Scripture Reading: Eph. 1:9-11, 22-23; 3:17a
The deepest chapters in Ephesians are chapters one and three. The positive things unfolded in these chapters are far beyond our ability to grasp or apprehend. For example, in 1:10, Paul says, “Unto a dispensation of the fullness of the times, to head up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens and the things on the earth, in Him.” I do not think that very many Christians have an adequate understanding of this verse. This word does not refer to the preeminence of Christ, to the authority of Christ, or to the expression of Christ. This verse is unique, and no other verse in the Scriptures can be compared to it. When we read about husbands loving their wives or about wives submitting to their husbands, we readily understand, for such things as love and submission fit into our natural concept. But in order to grasp the meaning of verses such as 1:10, we need a spirit of wisdom and revelation.
As we consider 1:9 and 10, we see that the economy or dispensation which God purposed in Himself is to head up all things in Christ at the fullness of the times. The times refer to the ages. The fullness of the times will be when the new heaven and new earth come, after all the dispensations of God in all the ages have been completed. When God’s economy has been completed, Christ will head up all things universally. God has made Christ the Head over all things (1:22). Through all the dispensations of God in all the ages, all things will be headed up in Christ in the new heaven and the new earth. This will be God’s eternal administration and economy.
Because our physical body has a head, it is possible for our body to stand upright. Although we stand on our feet, it is actually the head which enables us to stand erect. This indicates that our head causes our entire body to be headed up. If a person has his head cut off, his body will collapse. Because the head causes every part of the body to be headed up, all the things that are on the body — clothing, shoes, eyeglasses — are headed up also.
The entire universe is under Christ’s heading up. However, some things are still in a state of collapse because the process of the heading up of all things in Christ has not yet been completed. At the economy of the fullness of times, everything will be headed up in Christ. Nothing will continue to be in a state of collapse, and nothing will fall. In Christ God will head up all things. At present many things in the universe are still falling or collapsing. But at the dispensation of the fullness of the times, nothing will fall. Not even a leaf will fall from a tree.
We have pointed out that our head functions to head up every part of our physical body. In the same principle, God is using Christ to head up all things in the universe. As the universal Head of all things, Christ needs a Body. This Body is the church. Just as clothing and other items rest on a person’s body, so one day everything in the universe will rest on Christ’s Body, the church. We have seen that if a person has his head cut off, his body and everything on it will collapse. The principle is the same with Christ as the Head over all things to the church. If all the things in the universe are not headed up in Christ through His Body, they will remain in a state of collapse.
Scientists have their explanations for such phenomena as the falling of leaves from trees. They put forth their reasons for the various physical changes that take place in the universe. These scientific explanations and reasons may be correct temporarily, but they will not be correct eternally. I do not know physics or biology, but I do know the process of the divine heading up of all things. Furthermore, I believe 1:10 when it says that in the dispensation of the fullness of times this process will reach its completion. From that time onward, nothing in the universe will collapse. Everything will rest on the church as the Body of Christ. Christ is the Head, and the church is the Body. Christ is heading up the Body, and all the billions of items in the universe will rest on this headed-up Body. Although we do not see a full picture of this today, we do see it in miniature. We also can enjoy a foretaste of the heading up of all things in Christ.
We should not think that a person can stand upright mainly because his legs, ankles, and feet are strong. We have pointed out that it is actually the head that enables us to stand erect. Apart from the heading up of the body by the head, the body and everything on it will fall down. This is a picture of the heading up of all things in Christ. Firstly, Christ heads up His Body. Then in the dispensation of the fullness of the times, God will head up all things in Christ through the Body.
In 1:11 Paul goes on to say, “In Whom also we were made an inheritance, having been predestinated according to the purpose of the One Who operates all things according to the counsel of His will.” It is possible to render the Greek translated “were made an inheritance” as “have obtained an inheritance.” Unless we have some understanding of verse 10, we shall not be able to understand verse 11. The words, “in Whom” in verse 11 refer to Christ as the Head. In Him, the universal Head, we were made God’s inheritance. The Greek verb translated “were made an inheritance” means to choose or assign by lot. Hence, this clause literally means we were designated as a heritage. We were made an inheritance to inherit God’s inheritance. On the one hand, we were made God’s inheritance (v. 18) for God’s enjoyment; on the other hand, we were made to inherit God as our inheritance (v. 14) for our enjoyment.
In verse 13 Paul says, “In Whom you also, hearing the word of the truth, the gospel of your salvation, in Whom also believing, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of the promise.” As verse 14 explains, the Holy Spirit of the promise is “the pledge of our inheritance, unto the redemption of the acquired possession to the praise of His glory.” To be sealed with the Holy Spirit is to be marked with the Holy Spirit as a living seal.
We have been made God’s inheritance. At the time we were saved, God put His Holy Spirit into us as a seal to mark us out, to indicate that we belong to God. This Spirit is the pledge, foretaste, guarantee, token payment, a part payment in advance. Since we are God’s inheritance, the Holy Spirit is a seal upon us. Since God is our inheritance, the Holy Spirit is the pledge of this inheritance to us. God gives His Holy Spirit to us, not only as a guarantee of our inheritance, securing our heritage, but also as a foretaste of what we shall inherit of God, affording us a taste beforehand of the full inheritance.
