The Fullness of Him Who Fills All in All
Today we come to the last phrase of this marvelous epistle: the phrase is mind-shattering. It takes us from grace to glory. It is not only the climax of Paul’s prayer, but the climax of the ultimate destiny of every child of God. The phrase is: “the fullness of Him who fills all in all.”
This will be the last and 28th sermon on Ephesians chapter 1. On one side, I am happy we are finishing, and I am happy God’s grace has helped us to finish this in a satisfying way, learning truths we didn’t realize all our Christian lives; it was a wonderful blessing to my own soul personally. On another side, I am sad because this chapter is so full. There is so much to dig and learn regarding the glory of what God the Father has done, what Christ has accomplished and is doing now, and what the Spirit is doing in our lives. So much more treasure is left that I feel like maybe we should go back and start from verse 1 again next week, but fear not—I shall restrain myself and will not do that. We will finish Ephesians 1 today and move to Ephesians 2 next time.
Remember, this is all Paul’s prayer for God to enlighten us with the three “HIP” points. The last one is the exceeding power of God working in us, and he gives us the measure of that power in the four acts of Christ—RSSH: Resurrection, Session, Subjugation, and the Headship gift.
We saw what an unspeakable gift this is to the church through the 5G’s:
- Giver of the gift: The Father of Glory—His gift will be according to His glory.
- Gift given: The Lord Jesus Christ. Not only when He died in humiliation, but in raising Him from the dead, seating Him at the right hand above all, putting all things under His feet, and then giving Him in the capacity of His exalted position and power as the gift-head to the church.
- Gainer/Recipients of this gift: The Biblical church.
- Grounds or reason for this gift: It is His body and the fullness of Him.
- Goal of the gift: To bring the church to its destiny and glorify it as the perfect bride of Christ, where it reflects all the perfections of God with a rich inheritance.
To review the reason for giving such a gift, we saw two reasons. First, it is the Body of Christ. We saw this figure of speech conveys four spiritual realities of the relationship between Christ and the church: organic, sympathetic, submissive, and coordinated. As we see in our own bodies, every organ has a life-flowing organic relationship; there is a deep sympathy between the head and every part, all parts submit to the command of the head, and they work in a coordinated way.
So Christ is the Head—He is the owner and builder of the church. He said, “I will build my church.” Though He is in heaven, the way Christ speaks to His church is through His Word. Christ rules the church by His Word. He determines and directs our worship and service. He energizes our service and worship; He gives it life and vitality. That is why we are so careful about what we do or do not do, making sure all we do is biblical. GRBC is committed to doing all that Christ has commanded, nothing more and nothing less. Our growth will not be produced artificially through human gimmicks, but it will be a growth which comes from Christ, the Head of the church.
Now, the second reason says in verse 23: “which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.” It seems amazing to me. I struggled last week to grasp it, and I still don’t fully grasp it, as there are so many different ideas. Let us try to dig into that and understand it today. Verse 22: “And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, 23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.”
Let us understand this under two headings: Christ who fills all in all, and the Church which is the fullness of Christ.
Christ Who Fills All in All
Who is Christ? This verse says He is the one who fills all in all. It is in the present tense, implying Christ is now filling all in all. What does this mean? Remember the context of verses 20-22. This is not just the crucified Christ, but the four things God does to the Son after His cross:
- He raises Him from the dead (v. 20).
- He gives Him the seat of kingly authority at His right hand (v. 21)—far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come.
- Fourthly, He puts everything in the universe under His feet with subjugating power.
It means the Father raised, seated, and put all things under Christ’s feet so He might fill all things. This means He fills every sphere everywhere in the universe with His authority and power in all the ways He pleases.
How do we know that is what it means? Turn to Ephesians 4:8–10. You see the same flow that moves from resurrection to ascension. Notice why God raised and ascended Him: “8 Therefore He says: ‘When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, And gave gifts to men.’ 9 (Now this, ‘He ascended’—what does it mean but that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth? 10 He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.)”
