 Printer friendly version here!
Copyright
© 2004
Peter Wade.
You can save this page as a text file from your browser (File / Save As) and read it off-line. It is about 19K. |  |
10. The Wealth Realized(continued) by Ruth Paxson
Purpose of Realization, cont.
To Enhance Christ's Preciousness
through His Love for Us
We love Him because He first loved us, but who loves Christ as he ought? His gifts are often more appreciated than the Giver. Many a Christian who rejoices in salvation would have to confess to coldness of heart toward the Saviour. The one outstanding sin of this very Ephesians church mentioned in Revelation 2:4 was "Thou hast left thy first love." Their warm, intense love for Christ Himself had waned. Against many of us would not God have to record this same sin? If the next petition is prayed with true understanding it must make the Lord Jesus Himself more precious to us.
3:18. "That ye may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height."
3:19. "And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge."
"That." As we read what lies beyond this third "that," it is as though a tidal wave swept over us. The onward rush of the wave picks us up and carries us to the shores of our redemption in Christ, where we comprehend through the Spirit's inward illumination its fourfold measurements. But the outward rush of that same wave sweeps us out into the shoreless ocean of His unknowable love.
"Ye may be able to comprehend," -- to stretch your mind over so as to grasp with a divine insight and a human response which makes it your own, and this to the limit of an ever-growing mental and spiritual capacity. But only as we are strengthened by the Spirit in the inner man, and as Christ indwells us deeply, can we so comprehend.
"With all the saints." No one saint or group of saints of any one generation has the spiritual capacity to grasp the whole counsel of God, or the reach of His eternal purpose. Each saint may comprehend in part, but it takes all the saints "in the unity of the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God to come unto a perfect man" (4:13). And it is equally true that it takes every saint to enable all the saints to become fullgrown. What a divine rebuke this is to insulated denominationalism and to prejudiced nationalism! Recently someone told me of a devout Christian who openly declares to those who are not of her denomination that they are not saved. How each of us needs all the saints to help us comprehend our wealth in Christ! Who can excel a regenerated, spiritually-minded Jew in an explanation of the Old Testament Scriptures? And how often some passage of Scripture has taken on new meaning and beauty for the missionary when seen through the eye of an oriental Christian.
"What is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height." Paul prays that we may be able to comprehend the dimensions of something that is both comprehensible and measurable, yet the petition stops abruptly without telling what it is. May it not be the work of the triune God in our redemption so clearly taught in Ephesians [chapters] 1-3? Salvation through grace to glory lies within the boundaries clearly marked and measured as we have seen it purposed and proclaimed in this epistle. What could possibly enhance Christ's preciousness to us more than a daily richer comprehension of the measurements of this glorious salvation? For that very purpose may they pass in review before our minds and hearts once more.
The Breadth
-- the redeemed | {Jew
{Gentile | made into | {one new man
{Body of Christ | (2:11-22). |
| The Length -- | God's eternal purpose from
eternity to eternity | (1:4; 2:7). |
| The Depth -- | depravity from which the
sinner was delivered
death in which the sinner was found | (2:1-3). |
| The Height -- | position to which saint was raised | {in Christ
{in heavenlies
{far above all | (2:4-6; 1:21) |
"To know the love of Christ." We can know that Christ loved us and gave Himself for us. We can know the faithfulness of His love as manifested in countless ways every day of our lives; its tenderness as it comforts us in suffering and sorrow; its fellowship as it shares with us everything it possesses; its patience as it forgives us the seventy times seven. We can also daily add to our knowledge of the love of Christ as we company with Him in prayer and in the the study of His Word; as we fellowship with other saints who know and experience deeply the love of Christ; and as we enter more fully into the fellowship of his sufferings, "filling up on our part that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ for his body's sake" (Colossians 1:24).
"Which passeth knowledge." But there is a love of Christ that is knowledge-surpassing. The expression of Christ's love is knowable, but the essence of it is unknowable. We can never know the love that paid the cost of leaving His eternal home in the Father's bosom in the heavenly glory and of coming to a world that rejected and crucified Him. We can never know the knowledge-surpassing love that voluntarily emptied itself of its inherent glory and was made in the likeness of men and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. We can never know the love that on Calvary's Cross suffered the anguish of heart compressed in that cry, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" We can only confess our utter inability to comprehend such love and tell Him that it makes Him unspeakably precious to us, more precious than anyone or anything in heaven or upon earth. We can respond with a love for Him that sweeps our life clean of all counter-loves and that leads us to go to the uttermost limit of our capacity in adoration of and devotion to Him.
"It passeth knowledge, that dear love of thine,
My Jesus, Saviour; yet this soul of mine
Would of thy love in all its breadth and length,
Its height and depth and everlasting strength,
Know more and more."
To Ensure the Plenitude
of Christ's Life in Us
3:19 (R.V.). "That ye may be filled unto all the fulness of God."
"That." This fourth petition is the final fruitage and the climax of the strengthening by the Spirit in the inner man, as it introduces the ultimate purpose of God in the realization of our wealth and the goal towards which He has been steadily working.
"Ye may be filled." Is not this word "filled" (5:18), with the kindred words "fill" (4:10), "filleth" (1:23), and "fulness" (3:19; 4:12), the keynote of Ephesians? Is this not the objective in the realization of God's deepest desire both for the Church in its corporate capacity and for the individual Christian? Does God not clearly state the ultimate goal for the Church, that it shall come "unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ"?
