 |  |
Those who are represented as "the both" and "the twain" are further spoken of as
those that were "far off" and those that were "nigh". We know that the "far off" ones in
this passage are the Gentiles, for verse 13 definitely says so:
"But now in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were afar off are made nigh by the blood
of His cross."
We also know that this gracious work is being accomplished "now". Those that were
"nigh", therefore, must be the other company which, together with the Gentiles,
constitute "the both" and "the twain".
Let us now turn our attention for the moment to that most important yet difficult
passage, Eph. 3: 6--and particularly to the central member, "The same body". Most
readers know that this is an inadequate translation of the word sussomos. The R.V. has
endeavoured to meet the difficulty by the rendering "fellow-members", but this is a
private interpretation, and not a translation, for the Greek word soma must always mean
a "body" and not a "member". The translators of both Versions evidently found it
difficult to express the meaning of the word they had before them. Sun (the first part
of sussomos) is found in combination with more than eighty different words, but is
never translated "the same" except in Eph. 3: 6. We have nothing in our language to
express sussomos except the words "joint body", but what a "joint body" can be we
have no conception or experience. We could understand a body being made up of
fellow-members, but that is not the revelation of Eph. 3: 6. May it not be that this
peculiar word was adopted by the Apostle to enshrine the oneness that will be brought
about when "the both" become "one new man"? That is the suggestion before us, and it
seems to be supported by the references in Eph. 2: and 5: to Gen. 1: and 2:
Returning to Eph. 2:, with this peculiar unity in mind, let us seek to reach a
conclusion. The reconciliation and oneness of these two companies has been potentially
accomplished "by the cross", and is already entered "in one spirit". If the analogy of
Gen. 2: be legitimate, this complete oneness will be enjoyed in reality after the "deep
sleep" that intervenes before the resurrection, and then, in the glory of the Lord, both
John 17: and Col. 3: will find their fulfillment.
"And the glory which Thou gavest Me, I have given them: that they may be one, even
as we are one. I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be perfected into one . . . . . that
they may behold My glory, which Thou hast given Me: for Thou lovest Me before the
overthrow of the world."
The perfect Man (or "husband") and the perfect Bride will, while retaining the
distinctive peculiarities of their respective callings, become in the future "one new man",
even as Adam was, in the beginning, the covering name for both male and female. The
full reconciliation which is found only in Ephesians and Colossians (apokatalasso, not
katalasso) goes back beyond the choice of Israel and the "giving up" of the nations,
before the alienation of man in the fall, to the primal enmity that brought about the
overthrow of the world, as depicted in Gen. 1: 2. Just as God's answer to this overthrow