The whole fulness toward which every age and dispensation has pointed

since the overthrow of the world, is at last seen to be Christ Himself.  All

types and shadows that once filled the gap caused by sin, are now seen to be

but transient, or of value only as they point the way to Him, and then

disappear.  He is Head, He is Pre -eminent, He is Creator and Redeemer, He is

the Firstborn of all creation, and Firstborn from the dead.  He is the

beginning of the Creation of God (Rev. 3:14, Col. 1:18), the Alpha and Omega,

the First and the Last, in deed and in fact `Christ is all, and in all' (Col.

3:11) in the Church of the One Body, as He will yet be in the whole redeemed

No more glorious position for the redeemed is conceivable than that

revealed in Ephesians 1:23.  To be one of a kingdom of priests on the earth

is a dignity so great, that Old Testament prophets have piled imagery upon

imagery in setting it forth.  Yet when we come to the Bride of the Lamb, and

the description of the heavenly Jerusalem, we realize how much more glorious

is that calling to the highest calling on earth.  What shall be said then of

that company of the redeemed, blessed neither on earth nor in the New

Jerusalem, blessed neither as a kingdom nor as Bride, but blessed `with

Christ' where He now sits `far above all', blessed not only as the members of

His Body which is dignity indeed, but actually destined to be `the fulness of

Him' in Whom dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.  Consequently we

can the better hope to appreciate the climax prayer of Ephesians 3:14 -21 and

the three steps which the prayer takes upward to the goal of the ages.

The three stages in the progress of this prayer are indicated by the

Greek word hina, `a conjunction of mental direction and intention',

translated three times in Ephesians 3:14 -21 `that' and which could be

translated `in order that'.

The first step reaches out toward the spiritual condition that makes it

possible for Christ `to dwell in your hearts by faith'.  The second stage is

directed to comprehending what is breadth, length, depth and height, and the

third, the climax of the prayer leads on by way of the knowledge of the love

which `passeth knowledge' to being `filled with all the fulness of God'.  The

dwelling of Christ in the heart by faith, is a personal experimental

anticipation of the fulness of God yet to be known in heaven and on earth.

The four -fold comprehension, breadth, length, depth, and height

encompass all time and space, even as in order that He might fill all things,

Christ descended to the lower parts, that is to say the earth, and ascended

up far above all heavens, `that he might fill all things'.  Unfathomable love

is seen to be the all -sufficient cause for this glorious effect, and the

prayer of the apostle for the Church of the One Body is that it may be filled

with all the fulness of God.  This preposition `with' is the translation of

the Greek preposition eis, which, though it occurs over 1,400 times in the

New Testament, is nowhere else translated `with', and the R.V. corrects the

translation and reads `unto'.  The Septuagint uses the simple verb pleroo

without a preposition for the idea `to fill with' or `to be filled with'

(Gen. 6:11; Num. 14:21), which rule is followed in Philippians 1:11.

We cannot say `to be filled with, unto all the fulness of God' however,

for this does not make sense.  The believer is to be filled up to all the

fulness of God, which implies the attainment of a goal, and the reaching of

standard.  This can be illustrated by a reference to the passage in Ephesians

4 which contains the last occurrence of pleroma in the epistle: