Eph. 1 begins with the well-speaking of God and ends with the Body, the fullness of the One who fills all in all. This indicates that the Body, the fullness of Christ, is the issue of God’s blessing. The words “to the church” in verse 22 mean a great deal. All that the Triune God has passed through, including incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension, is transmitted to the church. The church has absolutely nothing to do with the old creation, which was terminated on the cross and buried with Christ in the tomb. What is transmitted to the church is altogether of the new creation. The church is the issue of this transmission.
This message is the concluding word on chapter one. In this chapter there are seven crucial things requiring the same basic factor for their accomplishment: God’s selection that we may be made holy and without blemish (v. 4), God’s predestination that we may become His sons (v. 5), the sealing of the Holy Spirit that we may be fully redeemed (vv. 13-14), the hope of God’s calling, the glory of God’s inheritance in the saints (v. 18), the power that causes us to participate in Christ’s attainment (vv. 19-22), and the Body that is the fullness of the all-filling Christ (v. 23). All these are accomplished by the Triune God dispensed into us and wrought into our being. The issue of such a divine dispensation into our humanity is the fullness of Him who fills all in all and the praise of His expressed glory. Actually, chapter one is a revelation of God’s marvelous and excellent economy beginning from His choosing of us in eternity and reaching to the producing of the Body of Christ to express Himself for eternity.
When you hear about the Triune God dispensed into us and wrought into our being, you may think that there is neither such a word nor such a thought in chapter one. However, the Triune God certainly is revealed in this chapter. Although we cannot find the word “dispensed,” we do have the word “dispensation” (v. 10), which indicates the act of dispensing. Remember, the dispensation of the fullness of the times encompasses all the ages. The fact that we are sons of God shows that God has been dispensed into us. If God the Father has not been dispensed into us, how can we be His sons? We were predestinated by God the Father to become His sons. However, we became fallen and were constituted sinners. How can sinners become sons of God? The only way is to have God born into our being, that is, to be regenerated by God. To have God come into our being is a dispensing of God into us. By regenerating us, God dispensed Himself into us. Furthermore, we have pointed out that God is constituting us a treasure, a valuable and precious inheritance, by working Himself into us. Therefore, the basic concept of this chapter is the Triune God dispensed into us and wrought into our being.
If you do not grasp this thought, you will not be able to get into the depth of Ephesians 1. In reading this chapter we need to have the underlying and governing concept that God is dispensing Himself into us and working Himself into our being. When Paul wrote this portion of the Word, I believe that this thought was deep within him. Paul fully realized that God was dispensing Himself into His chosen ones and working Himself into them to make them holy, to constitute them the sons of God, and to cause them to become His precious inheritance.
Before the foundation of the world God selected us “that we should be holy and without blemish” (v. 4). How can we be holy? Is it by following certain so-called holiness teachings about matters such as clothing, make-up, and hairstyles? Certainly not! Holiness is the nature of God, and to be holy is to have the divine nature wrought into us. Without God’s nature in us, it is impossible for us to be holy. In order to be holy, we need to be saturated with the holy nature of God.
To be holy involves something more than separation. Some Christian teachers say that to be holy is to be separated; they argue against the concept that holiness is sinless perfection. The Lord Jesus said that the gold is sanctified by the temple (Matt. 23:17). Some teachers have used this as an illustration to prove that sanctification is a matter of separation, rather than a matter of sinless perfection. This is correct. But it covers only the positional aspect of sanctification; it does not touch the dispositional aspect revealed in Romans 6. When God is dispensed into us and wrought into our being and we are saturated with Him, our disposition is sanctified. In this way we are made holy. Ultimately, the New Jerusalem will be a holy city. It will not only be separated from everything common, but it will also be thoroughly saturated with God. This is what it means to be holy. The fact that we have been chosen by God the Father to be holy indicates that God intends to come into our being and saturate it with His holy nature. Without His nature wrought into us, we cannot be holy.
