were in covenant relationship with God. He is called the God of Israel and the God of

our fathers, but where does He ever say "I am the God of Moses"? "I am the God of

Isaiah?" When we come to the epistles of the Mystery, the covenant with Abraham,

Isaac, Jacob, is temporarily suspended, inheritance of the land postponed, the high honour

of being a kingdom of priests, for the time being forfeited. The members of the One

Body, being Gentiles, had no "fathers", no "covenants", no "promises", only one

promise, and that made before the world began. Consequently when we read that Paul

prayed to "the God of our Lord Jesus Christ" we lose its significance if we begin to argue

about His Deity; to us, He is more than Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were to Israel, and

when we give the title to the Father, "the God of our Lord Jesus Christ", we are claiming

the same intimate relationship on higher ground and with richer blessing, than Israel

claimed on their lower ground and with lesser blessings, when they called on the God of

their Fathers. It is especially used when the Son of God is peculiarly associating Himself

with His people. The strong doctrinal element of the first prayer is associated with the

title "God", the mellow experimental nature of the second prayer is associated with the

title "Father". In the former, we have high exaltation, all things under His feet and

universal sovereignty, in the latter we have family and home. In the former it is "power"

that is exceeding, in the latter it is "love". In the former it is revealed that this church will

be "the fullness of Him that filleth all in all", a statement of fact, wonderful beyond our

wildest dreams. In the latter we are urged so to comfort ourselves that we "might be

filled up to (eis) all the fullness of God". It is "the God of our Lord Jesus Christ" in the

first prayer, it is "the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ" in the second. In the first prayer

we look up. In the second He comes down. The fact that both "God" and "Father" are

employed in these prayers, shows that the Lord Jesus is still viewed in His mediatorial

capacity. There in the highest glory He sits, "the MAN Christ Jesus", and as "the Son"

He reigns until the goal is reached (I Cor. 15: 28). As "the Man" He sits on high as the

Head of the Body the Church, as in Him, the Man, all fullness dwells, as the Man He will

be manifested with His church in glory, as the Man all Principality and Power are beneath

his feet, a glory faintly foreshadowed in Adam as revealed in the eighth Psalm. We may

not fathom all the reasons why, after choosing the church IN CHRIST, before the

foundation of the world, it was necessary that every member of this company should first

come into existence "IN ADAM" but some glimmerings of the mighty purpose are here

to be seen.

Following the title "The God of our Lord Jesus Christ" is another of like import, "The

Father of glory". We must resist all efforts to turn this into a figure of speech that would

make it mean "the glorious Father". There is more here than appears at first. A parallel

is found in II Cor. 1: 3 where we read "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus

Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort". When we read Eph. 1: 17 for

the first time "the God of our Lord Jesus Christ" it appears to put the Lord in a strange

position, seeing that He, too, is most definitely given the same august title. But no such

feeling is aroused when we read "The God of all comfort". Comfort is not worshipped,

but is the possession or attribute of God, "Who comforteth us" as the Apostle goes on to

say. So in Ephesians "the Father of glory" like "the Father of mercies" is the author and

dispenser of both "mercies" and "glory". What that term "glory" implies here, must be

gathered from the context. It is no more introduced suddenly and with no association