidence of reaching super-grace — Colossians 1:27. Glory in that passage refers to the super-grace life. The confidence of reaching super-grace glory is based upon the indwelling of Christ.

5. Therefore the purpose of the indwelling of Christ. Christ indwells every believer for the purpose of encouragement to super-grace, for the purpose of fellowship on the road to super-grace — Ephesians 3:17. This is accomplished through the consistent intake of Bible doctrine — Ephesians 3:18; Colossians 1:17 cf. Colossians 3:16.

6. The indwelling of Christ is temporary, depending upon attitude toward doctrine. Therefore, the reason for the departure of the indwelling Christ. Why does Christ cease to indwell believers? The answer is found in 2 Corinthians 13:5 — “Be testing yourselves, if you are in the doctrine [are you interested in doctrine or not?]; be testing yourselves for approval [GAP it daily]. Be perceiving yourselves that Christ is in you, unless you are a reversionist.” Christ is in you unless you are a reversionist.

7. The recovery of the indwelling Christ. Once Christ leaves you He is knocking on the door, and so you can recover the indwelling of Christ — Revelation 3:20 is Jesus Christ standing at the door warning the believer that he is in reversionism. Knocking on the door is the first stage of discipline on the road to reversionism. It is the warning stage. The recovery of the indwelling of Christ is through reversion recovery. It occurs when the reversionistic believer repents or opens the door, as per Revelation 3:20. The fellowship which follows — “I will sup with him” — is involved in reversion recovery through the consistent function of GAP.

“that” is not found in the original manuscript. The rest of the verse says literally, “in love having been rooted, and the foundation having been laid.” So this second part of the verse begins, e)n a)gaph which is literally “in love” — e)n plus the locative of a)gaph is “in the sphere of love.” A)gaph means two things. a) It refers to the filling of God the Holy Spirit — Romans 5:5. The Holy Spirit spreads abroad in the soul a)gaph love. b) A)gaph means a relaxed mental attitude. It is not an overt type love, it is a love in the soul where you are totally free from mental attitude sins. It is a relaxed mental attitude toward the human race.

“being rooted” — this has to do with doctrine being in the right lobe. We have a perfect passive participle of the verb rizow. The perfect tense is an intensive perfect, it means the action of the verb has been completed with results going on. The completion of the action here is that the individual has consistently been GAPing it so that he has gnwsij in his left lobe, has transferred it to where it becomes e)pignwsij. It has then been siphoned up into the right lobe so that he has e)pignwsij in the right lobe — in the frame of reference, in the memory centre, in his vocabulary area, in his categorical storage, and on the launching pad, the conscience, and so on. So this is an intensive perfect, the results go on. The result is reaching the super-grace life. The passive voice: the believer receives the action of the verb through the daily intake of Bible doctrine. This is a temporal participle and it should be translated “after having been rooted.” The participle actually emphasises e)pignwsij in the right lobe, this is the roots for the tactical victory of the super-grace life. This participle emphasises doctrine in the right lobe while the next one emphasises doctrine in the human spirit.

“and grounded” — the perfect passive participle of the verb qemeliow. It means to lay a foundation. The foundation for everything is in the human spirit. The imperfect tense is the intensive perfect indicating that the action of the verb is completed and the results are going on. Having a foundation means that e)pignwsij is not only siphoned into the right lobe or the heart but it is becoming building material. Now we begin the construction of the edification complex of the soul [ECS]. The first floor in the building in the soul is grace orientation. No soul except the soul of the believer, based upon Bible doctrine, can have this edifice, the ECS. The second floor is mastery of the details of life. The third floor is relaxed mental attitude. The fourth floor is capacity for love — category #1 toward God; category #2 right man, right woman; category #3 friendship. The top floor is +H where we begin to enter into the super-grace life. So here is a structure that does not exist in the soul except through Bible doctrine in the human spirit. The passive voice: the believer receives the action of the verb through the daily function of GAP and the conversion of gnwsij into e)pignwsij. Again we have a temporal participle.

Translation: “That the Christ may indwell [be at home in] your hearts [right lobes] through doctrine; in the sphere of love [filling of the Spirit], after having been rooted and after having received the foundation.”

The roots are in the right lobe, the foundation is in the human spirit.

