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Scripture Reading: Eph. 3:4-6, 8-11, 16-21
In the preceding chapters we have seen God’s eternal plan, Christ, the Spirit, and our spirit. These visions have been our focus. In order to meet the need of the Lord’s recovery in this age, we as Christians must see these four matters—God’s eternal plan, Christ, the Spirit, and our spirit. In this chapter we will see how God is working Himself into us to make us one with Him so that He may be our life and we may be His expression. We want to see how God carries out this matter.
Ephesians is a great book in the Bible and is filled with great expressions. The first great term used in Ephesians is mystery. God has a mystery hidden in Himself (1:9). Another great term is economy. God wants us to know what the economy of His hidden mystery is (v. 10). The Greek word that is translated “economy” denotes a kind of management, administration, government, or distribution. God has an economy, and in His economy there is an administration, a government, a dispensation, and a distribution. What is God dispensing and distributing? He is dispensing and distributing Himself into us.
How does God carry out His economy? He carries out His economy by the unsearchable riches of Christ. God has put all that He is, all that He has, and all that He can do into Christ. These are the riches of Christ. All that God is, is high, divine, and mysterious, all that God has is bountiful, and all that God can do is boundless. All of this is in Christ as His riches.
We need to see, through a few examples, what God is, what He has, and what He can do. What is God? He is light, love, Spirit, and life. What does God have? He has wisdom, glory, righteousness, and holiness. What can God do? He can call things not being as being, and He can give life to the dead. These are some of the riches of Christ. Paul said that he was sent to preach these riches, that is, to preach what God is, what God has, and what God can do in Christ. God has put all these items in Christ. Thus, this Christ is the embodiment of all that God is, all that God has, and all that God can do. Through His death and resurrection, He became the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b), in whom are all the riches of Christ.
The riches of Christ not only comprise what God is, what God has, and what God can do but also comprise His experiences as a man. Christ is not only God; He is also a man. One day Christ became a man. He went through human living, passed through death, and entered into resurrection. These experiences are also some of the riches of Christ and are now included in the life-giving Spirit. When this Spirit enters into our spirit, we become regenerated in our spirit, and He dwells in our spirit. Now He needs us only to pray.
We all need to pray the apostle Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3, because his prayer was for God’s economy. First, his prayer mentions the Father: “I bow my knees unto the Father...that He...” (vv. 14, 16a). Then, it mentions the Spirit: “To be strengthened with power through His Spirit into the inner man” (v. 16b). Finally, it mentions Christ: “That Christ may make His home in your hearts” (v. 17a). The result is that “you may be filled unto all the fullness of God” (v. 19b). This prayer is truly concerning the Triune God—first concerning the Spirit, then concerning Christ, and last concerning God: “To be strengthened with power through His Spirit into the inner man, that Christ may make His home in your hearts...that you may be filled unto all the fullness of God.” The Trinity is not merely a doctrine. The Trinity is for God’s economy, God’s dispensing. God wants to dispense Himself into every one of us. In order to do this, He put all that He is, all that He has, and all that He can do into Christ. Then Christ became a man, bringing all these items with Him. When He became a man, the element of humanity was added into Him. Afterward, Christ went into death and resurrection, taking with Him both God and man, and through death and resurrection He became the life-giving Spirit. Now it is through this life-giving Spirit that God is working in us.
It is marvelous that the Father strengthens us into our inner man through His Spirit. Our inner man is our spirit. Once we are strengthened into our inner man, Christ comes to make His home in our heart. Thus, we are filled unto the fullness of God. The Spirit’s strengthening us is Christ’s making His home in us, and Christ’s making His home in us is God’s filling us. We do not have to wait until we have been strengthened by the Spirit in order for Christ to make His home in us and for God to fill us. The Spirit’s strengthening us is Christ’s making His home in us, and Christ’s making His home in us is God’s filling us unto His fullness. These three things are one.
We must see that it is necessary for God to be in Christ, for Christ to be the Spirit, and for the Spirit to enter into our spirit, to operate in us and to strengthen us into our spirit. How does the Spirit strengthen us? He strengthens us by continually supplying us with the riches of Christ. The Spirit’s supplying us within is His strengthening us. The more He supplies us, the more we are strengthened, and the more we have Christ’s element added to us. Consequently, Christ occupies every part of our being. This is Christ’s making His home in us. When Christ occupies our whole being and makes His home in us, we are filled unto all the fullness of God. At this time God is mingled with us. God desires not only to be united with us but also to be mingled with us.
The Spirit’s strengthening us, Christ’s making home in us, and God’s filling us are not three different matters. This is the Triune God saturating our whole being. The Spirit strengthens us, Christ makes home in us, and God fills us. First He strengthens our spirit, then He enters into our heart, and then He occupies our whole being. This is the Triune God mingling Himself with us.
This is not a doctrine; this is God’s economy. What is the issue of God’s economy? The issue is the church. Therefore, verse 21 says, “To Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus.” This is the church life. What is the church? The church is the issue of the Spirit’s strengthening us, Christ’s making His home in us, and God’s filling us. The church is not the result of the breaking of our flesh or the result of the rubbing away of our sharp edges. Some preachers may tell you that because you are a person with many sharp edges, God cannot use you, so He has to raise up situations and use little helpers to knock off your sharp corners and to make you smooth. This kind of teaching is natural and is not taught in the Bible. What the Bible presents is transformation, telling us that we are being transformed from clay to precious stones. May God give us a vision today that we may see what the church is. The church is the result of our being filled, saturated, and occupied by the Triune God as the all-inclusive Spirit.
Perhaps some would ask me, “Then what shall we do with our flesh?” The simplest thing to do with the flesh is to put it off. We need to put off the old man and the flesh. We need to put off our peculiarities, our complicated mind, and our stubborn will. Some may say, “I cannot do this.” To them I would ask, have you ever seen a tree shedding its bark? The tree continually absorbs water and the riches from the soil, and in this way it is strengthened until it is full-grown. Then it sheds its bark. If we faithfully let the Spirit strengthen us into our inner man, let Christ make His home in our heart, and let God fill us, then day by day our old man will be gradually put off.
Therefore, instead of paying attention to dealing with negative things, we must focus on the positive matters, such as the Spirit’s strengthening us, Christ’s making home in us, and God’s filling us. All of us are peculiar in our natural being. However, God will say to Satan, “Satan, do you see all these peculiar people? I will transform every one of them.” God supplies continually, and the result is that the church is produced. Thus, we do not need to deal directly with our peculiarities. Formerly, I exerted much effort to deal with my peculiar disposition. Recently, however, my eyes were opened by the Lord to stop trying to deal with my disposition. Therefore, I do not deal with it anymore. We may be able to break a clay pot into pieces and even grind it into powder, but we cannot turn the clay into a diamond. Clay is clay. Therefore, we should give up our dealings. Instead, we should pray for the Spirit’s strengthening, Christ’s making home, and God’s filling; then the church will be produced.
