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of Christ". The whole fullness, 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 the 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 universe. No more glorious position for the redeemed is conceivable
than that revealed in Eph. 1: 23. To be one of a kingdom of priests on the earth is a
dignity so great, that O.T. prophets have piled imagery upon imagery in setting it forth.
Yet when we come to the Bride of the Lamb, or the description of the heavenly
Jerusalem, we realize how much more glorious is that calling than 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 a 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 fullness of Him", in Whom
dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily!
It is evident from what we have discovered in the Word, that the term "fullness" is
vital to the accomplishment of the Divine purpose, and there is one point more that must
be considered before we close this article. Head and members, or Head and Body, are
relative terms. The one cannot exist or function without the other. This we all recognize
must be true of the members, but is it not also necessarily true of the Head? Christ, as
HEAD, needs the complement of His Body, just as surely as the Church His Body needs
the complement of the Head. In the words "the fullness of Him that filleth all in all" the
words thus translated to pleroma tou "the fullness of Him" are cast in the form known as
"the genitive of relation". Words ending in ma often have a passive significance.
Chrysostom, in his commentary says:
"The fullness of the head is the body, and the fullness of the body is the head . . . . .
that is just as the head is filled (or fulfilled) by the body."
Beza says something very similar:
"However complete He is in Himself, yet as Head He is not complete without His Body."
Pleromenou "that filleth" is not passive but middle . . . . . to fill up or complete for
Himself."
The very fact that God has a goal, and is moving toward that goal, implies that this
relationship of the redeemed with the Redeemer is essential to the glorious achievement
of the ages. God is moving from the status of God Who is Creator, to God Who is the
Father, and the title Father is itself relative, it necessitates a family. While therefore the
redeemed are nothing in themselves, they are precious by reason of His gracious purpose,
and their place through grace in it.