Ephesians 1:1—4:16 presents profound and mysterious aspects of Christ for our experience and enjoyment, whereas the rest of the Epistle presents practical and fine aspects of Christ for our experience.
In Ephesians 4:17-32 we see that Christ is the reality and grace for the living of the new man. In the Gospel of John, grace and reality are a pair. John 1:14 says that the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us, full of grace and reality, and verse 17 says that grace and reality came through Jesus Christ. This indicates that when God in Christ was incarnated as a man, He came with grace and reality; that is, when Christ came, grace and reality came with Him. Here we see that grace and reality are personified in Jesus Christ; grace and reality refer to a person, the Triune God incarnated and expressed in humanity.
Ephesians presents reality and grace as a pair for the living of the new man. Ephesians 2:15 tells us that Christ created the one new man; the new man is on the earth today. Ephesians 4:17-32 goes on to reveal that the way for the new man to live is by reality and grace.
In Ephesians 4:17-21 and 24, Paul presents the reality in Jesus for a walk that is no longer in the vanity of the mind.
Verse 21 says, “If indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him as the reality is in Jesus.” Here Paul does not say that the reality is in Christ; rather, he says that the reality is in Jesus. The reason for this is that when the Lord Jesus lived on earth as a man, in Him there was always the reality. In Jesus, that is, in His human living and His daily walk—whether He worked as a carpenter or carried out His ministry—there was the reality at all times. In order to understand the reality expressed in the living of Jesus as a man on earth, we need to read verse 17, where Paul exhorts the believers no longer to “walk as the Gentiles also walk in the vanity of their mind.” Here we see a contrast between the reality in Jesus and the vanity of the Gentiles’ mind. In the human living of Jesus there was no vanity but only the reality; however, in our godless society there is nothing but vanity of vanities. Using a phrase from John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress, we may say that, as a whole, today’s world is a “vanity fair.” Wealth, fame, position, entertainment, and material possessions in today’s world are all vanities, but everything in the daily living of the man Jesus is the reality. Whatever He did in His human living is the reality; not one of His words was vain (cf. 1 Pet. 2:22).
Christ is not only life to us but also an example (John 13:15; 1 Pet. 2:21). In His life on earth He set up a pattern, as revealed in the Gospels. Then He was crucified and resurrected to become the life-giving Spirit that He might enter into us to be our life. We learn from Him (Matt. 11:29) according to His example, not by our natural life but by Him as our life in resurrection. To learn Christ is simply to be molded into the pattern of Christ, that is, to be conformed to the image of Christ (Rom. 8:29).
The expression the reality is in Jesus refers to the actual condition of the life of Jesus as recorded in the four Gospels. In the godless walk of the nations, the fallen people, there is vanity, but in the godly life of Jesus there is the reality. Jesus lived a life in which He did everything in God, with God, and for God. God was in His living, and He was one with God. This is what is meant by the reality is in Jesus. We, the believers, who are regenerated with Christ as our life and are taught in Him, learn from Him as the reality is in Jesus.
In His daily walk the man Jesus was not only great but also very fine. For example, when He fed five thousand men with five loaves and two fish, He was not so ecstatic over this miracle that He forgot the broken pieces which were left over after the people had eaten. Rather, He instructed His disciples to gather the broken pieces left over that nothing may be lost, which amounted to twelve handbaskets full (John 6:12-13). The four Gospels reveal that in every detail of the Lord’s daily living, there is no vanity but only the reality. Moreover, in nearly every page of the four Gospels, we see a striking contrast between the reality in the godly living of Jesus and the vanity in the living of others around Him, such as His opposers as well as His disciples.
In His thirty-three and a half years on earth, the Lord Jesus formed the mold, the pattern, to which all those who believe in Him are to be conformed. According to the record of the four Gospels, the life of the Lord Jesus was a life of reality. Reality is the shining of light. Light is the source, and reality is its expression. As Hebrews 1:3 says, the Lord Jesus is the effulgence of God’s glory. This means that He is the shining of God who is light. Because in every aspect of the Lord’s living on earth there was the shining of light, His life was a life of reality, a life of the shining of God Himself. That life of reality was the expression of God. For this reason Paul says that we learn Christ as the reality is in Jesus. In other words, we learn Christ according to the mold of the life of Jesus, which is the reality.
After Christ established this mold, He passed through death and resurrection, and in resurrection He became the life-giving Spirit. As such a Spirit, He comes into us to be our life. When we believed in Christ and were baptized, God put us into Him as the mold, just as dough is placed into a mold. By being put into the mold we learn the mold. This means that by being put into Christ, we learn Christ. On the one hand, God put us into Christ; on the other hand, Christ has come into us to be our life. Now we may live by Him according to the mold in which we have been placed by God. We are in Christ as the mold, and He is in us as our life. In this way we learn Christ as the reality is in Jesus.