firstborn of every living creature, and firstborn from the dead; it was well pleasing that in

Him should all the fulness dwell (Col. 1: 15-19).

Had we continued our quotation of John's Gospel to the eighteenth verse, we should

have read, "No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the

bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him"; this finds its complement in Col. 1: 15

where Christ is spoken of as "the image of the invisible God". The body, whether of

flesh and blood as it was during the life of Christ on earth, or manifestation of God to

man. The passage from Col. 2: cited above links the believer with this glorious fulness;

we are said to be "complete", or "filled full" in Him, and He who fills us is head of all

principality and power. Both titles therefore lift the Church into the highest glory; as the

Church appears quickened, raised and seated together with Christ at the right hand of

God, filled to the full in Him, of all the assemblies purchased by precious blood and

saved by sovereign grace, this Church alone is honoured by being called in its turn, "the

fulness of Him that filleth all in all". He fills "all things" as Eph. 4: has already

declared; in Him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily; the invisible God finds in

Him the express image of all His marvellous being, ways, and purposes. The church

which in its turn is "His body", that Church is the "fulness" of the unseen Christ; even

principalities and powers in the super-heavenlies look at this to be a member of His Body

is glorious, what shall we say to the revelation that that Church is His fulness? Called

during a dispensation of the Mystery in connection with the mystery of His will, it finds

its place in a dispensation of the FULNESS of the seasons (1: 10). The goal before it is

twice connected with the fulness; first, in Eph. 3: 19, it goes on in the comprehension

of the love of Christ, in order that it may be filled unto all the fulness of God, and

secondly, in 4: 13, the goal of the initial and foundation ministry of the "gifts" of the

risen Christ, given in the capacity of the One that filleth "all things", is given as "the

unity of the faith, and the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the

measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ". The Church which is His Body is the

perfect man, for He created it in Himself "one new man" (2: 15), and its measure is "the

measure of the full age or maturity of the fulness of Christ". Christ as the One in whom

all the fulness of the Godhead dwells, is the only manifestation of the invisible God, and

the only declaration of the Father; the Church which is His Body is the present (and may

we dare hope) the future manifestation of the glory of Christ, its unseen Head.

The hope that the special privilege of the One Body may go on into the future ages

seems confirmed by the words of Eph. 3: 21, where, after reference to being filled unto

all the fulness of God, the apostle concludes, "Unto Him be glory in the church by Christ

Jesus, to all the generations of the ages, Amen". May it be so, now and ever, must surely

be the desire of every member of His Body.