We need to understand verses 13 and 14 in the light of verses 10 and 11. We have seen that in Christ God is in the process of heading up all things in heaven and on earth. However, without the church as the Body to match Christ as the Head, it will not be possible for God to head up all things in Christ. The heading up of all things is accomplished by the Head, but it cannot be accomplished without a Body for the Head. This Body is God’s inheritance, God’s possession. Because we were lost, we had to be redeemed, purchased back, by God. Through redemption we have become God’s acquired possession. We, God’s redeemed ones, the church, are God’s possession, acquired by His purchase with the precious blood of Christ (Acts 20:28). In God’s economy, God becomes our inheritance, and we become God’s possession. As God’s inheritance and possession, we are the Body of Christ, through which all things in the universe are being headed up in Christ.
It is important to see how God acquires His inheritance and His possession. Firstly, He purchased us by the blood of Christ. Secondly, He sealed us with His Spirit. The Spirit as the seal upon the Body is actually God Himself. This means that God put Himself as the seal upon the church purchased by the blood of Christ. The Spirit as the seal is upon the Body not simply in an objective way. On the contrary, through the process of sealing, the seal will permeate and saturate our whole being in a very subjective way. The more we, God’s inheritance, are saturated with the Spirit as the living seal, the more heading up there will be in the universe. As God’s inheritance and possession, we have been predestinated and purchased. Now we are in the process of being thoroughly saturated with the Spirit. When God’s possession has been wholly saturated with the Spirit as the living seal, the heading up of all things in Christ will be completed.
When everything in the universe has been headed up in Christ, everything will be in order. Nothing will be out of place, and nothing will collapse or fall. During autumn, leaves fall from the trees. This indicates that something is out of order. Surely in the new heaven and the new earth leaves will no longer fall from trees, for by then everything will be in perfect order, having been headed up in Christ. As we have seen, this heading up of all things in Christ depends on God’s possession, the church, being saturated with Himself.
In the church life in the Lord’s recovery, we can experience a foretaste of the heading up of all things. When the church life in a particular city is strong, that city will be brought more into order. For example, policemen who work in the area of Elden Hall in Los Angeles have told us that the presence of the church has produced many positive changes in that area. There has been an improvement of the neighborhood, especially with respect to the crime rate. This illustrates that it is through the church that God is heading up all things in Christ. The more the church as God’s possession is saturated with the Triune God, the more heading up there will be. Firstly the church is headed up, and then the things related to the church and that rest on the church will be headed up also. If we allow Christ to saturate us thoroughly, eventually we shall see the completion of the heading up of all things in Christ.
Humanity is the center of God’s creation. The heading up of all things in Christ takes place as the Triune God works Himself into man as the center of His creation. According to 1:22, God has subjected all things under the feet of the resurrected and ascended Christ and “gave Him to be Head over all things to the church.” The little word “to” is very important because it implies a kind of transmission. Whatever Christ, the Head, has attained and obtained is now being transmitted to His Body, the church. By means of this transmission, the church shares with Christ all His attainments. The church shares in His resurrection from among the dead, His being seated in His transcendency, the subjection of all things under His feet, and His headship over all things. As the element of Christ is transmitted into the church, all that He has accomplished, attained, and obtained is transfused into the church as well. Through this marvelous transmission we become the Body of Christ, the fullness of the One who fills all in all. Then, as His Body, we shall become the means by which God will head up all things in Christ. The crucial factor here is the divine transmission, the transfusion of Christ into our being.
In Ephesians 3 we see experientially that the very Christ who is Head over all things is actually transmitted into us. According to verse 17, Christ is making His home in our hearts. For Christ to make His home in our hearts means that He is transmitted into us in a full way. We may say that our heart is the battery and that Christ is the heavenly electricity that is being transmitted into the heart of the battery. In this way, the battery is charged with all that Christ is and with all that He has obtained and attained. By means of such an inward transmission or transfusion, Christ makes His home in our hearts. Hence it is the heavenly transmission that brings Christ into our hearts. Then, just as blood circulates from the heart throughout our physical body, so the Christ who has been transmitted into our heart spiritually will spread into every part of our inner being. Through this transmission and the spread of Christ within us God is heading up all things in Christ through the church.
Many Christians are amazed when they behold the oneness of the saints in the church life. They are surprised that those with different racial, cultural, and national backgrounds can be truly one. In their amazement at such a oneness, some have thought that we must have set up an organization to maintain this oneness. However, we do not have such an organization, and there is no possibility that any organization could produce such a oneness. We are not one by means of organization; we are one in the divine transmission. If the heavenly transmission of Christ into our inner being should cease, our oneness will be terminated. We can be one simply because we are being headed up in Christ through the transmission of Christ into our being. This is what enables us to live together in oneness in the church life.
We believe that in the years to come God will head us up even more. As a result, the condition of the church will become much better than it is today. Eventually, in the dispensation of the fullness of times, the whole universe will be headed up in Christ through the church. We have often spoken of the building up of the church. But the emphasis in this message is on being headed up in Christ through the divine transmission. The more Christ is transmitted into us, the more the process of heading up will advance. I have the full assurance that if the Lord delays His coming back, many more Christians will be headed up in Christ through His Body. The worldly people will be surprised at such a heading up, for the more they try to unite through such organizations as the United Nations, the more divided they are. The day is coming when the earth will see not only the uniting, nor even just the building up, but the heading up of all things in Christ. Christ is Head over all things to the church, and now He is in the process of heading up all things through the church. This is what the Lord is doing among us today.