Verse 5 says that God the Father predestinated us unto sonship. If the Father’s life has not come into us, how can we be His sons? Impossible! Sonship requires that we be saturated with the Father’s life. We are neither God’s sons-in-law nor His adopted sons; we are sons in God’s life and nature. Because we have been born of God and because God has been born into us, we have God in us. This implies that God the Father is working Himself into us. The only way we can be God’s sons is for Him to dispense Himself into us and then work Himself into us. Hallelujah, we are God’s sons, born of Him!
As believers, we have been sealed with the Holy Spirit (v. 13). The Spirit is the Triune God reaching us. God in the heavens is the Father, but God coming to us is the Spirit. The Spirit is the seal of God. To be sealed with the Holy Spirit means that God has been dispensed into our being. We have pointed out that this seal is living and moving within us; the Spirit is constantly sealing us with God’s essence. To be sealed in this way is to be saturated with all that God is. Therefore, the sealing of the Holy Spirit also indicates that God is being wrought into us.
This subjective realization of the Spirit’s sealing is neglected by Christians today. Most Christians have objective teachings, but not the subjective experiences. Through the sealing of the Spirit, God is working His essence into our being.
Verse 18 speaks of the hope of God’s calling. One aspect of our hope is that we shall be transfigured and glorified with Christ. This transfiguration and glorification is the result of our being saturated with the Triune God. Unless God saturates our entire being, including our body, we cannot be glorified. This also refers to the dispensing of God into us. Once again we see that God is dispensing and working Himself into His chosen ones. This is the governing concept of chapter one.
Ephesians 1:18 also speaks of the riches of the glory of God’s inheritance in the saints. If God is not wrought into the saints, how can they ever become His inheritance, His peculiar possession? The saints become so precious to Him by being saturated with the divine essence. Only in this way can poor sinners become God’s special treasure. In this universe God is the only One who is precious. Now this precious God of matchless worth is working Himself into us to make us His glorious inheritance. When the New Jerusalem comes, we shall see that it will be altogether a valuable inheritance, shining with God’s glory. Therefore, the fact that the saints are becoming God’s glorious inheritance, a precious treasure to Him, indicates that He is working Himself into us.
The Triune God is dispensed into us and wrought into our being in the transmission of the divine power to enable us to participate in Christ’s attainment so that we may be His Body (vv. 19-23). Christ’s attainment is the highest attainment in the universe, for He has accomplished creation; passed through incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection; and ascended to the right hand of God in the heavenlies. All this attainment is to the church. As we have pointed out, the words “to the church” in verse 22 imply a transmission, which is an act of dispensing. Whatever Christ has passed through, accomplished, obtained, and attained is now being transmitted into the church.
Christians today do not have this concept. Instead, they are filled with ethical teachings and preoccupied with them. For this reason we need to emphasize the fact that the Triune God is seeking to saturate us with Himself.
Suppose red ink is injected into the center of a ball of cotton. Little by little, the cotton soaks up the ink. In this way, the ink gradually saturates the ball of cotton. We are like the cotton ball. One day the heavenly red ink was deposited into the center of our being. From that time onward, the ink, God Himself, has been saturating us. Our responsibility now is not to imitate the ink or to copy it; on the contrary, it is to soak it up, that is, to be saturated with it. By being thoroughly saturated with the heavenly ink, we become the ink; for the ink is assimilated into our being. This basic concept of the New Testament has been missed in today’s Christian teachings. If we grasp this basic concept, our Christian life will be revolutionized and our concepts will be radically changed.
We participate in Christ’s attainment that we may become His Body. Selection, predestination, sealing, hope, glory, power — all are for the Body.
The Triune God is dispensed and wrought into us in the Body, the fullness of the all-filling Christ, that we may be His full expression (v. 23). The result of the sixth item is the producing of the Body of Christ. This Body, being the fullness of the all-filling Christ, is the expression of the Triune God to the fullest extent. This is the ultimate consummation of God’s dispensation according to His divine economy.
