In 3:19 the Apostle Paul says, “That you may be filled unto all the fullness of God.” When Christ makes His home in our hearts and when we are strong to apprehend with all the saints the dimensions of Christ and to know by experience His knowledge-surpassing love, we shall be filled unto all the fullness of God. All this fullness dwells in Christ (Col. 1:19; 2:9). Through His indwelling, Christ continually imparts the very element of God into our being. We can be filled with God to such a measure and can attain such a standard, even unto all the fullness of God. In this way we fulfill God’s intention that the church should be the expression of God.
When the riches of God are in God Himself, they are His riches. But when the riches of God. are expressed, they become His fullness (John 1:16). When we speak of the fullness of God, we imply that the riches of all that God is have become His expression.
When we get into the depths of 3:19, we see that the fullness of God is the church. Chapter three of Ephesians is not concerned with the organization of the church nor with the formation of the church, but with the constitution of the church. The church is neither organized nor formed; it is metabolically constituted in us through our experience and enjoyment of the riches of Christ. In order for the church to be constituted in a practical way, we need to be strengthened into our inner man. Then Christ must make His home in our hearts; He must occupy all the parts of our inner being and saturate them with His riches. Then we need to be rooted and grounded in love, rooted for growth and grounded for building. Following this, we must grasp the dimensions of Christ. This is to experience Christ in His universal dimensions both horizontally and vertically. Along with this, we come to know in our experience the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ. As a result of all these experiences, we are eventually filled unto all the fullness of God. Therefore, being filled unto the fullness of God is the outcome, the result, of all the deeper, higher, and richer experiences of Christ described in Ephesians 3.
The highest definition of the church is that the church is the fullness of God. Some may be troubled at such a statement and may wonder how this claim can be substantiated. In verse 21 Paul says, “To Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus.” According to the context, the church in verse 21 is the very fullness of God in verse 19. When in our experience we are filled unto all the fullness of God, the church comes into being in a practical way. It is at such a time that Paul says, “To Him be the glory in the church.” This glory is the expression of God. Hence, in the fullness of God there is the expression of God. Therefore, the fullness of God is the church as God’s expression.
Some translations of verse 19 say, “filled with all the fullness of God.” According to this rendering, the fullness of God would have to be the element, the essence, with which we are filled. But this is a mistaken understanding of this verse. Here Paul is saying that we shall be filled unto all the fullness of God, that is, we shall be filled to be the expression of God.
When I first began to speak on the difference between the riches of Christ and the fullness of Christ, some tried to argue with me by quoting John 1:16, “For of His fullness we all received, and grace upon grace.” They said, “John 1:16 declares that of His fullness we have all received. Isn’t this fullness the riches of Christ? How then can you make a distinction between the riches of Christ and the fullness of Christ?” When Christ was on earth with His disciples, would you say that the riches of God were there with Him or that the fullness of God was there with Him? If the riches had been with Him but the fullness had not, something would have been lacking; there would have been no completion. For example, suppose a glass jar contains just a few pieces of delicious candies. The jar contains some riches of the candies but not the fullness. However, after the jar is filled with the candies, it will have not only the riches but also the fullness. If the jar remains only partly filled, there will not be in the jar the expression of the candies. Because the fullness is the expression, without the fullness there can be no expression. Only when the candies fill the jar to the brim will there be the fullness as the expression of the riches.
When the Lord Jesus came, He no doubt brought all the riches of God with Him. However, with Him there were not only the riches of God, but there was also the fullness of God. This is the reason John 1:16 says that we all have received of His fullness; it does not say that we have received of His riches. If you take a piece of candy from a jar filled with candies, you will be receiving candy, not from the riches of the jar, but from its fullness.
The fullness is the completion of the riches. In Greek the word for “fullness” means completion. Hence, it is correct to render this Greek word as “completeness.” The Greek word translated “of” in John 1:16 means “out from” or “out of.” Thus, out of the fullness of Christ, the completeness of all the riches of God, we have all received.
Before retiring at night, I often enjoy a glass of protein drink, preferably a glass filled to the brim. As I drink from such a full glass, I partake of the fullness of the protein drink in the glass. When Christ came, He did not come only partially filled with the riches of God. On the contrary, He was filled to the brim. Hence, the fullness, the completeness of what God is, was present with Him. This fullness, this completeness, is the expression of God. The Lord Jesus was like the glass, and the riches of God with which He was filled unto all the fullness of God were like the protein drink. The disciples received not merely of the riches of God, but of His fullness.
In the New Testament the fullness is the expression through the completeness of the riches. This is the reason that in 3:8 Paul speaks of the unsearchable riches of Christ and then in 1:23 and 4:13 speaks of the fullness of Christ. The riches of Christ are the various aspects of what Christ is, and the fullness of Christ is the result, the issue, of our enjoyment of these riches. As we enjoy the riches of Christ, these riches are assimilated into our being metabolically. Then they constitute us into the fullness of Christ, into the Body of Christ, the church, as His expression. Therefore, the fullness of Christ in 1:23 is the very fullness of God in 3:19. The fullness of God is the issue of the believers’ being constituted metabolically through their experience of the riches of Christ.
