The Great Gift of our Union with Christ.

Here is a passage by John Owen celebrating our union with Christ. Owen stops and marvels at what a miracle it is that we have the Spirit of Christ indwelling us.

Hereby we have union with Jesus Christ, the head of the Church, and become 'members of his bones and of the flesh' (Eph. 5:30); as Eve was of Adam; she had the same nature with him, and that derived from him; so we are of him, partakers of the same divine nature; for he that is 'joined to the Lord is one Spirit' (I Cor. 6:17). How excellent then is this grace! It is the same in kind with the holy nature of Christ, and makes us one with him. How great a privilege it it! What an honour and security to the soul that has it. What duties are hence required, and how should we admire the grace and love of Christ through whose mediation we receive it. This is our life, but we cannot perfectly comprehend it, for it is hid with Christ in God' (Col. 3:3). (p. 307, The Holy Spirit: His Gifts and Power

John Owen on Self Cleansing from Sin is Impossible.

John Owen addresses directly the people who think they can cleanse themselves from sin by their own efforts. According to scripture we are too filthy and too weak to accomplish the task. External law and forces cannot do it. We need to be cleansed from the inside out.

We are unable of ourselves, without the special assistance of the Holy Spirit, to free ourselves from this pollution[the effects of sin]. It is true, it is frequently prescribed to us as our duty. We are commanded to wash ourselves, to cleanse ourselves from sin, and the like, but these expressions do not imply a power in ourselves to perform what is so required; but they teach us, that whatever God works in us in a way of grace, he prescribes to us in a way of duty; and though he does it in us, yet he also does it by us; so that the same work is an act of his Spirit and of our wills as actuated thereby. We are not able by an endeavours of our own, to cleanse ourselves from this defilement. 'If I wash myself with snow-water' saith Job, 'and make my hands ever so clean, yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch, and my own clothes shall make me to be abhorred' (Job 9:29). Means may be used whereby an appearance of cleansing may be made, but when things come to be tried, in the sight of God, all will be found filthy and unclean, 'In vain', says the prophet, 'shalt thou take to thyself soap and much nitre; you shalt not be purged' (Jer. 2:22). The most probable means of cleansing, and the the most effectual in our judgement, however multiplied, shall fail in this case. Some speak much of washing away their sins by the tears of repentance; by repentance, as prescribed in the Scripture, is of another nature, and assigned to another end: men's tears are but 'soap and nitre', which will not produce the effect intended. The institutions of the law were of themselves insufficient for this purpose; they purified the unclean legally, and as to the flesh (Heb. 9:13); of themselves they could go no further, only they signified that whereby sin was really cleansed. The real stain is too deep to be removed by any outward ordinances, and therefore God, as it were rejecting them all, promised to open another fountain for that purpose (Zech. 13:1).

John Owen has another chapter on how the filth of sin is purged by the Spirit and blood of Christ. The introduction to the chapter reveals his argument.

The purification of believers from the defilement of sin, is assigned in Scripture to various causes--to the Holy Spirit, as the efficient cause; to the blood of Christ, as the procuring cause; and, to faith and affliction, as the instrumental causes.

The Holy Spirit is the craftsman who is making the sanctification happen. The blood of Christ is the price of our redemption. Faith and affliction are the tools the Holy Spirit is using to cleanse us from our sin.

John Owen on Where Holiness Comes From

John Owen on writing about sanctification points out the fallacious reasoning of his day that holiness can be achieved without a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. There was an argument in the churches in his day that all holiness consists of is moral honesty and virtue. Many liberal churches make the same assertion today. Owen in the following paragraphs clarifies the issue of gospel holiness.

And hence we may detect many pernicious mistakes about this matter, both notional and practical. For there are some who would carry holiness beyond the bounds of a special relation to Christ, or that relation beyond the only bond it it, which is faith. For they would have it to be no more than moral honesty or virtue, and so cannot with any modesty deny it to those heathens, who endeavoured after it according to the light of nature. And what need then is there of Jesus Christ? I commend moral virtues as much any man ought to do, and am sure there is no such grace where they are not. Yet to make any thing to be our holiness that is not derived from Christ, I know not what I more abhor. Such an imagination dethrones Christ from his glory, and overthrows the gospel.

