CHAPTER ONE

Contents: Believer's position in grace. The prayer for knowledge and power.

Characters: Christ, God, Holy Spirit, Paul.

Conclusion: The believer, is vitally united to Jesus Christ by the indwelling Spirit, through the redemptive work of the cross, and has in Him all spiritual blessings, including the assurance of an eternal inheritance and the working of His mighty power in and through him.

Key Word: Spiritual blessings, v. 3.

Strong Verses: 3, 4, 7, 13, 14, 22, 23.

Striking Facts: vv. 22-23. Jesus is Head of the Church which is His Body and His Bride. As Eve was of Adam's body, yet was his bride, so the Church born out of His opened side, is both the Body and the Bride. This gives Him complete disposal of all the affairs of the true Church to the designs of His grace.

CHAPTER TWO

Contents: Method of Gentile salvation. Jew and Gentile made one body in Christ, a habitation of God through the Spirit.

Characters: God, Christ.

Conclusion: A state of sin apart from Christ, is a state of spiritual death and bondage to Satan. A great and happy change is possible on the basis of Christ's finished redemption whereby men are quickened to eternal life by faith apart from their own merits. God, the Father, is the Author of the plan, Christ, the Son, laid the foundation, and the Holy Spirit raises the superstructure.

Key Word: Reconciliation, v. 16.

Strong Verses: 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 13, 14, 18, 21, 22.

Striking Facts: v. 7. One great purpose of Christ's salvation is to reveal in ages to come the exceeding riches of God's grace. If all men were saved, it could never be made to appear that we did really deserve to die. In spite of the cross, we, angels, and universe would doubt it. The loss of some men through rejection of Christ sets that doubt at rest and proves to all eternity that those who are saved were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

CHAPTER THREE

Contents: Church, a mystery hidden in past ages. Prayer for inner fullness and knowledge.

Characters: Christ, God, Holy Spirit, Paul.

Conclusion: The divine purpose to make of both Jew and Gentile a wholly new thing, the Church, the Body of Christ, was a mystery unrevealed in Old Testament times, the revelation of which was committed to Paul. Nothing is too hard for divine grace to do; what a mighty treasury of mercy, grace, and love is laid up in Christ Jesus, both for Jew and Gentile who will receive Him as their Lord.

Key Word: Revelation, v. 3.

Strong Verses: 8, 9, 10, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20.

Striking Facts: vv. 9, 10. The marvelous redemption of men by grace through faith, on the ground of Christ's atonement is to be a lesson eternally to Satan and his hosts, of the power of God. Angels are made to see how His glory can he displayed in His dealings with sin.

CHAPTER FOUR

Contents: Walk and service of the believer in Christ. Ministry of gifts of Christ to His Body.

Characters: Christ, Holy Spirit, God, Paul.

Conclusion: Considering to what state and condition God has called us in Christ Jesus, let us approve ourselves good Christians, living up to our profession and calling. As members of His Body, the Holy Spirit will endue us with spiritual gifts for His service that we might confirm and build up others in the faith and that we might dispense the saving doctrines of His grace to the unsaved.

Key Word: Walk, v. 1.

Strong Verses: 1, 17, 22, 23, 24, 30, 32.

Striking Facts: v. 8. When Christ's body was laid in the grave, His spirit descended into Hades (the abode of departed spirits), and proclaimed the victory of the cross. At His ascension to the Father after three days He delivered from Hades the spirits of the justified and took them to Paradise above, leaving the unsaved spirits in Hades. The spirit of the Christian at death now goes to be with Him above. Phil. 1:23; 2 Cor. 5:9,

CHAPTER FIVE

Contents: Walk of the believer as God's child. The believer's warfare as filled with the Spirit.

Characters: God, Christ, Paul.

Conclusion: As members of the family of God, it is our duty to put on the family likeness by walking as obedient children, and in full yieldedness to the Holy Spirit. Only as we are flexible in His hands may we be victorious in our walk, sincere in our worship or successful in our work.

Key Word: Worship, vv. 19, 20. Walk, v. 2.

Strong Verses: 9, 18, 19, 20, 25, 30.

Striking Facts: v. 32. Concerning life, the Church is the Body of Christ (1:22, 23). Concerning love, the Church is His Bride. Notice it is the "man" who is said to leave his home to be joined unto a wife. Christ left the glory and His Father, and later parted with His earthly mother (Luke 2:35; John 19:26-27) for the redemptive work whereby He could take out from the world a spiritual Bride, of which all true believers are members.

CHAPTER SIX

Contents: Domestic life of Spirit-filled believers. Warfare of the believer.

Characters: God, Christ, Holy Spirit, Paul, Satan, Tychicus.

Conclusion: The Christian life is a warfare, a struggle not only with common calamities and inner desires, but with opposing forces of the powers of darkness which seek to destroy the testimony of the believer. It is therefore requisite that the, Christian soldier be stout-hearted and well armed with spiritual weapons which God supplies. The sword of the Spirit and the access of prayer are weapons against which Satan is powerless.

Key Word: Warfare, vv. 11-12.

Strong Verses: 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 17, 18.

Striking Facts: v. 10. The Lord Jesus has met Satan at every point and defeated him. It is therefore dangerous for us to be strong except in Him Who is the Victor. Our natural courage is perfect cowardice; our natural strength is perfect weakness, but our sufficiency is always in Him.