《Hodge’s Commentary on Ephesians》(Charles Hodge)
Commentator
Charles Hodge (December 27, 1797 - June 19, 1878) was an important Presbyterian theologian and principal of Princeton Theological Seminary between 1851 and 1878. He was a leading exponent of the Princeton theology, an orthodox Calvinist theological tradition in America during the 19th century. He argued strongly for the authority of the Bible as the Word of God. Many of his ideas were adopted in the 20th century by Fundamentalists and Evangelicals.
Hodge wrote many biblical and theological works. He began writing early in his theological career and continued publishing until his death. In 1835 he published his Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, which is considered to be his greatest exegetical work. Other works followed at intervals of longer or shorter duration - Constitutional History of the Presbyterian Church in the United States (1840); Way of Life (1841, republished in England, translated into other languages, and circulated to the extent of 35,000 copies in America); Commentary on Ephesians (1856); on First Corinthians (1857); on Second Corinthians (1859). His magnum opus is the Systematic Theology (1871-1873), of 3 volumes and extending to 2,260 pages. His last book, What is Darwinism? appeared in 1874. In addition to all this it must be remembered that he contributed upward of 130 articles to the Princeton Review, many of which, besides exerting a powerful influence at the time of their publication, have since been gathered into volumes, and as Selection of Essays and Reviews from the Princeton Review (1857) and Discussions in Church Polity (ed. W. Durant, 1878) have taken a permanent place in theological literature.
This record of Hodge's literary life is suggestive of the great influence that he exerted. But properly to estimate that influence, it must be remembered that 3,000 ministers of the Gospel passed under his instruction, and that to him was accorded the rare privilege, during the course of a long life, of achieving distinction as a teacher, exegete, preacher, controversialist, ecclesiastic, and systematic theologian. As a teacher he had few equals; and if he did not display popular gifts in the pulpit, he revealed homiletical powers of a high order in the "conferences" on Sabbath afternoons, where he spoke with his accustomed clearness and logical precision, but with great spontaneity and amazing tenderness and unction.
Hodge's literary powers were seen at their best in his contributions to the Princeton Theological Review, many of which are acknowledged masterpieces of controversial writing. They cover a wide range of topics, from apologetic questions that concern common Christianity to questions of ecclesiastical administration, in which only Presbyterians have been supposed to take interest. But the questions in debate among American theologians during the period covered by Hodge's life belonged, for the most part, to the departments of anthropology and soteriology; and it was upon these, accordingly, that his polemic powers were mainly applied.
All of the books that he authored have remained in print over a century after his death.
01 Chapter 1
Verse 1
Ephesians
An apostle of Jesus Christ. —The word apostle is used in three senses in the New Testament.
Äéὰ čĺëήěáôďň Čĺďῦ,by the will of God. There are two ideas included in this phrase:
2.That the commission or authority of the apostles was immediately from God.
Paul inGalatians 1:1 as well as in other passages, asserts that apostleship was neither derived from men nor conveyed through the instrumentality of men, but conferred directly by God through Christ.
To the saints which are at Ephesus. The Israelites, under the old dispensation, were called saints, because separated from other nations and consecrated to God. In the New Testament the word is applied to believers, not merely as externally consecrated, but as reconciled to God and inwardly purified. The wordἁăéάćĺéí signifiesto cleanse , either from guilt by a propitiatory sacrifice, as inHebrews 2:11 ;Hebrews 10:10-14, or from inward pollution, and also to consecrate. Hence theἅăéďé,saints , are those who are cleansed by the blood of Christ, and by the renewing of the Holy Ghost, and thus separated from the world and consecrated to God. On the words,which are at Ephesus , see theIntroduction.
And to the faithful in Christ Jesus. The wordđéóôόň,faithful , may mean preserving faith, worthy of faith, or exercising faith. In the last sense, which is its meaning here, it is equivalent to believing. The faithful, therefore, are believers.In Christ, belongs equally to the two preceding clauses:ôďῖň ἁăίďéň—ęáὶ đéóôďῖň ἐí ×ńéóôů͂ͅ, ‘To the saints and faithful who are in Christ Jesus.' Those whom he callssaints he also callsfaithful ;Ergo , says Calvin,nemo fidelis, nisi qui etiam sanctus: et nemo rursum sanctus, nisi qui fidelis .No one is a believer who is not holy; and no one is holy who is not a believer.