Others proceed much further. They have notions of good and evil, by the light of nature; these are improved by convictions from the law, and produce great effects. For where the soul is once effectually convinced of sin, righteousness, and judgement, it cannot but seek deliverance from the one, and the attainment of the of the other, that so it may be well with it at the last day. These convictions are still more improved, according to the means of knowledge men enjoy, or the errors and superstitions they embrace. From the latter proceed penances, vows, uncommanded abstinences, and other painful duties. Where the light received is in general according to truth, it will engage men to a reformation of life, a multiplication of duties, abstinence from sin, and a zealous profession of religion in one way or another. Such persons may have good hopes that they are holy, may appear to the world to be so, be accepted in the Church of God as such, and yet be utter strangers to true gospel holiness. And the reason is because they have missed it in the foundation; and not having in the first place obtained an interest in Christ, have built their house on the sand whence it will fall in the time of trouble.

Wherefore let them wisely consider these things, who have any conviction of the necessity of holiness. It may be that they have laboured hard in duties that materially belong to it; many things they have done, and many things forborne, on account of it; and it may be, they think that for all the world they would not be found among unholy persons on the last day. This may be the condition of many young persons, who have lately engaged in the ways of religion upon their convictions: it may be so with others, who for many years have followed after righteousness in a way of duty. But it is observable, that the duties of obedience seldom prove more easy and pleasant to such persons than they did at first, but rather more burdensome every day. Besides,they never arrive to a satisfaction in what they do, something still is wanting; and hence they often become apostates. But what is worse still, all they have done, or can do on this bottom, will come to no account, but perish with them at the great day. Would we prevent these fatal evils; would we have a real, thriving, everlasting holiness; let our first business be to secure a relation to Jesus Chris, without which it can never be attained. (pp. 275-276, The Holy Spirit: His Gifts and Power

Ephesians 4:30 -- Do Not Grieve the Holy Spirit

I thought this argument defending Paul's exegetical technique was interesting. It is commentary from Peter O'Brien's commentary on Ephesians 4. It is a short typological comparison between Isaiah 63:10 and Ephesians 4:30.

The links between the two biblical passages [Isaiah 63:10 and Ephesians 4] are so significant as to suggest a typological correspondence between the two events in the history of God’s covenant people. In Isaiah 63, which looks back to the exodus, Yahweh is presented as the Saviour of Israel, who redeemed his people from Egypt, brought them into a covenant relationship with himself, led them by his own personal presence (i.e., his Holy Spirit) through the wilderness, and gave them rest. For its part, Israel the covenant people had rebelled against its Lord ‘and grieved his Holy Spirit’ (v. 10). In Ephesians Paul addresses the new covenant community, ‘the one new man’ (2:15) comprising Jews and Gentiles who have been redeemed (1:7) and reconciled to God through the cross of Christ (2:14-18). They have become a holy temple in the Lord, the place where God himself dwells by his Spirit (2:21, 22). Using the language of Isaiah 63:10, Paul issues a warning to this new community not to grieve the Holy Spirit of God, ‘as Israel had done’ in the wilderness (cf. 1 Cor. 10:1-11), the more so since they have been sealed by that same Holy Spirit until the day of redemption (4:30). The change from the indicative (‘they [Israel] grieved his Holy Spirit’) to the imperative (‘do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God’) is deliberate and makes eminent sense in the exhortatory context. Paul picks up the Isaianic text in a chapter that highlights the work of God’s Spirit (=God’s personal presence; Isa. 63:10, 11, 14) in relation to the major salvation-historical event of the Old Testament, namely, the exodus. As he handles this scriptural passage, the apostle is obviously not engaging in some kind of atomistic exegesis, as he is often charged. Rather, he reads the Old Testament text with an understanding of its immediate context, its place in the flow of salvation history, and, apparently, within a pattern of new Exodus typology. Paul interprets the passage according to its plain sense, applying it to the new covenant community upon whom the ends of the ages have come (cf. 1 Cor. 10:11). (pp. 347-348, The Letter of Ephesians)

John Owen: Temptation Unsettles the Soul

John Owen is writing about sanctification. In the following paragraph he masterfully uses the illustration of a tree surviving a storm as an analogy of how God uses temptations and strife to encourage spiritual maturity and sanctification.

