In Old Testament times there were partial revelations of God and of His mind and will. God made Himself known to Abram as the Almighty, and to Israel through Moses as Jehovah, the I AM, and God "at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets" (Heb. 1:1). The coming into the world of the Son of God made a full and perfect revelation of God, for the fulness of the Godhead was in Him here. The Son of God was present in Person, the Father, abiding in the Son, was here in testimony, and the Holy Spirit, abiding upon the Son, was here in power. This was something entirely new, for the Trinity had not been known before and the Father no man knew until made known by the Son (Matt. 11:27).
The opening verses of John's Gospel present Jesus as the eternal Word, One who existed in eternity as a distinct Person in the Godhead, and in whom all that God is in His nature and being is expressed. Creation's author, in whom life was inherent, had come into the world as light for every man, but He was not known by the world, and was not received by the people He had taken up and called His own. Yet there were those who received Him, who believed in His Name, and these were the children of God, born of Him, and with the coming of the Son they had the privilege of taking their place in God's family as His children, a privilege hitherto unknown even by the greatest of the saints of former days.
Christ's coming in flesh, the incarnation of the eternal Word, was the greatest and most wonderful event in the history of time. It was not the visit of a moment, but God's Son came to dwell among men so that men might know the God who had hitherto dwelt in the thick darkness. There could not but be the outshining of divine glory in such an event, but it was a glory hidden from the eyes of the men of this world. Only those whose eyes God had opened could behold the divine glory of the Son, so that John could write, "and we beheld His glory, the glory as of an only begotten with a Father." As one has said, the Godhead glory shone through the human veil, but only anointed eyes were capable of beholding it. This divine glory revealed the relationship of the Son as Man on earth with the Father in heaven.
Dwelling among men, the incarnate Word was "full of grace and truth" (John 1:14), and as we trace the steps of Jesus through the pages of John's Gospel we learn something of the grace and truth subsisting in Him, and made known in His attitude towards men, and in His words and works. He was in His own Person "the truth," and the truth was made known in all His words and ways as a testimony for God. How very sad it was that the Lord had to say to the Jews who bitterly opposed Him, "And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not" (John 8:45).
If the refusal of the truth by the Jews exposed what they were, the reception of the truth revealed another company, of whom the Lord could say, "But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God" (John 3:21). John and his fellow disciples were numbered among this company, and they discerned the grace and truth subsisting in their Master in all His ways. The Jews might reject the Son of God, but He continued with His mission, dispensing divine grace to men who were utterly unworthy of God's compassion and goodness, made known in and through the Son of His bosom.
How rich were the benefits bestowed on those who received the Son of God and His testimony, for John wrote, "And of His fulness have all we received, and grace for grace" (John 1:16). The place given to the children of God in the Father's family, the living water of which the Lord spoke in John 4 and 7, the living bread come down from heaven, the eternal life manifested by the Son and appropriated by feeding on His death, the knowledge of the Father's Name and the place of relationship it involves, the peace and joy that we share with the Son, and the place that we have before the Father and in testimony for Him before the world, are all included in the "grace for grace" that we have received as having believed on the Son of God. There is also the grace of that which we are about to share in the day of the Son's glory, and with Him in the Father's house for eternity.
When the Son of the Father's love was here as Man, "in Him all the fulness (of the Godhead) was pleased to dwell," and this was in view of the reconciliation of all things to God (Col. 1:19-20). God will yet have the whole universe in right relations with Him in spite of all that man is and all that Satan has done. Men refused the Son of God, and the world refused to be reconciled to God, although God in the perfection of goodness offered men the richest of blessing. The rejection of Jesus only proved that the world was incapable of receiving God's blessing, and it was therefore judged by God in the cross of Christ, and at the coming of the Lord it will be entirely set aside, the earth too being removed to make way for a new earth in the eternal state where God shall be all in all.
Already there are those who have been reconciled to God, those who have put their trust in God, and this has been secured for God "in the body of His (Christ's) flesh through death" (Col. 1:22). Reconciliation for believers, who once were at enmity with God and at a distance from Him, means their presentation to God "holy and unblameable and unreproveable in His sight." This is our place in Christ before God and the Father now (Eph. 1:4), and soon shall be our place with Christ at His coming.
When the Lord Jesus comes in power and glory He will put down all opposition to God and reign in righteousness, reigning till He shall have put "all enemies under His feet" (1 Cor. 15:25). Having removed every opposing force and every enemy from the universe of God, death itself being destroyed, the Lord Jesus will hand back the kingdom to God. There will not be a sphere in the whole universe where there is opposition to God, and every sphere will be filled with Christ Himself, the Head over all, those who were in opposition being removed by the power of God in Christ.
