In the first three chapters of the epistle to the Ephesians, we have the consummation of Christ’s substitutionary work in regard to Satan and demons. Paul prays that:
Having the eyes of your heart enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe. (Ephesians 1:18–19 ASV)
He fairly shouts that it is “according to that working of the strength of his might which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead” (verses 19 and 20).
He declares the same ability that wrought in the dead body of Jesus when He was raised to immortality is at work within us.
The heart can hardly take it in that the same might, the same resurrection power, that wrought in the dead body of Jesus is ours today.
If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken [or heal or strengthen] your mortal bodies. (Romans 8:11)
God the Father set Jesus “at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come” (Ephesians 1:20–21).
You must always keep in mind that we were raised together with Him, and He made us to sit with Him in the heavenlies; so representatively, we are seated on the throne with Christ.
He is the head of the body.
We are members of that body.
So if the head is exalted, the body is exalted with it.
If He has been given all authority, that authority belongs to the church, His body. It is for the benefit of the church.
If He conquered all the forces of darkness and left them paralyzed and broken before He arose from the dead, it is as though we had accomplished that mighty work.
It is all reckoned to us, set to our credit.
When will our hearts take it in, and our minds become fruitful with this mighty unveiling of what we are in Christ today?
Notice carefully the next two verses:
He has put everything under his feet and set him as head over everything for the church, the church which is his Body. (Ephesians 1:22–23 MOFF)
We are His body—then all these malign and wicked influences are beneath our feet.
We are masters of them all.
He did not defeat them for Himself. He defeated them for us.
He did not fight that battle for His glory, but for our good.
Adam had sold us out in his sin of high treason.
Jesus redeemed us, defeated our enemy, and put him beneath our feet.
When will the heart take it in?
That knowledge should become as common to us, and as usable, as the multiplication table. Someone must pioneer it, begin to teach it.
God the Father gave Jesus “to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all” (Ephesians 1:22–23).
We are the fullness of Him.
John 1:16 says, “Of his fulness have all we received.”
The same thing is brought out in Colossians 2:9–10: “For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power.”
He is not only our fullness, but we are His fullness.
The word “fullness” comes from a Greek word that is almost untranslatable: pleroma, which means completeness, perfection, or any other synonym that suggests fullness.
We have received of that fullness. That fullness has filled us. Can’t you see what masters we are of demoniacal forces? They are beneath our feet.
“Thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ” (2 Corinthians 2:14).
That is the hallelujah chorus of the new creation, and it never becomes real until we begin to confess it, begin to tell to the world what we are in Christ.
Hebrews 9:12 tells us that this is an eternal redemption. It is not just a redemption for the hour in which it was done, but that Satan is as much defeated now as he was when Christ arose from the dead, that he is as much a subject to the name of Jesus as he was when Jesus conquered him.
We do discuss “wisdom” with those who are mature; only it is not the wisdom of this world or of the dethroned Powers who rule this world. (1 Corinthians 2:6 MOFF)
This wisdom for the mature, the full-grown, is something that we need to know about.
The great body of the church are in their infancy; they are mere babes in Christ.
Many of our leaders have never passed beyond that. They are still dominated by the senses. They are big men in the sense realm!
Sense knowledge has taken the church captive, bound our leaders and holds them captive.
Very little is known of spiritual wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him.
Colossians 1:9 is almost utterly unknown: “That ye may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.”
Let’s have that. That belongs to us.
There will never be a struggle after faith again.
Your prayer life will be like the Master’s.
The sense of unworthiness that comes from sin-consciousness would be destroyed in that full knowledge, that exact and perfect knowledge of our redemption and righteousness in Christ.
He says we need this in order “to walk worthily of the Lord unto all pleasing, bearing fruit in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all power, according to the might of his glory, unto all patience and longsuffering with joy” (Colossians 1:10–11 ASV)
What mighty men of God that would make!
Notice the twelfth verse: “Giving thanks unto the Father, who made us meet [fit] to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.”
We have passed out of the babyhood state, out of the adolescent period, into full manhood and womanhood in Christ.
What prayer bands it would make, when we know the reality of the next two verses:
Who delivered us out of the power of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love; in whom we have our redemption, the forgiveness of our sins. (Colossians 1:13–14 ASV)
Notice what that means. If you are conscious of a perfect redemption from Satan’s dominion, you will walk with a sureness that Jesus had in His earth walk.
That sureness comes from knowing that everything you had ever done, and all that you ever were, stopped being at the new creation.
All of your past has stopped being. You start anew.
Then if you make mistakes, you have the intercession of Jesus.
All you have to do is acknowledge your mistake and it is wiped out instantly, and your fellowship is restored.
You have been delivered out of the authority of Satan. Satan has no authority or legal right to reign over you.
You are the absolute master of satanic forces in the name of Jesus.
You are now in the kingdom of the Son of the Father’s love.
We are masters there.
We are conquerors.
I want you to see that you hold exactly the same position that Paul held, and you have a right to do as is recorded in Colossians 1:28 (ASV): “Admonishing every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ.” He is speaking here of the new creation man.
Now notice the next verse: “Whereunto I labor also, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily.”
For it is God who is at work within you, willing and working His own good pleasure.
You see this combat is not ours. It is His combat. He did it for us.
He is doing a mighty work in us, and a mighty work through us in helping others.
In Ephesians 1:3–5 (MOFF) is a picture of a God-planned and a God-executed redemption and new creation. It is a God-sized work.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who in Christ has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly sphere! He chose us in him ere the world was founded, to be consecrated and unblemished in his sight, destining us in love to be his sons through Jesus Christ.
Go over that again.
Let it soak into your very being that way back yonder, before the foundation of the world, God planned to have us. We are the products of that plan.
