BASIC WORD: The Body of Christ

THE ISSUE OF THE DISPENSINGOF THE DIVINE TRINITY

Scripture Reading: Eph. 1:3-23

Our burden in these messages is to share that the New Testament revelation shows us a clear picture of how the church as the collection of all the believers is not an organization but the Body of Christ, which is an organism. In this chapter we want to see that the church as the Body of Christ is the issue of the dispensing of the Divine Trinity—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.

THE FATHER Choosing Us in Christ

Ephesians 1 shows us that for God’s purpose of gaining a Body for Christ, He chose us in eternity past. The purpose of His choosing us in Christ is that we would be holy and without blemish (vv. 3-4). To be holy according to the New Testament is not to be perfect, to be good, or to be right. To be holy is to have the divine, holy nature of God permeate and saturate our entire being to make our entire being as holy as God is. To have God’s holy nature wrought into us that we may be holy in nature like God is a matter of dispensing. God has dispensed Himself into our being so that we can have His holy nature. This holy nature has become ours to saturate our entire being.

Predestinating Us unto Sonship

Within the matter of God’s choosing, He has also predestinated us unto sonship through Christ to Himself (vv. 5-6). Unto sonship simply means to be born of God as God’s sons to have God’s life. In God’s choosing and predestinating, we can see how God intended to have His nature wrought into us that we may be holy and to have His life born into us that we may become His sons. God’s choosing and predestinating indicate one thing—God’s desire is to dispense Himself into our being that we may have His nature and life. Eventually, as His sons, we will fully express Him in His eternal holiness. This is the issue of God the Father’s dispensing of the divine element into our being.

THE SON Redeeming Us through His Blood

Ephesians 1 also shows us that following the Father’s choosing and predestinating us, the Son, Christ, came to redeem us. In Christ’s redemption there is not only His redeeming us out of our sin. Christ’s death for our redemption also released the divine life out from Him, and in His resurrection He has imparted Himself into us as our very life, which is the life of God. Thus, in Christ’s redemption He has taken away our sin and sins and has also imparted Himself into our very being as the divine life for us to live a life of the sons of God. We were “sick” in sin, in sins, and in death. We were dead persons (2:1), but Christ in His redemption has healed us of all sicknesses that we might be brought back to Him and to His headship. Before we were saved, we were not under the proper headship. But through Christ’s redemption we were healed, and in His salvation we were brought back to Christ’s headship for the purpose of God heading up all things in Christ for the accomplishment of His eternal economy (1:7-10). God has an eternal economy to have all the things created by Him headed up in Christ. This heading up could be accomplished only if we as the church were redeemed, healed, and brought back to Christ. His redemption also implies the dispensing of Himself into our being. In His death and resurrection Christ has imparted Himself into our being that we may have His divine life.

Making Us an Inheritance of God

When He redeemed us, He also made us an inheritance of God for God’s enjoyment (vv. 11-12). We are one with Christ in His divine life to be God’s inheritance so that God can enjoy us as His enjoyment. This is the result of the dispensing of the Triune God.

THE SPIRIT Sealing Us as God’s Inheritance

Ephesians 1 goes on to tell us that the Holy Spirit sealed us as God’s inheritance for His enjoyment (v. 13). The Holy Spirit is the consummation of the Triune God. God the Father is embodied in God the Son (John 14:10; Col. 2:9), and God the Son is realized as God the Spirit (John 14:16-20; 1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 3:17). The Spirit of God is the consummation of the Triune God reaching us to dispense all that God is and has into our being. To be sealed with the Holy Spirit means to be marked with the Holy Spirit as a living seal. When a piece of paper is sealed with ink, the seal, the ink, and the paper all become one. The ink in the form of the seal will be absorbed by the paper, and they will be mingled and blended together as one entity. The paper is now a sealed paper, a paper with a seal. Before we received the Lord, we were blank sheets of paper. After Christ’s redemption we were cleansed, and the consummated Spirit of God came to seal us with the very element and essence of the Triune God as the ink. Now in this universe there is a group of people who have been sealed by the consummated Spirit of the Triune God. We sealed ones are one entity with the entire Triune God. This is the dispensing of the Divine Trinity in all the divine elements into God’s chosen people redeemed by Christ.

Being a Pledge to Us of God as Our Inheritance

The sealing Spirit is also a pledge to us of God as our inheritance for our enjoyment (Eph. 1:14). God has not only gained us, acquired us, as an inheritance, but He has also given Himself to us as our possession, as our inheritance, for our enjoyment. On the one hand, we are God’s acquired possession, God’s inheritance, for His enjoyment. On the other hand, God is a possession to us as our inheritance for our enjoyment. Again, this shows us that we redeemed ones and the Triune God, the redeeming One, become one entity through His divine dispensing of His divine essence and element into our very being.

THE ISSUE OF THE DISPENSING OF THE DIVINE TRINITY

The issue that flows out of the dispensing of the Divine Trinity is the church as the Body of Christ (vv. 17-23). The unique God is triune—God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit. The divine person, the Triune God, has dispensed Himself as the Father, the Son, and the Spirit into all God’s chosen and redeemed people, making them an issue out of His very essence, His very element. The issue of the dispensing of the Divine Trinity is the church as the Body of Christ. The dispensing Triune God becomes the Head, and the issue that comes out of His dispensing becomes the Body. This is a great, universal man. The Head of this man is the Triune God, the dispensing One, and the Body of this man is His issue, the issue of the dispensing God. The church is the Body of the dispensing Triune God.

Called into a Hope without Limitation

We, the chosen ones of God the Father, have been called into a hope without limitation—the Triune God as the unlimited hope to us (v. 18b). The unbelievers do not have any hope, but we, God’s chosen ones, have an unlimited hope. This hope is the unlimited God Himself. We are hoping for what God has promised to give us, which is He Himself. His unlimited self has been given to us as the unlimited hope, into which we, God’s chosen ones, have been called. We are living in America, and we may say that we have been called into America to explore the riches of America for our enjoyment. Likewise, we have been called by the Triune God into the Triune God. We have to declare that we are now in the Triune God, but the Triune God is unsearchably rich. We have enjoyed Him only to a small extent. There is a vast territory of His riches to be possessed. We have not exhausted Him. We have been called into the vast territory of the Triune God. We are in the Triune God as our hope, and we are exploring Him as our hope.