His flesh was rent as the veil; His body was offered

as a Sacrifice (Heb. 10:5,10), and so intimate is the reconciliation of the

church which is His mystical

Body linked with the literal body in which the great reconciliation was

accomplished, that it is extremely difficult to decide, when reading

Ephesians 2:16, 'that He might reconcile the both in one body by the cross',

whether we should read, 'reconcile the both in one body', meaning in the

newly created church, or 'in one body by the cross', meaning the once -

offered Sacrifice.  Perhaps the wording is intentionally arranged that the

two related aspects of one great truth should stand for ever intertwined.

The enmity which is associated with the flesh (namely the decrees that

specified abstention from 'things strangled', etc., Acts 15:29), is dealt

with by the cross or by the blood of Christ, the words 'death', 'dead' or

'die' never occurring in Ephesians 2:13 -18, whereas while the blood of His

cross is still seen to be the procuring cause of peace (Col. 1:20).  It is

'through death' (Col. 1:22) that the presentation of the believer is made

possible.  Most readers have at some time realized what a fulness there is in

the doxology with which Jude closes his epistle:

'Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you

faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy' (Jude

Yet the word translated 'present' in Colossians 1:22 is paristemi, 'to make

to stand beside', whereas the word so translated in Jude 24 is histemi, 'to

stand', although both Ephesians 1:4, 'before Him', Colossians 1:22, 'in His

sight' and Jude 24 use the same word, katenopion, 'before the presence'.  The

presentation of Colossians 1:22,28 and Ephesians 5:27 is the richer by the

added prefix para, 'beside'.  The presentation of those once alienated by

wicked works is truly wonderful to contemplate.  It has a threefold

character, or possibly it has one great character; it will be 'holy', but

this holiness is subdivided into two main aspects (1) unblameable and (2)

Unblameable.  This word is especially associated with the condition

that is essential to a sacrifice.  It must be 'without blemish'.

Unreproveable.  This word has reference to the law court rather than

the temple, and in another form is the great, challenging word of Romans 8,

'who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?'

These aspects of truth have already been developed in the booklet

entitled, Accepted in the Beloved.

The passage before us is one around which a great amount of controversy

has arisen, and because of the extremely important nature of the truth which

it reveals, we will first of all give the passage as it is found in the A.V.:

'And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was

manifest in the flesh' (1 Tim. 3:16).

We propose then an examination of this verse under the following headings:

The evidence of the structure of the Epistle as a whole.