Ephesians 4 clearly says the purpose of God raising Christ, exalting Him, and putting all under Him is that He might fill all things. He might use the exertion of His kingly rule at God’s right hand in all places. He fills all things with His authority; all things with His reigning might in every sphere of reality and every dimension of reality. There is no nook and cranny of the universe where the authority and the reigning might of Jesus is not exercised. He fills all things and runs everything fully as He pleases. And it was for this purpose—so He might fill all things—that He was raised, seated, and had all things put under His feet. He fills all things with His kingly power and glory from heaven to hell and orchestrates everything to accomplish exactly what He wants for His maximum renown and splendor.
When Christ fills all things with His kingly authority, He very specially fills His church, not only with authority but with all redemptive graces. It is a biblical truth that Christ fills the church. But the great question that was bothering me is this: the verse does not just say Christ fills all, but it says the church is the fullness of Christ. Is the church filled with Christ, or is Christ filled with the church?
The answer is that both of those statements are true. This church is filled with Christ, and yet this church fills Christ. It is obvious that the church is filled with Christ not only from this passage but from many others. John 1:16 says, “And of His fullness have we all received, and grace for grace.” We read that the church is a habitation of God; He fills it. But the amazing truth being stated here is that the church is that which fills Christ; it is His fullness. May the Holy Spirit open our eyes to see Christ as the one who fills all in all.
The Church Is Christ’s Fullness
God the Father takes this Christ, who has all universal power and authority and who fills all things, and gives Him as a gift to the church. This Christ redemptively fills the church with all His graces and makes this church not only His body but also the fullness of Him who fills all in all. This boggles my mind even further. The church is the fullness of Christ. What does it mean? It is shocking; it is a revolutionary view of the church. We can see we are His fullness in two ways: in Status and in Purpose.
Status: First, God has so exalted the church in the riches of His grace that this exalted Christ will be incomplete without the church. This is the glorious riches of God’s grace. The God who needs nothing and is independent has chosen to make the church so much a part of His Son that He has made it the fullness of Christ. This is in a paradoxical sense. As the eternal Son of God, He is self-sufficient and has no need of us. We are not adding anything to His deity; it does not in any degree or manner detract from the absolute majesty or self-sufficiency of Christ.
But when He was ordained as Mediator, when God the Father made Him as a head to the body of the church—in that analogy, the head is not complete without a body. As the bridegroom, He is incomplete without the bride. As a vine, He cannot be thought of without the branches. The body expresses the wishes of the head. In that sense, we are His fullness. This is the greatest pinnacle status humanity can ever achieve. This is a great mystery. John Calvin proclaimed: “This is the highest honor of the church that, unless He is united to us, the Son of God reckons Himself in some measure imperfect. What an encouragement it is for us to hear, that not until He has us as one with Himself is He complete in all His parts, or does He wish to be regarded as whole!”
Function: Not only in status, but we are His fullness in function. Though Christ fills all in all by His exalted authority, Christ has chosen to work through His church on the earth now and throughout eternity to completely manifest His kingly rule, authority, and power. As the head finds his full expression in the body, although we are utterly dependent upon the Head for life and direction, He is dependent on us for mobility and expression—not because He could not be independent, but because He has chosen not to be.
The point is that Christ could accomplish His work any way He pleased. He could send angels; He could make powerful creatures from stones; He could even make the stones cry out. He could write His message in the stars. He could have done any number of things. But what He bound Himself to was His church. And He chose to use the church exclusively to carry out His ministry and His message. So Christ could have been independent of the church, but He chose not to be. And because He chose to express His message and ministry through the church, He is dependent upon them by His own choice for mobility and expression with reference to His ultimate goal.