Let us review the seven points in chapter one which prove that God is being dispensed and wrought into us. The first point concerns holiness. The only way we can be holy is for God to be wrought into us. When God selected us, His intention was not that we wear a certain style of clothing or comb our hair in a particular way. We need to cast aside that concept of holiness. Holiness is God Himself wrought into us. We need to take care of the dispensing of God into us. The kind of clothes we wear should depend on Him. He is living, real, and sensitive. To be saturated with Him is to be holy.
Likewise, the way to become sons of God is not by improving ourselves nor correcting ourselves. Concerning this, teachings and regulations are of no avail. The only thing that works is having the Son of God dispensed into us and wrought into our being.
The same is true of the redemption of our bodies. Eventually, we shall be fully redeemed by having God saturate us. This redemption is not the redemption by the blood; it is the redemption of our bodies through the saturation of God. Romans 8 says that this redemption is the full sonship, the completion of sonship. This means that the redemption of our bodies is the final step in the process of “sonizing.” God is now “sonizing” us by saturating us with Himself. At the time of the redemption of our bodies, this work of “sonizing” will be completed.
The hope of glory is also related to the Triune God dispensed into us and wrought into our being. According to the commonly-accepted Christian teaching, we shall one day suddenly find ourselves transported into a realm of glory. However, the only way we can be glorified is to be saturated with God day by day. The burden of my ministry is for you to be saturated with the Triune God. I long for the Triune God to be dispensed into you and for you to be saturated with Him. This saturation lasts forever; it cannot be eradicated. The glory comes from this saturation. Hence, the Christian life is a life of being saturated with the Triune God. Eventually, through this saturation, we shall be glorified.
The divine power that is transmitted into us saturates us with the Triune God. We have seen that this power is to the church, toward us who believe. The Greek word translated “toward” in verse 19 may also be rendered “into.” Thus, the divine power is into us who believe. This conveys the idea of saturation. Every part and area of our being is to be saturated with the divine power. This is what the Lord is doing in His recovery today.
On the day we repented, the divine power was installed in us. Now it is no longer merely the power from on high; it is the power within us. When we open ourselves, this power comes into function to saturate us with the divine essence transmitted into us from the heavens. Today this transmission is moving within us like the blood that circulates throughout our body. Because we are not always open or because we may have problems in our conscience, mind, emotion, or will, the transmission may temporarily be restricted. If we would experience a continual transmission, we need to repent, confess, and make a clearance of all hindrances. Then the transmission will be restored and will continue to saturate our being.
It is in the dispensing of the Triune God into us and His working of Himself into our being that we are the church. Now we can understand why the church is mentioned at the end of chapter one. The church is not produced by forming the saints into an organization. On the contrary, the church is produced by the transmission from the ascended Christ. The church produced in this way is the Body. The so-called churches are not the Body. They are not an organism; rather they are somewhat like an artificial body, an organization. The church is the organism that comes out of the transmission of the all-inclusive Christ. This church, the Body of Christ, is the fullness of the One who fills all in all.
What a great matter it is to see that chapter one of Ephesians issues in the Body! The church as the Body of Christ is produced by God’s well-speaking, and the basic factor of this well-speaking is that the divine life is dispensed into us and wrought into our being. The church is the issue of God’s well-speaking, the basic factor of which is the Triune God dispensed and wrought into us. God’s dispensation began in eternity past; passed through creation, incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension; and now reaches His chosen ones to make them His holy people, the sons of God, the sealed ones, and the Body as the fullness of Christ.
The Body comes from the transmission of the all-inclusive Christ. This transmission is the sum total of God’s well-speaking. To enjoy the transmission we need a sober mind, a fervent emotion, a submissive will, and a pure conscience. Through the experience of this transmission, we become the Body. What we need today is more of this all-inclusive transmission. Hallelujah, the Triune God is being transmitted into us! Therefore, we do not have mere teachings — we have dispensation, transmission, and saturation. This is the basic concept in Ephesians 1.
