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`An apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, according to the promise
of life which is in Christ Jesus' (2 Tim. 1:1).
Writing to Titus between the two imprisonments he speaks of the
` ... hope
of aionian life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before
age times,
but hath in due times (or, its own peculiar seasons)
manifested
His word through a proclamation with which I (ego) was
entrusted'
(Titus 1:2,3).
The Gentiles, here called and blessed, may indeed have been `strangers
from the covenants of promise' while `in flesh', but `in spirit' they are
`joint -partakers' of a promise which goes back before the age times, and
before the overthrow of the world.
Such is the sphere and character of the unity created by the Lord during
this time of Israel's blindness.
We rejoice at the testimony of `All Scripture' to the joys and blessings
which are stored up for Israel, the nations, the groaning creation, as well as
for the church of God. Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for
higher things than Abraham hoped for or the Prophets dreamed.
`There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and
another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in
glory' (1 Cor. 15:41).
The rendering `the same body' (Eph. 3:6) is an inadequate translation of
the word sussomos. The R.V. has endeavoured to meet the difficulty by the
rendering `fellow -members', but such cannot strictly be called a `translation'
but approaches a private `interpretation'. It is possible that in this strange
new term sussoma we have something so new, so unique, so hitherto unknown, that
nothing short of a new term could envisage this new fellowship. Into this new
word has been enshrined the newly created oneness of `the both' into `one new
man'. The last thing that these three terms of equality can mean is that the
Gentiles were admitted into something already existing, but which had hitherto
been closed to them. This is something entirely new, and the Jew as a Jew,
even as the Gentile as a Gentile, finds no place, no priority, no advantage.
`In spirit', as opposed to `in flesh', all such distinctions vanish. A newly
created new man (not a process of evolution) is the outstanding characteristic
of the dispensation of the Mystery.
Hid, Hide and Hidden. In the New Testament these words are the translation of
either the Greek krupto and its derivatives and compounds, lanthano, or kalupto
and its compound with peri. Lanthano occurs six times, but two references only
have any dispensational bearing, they occur in 2 Peter 3:5,8:
`For this they willingly are ignorant of' (lit. this escapes them
willingly).
`Be not ignorant of this one thing' (lit. let not this one thing escape
you).
Moffatt renders these passages: `They wilfully ignore the fact'. `Beloved, you
must not ignore this fact'. Ignorance may be excusable, but to `ignore
wilfully' is sinful, and thus reveals the obstinate character of those who with