Scripture Reading: Eph. 1:4-23
Ⅰ
The dispensing of Christ to dispense all the riches of the embodied Divine Trinity (Col. 2:9) into His believers is for the gradual building up of the Body of Christ—Eph. 1:4-14:
A
The church as the Body of Christ is the issue of God the Father's dispensing, speaking forth God's eternal purpose:
１
We were chosen by God the Father to be holy—v. 4:
ａ
This is for us to partake of God the Father's holy nature to be made the same as God in nature—2 Pet. 1:4; Rom. 15:16; cf. Rev. 21:2.
ｂ
This is to be sanctified, separated from all things as God is and saturated with God—cf. Rom. 15:16; Rev. 21:2.
⑴
We need to love God and not love the world (1 John 2:15), being separated from the world by God's word of truth (John 17:14-19; Eph. 5:26), not being fashioned according to this age (Rom. 12:2).
⑵
We need to present ourselves to God to be saturated by God with the element of His holy nature (Rom. 6:19) unto the eternal life (v. 22) to be renewed by the Spirit for our transformation into the image of Christ (Titus 3:5b; Rom. 12:2b; 2 Cor. 3:18).
２
We were predestinated by God the Father unto sonship—Eph. 1:5:
ａ
This is to have God the Father's life (John 3:16), being made God's children, the same as God in life by being born of God after God's kind through regeneration (1:12-13; 1 Pet. 1:3).
ｂ
This is for our being "sonized" with God the Father's life in our entire tripartite being—1 John 5:11-12; Rom. 8:10, 6, 11; 1 John 3:2.
３
God the Father chose us to be holy by predestinating us unto sonship—Eph. 1:4-5:
ａ
This is the divine sanctification for the divine sonship as the center of the divine economy and the central thought of the revelation in the New Testament—Heb. 2:10-11; 1 Thes. 5:23; Rev. 21:2, 7.
ｂ
In order to be sanctified for sonship, we must care for the sanctifying Spirit speaking and working in our spirit—Rom. 8:4, 6; 15:16.
B
The church as the Body of Christ is the issue of God the Son's dispensing, speaking forth the accomplishment of God's eternal purpose—Eph. 1:7-12:
１
We were redeemed by God in and unto Christ, who is the element of the Divine Trinity; Christ's being the element means that He is for dispensing to accomplish God's economy to head up all things in Christ—vv. 7, 10:
２
This heading up takes place by Him, as the element of the entire Divine Trinity, dispensing Himself into us for the building up of His Body; when the Body is built up, Christ is the Head in actuality—Eph. 1:10, 22-23.
３
The Son's dispensing in His redemption transforms God's chosen people with Christ as the element of life into a treasure for them to become God's inheritance, His private and personal possession—v. 11.
C
The church as the Body of Christ is the issue of God the Spirit's dispensing, speaking forth the application of God's accomplished purpose—vv. 13-14:
１
The Spirit's sealing saturates us continuously unto the redemption of our body—v. 13; 4:30:
ａ
This sealing transforms us into a treasure to God as His inheritance—1:18; cf. 2 Cor. 4:7; Eph. 3:8.
ｂ
The more we are sealed, the more we bear the image of God—2 Cor. 3:18b; Col. 3:10; cf. 2 Cor. 3:3.
２
The Spirit's pledging guarantees that God is our inheritance—Eph. 1:14:
ａ
The Spirit is the pledge, the foretaste, the sample, of what we will inherit of God in full—1 Pet. 2:3; Psa. 34:8.
ｂ
This pledging is unto the redemption of our body as God's acquired possession—Rom. 8:23.
Ⅱ
The transmitting of Christ is for the sudden raising up of God's churches—Eph. 1:19-23:
A
Paul prayed that we would have a spirit of wisdom and revelation to see the four-fold surpassing greatness of God's power—resurrecting power, ascending power, subjecting power, and heading up power—v. 17.
１
Christ overcame four layers of opposition by transcending through Hades, the earth, the air, and even the third heaven—Matt. 16:18; Acts 2:23; Eph. 1:21; Heb. 4:14; 7:26.
２
Christ transcended far above all the layers of trouble to transmit not only His authority but also His transcending power to the church that the church may be formed—Eph. 1:19, 22-23.
B
The sudden raising up of God's churches over the whole earth is because of the transmission of the transcending Christ:
１
The fine dispensing in the Lord's dealings with us constitutes the Body of Christ, whereas His transmitting brings forth of the Body of Christ.
ａ
Christ as the Spirit of life is gradually dispensing Himself as the element of God's riches for the growth, the building up, of the Body.
ｂ
Christ as the Spirit of power is striking suddenly to raise up the churches of God for the spread, the increase, of the Body.
２
His transmission is like that of a rushing violent wind to set up the churches, which are the Body of Christ—Acts 2:2:
ａ
On the day of Pentecost, such a step was taken by the ascended Christ to have a sudden "strike" among the human race—vv. 11, 16-21, 41-47.
ｂ
This sudden striking brings the churches into being and makes them transcendent over all the four layers of persons, matters, and things which oppose the raising up of God's churches—cf. 4:19-31
C
Since the transcending Christ is the embodiment of the Triune God, His transcending transmission includes all the rich threefold dispensing of the Triune God—Eph. 3:20-21; Phil. 4:13.