We have to realize: what is the final purpose of redemption? It is the glory of God. The chief end of creation and man is to glorify God. We exist. The earth exists. The universe exists. Devils exist. Angels exist. Heaven exists. All things exist to manifest the glory of God. See, God is not glorified in every realm now. Most in this earth don’t know God’s glory, and there are invisible satanic authorities and rulers who are against God. God’s grand purpose is to glorify Himself against all these powers through the redemption of Christ. Christ has been exalted, and His church is made His fullness, because it is through the church this great grand plan of God will be accomplished.
See Ephesians 3:8. Paul says that he has been called to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ, “9 and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ; 10 to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places.”
If you are part of the church, it takes your breath away. All things are going towards the revelation of the glory of God in the universe. This verse focuses on one of His perfections—the manifold, many-sided wisdom of God—which is being made known to the rulers and authorities. These two words, “rulers” and “authorities,” are the exact words used to describe the visible and invisible powers now in the world and the demonic forces which are now under the Lord’s feet. God wills that His manifold wisdom be shown and known to the whole universe. God wants to put signposts all over the universe saying: “I am not only good, holy, true, gracious, just, and pure, but infinitely wise.”
How is He going to do it? The verse says: “to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church.” This should help us grasp a little bit of what it means when the church is the fullness of Him who fills all in all. It is God’s will to reveal His glory through His Son, but now the church is being made the body and even the fullness of Christ. The glorious purpose of the church is that it will be a showcase of God’s perfections. God means to fill the universe with the glory of His Son by putting the church on display as the embodiment of His Son, who Himself is the embodiment of deity. God is working on a great project of universal proportions through the church.
When the showcase is presented, rulers and authorities and the whole universe will stand breathless at the manifestation of God’s manifold wisdom—the wisdom that conceived the church, how He elected her, predestined her, planned her redemption, and how He accomplished it by sending His Son. He redeemed her through unspeakable suffering, died for her, rose again for her, ascended, and seated Himself at the right hand with everything under His feet. He was given as an unspeakable gift to her, and despite millions of human and demonic obstacles, He effectually calls the church, justifies her, cleans her, sanctifies her by His truth, and perseveres with her until the end, raising her from the tomb at His second coming and glorifying her with Himself forever. The church at last will become a showcase piece of the glory of God. This revelation of glory will fill the whole universe; even all the hosts of hell will see the glorious wisdom of God through the church. The church is going to be the temple of God reflecting all His perfections.
This is the point of the whole flow of thought leading to the “fullness of Him who fills all.” God raised Jesus from the dead, installed Him as King at His own right hand, and put all of His enemies under His feet. He could have said, “Son, go forth and fill the universe with Yourself and Your power and Your authority.” He could have done it that way. But He didn’t.
Father raised His Son from the dead, exalted Him as King over the universe, and put all of His enemies under His feet, and next—amazingly, shockingly, and infinitely graciously—He gave the Son as head over all things to the church and made that church His inseparable body and the fullness of Him who fills all. And then He says, “Now go, Christ—head and body—and fill this world. Fill heaven, fill all the world with my glory through the showcase of your redeeming work in the church. Put the church on display as my manifold wisdom.” The church is now and will be eternally the temple of God reflecting all His perfections. That is how the church is the fullness of Him who fills all in all—not only in status, but in its purpose.
Application and Repentance
Oh, may the Lord give us a mind and a heart to grasp this and live it. Oh, Lord, just grip us with this truth. Do you realize how terribly blind we are to the concept of the church? How each of us as church members should first repent and pray for enlightenment? The church is not a human institution. The true biblical church is eternally elected, predestined by God the Father; Christ came, died, rose, and was exalted; He is given as a glorious gift to the church, and it is the body and fullness of Christ. God has glorious eternal purposes for the church.
If God the Father has sent His Son, raised Him, exalted Him, and put all things under His feet so He can give His Son to the church, will there be anything more precious to the Father? If the church is the body and fullness, will there be anything more precious to Christ? If I say something is my body and my fullness, will there be anything more precious to me? That is why Christ says if you touch the church, you touch Me—the apple of My eye. That is why every man’s destiny in Matthew 25 is decided on this basis: simply on how they treated the church. Because what you did to the least of them in the church, you did to Christ. If you support, love, and serve the church, you do it to Christ. He said to Peter, “Do you love me? Feed my sheep.” If you slight and wound the church, you slight and wound Christ.
