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The three occasions in Matthew upon which the Lord is spoken of as the "Beloved"
are connected with the word eudokeo which gives us the word "good pleasure" which we
have just been studying. The passages are 3: 17, 12: 18 & 17: 5, and in each we
read the added words "well pleased".
In Colossians, which in many ways is seen to be a parallel epistle with Ephesians,
Christ is not called "The Beloved" but, literally, "The Son of His love" (1: 13). In this
Beloved One, the believer is "accepted". It will be observed that the word "in" occurs
twice in Eph. 1: 6:
"WhereIN (literally "in which") He hath made us accepted IN the Beloved."
This word "which" is in the feminine gender and agrees with charis, the word
translated "grace" which immediately precedes it. We now note that the words "He hath
made us accepted" echaritosen is also a word derived from charis "grace". Charitoo
occurs in but one other passage in the New Testament, namely, Luke 1: 28, where we
read the salutation of Mary by the angel "Hail (thou that art) highly favoured among
women". The particular form of the word is unknown in Classical Greek, and occurs
only in one passage in the Greek translation of the Old Testament by Symmachus.
The two occasions upon which it is pronounced in the New Testament mark it off as
unique. No woman, before or since, has or could be so uniquely set apart and highly
favoured as the woman who became the mother of the Saviour, the woman through
whom was fulfilled the prophecy of Gen. 3: 15 and Isa. 7: 14 & 9: 6, and the
glorious revelation of I Tim. 3: 16. No company of believers apart from the Church of
the One Body have "heavenly places" as the sphere of their blessings; no church but this
one of Ephesians, was chosen in Christ before the overthrow of the world, and no other
calling, church or company from either Israel or the nations, is ever said to be so
"HIGHLY FAVOURED" in the Beloved, as this church of the dispensation of the
mystery. Elsewhere we may read of the "riches" of the Lord's grace but it is reserved for
the epistle to the Ephesians to unfold the exceeding (hyperbole) riches of His grace (2: 7)
and the unsearchable riches of Christ (3: 8).