Perplexing temptations or strong corruptions may so disturb the soul for a season, that it may not be able to form a right judgement of its progress. A ship at sea may be so tossed by a storm, that the most skilful mariners may be unable to discern whether they make any way, while perhaps, they are carried on with success and speed. In such cases, grace is engaged chiefly in opposition to its enemy, and so its thriving in other respects is not discernible. If it be asked, 'How may we know that grace thrives in opposition to corruptions and temptations?' I say, that as great winds sometimes contribute to the fruit-bearing of trees, so do corruptions and temptations to the fruitfulness of grace. The wind comes with violence on the tree, ruffles its boughs, beats off its buds, shakes its root, and threatens to destroy the whole: but by this means the earth is loosed about it, and the tree gets deeper rooted, which renders it more fruitful, though it bring not forth fruit visibly till a good while after. In the assaults of temptation and corruption the soul is woefully ruffled, its leaves of profession blasted, and its beginnings of fruit-bearing much retarded; but in the mean time it secretly casts out its roots of humility, self-abasement and mourning, in constant labouring of faith and love after that grace whereby holiness really increases, and way is made for future visible fruitfulness.(p. 268-269, The Holy Spirit: His Gifts and Power by John Owen

Ephesians 4:26 -- How to be Angry and yet not sin

Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger,(Ephesians 4:26)

O'Brien comments on Ephesians 4:26 using scholarship and biblical wisdom.

Since anger is not explicitly called ‘sin’, it has been suggested that the reference here is to righteous indignation, while the anger of v.[Ephesians 4:]31 which is to be put away is evidently unrighteous anger. There is a proper place for righteous anger, but also the ‘subtle temptation to regard my anger as righteous indignation and other people’s anger as sheer bad temper’. If ours is not free from injured pride, malice, or a spirit of revenge, it has degenerated into sin. The warning of James 1:19-20 makes the same point: ‘everyone should be … slow to become angry, for human anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires’.

In order to prevent anger from degenerating into sin a strict time limit is to be put on it: ‘Do not let the sun go down on your anger’. The particular term for ‘anger’ occurs only here in the New Testament. Elsewhere it usually signifies an active ‘provocation’ to anger that is, the source of anger rather than its result. Apparently this saying was proverbial. Plutarch mentions that if ever the Pythagoreans were led by anger into recrimination, they were never to let the sun go down before they joined hands, embraced one another and were reconciled. Similar texts appear in the Qumran literature. Sunset was regarded as a time limit for a range of activities, for example, the paying of a poor man his wages lest by failing to so one would be guilty of sinning (Deut. 24:15). In the apostle’s admonition this expression with its reference to sunset is used a a warning against brooding in anger or nursing it. It is to be dealt with promptly, with reconciliation being effected as quickly as possible. (O'Brien, The Letter to the Ephesianspp. 339-340,

Ephesians 4:25 -- How to build up the body of Christ.

Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. (Ephesians 4:25 ESV)

I thought Peter O'Brien's comments on the above verse rather poignant.

The means, by which this body is built, according to [Ephesians] 4:15, is speaking the truth of the gospel in love. Here at 4:25, the apostle’s point is that, in the body which is a model of harmonious relationships, there is no place for anything other than the truth. We are ‘no longer alienated, independent beings but people who now belong together in unity with others whom we must not rob of the truth according to which they decide and act. (O’Brien,The Letter to the Ephesians, p. 338)

John Owen on the Consistencies of Commands and Promises

In his age, John Owen argued against the prevailing arguments against the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. Here Owen shows that the command and the promises are not antithetical, but complementary.

And here we may digress a little, to consider what regard we ought to have to the command on the one hand, and to the promise on the other; to our own duty and to the grace of God. Some would separate these things as inconsistent. A command, they suppose, leaves no room for a promise; and a promise, they think, takes off the influencing authority of a command. If holiness be our duty, there is no room for grace; and if it be an effect of grace there is no place for duty. But all these arguings are a fruit of the 'wisdom of the flesh'; the 'wisdom that is from above' teaches us other things. It is true, that works and grace are opposed in the matter of justification, as utterly inconsistent; 'If it be of works, it is not of grace; and it be of grace, it is not of works.' But our duty and God's grace are no where opposed in the matter of sanctification; for the one supposes the other. Neither can we perform our duty herein without the grace of God; nor does God give us his grace to any other end than that we may rightly perform our duty. He who denies either that God commands us to be holy in a way of duty, or promises to work holiness in us in a way of grace, may with as much modesty reject the whole Bible. Both these therefore we must duly regard, if we intend to be holy.

In our regard to the command, our consciences must be affected with the authority of it, as the command of God; for holiness is obedience, and obedience respects the authority of the command. We must also see and understand the reasonableness, equity, and advantage of the command. Our service is a reasonable service; the ways of God are equal; and in the keeping of his commands there is great reward. And hence we love and delight in it as holy, just and good, because the things it requires are upright, equal, easy, and pleasant to the new nature, without any respect to the false ends before exposed.

