Mystery of Stewardship (continued) the denizens of the heavenly places may throw light on I Cor. 11:10, with its enigmatic phrase ‘because of the angels’. 3:11 According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Ix>rd. We who by faith are united with Christ and incorporated in Him are caught up in a divine purpose which spans eternity — ‘the purpose of the ages’, as it is literally rendered (cf. R.V. margin). And the One to whom we are thus united is Himself the cen ter and circumference of this purpose: it was conceived (literally ‘made’) in Him and it attains its fulfilment through Him. 3:12 In whom we have boldness and access in confidence through our faith in him. If the One through whom, as Paul has already said (Eph. 2:18), we have access to the Father is the One in whom God’s eternal purpose is bound up, then our coming into the presence of God may be marked by the fullest confidence. Delitsch states, “ ‘Boldness’, here as in 6:19 (cf. Heb. 4:16; 10:19), is a rendering of Gk. parrhesia, a word which normally de notes freedom of utterance or ‘plain ness of speech’ (e.g. in II Cor. 3:12). In classical Greek it signified the free speech which was the right of every citizen of a democratic state; when the word is ‘baptized into Christ’ it betok ens the liberty of Christian men to ap proach God directly with no intermed iary apart from Christ, who embraces Godhead and Manhood in His one per son. The word translated ‘confidence’ (Gk. pepoithesis) is a rare word, used in the New Testament by Paul only (six times). ‘Our faith in him’ is lit erally ‘the faith of him’ (so A.V.); but the genitive ‘of him’ is objective, de noting the One in whom the faith is placed. 3:13 Wherefore I ask that ye faint not at my tribulations for you , which are your glory. Paul is not much con cerned lest he himself should faint or grow weary through his tribulations— although his language could conceiv-
CHRISTIAN HOME SERIES FEATURED AT CONFERENCE
Rev. Wesley Gustafson, pastor, Evangelical Church, Fullerton, will speak on aspects of the Christian home during Biota’s Family Bible Conference on the La Mirada Campus, June 23-29. ably be translated to that effect, as no ticed in R.V. margin. He himself knew too well the One whom he had believed. But his friends and converts might be in the path of God’s will, he would not have so many trials to endure. Paul therefore tries to convey to them his own assurance that his tribulations are the direct consequence and a certain token of his obedience to God’s eternal purpose. Since that purpose includes the blessing of the Gentiles, the hard ships which he suffers for them (cf. Eph. 3:1). If they can be brought to appreciate that, far from finding cause for discouragement in the spectacle of Paul’s sufferings, •they will glory in them as he himself had learned to do, seeing in them the proof that God’s purpose was advancing towards its con summation. In Col. 1:24 Paul regards his own sufferings as something which he is called upon to endure for the sake of the Church, the body of Christ, and as his filling up of ‘that which is lack ing of the afflictions of Christ’. That the sufferings of Christ’s people are Christ’s own sufferings Paul had learned on the Damascus road; now it is his desire to absorb as much as possi ble of these sufferings in his own per son. 12
Made with FlippingBook - Online Brochure Maker