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with "holy spirit of promise" the pledge or earnest of the glorious reality. Once more the
section ends with a note of praise.
The Apostle has now given us some idea of the priceless treasures that are contained
in this "Muniment Room". Here to our wonderful gaze he showed us "the will" of our
Father, revealing His most sacred secret, a will and a choice made and purposed "before
the overthrow of the world". Here we learn that the blessings allotted to us are "every
blessing that is spiritual", and to be enjoyed in the super-heavens en tois epouraniois,
where Christ sits at the right hand of God. Here we see the documents that appoint us
heirs and firstborns, we are, as verse six has declared, "highly favoured in the Beloved".
If this gracious will of the Father calls forth our praise, what shall we say when we
review afresh the documents that set forth the grounds of our enfranchisement. We were
bondslaves, but we have been redeemed, released and forgiven with a grace that
overflows. In this revelation of favour, there is made known "the secret of His will"
which shows that this church thus chosen and redeemed is a foreshadowing of the day
when in the fullest sense, the Saviour shall head up all things in Himself, in Whom we
find our blessed part, being honoured as was Aaron, not so much in being allocated an
inheritance but of being taken to be the Lord's portion, His "peculiar possession", unto
which the Holy Spirit has sealed us, and given us an earnest, in full assurance that the
redemption of the purchase shall be effectually completed. The phrase "in Whom" links
these three sections of our charter together, carrying each stage on as an outcome of the
other.
IN WHOM we have redemption, i.e. in the Beloved of the Father's will.
IN WHOM we also were taken to be an inheritance,
i.e. in Him Who is our Redeemer, and Head.
IN WHOM ye also were sealed with the holy spirit of promise,
i.e. in Him, the Redeemer and the Beloved.
"In Whom" each time refers to Christ. The Father's will and the Spirit's witness
focuses our adoring gaze on the Sacrifice for sin so freely offered that we may be set free
to enjoy "all spiritual blessings in heavenly places", we who by nature were so far off as
to be hopeless, Christless and Godless.
Can we wonder that we pass from the Muniment Room under the guidance of the
Apostle, into the Chapel of Acknowledgment, which section, Eph. 1: 15-20 now awaits
our worshipping attention.