And we have due regard to the promise, when:

1. We walk in a constant sense of our own inability to comply with with the command in any one instance, form any power in ourselves, for 'our sufficiency is of God.'
2. We adore that grace which has provided help and relief for us. Seeing without the grace promised, we could never have attained the least degree of holiness, and seeing we could never deserve the least particle of that grace, how ought we to adore that infinite bounty which has freely provided this supply!
3. We act faith in prayer and expecation on the promise for supplies of grace for all holy obedience.
4. We have a special regard to it in particular temptations and particular duties; when on such occasions we do not satisfy ourselves with a respect to the promise in general, but exercise faith on it in particular for aid and assistance.

To come yet nearer to our principal design, I say it is the Holy Ghost who is the immediate peculiar sanctifier of all believers, and the author of all their holiness. (The Holy Spirit: His Gifts and Power, pp. 253-254

John Owen on Why Sanctification is Misunderstood by Believers

I grabbed this quote from John Owen about our regeneration. Owen pointed out that we little understand our new nature, but how wonderful is the work the Holy Spirit has performed within us.

Believers themselves are often much unacquainted with it, either as to the apprehension of its true nature, causes, and effects, or at least as to their own interest in it. As we know not of ourselves the 'things that are wrought in us by the Spirit of God', so we seldom attend as we ought to his instruction of use in them. It may indeed seem strange, that as all believers are sanctified and made holy, they should not understand what is wrought and abides in them; but alas! How little do we know of ourselves, of what we are, and whence are our natural powers and faculties! How little do we know of these souls of ours? And what we do know , is by their operations. Is it strange then that we should be much in the dark as to this new nature, this new creature, which is from above, from God, and with which our natural reason has no acquaintance? It is new, is it wonderful, it is a work supernatural and is known only by supernatural revelation (p. 250, The Holy Spirit: It Gifts and Power

John Owen: Holiness Will Not Be Left Behind

John Owen in his book on the Holy Spirit was writing about how the Holy Spirit instills a new holy nature within us when Owen goes on to describe the rewards of holy endeavors. I thought this quote almost poetic.

We must also consider, that holiness is not confined to this life, but passes over into eternity and glory. Death has no power to destroy it or divest us of it. Its acts indeed are transient, but its fruits abide for ever in their reward. They who die in the Lord 'rest from their labours, and their works follow them' (Rev. 14:13). 'God is not unrighteous to forget their labour of love' (Heb. 6:10). There is not any fruit of holiness, not the least, not the giving 'a cup of cold water to a disciple of Christ, in the name of a disciple', but it shall be had in everlasting remembrance. Nothing shall be lost, but all fragments shall be gathered up, and kept safe for ever. Every thing else in this world, however specious, shall be burnt up and consumed as 'hay and stubble' when the least, the meanest, the most secret fruit of holiness, shall be gathered as 'gold and silver' into God's treasury, and become a part of the riches of the inheritance of the saints in glory. Let no soul fear the loss of any labour in the duties of holiness, in the most secret contest against sin, for inward purity, for outward fruitfulness, in the mortification of sin, resistance of temptations, in self-denial, or contentment; all that you know, and what you do not know, shall be revived, called over, and abide eternally in its reward.(p.250, The Holy Spirit: His Gifts and Power)

Christian Maturity -- Ephesians Style

until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, (Ephesians 4:13, ESV)

The verse quoted above has to be explained a bit because I am quoting it out context. First, Paul is addressing the church as a body and the unity of the Church is Paul's main theme in Ephesians. O'Brien puts it this way in his commentary on Ephesians.

‘to the mature man’. This destination to which all believers are headed is understood as a corporate entity: it is not described in individual terms, but refers to the totality of believers as the body of Christ.

Mature man is an unusual term. Brooks Simpson pointed this out in his sermon a few weeks ago. We are corporately as a body growing into a mature man. Our unity is not an option; it is foreordained. O'Brien further explains what the term means.

The phrase ‘mature man’ is somewhat unusual since the term for an adult male or full grown man is used, rather than the generic word for man or human. The adjective has the sense of ‘mature’ (cf. Cor. 2:6, 14:20; Heb. 5:14) rather than ‘perfect’, and focusses on the mature adult person in contrast with the infants of v. 14.

Here are two quotes about the goal specified by Ephesians 4:13. We have an impossibly high standard to meet that needs to be realized step by step in the present age with the help of the Holy Spirit.

