Ephesians 4.6e-The Father is Bodily In Union With Every Church Age Believer
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Tuesday January 7, 2025
Ephesians Series: Ephesians 4:6e-The Father is Bodily in Union with Every Church Age Believer
Lesson # 212
Ephesians 4:1 Therefore, I myself, the prisoner because of the Lord’s will, exhort and encourage each and every one of you as a corporate unit to live your lives in a manner worthy of your effectual calling with which each and every one of you as a corporate unit have been effectually called 2 with the fullest expression of that which characterizes humility resulting in that which characterizes gentleness. Specifically, by each and every one of you as a corporate unit continuing to make it your habit of tolerating one another with that which characterizes patience by means of the practice of divine love. 3 In other words, by all of you without exception continuing to cause yourselves to make it a habit of making every effort to maintain the unity produced by the Spirit by means of the bond, which produces a peace, which is divine in quality and character. 4 It is defined by one body as well as one Spirit just as each and every one of you as a corporate unit were also effectually called into the state of experiencing one confident expectation of blessing which was produced by your effectual call. 5 It is also defined by one Lord. It is also defined by one faith. It is also defined by one baptism. 6 It is defined by one God, namely the Father of each and every one of us as a corporate unit. The one possessing authority over each and every one of us as a corporate unit as well as working through each and every one of us as a corporate unit and in addition bodily in union with each and every one of us as a corporate unit. (Lecturer’s translation)
Ephesians 4:6 completes a section, which began in Ephesians 4:4, which presents seven essential, fundamental spiritual elements or realities which define Christian unity in a positional sense.
This section presents the basis for the three exhortations contained in Ephesians 4:1-3.
As we noted, Ephesians 4:4 presents the first three of seven essential, fundamental elements or spiritual realities which define Christian unity in a positional sense, which serve as the basis for Christian unity in an experiential sense.
The first three were that Christian unity in a positional sense is defined by one body, one Spirit and one confident expectation of blessing.
Ephesians 4:5 presents three more, namely that Christian unity in a positional sense is defined by one Lord, one faith and one baptism.
Now, here in Ephesians 4:6 we have the seventh and final essential, fundamental spiritual element or reality, which is that Christian unity is defined by one God.
Paul goes on to describe God as being the Father of each and every church age believer.
He then describes the Father as the who possesses authority over every member of the body of Christ.
The last two descriptions of God are in relation to the Christian community.
The first is that He is working through every church age believer as the ultimate personal agency.
The second is that He is bodily in union with every believer.
Ephesians 4:4-6 contains yet another triadic pattern in the Ephesian epistle because the Spirit is mentioned in verse 4, the Son in verse 5 and the Father in verse 6.
All three verses have a triad.
The first element of the triad in Ephesians 4:4 is the body of Christ, and the second, the Holy Spirit and the third is the church age believer’s confident expectation of blessing, which was produced by their effectual call, which took place the moment of their justification.
The second triad appears in Ephesians 4:5 which mentions the Lord Jesus Christ, followed by the Christian faith and then the baptism of the Spirit.
The third triad appears in Ephesians 4:6 and speaks of God as the Father of every church age believer.
As we noted, the Father is described as possessing authority over every believer and that He is also working through every believer as well as being in bodily union with every member of the church.
Ephesians 4:6 contains five elliptical assertions, which are in addition to the four previous ones that appear in Ephesians 4:4-5.
The first heis theos (εἷς θεὸς) states that Christian unity is defined by one God.
The second elliptical assertion assertion kai patēr pantōn (καὶ πατὴρ πάντων) is in the form of an epexegetical clause, which identifies the one God’s relationship to the Christian community.
It states that God is the Father of each and every member of the Christian community.
This took place at justification through regeneration and adoption.
The next three elliptical assertions are expressed through three prepositional phrases, which are nominalized by a definite article.
Each of these three prepositional phrases continue to describe the one God’s relationship to the Christian community.
The first epi pantōn (ἐπὶ πάντων) describes God the Father as possessing authority over each member of the Christian community.
The second dia pantōn (διὰ πάντων) describes Him as the ultimate personal agency working through each member of the Christian community.
The Scriptures teach that He works through both His Son and the Holy Spirit.
The third en pasin (ἐν πᾶσιν) describes Him as being bodily in union with each member of the Christian community.
The fifth and final elliptical assertion in Ephesians 4:6 contains the prepositional phrase en pasin (ἐν πᾶσιν), “bodily in union and in fellowship with.”
For a fourth and final time, Paul employs the genitive masculine plural form of the adjective pas (πᾶς).
As was the case in the three previous instances, it functions here in this fifth elliptical assertion as a substantive with the referent of this word being the Christian community.
Again, this word is not only pertaining to the members of the Christian community in their totality emphasizing them as a corporate unit but is also used in a distributive sense emphasizing no exceptions, which thus emphasizes them as individuals.
However, this time the adjective pas (πᾶς) is the object of the preposition en (ἐν), which not only identifies the church age believer as being indwelt by the Father but also expresses the idea that the Father is “in union with” and “in fellowship with” each member of the Christian community.
Therefore, this prepositional phrase en pasin (ἐν πᾶσιν) not only identifies God the Father physically “located” in each member of the Christian community but also describes the Father as being “in union and fellowship with” them.
The last two prepositional phrases in Ephesians 4:6, namely dia pantōn (διὰ πάντων), “working through each and every one of us a s a corporate unit” and en pasin (ἐν πᾶσιν), “bodily in union with each and every one of us as a corporate unit” speak of God’s immanency in relation to the church.
The immanency of God means that He involves Himself in and concerns Himself with and intervenes in the lives of members of the human race, both saved and unsaved.
The Pocket Dictionary of Theological Terms writes immanence is “the idea that God is present in, close to and involved with creation. Unlike pantheism, which teaches that God and the world are one or that God is the ‘soul’ (animating principle) of the world, Christian theology teaches that God is constantly involved with creation without actually becoming exhausted by creation or ceasing to be divine in any way.”
J. I. Packer writes “God is both transcendent over, and immanent in, his world. These 19th-century words express the thought that on the one hand God is distinct from his world, does not need it, and exceeds the grasp of any created intelligence that is found in it (a truth sometimes expressed by speaking of the mystery and incomprehensibility of God); while on the other hand he permeates the world in sustaining creative power, shaping and steering it in a way that keeps it on its planned course. Process theology jettisons transcendence and so stresses the immanence of God and his struggling involvement in the supposedly evolving cosmos that he himself becomes finite and evolving too; but this is yet another unbiblical oddity.”
