We have been contemplating “the unsearchable riches
of Christ” and their fivefold presentation in the
first chapter of the Letter to the Ephesians. We have
looked at election to adoption, from adoption to
redemption, from redemption to wisdom, and the ability to
see into the heart of it all. We now come to the fifth of
these. We come finally to consummation in verse ten:
“Unto a dispensation of the fulness of the times, to
sum up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens,
and the things upon the earth; in Him, I say, in Whom
also we were made a heritage.”
“To sum up all things in Christ.” That is the
consummation of the riches of His grace, for grace is the
first great context of that word “riches.”
It is helpful if we remember the standpoint of this great
letter. The apostle who wrote it had in his other
letters, or in most of them, been dealing with things
now. All the problems, the requirements, the affairs of
present life were pressing upon him continually. So
because he had been in close contact with the present
conditions in all places where he went amongst the Lord’s
people, in the numerous localities where the churches had
been born, most of his letters up to this time were
occupied with those present times of alarms and needs and
problems and situations. But when he was released from
all that, and that phase of his life and ministry was
closed, when an end to his journeying and his scattered
preaching had come, and he was shut up in the prison in
Rome, it was more than a release from local
responsibilities; it was a release of his spirit out into
the all-comprehending, the vaster ranges of all that in
which the local things were set. He was now able to
release all that was pent up in him, the accumulation of
experience, of knowledge, of revelation. He had only been
able to give it, so to speak, piecemeal, here and there
and there, but now all that he had in his
knowledge of the Lord could be set forth and given out in
these final letters, and in this one in Ephesians
particularly. When he is so able to unburden himself, his
reach and range is no less than from eternity to
eternity.So he
immediately, in writing this letter to the Ephesians, in
what we call the first chapter, although there were no
chapters when he wrote it, it was just one continuous
outflow, here right at the commencement, he plunges into
the eternity past. He says: “We were chosen in Him
before the foundation of the world.” We were “predestinated,
foreordained in Jesus Christ unto Himself.” Paul is
right back there in the past eternity, and before he had
got through unburdening himself, he will have leapt right
over into “the age of the ages.” You see, that
is his phrase in this letter: from eternity to eternity.
He is comprehending all that lies between the two
eternities of what he calls the eternal, the timeless
purpose of God in Christ.
It is both important
and helpful for us to recognize that eternal standpoint.
Helpful in this way, while you have got to face all that
is in these other letters, as Paul did, all the problems
of the Letter to the Romans, which took a tremendous
effort on the part of the apostle to solve some of the
fundamental problems of life, and the whole question of
sin and of death and of justification, it is a tremendous
letter. And what about the problems in Corinth? There
were terrible problems in Corinth, which might have
well-nigh made him despair, and give up everything and
say, ‘It is useless, just look at this, and see what
these people are doing. Now look at these professing
Christians, what is the good of anything, or what is the
good of it all’; and he nearly goes down in despair.
And, then he has all the problems in Galatians, and my,
what problems they were. He says in chapter four, at
verses 11 and 12: “I am afraid of you, lest I have
bestowed upon you labor in vain. Brethren, I beseech you,
be as I am; for I am as ye are: ye have not injured me at
all.” Again in verses 19 and 20: “My little
children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ
be formed in you, I desire to be present with you now,
and to change my voice; for I stand in doubt of you.”
But then you have got
to take notice of those things, because they are facts,
they are realities and terrible realities at that. As I
see it they are calculated, they are designed, to take
all the heart, and all the hope, out of you. Although we
need not think back into those days, we have only got to
look into the state of things amongst Christians today in
what is called the church, and we could easily give it
all up and say, “Well, what is the good of it as we
know it?” You have got to face it and take account
of it and know that it is real. It is not at all
imaginary. No, it is very real.
Now what are we going
to do with it? Well, we are going to look back into the
past eternity to see what was intended, and look into the
future eternity and see it realized. God from eternity to
eternity—through all these vicissitudes, all these
difficulties and problems—at last is shown here to
have exactly what He had planned back there in past
eternity. It is going to be. The consummation of all
things in Christ. O, yes, it will be as God intended
before time was.
Does that help you? It ought to help us. But here it is
positively stated, and we are not far on in the letter
where it says this: “Unto a dispensation of the
fulness of the times to sum up all things in Christ, the
things in the heavens and the things upon the earth.”
Let us stay for a moment with this word “dispensation,”
just to get clear about it. The margin here says “stewardship,”
so the root of the word means “a house order,”
or “a household order, the order, the system, which
obtains.” But the word grows and is enlarged and it
comes to mean something more than that. It comes to mean,
“a carrying out, and putting into effect of the
purpose.” Dispensation or stewardship means, “the
carrying out, the carrying into effect of the purpose of
everything.” In the fulness of times the whole
purpose will be carried out and put into effect. And the
apostle said that there was given to Him a stewardship of
the mystery. He meant that he was called to have
something to do with the putting into effect of what was
in the mind of God.
