As we experience and enjoy God the Father in His love, He gives us growth in life. In 1 Corinthians 3:6 and 7 Paul says, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God made to grow; so that neither is the one who plants anything nor the one who waters, but the One who makes to grow, God.” Planting, watering, and making to grow are all related to the matter of life. This indicates clearly that the believers are God’s farm to grow Christ (v. 9). The ministers of Christ can plant and water. God is the only One who can make to grow. As far as the growth in life is concerned, all the ministers of Christ, whether a planter or a waterer, are nothing, and God is everything. For this reason, in 3:6 and 7 Paul emphasizes the fact that it is God alone who makes to grow.
We may plant and water, but we have neither the ability nor the substance to cause others to grow. Growth comes from God alone. Whenever He comes in, He causes us to grow. Since it is God who makes to grow, we must leave the matter of growth to Him. Our responsibility is to plant and water, not to help others grow. If we try to help others grow, we overstep our responsibility. It is beyond our capacity to cause the believers to grow. None of us can produce growth in others. Not even Paul was able to make the saints grow. He was very clear that we can plant and water, but only God gives the growth.
Although planting and watering are important, the greatest need is growth. We can plant and water, but God alone makes to grow. As far as the growth in life is concerned, God is everything. Because only God can make to grow, in our planting and watering we must be one with the Triune God. This means that we need to carry out the planting and watering in the organic union with the Lord. Then whenever we plant and water, He will plant in our planting and water in our watering. As a result, we shall have the full assurance that when we plant and water, God will make to grow. Thus, after planting and watering, we should be at rest and not try to help others grow. Growth is not of us; it is altogether of God. Through the church life and our watering, God will supply the believers and enable them to grow in life.
The Father also strengthens the believers, according to the riches of His glory, with power through His Spirit into the inner man, that Christ may make His home in their hearts through faith (Eph. 3:16-17). The inner man is our regenerated spirit with God’s life as its life. It is our spirit regenerated by the Spirit of God (John 3:6), indwelt by the Spirit of God (Rom. 8:11, 16), and mingled with the Spirit of God (1 Cor. 6:17). The Father strengthens our entire being into our inner man, into our regenerated spirit mingled with the Holy Spirit, that Christ may make His home, settle Himself deep down, in our hearts through faith. This is the Father’s finer work in us, and this is a much deeper experience in the Triune God.
In Ephesians 3:16 the word “strengthened” is modified by four phrases: “according to the riches of His glory,” “with power,” “through His Spirit,” and “into the inner man.” First, the believers are strengthened according to the riches of the Father’s glory. Glory is the expression of God. The Father strengthens us for the purpose of His expression. Second, the Father strengthens us with power, the resurrection power which operates in us (3:20). Furthermore, the Father strengthens us by the indwelling Spirit. Finally, the Father strengthens us into our inner man in order that we may experience Christ unto all the fullness of God.
The goal of the Father’s strengthening us into the inner man is that Christ may make His home in our hearts. When we were saved, Christ came into our spirit. Now we need to give Him the opportunity to spread Himself throughout all the parts of our inner being. As the Father strengthens us into the inner man, the door is opened for Christ to spread in us, to spread from our spirit into every part of our mind, emotion, and will. The more Christ spreads within us, the more He settles down in us and makes His home in us. This means that He occupies every part of our inner being, possessing all these parts and saturating them with Himself. As a result, we are filled with Christ unto all the fullness of God.
Ephesians 2:10a says, “We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works.” The Greek word translated “workmanship” here may also be rendered “masterpiece.” The Greek word poiema means something which has been made, a handiwork, or something which has been written or composed as a poem. This indicates that God is making the believers His poem. Poetry does not consist only of poetic writing; any work of art that expresses the maker’s wisdom and design may be considered a poem. We, the church, the masterpiece of God’s work, are the highest poetry, expressing God’s infinite wisdom and divine design.
Writers, composers, and artists often attempt to achieve a masterpiece, an outstanding work. God created the heavens and the earth, but neither the heavens nor the earth is God’s masterpiece. Likewise, God created man, but not even man is God’s masterpiece. Only one item of God’s work in this universe is His masterpiece, His poem, and this poem is the church.
Ephesians 2:10 says that we are God’s workmanship, God’s poem, “created in Christ Jesus.” As the masterpiece of God’s work, we are an absolutely new item in the universe, something newly originated by God. We have been created by God in Christ through regeneration to be His new creation (2 Cor. 5:17). God’s poem is absolutely new because it is the mingling of God and man. God’s masterpiece is the working of Himself into man and the constituting of man into oneness with Himself to produce a marvelous poem.
The church is God’s poem to express God’s wisdom and design. According to Ephesians 3:10, God’s manifold wisdom will be made known through the church. Hymns express the wisdom of the hymn writers. In the ages to come, in the millennium and in eternity, there will be a unique hymn, the church, which expresses the wisdom and design of God. When we see the New Jerusalem, we may extol God for the beauty, wisdom, and design manifested in this marvelous production. The New Jerusalem will be God’s poem, His masterpiece. Today as the believers experience and enjoy God the Father in His love through the triune dispensing, He makes them His poem.
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