Negatively, as a member, do you realize the dignity of being the Body of Christ? Do you realize how we should walk with the fear of God for this dignity? What a horrible crime we commit when we sin. We, as the body, drag Christ into the sin. 1 Corinthians 6:15: “Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I therefore take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute?” Oh, members of GRBC, what you do with your body, you force Jesus to do. You could call it raping Jesus. What an awesome thought.
If we realize the glory of the church, we will first repent and pray that God should open our eyes to see the glory of the church. First, repent for what we have done to the body and the fullness of Christ. How have we slighted and dishonored it? In 1 Timothy 3, Paul says you should know how to behave in the house of the living God, the pillar and ground of truth. He tells how to worship, pray, and maintain order and discipline for men and women. The church atmosphere should not be like the world; rather, the church ought to be saturated with that holy environment of God’s presence that comes from every one of our hearts because of the way we live and come prepared prayerfully. It should be filled with God; it is His house, His temple, His bride, His flock, His body, His fullness. His life is in it. It is filled with Himself. We are also to have the mind of Christ. We are to think like Christ because our minds are saturated with His Word. The body is to have the savor of Christ. It is a holy temple. Holy means different from the world—separated from the world. We are not trying to imitate what they are doing out there. The church is separate, unique, and distinct. And what makes it different from a godless society? God dwells here.
There are behaviors He has told us are not acceptable in the church. We are not to frame our minds about how our depraved generation sees or thinks of the church. Oh, if all the churches in the world really understood this passage, we would have a world day of mourning for what so-called believers have done to God’s house in the last 50 years. People have preached a wrong gospel and filled the church with unregenerate unbelievers; they changed the whole outlook of the church to entertain these unbelievers. They are wolves in sheep’s clothing instead of feeding the sheep—tearing and eating the sheep. They have made God’s house a business for degrading music, making it all about collecting money while gentiles mock Christian churches. Do you think Christ will be quiet? Even in His humiliation, sweet Jesus’ eyes became like fire; He took a whip and beat them, turning tables with violence. Now imagine Him with all things under His feet—oh, what will He do! What anger is burning in His heart against all who desecrate His church, His body, His darling, whom He bought with such a price. If there is a reformation we need, it is a reformation where the whole world understands that the church is not a religious club, but the Body of Christ and His fullness.
What about us? We will have to plead with God for forgiveness for showing disrespect, irreverence, and desecrating holiness. We have shown no dignity in God’s house and lowered the standards of His house by our disorderly lives and unholiness—where even Muslims shame us in their strictness. We come ill-prepared, prayerless, and with no respect or fear of God; sometimes we easily cancel worship services and prayer meetings. 1 Corinthians says when someone comes into our midst, they should see our order, fear, and the way we conduct ourselves; they should sense God. Are we like that? God’s presence should be saturated in our hearts and in the church. Our minds have to be filled with Christ’s words, our hearts with the Spirit of Christ, and the grace of Christ. It makes a holy temple. We have to be filled with the realization that Christ is coming to judge everyone. What you did to My house, you did to Me. How you slighted its meetings, its messages, and its warnings will decide your eternal destiny. Oh, may this vision make us repent of how we treat the church.
Pray for the Holy Spirit’s enlightenment to grasp what the church is—the Body of Christ and the fullness of Him. This is a glorious calling. If this is true—and it is the truth of the infallible God—how can we live and move and have our being in these realities while hearing all this, Sunday after Sunday, being caught up into the heavenlies and beholding things that you will never hear anywhere else in the world! Ultimate realities will still be here in a million years when everything else is gone.