Verse 2
Ephesians
Ephesians 1:2 contains the usual apostolic benediction. Paul prays that grace and peace may be granted to his readers. Grace is unmerited favor; and the grace or favor of God is the source of all good. Peace, according to the usage of the corresponding Hebrew word, means well-being in general. It comprehends all blessings flowing from the goodness of God. The apostle prays to Christ, and seeks from him blessings which God only can bestow. Christ therefore was to him the object of habitual worship. He lived in communion with Christ as a divine person, the ground of his confidence and the source of all good.
God is our Father:
· 1. As He is the author of our being;
· 2. As we were formed in his likeness. He as a spirit is the Father of spirits.
· 3. As we are born again by his Spirit and adopted into his family.
It is in reference to the last-mentioned relationship that the expression is almost always used in the New Testament. Those who are the children of God are such by regeneration and adoption.
Jesus Christ is our supreme and absolute Lord and proprietor. The word êύ ñéïò is indeed used in Scripture in the sense of master, and as a mere honorary title as in English Master or Sir. But, on the other hand, it is the translation of Adonai, supreme Lord, an incommunicable name of God, and the substitute for Jehovah, a name the Jews would not pronounce. It is in this sense that Christ is, The Lord, The Lord of Lords, The Lord God; Lord in that sense in which God alone can be Lord—having a dominion of which divine perfection is the only adequate or possible foundation. This is the reason why no one can call him Lord, but by the Holy Ghost, 1 Corinthians 12:3. It is a confession which implies the apprehension of the glory of God as it shines in Him. It is an acknowledgment that he is God manifested in the flesh. Blessed are all they who make this acknowledgment with sincerity; for flesh and blood cannot reveal the truth therein confessed, but the Father who is in heaven.
Verse 3
Section II—
Ephesians
Analysis
The apostle blesses God for the spiritual gifts bestowed upon his people, Ephesians 1:3. Of these the first in order and the source of all the others, is election, Ephesians 1:4. This election is,
1st. Of individuals.
2nd. In Christ;
3rd. It is from eternity.
4th. It is to holiness, and to the dignity of sons of God.
5th. It is founded on the sovereign pleasure of God, Ephesians 1:4-5.
6th. Its final object is the glory of God, or the manifestation of his grace, Ephesians 1:6.
The second blessing here mentioned is actual redemption through the blood of Christ; the free remission of sins according to the riches of his grace, Ephesians 1:7-8.
The third blessing is the revelation of the divine purpose in relation to the economy of redemption; which has for its object the reduction of all things to a harmonious whole under Jesus Christ, Ephesians 1:9-10.
Through this Redeemer, the Jewish Christians who had long looked for the Messiah are, agreeably to the divine purpose, made the heirs of God, Ephesians 1:11-12.
The Gentile converts are partakers of the same inheritance; because, having believed in Christ, they are assured of their redemption by the possession of the Holy Spirit, the pledge of the inheritance until its actual and complete enjoyment, Ephesians 1:13-14.
Commentary
Ephesians
εὐλογητὸς ὁ θεός, Blessed be God. The word εῦλογεῖν, like its English equivalent, to bless, signifies to praise, as when we bless God; to pray for blessings, as when we bless others; and to bestow blessings, as when God blesses us. Blessed be God who hath blessed us, is then the expression of thanksgiving and praise to God on account of those peculiar benefits which we receive from him through Christ.
God is here designated as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. That is, he is at once God and Father, sustaining both these relations to Christ. Our Savior used a similar form of expression, when he said, ‘I ascend unto my Father and your Father; and to my God and your God.' John 20:17. The God in whom the Israelites trusted was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; their covenant God. This designation served to remind the ancient people of God of his promise to their fathers, and of their peculiar consequent relationship to him. The God in whom we are called upon to trust, and to whom we are to look as the source of all good, is not the absolute Jehovah, nor the God who stood in a special relation to the Israelites; but the God of redemption; the God whom the Lord Jesus revealed, whose will he came to accomplish, and who was his Father. It is this relationship which is the ground of our confidence. It is because God has sent the Lord Jesus into the world, because He spared not his own Son, that he is our God and Father, or that we have access to him as such.
It is this reconciled God, the God of the covenant of grace, ὁ εὐλογήσας ἡμᾶς ἐν πάσῃ εὐλογίᾳ πνευματικῇ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings. The past tense, hath blessed, is used because the apostle contemplates his readers as actually redeemed, and in present possession of the unspeakable blessings which Christ has procured. These blessings are spiritual not merely because they pertain to the soul, but because derived from the Holy Spirit, whose presence and influence are the great blessing purchased by Christ.