Verse 18 — the purpose of the human spirit. This verse actually begins with the word “that.” This is the conjunction i(na plus the subjunctive used to introduce a purpose clause.

“you may be able” is the aorist active subjunctive (also the second person plural, “that you all may be able”) of e)cisxuw which means to be strong, to be fully able, to have complete ability, to have unusual strength or to have a total ability in some field. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. It takes the occurrence and regardless of its extent or duration gathers it into a single whole. Actually, the constative aorist here which gives us the ability is the intake of doctrine today, tomorrow, the next day and the next, and so on. Ability here is GAP-ability. The more you function under GAP the more you develop this ability which takes you to the super-grace life. The active voice: because of grace provision in the field of doctrinal perspicacity the believer produces the action of the verb actually completing and understanding doctrine in his soul. The subjunctive mood is a potential subjunctive which indicates that the function of GAP is dependent upon your volition. You have free will. True positive volition here is the consistent intake of doctrine on a daily basis.

“to comprehend” — aorist middle infinitive which goes with the verb, katalambanw which means to seize, to grasp, to light upon, to truly understand, to overtake, to attain a definite goal, to seize something and make it your own. These are all meanings for the active or passive voice and our infinitive is in the middle voice where it means to grasp mentally and to so grasp it as to make it your own. In other words, total comprehension. Again, we have a culminative aorist which emphasises the results. The result of GAPing it daily it total comprehension of doctrine. The middle voice is the direct middle, it refers the results of the action directly to the agent with reflexive force, and that means to comprehend in contrast to the active voice which simply means to seize or to grasp. The infinitive of result. The result of possessing doctrine is super-grace life.

“with all saints” — sun plus paj plus a(gioj. Sun plus a(gioj means “in the company of.” This refers to assembly of believers. This means that this comprehension does not take place apart from a local church situation where you have privacy for your priesthood. It should be translated “in the company of all saints” — sun plus the instrumental. This emphasises the principle of assembly.

Summary

1. “In the company of all saints” emphasises the conditions under which Bible doctrine must be taught.

2. Believers, saints, are all royalty in this age. They are assembled together under the authority of one pastor-teacher per congregation.

3. In this assembly of the local church the purpose is worship. The purpose of worship is having a classroom where a variety of IQs ranging from moron to genius all assemble.

4. All believers have the same opportunity and the same ability of comprehension in the field of Bible doctrine and spiritual phenomena. Why? Because it doesn’t depend on your IQ, it depends upon the grace apparatus God has provided. So GAP does not depend upon human IQ.

5. The genius does not have any advantage over the moron and the moron is not handicapped by his low IQ. 6. All believers have the same grace ability or full ability.

7. A believer can be one degree above a moron and understand the most profound doctrines by the use of GAP, while a genius using human IQ cannot understand even the simplest forms of doctrine.

8. Therefore, cognisance of Bible doctrine does not depend upon human perspicacity or academic background.

9. God’s grace is communicated through a system compatible with grace.

10. Grace found a way, therefore, for any believer to comprehend Bible doctrine.

Verse 18b — the word “what” is a nominative neuter singular of the interrogative pronoun tij. The nominative indicates that it is the subject of the content following, the singular indicates that it is one subject dealing with the human spirit rather than a list of subjects because there are four categories of the one subject. The neuter indicates that this is doctrine rather than dealing with some person. So what introduces the subject of categorical storage for the human spirit.

The doctrine of the human spirit

1. The human spirit is the immaterial part of man designed by God to convert, to store, and utilise spiritual phenomena or doctrine. The human spirit is designed to take gnwsij and convert it to e)pignwsisj. E)pignwsij activates doctrine. In the original creation of man it was received along with the human soul — Genesis 2:7, where we have the “breath of lives,” soul and spirit. The human spirit is not the same as the soul and the Bible distinguishes between them in Hebrews 4:12.

