Ephesians (part 04) The Fullness of Christ

8/9/2019 Ephesians (part 04) The Fullness of Christ

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The Fullness of Christ

Ephesians 1: 15 23

Sometimes I think we dont pay enough attention to that first week of creationdescribed for us in the early chapters of Genesis. We kind of breeze by it, as if were in a hurry to get past the wonder of the creation itself, and even the gloryof the man and the woman, created to bear the image of God and to rule over thebirds of the air and the fish of the sea and every creature that moves along theground, so we can get busy focusing on the sinfulness of our fallen condition.But we need to focus more often on that creation on paradise on Eden onthat garden that God created so that his people could live with him in the fullnessof joy and blessing, understanding who their creator was, and why he madethem.

So this morning, as we begin, I want to focus especially on that sixth day, when,after he had made the living creatures according to their kinds: livestock,creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals each according to itskind, God said, Let us make humanity in our image, in our likeness, and letthem rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, overall the earth and over all the creatures that move along the ground. Were told that on that day, God formed Adam from the dust of the ground,inspired him with the breath of life, and the man he had formed became a livingbeing. But something wasnt quite finished in that moment, because in spite of the fact that God had stepped back at the end of each day, looked at all that hehad made and pronounced it good; after causing all of the other creatures to passbefore Adam so that he might name them, when he looked at Adam, standingthere by himself, he said, It is not good It is not good for the man to bealone And we can only speculate about what it was like to awake and to be introducedto his bride no dating rituals, no courtship here; just a match made in heaven soto speak. And whether or not they were the pinnacle and ideal of humanity assome have suggested, surely they were ideal for one another , this first man andfirst woman. After all, God had said, I will make a helper suitable for [orcorresponding to] him. And let me reiterate, guys, that when God saw that itwas not good for man to be alone, he did not give the man a dog, or a truck. Hedid not, seeing that it was not good for the man to be alone create the NHL;rather, he made a woman a helper corresponding to him.


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And let me also point out before we move on that she was not created to be ahelpmate with all of the connotations of that lovely wordnot a helper as in,an assistant to the man. It was not as if God saw that Adam, having so muchwork to do out in the garden, was gonna need someone to pick up his

laundryjust think about it for a minute, youll get it in a whileAs a matterof fact, the Hebrew word translated helper here is the very same word used inthe Psalms where David and others make statements like, God is my helperso its clear that the word itself is not an indication in any sense of some kind of superiority of the one helped over the one doing the helping.So, God creates this magnificent and beautiful person to be counterpart to theman. She is all that he is not, and vice versa. She completes him and makeshumanity whole and together in the fullness of their humanity they will bear andperpetuate the image of God.Adam seems to understand this instinctively, because immediately, when he seesher he says not, Wow! or even, Cool! this is now th e little woman, and she shallpick up my socks and keep me warm at night. NO. He, in that moment when heis introduced to his bride, says, This is me. This is now bone of my bones andflesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was tak en out of man.Which is to say , Everything else in the world is not like me. This one thiswoman she is like me. Shes made from the same stuff, the same blood andbone and breath.

You see, we often go to Genesis 2 to highlight the differences between male andfemale, but the truth is, Genesis 2 exists to do exactly the opposite. Genesis 2exists to highlight the fact that male and female alike are made from the samestuff and bear together the image of God, and its important that we understandall this, because Ephesians chapter 5 tells us that to some extent, all of this wasdone in order to give us a sense of the relationship the correspondence thatexists between God and his people, or, more specifically, between Christ and thechurch.Paul wrote: IN this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own

bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his ownbody, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church for we aremembers of his body . For this reason a man will leave his father and mother andbe united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. See, there is a connection a relationship if you prefer and it is defined bycovenant, but the covenant itself defines a spiritual or a mystic union that exists


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not only between a man and a woman, but also between Christ and his bride, thechurch. So we are the body of Christ, but we are also his bride, or moreaccurately, we are his body because we are his bride. And watch the connectionsthat run back and forth here, because on one level Paul is talking about marriage

in the human sphere, but hes so caught up in the mystery that youd never knowit.In verse 25, Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gavehimself u p for her Then again in 28, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodiesafterall, no one ever hated his own body, but he fees and cares for it, just as Christ does the church for we are members of his body.And then, that argument from the beginning of the world, For this reason a

man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two willbecome one flesh. This is a profound mystery but I am talking about Christ and the church. Which ought to literally just blow us away.I mean, we sort of get the whole marriage covenant/one flesh relationship as itexists in time between a husband and wife, but do we even begin to grasp theenormity of what Paul is saying here. In the same way that a man and a womanbecome one and what God has joined together no man may divide in that same way Christ is one with the church; we are bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh. As with Adam and Eve, the church is we are the compliment; thecounterpart; the very body of Jesus Christ, the son of God and God the son.Which explains that one little verse in our text this morning.God place all things under his feet and appointed him to be head overeverything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fillseverything in every way . But do we understand that? Can we get our heads around the concept?I think our immediate reaction is to think, It cannot be so! The church cannot

have that kind of correspondence and relationship to Christ. He is God and weare not. He is sinless, and we, wellwe are not. Weve been told time and againthat its not about us. The church cannot be the fullness of him who fillseverything in every way.


