The Secret of His Purpose

Chapter 2: Child Training

Who is this God who has such high and lofty purposes for His people? Paul goes on to explain, drawing from both revelation and experience to portray some of the characteristics of the One he has learned to love and serve. To apply our minds to an understanding of some of the attributes of God is no empty mental exercise. Just as we may know that a man of serene character and just ways will run an ordered and happy household, so from our knowledge of the character of God we can learn much concerning His desires for His children and also how He will deal with them that these desires be fulfilled.

In three verses of Ephesians 1 (vs. 4, 5,11), Paul emphasises the fact that God has chosen a people. This choice, he tells us in Romans 8:29, is in accordance with His power and foreknowledge, and is a choice dictated by a divine purpose (Ephesians 1:11). Here again we have the picture of a God who knows all the potentialities of His creation and has set apart those in Christ that He might fully develop these potentialities in them. This sense of a divine purpose filled the believers in the early church. It determined and ordered the whole course of their lives. Their material wants and their social position were all subject to it. It united them together in a deep sense of responsibility to one another, and in a bond of mutual love and respect. In this unity of purpose lay the power so signally demonstrated from the time of Pentecost, a power which gave the church, however despised and rejected, a witness that could not be ignored, and an authority which irresistibly drew into its fellowship those who truly sought the Lord.

A second aspect of God's character which Paul particularly mentions is 'the riches of His grace' (v. 7). We will have further cause to look at this subject in connection with the giving of gifts recorded in chapter four, where this same grace of God is transferred to His people. Here, however, we are dealing with grace as revealed in God Himself in His dealings with His children. John tells us (John 1:14) that Christ was 'full of grace and truth.' These two things summed up the character of God manifest in the flesh: grace, the practice of love; and truth, the practice of holiness. Love is the attitude of mind; grace is the outflow of that attitude. God loved the world. The result was that He gave His only begotten Son. That was grace. Grace is the expression of a love which is poured out for the good of others. God loves His people not merely with a passive benevolence, but with a love in which He is constantly pouring out of Himself that His purposes might be fulfilled in them.

Furthermore, He is a God of wisdom and prudence (v. 8) which overshadow all His dealings with His people. Every experience or trial through which we pass is allowed or determined by His infinite understanding of our need and by His desire to make us what He wants us to be. However we may fail to see the reason for the adverse circumstances with which we are sometimes surrounded, the wisdom and prudence of God lie behind them all. His thoughts and ways are higher by far than ours, and His ways are perfect.

This, then, is the God who has adopted us as His sons (v. 5). On the one hand, He has brought us into the security and privileges of His own family; on the other He has committed Himself to the responsibility of bringing us up under His own nurture and care. In this relationship all His characteristics of foreknowledge, grace, wisdom and prudence are brought into play.

There are many precious lessons which we can learn from the fact of being the children of God. Firstly, God has not brought us into a spiritual orphanage where our outward needs are mechanically catered for, and little thought can be given to individual differences and requirements. God takes a personal family interest in each one. He does not treat all alike. He knows the strengths and weaknesses of each character, the idiosyncrasies and temptations, the capacities and capabilities. His dealings are exactly suited to meet each individual requirement.

Secondly, it is inevitable that the family of God be treated differently from others. A cobbler's highest ambition for his son may be that he will grow up to live by the same trade. To that end, therefore, the discipline of his son's upbringing is directed. He needs little education, so his schooling is neglected. He will never be expected to mix with people of a high social standing, so no time is spent in teaching him the common manners and courtesies of more refined living. His childhood will be free from the restrictions imposed by hours of concentrated study, but that freedom is a measure not of the greatness of the parents' ambition for their son, but of its paucity.

How different is the life of a prince being prepared for a throne. His privilege and position may mean that he is circumscribed by disciplines and restrictions from which he would otherwise be free, but all are imposed in the wisdom of his parents and advisers, anxious that he will be perfectly fitted for the station that he will one day occupy. Many times he may feel impatience at the discipline and, in his boyish ignorance, question the reason for it all, but one day he will look back with appreciation on every rule that was imposed to make him worthy of his high calling, and will recognise that all was motivated only by love and concern.

