Vastly More to be a Son than a Child

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Sonship is a much higher thought than that conveyed by the figure of the “new birth.” Indeed, Paul leaves that illustration to the Kingdom proclamation. He makes us a new creation, rather than a regeneration. Sonship is not necessarily based on birth. It may be obtained by adoption. It does not figure mere relationship, but the honors granted only to the heir when he comes of age, and is invested with the highest dignities which his father can bestow. It is vastly more to be a son of God than a child. A teacher in this economy should press this point, so that the saints may realize their sonship (Ephesians 4:13).

A.E. Knoch (1874-1965)
Unsearchable Riches, Volume 23 (1932)
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The Fullness

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Well nigh lost is the dominating doctrine of the pleroma or fullness. The reconciliation of the universe rests upon this transcendent truth. Apart from the Fullness of the Son, God could not be conciliated nor could His enemies be reconciled to Him. In Him is found all that God needs and all that His creatures need. Nothing apart from Him is of any avail: anything apart from Him is an affront to His Father.

God’s approach to His creatures is clear and open through the death of His Son. Likewise, our entrance into His presence is unobstructed and unhindered through the death of God’s Son. But before that death and its proclamation God had carefully hedged Himself with a barrier of Jewish forms and ceremonies, dwelling alone behind an unrent veil in awful and unapproachable majesty. But now that veil is rent, the cleansing flood flows as a river, the victim has bled, the barriers all are down, and, lest we are yet too timid to approach, God comes forth and takes up His abode within the spirits of His people. He beseeches the sinner to be reconciled, He implores the saint to enjoy it, and we respond – all upon the ground of the Fullness which His Son is for us.

A.E. Knoch (1874-1965)
Unsearchable Riches, Volume 4 (1913)
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Readjusting the Saints

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The majority of the saints today doctrinally stand on Circumcision ground. Their teaching and experience has been drawn from the accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and the Acts of the Apostles. Assuming that “the church began on the day of Pentecost,” they attempt to creedalize and practice the varying presentations and examples which follow. Now and then some of the teachings of the earlier epistles of Paul are included, notwithstanding the incongruous differences which are continually calling for modifying explanations that never explain!

It is the duty of … the teacher to readjust the saints from this standing into the transcendent truth and grace of the Pauline revelation ordained for the present Secret Administration. This calls for mature wisdom and spiritual understanding.

A.E. Knoch (1874-1965)
Unsearchable Riches, Volume 25 (1934)
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Which “Church”?

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The Greek word translated “church” in the King James Version is “ecclesia” and means “called out ones.” There are various “called out ones” in the Scriptures, but only one at the present time. These are believers, constituting the Body of Christ with Christ as the Head, crucified, buried, risen, ascended and seated with Him in the heavenlies, and revealed only in Ephesians and Colossians.

The “church” during the book of Acts was a corporate body of believers that belonged to Christ. In I Corinthians 12 a parallel is drawn between a physical body and the body (group) of believers. They were members one of another, just as the members of a physical body are. The head (:21) represented a member (not Christ) and is no more important that the foot or any other member. Christ was not the Head of that “church.” Nowhere does it mention that Christ was the Head of the “church” during the book of Acts.

The “Church” which is Christ’s Body is distinct from every other church in the Scriptures. It is not the “church” in the wilderness (Acts 7:38); neither is it the “church” (“congregation”) spoken of in Psalm 22:22 and Hebrews 2:12. This “called out” Body, with Christ as the Head, cannot be found in prophecy or traced in any previous writings prior to Ephesians and Colossians. It was chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4) and is the only group of “called out ones” whose destiny is in the heavenlies. We will be manifested with Him in glory in the heavenlies, a witness to principalities and powers during the coming ages (Colossians 3:3; Ephesians 3:10).

Rex B. Grant (1941-2013)
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The Ecclesia Today Is Not the “Bride” or “Sheep”

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The frequent picturing of Israel as “sheep” … features a point similar to the figure of the “bride …” Both figures are used freely in the Hebrew Scriptures and in the Greek Jewish portions of the apostolic writings. Neither figure is used as illustrative of the Ecclesia of the present dispensation in any epistle written by Paul.

More than that: the word “sheep” is not even used by Paul in any letter bearing his name, except in Romans 8:36, which quotes Isaiah in describing our Lord as a Sheep for the slaughter. The same is true of the word “shepherd.” It is used only once by Paul in his epistles, and then in the sense of “pastors” (Ephesians 4:11), but the usage of both words in the Gospels is very frequent.

F.H. Robison (1885-1932)
Are Bride and Body Identical? pp. 30-31
Bible Student’s Press
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“Maturity” Has Now Come

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Even Paul could speak of a time when his knowledge was based on an “installment” yet later he was able to recognize the facts. Even while writing this epistle he could say:

At present we are observing by means of a mirror, in an enigma, yet then, face to face. At present I know out of an instalment, yet then I shall recognize as I am recognized also (I Corinthians 13:12).

But now maturity has come:

Unto the end that we should all attain to the unity of the faith and of the realization of the son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature of the complement of the Christ (Ephesians 4:13).

A.E. Knoch (1874-1965)
“Material Mirrors of Spiritual Truth”
Unsearchable Riches, Volume 48 (1957)
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