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I. The dispensing of God the Father in the life in God the Son enlivening the believers (who were in death) together with Christ, raising them up together with Christ, and seating them together with Christ in the heavenlies, thereby creating the believers as His masterpiece:
А. To be His church.
B. That He might display in the ages to come the surpassing riches of His (the Triune God’s) grace of life — Eph. 2:1-10.
Ephesians 2:1-10
And you, though dead in your offenses and sins, (2) in which you once walked according to the age of this world, according to the ruler of the authority of the air, of the spirit which is now operating in the sons of disobedience; (3) among whom we also all conducted ourselves once in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the thoughts, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest; (4) but God, being rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us, (5) even when we were dead in offenses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved) (6) and raised us up together with Him and seated us together with Him in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus, (7) that He might display in the ages to come the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. (8) For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, (9) not of works that no one should boast. (10) For we are His masterpiece, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand in order that we would walk in them.
II. The divine dispensing of God the Son creating the Jewish and Gentile believers into one new man, through His death on the cross and with His divine element, for God to accomplish His divine economy, thereby causing the two groups of believers:
А. To be reconciled in one Body to God.
B. To enjoy Christ as the peace between the two and between them and God — Eph. 2:11-17.
Ephesians 2:11-17
Therefore remember that once you, the Gentiles in the flesh, those who are called uncircumcision by that which is called circumcision in the flesh made by hands, (12) that you were at that time apart from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world. (13) But now in Christ Jesus you who were once far off have become near in the blood of Christ. (14) For He Himself is our peace, He who has made both one and has broken down the middle wall of partition, the enmity, (15) abolishing in His flesh the law of the commandments in ordinances, that He might create the two in Himself into one new man, so making peace, (16) and might reconcile both in one Body to God through the cross, having slain the enmity by it. (17) And coming, He announced peace as the gospel to you who were far off, and peace to those who were near.
III. The divine dispensing of God the Spirit enabling both groups that compose the new man to have access in Him unto God the Father, thereby causing the Body as the new man to become:
А. The kingdom of the Triune God for His administration.
B. The house of God for the dispensing of His love.
C. The dwelling place of God in the believers’ spirit for His rest — Eph. 2:18-22.
Ephesians 2:18-22
For through Him we both have access in one Spirit unto the Father. (19) So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, (20) being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone; (21) in whom all the building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord; (22) in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in spirit.
In the previous chapter we saw in Ephesians 1 the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity and how it has produced the church. The Father’s choosing dispensed the Father’s nature into us so that we can become holy, and His predestination dispensed His life into us so that we can become His sons. Following this, the Son came to redeem us. In the Son’s redemption, through Christ’s element, God constitutes us His precious inheritance. Then God the Spirit seals us and becomes a pledge to us so that, on one hand, He saturates and permeates us, and on the other hand, He becomes our enjoyment as a foretaste of God becoming the blessing of our inheritance. Finally, the surpassingly great power that the Triune God operated in Christ is transmitted into us to produce the church.
In Ephesians 2 Paul continues by first showing us that the dispensing of God the Father in the life in God the Son has enlivened the believers (who were dead in sins) together with Christ, has raised them up together with Christ, and has seated them together with Christ in the heavenlies, thereby creating the believers as His masterpiece to be His church, that He might display in the ages to come the surpassing riches of the Triune God’s grace of life (vv. 1-10).
First, Paul shows us, those who have become the church, what kind of persons we were and how God worked on us to make us His masterpiece. In verses 1 through 3 he shows us that we who have been created to be the Body of Christ through God’s dispensing were formerly not only sinners but dead ones, being dead in our offenses and sins. In the universe we were nothing. However, through God’s great mercy He came to us in His grace, which is the divine life of God in His Son. For God to come to us in His grace is for Him to come to us in the divine life of His Son. Through this divine life God enlivened us, the dead ones, with Christ. Christ died for our sins, and on the third day God raised Christ up. He used this enlivening life to do the work of His masterpiece so that we, the dead ones, could become alive.
After we were made alive, we were raised up together with Christ (v. 6). To be made alive is to wake up, and to be raised up is to stand up and be able to move around. Moreover, in resurrection God has seated us in the heavenlies. No longer are we a group of people on earth, but we are a group of people in the heavenlies. In this way we have entered into life from death and have been transferred from earth to heaven. In this position of resurrection and ascension, we are no longer living in sin; rather, we are walking in the good works that God has prepared for us to walk in (v. 10). In this way God has worked on us in His grace to such an extent that we have become God’s masterpiece.
The word for masterpiece in Greek means “something that has been made,” “a handiwork,” or “something that has been written or composed as a poem.” Not only a poetic writing may be considered a poem but also any work of art that expresses the maker’s wisdom and design. God has caused us who were useless ones, sinners dead in sins, to become in the universe something beautiful and expressive of God’s wisdom. Before the eyes of the angels and even before the eyes of the enemy, we are a sweet, beautiful, and wise poem written by God. In other words, we who were useless and were dead in sin have become, through God’s grace of life, a song that is singable and enjoyable.
Formerly, we were hopeless ones. But God has dispensed His life into us. When this life comes, grace comes as well. The coming of God’s grace was a living breath that was breathed into our dead heart, and we were enlivened within. We became alive together with Christ. We also stood up with Christ and became able to move and work. Not only so, God has lifted us to the heavenlies and has seated us in the heavenlies. While we are seated in the heavenlies, God and the angels consider us a beautiful poem. This shows the extent to which God’s dispensing has worked on us.
