THE CHURCH ENJOYING THE RICHES OF CHRIST TO BECOME THE FULLNESS OF GOD
Ephesians 3 shows us that God wants to dispense the unsearchable riches of Christ into us to be our enjoyment day by day. Therefore, the apostle Paul prayed that God would grant us, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit into the inner man. Our inner man is our regenerated spirit, which has been mingled with the Holy Spirit into one spirit. God will strengthen us with power through His Spirit into our inner new man. This means that God wants us not to live by our outward, natural man nor by our soul—our mind, will, and emotion. God wants our whole being to enter into our regenerated spirit, into our spirit which has been mingled with the Holy Spirit as one, into our inner new man.
When we live in this way, Christ can then make His home in our hearts. When Christ thus makes His home in our hearts, His unsearchable riches become our enjoyment. Then we will be able to apprehend with all the saints how wide, long, high, and deep Christ is and how immeasurable He is. Therefore, at this stage, the riches of Christ are received and experienced by the church. Hence, all the stories of Christ are in the church, which enjoys all His riches. For this reason, the church becomes the mystery of Christ.
Verse 19 shows us that when we enjoy all the riches of Christ by being strengthened into our inner man and allowing Him to make His home in our hearts, the result is that we are filled with everything of God so that we become the fullness, the expression, of God.
The word fullness means to overflow and thereby become an expression. For example, when I pour milk into a cup, if I do not fill the cup, the milk will not be expressed. But if I continue to pour the milk until it fills the cup and even overflows the cup, this overflow will be the expression of the milk through the cup. Today, if the church has Christ without an overflow, the church cannot express Christ or God. We need to let the riches of Christ fill us completely even until they overflow. At this time, we will be not only the expression of Christ but also the expression of God. We will be not only the fullness of Christ but also the fullness of God.
THE CHURCH BEING MINGLED WITH THE TRIUNE GOD TO BE ONE
In chapter four, Ephesians goes on to speak of the oneness of the Spirit. There it says that the Body is one and the Spirit is one, so the hope is also one. Now this Spirit is in the Body, and we are this Body. However, our bodies have not been transfigured yet. Therefore, we have a hope, which is that one day even our body of humiliation of the old creation will also be changed into a body of glory of the new creation. This means that at the Lord’s coming, our body will be redeemed and transfigured into a glorious body. This is our hope. We have this hope of glory because of the Spirit, the Lord Himself, who is within us.
Ephesians 4 goes on to say that this one Body, which is made up of us, has only one Lord. We are joined to the Lord through faith and baptism. Through faith we receive the Lord into us, and through baptism we are immersed into Him. To believe is to enter into and have an organic union with the Lord. To be baptized is to end, to terminate, our all. Finally, this passage speaks of one God and Father of all, who is over all, through all, and in all.
All these matters show us that our being saved to become the church is altogether a matter of being completely mingled with the Triune God—the Spirit, the Lord, and the Father. For this reason, the church is the mystery of Christ, just as Christ is the mystery of God. Christ is one with God; also the church is one with Christ. The God in Christ has become the God in the church. The church is mingled as one with the Triune God.
THE CHURCH BEING THE BRIDE OF CHRIST
In chapter five, Ephesians goes on further to show us that the church is not only the new man to fulfill God’s will but also the bride, the counterpart, for Christ’s satisfaction. To be sure, such a church will have been possessed by and saturated with the Triune God. At this stage, we enjoy the Triune God not only as grace and reality but also as love and light. We live in and enjoy God’s love; we also live in and enjoy God’s light. In this way all of our living and our walk become fully normal.
THE CHURCH BEING THE WARRIOR
In chapter six, the book of Ephesians shows us from another side that the church is also a warrior. As the mystery of Christ, the church is a warrior fighting for God’s kingdom to destroy and trample on God’s enemy, Satan. We become God’s warriors not by ourselves but by being in Christ and by His power to take up the whole armor of God. Every part of the whole armor of God is Christ. We have the girdle of truth to gird our loins; this truth is Christ. We have the breastplate of righteousness to cover our conscience, and we also have the gospel of peace to shod our feet. This righteousness and this peace are also Christ. Then we have the shield of faith to protect our whole being. This faith is also Christ. Furthermore, we have the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, for us to attack the enemy. This word is also Christ. Christ is the whole armor of God for us to put on that we may be able to withstand the enemy, and having done all, to stand.
In conclusion, the book of Ephesians shows us that as the mystery of Christ, the church has Christ’s life and nature and was raised up together and ascended together with Him. Furthermore, the church has the power of Christ operating within her, causing her to be far above all and become the Body of Christ, enjoying the unsearchable riches of Christ to become the fullness of Christ, the expression of Christ, which is also the fullness of God, the expression of God. This church is the new man to fulfill God’s purpose, and she is also the bride to satisfy Christ’s heart’s desire. Furthermore, she is the spiritual warrior to withstand God’s enemy and bring in God’s kingdom. This is the mystery of Christ. The mystery of Christ is such a marvelous church.
(Five Great Mysteries in the Bible, Chapter 4, by Witness Lee)
