Hello. Let us read again the passages which are basic to our present meditation.
Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God!
How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past tracing out!
Romans 11:33
Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, was this grace given, to preach unto the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.
Ephesians 3:8
And seeing that we have not yet said all that we have to say, for this present time, about the first context—riches, that is, the riches of grace—we will just look at one or two passages in that connection.
In the Ephesian letter, chapter 1, verse 17:
That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him.
Now, that is following what we have in verse 7 of that chapter:
In Whom we have our redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace.
The apostle’s prayer, at the end of that chapter, for a spirit of wisdom and revelation, has to do with the apprehension of the riches of His grace.
Chapter 2, verse 7:
That in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
The exceeding riches of His grace.
We have already considered some things related to this grace which are the riches. We have seen the nature of grace. We have seen God’s love of grace. We have set grace over against our own life on merit.
And we have seen that the great initiative of divine grace is in the free action of the Holy Spirit to bring us into that grace.
Before we go on to look still more deeply into this boundless, unsearchable version of divine grace, let us remind ourselves: just as grace is the beginning of everything for us and with us, so grace is the continual basis of everything to the end.
What is true at the beginning is true throughout the whole life of the child of God. It sounds like a contradiction, but it is not, to say that the law of grace governs the whole life of the people of God.
What grace begins, grace carries on, and grace crowns. We will never leave the basis of grace. We shall discover, as we go on, increasingly, how we are bound—just bound—to grace for everything that comes to us from God; for everything that we know of God; everything that we can be or can do.
It will always be grace, nothing else. We will never move from that grace, from that ground, unto any other. That sounds simple, but this is something which confronts us every day of our life, and all the way along.
We shall be simply compelled by the Holy Spirit to recognize this, to accept it, and to take this position. Now, this is all a matter of the grace of God. We will never get by this; we will never get any further—only by His grace.
So that we are steadily moving, really moving in a very practical way, toward that passage which we have just read: “That in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace toward us.”
In the ages to come, the riches of grace will be exceeding and displayed in us. And I think we are beginning to realize that that is a fact. More and more, we are becoming aware that it has got to be more grace, and still more grace.
And if we have any difficulty about that—if we feel that that is rather difficult, and it is going to be more and more difficult, requiring more and more grace—let us put this climactic statement over the whole life: “In the ages to come, to show the exceeding riches of His grace toward us.”
So you cannot get to that point, where it is so great, so complete, perfect, full, and final, in one day or in one experience. The whole of the life of the people of God is a pilgrimage of grace.
I expect you know—and it is worth pausing here to note it, to remind ourselves of it—that Peter’s letters are founded upon this one word: grace. It is a great pity that translators have not given us the correct translation in every case in Peter’s letters.
Now Peter, as you also know, represents the church as in its pilgrimage. Paul represents the church as in the heavenlies, having arrived, very largely. He is viewing it from above. Peter is viewing it here, and he says, “I beseech you as sojourners and pilgrims.” That is Peter’s standpoint: the pilgrimage of the church.
And the great word of the pilgrimage with Peter is the word grace. Grace. He has so much to say about grace.
You will probably remember that he says, if you take persecution, opposition, and ill-treatment joyfully, “this is acceptable with God.” But the translators have put the word acceptable there. The real word is grace. The word in the original is, “This is grace.”
The pilgrimage contains persecution, opposition, misrepresentation, and what not. And if any man knew about that, Peter did. If any man knew the meaning of grace, it was that man who had denied his Lord in such a way as to feel he had sinned beyond the possibility of forgiveness.
If you had done a thing like that three times, in a vehement, angry way—declared that you did not know Jesus Christ after having been with Him for three years in the closest contact—then spared yourself, and, in the first instance, flatly refused the suggestion that you had any association with Him; if you had done that, as Peter had done that, I think that would be good ground for believing in the unpardonable sin, do you not?
No wonder he went out and wept bitterly. No wonder the Lord had plans to make a special mention of him when calling for the scattered disciples after His cross: “Go, tell His disciples and Peter”—and Peter, mentioned by name.
Well, that is all ground so familiar. But we can understand why Peter’s great word was grace. Grace, yes. Grace for the pilgrimage.
And one thing Peter is saying so much about in his letter is the sufferings—the sufferings of this present time. And it is grace all the way along. Oh, how it calls for grace!
But—and this belongs to a further consideration—it is grace unto glory. Grace and glory. What grace begins—and we all know that it is through grace that we begin, the grace of God that brings us into salvation—grace is going to perfect the work, carry it right through, and crown it at last.
