Ephesians: Prescript (1:1-2) – Qualifications of an apostle and how they apply to all believers, part 3.

Wednesday August 29, 2018

 

 

Qualifications of an apostle:

 

1. They must have seen and heard the Lord.

 

2. They must have been immediately called and chosen to that office by Christ himself. This was the case with every one of them

 

3. Infallible inspiration was also essentially necessary to that office.

 

4. Another qualification was the power of working miracles ([MAR 16:20]; ACT 2:43), such as speaking with diverse tongues, curing the lame, etc. (1CO 12:8-11).

 

These were the credentials of their divine mission. 'Truly,' says Paul, 'the signs of an apostle were wrought among you in all patience, in signs, and wonders, and mighty deeds'.

 

2CO 12:11 I have become foolish; you yourselves compelled me. Actually I should have been commended by you, for in no respect was I inferior to the most eminent apostles, even though I am a nobody.

 

2CO 12:12 The signs of a true apostle were performed among you with all perseverance, by signs and wonders and miracles.

 

2CO 12:13 For in what respect were you treated as inferior to the rest of the churches, except that I myself did not become a burden to you? Forgive me this wrong!

 

Miracles were necessary to confirm their doctrine at its first publication, and to gain credit to it in the world as a revelation from God, and by these 'God bare them witness'.

 

HEB 2:4

God also bearing witness with them, both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will.

 

Added to these is also the fact that their ministries were universal and not limited to one particular assembly and one can clearly see that after them, the last one to die being John, that there are no successors.

 

Anyone who claimed to be an apostle afterward is foolish and prideful.

 

As for us, performing supernatural physical works is not a part of our lives, but the miracle of being regenerated and transformed so that supernatural power works within us is an everyday part of life.

 

EPH 1:18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,

 

EPH 1:19 and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might

 

EPH 1:20 which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places,

 

EPH 1:21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come.

 

EPH 1:22 And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church,

 

EPH 1:23 which is His body, the fulness of Him who fills all in all.

 

His body is the fulness of Him because His power dwells within it.

 

EPH 1:1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the saints who are at Ephesus, and who are faithful in Christ Jesus:

 

EPH 1:2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Establishing the writer, we turn to the recipients.

 

“saints” - hagios = holy or set apart unto God’s purpose. Used 14 times in the letter.

 

A careful study of this word is of great importance to a believer’s understanding of the revelation of the New Testament.

 

Hagios is an adjective, but is used as a noun. This is common in language (the poor, the rich, etc.).

 

From the root hagi, we have three nouns used in the NT: hagiasmos (holiness or sanctification), hagiosune (the quality of holiness), hagiotes (the character of holiness).

 

We have the adjective hagios, which is used in EPH 1:1, and the verb hagiazo (to be made holy or sanctified).

 

I personally want to get rolling along in this letter before we do an in-depth study of the word. Since it is used so often by Paul, we will have ample opportunity.

 

At the start, we understand the word to mean “set apart unto God’s purpose and out from the world.” It is one of the believer’s eternal, descriptive titles.

 

As an adjective, it is to describe us as holy, pure, godly, and about the Father’s business of good works. Also, it is an adjective that describes God as the Holy Spirit.

 

Saint is an important doctrinal word in this letter. Paul is the first to use this word as a substantive regarding believers.

 

The word was used in the gospels by Christ in reference to that which is holy, but it is Paul who uses it as a designation for believers in Christ. He took the word right out of pagan Greek culture.

 

The Greeks used hagios to signify the offerings they brought to their gods or the building that was the temple of the god or the person who was dedicated to a particular god.

 

However, the Greeks never used the term as it has been in the NT. So, hagios becomes like agape and charis in that God takes these Greek words and through Paul gives them a doctrinal definition never before dreamed.

 

The Greeks called the thousand temple harlots at Corinth “sacred” or “hagios” harlots.

 

The NT takes this word, meaning to set apart or dedicated, and adds to it the morality and virtue of the Christian life, the life of Christ.

 

“to the saints who are … and faithful in Christ Jesus.”

 

Hagios is also used of God. It is the first word in the title Holy Spirit. It refers to His perfect purity, His opposition to sin which was manifested in Him judging it upon Himself and providing redemption. God’s holiness excludes His fellowship with world, yet in loving the world, He freely gave His only begotten Son in order to sanctify the people and bring them to Himself.

 

God is holy, and so the saint is made holy through the baptism of the Holy Spirit. This word means that God cannot compromise with sin or darkness and having this word as a title means that we can’t either.

 

The words, "saint, sanctify, sanctification, hallow, holy, holiness" in the New Testament are all translations of this same Greek root

hagi.

 

Every believer is taken out of the first Adam and placed in union with (baptism: immersion into Christ) the Last Adam. He is called a hagios (saint), a consecrated person equipped for good works.

 

ROM 5:12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned — 

 

ROM 5:13 for until the Law sin was in the world; but sin is not imputed when there is no law.

 

ROM 5:14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.

 

ROM 5:15 But the free gift is not like the transgression [no dualism]. For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many.

 

ROM 5:16 And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned; for on the one hand the judgment arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation, but on the other hand the free gift arose from many transgressions resulting in justification.

 

ROM 5:17 For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.

 

ROM 5:18 So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men.

 

ROM 5:19 For as through the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous.

 

ROM 5:20 And the Law came in that the transgression might increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more,

 

ROM 5:21 that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.