How can we go home numbly as if all this doesn’t impact us and again fully jump back into being absorbed in the things of the world—watching our TV shows, mobile reels, and news, fully absorbed in our own worldly jobs and family problems? These are fleeting present events which in one month will be old news, in one year history, and in ten years fully forgotten. Yet all our time, thoughts, emotions, and efforts are absorbed only on these fleeting things without realizing this great vision and living in this light. We just hear this and we go right back down and live like everybody else in the world.
Oh, do you see what a great need we have to pray with Paul in verse 15, crying out to God to give the church a spirit of wisdom and of revelation, and to enlighten the eyes of our hearts that we might know this hope of calling, the riches of this inheritance, and this power that is working. Because without a divine miracle, you’ll walk out of here just as you came. It won’t hold you. Oh, may we pray from the heart: “Lord, let this glory grip and hold me, rule me today and tomorrow. When I wake tomorrow, let me see myself as the body of Christ, the fullness of Him who fills all.”
What a tremendous privilege this is—to be a member of Christ’s own body and His fullness; to have that kind of intimacy and union with Him that He would trust us and use us to carry out His will when He could have chosen so much more efficient means. To be bone of His bones, to be flesh of His flesh, to have nourishment ministered from Him, and to be part of Him. You see, this is what all the Eastern religions are striving for. They all want to be in union with God. And what is the means whereby union with God is established? It is by becoming a member of His body through faith in Jesus Christ. This is the most intimate union with Jesus Christ and the closest relationship with deity that is possible to have.
But it’s not only a great privilege; what a tremendous responsibility it is. It is a tremendous responsibility because the only way Christ expresses Himself in action is through the church. And our responsibility as His body is to accurately portray the will and the desire of the Head.
I want to bring some applications. GRBC church, when this vision of the Body of Christ grips us, it has radical implications for personal, church, and societal responsibilities. Christ is in heaven, but when this truth grips the people of God, how much of the beauty of Christ would the world know? The world will see the beauty of Christ and the wisdom of God through GRBC.
Personal Implications
When we realize what a marvelous gift the Father has given, it has deep personal implications. Christ is raised, seated, and has all things put under His feet. God has given Christ to me not just as King and Master, but as an organic, sympathetic, functional, and coordinated Head. All His grace is mine; all His wisdom, rich treasures, authority, power, and strength are all mine. They flow from Him to me through the organic relationship I have with Him.
We need to pray. I have been praying: “Lord, fill me so I can live as Your fullness in Your world. Look at how ugly I am; fill me so I can show Your beauty to the world.” The only way we can live as His fullness is when He fills us. He doesn’t fill us like petrol, filling us once a week; He fills us moment by moment. That is why He said, “Abide in Me through prayer, and abide in My words, and then you will bear much fruit.” This is because He will fill you with grace upon grace and power upon power so you can live as His fullness. This teaches us again the great importance of the basic need for dependent prayer and abiding in Christ’s Word through meditation. It is through these means that we can live as the fullness of Christ.
The Church as the Body
Not only personally, but as a church, do you see why it is such a grotesque thing for the church to be marked by disorderliness, division, pride, and selfishness? It is because these things obscure the beauty that we are meant to reflect—the beauty of our Head, the Lord Jesus. Does the world see us functioning as the Body of Christ in all its beauty at GRBC? Oh, how far we are!
This is why God and Christ are so concerned and even angry in the Book of Revelation; they are concerned about church order and holiness. That is why Paul took Timothy and placed him in Ephesus, saying, “I put you there to set in order the things that are wanting.” Then he told Timothy, “I want you to instruct men on how to behave themselves in the church.” He said to do this and that, to be careful what you preach, and gave many instructions on what to do and what not to do. Why all this concern? Because it is the house of the living God. It is the Body of Christ and His fullness.
