When Paul refers to God, he of course says that God is the Creator (Rom. 1:25), but this is not his central point. The Old Testament has already told us this. Let us consider Romans 9:23-24: “And what if He should make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He had before prepared unto glory, even us, whom He has also called, not only from among the Jews, but also from among the nations?” We are here called vessels. God has chosen us to be His vessels, vessels of mercy unto glory. This implies and indicates that God wants to be contained; He wants a container for Himself.
Man is a vessel. Firstly, our body is a vessel. Every day we fill if with food, water, and air. Day by day we eat, drink, and breathe. We eat probably three times a day, besides snacks. We drink more times a day. In addition, we are continuously breathing. Whatever else we are doing, we keep breathing. Without it, we graduate from living! By eating, drinking, and breathing we fill ourselves. Our outer man, then, is a vessel.
Our inner man is also a vessel. God has created us as vessels to contain Him. “We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us,” Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 4:7. From verses 5 and 6 we know that the treasure is God Himself in Christ, who has sown Himself into us, the earthen vessels. These verses are familiar to us, yet we do not live as those who have God as their contents.
Seldom does the thought cross our mind that we are a vessel to contain God. All too often, however, we entertain the thought that we must behave rightly, courteously, humbly, and inoffensively. Day after day we are sorry not to be more obedient to our parents, more pleasant to our classmates, and kinder to our sister or brother. We may think along even more spiritual lines, about getting up early for morning watch or spending more time to read the Bible. Such thoughts are commonplace to us. But how about the thought that we are vessels to contain God? Does this thought occur to us? We may obey our parents and love our sister but not have God contained in us. If so, we are like an empty box, trying to please others but apart from God. It is not only the unbelievers who are on the wrong track. It is not only other Christians who are off. We who are in the Lord’s recovery are also often off the track. Whenever we think in terms of loving others or being kind, without realizing that we were ordained to contain God, we too are missing the mark. We must learn to turn away from all such considerations of behavior and care only to be filled with God.
God is illustrated in the Bible as food, water, and air. We must take Him in and be filled with Him just as we take in the food we eat, the water we drink, and the air we breathe. Over these past twenty years a number of hymns have been composed among us which speak of eating and drinking Christ and of breathing God in. The thought in these hymns is missing from other Christian hymnals. To some people the thought of eating God is rough and unacceptable. We cannot blame them for thinking this way; they are short of revelation.
We have been not only created by God, then, but also chosen by Him to be vessels of His mercy. And not only are we vessels of mercy; we are also vessels prepared unto glory. It is only Paul’s writings, of all the twenty-seven books of the New Testament, which convey the thought that we are vessels to contain God. In the next message we shall cover how this God could be contained in us. From Romans 8 we shall see how God must be the Spirit and that this Spirit must be the Spirit of Christ. Then God can be in us as our contents.
Ephesians 4:6 says, “One God and Father of all, Who is over all and through all and in all.” The Father is not only over us; He is not only through us; He is also in us. This preposition in does not mean merely with; it means that God is within us. God is housing Himself in us, as Paul writes elsewhere. The Chinese translation of this verse says that He dwells in us.
Ephesians 3:19b says, “That you may be filled unto all the fullness of God.” To be filled unto all God’s fullness means to be filled unto all that God is. This fullness dwells in Christ (Col. 1:19; 2:9). Through His indwelling, Christ imparts the fullness of God into our being. This makes us God’s expression. The fullness of God implies that the riches of what He is become His expression. When the riches are in Him, they are His riches; when they are expressed, they become His fullness. All that God is should be our contents. We should be so filled with Him that we become His fullness, His expression.
To become God’s fullness is in a category entirely apart from being kind and humble. These past three years I have several times repented for being outwardly blameless while I was not filled with the Lord. “Lord,” I have prayed, “forgive me. I failed You today. I enjoyed being with that brother, but I was not filled with You. I loved certain ones, but I was not filled with You. I helped the church, but I was not filled with You. I talked to the elders and they were helped, but I was not filled with You. Forgive me for all the good things I did apart form You as my contents.” We all need to become aware of this distinction between being good and being filled with the Lord.