CHAP. CONTENTS PAGE 4I 236 I I. The Fulness of God: THE FOUNTAIN AND THE SUPPLY. EPH. iii. 14-19. REMEMBER on an occasion long ago, when I was unexpectedly, so far as I was concerned, called to occupy a position which I felt but ill-qualified to fill, a dear friend, who is now in heaven, said to me, "Remember, all God's people who are about to hear you will be lifting up their hearts to God that He may speak through you." I sincerely desire to realise that this is the cir cumstance under which I am now called upon to address you, and that you will ask God before I begin that I may not "darken counsels by words without knowledge" in speaking to you upon a theme which passeth knowledge, and into which the very angels of God themselves are desiring to look. I profess, dear brethren, to know nothing of the fulness of God but as it is manifested in Christ, and as the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven has been pleased to make it known by His word to the sons and daughters of men. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the Treasury of all the fulness of God, and Christ is God's free gift to you and to me. Will you remember A three passages in the word of God? I want you to see as I want to realise myself, that we have a whole Christ to live upon. God never did anything by halves, and least of all has He done salvation work by halves. In the first chapter to the Colossians you read, at the 19th verse, "It pleased the Father that in Him should all fulness dwell." You will observe wherever the fulness of Christ is mentioned in the Bible it is associated as here with God's supply in Him for the need of His people. Having made peace through the blood of Christ, by Him to reconcile all things to Himself; whether they be things in earth or things in heaven." Again, at the ninth verse of the second chapter, "In Him" (that is, in Christ) "dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." Observe the connection, "And ye are complete in Him" (filled full in Him), "who is the head of all principalities and power." Look back to the first chapter of St. John's Gospel, the 14th and 15th verses: "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth "—full of grace for our needs, full of truth for our ignorance. Then, at the sixteenth verse, "And of His fulness have all we received, and grace for grace"; that is, grace upon the top of grace, grace to enable us to receive and enjoy grace, and more still, grace corresponding to every grace laid up in Christ. Here then you have the source of all fulness-God; the channel through which it flows to us-Christ. And in the first chapter of the Ephesians you have at the last verse the rest which it seeks, "His body," which is His fulness, "the fulness of Him that filleth all in all." See then the source, the channel, and the rest. "Like some great river, which from fall to fall, Through many a maze descending, bright through all, All fulness dwells in Christ-all fulness. Human fulness. He was perfect man, and is perfect man still; for His is a continued incarnation, and all divine fulness dwells in Christ. All created fulness and all creating fulness belongs to Christ. The "fulness of the Godhead" and the fulness of the manhood belongs to Christ. The fulness of the earth, and of the heaven of heavens, belongs to Christ, and He is given to us with all His fulness that we may have it now, and have it handy. We "need not go up to heaven to bring Him down." "We need not descend into the deep to bring Him up." His fulness is as accessible as His love, and "His love passeth knowledge." All fulness dwells in Jesus Christ. It is always there. We never shall find a deficiency when we come to Him. Our thirst will always find that which satisfies it, and we are invited to come and enjoy without money and without price all the fulness of God laid up in Christ, and in order to be received by us. Notice, there is one word given for the whole fulness of God in Christ--" grace" (see John i. 16), and indeed it will require all the varieties of all the needs, failings, emptiness, weaknesses, infirmities, and sinfulness of all saints to display its meaning. "Grace! yes, grace! grace for grace." All fulness dwells in Christ by a double title. All belongs to Him by birthright as Son of God, and all has been purchased for us by His blood as Son of There is not a blessing or a fulness of blessing in the heart of God but what we have been redeemed to by man. |