Let me provide these points:
- Submission to the Head: The church must submit to Christ’s Word, even as a body submits to its head. Without submitting to Christ, we can do nothing good; in fact, we harm ourselves when we operate outside of His will. The Church must strictly adhere to Christ’s teaching (the direction of the Head) as found in Scripture for all matters of doctrine, ethics, and governance. Any deviation—be it immorality, doctrinal error, or neglect—is a failure of the Body to submit to the Head. That is why, as believers, we not only encourage you to diligently study Scripture and pray, but we also teach Scripture here rather than telling stories, so that you may learn the will of the Head.
- Rejecting Worldly Methods: The Church must resist relying on human wisdom, secular trends, or manipulative tactics, knowing that the Head contains all the wisdom and power needed for success. Do you see why we should not use wrong methods and means to attract people for entertainment?
- We do not want to take anyone into membership who is not truly joined to Christ or convinced to the extent that they are truly born again as believers. The church is not a club where we just try to get more members. We must maintain the purity of the Body of Christ. We will only use the true Biblical gospel and the Word of Christ to preach; we will not use entertainment or other things. Instead, we trust our Head, who said, “My sheep will hear My voice.”
- Do you see how wrong it is to baptize a child who does not believe, making them a member of the church? That is a complete misunderstanding of the church.
- Do you see why it is so important to maintain church discipline? As our confession says, it is for three things: for sin, disorder, or false teaching. Because we are a body, we deeply affect one another. When there is sin, disorderliness, or false teaching, “a little leaven leavens the whole lump.” We must immediately deal with that through discipline.
- Active Involvement: Learn to see yourself as a member of the body of God’s people, into which the Lord has sovereignly placed you. This should be a big motivation to be actively involved in the church. The members of the church need one another, even as the members of a physical body need one another. Paul says the eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you” (1 Cor 12:21). We need each other because God’s power has made us one body; therefore, we are dependent upon one another. To try to be independent, as many in the church do, is to spiritually impoverish ourselves and hinder our growth in grace.
- We deceive ourselves when we say we can grow without being actively involved in a visible Body of Christ. Anyone can deceive themselves into thinking they are living holily in isolation. But you have to start living with a group of different people who test the depth of your sanctification. We see this in a family: I can assume I am the holiest man in the universe when no one is around me. But when I live with a wife, a husband, or children, it is when they test my patience that my holiness is exposed as being shallow. Growth in the spiritual life is becoming like Jesus; you will never become like Him unless you are actively involved in His fullness. That is why God puts us in the body. He says, “I want to make you like My Son.”
- This demands an active rejection of spiritual individualism. You cannot practice New Testament Christian faith in isolation. It means seeing every other believer, regardless of their background, as a necessary, valuable part of your spiritual life. Action Point: Commit to attending local assembly gatherings not just to receive, but to actively contribute your specific spiritual gift, knowing the Body is incomplete without it.
- Absolute Unity and Equality: There must be no division or classism. Since all believers are part of one Body, differences based on wealth, race, education, or social status are meaningless and contradictory to our nature (Ephesians 2:14-16).
- Necessary Interdependence and Sympathy: Every member is vital. No one can say, “I have no need of you.” In an ideal church, when one member suffers, the whole body suffers with them. That is the sympathetic relationship Scripture expects among us. When something happens to my hand, the whole body reacts. If there is no reaction, that part is either not part of the body, or like leprosy, the nerves are dead and there is no feeling. It is shameful in a church when someone suffers and we think it is a mark of spirituality that we can “live and let live” without being involved with one another.
- Grace to Feel: We desperately need to pray for a well-developed nervous system throughout the body, and for the grace to feel what our brethren feel. How poor we are when we are wrapped up in our own little worlds, thinking only, “What is happening to me? To me? To me?” We are hypersensitive to ourselves but “leprous” towards other members of the body. This exposes poor growth and shows we are spiritual babes. Maturity, as Paul said, is to “seek not every man his own, but the things of his brother.” What a sad church it is when you come and nobody greets you or asks how you are doing. It is time some of you grew up and stopped being babies. We must do all within our power to know each other if we are to feel with each other. Only then will our Friday prayer meetings stop being dull meetings where one person prays and everyone else is sleeping. When we feel for others and pray for others, we will be actively involved. We can develop our fellowship by learning Peter’s admonition to show hospitality to one another, being in one another’s homes, and seeing one another’s lives. This is why we must be open enough to communicate our joys and our sorrows, so that those who want to share them can receive the “nerve signal” saying, “It is time to rejoice with me,” or “It is time to grieve with me.”