The high and holy calling of the children of God offers the explanation for many of the trials and vicissitudes with which they are often confronted. To be fitted for a high calling presupposes a high standard of conduct and discipline, and a stability of life which is the product of experience in sorrow and trial as well as in comfort and ease. God's love for His children does not rule out His discipline. On the contrary, God's love and discipline are inseparable. This is aptly illustrated in His dealings with the two brothers Jacob and Esau. Jacob had faith, but much else besides which was unworthy. God loved him and honoured his faith, but because of that same love led him through many years of discipline and testing till, his old deceit and cunning abandoned, he clung to the Lord in wholehearted surrender. With Esau it was different. A man destitute of faith, it seems that God simply left him to prosper through his own natural abilities, but he was cut off forever from having any share in the spiritual inheritance that was his right. God is committed to His people, committed to lead them along a pathway of holiness, a way unknown to the world. It may mean trial and discipline; it certainly does mean that they will not be allowed forever to go their own fleshly way, but all His dealings are in matchless grace and in a wisdom higher by far than the thoughts of mortal man.

In outlining God's purpose for His people Paul speaks particularly of two things: redemption (v. 7), and the mystery of His will (v. 9). Each of these, he says, we have received in Christ, yet we also find that both embody a continuous process of development. Each has to be worked out in personal experience. Medical science, for instance, has developed through the years till today the precise function of practically every part of the body has been accurately determined. This knowledge has been received into the store of human learning. It does not follow, however, that every person is automatically a doctor, or knows even the elementary laws which govern the working of the body. To reach a stage of proficiency in the practice of medicine requires years of diligent study and experience, and an understanding of the subject will become a progressive reality through continuous and faithful application in learning.

Redemption is one of the great progressive words in Scripture. In this same epistle (ch. 4 v. 30) Paul speaks of being sealed by the Spirit of God 'unto the day of redemption,' obviously referring to a day yet to come. The fact is that man is still beset by limitations of mind and body. The treasure of spiritual life is contained in earthen vessels (II Corinthians 4:7), but God is leading us to that day when spirit, mind and body alike shall know the fullness of redeeming power. As today in spirit we are united with Him who is unseen in love, so then in mind shall we be united with Him in knowledge, knowing even as also we are known, and in body we shall be united with Him in glory, fashioned like unto His glorious body. It is to this end that we press forward, developing in devotion, in understanding, in witness. If anyone could have reached a place of spiritual attainment we would consider Paul to have been that man, yet Paul, nearing the end of his life, wrote to the Philippians that he counted not himself yet to have apprehended, and that he was still pressing on towards the goal (Philippians 3:13-14).

Development is a mark of the church. It is just at this point that so much of formal Christianity has missed the mark. The need for development of devotion and witness is recognised, but development in an understanding of God's divine principles is limited to the bounds of some carefully thought out and worded doctrinal statement. It may be argued that, theoretically, this is not the case, and that such statements are meant only to guide, yet it cannot reasonably be disputed that they do, in actual practice, impose arbitrary limits on the thinking of the majority of ordinary Christians. No doctrinal statement, however accurate and helpful in itself, can contain God, and whatever would act as a barrier in the minds of devoted men and women to their development in spiritual understanding must be discarded.

With man's passion to systematise the truth of Scripture there has come much light and blessing. No one must decry the devoted labours of men of God down through the ages which have brought to countless thousands a deeper appreciation of their inheritance in Christ. No human systematisation of divine truth, however, has any place as a basis for the church. To accept such is the way to spiritual stagnation, and is a prelude to further division among the people of God. The church is the school of the Spirit; its place is to learn, not to teach. When any assembly takes upon itself to teach a restricted code of doctrine as a church, then it has left the ground of the church entirely and has entered the domain of sectarianism. The call to teach is extended to individuals according to the gift given by the ascended Christ, the Head of the church (Ephesians 4:8). The place of the church is to discern what is of the Lord and to learn. This is God's plan for the development of the church in devotion, understanding and witness.

It may be remarked that the reason normally given for the drawing up of a precise outline of doctrine as the basis of a church, namely, that it will protect the church from error, is not valid. The only safeguard against error and spiritual degeneration is love for the Lord. Every doctrinal statement is more than matched by man's ingenuity at interpreting it as he pleases, or at accepting the letter while denying the spirit it is meant to guard.