2. The variations of the status of mankind based upon the fact that man does not have the human spirit at the point of physical birth.

a) Original man was trichotomous — Genesis 2:7. He had a body, a soul, and a spirit. The body is material, visible, and soul and spirit are invisible and immaterial. All are real.

b) At the time of the fall — Genesis 3:6 — Adam and the woman suffered immediate spiritual death — Romans 5:12. Under spiritual death two things happened to them, namely the loss of the human spirit plus the acquisition of the old sin nature. Therefore when Jesus Christ came in the garden at the time for Bible class the man and the woman had to hide themselves in their fig leaves because they were incapable of learning doctrine, incapable of having fellowship with Jesus Christ as a member of the Godhead.

c) The unbeliever is born in the line of Adam, receives the imputation of Adam’s sin directly, and receives the old sin nature. So the unbeliever, then, is dichotomous — 1 Corinthians 2:14; Jude 19.

d) On the other hand the believer is said to be trichotomous — 1 Thessalonians 5:23. Since the unbeliever does not have a human spirit and the believer has a human spirit it is obvious that the human spirit is acquired at the point of salvation and is one of the 36 things we receive at the moment of salvation.

e) Therefore the believer receives the human spirit at the point of salvation. At the same time that he receives the indwelling Holy Spirit, the sign of royalty and the means of GAP. The human spirit is a staging area, a converter under the concept of GAP. The two spirits, God the Holy Spirit and the human spirit, are the keys to the assimilation of Bible doctrine in the Church Age.

3. Perception through the two spirits is taught in 1 Corinthians 2:12-16. Doctrine in the human spirit cannot be evaluated by human viewpoint or by human IQ.

4. Therefore the reality of spiritual phenomena resides in the two spirits of Romans 8:16 — “The Spirit reaches our spirit.” In other words, the Holy Spirit teaches the human spirit. The Holy Spirit is the teacher of Bible doctrine — John 14:26; 16:12-16; 1 John 2:27; 1 Corinthians 2:9-16. The human spirit is the target for doctrine and actually is the converter of gnwsij into e)pignwsij, as well as the dispenser of doctrine into the right lobe and the constructor of materials which go into the ECS — Ephesians 4:2-24.

5. The storage of doctrine in the human spirit. It is stored in the human spirit as the area of refreshment — 2 Corinthians 7:13. Doctrine is not meaningful in the left lobe. It is stored in the human spirit as the basis for all grace orientation. Grace orientation does not come from having doctrine in the left lobe. This is emphasised by James 1— “Be not hearers but doers of the Word.” A doer of the Word is simply a believer converting his gnwsij into e)pignwsij. Cf. Philemon 25. Spiritual IQ is related to doctrine stored in the human spirit — Job 32:8; Romans 8:16. 6. The human spirit is designed to store and distribute categorical doctrines — Ephesians 3:18,19.

7. Since the unbeliever does not possess a human spirit God the Holy Spirit must act like a human spirit for the comprehension of the gospel — Genesis 6:3; John 16:8-11; 1 Corinthians 2:14,15.

“what is” — now we have the categorical storage of the human spirit; “the breadth” — platoj, which refers to the storage of all doctrine pertaining to the plan of God which relates to the royal believer priest in the Church Age. A whole new realm of doctrine has to come into existence with the advent of the Church Age and the “breadth” is where we get the baptism of the Holy Spirit which the means of becoming royal family, the indwelling of the Spirit which is the sign or badge of royalty, the sealing of the Spirit which is the security for royalty.

“length” is the Greek noun mhkoj and it refers to all time categories stored in the human spirit; not only dispensations but the biblical interpretations of history with regard to historical eras, the biblical interpretation of civilisations, cycles of discipline, and any other category of doctrine where the time factor is involved.

“depth” is the Greek word baqoj which refers to all doctrines stored in the human spirit relating to the angelic conflict, to Satan, fallen angels, cosmos diabolicus, religion, revolution, and so on. It includes also the depths of Satan, as in Revelation 2:24. It also includes the deep things of God — 1 Corinthians 2:10. For this reason the angelic conflict is stored in this particular area. It also deals with the strategic and tactical implications of the angelic conflict.

“height” — u(yoj stores categories of doctrine pertaining to God, to essence, the Trinity, divine decrees, Christology and pneumatology as they are general subjects in the Bible (not the mystery aspects).

Translation: “In order that you all [believers in the royal priesthood] might have a complete grace ability to comprehend in the company of all saints [assembled in the local church] what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height.”

This indicates that whatever doctrine you have accumulated in the left lobe is converted and placed in these areas where it becomes activated and utilised.

Verses 19-21 — the road to super-grace.

