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Scripture Reading: Eph. 3:16-21
Ephesians 3 concerns the economy of the grace of God. Verse 9 says, “To enlighten all that they may see what the economy of the mystery is, which throughout the ages has been hidden in God, who created all things.” Although this mystery was unveiled two thousand years ago, it has become a veiled matter once again because of the desolation and degradation of Christianity. We need to ask the Lord to open our eyes and to shine His light so that we may see this unveiled mystery. If we truly see this, our whole being will be revolutionized.
Ephesians 2:10 speaks of our being God’s masterpiece, a poem written by God. However, God must have an economy to write this masterpiece. Verse 8 of chapter 3 shows that God carries out this economy by announcing the unsearchable riches of Christ as the gospel. As a result of receiving these riches, we are filled unto all the fullness of God (v. 19). God’s economy is to work the riches of Christ into us so that we may become the fullness of God, which is the expression of God. For this we need to be strengthened into our inner man (v. 16), which is our regenerated human spirit that is indwelt by Christ. Being strengthened into the inner man gives Christ, who is in our spirit, an outlet to enter, occupy, and make His home in the various parts of our hearts (v. 17). When Christ makes His home in our hearts, we are fully one with Christ and filled unto all the fullness of God. Only then will God be fully expressed in the church in glory (v. 21).
The second half of verse 17 says, “That you, being rooted and grounded in love.” This love is the love of Christ becoming our love so that we may love Him and enjoy Him. When Christ makes His home in our hearts, we are rooted and grounded in love. Being rooted is for growth, and being grounded is for building. This was Paul’s experience. When we experience Christ as our life and everything in reality, we can touch Him as our person and spontaneously experience His love.
Today every believer has some appreciation for the Lord Jesus’ love in dying on the cross for us. Christianity has many hymns describing this love. The hymns speak of sinners who were saved from condemnation and judgment because of the Lord’s love for us, which led Him to die on the cross for us. This is certainly a sweet matter, involving great love; however, this love is also largely objective. The Lord’s act of love happened two thousand years ago and thousands of miles away. The love spoken of in chapter 3 of Ephesians is also a sweet love, but it is very subjective because it is related to the Lord Jesus being in us and living out of us. This living love is a matter for today, and it is not far away from us; it is a matter that we can experience within our own heart. Hence, when we experience Christ, He makes His home in our hearts. Christ not only wants to be our life; He wants to be our person. We can fully enjoy the fresh love of Christ moment by moment.
We are not belittling or neglecting the Lord Jesus’ love in dying for us, but His love related to His living in us is more intimate and sweet. He is living in us to be our person moment by moment. If a sister does not know how to be a wife, she only needs to fellowship with the Lord, and He will be the wife in her. If a brother does not know how to be a husband, he only needs to fellowship with Lord, and He will be the husband in him. When we rise up early in the morning and do not know what to do, we only need to talk with Him, and we will be clear within. When we are worried about our troubles and unable to bear the heavy burdens, we only need to come to the Lord, and He will bear them for us. When we are angry, we should come forward to the Lord, and He will say, “If there is a need for anger, let Me be the One who is angry.” When we rejoice, we should come forward to the Lord, and He will say, “Let us rejoice together.” This is the way to enjoy the unsearchable riches of Christ. This kind of intimate and sweet experience far surpasses even the loving companionship between a husband and a wife.
As Christ makes His home in our hearts, we become rooted and grounded in His love. Then we will sense that He is the embodiment of love, the aggregate of love, and even love itself. We will sense that every part of His being is constituted with love. As a result, the Christ whom we experience from morning to evening will fill us with a love that becomes our love so that we may love Him. Being rooted causes us to grow daily, and being grounded causes us to be built up daily.
When we are rooted and grounded in His love, we also are full of strength to apprehend with all the saints what the breadth and length and height and depth of the universe are (v. 18). The immeasurable breadth and length and height and depth of the universe are the dimensions of our loving Christ. We can never exhaust what He is in our experience of Him. The more we experience Him, the more we sense His infinite richness. He is unlimited; He is the breadth and length and height and depth.
Once we are rooted and grounded in His love, we cannot remain individualistic; we need all the saints to apprehend the riches of Christ. The more we experience Christ and let Christ make His home in our hearts, the more we sense a need for the members, the Body. We often speak of the Body life, but the Body life cannot come through compulsion or teaching. It comes when our spirit is strengthened by receiving the riches of Christ and when we allow Christ to make His home in our hearts. This, in turn, roots us and grounds us in His love. When this is our experience, we are spontaneously joined to the brothers and sisters. It is possible to be an individualistic member in Christianity, but it is not possible to be a proper brother or a sister in the church and remain individualistic. We must be with all the saints. This is God’s economy.
It is possible for us to know the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ because deep within us there is a surpassing faculty (v. 19). Although this love is knowledge-surpassing, we can know it when we experience Christ.
The ultimate issue of knowing the love of Christ is being filled unto all the fullness of God (v. 19). In order to experience the unsearchable riches of Christ, we must be strengthened into the inner man so that Christ can make His home in our hearts. Then we will be rooted and grounded in His love and full of strength to apprehend with all the saints what the breadth and length and height and depth are and to know the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ. This results in our being filled unto all the fullness of God. God’s economy is to impart all that God is, such as love, light, righteousness, holiness, life, and wisdom, into us so that we would be filled unto all the fullness of God.
The economy of the grace of God begins with the unsearchable riches of Christ and with our inner man being strengthened so that Christ can make His home in our hearts with all His riches. In this economy we are rooted and grounded in love and become full of strength to apprehend what are the breadth and length and height and depth with all the saints. When we experience and touch these vast dimensions, we come to know the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ so that we may be filled unto all the fullness of God. This is the economy of the grace of God and its issue in Ephesians 3.
