Our burden in this book is to share that the New Testament revelation shows us a clear picture of how the church as the collection of all the believers is not an organization, but the Body of Christ, which is an organism. In this chapter we want to see that the church as the Body of Christ is the issue of the dispensing of the divine Trinity—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.
Ephesians 1 shows us that for God's purpose of gaining a Body for Christ, He chose us in eternity past. The purpose of His choosing us in Christ was that we would be holy and without blemish (vv. 3-4). To be holy according to the New Testament is not to be perfect, to be good, or to be right. To be holy is to have the divine, holy nature of God permeate and saturate our entire being to make our entire being as holy as God is. To have God's holy nature wrought into us that we may be holy in nature like God is a matter of dispensing. God has dispensed Himself into our being so that we can have His holy nature. This holy nature has become ours to saturate our entire being.
Within the matter of God's choosing, He has also predestinated us unto sonship through Christ to Himself (vv. 5-6). "Unto sonship" simply means to be born of God as God's sons to have God's life. In God's choosing and predestinating, we can see how God intended to have His nature wrought into us that we may be holy and to have His life born into us that we may become His sons. God's choosing and predestinating indicate one thing—God's desire is to dispense Himself into our being that we may have His nature and life. Eventually, as His sons, we will fully express Him in His eternal holiness. This is the issue of God the Father's dispensing of the divine element into our being.
Ephesians 1 also shows us that following the Father's choosing and predestinating us, the Son, Christ, came to redeem us. In Christ's redemption there is not only His redeeming us out of our sin. Christ's death for our redemption also released the divine life out from Him, and in His resurrection He has imparted Himself into us as our very life, which is the life of God. Thus, in Christ's redemption He has taken away our sin and sins and has also imparted Himself into our very being as the divine life for us to live a life of the sons of God. We were "sick" in sin, in sins, and in death. We were dead persons (Eph. 2:1), but Christ in His redemption has healed us of all sicknesses that we might be brought back to Him and to His headship. Before we were saved, we were not under the proper headship. But through Christ's redemption we were healed, and in His salvation we were brought back to Christ's headship for the purpose of God heading up all things in Christ for the accomplishment of His eternal economy (Eph. 1:7-10). God has an eternal economy to have all the things created by Him headed up in Christ. This heading up could only be accomplished if we as the church were redeemed, healed, and brought back to Christ. His redemption also implies the dispensing of Himself into our being. In His death and resurrection, Christ has imparted Himself into our being that we may have His divine life.