In God's making known the mystery of His will there is also assumed the faithfulness of His people and their diligent application to understand His ways. The mystery of His will is fulfilled in the church, and it is an exposition of this truth that principally occupies Paul in his writing to the Ephesians. In the epistle to the Colossians he again uses the same phrase 'the mystery' in the same connection. An understanding of this mystery, however, is not vouchsafed to every believer automatically on his becoming part of the family of God. There may be those who enjoy the privileges and fellowship of the assembly for years, who yet may know practically nothing of God's true purpose in the church. It is not to be assumed that where there is little understanding of this subject on the part of the general body of the believers there is no church. As we have already seen, the basis of the church is relationship with Christ, not the measure of understanding of His ways, but there should certainly be a progression towards a greater appreciation of the mystery on the part of all, as indeed there should be progression in an understanding of every realm of spiritual truth. This, however, as has already been stated, is dependent upon diligence and faithfulness. We will never, on this side of eternity, fully understand God's great purpose for the church, but the measure of understanding will be given according to each one's measure of maturity.

A father in business may have the ambition to bring his son into partnership, but the fulfilment of that ambition has to await his son's reaching a sufficient age to understand the intricacies of the trade, and is also dependent upon his son's developing into a worthy and responsible individual. While he is a child, he can know little of the work in which his father is engaged and will be content to observe simply what is bought and sold. Later, however, through careful teaching and experience he will be able to gauge the quality of the various goods and their relative value in terms of profit and loss. Ultimately he may become an adept trader and be fully acquainted with the most complicated aspects of the business. This goal, however, will be reached only after years of development and faithful service, first of all in small ways, and then in positions of increased responsibility. If a son shows himself incapable of handling a transaction worth a few rupees, it is unlikely that his father will continue his painstaking tuition and entrust him with transactions worth thousands.

God does not lightly cast the secrets of His ways before His children. Every step into an understanding of the mystery must be won by diligence and faithfulness in a life tested and proved in the school of the Spirit. We are not to be servants only, but friends (John 15:14-15), labourers together with God (I Corinthians 3:9), His partners in the fulfilling of His divine will. Should not God demand consistency and loyalty in those called to such a position of honour?

How is this work of fitting frail men and women for their place in the church practically accomplished? Verses thirteen and fourteen tell us it is through the Spirit. The subject of the Holy Spirit is surrounded with misunderstanding. The result is that many of the people of God know practically nothing about it, while others imagine that any mention of the Spirit has only to do with an emotional copy of the incidents which occurred on the day of Pentecost and at a few other times mentioned in the book of Acts. This, of course, is very far from the truth. "Having also believed, ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise," says Paul (v. 13). Here we find the Spirit's place right at the beginning of the life in Christ. It is, in fact, through the operation of the Spirit that the work of regeneration takes place (Titus 3:5). Moreover, Paul goes on to say that the seal of the Spirit is 'an earnest of our inheritance unto the redemption of God's own possession' (v. 14). Not only is birth into the family of God wrought by the Spirit, but His continued presence and working is the distinctive mark of God's children unto the day when every aspect of redemption is fulfilled.

"He abideth with you and shall be in you," said our Lord Jesus Christ speaking to His disciples of the Spirit's coming (John 14:17). The Word made flesh, by reason of the limitations which He took upon Himself, was not omnipresent with the disciples, but the Spirit would know no such limitation. He would, in all places, and at all times, be part of their very lives. The strength, advice, comfort, and rebuke which the disciples received from the Lord were dependent upon their being bodily present with Him, but when He left, another came who was to be with them forever (John 14:16). The absence of Christ's visible presence was to be no lack to the disciples; rather it was to be a blessing (John 16:7). Through the Spirit they were to receive all the blessing and benefit that Christ had been to them, and in addition, they were to learn to live not by sight, but by faith. The book of the Acts is adequate demonstration of what the presence of the Holy Spirit meant to the lives of the early believers. God's order is the same today. The Holy Spirit has taken the place on earth of Christ. He is the constant companion of every believer, and it is through Him alone that God works.

"He shall bear witness of Me," said Jesus (John 15:26). Through experience, through fellowship, through ministry, and always in accordance with the written Word, the Holy Spirit reveals and applies the standard of Christ to His people in every aspect of daily living as they are wholly subject to Him. In this way they are prepared to fulfil their place in the church.

The seal of the Spirit is the constant assurance to those who are in Christ, of a work of reconciliation that has been completed, and of their safe custody throughout a spiritual journey in which they are strangers and pilgrims upon the earth. It is well to emphasise, however, that assurance belongs to those who are faithful in Christ. A person travelling by ship to a foreign land may have every assurance that at the end of a certain time he will reach his destination, but that assurance will vanish should he decide to jump overboard in mid-ocean when the journey is only half completed. Apart altogether from any discussion on the eternal security of those who once put their trust in Christ, there is no scriptural ground for personal assurance of redemption apart from the fact that a person is now in living relationship with the Lord.

Next: Chapter 3: Faith and Love