The church is already the fullness of Christ (1:23; cf. 4:10). There is thus a realized dimension to its existence. But the future element is still present: the apostle has prayed that the readers might be ‘filled up to all the fullness of God’ (3:19); now in the immediate context the goal to be reached is mature manhood, and this is defined by the fullness of Christ. The maturity of this growth is measured by nothing less than Christ’s full stature. ‘The glorified Christ provides the standard at which his people are to aim: the corporate Christ cannot be content to fall short of the perfection of the personal Christ.” (O’Brien, p. 308)

When the goal is ultimately reached, and the body of Christ has grown up sufficiently to match the Head Himself, then will be seen that full-grown Man which is Christ together with His members. That spectacle will not fully appear until the day when they are glorified together with Him; but the expectation of that day will act a powerful incentive to spiritual development in the present time. (F.F. Bruce).

Jonathan Edwards's Gospel Invitation

I would characterize this as "Jonathan Edward's Gospel Invitation" at the end of one of his more famous sermons. This is a little different from his "Sinners in the hands of an Angry God."

I invite you now to a better portion. There are better things provided for the sinful miserable children of men. There is a surer comfort and more durable peace: comfort that you may enjoy in a state of safety, and on a sure foundation: a peace and rest that you may enjoy with reason, and with your eyes open. You may have all your sins forgiven, your greatest and most aggravated transgressions blotted out as a cloud, and buried as in the depths of the sea, that they may never be found more. And being not only forgiven, but accepted to favor, you become the objects of God’s complacence and delight. Being taken into God’s family and made his children, you may have good evidence that your names were written on the heart of Christ before the world was made, and that you have an interest in that covenant of grace that is well ordered in all things and sure, wherein is promised no less than life and immortality, an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, a crown of glory that fades not away. Being in such circumstances, nothing shall be able to prevent your being happy to all eternity, having for the foundation of your hope that love of God which is from eternity to eternity, and his promise and oath, and his omnipotent power: things infinitely firmer than mountains of brass. The mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed, yea, the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, yet these things will never be abolished. In such a state as this you will have a foundation of peace and rest through all changes, and in times of the greatest uproar and outward calamity be defended from all storms, and dwell above the floods, Psa. 32:6, 7. And you shall be at peace with everything, and God will make all his creatures throughout all parts of his dominion, to befriend you, Job 5:19-24. You need not be afraid of anything that your enemies can do unto you, Psa. 3:5, 6. Those things that now are most terrible to you, viz. death, judgment, and eternity, will then be most comfortable, the most sweet and pleasant objects of your contemplation. At least there will be reason that they should be so. Hearken therefore to the friendly counsel that is given you this day. Turn your feet into the way of peace, forsake the foolish and live, forsake those things which are no other than the devil’s baits, and seek after this excellent peace and rest of Jesus Christ: that peace of God which passeth all understanding. Taste and see: never was any disappointed that made a trial. Pro. 24:13, 14. You will not only find those spiritual comforts that Christ offers you to be of a surpassing sweetness for the present, but they will be to your soul as the dawning light that shines more and more to the perfect day. The issue of all will be your arrival in heaven, that land of rest, those regions of everlasting joy, where your peace and happiness will be perfect, without the least mixture of trouble or affliction, and never be interrupted nor have an end. (From the sermon The Peace Which Christ Gives His True Followers by Jonathan Edwards)

Ephesians 4: Ministries of the Word

In his commentary in Ephesians, O'Brien reflects on Ephesians 4:12 and the ministries of the word: apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherd/pastors.

In line with this salvation-historical dimension, Ephesians 4 indicates that the exalted Messiah gives ministries of the word to equip God’s people for work in his service so as to build his body. This constructing has both an extensive and an intensive dimension to it. Growth in size is implied in the mention of the gifts of apostles and evangelists (v. 11), while the introduction of the body metaphor implies the notion of development of the church as an organism from within, by means of its own God-given life. Although the expression may be built up has sometimes been interpreted individualistically, this is inappropriate, since it regularly has a corporate dimension in the apostle’s teaching, and this clearly its significance in the present context. (O’Brien, p.135).

The ministers of the Word feed us scripture in order that we may minister to one another in the Word so that we as a whole body may grow into Christ.

Shepherds/Pastors are Christ's Gift to the Church

I am still studying Ephesians 4. One thing that struck me about the following passage is our pastors are a gift to the church.

Therefore it says,
“When he ascended on high he led a host of captives,
and he gave gifts to men.”

(In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.) And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, (Ephesians 4:8-12, ESV)

Here's a couple of observations. O'Brien in his commentary writes about the phrase he might fill all things.

He [Christ] fills the universe through the exercise of his lordship over everything. This entails his functioning as the powerful ruler over the principalities (Ephesians 1:21), and giving grace and strength to his people (4:13, 15-16), through whom he fulfils his purposes.