The capstone will be brought forth with shoutings of, “Grace, grace, unto it.”
Now, when we talk about riches of grace, we are in the realm of the unsearchable, the inexhaustible, and we shall never be able to fathom these depths. But I think we can, for a little while, go a little deeper this evening.
I want you to come to this first chapter of the letter to the Ephesians. I am not going to make anything of it; this may be a coincidence. There may be really nothing in it. But you know that, in Bible numbers, the number of grace is five. Five.
And here in this chapter we have five of the exceeding riches of His grace. And when I say exceeding, I am quite sure that, as we look at them, you will say, “That is beyond me. I cannot comprehend it. That is too big.”
Nevertheless, you know, we are allowed to look at big mountains, even if we cannot compass them. And it sometimes does us good to look at them.
But thank God, these are not just objective things that are presented to us here. We are in them. We are in them. And so we will just look at these five great riches of His grace.
Let us take the fourth verse, then—chapter 1, verse 4:
Even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blemish before Him in love.
He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world. Do you understand that? Can you comprehend that?
This is election—a very troublesome word in theology and doctrine. But we are not, at this moment, interested in theology, nor in Christian doctrine as such. What we are concerned with is spiritual value, because we are talking about riches.
I have studied a good deal of theology in my time, but I cannot say that I have got much wealth out of it—many riches. It is dry dust. And studying the subject of election, as adoption—oh, how arid it is, how lifeless!
And yet here it is in the Word. It is definitely stated that He chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world. There was an election which took place in those eternal counsels of God which included us.
If we are today in Christ Jesus, we are in Christ Jesus because we were chosen in Christ Jesus before the foundation of the world.
Well, you see, to begin with, you are dealing with a timeless God. What was a matter of four thousand years ahead, so far as time was concerned, was present with God before time began, because He is timeless. Everything which for us is future time is always present time with God.
And so, for Him, in effect, Christ was then; we were then. In effect, we were. And God acted on eternal ground. That may not be very helpful or interesting, but let us look at this matter.
I am going to change the word. I do not like that word election, although in certain forms it is in the New Testament: “elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father.” That is Peter. And the elect is there mentioned as a body.
But I say again, I am not fond of this word election because of its associations. So I am going to change it and speak about selection. It is the same thing in meaning and in working: selection.
Now then, when we get that word, we are helped. The nation of Israel was selected out of all the nations—selected, chosen if you like, elected if you like. But God looked on all the nations of the earth and selected Israel among the nations.
Did that mean that God rejected all the other nations because He selected this nation? Did it mean that He selected them to be saved and all the other nations to be lost because they were not selected?
Well, let us come into this room. Here we are, a little company of people. Allow me—not to take the place of God, but just to take this place by way of argument. I want something done. I look over this company.
And, of course, this is not true; I know everyone fairly thoroughly. But I look over the company and I say, “Brother, I want you to come alongside of me for this thing that I want done.” I select you. Understand?
Now, do not jump to conclusions, either you or the others. Do not judge that you are more important than all the others, that you are better than all the others, or that you are more worthy of this than the others. That is not true.
And you others, do not jump to the conclusion that because I do not select you—any one or all—that you are rejected by me and have no place in this plan of mine. Do not conclude that you are less worthwhile than this one, less worthy because you are not selected for this thing. Come to no such conclusion.
The Lord selected the nation Israel and said, “I chose you, not because you are better than the other nations—not at all because you are better, and not because you are worthy. But I have acted sovereignly and chosen you, or selected you, because I have a purpose that I want fulfilled.”
Now, My purpose is to use you for the good of all the other nations. All these other nations are going to come into blessing through My use of you—My selection of you.
Let us get to the Bible. What was the covenant with Abraham, the first declaration?
In thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed.
That does not sound as though all the nations were rejected and consigned to be lost because they were not the selected nation, does it? “In thy seed,” “in thy seed.”
Here is a great illustration in history: Joseph. Joseph was hated by his brethren, but beloved of his father. Joseph was rejected by his brethren, but the love of the father was upon him.
Now, through Joseph, Egypt was saved from famine and death—not only his brethren, the children of his father, but, through Joseph, the blessing of life and salvation came to the land of Egypt, to the nation of Egypt.
A chosen one, a selected one, of a nation, became a great blessing to the nation as well. Election—chosen, selected—simply means the purpose to serve God in a purpose, not that you should be saved and the others appointed to be lost.
