+I. The sovereign grace of God in making known to us the mystery of
His will.+--1. _The Gospel is called the mystery of God's will, the
mystery which from the beginning was hid in God, and the unsearchable
riches of Christ._ Not that these phrases represent the Gospel as
obscure and unintelligible, but that the Gospel scheme was
undiscoverable by the efforts and researches of human reason and
could be made known to men only by the light of Divine revelation.
There are many things in the Gospel which are and will remain
incomprehensible to human reason; but though we cannot fully
comprehend them, we may sufficiently understand them.
2. _God has made known to us His will "according to the good pleasure
which He purposed in Himself."_--Though the reason of His
administration is not made known to us, yet all His purposes are
directed by consummate wisdom. He is Sovereign in the distribution of
His favours; His goodness to us is no wrong to the heathen.
+II. The purpose of God in making known to us the mystery of His
will+ (ver. 10).--1. _The Gospel is called "the dispensation of the
fulness of times."_ It was introduced at the time exactly ordained in
the purpose, and expressly predicted in the Word of God, and in this
sense may be called "the dispensation of the fulness of times."
2. _One end of this dispensation was that God "might gather together
in one all things in Christ"_ (ver. 10).--To form one body in Christ,
to collect one Church, one great kingdom under Him.
3. _The Gospel is intended to unite in Christ all things both which
are in heaven and which are in earth._--The Church of Christ consists
of the whole family in heaven and earth. Here is a powerful argument
for Christian love and for Christian candour.
+III. In Him we have obtained an inheritance that we should be to the
praise of His glory who first trusted in Christ.+--The believing Jews
were the first who trusted in Christ. They, with the believing
Gentiles, were made heirs of God, not only to the privileges of His
Church on earth, but to an inheritance also in the heavens. As they
had first obtained an inheritance and first trusted in Christ, so
they should be first to the praise of God's glory.--_Lathrop._
Ver. 10. _Christ and Creation._--If the Divine purpose of salvation
was regulative for the creation of the world, then must salvation as
well as creation be grounded on the original Mediator. But that all
creation should be thus grounded in Him includes a twofold idea--that
not only were all things created by Him, but also for Him, who is to
bring to completion both the saving purpose of God as also the whole
development of the world which tends towards the realisation of the
purpose of God. And because the world has not yet reached this goal,
then all things have progressively their existence in Him; and it
cannot fail, because the goal of the world established in Him must be
realised. But how this goal of the world is conceived of, this verse
shows, when it is mentioned as the final goal of the institution of
God's grace that all things may be gathered in Christ as in a centre.
He has been appointed to be this central point of the universe, as
the universe was created in Him; but here it is pointed out that He
must again become so, because a dislocation in the original
constitution of the world has taken place by sin, whose removal again
the dispensation of grace must have in view. The goal of the world is
no longer regarded as the perfected kingdom of God, in which the
absolute, universal Lordship of God is realised, in contrast to the
earthly, mediatorial Lordship of Christ, which the latter gives back
to the Father, and that the exaltation of Christ is extended over
everything which has a name both in this world and in the future. One
cannot think of the goal of the world without Him in whom even
creation has its root.--_Weiss._
Vers. 11, 12. _Christ the Inheritance of the Saints._--1. Christ the
Mediator is that person in whom believers have this heavenly
inheritance, as they have all their other spiritual blessings leading
to heaven in Him. Every believer hath already obtained this glorious
inheritance, though not in complete personal possession. 2. As God is
an absolute worker, sovereign Lord of all His actions, His will being
His only rule, so His will is always joined with and founded upon the
light of counsel and wisdom, and therefore He can will nothing but
what is equitable and just. 3. It is no small privilege for any to be
trusters in Christ before others. It is a matter of their
commendation; it glorifies God in so far as their example and
experience may prove an encouraging motive to others. It carries
several advantages; the sooner a man closes with Christ, the work
will be done more easily, he is the sooner freed from sin, the sooner
capacitated to do more service to God, and his concernments are the
sooner out of hazard.--_Fergusson._