And when the fullness of time came, He said to the great heathen world, “Whosoever will may come and become a member of my foreplanned family.”
It is “whosoever will,” and you have answered that call; you are a member of that holy body that can stand in His presence without the sense of guilt or condemnation.
You have been blessed with every spiritual blessing, purchased in the redemptive work of His Son.
It is all yours.
These riches require no faith to enjoy.
They belong to us as much as the money that was given to us by some loved one.
He tells us in the sixth verse that it was freely bestowed upon us in the Beloved.
Not grudgingly, not scantily, but it was according to the riches of His grace.
Notice this verse: “In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace” (Ephesians 1:7).
How can you be a weakling?
How can you act like the ignorant and untaught?
Can’t you see your place now?
You must glorify Him by taking your place in Christ.
Never think of faith again. This all belongs to you.
Never think of your worthiness, for He is your righteousness.
Don’t think of your ability, because He is your ability.
Swing free then.
Come out into all the fullness of His marvelous grace.
Enjoy your rights and take your place and fill His heart with joy.
God “hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:6).
Think of yourself as seated with Him.
We do as Paul did when he cast the demon out of the insane girl, saying, “I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her” (Acts 16:18).
How we should praise Him for this ability!
We are masters.
We are overcomers.
We reign with Him.
Can’t you see what a background this is for a prayer life that will shake the very throne of darkness?
Think of your enemies as beneath your feet, conquered and defeated.
Stop your trying.
This is grace. All is yours.
Take your place.
Circumstances drive us to God in prayer.
The Word gives us faith to come boldly to Him.
His name assures us that He hears our prayer.
Your enemies are filled with malignity and hatred, and will seek to make it unpleasant for you, but you are master of them.
You don’t have to fight them.
Your fight is a faith fight, described in Ephesians 6:12: “We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”
We are their masters, and we conquer them with words.
Jesus cast out demons with words.
He healed the sick with words.
He hushed the sea with words.
And He gave us the ability to use words, His words, His own name, which has all authority.
Thus we do as Peter did at the temple’s Beautiful gate; we say, “In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk” (Acts 3:6).
FORGETTING WHAT MANNER OF MAN HE IS
If any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: for he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. (James 1:23–24)
The new creation man, unless he has made a careful study of what he is in Christ, in the time of stress or a crisis will forget what “manner of man” he is.
We have lived so long in the realm of the senses that it is difficult for us to realize what we are in Christ.
We unconsciously lapse into the old life, seeing ourselves as we were, and not as we are.
Ephesians 1:7–9 is not a workable reality for many:
In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence; having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself.
This Scripture is almost an unknown quantity.
Note the first sentence: “In whom”—that is, in Christ—”we have redemption.” It is redemption from Satan’s dominion, from Satan’s authority, for He has “translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love” (Colossians 1:13 ASV). Jesus has become our new Lord, our love Master; He is our caretaker, the guarantor of our ability to reign over the forces that once dominated us.
We have (a present-tense fact) our redemption from fear and the cause of fear, and we are now not only delivered, but we have become masters where once we were held in bondage.
There has been a remission of all our past trespasses, and that remission has been according to the riches of His grace.
That is an unfathomable expression of love.
Who knows what the riches of His grace means to us! And He made this abound toward us in all wisdom, for Christ has been made wisdom unto us.
That is a strange expression. We have the wisdom to face life’s problems with prudence, and this wisdom and prudence and ability of God is His will toward us.
At first, I couldn’t take it in. Then I saw it.
I am His son. I must act the part of a son. I must take the place of a son. I must do the work of a son.
Then I’ll need prudence. I’ll need wisdom. I’ll need His ability to face every contingency.
This is something I possess. I need no faith to obtain it. Prayer is not necessary, for it is mine.
How often since this possession came to me I have forgotten what manner of man I was.
For the moment I have acted like a “mere man,” a very babe.
Sense knowledge throws her dark mantle over my spirit, and I forget Him and His ability.
I forget the name and its authority.
I forget that “greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world.” (See 1 John 4:4.)
And I question for a moment.
Then He brings back to me what I am in Christ, and I joyously take my place.
Ofttimes, we forget our righteousness. He has made us to be His righteousness in Christ. (See 2 Corinthians 5:21.)
The adversary would make us forget this, and sense knowledge would cause us to doubt our worthiness and our ability to stand in His presence.
It would make us say, “Oh, if I only had faith,” when faith is not needed, for He “hath blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ” (Ephesians 1:3 ASV).
We are rich with His riches.
We are strong with His strength in the inward man.
We should make it a business to affirm constantly what we are in Christ. Every believer should make out a list on a little card or in a notebook of what he is in Christ. Then read it over and over.
Start with the fact that in Him, I have my redemption.
In Him, I am a new creation, and Satan has no dominion over me.
Jesus alone is my Lord.
I am the righteousness of God in Christ.
I have as much a right in Jesus’s presence, or as much a right in the Father’s presence, as Jesus has in His Father’s presence.
And I have a standing invitation to the throne room to come boldly and take my place as a son. I need to remember this so that I will never disgrace Him by acting like a “mere man” or by forgetting what manner of man I am.
I should remind myself that I have fellowship with Him; that I am a sharer in the burdens He has, as He is a sharer in mine.
I should remind myself that I am a member of the fruit-bearing body of Christ.
I should never allow myself to forget what manner of man He made me.
I should remember that it is God who is at work within me, willing and working His own good pleasure.
That takes me out of the old life. I may be in the old surroundings. There may be everything about me as it was before, but this inward man of the heart has been recreated.
The real man has been made in the image of my Father God; and I have the use of the name of Jesus; and I have my Father’s ability to meet life’s problems as they are.