Ephesians 1:10

10. Εις οικονομιαν του πληρωματος των καιρων , a very difficult clause, being in the English translation in the dispensation of the fulness of times. There is no Greek for the that.

We can best attain an explanation by taking the last word first, and going backwards. Καιρων , times, signifies the ages, aeons, or time-periods, in each of which a system of events is completed, and from which transition is then made to the next. Πληρωματος is the filling full, or rounding out, the events of one given time-system: hence of the time-periods the fulfilling with events. Ellicott perplexes matters by rendering πληρωματος “that moment that completes, fills up,” the time-period; whereas it may be (see Rob. Greek Lex. N.T.) a verbal noun, (equivalent to πληρωσις ,) and signify the process of fulfilling. Οικονομιαν , dispensation, is the management, administration, or control of the fulfilling of the time-periods, extending over the whole series. Most dubious of all is the εις , into, a preposition signifying motion to, or into, a place or thing, and impossible to be rendered simply in. The rendering of Erasmus, Calvin, and others, even to, Alford condemns justly as unintelligible. His own in order to, is, perhaps, just as unintelligible. So seems his entire rendering: “According to his good pleasure which he has purposed in himself, in order to the economy of the fulfilment of the seasons to sum up all things in the Christ.” Ellicott’s rendering of the preposition, with a view to, for, is better, making it signify mental motion toward a thing.

We apprehend, however, that commentators have not noticed in this connexion the force of the preposition εις in the phrases εις αιωνας , unto, or into, ages; where εις signifies not only into, but throughout, or in the course of; the preposition running through the whole line of the ages, and so making forever. And so here the force of the preposition is, we think, fully expressed by in the course of. Our own rendering, then, would be: the beneficence which he purposed in himself (namely) in the course of the management of the filling up of the time-periods, to sum up together all things in the Messiah. So, as the final summing up of all is one in the series of the time-periods, the purpose runs through the whole series.

Gather together The Greek a very full compound, re-gather-for-himself. Same as to reconcile in Colossians 1:20, where see notes. The two passages, written at the same time in epistles sent by the same messengers to the same region of country, must be held as strictly parallel, the clearer defining the less clear. This summing up, or gathering together, is unto the redemption of Ephesians 1:7, just as the reconcile of Colossians 1:20 is unto the redemption of Ephesians 1:14 of that chapter. The nature of the reconciliation in Colossians is made clear by the result of the peace made being by the cross; and so also the fact that you hath he reconciled, in Colossians 1:21, shows, by specimen, that it is reconciliation by conversion and pardon. This disproves the construction given by Meyer, Alford, and other commentators, that the gather together is compositely a reconciliation of the penitent, together with a subjection of the impenitent to a discordant unity under Christ, as in 1 Corinthians 15:28, where see note. Beyond all question, we think, a reconciliation by redemption to peace, through the blood of his cross, of all things in heaven and on earth, is what the apostle means.

Is, then, the doctrine of the actual final restoration of all men to holiness true?

Of all our commentators, Olshausen and Turner express, we think, the truth. Such a restoration is the full divine IDEA of God’s beneficence in the cross. Such is the complete fulness which it pleased the Father there should be in Christ. God is in Christ reconciling the world unto himself. And hence the apostle beseeches, in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled. Christ is officially the lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world: the Saviour of all men; the propitiation for the sins of the whole world. Thus the divine idea in Christ is a universal salvation through a universal reconciliation; a gathering together of all things in him.

Why is this ideal not realized? A large body of Scriptures lays the fault upon men. On the divine side the idea is sincere, the provisions are ample; on the human side the powers, natural and gracious, are ample; but the fulness of Christ is rejected. The ideal of God’s mercy is universal; but the eternal ideal of his holy choice, election, or predestination, is circumscribed by human perversity; since it can embrace only those who fully accord with it by consenting to be holy. “This is the condemnation, that… men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” And this is the reason why, in the foreknowledge of God, foreseeing men’s persistent evil, they cannot, in time, be elected to himself by a holy God; yet he, accepting the future facts as they appear to his prescience, nevertheless triumphantly so works all things after the counsel of his own will, as, perhaps, to bring out of this world even a higher result than could have accrued from a sinless world. This last fact may, perhaps, be the divine justification in the non-prevention of the responsible sin his wisdom foresees.

All things… in heaven… on earth But not in hell. God and man, Christ and man, angels and man, but not God and devils, are brought to peace through the blood of his cross. The only obstacle was man’s enmity and sin, and the consequent holy opposition of all righteous beings to man. When man accepts the cross, the reconciliation becomes complete, and man comes into the happy number of the elect of elect men with elect angels. The making heaven and earth signify Jews and Gentiles, adopted by some commentators, (Dr. Clarke included,) produces a meaning far below the grandeur of St. Paul’s language. Nothing but the fullest meaning of the terms is here admissible.

In him Repeated in joyful emphasis; for Christ is the predominant topic ever since his naming as the Beloved in Ephesians 1:6.