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previous article, are all in Christ. In Him is the great affirmative "Yea" and through Him
the great confirmative "Amen":--
"We bless Thee, O Thou great Amen,
Jehovah's pledge to sinful men,
Confirming all His Word.
Doubtful no promises remain
For all are Yea, and all Amen,
In Thee, the faithful Lord."
#6.
The holy promissory Spirit (Eph. 1: 13, 14).
pp. 226 - 228
Before concluding this series of articles, we must devote some space to the use of the
word "promise" in the epistles particularly concerned with the truth of the mystery.
Apart from the statement concerning the law of God and "the first commandment with
promise", we have but three references in the epistle to the Ephesians:--
"Ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise" (1: 13).
"Strangers from the covenants of promise" (2: 12).
"Partakers of His promise in Christ by the gospel" (3: 6).
Throughout the five preceding papers of this series we have been dealing with
promises that were Abrahamic in character, and it will be fitting if we first of all face the
fact revealed in this epistle, that as Gentiles in the flesh we were both "aliens from the
commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise". There are three
very serious objections to the translation: "Guests of the covenants of promise", for--
(1) The apostle is not speaking about what Gentiles were by faith or in spirit, but what
they were "in the flesh".
(2) Before he speaks of either the commonwealth or the covenant, he says that such
Gentile were "without Christ", and
(3) He follows these statements by saying, moreover, that they had "no hope" and were
"without God" or "Godless" in the world.
There is no allusion to the standing of believing Gentiles either before the Lord came
or after, for the sphere "in the flesh" and "in the world" precludes the idea, as do also
their hopeless, Christless, Godless, state. So far as the covenants of promise were
concerned the Gentile was a "stranger".
It was the blessed privilege of the apostle in Eph. 2: to reveal the creation of the new
man:--
"For to create (not make) in Himself, of the twain, one new man" (Eph. 2: 15).