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.