The Holy Spirit strengthens us in the inner man that Christ may dwell in every corner and cranny of our lives, thus emptying us of self and enthroning Christ in us as a living reality. He strengthens us that we may comprehend ever more fully the measurable love of Christ expressed in salvation, and that we may know the unknowable love that made Him our Saviour, thus making Christ so precious to us that we are satisfied in Him. But Satan is always at work to destroy the work of the Spirit and to win us back to allegiance to himself. There is but one safeguard to his cunning wiles; to be filled with Christ that all such temptation be resisted, and that we may in all things and at all times be more than conquerors.
"All the fulness of God" -- the grand, glorious sum total of all that God is. There is nothing conceivable beyond the fulness of God. It is all the divine perfections of the Godhead as expressed in Christ.
Colossians 2:9. "For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily."
This is the doctrinal meaning of the fulness of God, but what does it mean tangibly and practically in relationship to the Church and to the Christian? Is it not just all that vast wealth stored in Christ out of which God draws for the achievement of His purpose (3: 11); the fulfillment of His good pleasure (1:9); the carrying out of the counsels of His own will (1:11); the manifestation of the riches of His grace and glory (1:7; 3:16); the working of His mighty power (1:19); the expression of the richness of His mercy and the greatness of His love (2:4)? Is it not also those unsearchable riches in Christ which the saint appropriates for the satisfaction of every Spirit-inspired desire; for the supply of every need of the spirit, soul and body; for the sustenance of life on that highest plane in Christ in the heavenlies, far above all; and for the strength to stand and to withstand in the warfare with Satan?
How can we ever hope to become the recipients of the fulness of God? The very thought is overwhelming. Let Scripture answer and let us not sin against God through unbelief.
Colossians 2:10 (R.V.). "Ye are made full in him."
John 1:16. "Of his fulness have all we received."
Are we not beginning to see more clearly why Paul writes of the unsearchable riches of Christ? At the same time are we discouraged because we have appropriated so meagerly of our wealth, and seem to have so little evidence of this plenitude in our lives? Perhaps there has been the reception of a measure of that fulness, but this petition is that we "may be filled unto all the fulness of God." Who could ever measure up to such a standard as this? Why, then, should we offer this petition?
"Filled unto." What comfort that word unto gives and what hope it inspires within us! Yet what a challenge to possess our possessions in Christ and to realize our wealth to the full! There is no limit placed upon the plenitude that may be ours except that which we ourselves make. For we shall be filled according to the measure of our emptiness, our thirst, our appropriation, our capacity, and our communion with the fountainhead.
Daily we may be "filled unto" -- a process continuous but never completed while we are here on earth. But one day the process will be perfected, and we shall be filled full when we together with all other saints "come unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ."
Power for Realization
God has revealed our immeasurable wealth in Christ, and has led us to offer petition after petition for its realization. While the words have fallen from our lips have we been saying secretly in our hearts, "It cannot be done; anyhow, it cannot be done in me"? Whoever looks within at himself for this power, or around at others, however spiritual they may be, may rightly say that it is impossible. But there is another way to look-up to Him who has promised that His own mighty power will work in us for the realization of our riches in Christ.
3:20
"Unto him
That is able to do
All that we ask or think
Above all that we ask or think
Abundantly above all that we ask or think
Exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think
According to the power that worketh in us"
"Unto him" -- The Purposer is the Promiser, who is also the Performer.
| Look unto Him, our | R |
ich
esourceful
eliable | Father. |
"That is able to do." Our petition, however great, can never exceed God's ability to grant. Through God's power every saint has been lifted from the deepest depths in sin to the highest heights in Christ; he has been incorporated into Christ as a member of His Body and made the habitation of God. Surely the God who has had power to thus save and sanctify him can now strengthen him with power, that His purpose for the saint may be fully realized. What God has commenced He will surely consummate.
"All that we ask or think." What petitions have we asked? What desires have flooded our hearts that we dared not voice? Is it possible He has power to do "all" for us? Yes, "above all"; still God's power has scarcely been tapped: "abundantly above all"; surely the limit of even God's power has been reached. No, not yet; "exceeding abundantly above all." And yet God's power is not exhausted, for He continues to give even after we stop asking and only harbour the unuttered thought; yet still there remains a vast residue of power unused after unbelief has stopped our asking and stifled our thinking, -- "above all that we ask or think."
"According to the power that worketh in us." The Promiser provides the power. The power is a Person-none other than God's own Spirit, who abides in us to make Christ real and regnant, and thereby ensure to us the realization of our wealth in Christ. The indwelling Spirit is God's pledge of His limitless power to do.
"That worketh in us." If God is able to work with such superabundant, limitless power, why does He not do it? Why do we see so few Christians who seem to have drunk of the fountain of the fulness of God? There is but one possible answer. The limitless power of God is limited by the unwillingness to have it work, or by the unbelief that it can. But in the light of this prayer could there be a greater sin in the life of a saint than to live on the lower level of the carnal when God's provision and power make possible life on the highest plane of the spiritual? Someone has tersely said: "You have your Bible and your knees; use them." Let us use them so that these treasures in Christ may become in fullest measure current coin in our lives.
The presence of God -- abiding; the plenitude of God -- abounding; the power of God -- achieving; this realized through prayer in the Christian's life is the sum total of his vast wealth in Christ.
Praise for Realization
3:21. "Unto him be glory, in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen."
How fitting that the petitions of this prayer should glide into praise, and that not only this prayer but these chapters should close with a doxology! "Unto him" -- the Master Workman who has wrought in the Church through the presence of His beloved Son in the power of His mighty Spirit to make it the manifestation of His glory, both now and throughout all the ages -- be praise!
  
This page Copyright © 2004 Peter Wade. The Bible text in this publication, except where otherwise indicated, is from the King James Version. This article appears on the site: http://www.peterwade.com/. Would you like your own copy of books by Peter Wade and other authors? Go to our Catalog. | |