So much for the moment,
for the word here, “dispensation,” if so
translated, what is this putting into effect? Well, it
says, “to sum up all things in Christ.” And
that is not satisfactory, because it is not adequate.
Here it means, “to gather together, to reunite all
things in heaven and in earth in Christ.” And the
emphasis is upon that word “together.”
That is a thrilling thought, that in the fulness of the
times—the putting into effect of the purpose—means
everything will be at last together. You may argue, we
are together in this place. I wonder if it could be said
of us all in an inward way, that we are absolutely
together here. It is a grand thing, is it not, when we
really are together in an inward way, in spirit, in
heart, in object, in purpose, in outlook. That is a
mighty thing. That is a grand thing. That is a fruitful
thing. That is a joyous thing, being together as one. It
is everything we desire. When you think of the opposite,
that is, when you are not together, when two people who
have to live under the same roof are not together, it is
a miserable life. It is only an existence. Mark you, a
company of people who have to meet outwardly together,
but are really not inwardly together, it is not a happy
state. There is a strain, there is an atmosphere, there
is a lack. But it says that the putting into effect of
God’s purpose will be found at last in togetherness
universally; that is the riches of His Grace. But see the
setting of that? My, what a history stands over against
that.
The Bible from one standpoint is a record of the opposite
to that togetherness. It is the record of the effect, or
the result of an interference with God’s purpose. It
began apparently outside of this world, what we could
call the cosmic disruption in this universe. Various
hints of it are given to us in the Word. In the Book of
Jude, the apostle speaks about the “angels which
kept not their first estate, but left their own
habitation and are now bound in everlasting chains”
(v. 6). Angels which “kept not their first estate.”
What a hint as to Lucifer’s primeval position. And
then what?—coveting, just the next step up for him,
coveting the place of the Son of God, coveting equality
with God. And through that pride and ambition, he was
bringing about that terrible disruption in the very realm
of God Himself. There was a disruption in the heavenlies.
And that is not just something that happened, and was
concluded in some undated period called, “before the
world was,” or “before times eternal.”
That very realm today, which is called the heavenlies, is
the very atmospheric realm occupied by principalities,
powers, world rulers of this darkness, hosts of wicked
spirits—it is a realm of utter confusion and
conflict. And sensitive believers know that it is an
atmosphere of conflict and strife and disruption.
It began there, and
then its repercussions came down to this created earth
when God had made all things to His Own pleasure and
satisfaction and said, “It is very good.” So He
put man into it and gave man his “helpmeet,”
the one meet (suitable) to help him. But it was not long
before that thing which had happened above, broke in and
disrupted the first human family, and Cain murdered his
brother. So, family life is broken.
And you move on to the race, which has grown, and
multiplied and expanded, and you come to Babel and the
disruption of the human race, and the breakout into
conflicting nations with the strife and confusion of
tongues. The whole earth is just full of confusion, that
is Babel. On you go, and there arises the story of
Israel, a family, and then that is broken. It came as the
tribe was divided into two, fighting each other. There
became schism in Israel. Then further on, there was the
awful disintegration, disruption of the exile. It is a
long story with everything being contrary to what God
intended it to be. There is the breakdown of human
relationships, the state of confusion. And this story did
not stop with the Old Testament, and with the exile. It
is there when you come into the New Testament. It is
there in the heavenlies, a terrible atmosphere of
conflict. When you meet together, immediately you open
your gospels, it is there. And God brings in something
very beautiful with Pentecost, ‘they continued
steadfastly in the apostles’ teaching, the breaking
of bread and prayers.’ And now, as we said before,
this terrible disruption of Satan breaks in again, to
divide it all, to spoil it all. And the rest of the New
Testament is so baffling with this, this thing called
division, schism, strife, disintegration. But the great
appeal is for fellowship and oneness in Christ.
And what about today?
Well, the world has grown so much bigger than it was in
those days. It is a much bigger world altogether, where
new countries have been discovered and populated. It is a
far greater world, and with the literal, historical
expansion and growth, what has happened? Was there ever a
time when there was more conflict, more confusion, more
strain in relationships than there is now? Truly the
prince of the power of the air is very busy. Today this
world holds more of this confusion, divisiveness, and
strain in relationships than ever before. Despite every
effort of every counsel, and every union and every effort
of man to bring the nations together, it all breaks down
every time. Is not that true? Well that is how it is, and
it is not, of course, all right. No, it is very wrong.
