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Scripture Reading: Eph. 3:2-10, 14-19
We have seen that the mystery of God is Christ and that the mystery of Christ is the church (Col. 2:2; Eph. 3:4-6). Christ and the church are the great mystery (5:32). God is a mystery. Our mysterious God dwells in Christ bodily (Col. 2:9). Everything of God is in Christ. When we see Christ, we see God (John 14:9). When we contact Christ, we contact God. Hence, when we have Christ, we have God. Christ is the embodiment of God. Nevertheless, Christ is also a mystery. The mystery of Christ is the church. Just as God is embodied in Christ, Christ is embodied in the church. Once we contact the church, we contact Christ. When we are in the church, we are in Christ. The church is the mystery of Christ.
In this chapter we will consider Ephesians 3:17: “That Christ may make His home in your hearts.” Christ making His home in our hearts is a mystery. This verse does not speak of Christ making His home in our homes but of Christ making His home in our hearts. Most Christians only know that Christ is with them; very few are clear that Christ wants to make His home in their hearts. Hence, many Christians only believe in and experience Christ being with them in a general way. However, Christ wanting to make His home in our hearts is a very specific process. Our heart is the central part of our being, and Christ wants to make His home in the central part of our being. The making of His home in our hearts is not something outward or superficial; it touches the depths of our being for our experience of the reality of the church life. In Christianity today we can barely see any reality or manifestation of the church. The manifestation of the church depends on Christ making His home in our hearts.
Ephesians 3 presents seven crucial items. The first crucial item is the mystery of Christ in verse 4. The mystery of Christ indicates that Christ is a mystery, but this mystery is no longer hidden in the heavens or in God. Christ as the mystery has been revealed to us and in us, and He now dwells in us. Colossians speaks of this mystery when it says, “Christ in you” (1:27). We have something mysterious in our hearts — Christ. Today Christ is no longer merely objective; He has reached us and is in us subjectively. Christ is not only outside of us in our surroundings but also in our hearts, in the deepest part of our being. Thus, He is a mystery.
As Christians, we are joyful because Christ is in us, but others do not know the reason why we are so joyful. It almost seems to them that we are in the heavens, not on earth. This is a mystery to them. We can bear what others cannot bear, but the source of our strength and power is a mystery. We can love those who are difficult to love and also be virtuous toward others, but the source of our love and virtue is difficult to understand. We truly are a mystery to others. However, this is not a matter of mystery to us; we know the source of our power and life. Christ within us is our power and our life. The secret to our Christian life is Christ in us.
The second crucial point of Ephesians 3 is the unsearchable riches of Christ in verse 8. In this verse Paul says, “To me, less than the least of all saints, was this grace given to announce to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ as the gospel,” and in verse 2 he says, “If indeed you have heard of the stewardship of the grace of God which was given to me for you.” Furthermore, in 1 Corinthians 9:17 he says, “I am entrusted with a stewardship.” Stewardship here involves the dispensing of the unsearchable riches of Christ. It is not merely the riches of Christ but the unsearchable riches of Christ. Paul did not announce teachings or theology; he announced the unsearchable riches of Christ.
What are the unsearchable riches of Christ? The first item of the content of the riches of Christ is God. In Christ people find God. God is precious, but God can be found only in Christ. The second item of the content of the riches of Christ is the divine life. This life is very subjective, and it is very crucial. The divine life is in Christ. If we want to have the divine life, we must have Christ. The third item of the content of the riches of Christ is His perfect humanity. All human beings have defects and blemishes. We may feel good about ourselves at times, but more often than not we are dissatisfied with ourselves, because we know that we are not good. Only Christ is perfect; He has no shortcomings. He is the perfect man. If we want to have a fitting, perfect humanity, we must have Christ. Once we have Christ, we have God, life, and Christ’s perfect humanity. We cannot list all of His riches, because they are unsearchable.
Paul announced this unsearchably rich Christ as the gospel. By God’s mercy and grace, we must announce Him in this way as well. In the Lord’s recovery we should not announce teachings or theology but the living Christ. We must minister this rich Christ to others; He is full of riches. We need to minister this Christ with His unsearchable riches to others day by day.
The third crucial item of Ephesians 3 is the economy of the mystery in verse 9. The Greek word for economy implies dispensing. God’s economy is to dispense Christ. For example, if I dispense some paper money, my economy involves the dispensing of paper money. Rather than money, however, Paul dispensed the riches of Christ. All genuine Christians can testify that from the day they called on the name of the Lord, something mysterious was dispensed into them. This mysterious thing was Christ.
We have the mystery of Christ, and we have experienced some of the riches of this mysterious Christ that were dispensed into us. We enjoy Him and experience Him, and He has become our life and life supply, our support and strength. The more we experience Him, the more dispensing we receive; this is the dispensing of His riches into us. Such a dispensing is the dispensing of a mystery, which people cannot understand. Although this dispensing is mysterious, it is very sweet, rich, and excellent. Once these riches are dispensed into us, they cause us to be cheerful, full of vigor, and empowered. This is the result of enjoying the riches of Christ.
As believers, Christ is in us all. Sometimes we do not love Him, and we may say to Him, “Lord, I do not love You.” But from deep within us, He will say, “I love you!” At other times we may say, “Lord, I am not happy with You.” But He will say, “I like you; I need you.” Once we have received Christ, He will not leave no matter how much we try to drive Him away. Sometimes we may even say, “Lord, I do not like that You are in me,” but He will say, “I like being in you.” Thus, all we can do is love Him. When we say, “Lord, I love You,” He will respond, “I love you too.” This happens again and again, and this is the reason Christians are often beside themselves. We may be Chinese, Japanese, American, or another nationality, yet we are all beside ourselves because of Christ. Outsiders do not understand us when we gather together, and they may even say that we are superstitious, but the more we are captivated by Jesus, the more we are joyful. This is because we have the dispensing of this mystery.