Verse 19 — the attainment of super-grace. It starts with an unusual enclitic particle te. There are many different particles that could have been used here but this unusual word connects a clause where a close relationship exists and when one depends upon the other. It is a very rare particle. It is translated “And.”

“to know” — the believer’s job is to learn “in the company of all saints.” This the aorist active infinitive of ginwskw which means to know, to come to know, to learn, to ascertain by concentration, to comprehend, to perceive, and to realise. It can be gathered from that that the original meaning was intelligent comprehension of an object, of the matter. In other words, it means the mind reaches out and grabs certain things, taking them in. This is an ingressive aorist, it looks at the entire action of the verb from the standpoint of its beginning. It is generally translated “to begin to know” or “to come to know.” The active voice: the royal priest produces the action of the verb. The infinitive sets up a purpose. It is God’s purpose for royalty to learn how to be royalty. You and I were born into the family of God regenerated by the Holy Spirit. At the same time God the Holy Spirit put us into the palace. We are in the royal family. As never before in history, as in no other dispensation, every believer is left here to learn, learn, learn Bible doctrine. Why? Because royalty lives in a palace, royalty has materialistic things, royalty possesses wealth, royalty has leadership, royalty has the best of whatever you want. That is exactly what God intended for you. So the infinitive of purpose reminds us that God has kept us here to learn doctrine. Everything else is secondary and everything else we do in life depends on learning doctrine.

“the love” — No one knows how to love! Everyone has to learn how to love. No one is a natural lover. True love depends upon the capacity of the soul and you have to learn to love. What kind of love starts you on the road to learning? The accusative singular of a)gaph minus the definite article. The absence of the definite article points attention to the quality of the verb. Furthermore, the definite article is not needed when the phrase is put back into its Greek order, after the participle and the noun. After “and to come to know” we have a participle, “the surpassing knowledge of the love of Christ.” A)gaph is a very specialised type of love. It is knowing how to love before you ever express it, knowing how to do a thing before you do it. Before you do it you know how to do it. Knowing how to love is a)gaph. It is freedom from mental attitude sins because you can’t love and have mental attitude sins in the soul at the same time. That is the concept of a)gaph here.

Notice it is “the love of the Christ” — this is a possessive genitive. We possess Jesus Christ as the high priest. Therefore we have the definite article. But the definite article indicates our high priest is perfect and that if we are ever going to get into the picture as to fulfilling the reason why we are here we are going to have to know how to love Him as he love us.

The present active participle of u(poballw [u(per = over; ballw = to throw] is translated “surpassing.” The word means to overthrow or that which is beyond that. The present tense is a static present used for a condition perpetually existing. The active voice: the love of Christ produces the action of the verb. The participle is ascriptive, it ascribes a characteristic to the substantive, hence the participle is used as an adjective. When you take a present active participle and use it as an adjective there is a problem: “to come to know the surpassing knowledge.” In other words, the word “knowledge” is the substantive or the noun, “surpassing” is an ascriptive participle, and ascriptive participles are used as adjectives. So the word “knowledge” [gnwsij] is important. Gnwsij can be imagination [noew], it can be objective thinking [fronew], it can be subjective thinking [dokew]. But none of these things are any good in the Christian way of life. To get beyond these you have to learn, learn, learn — ginwskw. The phrase “God is love” is no good in the left lobe, it must be over in the frame of reference, then “God is love” links up with a lot of other things — “God is just, God is righteous, God is fair, God is true,” etc., all of the other things that are true in the love of God. Putting those in with it means God’s love becomes meaningful. So you must come to know the “surpassing knowledge love [gnwsij] of the Christ.” You have to get past gnwsij before you understand how much God loves you and before you can love God. You have to get beyond the gnwsij stage.

The doctrine of occupation with the person of Jesus Christ

1. Occupation with Christ is the maximum expression of category #1 love toward God, as per Deuteronomy 6:5; Hebrews 12:2. Since Christ is the manifest person of the Godhead it becomes maximum category #1 love toward the second person of the Trinity.

2. Occupation with Christ is related to GAP.

a) Capacity for occupation with Christ depends upon the intake of Bible doctrine in the soul through the consistent function of GAP — Jeremiah 9:24; Ephesians 3:18,19; 4:20; Colossians 3:1,2; Philippians 3:7,8.

b) The function of GAP is the believer priest responding to the love of Christ — James 1:21,22.

c) Occupation with Christ is the motivator of the pastor-teacher in leading others through GAP to the super-grace life and the normal function of the royal priesthood — Hebrews 6:10.