See the twist that has been given to this word—how positive it is.
And we know, right through Israel’s history, that whenever Israel forgot God and failed to fulfill the vocation to which they had been called, they were put under a state of adversity as to their calling.
They were a nation for the nations. And then they made themselves an exclusive body, shut up to themselves, despising the nations, and calling the Gentiles dogs, having no dealings with them.
“So, we are the people, and we are the only people. God is only interested in us. The nations are doomed.” They justified themselves in their very calling: “In thy seed shall all nations of the earth be blessed.”
And, dear friend, instead of being a blessing, they became really a curse among the nations. God said, “That is enough. You have cancelled out your own vocation, your own calling, your own election. You cancel it out.”
And Israel, for these two thousand years, has been in the outer darkness, with much weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth. That is how it is, is it not? Why? Because in the Son of God their vocation for the whole world was secured, and they rejected their own vocation when they rejected Him.
That is history, and that is the meaning of election: selected not to be saved as over against all others to be lost, but for a purpose—the blessing of all others, the salvation of all the others who will be saved.
Now, you see, we come to Ephesians 1:4: the church, chosen in Him before the foundation of the world, to be a blessing—the vessel and instrument of God to be a blessing to the whole world.
Well, in his letter to the Galatians, Paul speaks of the church as the Jerusalem which is above: “the Jerusalem which is above, which is our mother.”
John, in his vision, sees the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from above, out of heaven from God. Paul has seen it there: New Jerusalem, our mother. John sees it coming down: the New Jerusalem from above, our mother.
And he goes on to say:
The nations shall walk amidst the light thereof.
The nations shall walk in the light thereof. So there are nations extra to this selected nation. And this selected nation—Peter again says, “Ye are a chosen race”—this selected nation, the church, has been selected to be a light to the nations in the ages to come.
“The nations shall walk in the light thereof.” This is, as I see it, the true doctrine of election.
Now, you and I in Christ, as a part of that nation, of that Jerusalem which is above, that heavenly city—you and I have been called and chosen in Christ to form this body, which is symbolized as a city, to diffuse the light of grace in the ages to come to the redeemed nations.
They shall see the full manifestation of the grace of God, the exceeding riches of His grace toward us.
Now, dear friends, when I am saying these things, I am all the time catching my own breath. I know quite well that I am involving myself in something which will be a very real test—ground very deep and testing.
And I say this: because of the greatness of the vocation, which is to display the exceeding riches of His grace not only to angels, but to nations—redeemed nations—in the ages to come, because of that, you and I have to learn the meaning of grace experimentally.
If it is to be displayed in its fullness, my, how you and I are going to be made to know the necessity for grace, the greatness of grace! It is all grace.
May that not explain the fiery trial which Peter speaks of in connection with grace?
Think it not strange concerning the fiery trial among you, which cometh upon you to prove you, as though a strange thing happened unto you.
Though now for a little while, if need be, ye have been put to grief in manifold trials.
Why? Well, he just says that grace—great grace—is to be known and to be shown. What grace! How deep is this grace!
Why? Well, he just says that grace—great grace—is to be known and to be shown.
What grace! How deep is this grace! If this is true—not imagination, not a beautiful idea—but if we could see with John the redeemed nations of the earth walking in the light of what God has done in us, deriving their blessing through the church; if we could just see this, then we should cry and say, “Unsearchable! Oh, the depth of the riches!”
How great is grace, that in the ages to come—yes, the ages to come—He might show forth the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us.
And I have taken a lot of time on only one of the five of these riches of grace, but it wants a great deal more, does it not, to explore that one realm?
Perhaps I might take another this evening, and if we do not get further, it does not matter for the time being. We go into the next verse of Ephesians 1, verse 5:
Having foreordained us unto adoption as sons through Jesus Christ unto Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will.
Having foreordained us unto adoption as sons unto Himself through Jesus Christ. There is a great deal that wants breaking up, but I will just be content with this phrase, this part of the whole: “Unto adoption as sons.”
Selection. Adoption. What does that mean?
Paul has more to say about that in his letter to the Romans, chapter 8, where he is defining sonship. He is saying, “These are sons of God that are led by the Spirit of God. If any man hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.”
And he is explaining that it is by the Spirit that we become sons of God. Now here he goes right back: “Having foreordained us unto adoption.”
And one meaning of adoption is certainly this: that an adopted one does not stand on the natural ground of sonship; that one is brought in from the outside.