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And in case you should be tempted to think that this is some kind of hereticalpost-moder n spin that Im bringing to this ancient text, listen to Calvin. The oldmaster writes,The fullness of him that filleth all in all. This is the highest honour of the Church,

that, until He is united to us, the Son of God reckons himself in some measureincomplete. what consolation is it for us to learn, that, not until we are alongwith him, does he possess all his parts, or wish to be regarded as complete!Hence, in the First Epistle to the Corinthians, when the apostle discusses largelythe metaphor of a human body, he includes under the single name of Christ thewhole Church. So this is not new or innovative. This is reformed and biblical theology at its bestand brightest. We are the church is his body, the fullness of him who fillseverything in every way. The very incredulity that we feel is the basis for Paulsprayer at the end of chapter one. Having already told us that in Christ we haveredemption; in Christ we were adopted as Gods children; and in Christ we werechosen and predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything inconformity with the purpose of his will; Paul goes on to pray that we would beable to understand fully what this means.He prays, as we saw a couple weeks ago, that we might know his incomparablygreat power at work in those of us who believe. He prays that we would realizethat the same power that brought Jesus alive from the tomb and raised him up to

the right hand of God the Father almighty is already at work in us. We have beenraised up with him given life, eternal life in Christ Jesus our Savior. And thatsnot the promise of something to be delivered in the future, its a statement of thereality which is ours in Christ Jesus our Lord right here and right now. In him, youhave life. In him you have the kind of life that makes physical death insignificant.Thats why Jesus said, The one who lives and believes in me will never die . Doyou understand that? Will never die You have already been raised up withChrist by the power of the one who works out everything in conformity with thepurpose of his will. Do you believe this? Paul prayed that you would; that you

would understand the kind of power that is at work in you through Christ Jesus.He also prayed that we would know the hope to which we have been called theriches of his glorious inheritance in the saints. And you need to underline andhighlight that word riches because sometimes as Christians we begin to feel asthough we are making sacrifices for the sake of the kingdom; giving up all of thegood things and the pleasures of this world so that someday , in the sweet by and


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by we may inherit something which is hopefully better than what we have givenupand most of us have a hard time believing it. But Paul prays that the eyes of our hearts may be enlightened; that is, that we may see with something otherthan our physical sight, that we may perceive the riches which are ours already in

the graciousness and goodness and greatness of our God.Again, Calvin writes,Foolish men imagine that this language is absurdly hyperbolical; but godlypersons, who are engaged in daily struggleshave no difficulty in perceiving thatnot a word is here used beyond what is perfectly just. As the importance of thesubject cannot be too strongly expressed, so our unbelief and ingratitude led Paulto employ this glowing language. We never form adequate conceptions of thetreasure revealed to us in the gospel; or, if we do, we cannot persuade ourselvesthat it is possible for us to do so, because we perceive nothing in us thatcorresponds to it, but everything the reverse. Pauls object, therefore, was notonly to impress the Ephesians with a deep sense of the value of Divine grace, butalso to give them exalted views of the glory of C hrists kingdom. That they mightnot be cast down by a view of their own unworthiness, he exhorts them toconsider the power of God And its all here in black and white, written down for us in the word of the gospel .This is what God is doing in this world. He is reconciling all things to himself inChrist Jesus his son. He has raised him up and seated him at his own right hand in

the spiritual realm, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, andevery title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one tocome. And God place all things under his feet and appointed him to be head overeverything for the church Praise God from who all blessings flow. Our Godreigns. Jesus Christ is King of kings and Lord of lords, but we we are his body.We are his bride. We are the fullness of him who fills everything in every way. Itis the glory of Christ is to glorify his bride that we may be one with him; seated ashe is, even now, at the right hand of God.And I dont want to overemphasize this, but I really dont think that I can. There

is a movement afoot in our time to devalue the church; to speak of it as a mereman- made institution; to speak of it as if its completely disposable and we cantake it or leave it at our choice. The truth is, we can take it or leave it, but at ourperil. For the church is his body, the fullness of Christ . So you dont want to goto church anymore? (It was the title of a best -selling book in the last year ortwo.) OK, but understand, just as you cannot withdraw and remove yourself


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from the body of a person without withdrawing from the person himself, youcannot withdraw from the body of Christ and then claim to have a personalrelationship with him. Christs relationship to his peo ple is defined by acovenant specifically, by a marriage covenant the church is his body because

the church is his bride and to have a relationship with Jesus requires that we bepart of his church.Our reformed forefathers understood this. Thats why having defined the churchas a holy congregation and gather of true Christian believers, awaiting theirentire salvation in Jesus Christ being washed by his blood, and sanctified andsealed by the Holy Spirit, the Belgic Confession goes on in Article 28 to say, Webelieve that since this holy assembly and congregation is the gathering of thosewho are saved and there is no salvation apart from it, no one ought to withdrawfrom it, content to be by himself, regardless of his status or condition. But allpeople are obliged to join and unite with it, keeping the unity of the church bysubmitting to its instruction and discipline, by bending their necks under the yokeof Jesus Christ, and by serving to build up one another according to the gifts Godhas given them as members of each other in the same body. Of course, we need to talk more about the relationship between the church asthe body of Christ and particular, local manifestations of that body, which we willdo, Lord willing, as we continue the study of this wonderful little letter. But in themean time, if you are ever tempted to be critical and judgmental; if you aretempted to downplay the importance of the church or the honor of Christsglorious bride; if you are tempted to withdraw, content to be by [yourself]; if you are tempted to not discern the body of Christ in the gathering of his people;then, please, stop and think remember and believe that the church is, for all of its flaws and faults, sin and selfishness, the bride of Christ. And because we arehis bride, we are his body bone of his bone; flesh of his flesh the fullness of him who fills everything in every way; the fullness of Christ to God be the gloryin the church and in Christ Jesus, now and forevermore.

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Ephesians (part 04) The Fullness of Christ