Christ manifests his wisdom and authority to all the principalities in heaven and on earth through helping the church grow into maturity. Christ does this by giving us the gift of gifted ministers: apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastor and teachers. Christ specifically chose and gifted men to minister to us so that we as a body can grow into maturity in Him. These ministers are ministers of the Word. They are not here to make us feel better or entertain us, but to explain "the faith" to us. They are to help us to understand the gospel in its entirety and help us to apply it to our lives. Have you thanked your elders/pastors/shepherds today? Have you prayed for your leaders to today? Have you thanked Christ for his gift of your leaders today?

Ephesians 4:15 "Speaking the Truth in Love"

John Piper in a sermon on October 25, 1992 comments on the phrase in Ephesians 4:15: speaking the truth in love.

Let me clear up a wrong idea here that I had for years about this phrase because I ignored the context. I used to think that the phrase, "speak the truth in love," meant, "Tell it like it is, but gently." Like: if a student bombed a test or if a man loses his job, you may have to do the tough work of telling them the truth, but you do it in love to soften the blow. So the truth which is in view here, I thought, was just the hard facts of life that a person might need to hear about in love. Well, that is no doubt part of the meaning here (especially in view of Ephesians 4:25) but the context points in a different direction, that is very crucial to see for the good of the church. The context is all about doctrinal truth—truth about God and about his Son. Notice three evidences of this.
The Context is all about Doctrinal Truth

First, the equippers of the saints in verse 11 are all truth agents: apostles (the authoritative, foundational witnesses to the truth), the prophets (the charismatic speakers of truth that apply it with supernaturally guided pointedness), the evangelists (who do the work of evangelism with the truth of the gospel in regions where apostles have planted the church), the pastors and teachers (who take the truth and use it to feed and protect the flock of God). Every one of these offices centers on the truth of God and Christ and the gospel. These people are truth agents.

Second, verse 13 says that the goal of building up the body of Christ is to attain to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God. So the building begins with equippers who are all agents of truth, and the aim of the building is unified knowledge, that is, unified grasp of truth.

Third, we have seen that verse 14 shows Paul's great concern is that as we grow into corporate Christlikeness, we are not to be babes who are blown around by every wind of doctrine. So again the issue is stability in true doctrine so that we will not be deceived by false doctrine.

O'Brien's commentary points out the same idea.

... the apostle is not exhorting his readers to truthfulness in general or speaking honestly with one another, however appropriate or important this may be. Rather, he wants all of them to be members of a 'confessing ' church, with the content of their testimony to be 'the word of truth', the gospel of their salvation (1:13). This truth, which is guaranteed by God and is depicted as part of his own armour, is the belt which believers are to buckle around their waist as they resist the onslaughts of the evil one (6:14).

As Christians witness to the truth of the gospel they cannot use the same methods as the false teachers or the tempter whose activity lies behind them. (O'Brien, The Letter to the Ephesians" p. 311)

I have posted this quote before from Mike Cosper about "speaking the truth in love."

Speaking the truth in love” is often understood as saying hard things or dealing with conflict: we “speak the truth in love” when we confront sin or say unpopular things lovingly. According to Peterson, though, “speaking the truth in love” is not so much about interpersonal boldness as it is about a community that shares a confession, a unified expression of faith in the God who saved them. The gathered body teaches the Word and proclaims it together; we speak the truth I love as we sing, read the Scriptures, and remember the gospel together. (Rhythms of Grace, Mike Cosper, p. 80).

Although exhortation is a key tool for building up the church, Paul is concentrating in Ephesians about doctrinal truth. We are to celebrate the truth of the gospel through our preaching, worship, and love. The path to maturity that Paul is describing is in steadfastness to the truth and love. It is not emotional maturity, although that is important, it is not what Paul is stressing in Ephesians.

Ephesians 4:6 -- God's Sovereignty and The Church's Unity

I have been studying Ephesians 4. Paul is stressing the unity of the Church since the death of Christ unified the Gentiles and the Jews into one body. Paul describes God the Father in Ephesians 4:6 --

one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. (Ephesians 4:6, ESV)

Peter O'Brien in his commentary on Ephesians makes the following observations:

God’s universal sovereignty and presence are set forth as the climactic ground for the unity of the Spirit that believers are to maintain. His universal rule is being exercised to fulfill his ultimate purpose on unifying all things in Christ. The unity of the church is the means by which the manifold wisdom of God is being displayed to the universe. The church is the eschatological outpost, the pilot project of God’s purposes, and his people are the expression of this unity that displays to the universe his final goal. (O’Brien, p. 285-286)

God the Father is using the unity of the Church, made possible by the death and resurrection of His Son and is enabled by the indwelling Holy Spirit, to display His manifold wisdom to the universe. We all have a vital role in the church to pursue unity.

