In chapter one of Ephesians Paul prayed that we would have a spirit of wisdom and revelation to know three great and profound matters: the hope of God’s calling, the riches of the glory of God’s inheritance in the saints, and the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe, the power God exercised in raising Christ from among the dead and seating Him at His right hand in the heavenlies, a power that is now being transmitted to us and applied to us (vv. 18-22). These three categories of profound matters are aspects of the unsearchable riches of Christ. When Paul spoke regarding the unsearchable riches of Christ, he was referring to such important matters as the hope of God’s calling, the riches of the glory of God’s inheritance, and the surpassing greatness of His power, not merely to such minor items as joy, peace, and rest. Therefore, if we would know the unsearchable riches of Christ and testify of them, we need to know the hope of God’s calling, the glory of God’s inheritance, and the greatness of God’s power exercised in Christ. We all need to receive a vision of these profound matters.

Christ is our Redeemer, Savior, Forerunner, Captain of salvation, and the Author and Perfecter of faith. All these aspects of Christ are part of His unsearchable riches. Nevertheless, not even these aspects of Christ cover His unsearchable riches as revealed in Ephesians. We need to be deeply impressed with the fact that in order to know Christ’s unsearchable riches, we need to consider the entire book of Ephesians and see how various expressions in this book convey the unsearchable riches of Christ. For example, Ephesians 1:23 says that Christ is the One who fills all in all. Because Christ is the One who fills all in all, His riches are unsearchable. We do not have the ability to search them out or to comprehend them. We cannot even adequately understand the expression “all in all.” What is the meaning of these two “alls”? We can only say that Christ, the all-inclusive One, fills all things in all things in the universe.

The unsearchable riches of Christ are also related to His position in His ascension. Ephesians 4:8 says that Christ has “ascended to the height,” that is, to the highest place in the universe. What is the highest place? How shall we measure it? We can neither understand what this place is nor can we measure it. Furthermore, according to 4:8, when Christ ascended to the height, “He led captive those taken captive and gave gifts to men.” When Christ ascended to the height, God the Father gave to Him as gifts the ones Christ had taken captive. Having received these gifts, Christ then gave them to the church, His Body. In this verse we also have an aspect of Christ’s unsearchable riches.

Ephesians 1:10 speaks of a “dispensation of the fullness of the times, to head up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens and the things on the earth, in Him.” The heading up of all things in Christ is according to God’s eternal dispensation, according to God’s economy, His administrative arrangement. The economy or dispensation which God purposed in Himself is to head up all things in Christ at the fullness of the times. God has made Christ the Head over all things (Eph. 1:22). Through all the dispensations of God in all the ages, all things will be headed up in Christ in the new heaven and new earth. This will be God’s eternal administration and economy. God created the universe for the purpose that at the fullness of the times all things will be headed up in Christ according to His administrative economy. This also is a part of the unsearchable riches of Christ.

As revealed in Ephesians, Christ is everything in God’s economy. Christ is the center and also the circumference. Using the illustration of a wheel, we may say that Christ is the hub, the rim, and all the spokes. Christ is every aspect of this great “wheel” in the universe. How unsearchably rich He is!

Concerning the unsearchable riches of Christ, we may only know matters such as joy, peace, and rest, or we may know aspects of Christ such as the Redeemer, Savior, Forerunner, and Captain of salvation. However, even these matters and aspects we may know only in a superficial way, not in a deep and thorough way. Furthermore, we may know Christ as the Savior but not at all as the Sanctifier. But even if we do know these aspects of Christ in a deep way, we are still in the realm of the riches of Christ, not of the unsearchable riches of Christ, for these aspects of Christ are rich but not unsearchably rich. To know Christ as the all-inclusive One with the unsearchable riches we need to consider what is revealed of Christ in a verse such as Ephesians 1:10. In reading the book of Ephesians some may pay attention to grace in 2:8, perhaps regarding it merely as unmerited favor, without even realizing that there is a verse that speaks of the unsearchable riches of Christ, or that there are many verses that reveal these profound riches. It is crucial for us to realize that the Christ who is our portion for our enjoyment is the Christ with unsearchable riches.

The all-inclusive Christ died an unsearchable and all-inclusive death. Through His death He took away our sins, dealt with our sinful nature and with the old man, and destroyed the Devil. In particular, according to the book of Ephesians, through His death Christ abolished the law of the commandments in ordinances (Eph. 2:15). All the different customs, habits, and ways of living have been abolished by the cross of Christ. The unsearchable Christ died an unsearchable death. Therefore, the riches and the dimensions of Christ’s death are unsearchable. It is beyond our ability to measure or search the riches of Christ. We need to know these riches and experience them by considering all the profound matters revealed in the book of Ephesians.
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