3. Illustration of occupation with Christ: Right man, right woman — 1 Corinthians 11:7; Ephesians 5:25-32.

4. Relationship to the strategical victory of the angelic conflict. Occupation with Christ is related to the strategic victory of Christ’s ascension and session — Colossians 3:1,2. It is also related to the strategic victory of the cross — Hebrews 12:2.

5. The permanence of category #1 love. The sealing of the Holy Spirit not only secures the royalty of the believer in the Church Age but it guarantees the eternal love relationship between Jesus Christ and the royal priest — Ephesians 1:11-14.

6. The title of occupation with Christ. We have a believer in the New Testament called filoj qeou — “lover of God” — James 2:22,23, used of Abraham in super-grace.

7. Characteristics of occupation with the person of Christ.

a) Occupation with Christ is the basis for super-grace believers contributing to national blessing — Deuteronomy 30:16,20.

b) Occupation with Christ provides courage and victory in battle — Joshua 23:10,11.

c) Occupation with Christ leads to both preservation and prosperity of super-grace — Psalm 31:23,24.

d) Occupation with Christ is associated with great stability plus great happiness — Psalm 16:8,9.

e) Occupation with Christ results in super-grace blessings, as per Psalm 37:4,5.

f) Occupation with Christ is the basis of blessing in suffering. Reversionism intensifies suffering; occupation with Christ minimises suffering — Psalm 77; 2 Corinthians 12:7-10.

8. Occupation with Christ glorifies Christ — Ephesians 3:21.

9. Occupation with Christ begins at the believers entrance into the super-grace life — Colossians 3:16,17; Hebrews 3:1,6.

“that” is the conjunction i(na used in a final clause which expresses a purpose, aim, or goal, and it is usually translated “in order that.”

“ye might be filled” — is the aorist passive subjunctive of the verb plhrow. The word means to fill up a deficiency. After salvation the believer has a deficiency, namely blessing, prosperity, promotion, wealth, success, and the capacity for these things. The deficiency is filled up by the super-grace life. The verb also means to fully possess, and the believer fully possesses super-grace blessings in the devil’s world glorifying God. It means to fully influence. The believer with the cup of super-grace blessings overflowing becomes a blessing to others, and therefore the overflow of blessing. The verb also means to fill of a certain quality. The super-grace believer is filled with the highest quality of things — wealth, success, prosperity, promotion, materialistic things of all sorts.

By way of morphology, the aorist tense is a constative aorist which contemplates the action of the super-grace blessings in entirety. It takes the occurrence of the super-grace life, gathers all of the blessings during the duration of it, and gathers them into one single whole so that all super-grace blessings are contemplated in their entirety. The passive voice: the believer receives super-grace blessing through the daily function of GAP and occupation with Christ. The subjunctive mood is the potential subjunctive, it indicates the fact that the super-grace life is potential, it depends upon the believer’s attitude toward doctrine.

The doctrine of plhrow has nine different uses

a) Plhrow is used for the function of GAP, the erection of the ECS leading to the entrance into the super-grace life for the Lord Jesus Christ — Luke 2:40. Also for the Church Age believer — Ephesians 3:19; 4;10; Colossians 1:9.

b) It is used for the believer controlled by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit — Ephesians 5:18.

c) It is used for the fulfillment of the law through the filling of the Spirit — Romans 8:4; Galatians 5:14.

d) It is used for the analogy of right man, right woman, for the body of Christ being fulfilled in Christ — Colossians 2:10; Ephesians 1:23.

e) It is used for the pastor communicating doctrine to his right congregation — Colossians 1:25.

f) It is used for the believer priest giving whereby the pastor’s financial security is established through his own congregation, thus freeing him to study and to teach doctrine — Philippians 4:18.

g) It is used for the production of divine good from super-grace — Philippians 1:11; Revelation 3:2.

h) It is used for the top floor of the ECS leading to the super-grace life — 1 John 1:4 cf. Philippians 4:4.

i) It is used for receiving super-grace blessings from God, as per Ephesians 3:19.

