THE MAIN CONTENTS OF THE LORD'S RECOVERY
The Church as the Organic Body of Christ— the Fullness of the One Who Fills All in All
Scripture Reading: Eph. 1:4-14, 19-23
I. The church as the Body of Christ is absolutely organic, absolutely of life, with nothing organizational:
A. The elders in the churches are appointed according to the manifestation of the measure of their growth in the divine life; the appointment of the elders is organic, having nothing to do with organization—Acts 14:23; cf. Titus 1:5.
B. To even mention the word organization concerning the church and the church life is wrong; the apostle Paul tells us that the church is God's farm, God's cultivated land—1 Cor. 3:9.
C. The church as God's building is not a lifeless building but a building full of life—v. 9; Eph. 2:21-22.
II. The church as the organic Body of Christ is Christ's fullness, His expression, as the One who fills all in all—1:22-23:
A. The fullness of Christ issues from the enjoyment of the riches of Christ (3:8); through the enjoyment of Christ's riches we become His fullness to express Him.
B. Christ, who is the infinite God without any limitation, is so great that He fills all things in all things; such a great Christ needs the church to be His fullness for His complete expression.
III. The church as the organic Body of Christ, the fullness of the One who fills all in all, is the issue of the dispensing of the Divine Trinity—1:4-14:
A. The church as the organic 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:
(1) 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) and not being fashioned according to this age (Rom. 12:2).
(2) We need to present ourselves to God to be saturated by God with the element of His holy nature (6:19) unto 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's speaking and working in our spirit—Rom. 8:4, 6; 15:16.
B. The church as the organic 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—vv. 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 organic 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.
IV. The dispensing of the Divine Trinity to produce the church as the organic Body of Christ, the fullness of the One who fills all in all, is accomplished by the transmission of the great power of God "toward us who believe" and "to the church"—Eph. 1:19-23:
A. Paul prayed that we would have a spirit of wisdom and revelation to see the fourfold 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 2:23-24; 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 so that the church may be formed—Eph. 1:19, 22-23.
B. Toward us who believe (v. 19) and to the church (v. 22) indicate that the divine power, which includes all that the Triune God has passed through, has been installed into us once for all and is being transmitted into us continually, causing us to enjoy Christ richly and to have the proper church life as His organic Body, His fullness. ?