taken place, not as a fancy of the Supreme God, but because these things became necessities of the arising situations. Let us note briefly in concluding this introduction that Adam was made a kinsman redeemer under Christ and under God in his creation. When man utterly failed in the work that was assigned him, instead of God’s wresting his office and sovereignty from him. He placed His own Son in the office of the kinsman redeemer. Thus we see the eternal Son of God divesting Himself of His heavenly glory, fully identifying Himself with mankind, taking on Himself not only the office of mankind but also all the faults and failures of man, and bearing the infinite penalty of them on the cross and in the realm of death. One purpose of Christ in all this is to vindicate God in His placing the lordship of the earth in the hands of mankind. Another is to give man that eternal lordship which God decreed that man should have. Verses 13-16. Striving for Inward Might Wherefore I desire that ye faint not at my tribulations for you, which is your glory. ¶ For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man;
Lesson 18 discussed a mystery that was revealed to Paul. This mystery was that the Gentiles were to be made members of the same body with Jews. This is not the body of the saved. but it is the church. The Gentiles had always had the opportunity to be saved, but they were excluded from the body of the special people of God, which was the nation Israel. The lesson this time goes on to discuss the working principles of the church. Paul had affection for the brethren that they might come into a fuller knowledge of God’s dealings with them in the church relationship. This was not an agonizing over lost souls, but it was a striving for a better understanding of Christian working principles on the part of those who were already saved—and who were already church members so far as this is concerned. His affliction, or his striving, on their behalf would result in greater glory to them in their being able to serve God more efficiently in truth. Let us remember that certain teachers were attempting to bring the Galatian brethren back under the Law of Moses as a rule of faith and practice. Paul desired that the Ephesians should escape such a bondage to law and that they should walk freely under the grace reign. As Paul contemplated the glory of the operation of the church, he bowed his knees to God the Father, of whom every family in Heaven and earth is named. These families refer to the various systems of God’s dealings with His creatures. They include the angels, but the family under present consideration is the church.