“with all fulness” uses the cognate of the verb. We have the preposition e)ij plus the accusative of paj, plus the accusative of plhrwma. Plhrwma means fulness, and with e)ij it means “to all the fulness.”

“of God” — the ablative of source qeoj plus the definite article. So it should be translated “to all the fulness from the God.” This is a reference to the super-grace blessings, the sum total of superabundant blessings which completes the royal priesthood. This refers to the perfect happiness, the wealth, the success, the promotion, the prosperity, the blessing from God the Father provided for every believer as a part of the royal family. The provision was made in the divine decrees in eternity past. Every believer has a super-grace paragraph with his name on it.

Translation: “And to come to know the surpassing knowledge love of the Christ [occupation with Christ], that you might be filled up to all the fulness [super-grace blessings] from the God.”

The doctrine of super-grace

1. Definition: Super-grace is the final stage of spiritual growth beyond the construction of the ECS. It is the ultimate in spiritual achievement in phase two, the basis for the normal function of the royal priesthood. It is the area of fulfillment of Romans 8:28 plus reaping what God sows. The nomenclature is derived from James 4:6 where the words “more grace” are literally “greater grace.” Super-grace is characterised by occupation with Christ, super-grace capacity, plus super-grace blessings. The super-grace blessings are all of a materialistic nature as well as spiritual. The spiritual side is not emphasised because it is the material type blessing that is a part of the tactical victory in the angelic conflict. Living in the devil’s world and having the things that are important and associated with happiness is a part of the concept.

2. The characteristics. The super-grace life is characterised by the analogy of a cup running over — Psalm 23:5,6. The pursuit of grace. The cup is the super-grace capacity through Bible doctrine in the soul. Pouring into the cup is God providing the super-grace blessings. The believer reaps what God sows in eternity past. Therefore we have three basic characteristics: i. Occupation with the person of Christ; ii. Super-grace capacity; iii. Super-grace blessing.

3. The super-grace life related to the categories of grace.

a) Salvation grace, all the Trinity has accomplished to save man. It involves the strategic victory of the angelic conflict, the planning of the Father, the work of the Son on the cross, the ministry of then Holy Spirit in revealing this. On the involvement side you have non-meritorious volition expressed by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ or faith in the living Word.

b) Living grace, everything God has to do to keep us alive in the devil’s world. No volition is involved since this is a matter of the sovereignty of God and, of course, the plan of God.

c) Super-grace or more grace of James 4:6. This is maximum growth resulting in occupation with the person of Christ. On the involvement side there is non-meritorious volition expressed by the daily function of GAP. This time we have the positive attitude toward the written Word in contrast to the living Word, Jesus Christ.

d) Surpassing grace or “the exceeding riches of his grace” in Ephesians 2:7. This is all that the Trinity will do for the believer in eternity. No volition is involved since the angelic conflict has been completed.

4. Illustrations of super-grace.

a) Abraham. His was super-grace sexual prosperity and he became the source of a new race and many Gentile nations.

b) Joseph who had super-grace promotion and prosperity with emphasis on ruling and blessing a gentile empire.

c) Moses — super-grace leadership making him the father of the Jewish nation.

d) David — super-grace leadership making David the greatest king of Israel until Christ returns at the second advent.

e) Isaiah — the super-grace blessing in the realm of Bible doctrine. He is the greatest prophet and Bible teacher during the kingdom.

f) Jeremiah — super-grace blessing in time of national disaster. He holds the record for super-grace blessings in old age.

g) Daniel — super-grace blessing and promotion outside of the land when the fifth cycle of discipline was in the process of administration.

h) Paul — super-grace blessing of a Jew in time of Israel’s dispersion or the interruption of the Jewish Age. His super-grace blessing is related to the doctrine of the mystery which he knew better, and more of it, than anyone in history.

5. The promotion of super-grace — Psalm 84. The super-grace believer is God’s man for the crisis, and the principle which comes out of this is that if God doesn’t promote you, you are not promoted. So all promotion is related to the intake of Bible doctrine.

6. The love problem in super-grace.

a) God loves every believer with maximum love because of propitiation.

b) However, the believer does not love God until he comes to know Him. We are saved without loving God. The requirement for salvation is not loving God but believing in Jesus Christ.

c) No believer gets to know God apart from consistent intake of Bible doctrine.

d) This means that the believer’s love for God varies according to the amount of doctrine he has taken into the soul.

e) Super-grace believers love God, as per Romans 8:28, Ephesians 3:19; 1 John 4:19.

f) God expresses His love in different ways: to the super-grace believers through blessing; to the reversionistic believer through divine discipline, as per Hebrews 12:6.

