The Unsearchable Riches of Christ
by T. Austin-Sparks

Chapter 5 - The Exceeding Riches Of His Grace: Consummation

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.


[ Previous Chapter ] [ Contents ] [ Next Chapter ]



  • Alphabetical
  • Chronological
  • Topical
  • Alphabetical
  • Chronological
  • Topical
  • Alphabetical
  • Chronological
  • Alphabetical
  • Chronological