In ourselves, we do not have the capacity to make ourselves alive, to stand up, and to ascend into the heavens. Our nature does not have the capacity to overcome the power of gravity. However, God’s breath of life, His grace of life, has been breathed into us. This grace of life contains a capacity that enables us to ascend until we arrive in the heavenlies, where God is. It has also seated us there so that God might display in the ages to come, that is, in the millennium and in the new heaven and new earth, the riches of His grace of life. There we will be as a musical hymn for all creation to sing of God’s sweetness, wisdom, and glory. Hymns, #203 is a very sweet hymn. As we sing such a hymn, we sense its sweetness and its beauty. I believe that one day, in the kingdom, all the angels will take the lead in the creation to sing such a song of praise to God concerning us as God’s poem, God’s masterpiece.
Paul goes on to show us that before we were saved, we were not only dead but also uncircumcised. In the eyes of the circumcised Jews, we, the uncircumcised Gentiles, were defiled and unclean, like swine and like dogs. We were separated from God’s chosen people and from the covenants of God’s promise, we were without Christ, and we had no hope and were without God (vv. 11-12). However, Christ came and brought all of us poor people to the cross so that in His all-inclusive death the chosen Jews and the chosen Gentiles all died there. The circumcised Jews and the uncircumcised Gentiles were all crucified there. After such an all-inclusive crucifixion, the distinction between the Jews and the Gentiles was removed.
After this, Christ resurrected from the dead. This can be illustrated by a grain of wheat. When it is planted into the earth, on one hand, it dies. But on the other hand, it continues to work in death. When Christ was crucified on the cross, in a superficial sense, He died. But actually, He was working to release the divine life. When the divine life was fully manifested, that was resurrection. Hence, resurrection is in fact a process. In this process Christ passed through death, and through His work of death the divine life encased in His human shell was released. When the Lord was on the cross, on the one hand, He was dying there, but on the other hand, His death was His work. At the end of His work on the cross, the Lord said, “It is finished!” (John 19:30). This means that in the six hours prior to that time, the Lord had been working.
Even after He died, the Lord was still working in Hades. After His work in Hades was completed, He walked out of Hades and told death and Hades goodbye. He did not run away from death and Hades; rather, He walked out of death and Hades and entered into resurrection. Through His death and resurrection the Lord accomplished one work, which was to create the chosen Jews and the chosen Gentiles in Himself into one new man (Eph. 2:15). Hence, this work of death and resurrection was a creating work. On one hand, God’s coming to us in the life of His Son, breathing into us a breath, enlivening us, the dead ones, raising us up together, and seating us together in the heavenlies in Christ, has made us a universal poem and God’s masterpiece to be sung by the angels to the praise of God. On the other hand, God’s masterpiece also became a new man created through Christ’s death and resurrection. On the cross Christ dealt with His chosen Jews and chosen Gentiles. He also used death as a process through which, with His own element, He created all of us in Himself into one new man so that we can bear remaining fruit and so that the Body of Christ can propagate continually to be an expanding church and an expanding Body to accomplish God’s eternal economy on earth. In this new man there is no more distinction between the Jews and the Gentiles (Col. 3:10-11). This new man causes all of us, the Jewish and the Gentile believers, to be fully reconciled to God in one Body and to enjoy Christ as the peace among us and between us and God (Eph. 2:16-17). Now we, the Jewish and the Gentile believers, have no problem with each other, and we have no problem with God. We are together in the church, the Body of Christ, accomplishing God’s eternal economy.
At the end of Ephesians 2 Paul continues by showing us that the divine dispensing of God the Spirit enables both groups that compose the new man to have access in Him unto God the Father. This causes the Body as the new man to become the kingdom of the Triune God for His administration, the house of God for the dispensing of His love, and the dwelling place of God in the believers’ spirit for His rest (vv. 18-22).
In the previous sections it was God the Father and God the Son coming to us. Beginning from 2:18, we have God the Spirit bringing us to have access unto God the Father for a continual receiving of the dispensing.
God has dispensed Himself into us so that we who were dead in sin could become God’s masterpiece and so that we, the separated ones who were dogs and swine, could become the new man. Now in the Spirit we have come unto the Father so that daily, moment by moment, we might receive from the Father as the source the continual dispensing. When we enter into Him, fellowship with Him, live before Him, and wait on Him, He gives Himself to us bit by bit as our grace. This bit-by-bit giving of Himself to us as grace is a continual and eternal dispensing.
Today we are before God. We have been made into a poem by God the Father, created into a new man by God the Son, and brought by God the Spirit unto the Father. There is no longer any separation between us and the Father. This is like a house that already has electricity installed in it. Electricity from the power station can now continually and steadily flow into the house. As we remain in the Father’s presence, He continually graces us. This means that continually and eternally we will enjoy His dispensing. It is in this continual dispensing that we all, Japanese, Chinese, Koreans, Europeans, and Americans, are coordinated together and are built together. In such a situation we become, first, God’s kingdom, where God exercises His administration. Second, we become a house, a household, of love in which God dispenses His love. Third, this kingdom and this house are God’s habitation for His rest. This is the church, and this is all accomplished through God’s dispensing.
Dear brothers and sisters, I believe that in these years God will complete His work. In His recovery God wants us to come up to this standard. You and I, irrespective of our race or color, will not only be the same and love each other, but before the Father and in this continual, eternal, stable, and steady dispensing, we will even be joined together and coordinated together. Today in the Lord’s recovery, we can see a little bit of this situation. We are receiving grace daily in this continual dispensing. The more we receive grace, the more we will be joined, coordinated, and even built together. Thus, we become on earth a kingdom for God to exercise His administration, a household in which He can dispense His love, and a dwelling place of God for His rest. This is Ephesians 2: the Father dispensing life to produce the masterpiece, the Son dispensing through His process of death and resurrection to produce the new man, and the Spirit bringing those who have received grace to come to the Father in one Body, living in God’s eternal dispensing. The result is that the church is built up on earth, and God’s eternal economy is fulfilled. This is what we hope to see.