7. The role of happiness in the super-grace life.

a) The key to super-grace is happiness or the sharing of God’s +H.

b) Therefore the super-grace life is characterised by the happiness spectrum which ranges from tranquillity to ecstatics.

c) The same doctrine which provides +H (God’s happiness) also provides the super-grace status.

d) The top floor of the ECS is actually the beginning of the super-grace life. This is the tranquillity phase of +H.

e) The fulfillment of +H through doctrine is the entrance to the super-grace life — Philippians 4:4 cf. 1 John 1:4.

8. The reality of the celebrityship of Jesus Christ. Occupation with Christ is category #1 love, and occupation with Christ in category #1 love is the first characteristic of the super-grace life. The first thing that happens is a spiritual factor, occupation with Christ or having a genuine soul love capacity to love Jesus Christ. The super-grace believer has maximum love and appreciation for the person of Christ — Lamentations 3:22-25; Hebrews 12:2; Colossians 3:1,2. Category #1 love is tested in the assembly through the communion table.

9. The area of super-grace capacity includes: a) Freedom and the scripture; b) The capacity for life and the scripture; c) Capacity for love in all three categories and scripture; d) Capacity for happiness and scripture; e) Capacity for suffering and scripture.

Verse 20 — the divine authority is related to the super-grace blessing.

“Now” is the connective particle de used as a transitional particle without any contrast intended here.

“unto him that is able” — this is a definite article in the dative case used as a pronoun. With it also is a dative case, present middle participle of dunamai. The definite article is often used with the participle and when it is it becomes a personal pronoun. It can be translated “Now to the one being able” or “Now to him being able.” The dative case is the dative of indirect object both in the definite article and in the participle. The dative of indirect object indicates the one in whose interest the act is performed. God’s omnipotence acts in His own interest to provide super-grace blessings for the believer. In other words, dunamai with a definite article in the dative case plus the dative case in the participle tells us that it is to God’s interest to have the ability to give us anything in super-grace. He has that ability and has all of the assets necessary. There is no limitation to divine assets. The present tense of the participle is a static present representing a condition which perpetually exists representing a dogmatic factor in our lives. The middle voice is the indirect middle, it lays stress on the agent (God) producing the action rather than participating in its results. Therefore it should read, “Now to the one himself being able.” The participle is ascriptive, it ascribes to God the total ability to provide super-grace blessings for any and every believer to infinite amounts and quantities.

“to do” — the aorist active infinitive of the verb poiew. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist, it views the super-grace life in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results. The active voice: God the Father produces the action of the verb by providing super-grace blessings. The infinitive denotes God’s purpose in the super-grace status, i.e. to provide for each one of us super-grace blessings.

Next we have a double compound adverb. It is translated “exceedingly abundantly” — u(perekperissou. It means “infinitely more than.” In the Greek text there are some words in between, a prepositional phrase, u(per plus the accusative neuter plural of paj, called “above all.” The neuter gender is important here because it means “beyond all things.”

Putting everything in its correct place in the Greek sentence it should read: “Now to the one himself being able, far beyond all things, to do infinitely more than.”

“that” should be translated “that which” because it is a genitive plural from the relative pronoun o(j.

“we ask” — present middle indicative of a)itew. The present tense is a retroactive progressive present which indicates that that which was begun in the past continues into the present time. We keep on asking. All of our lives there are things that we want. We might ask for them verbally, we may think them only in our souls, but people keep on asking. So the retroactive progressive present indicates the fact that all of our lives there are things that are targets for happiness as far as we are concerned. The middle voice is an indirect middle which emphasises the agent as producing the action. This type of middle plus the indicative mood is a potential indicative. The potential indicative is generally associated with three ideas: obligation, impulse, or condition. All three ideas are found in those things which we have wanted all of our lives. With the indirect middle and the potential indicative this should be translated “we could ask,” taking into account there are a lot of things we haven’t thought we would ask for, we thought they were in reach but haven’t even thought about them. “or think” — noew here means to imagine. It refers to thinking in the left lobe in the field of imagination. The present tense is an iterative present which describes that which recurs at successive intervals, the present tense of repeated action. The active voice: The believer produces the action of the verb which here connotes imagination. The indicative mood is the declarative indicative which views the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality. It should be translated “or be imagining.”