Outwardly, some of us are Japanese, and others are Chinese. Normally, it is difficult for the Japanese and the Chinese to love each other, but whenever I, an old Chinese man, come to Japan, I sense a deep love within me for the Japanese saints. The reason for this is not because we know each other or can communicate in the same language. It is because we have the dispensing of this mystery.
The fourth crucial item of Ephesians 3 is the church in verse 10. This chapter speaks of the mystery of Christ, the riches of Christ, the dispensing of the mystery, and the church. The church is produced by the dispensing of the mystery. When Christ is dispensed into you, into me, and into all the believers, we all enjoy Christ. The result of this dispensing and enjoyment is the producing of the church. We have been called to enjoy Christ, and this enjoyment of Christ manifests the church. The church is the gathering and rejoicing of people who are beside themselves because of Christ. You can say Hallelujah. I can say Amen. We all can say Praise the Lord. The church is not a building; the church is a living person rejoicing in the experiences of Christ.
The fifth crucial item of Ephesians 3 is Christ making His home in our hearts in verse 17. Even though we may see the church, Paul felt that this was not enough, so he said, “I bow my knees unto the Father” (v. 14). Even though we know the church and enjoy Christ, Paul still prayed for us because we do not have enough Christ, and we need more Christ.
We can have more Christ by letting Christ make His home in our hearts. We already have Christ in us. When we called O Lord Jesus, Christ entered into us. This Christ who has entered into us is a mystery; this mystery has been dispensed into us and has entered into the central part of our being. However, we need more experiences of Christ. The room in our being is very large, yet the room that Christ has in us is often very small. We need to gain more Christ. Although we have Christ in the central part of our being, we have not let Him fill our hearts; we need to let Him make home in our hearts.
In verses 16 through 17 Paul prayed that the Father would grant us, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit into the inner man, that Christ may make His home in our hearts through faith. Christ is indeed in us, but the problem is that we do not let Him spread in us. When we encounter troubles in our environment, such as losing our job, not getting along with our wife, or having problems in coordination, we turn to our mind and think, “How can I solve this problem? How do I find another good job? Why did my wife treat me in such a way? How can I solve the problem in coordination?” We ponder these questions over and over again and even do not sleep well. The more we turn to our mind, the more we are troubled, and the more we lose our ability to say Hallelujah. Even if we force ourselves to proclaim a few Hallelujahs, there is no power or vitality in it, because we are in our mind. Knowing this tendency, Paul bowed his knees unto the Father and prayed that the Father would, according to the riches of His glory, grant the saints to be strengthened with power through His Spirit into the inner man. To be strengthened into the inner man is to return to our spirit. Only by returning to our spirit can Christ make home in our hearts through faith.
We have all had this experience. When we are in our mind, we are weak, but after several days a brother may come to fellowship and pray with us. When we open our mouth to pray and turn from our mind to our inner man, Christ dispenses more of Himself into us. Christ wants to dispense Himself into us every day and to fill our hearts. His filling of our hearts is His making His home in our hearts. When He fills us, He becomes our content. He wants to fill our mind and thoughts, to occupy our emotions and mood, and even to control our judgments and decisions. Christ wants to fill every part of our being in this way so that He becomes our expression. When we are able to say, “To me, to live is Christ” (Phil. 1:21), our thoughts will be the Lord’s thoughts, our love will be the Lord’s love, and our decisions will be the Lord’s decisions. Christ will become one with us, and we will become one with Him. This is Christ making His home in our hearts.
The Christian life should be a life of daily letting Christ make His home in our hearts. This means that the Christian life should be a life of letting Christ increase in us through a continuous dispensing of Himself into us in order to fill, occupy, and saturate us. Then we will experience the mystery of God, Christ, living in us.
The sixth crucial item of Ephesians 3 is the breadth and length and height and depth in verse 18. Once Christ makes His home in our hearts, we discover His boundlessness. He is the One who is wide, long, high, and deep. He is the breadth of the universe, the length of the universe, the height of the universe, and the depth of the universe. His breadth, length, height, and depth are immeasurable; this is Christ. The more we experience Him, the more we know His boundlessness; He is inexhaustible. There is a hymn that simply states, “Oh, what a Christ have I!” (Hymns, #510).
The seventh crucial item of Ephesians 3 is the fullness of God in verse 19. Paul says, “That you...may be 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, that you may be filled unto all the fullness of God” (vv. 17-19). When we experience Christ, we will discover that He is immeasurable, and we will be filled unto all the fullness of God. If there is no fullness of water in a cup, it may not be possible to see the water. But if we keep pouring water into the cup, the cup will be filled, and water will eventually overflow. This overflow is the expression of the fullness of the water. When there is only a little water in the cup, there is no fullness, and without a fullness, there is no expression. When we are filled with the riches of Christ according to the breadth and length and height and depth of Christ, we will be the fullness of God, and God will be expressed through us.
Ephesians 3 speaks of seven major items: the mystery of Christ, the unsearchable riches of Christ, the economy of the mystery, the church, Christ making His home in our hearts, the breadth and length and height and depth of Christ, and the fullness of God. God wants to flow through us and be expressed through us. The church is the fullness of God, the flowing out of God; it is a group of people who are filled with God unto all the fullness of God. When others see such a people, they see God’s flowing. The church is the fullness of God, the overflowing of Christ. I believe that the churches in every locality will become the fullness of God to express Christ in this way. This is the church as the mystery of Christ.