In order to assimilate Christ metabolically, we need to be strengthened into our inner man. We also need Christ to make His home in our heart, that is, to occupy, possess, and metabolically saturate every part of our inward being with all that He is. Then we shall be rooted for the growth in life and grounded for the building. Furthermore, we shall become strong to grasp Christ experientially in all His universal dimensions. Along with this, we shall know through our experience the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ. When we have experienced Christ to such an extent, we shall be filled with the riches of Christ unto all the fullness of God. All this is for the constituting of the church in a practical way as the Body of Christ for His expression.
We all need to see the vision of how the church is constituted. How we need to be strengthened into our inner man! Every fiber of our being needs to be strengthened into our inner man. Not one part of our inward being should remain in a weak condition. We need to be strengthened so that the indwelling Christ can spread Himself throughout our being and make His home in our inward parts. As Christ spreads within us, He saturates every area of our inner being metabolically with all that He is. Then we are rooted and grounded in love, we lay hold of the dimensions of Christ, and we know His love that surpasses knowledge. Then, ultimately, we are filled unto the fullness of God which is the church. What a high revelation of the church this is!
In the light of such a vision we see that it is utterly wrong to regard the church as a material building where “services” are held. It is also not adequate to view the church merely as the ekklesia, the gathering together of God’s called-out people. Although many Christians today use the term “the Body of Christ,” few have any clear realization of what this term signifies. The Body of Christ is the expression of Christ. It is also the fullness of Christ, which is the fullness of God. This fullness of God comes into existence in a practical way by our being strengthened into the inner man, by Christ making his home in our hearts, by our being rooted and grounded in love, by our grasping the dimensions of the immeasurable Christ, and by our knowing Him as the knowledge-surpassing love. When we have been filled with all the riches of Christ and metabolically saturated with all that Christ is, we become the fullness of God. Surely this is the highest definition of the church.
Only by receiving such a vision do we truly know what the church is. Although chapters one and two of Ephesians give us a definition of the church, this definition is still not adequate. We need chapter three to show us how the church is constituted organically and metabolically with the riches of the living Christ. Not until chapter three does the church come into existence actually and in a practical way. As we have seen, in this chapter the church comes into being as the expression of God, that is, as the very fullness of God. It is at this point that Paul is able to sound a high praise, even a doxology: “To Him be the glory in the church.” Now that the church has come into existence in a practical way, Christ can be glorified in the church. Such a church is not merely a gathering of God’s called-out people; it is the actual fullness of God.
We all need such a vision, such a revelation. If we see this vision, our being will be changed. If we are filled with this vision and then go forth to speak for God, we shall surely be God’s sent ones and His spokesmen. We shall be today’s apostles and prophets.
This vision unfolds the unique way for the Lord to build up His church. Only when we see this vision will the Lord have a way to accomplish on earth the building up of the church. After more than nineteen centuries of Christian history, what has been accomplished for the Lord? Consider today’s situation. Hardly any have seen the vision in chapter three of Ephesians. May the Lord burden us to pray, “Lord, have mercy on me. I need to see this vision. I need to see the fullness of God and how it comes into existence. Lord, show me the constitution of the Body. Show me how the church can be constituted in a practical way.” Once you have seen this vision, you will become a different person. You will be an apostle and a prophet. Wherever you go, you will be a sent one, and whenever you speak this vision, you will be God’s spokesman speaking Christ for God’s economy.
I can testify that I came to this country with this vision and with a unique burden. Those who have been with me over the years can testify that I have not changed my concept nor my speaking. In various aspects and from various angles, I have spoken just one thing — that God’s economy is to dispense Himself into His chosen people to make them the expression of Christ. As we have seen in this message, this expression is the fullness of God.
In these verses in chapter three of Ephesians concerning the economy of God resulting in the fullness of God, we see the Triune God. The Father (v. 14) answers and fulfills the apostle’s prayer through the Spirit (v. 16) so that Christ, the Son (v. 17), may make His home in our hearts. Thus, we are filled unto the fullness of the Triune God. This is the dispensing of the Triune God into our entire being that we may become His expression.
According to Ephesians 3, the Triune God is not to be the object of doctrinal debate; He is for the dispensing of Himself into the believers so that they may be filled unto the fullness, not only of the Father, nor only of the Son, nor only of the Spirit, but of God. Paul prayed that the Father would strengthen us through His Spirit so that Christ might make His home in our hearts and thereby fully occupy our inward being with the result that we might be filled unto the expression of the Triune God. How glorious and how marvelous! This is God’s economy, God’s dispensation. This is also God’s New Testament revelation, our ministry, and the Lord’s recovery.
We have seen that the fullness of God is the expression of God. According to John 1:16, the fullness of God came with Christ who is the embodiment of God’s fullness (Col. 2:9; 1:19). With Christ, the expression was an individual matter. This expression, therefore, needed to be enlarged, to be expanded, from an individual matter to a corporate matter. The church today is to be the fullness of God in a corporate way. In the church God is not expressed through an individual; He is expressed corporately through the Body, through the believers who have together been filled to the brim with the riches of Christ. Therefore, the fullness of God is embodied in the church. The church as the embodiment of the fullness of God is the expression of the Triune God. This is the church in the Lord’s recovery today