What Christ came to accomplish with all the fulness of the Godhead dwelling in Him will assuredly be accomplished, but this meant that He first must die, and make peace by the blood of His cross. In this great work of reconciliation the whole Godhead, Father, Son and Holy Spirit have their part, and all the resources of the Godhead have been used to secure the great end that was in view. All the power of God, all the wisdom of God, and the wonders of the love, grace and mercy of God have been in evidence already for the reconciling of men. God's power has been used to quicken those who were dead, to raise Christ from the dead, and to defeat all the enemies, the principalities and powers who opposed the will of God. God's wisdom has been seen in the Person of the Son, and in the counsels that devised the plan to secure the blessing of men in reconciliation, and in bringing Christ to light as the Man of His counsels.
In Colossians 2:9 we learn that "all the fulness of the Godhead" now dwells bodily in the Christ in the presence of God, and in His exalted place He is "the Head of all principality and power." The saints of God "are complete in Him," not requiring anything outside of Christ, for they have everything in Him for their individual lives, and also for the assembly. Our eyes should ever be looking to Christ in heaven at all times for His interests here, for nothing that the world or any creature in the universe can give is able to help on the things of Christ.
According to the purpose of God, Christ will fill the whole universe in the coming day, for in the mystery of God's will it has been declared that in the dispensation of the fulness of times all things will be headed up in Christ (Eph. 1:9-10). To give effect to God's will, the Christ of God entered into death, but God raised Him from the dead, and gave Him the highest place in heaven. There, all things have been put under Christ's feet, and God has given Him to be the "Head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all" (Eph. 1:20-23).
While Christ's personal place as supreme in the coming day is brought out clearly in Scripture, there is also this that Christ will fill the universe with His fulness, His complement, the church that is united to Him as His body and His bride. Every thought of the Head will be expressed through the church in the day of Christ's universal Headship, even as the glory of Christ will be expressed in the church as His bride. There is already an expression of what Christ is in the church in its place of testimony, but there will be a full and perfect display of what Christ is in the day of His glory.
Having taken His place on high, Christ has given gifts to men, "For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: till we all come … unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of the Christ" (Eph. 4:8-13). This ministry from Christ has continued until this day. We have the apostles and prophets in the writings of the New Testament, and there are still evangelists and pastors and teachers, even if they are not so named, the gifts readily being recognised. God desires His saints to be mature in the full knowledge of Himself, and it is for this the gifts are given. Every true gift from Christ can help towards this desired end, and such will minister to direct the saints to Christ.
A "perfect man" is a saint of God of full grown stature, one who has matured through the knowledge of God, knowledge that comes through Christ, whether in relation to the revelation of the Father in Him in Manhood in this world, or in relation to Him as the Man of God's purpose at His right hand above. God also desires that the church should reach what He has destined it to be in His purpose, "the fulness of Him that filleth all in all," and this means that the church should be now in testimony what it is to be in the day of display. We know that the church has failed grievously, but this in no wise sets aside the desired end, that the church should be fully matured now in its place of testimony.
Many wonderful things are declared in Ephesians 3, where the truth of the mystery is unfolded, and where we read of God's all-varied wisdom being now displayed before the eyes of the intelligences of heaven in the church, and this according to "the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Eph. 3:9-11). The Apostle then prays for the saints that they might have Christ dwelling in their hearts by faith, that they might know something of the vast sphere of the riches of the Father's glory, and know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge.
Paul then adds, "that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God." What a wonderful thing it is that saints of God in this world can be filled with His fulness, with the resources of the Godhead that dwell in the Son of God in heaven. If we are to be filled with the divine fulness then everything of self, of the world, and of the earth must be removed from the vessel. Heart and mind are to be engaged with Christ and with all that is in Christ in the presence of God, and it is this that the prayer seeks for us. All that we are to be for God, and to do for Him, must come from the fulness of God that dwells in Christ. The more of this divine fulness that we possess, the more shall we be able to represent Christ in our place of testimony.
God is able to "do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think," and this because His own power worketh in us, the power manifested in raising Christ from the dead (Eph. 1:19-20), the power that quickened and raised us up to our place in Christ (Eph. 2:1-6). Everything that God has purposed will be accomplished by His divine power, and when the present course of time is over this divine power will secure His "glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world with-out end." Now the fulness of God is available to enable us to be for God here; soon that divine fulness will be displayed in glory for all eternity.
Wm. C. Reid.