But do you see what the Apostle Paul is telling us here
in Ephesians. By revelation to him, the Lord Himself
reveals that the great work of God in Christ through
grace is going to see that whole historic system of
disruption brought to a complete end. The Lord reveals
that in the fulness of times, the things in the heavens,
and the things of the earth are reunited in Christ—all
brought together again in Christ. And the emphasis is
upon that word “together.” This means
everything that God purposed in Christ will be at last
together. That is what the apostle says, what the Holy
Spirit says, is the consummation of it all—“to
sum up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens,
and the things upon the earth.”
In Christ, what a tremendous phrase this is. Mark you, it
is “in Christ.” We are talking about what is in
Christ. We are not talking about universalism or humanism
where all things get better. No! “...we have
redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins,
according to the riches of His Grace” (Ephesians
1:7). Of course this does not need arguing. We know quite
well that if there is any hope at all for anything like
this now, it will only be as we really are in Christ. If
we get out of Christ into ourselves, we get into
disruption and confusion. If we abide in Him, if all of
us abide in Him, then we are together in an inmost way.
Hence, there is the
great necessity in the first place for our position in
Christ. And then abiding in Christ, and then growing in
Christ, and then perfected in Christ. It is a process; it
is a work of grace to abide in Christ. The trouble is,
dear friends, that we do so often meet one another in
ourselves; you meet me and I meet you, and you have to
say so often, “that is him,” and I have to say,
“that is you.” You know what I mean? It is just
ourselves, our way of thinking, our way of talking, our
way of expressing ourselves. It is just the outcoming of
ourselves, or the forthgoing of ourselves in some way.
And it is a real joy and relief and pleasure to meet a
person and not meet them, but meet the Lord. Just to say,
when we have been with them, ‘Well, I was not struck
and impressed by them, but I was impressed of the Lord in
them and about them. What really impressed me was the
grace of God in them.’ Grace is bringing Christ out
and making Christ the impression. It is grace doing it
all.
Now this is exactly
what Peter means by growing in grace. It means the
diminishing of all that is outside of grace, and a
growing of ourselves in grace. When we do come into
contact with one another, it is more of Christ as the
effect and the result than ourselves. It is not what we
want and what we think, and how we think things ought to
be and all that whole gambit of self-interest and
self-life, but everything is to be Christ unto the
consummation. The Spirit of Grace is seeking to displace
that which is not gracious, and thus to bring Christ Who
is gracious more fully into being where we are concerned.
For the consummation is that all things will be united in
Him and He will fill all things; it will just be Christ.
We have heard this so often, but it is true—it will
just be Christ.
Oh, what a grand day it will be when the ten thousand
times ten thousand and thousands of thousands of redeemed
individuals are utterly one person, because it is all
Christ, and no more of this ugly self. It is Christ. Now
that, says the Word, is what God intended from the
beginning, and that is the eternal purpose of God, and
also the explanation of all the conflict in this universe
to spoil it, to hinder it, to contradict it. But that is
what the Word says is how it is going to be in spite of
everything.
Dear friends, we shall
absolutely agree with one another then, for we shall all
be saying the same thing, and all be doing the same
thing, and that will not be monotonous and uninteresting
to be all the time occupied with one thing. What will
that be? And there are various ways of putting it, but I
think it will be: Oh, what a lot we owe to the grace of
God! That will be our eternal occupation, the wonder of
His grace, the marvel of His grace. If the Apostle Paul
was able to say, in the presence of his large and yet so
imperfect apprehension and knowledge and realization of
the grace of God, if the apostle was able to say, “Oh
the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge
of God. How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways
past finding out,” if he could say, “It was
given to me, the least of all saints to preach the
unsearchable riches of Christ,” if in the
imperfection even of that knowledge and ministry he could
speak like that, what about when we come into the utter
fulness of it in the age of the ages?! We will be saying
all the time, “Oh the depth of the riches, the
unsearchable riches, the riches of His grace.” But
do you notice—that between the eternities of the
past intention and purpose of God, and the ultimate
consummation and realization—the apostle does say,
“Walk worthy of the calling wherewith you are called
in all meekness,”—that is, selflessness and
lowliness. “Walk,” he would say, “in the
grace,” which is going to lead at last to this
oneness. Yes, we must learn to walk in grace as far as
people will allow us to do so, and as far as we can make
it possible for them to do so with us.
Let us ask the Lord
that this grace, this grace of fellowship, of oneness,
may be found in us increasingly now. Of course,
there are a lot of Christians who will not let us, who
will make it impossible for us to have fellowship, and to
be together. But, as far as it is in our power, let us
seek by the grace of God to live in the light of the day
when He will reunite in Christ all things in heaven and
on earth.