"In heavenly places." The words, ἐν τοῖς ἐπουρανίοις may be rendered either in or with heavenly things, or in heavenly places, i.e. in heaven. If the former method be adopted the sense is, ‘Hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings, i.e. with heavenly things.' The words however occur five times in this epistle and always elsewhere in a local sense. See Ephesians 1:20; Ephesians 2:6; Ephesians 3:10; Ephesians 6:12, which therefore should be preferred here. They are to be connected with the immediately preceding word, ‘Blessings in heaven.' The meaning is that these blessings pertain to that heavenly state into which the believer is introduced. Here on earth he is, as the apostle says, in Ephesians 2:6, ‘in heavenly places.' He is a citizen of heaven, Philippians 3:10. The word heaven, in Scripture, is not confined in its application to the place or state of future blessedness, but sometimes is nearly equivalent to ‘kingdom of heaven.' The old writers, therefore, were accustomed to distinguish between the coelum gloriae, the heaven of glory; coelum naturae, the visible heavens, and coelum gratiae, the heaven of grace here on earth. These blessings connected with this heavenly state, are conferred upon believers in Christ. It is as they are in him, and in virtue of that union that they are partakers of these benefits.
Verse 4
Ephesians
All these blessings have their source in the electing love of God. ευλογήσας— καθὼς ἐξελέξατο ἡμᾶς, he blessed us because he chose us. καθὼς, according as, or, inasmuch as, because, seeJohn 17:2; Romans 1:28; 1 Corinthians 1:6. Election is the cause or source of all subsequent benefits.
He hath chosen us. By us is not meant the apostle alone, because there is nothing in the context to indicate or justify this restriction. The blessings consequent on the election here spoken of, are in no sense peculiar to the apostle. Neither does the word refer to any external community or society as such. It is not us Ephesians, as Ephesians, nor us Corinthians, nor us Romans, as formerly the Jews were chosen by a national election. But it is us believers, scattered here and there. It is those who are the actual recipients of the blessings spoken of, viz. holiness, sonship, remission of sins, and eternal life.
We are said to be chosen in Him; an expression which is variously explained. Some refer the pronoun to God, ‘chosen us in himself;' which is contrary not only to the context but to the signification of the words ἐν αὐτῷ, which is the received text. Others say the meaning is, ‘He hath chosen us because we are in him.' The foresight of our faith or union with Christ, being the ground of this election. This however cannot be admitted.
1. Because faith, or a living union with Christ, is the very blessing to which we are chosen.
2. Because it introduces into the passage more than the words express.
3. Because in this immediate connection, as well as elsewhere, the ground of this election is declared to be the good pleasure of God.
A third interpretation also supposes an ellipsis. The full expression would be: εἰς τὸ εἶναι ἡμᾶς ἐν αὐτῷ, Chosen us to be in Him; in ipso, videlicet adoptandos, as Beza explains it. The objection to this is that it introduces more than the words contain, and that the end to which we are chosen is expressed in the following clause, εἶναι ἡμᾶς ἁγίους. It is best therefore to take the words as they stand, and to inquire in what sense our election is in Christ. The purpose of election is very comprehensive. It is the purpose of God to bring his people to holiness, sonship, and eternal glory. He never intended to do this irrespective of Christ. On the contrary it was his purpose, as revealed in Scripture, to bring his people to these exalted privileges through a Redeemer. It was in Christ as their head and representative they were chosen to holiness and eternal life, and therefore in virtue of what he was to do in their behalf. There is a federal union with Christ which is antecedent to all actual union, and is the source of it. God gave a people to his Son in the covenant of redemption. Those included in that covenant, and because they are included in it—in other words, because they are in Christ as their head and representative—receive in time the gift of the Holy Spirit and all other benefits of redemption. Their voluntary union with Christ by faith, is not the ground of their federal union, but, on the contrary, their federal union is the ground of their voluntary union. It is, therefore, in Christ, i.e. as united to him in the covenant of redemption, that the people of God are elected to eternal life and to all the blessings therewith connected. Much in the same sense the Israelites are said to have been chosen in Abraham. Their relation to Abraham and God's covenant with him, were the ground and reason of all the peculiar blessings they enjoyed. So our covenant union with Christ is the ground of all the benefits which we as the people of God possess or hope for. We were chosen in Christ, as the Jews were chosen in Abraham. The same truth is expressed in Ephesians 3:11, where it is said that the carrying out or application of the plan of redemption is "according to the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord." God purposed to save men in Christ, He elected them in him to salvation.