What the Bible says we should do when we worship together.

I have been reading Mike Cosper's book Rhythms of Grace.. Cosper writes about what we should do when we worship both singly and in community. He has good insight on how should we should understand Ephesians 4:15:

Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ

Cosper notes that "Speaking the truth in love" ia commonly misunderstood.

“Speaking the truth in love” is often understood as saying hard things or dealing with conflict: we “speak the truth in love” when we confront sin or say unpopular things lovingly. According to Peterson, though, “speaking the truth in love” is not so much about interpersonal boldness as it is about a community that shares a confession, a unified expression of faith in the God who saved them. The gathered body teaches the Word and proclaims it together; we speak the truth in love as we sing, read the Scriptures, and remember the gospel together.” (Rhythms of Grace, Mike Cosper, p. 80).

Mike Cosper writes about the Greek word for Church: "Ekklesia."

We gather because we have work to do—to remember the gospel and hold fast to our confession. The Greek word for the gathered church offers some insight into how the apostles saw their gatherings. Though the language offered a variety of options for words to describe the gathering church, the authors of the new Testament chose ἐκκλησία. According the scholar Larry Hurtado, it was an odd choice. “In its historic Greek usage, ekklesia designated the gathering of citizens of a city to conduct civic business. Such events always had a religious character and would be commenced with offerings to the gods, but the ekklesia was not precisely a gathering to conduct worship.” We gather because we have work to do. ἐκκλησία emphasizes the work of the people. We gather to do our work, which is to say, we gather to remember, to encourage, and to spur one another on.

The Work of the Holy Spirit in Regeneration

This is from John Owen's book called, The Holy Spirit. Owen starts this paragraph by explaining how the Arminian's or Semi-Pelagians outline the work of the Holy Spirit in an individual's salvation. Owen then explains how this does not fit scripture or traditional theology. In the second paragraph, Owen points out that Arminians pray for conversion for themselves and others like a Calvinist. It would be ludicrous to pray for a person' conversion, if God is helpless to change that person's heart.

It is indeed pretended by some, that grace, in the dispensation of the word, does work really and efficiently, especially by illumination and excitation of the mind and affections; and if, upon this, the will exerts itself in the choice of that which is good, then the grace thus administered concurs with it, and assists it to perfect its act, and so, that the whole work is of grace. So pleaded the Semi-Pelagians, and so do others still. Now this is, in effect, to overthrow the whole grace of Jesus Christ, and to render it useless; for it ascribes to man the honour of his conversion, his own will being the principal cause of it. It makes a man to beget himself anew, or to be born again of himself; to make himself differ from others, by that which, in a special manner, he has not received.

This is not all that we pray for, when we beg effectual grace for ourselves or others. Surely he must be very indifferent in this matter, who only prays that God would persuade him or others to believe and to obey, to be converted, or to convert themselves. The Church of God has always prayed that God would work these things in us; and those who have a real concern in them, do pray continually that God would effectually work them in their hearts; that he would convert them; that he would create a clean heart, and renew a right Spirit in them; that he would give them faith, and increase it in them; and that in all these things he would work in them by the exceeding greatness of his power, both to will and to do, according to his good pleasure. This argument was much pressed on the Pelagians by the fathers; and there is not a Pelagian in the world who ever sincerely prayed for grace and divine assistance, with a sense of his want of it, but his prayers contradicted his profession. Indeed, for any person to continue praying with importunity and fervency for what is in his own power, and can never be effected but by his own own power, is absurd and ridiculous: and they do but mock God, who pray to him to do that for them which they can do for themselves, and which God cannot do for them, but only as they choose to do it for themselves. This, some men of late, as it seems, wisely observing, begin to reproach and mock at the prayers of Christians. (The Holy Spirit: His Gifts and Power, John Owen, p. 209)

How God Uses Suffering in Building His Church

Jonathan Edwards comments on 1 Kings 6:7. He notices how the Old Testament temple is a type of the Church, which is the holy temple of the Lord (Ephesians 2:19-22). He points out that God uses affliction to smooth and shape the individual blocks (the people of God) to fit together. We are being grown together into the temple of the Lord by God.

