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which is the Body. This is seen, in measure, in the unity of the Spirit of Eph. 4:: "There
is one Body . . . . . one God and Father . . . . ." Further, what Christ is to the Godhead, the
church is to Christ. In Him all the fullness dwells, and the church is the fullness of Him
Who in His own time and way is the one Who filleth all in all.
The structure places in correspondence the two statements:--
"In Him all things consists."
"In Him all fullness should dwell."
What is the principle underlying this comparison--the thought of "consisting"
balancing that of "fullness"? We believe the reader will share our wonder at the perfect
fitness of the words of Scripture as the truths of this correspondence unfold.
II Pet. 3: has already supplied the fact that in Gen. 1: 1 the earth "consisted" out of
and through water. Peter continues: "Whereby the world that then was, being
overflowed with water, perished" (II Pet. 3: 6). This is the "overthrow" of Gen. 1: 2:
"The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep."
Now the antithesis of the scriptural conception of "fullness" is not mere "emptiness",
but a "rent" or "schism". This may be seen in the first occurrence of the word "fullness"
in the N.T.:--
"No man putteth a piece of new cloth unto an old garment, for that which is put in to
fill it up (`the fullness', pleroma) taketh from the garment, and the rent (schism) is made
worse" (Matt. 9: 16).
Gen. 1: 2 is the great "rent" and in Christ all the "fullness" dwells. Of this fullness the
church forms a heavenly part, and it is destined that at "the last" God shall be "all in all"
(I Cor. 15: 24-28). It was because God knew the end from the beginning, both the "rent"
of Gen. 1: 2 and His perfect plan to restore and renew, that He placed in correspondence
the "consisting" of the original creation and the "fullness" of the new creation, leaving it
for His children, as led by Himself, to discover with delight these wonders of His truth.
We have still to consider creation and resurrection, but such a theme is too vast for the
close of an article. May we with humility, born of a realization of wonderful grace, be
thankful for that revelation of love which discloses the position assigned to poor outcast
Gentiles in this dispensation of the mystery.