Ephesians: Chapter 1 [the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ]
The Father and Christ
Ephesians 1:2 “Grace be to you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Comment: [This reads from two personages (Spiritual individuals), not from one. We have “One God and Father of all, who is above all….” (Ephesians 4:6) and another who is also called “Lord”— Jesus Christ (Jude 1:4; Acts 2:36). God the Father is also the God of Jesus: “I ascend unto my God and unto your God,” (John 20:17). God the Father of Christ is spoken of as our Father, which is by adoption (Galatians 4:4-7)]
Ephesians 1:3 “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Comment: [Again, God the Father is the God of Jesus Christ; that is clear; yet Jesus is also called “Lord,” which sometimes can also be a title of God.
Ephesians 1:17 “That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory.”
Comment: [Again, the only way this makes sense is if there are two beings—one is God the Father, and the other is the Lord Jesus Christ.]
Ephesians 1:20 “Which he [God the Father] wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places,”
Comment: [This would be hard to do if God and Christ were only one being, but we know it’s referring to two—God and his Son Jesus Christ],
“and hath put all things under his [Christ’s] feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church,”
[in other words, there is a way in which Christ is “the head” or the governor or the one in charge—and not the Father—and that is, to the church [he, Christ] is the highest authority. And it pleases the Father that it is so; there are many examples of this in the scriptures—“The Father judges no man, but has put all judgment into the hand of the Son”; or, “All power is given unto me in heaven and on earth.” There are others, but again, this would make no sense whatsoever unless there were two Lords in heaven, one the Father, God over all, and the other the Son, the Redeemer or Savior, the Lord under His direction who administers salvation to His Father’s children.]
Christ’s resurrection is called a begetting, or the first begotten from the dead, and the regeneration of men is signified by a resurrection from the dead; as Christ’s body was really dead, lifeless, and without motion, prior to his resurrection, so men, previous to conversion, are dead in trespasses and sins, and are destitute of spiritual life and motion; and as Christ’s human nature could not help itself, could not raise itself, so neither can dead sinners convert themselves, or bring themselves out of that state and condition, in which they are by nature; and as the resurrection of Christ was the pure work of God, and a display of his almighty power, so the work of faith, of grace and conversion, is the entire work of God, which is begun, carried on, and finished wholly by his power; and as Christ’s resurrection was in order to the glorification of God, so is the regeneration and conversion of men, in order to their enjoyment of the heavenly inheritance, as follows:
and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places; which is expressive of the great honor conferred upon Christ, such as never was given to any of the angels; it shows that he has done his work on earth with acceptance and therefore is set down at his Father’s right hand, where he enjoys rest and ease from his labors, and is out of the reach of every enemy; will never die again, but live forever, to intercede for his people, to assist and protect them, and bring them where he is; and in whom, as their head and representative, they are already set down in the same heavenly places.