1 Kings vi. 7. “And the house, when it was in building, was built of stone made ready before it was brought thither; so that there was neither hammer, nor axe, nor any tool of iron, heard in the house while it was in building.” This temple represents the church of God, who are called God’s temple, or spiritual house; Jesus Christ being the chief corner-stone, and all the saints as so many stones. Particularly, by Solomon’s temple is meant the church triumphant, as by the tabernacle, the church militant, by the exact finishing, squaring, and smoothing of these stones before they were brought thither, represents the perfection of the saints in glory; heaven is not a place to prepare them, they are all prepared before they come there; they come perfectly sinless and holy into heaven; this world is the place where God hews them, and squares them, by his prophets and ministers, by the reproofs and warnings of his word, which God compares to a hammer, and by persecutions and afflictions. There shall be no noise of those tools heard in heaven, but all the lively strains of this spiritual and glorious building are exactly fitted, framed, and polished before they come there.(The Works of Jonathan Edwards, 15, 16

The Church is more than a "mere" instrument.

I read the following quote by Pastor Herschel Martindale in the Great Commission Leadership Institute materials.

"And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all things" (Ephesians 1:22-23, ESV). The Church is the body (instrument) of Jesus. Local churches are merely a representation of this universal body or Church. A body is merely an instrument or means by which the purpose of the head is accomplished."

Actually, the article on the whole is good. However, I disagree with the phrase "merely an instrument." I think what Pastor Martincale is saying is the Church is only a means or tool to accomplish the Great Commission and nothing more. It is hard to believe Pastor Martindale used Ephesians 1:22-23 as a defense for his assertion. Ephesians 1:22-23 is one of the passages in the New Testament which magnifies most what Christ has done for the Church and how Christ plans to use the Church not only here on earth but also in the whole of creation. Paul argues in Ephesians that the Church is not only the means, but it is also one of the main goals of His redemptive work. Here is Peter T. O'Brien commentary on Ephesians 1:22-23.

This still leaves the difficulty of how to interpret 'head' in relation to the body. Perhaps if the Old "Testament notions of 'head' are combined with Greek medical ideas regarding the function of the head in relation to the body and its members, then the head is to be understood as 'inspiring, ruling, guiding, combining, sustaining power, the mainspring of its activity, the centre of its unit, and the seat of its life'. Instead of separating Christ from his body, the head is shown to be 'the cohesive and enabling factor for the body'. Accordingly, "Ephesians (and Colossians) highlights the personal presence of a powerful one who strengthens the individual through the concept of Christ as "head"". This interpretation provides the best explanation for Ephesians 4:16 and Colossians 2:19) ('from it [the head] the whole body grows') and it consistent with the thought of the head 'nourishing' the body. (The Letter to the Ephesians, p. 148)

Again O'Brein on Ephesians 1:23,

The conclusions of our exegesis of v. 23, albeit tentative, may be rendered as follows: '[the church, which is Christ's body], the fulness of him [i.e., Christ] who fills all things in every way'. God has given Christ as head over all things for the church. His supremacy over the cosmos is seen to be for the benefit of his people. (ibid, pp. 151-152)

John Piper in a sermon on Ephesians 1 puts it this way:

"Christ fills the universe with his glory by showing the universe his body--how he chose her, how he destined her, how he came for her and taught her and suffered for her and died for her and rose for her and reigns for her, how he called her and justified her and cleansed her and kept her and will raise her and glorify her and satisfy her forever and ever with himself."

The Church glorifies Christ not through what the Church can do for Christ in fulfilling the Great Commission, but by what God does for the Church through Christ's work and the Holy Spirit's ministry. This interpretation does not alter the fact that we are God's instrument in progressing the Gospel, but the Church is so much more. Paul is using "the body" as analogy to communicate a specific message. Paul did not mean for the analogy to say the Church is "merely" an instrument. Another analogy that scripture uses is the Church is the "Bride of Christ." See the following passages:

For I feel a divine jealousy for you, since I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. (2 Corinthians 11:2 ESV)

Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. (Ephesians 5:25-27 ESV)

Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure”— for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.(Revelation 19:7-9 ESV)

What difference does it make to assert that the Church is merely an instrument? First, it is just a bad interpretation of Ephesians 1. We lose sight of the glory what Christ has done, is doing, and will do for the Church by calling the Church just an instrument. Second, it is bad ecclesiology. If leaders of a local church view their church as just a mere instrument, wouldn't this eventually cause leaders to view the members of their congregation as mere instruments instead of being fellow heirs of the promises? Heirs who need to be loved, nurtured and trained up to be godly men and women in the house of God.