I N D E X
and while the door at length swings open to the Gentile (Acts 14:27), the
epistle to the Romans makes it clear in the eleventh chapter that
dispensationally the Gentile believer was a wild olive grafted contrary to
nature into the true olive tree.  Such conditions, though palliated by the
decrees of Acts 15, are inimical to true unity, and they were abolished at the
introduction of the Mystery.  Those who were reconciled in one Body to God, have
access in one Spirit to the Father; the former position `to God' being that of
the church of the one Body, the latter `to the Father' that of the family (Eph.
3:15).  Chapter 2:18 commenced with the particle hoti `seeing that through Him,
etc.' as though the experimental fact that could not be denied, proved the
dispensational fact that was being explained.  What they had was `access' ten
prosagogen.  This word in the LXX answers in the majority of cases to the Hebrew
corban, a word we have already considered when dealing with salvation as `the
gift' of God.  There, in Ephesians 2:8, it is God Who in infinite grace comes
forward and brings His unspeakable gift to us; here, in virtue of that gift, we
are entitled to draw near to Him.  There are thirty-seven occurrences of
prosagoge in the LXX of Leviticus translating corban, of which the following are
examples:
`And Moses brought Aaron and his sons, and washed them with water'.
`And Moses brought Aaron's sons, and put coats upon them'.
`And he brought Aaron's sons, and Moses put of the blood upon the
tip of their right ear' (Lev. 8:6,13,24 [LXX 23]).
We learn from Ephesians 1:4 that this church of the One Body was chosen in
Christ before the foundation of the world that it should be `holy and without
blame before Him'.  We find in Ephesians 5:25-27 that Christ loved the church
and gave Himself for it; that He washes it by the water of the Word that it may
be presented `holy and without blemish', and here in Ephesians 2:16-18 we see
the work in process.  What this church was in electing choice `holy and without
blemish', so will they be when presented at the last, and in the reconciliation
with its accompanying `access', we see that they are `in Christ' what Aaron and
his sons were only in type.  Aaron had access but once a year into the holiest
of all, of a Tabernacle made with hands.  We have access at all times into the
holiest of all (see pages 198-205, for the meaning of the word `saints') of the
true Tabernacle which the Lord pitched and not man, namely into heaven itself.
Aaron never `sat down' as a priest, for his work was never completed.  Christ,
after He had offered one Sacrifice for sins for ever, `sat down', His work done.
No one of Israel would have entertained the thought that anyone of that favoured
race, however holy, could ever sit down in
that august Presence, yet we have already read the overwhelming statement of
Ephesians 2:6 that we, who once were aliens and strangers, have been raised up
together with Christ and `seated together in heavenly places' in Christ Jesus.
This is reconciliation indeed.
What God planned before the world was overthrown, He has in His own good
time effected through the cross and the shed blood of His Beloved, and now those
who were once `far off' are indeed `made nigh' and have access, yea access with
boldness and confidence by the faith of Him (Eph. 3:12).  To other callings may
be appended the titles `A Kingdom of Priests' and `The Bride of the Lamb', but
none can be so near as those who are the very members of His Body.  Such is the
high calling of the dispensation of the Mystery.
`Once' or
`in time past'.  Children of wrath.
But
God.  The intervention of love.
`Once' or
`in time past'.  Aliens and strangers.
But
now.  The intervention of peace.
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