The Counsels of God in Christ

In the Epistle to the Ephesians we have the most elevated development of truth. The Apostle unfolds the counsels of God concerning Christ and the church, His body (Eph. 1:22-23)—counsels that had their origin before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4). Romans begins with man in the depths of his depravity, whereas Ephesians begins with “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” and the blessings He has showered on man—“who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ” (Eph. 1:3). We are chosen in Him, having been marked out beforehand for adoption through Jesus Christ to Himself, accepted in the Beloved, in whom we have redemption, in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, in whom also, having believed, we are sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise (Eph. 1:4-13). The first chapter concludes with the church in union with Christ, who is head to it (not over it).
In Romans we are dead to sin and in Colossians dead to the world, but in Ephesians we are found before God in all the fullness of blessing in Christ. It is new life—quickened together with Christ—in a new position (Eph. 2:5-6). The same power that sets Christ at the right hand of God, having raised Him from among the dead, puts us into possession of these things (Eph. 1:19-20). With the believer seated in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus, there is no mention of the Lord’s coming (Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians also bears this distinction, though for very different reasons.) In the second chapter, we have the house—“builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit” (Eph. 2:22).
In chapter three Paul begins, “For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles” (Eph. 3:1-2), but then interrupts himself with a divinely inspired parenthesis taking in the entire chapter, in which the Apostle develops the subject of the mystery. The Gentiles are brought into blessing quite apart from Israel: “That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel” (Eph. 3:6). The prayer that closes the chapter is addressed to the “Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Eph. 3:14) and concerns that which we have through Christ as Son. In contrast, the prayer of the first chapter addresses “the God of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Eph. 1:17). There we learn what He has accomplished through Christ the Man.