“according to the power” is kata plus dunamij. This is used for inherent power. Two inherent powers are found in the royal priesthood: the filling of the Holy Spirit and doctrine in the soul. So the filling of the Holy Spirit plus the function of GAP equals the super-grace life.

“that worketh” — present middle participle e)nergew, meaning to be effective. This is a static present, it represents a state of spiritual growth is phase two (super-grace) which is taken for granted as a fact. The middle is that use of the verb which describes the subject as participating in the results of the action. We as believers participate in the results of being blessed by God. It becomes effective in our lives. Thus you have both the Holy Spirit and Bible doctrine participating in the results of the action which is entrance into the super-grace life. This is called the direct middle. The participle is circumstantial to describe entrance into the super-grace life.

“in us” is e)n plus the locative plural the pronoun e)gw, referring to all believers who reach super-grace.

Translation: “Now to the one himself being able far beyond all things to do infinitely more than that which we could ask or be imagining, according to the power being itself effective in us.”

Verse 21 — the divine glorification related to the super-grace blessing.

“unto him” is a dative singular from the intensive pronoun a)utoj. This emphasises the subject already mentioned, namely God the Father. He is the author of the divine plan. He is the one who authorised in the divine decrees the royal priesthood. He is the one who decided what each one of us would receive by way of super-grace blessings. This is also a dative of indirect object indicating that God the Father is the one in whose interest super-grace is provided. It is our blessing but it is God’s glory.

“be glory” — h( doca is literally “the glory.”

“in the church” — e)n plus the locative of e)kklhsia. It refers here to the local classroom. God is glorified by the assembly of believers being taught doctrine. God is glorified when you assemble and learn doctrine. This glorifies God in a small way, the result glorifies God in a great way. It is the tactical victory of the angelic conflict. Not found in the English text but in the Greek we have kai. So we have “in the church and.”

“by Christ Jesus” — positional truth, e)n plus the locative of Xristou I)hsou is “in Christ Jesus.” This means you also glorify Him strategically by being in union with Christ.

“throughout all ages” is not quite correct. It is simply, “with reference to all generations” — every generation in the Church Age. Every generation must do it the same way, it hasn’t changed since the day of Pentecost and the so-called apostolic period. The principle is true through all generations: the filling of the Spirit plus the consistent function of GAP equals entrance into the super-grace life. This is the tactical victory of the intensified stage of the angelic conflict. Therefore two things are necessary by way of residence: union with Christ occurs at the point of salvation, and residence in the classroom, the assembly of the local church. We reside in Christ forever. It is the amount of time we log in residing in the classroom learning that determines how quickly we reach super-grace.

“world without end” — tou a)iwnoj twn a)iwnwn means “forever and ever” really: “of the ages of the ages” is idiomatic for forever and ever. The phrase refers to the glory which God the Father receives from giving us super-grace blessings.

“Amen” is the end of the second apostolic prayer in Ephesians. It also means “I believe it.”

Summary

1. Only through the classroom of the local church can the Father be glorified in this dispensation.

2. The Father is also glorified at the moment God the Holy Spirit enters us into union with Jesus Christ. This identifies us with the strategic victory of the angelic conflict and it also enters us into the royal family of God.

3. It is the baptism of the Spirit that enters us into union with Christ. This occurs at the moment of salvation, it makes the believer a member of a royal priesthood, royal family, living in the palace.

4. It is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit which is the sign or badge of royalty.

5. The sealing of the Spirit gives security to all members of the royal family.

6. All of this relates the believer to the royal family in Christ through positional sanctification. This means that every believer in the Church Age is in full time Christian service.

7. The function of the royal priesthood is going to class consistently, daily if possible.

8. Since the local church is the classroom Bible doctrine is the daily food. It is the function of the royal family to dine daily on spiritual food.

9. We glorify God the Father and Jesus Christ by assimilating doctrine in the classroom in the Church Age.

10. This classroom has one teacher, many students.

11. Matriculation is accomplished after salvation through positive volition toward Bible doctrine.