39. XXXVII. The Happy Lot of Man

XXXVII. The Happy Lot of Man In all ages of the world many people, not seeing the real truth, but judging only from superficial and vain fancies, have been filled with the thought that this world is all awry, that “the times are out of joint,” that fate is hard and cruel, that the lot of man is nought but misery from the cradle to the grave. Such had been the experience and the general opinion of the pagan world, whose writers were almost all penetrated (as we have already mentioned) with the thought of human misery, deterioration and hopelessness. Paul writes and speaks always with the knowledge of their opinions and words in his mind; and his attitude is never rightly comprehended by us until we have this fixed firmly in our minds. To that pagan world, to its statesmen, its philosophers, its writers, its common people, all either plunged in hopelessness about the future or quietly resigned to the conclusion, “let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die,” Paul came with his message of hope, joy, love, peace — in short, “Salvation”. In contrast to their ignorance and despair, he is always transported with the lively and true perception of the beauty, the love, the kindness — in one word, the grace of God in all His dealings with men.

What an abundantly happy lot is that of mankind! what perfect and indescribably bountiful grace is God’s! This was the message that the pagan world needed. (See Section XXI.) The Apostle rises to the loftiest height of enthusiasm, and expresses himself in a kind of lyrical and poetic prose, when he contemplates the saving grace of God, as shown in the plan which He had conceived in the foundation of the world and worked out stage by stage and detail by detail to its completion and perfection in Jesus Christ. Words almost fail him to picture “the exceeding riches of God’s grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus,” and “the unsearchable riches of Christ”. (Ephesians 2:7;Ephesians 3:8: the thought of the richness and splendour and magnificence of our inheritance in Christ is peculiarly characteristic ofEphesians 1:8;Ephesians 1:18;Ephesians 1:3, etc.) Not merely do we receive from Christ. We are the riches of Christ. To that great honour have we been exalted by the grace of God. The assembly of the saints, the whole body of Christians, the Universal and Catholic Church, constitutes the inheritance of Christ. The purpose of God from the creation has been to create and complete this structure as the kingdom of God, “the wealth of the glory of Christ’s inheritance among the saints”.

Thus we are necessary to God and to Christ! What an honour and happiness to mankind! The glory of God and the splendour of Christ cannot be made real and established definitely except through the completion of the salvation of man in the congregation of the saints. Our bliss is His glory. Paul heaps up word upon word to blazon before the eyes of the Asian Christians the grandeur of their lot in being made the completion and perfection of the eternal purpose of God, “the riches of the glory of the patrimonial estate of Christ”. (Ephesians 1:18.)

We have become so familiarised from infancy with these and similar Pauline words that it needs an effort to hold them in thought apart from ourselves and gaze upon their true meaning, so as to realise the glittering and dazzling beauty of that which they describe. In modern times, however, we are always thinking and reasoning about the idea which is pictured in these words, as it is being slowly worked out in the Church of God and the civilisation and progress of men. The thought is not strange to us; on the contrary, it is the sum and kernel, and it contains the germ, of all modern science and modern speculation. Put in modern terms, it is the idea of evolution in history and science. Paul prefers to give it a personal form: the Will of God works itself out in the gradual creation of His Church: every other process is subsidiary to that: the Church as it shall be is the sum and the embodiment of every line of development. The growth of the world and of man towards the higher stage is the working out of the glory of the Creator and of His creation. Paul would not have put it in those words, for he was of the first century, and did not dream of or understand the nature of Science; but none the less that is the real import in modern terms of what he said in such enthusiastic and half-poetic language. To Paul this idea was not new when he wrote to the “Ephesians”. It was not attained to by him for the first time, while he was composing that wonderful letter, in some respects the greatest and most glittering and dazzling of all his letters. It had been reached by him in meditation before he was ready to carry his message to the pagans, and therefore it was his possession before he was finally called upon to lay aside all other duties and plans, pressing as they seemed to be, and to “Depart, for I will send thee far hence to the Graeco-Roman world”. That was the command, urgent and imperative and requiring instant obedience, completing and making clear at last to Paul those previous instructions (which had been less lucid to him, because he was not yet ready and able to comprehend them). (As already mentioned in a previous section, Part 1.) Such was the vision and the glory which he had seen in the fourteenth year before the winter of A.D. 56-7, accompanied with words unspeakable, “which it is not lawful for a man to utter”. To the Christian mind there can be only one such vision, and that is the vision of the glory of God and the marvellous and perfect purpose of God, which in its completion will make manifest His goodness. His unspeakable goodness. His complete and perfect Salvation, His way with man. In that purpose there was much that Paul must not declare to men. He might only contemplate it, and fill his mind with it, and have it as a precious and power-giving possession to himself; and this possession was his greatest glory and his supreme consolation.

He had seen, and he knew, the glory of God; and the glory of God is the completion of His purpose in the perfecting of His creation. This idea lay in his heart. It gave fire and point and life and power to his words, but it must not and could not be declared fully at any time to men. It could be revealed partially to the saints (for example, in the Ephesian letter), as they learned to appreciate it for themselves. It was the sort of knowledge which can never be comprehended except by those who have risen to that level and seen for themselves. It cannot be set forth to the ignorant, because it is too sacred, too perfect, and far beyond their understanding: “the word is sharper than a two-edged sword,” and a sword is always dangerous to the ignorant, the stupid or the foolish. This knowledge is “the mystery of the Will of God,” (Ephesians 1:9f., “to sum up all things in Christ”.) a thing still hidden, though in process of being revealed, a rich possession to those who are growing into the knowledge of it.