Reflecting Christ to the World
When this vision of the body grips us, the world will see the beauty of Christ outside the church. The Church is the vessel Christ uses to display His glory and power in the world. We are the means by which His invisible presence is made visible and tangible. We must reflect Christ to this world. Jesus preached the gospel, died, rose again, and went to heaven. But does He have much more work to do now? Yes. Many for whom He died have not yet been gathered in. Who will do that work? Acts shows it is His body, the church, that continues that work. Today, how is the will of the Head accomplished? Through the body. How are the eternal counsels, plans, and purposes of God to be accomplished? Through the body. Consider how we heard the voice of Christ and were saved: it was not because Christ spoke to us directly from heaven, but because He spoke through the Body of Christ—through some true believer who spoke to us.
We will only be active when the Holy Spirit opens our blind eyes to the vision of Christ’s glory. Christ is indeed the King of the universe. He is “above ALL rule” (v. 21). He is over “EVERY name” (v. 21). God put “ALL THINGS” under His feet (v. 22). He is head over “ALL THINGS” (v. 22). By this authority, He is sovereignly moving everything for His church. He has called us to be His ambassadors. Christ is like a King who takes over the throne of an entire empire. He has all power and authority over the region, but He has many territories that are still in rebellion against Him. Now, He has authority over those territories. He could move in any day with all His sovereign power and squash all rebellion if He wanted to, but He gives a time of grace. He offers peace and reconciliation freely through the gospel; anyone can make peace who wants to make peace before the last day of His judgment comes. He chooses those who are under Him and sends them as peace messengers and ambassadors. He has called us to carry His message of peace now, and that is where we are.
A Great Question
Lastly, to everyone listening to me now and on YouTube: if the exalted Christ is given as a gift to the church, and if the church is His body and His fullness, then all His blessings will only be given to the church. His subjugating power of protection is only for the church. The gates of hell cannot prevail against the church. He is ruling for the good of the church; His redeeming, sanctifying work is happening only inside the church. It is for the church that He is coming back. He will raise the church from the dead, and He will not judge them, but vindicate them in judgment. It is the church that He will glorify.
The great question you have to ask is: Are you part of that church? What place does the church have in your life? Everywhere there is false dispensational teaching that places no importance on the church, or wrong ideas about the second coming that give all importance to Israel and not to the church. That view makes you go to any wrong church with a defiled conscience for selfish reasons. Your theology is wrong because you think Christ will secretly take you wherever you are, so you believe you can attend any false church for selfish reasons and still call yourself a Bible believer. Stop deceiving yourself. Wake up from your sleep.
Are you inside a true church of God? I am not asking if you have just externally joined the membership. You can join a CSI church like that. But we saw that there is a living, life-flowing relationship between Christ and the church. You can only join the church when you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and His work, repent, and are united to Him by faith. Faith is the umbilical cord through which His life flows into you and unites you to His church. You become a new creature; all things become new. The only way you become a member is through the work of God, as the Spirit incorporates you into Jesus Christ. There is a living bond between you and this living Lord.
Are you part of that church? If you are not a member of that church, there is no hope for you. If you are not in that body, you are not saved. How do you get into the body? Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and repent of your sins. The Holy Spirit will join you to the body.
When you are united in this way, you will give the highest place to the church. You will have a divine sense that Christ the Head has brought you here out of all other places. You will be faithful to the responsibilities of the church. This gift—the Head of the church—uses the truth and other means of grace to sanctify you, grow you in kingdom graces, subject your enemies, and give you more and more victory in your life. Is that happening in your life?