This letter to the Ephesians, as you know, was written almost entirely, if not entirely, to Gentiles—brought in from the outside, called outsiders by the Jews.
But this goes far back before Israel was a people—before Israel existed. For to be brought in from the outside and made sons means that you are not sons by nature. You are not sons or children of God on natural grounds at all.
It disposes of the whole theory that everybody, by natural birth, is a son of God, a child of God. Not true. No, not true.
Sons of God are brought in on other than natural grounds. They are not the born ones; they are the adopted ones. The church is an adoptive body. We are not of the church by nature.
Now, this has been a controversy, both in the natural realm and in the religious realm, for hundreds of years.
In the natural, scientific realm, a controversy raged for three hundred years on the question of life—the origin of life. One side of the argument, represented by highly qualified intellectual scientists, argued and tried to prove that life is spontaneous. It is there naturally; it just comes about of itself.
And they wrote wonderfully highbrow books about this, and argued and had their conferences. Life is just there, and it comes about of itself.
The other side took this position: “No, not at all. Life can only come from life. It does not come from nothing. It can only come from life.”
And if life springs up, if life comes into being, you will track it down to some living organism. You see, this whole science of microorganisms: the very air, the very dust of the air, is impregnated with some organism, minute—too minute for the natural eye to see.
But put it under certain tests in the test tube, and you will see, you will discover, that there is a living organism there. Always, life is coming out of life. It does not come out of nothing; it comes out of life.
Well, in the end, of course, the second side won. The great Pasteur proved it. He rode over the whole of the argument. The theory of spontaneous life is dead; it is killed.
He carried out all the experimental proof. If you bring sufficient heat, or cold, to the nth degree to bear upon a substance—so intense, beyond normal heat—you will never be able to produce life from that material.
Now, this same kind of argument and contention has gone on for hundreds of years in the religious world. A very large group of people, theologians, will say, “We are sons of God by natural birth.”
Humanism is built upon that—human good, natural good. And you have only got to develop the natural good in people, and later, a few million years, but in the end they become God. The deification of humanity is in the very nature of man.
How, under the experiment of two world wars, that theory can stand, I do not know. We have discovered what really is in man, and what he can do when man has been developed at the highest level of education and civilization.
We know what man can do to man, and is doing today. How can you speak about the natural sonship of God, inherent in man, without any special intervention or operation?
Well, the other side comes to the Bible, the Word of God, and says, “Only from Him Who has life can life be derived.” Life—eternal life—can never be unless it comes from a living source.
There must be life, eternal life, somewhere before you can have it. It must come from this. It does not come out of that which is dead.
The simple inquiry of the angel on the resurrection morning has a profound meaning: “Why seek ye the living among the dead?” That is incongruous, contradictory; it belongs to two worlds. There is nothing of life where there is death.
Why are you seeking life among the dead? You can only seek life where there is a living source. Eternal life—in Him was life.
Now, you see, sonship—oh no, we are not sons or children of God by natural birth. By adoption, being brought in from the outside and given life—we have not got it.
Of course, you people do not need such an argument, do you? But perhaps it is helpful for us to recognize that we are brought out of nothingness, so far as a relationship with God is concerned, and given that which makes us children of God—something which we do not have and cannot have, only by adoption.
I know there are other, fuller meanings of adoption, but this is its basic meaning: brought in from outside and made members of a family to which we do not belong by nature.
Only by new birth are we adopted and brought in. What a wonderful thing! This is the grace of God.
But now in Christ Jesus ye that once were far off are made nigh in the blood of Christ.
Who were not children by nature—not sons—are now made sons. And part of our terrible plight is represented by that word, not, and were afar off. God only knows the great chasm that was between us and Him and His family by nature.
There is a terrible chasm. There has got to be great grace, and we have got to be brought over that chasm. And that is what the grace of God does. The bridge is in Christ Jesus.
Our adoption is in Christ, as our election is in Christ. He is the bridge which comes over, brings us safely across, and brings us in.
How unsearchable are His judgments! Oh, the depth of the riches—the riches of His grace! We are truly in deep waters. We can only wonder and worship, if this is true, if this is what the Word of God teaches.
I believe it does teach this. If so, what wonders and mysteries and riches of grace are found in His kindness toward us.
Kindness toward us, who were once afar off, who by His kindness are made nigh—other words, by His grace.
I think we must leave it there for this evening, not overload, and leave these other three things for another time. The Lord enable us. We praise Him.