The Body of Christ is constituted with the unsearchable riches of Christ. In Ephesians 3:8 Paul says, “To me, less than the least of all saints, was this grace given, to preach to the nations the unsearchable riches of Christ as the gospel.” Paul preached the unsearchable riches of Christ that the church as the Body of Christ might come into existence. The Body comes out of the riches of Christ.
Along with the term “the unsearchable riches of Christ,” the book of Ephesians speaks of “the fullness of the One who fills all in all” (1:23). There is an important difference between the riches of Christ and the fullness of Christ. The riches of Christ are all the items of what Christ is. The fullness of Christ is the church, the Body, the issue of the enjoyment of the riches of Christ. In our natural man we are not the fullness of Christ, the Body. But when we enjoy the riches of Christ, we become the Body as His fullness.
All the riches of Christ are for the producing of the Body. This takes place through the divine dispensing of Christ into the believers. The church is not produced by teaching or organizing; the church is produced by the divine dispensing. The more Christ with His unsearchable riches is dispensed into us, the more life we have, the stronger life we have, the richer life we have, and the more uplifted the Body life becomes.
The riches of Christ produce the Body through the believers’ experience and enjoyment of Christ. On Christ’s side, it is a matter of dispensing; on our side, it is a matter of experience and enjoyment. When we experience and enjoy the riches of Christ dispensed into us, we become, in a real and practical way, part of the proper Body life.
The experience of the riches of Christ results in the fullness of Christ, the Body as Christ’s expression. As the various aspects of the riches of Christ are experienced, enjoyed, and assimilated by us, we become the Body of Christ as His fullness to express Him. Thus, the Body of Christ is constituted with the riches of Christ that have been enjoyed and experienced by us. The Body is the issue of the believers’ experience and enjoyment of the unsearchable riches of Christ.
Experiencing and enjoying the riches of Christ is related to apprehending the breadth, the length, the height, and the depth of Christ. Ephesians 3:18 speaks of the believers being “strong to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth.” The breadth, length, height, and depth are the dimensions of Christ. In our experience of Christ, we first experience the breadth of what He is and then the length. This is horizontal. When we advance in Christ, we experience the height and depth of His riches. This is vertical.
The dimensions of Christ-the breadth, the length, the height, and the depth-are the dimensions of the universe. Only God Himself knows the measurements of the universe. The very dimensions of the universe are also the dimensions of Christ. This implies that Christ is our real universe, for His dimensions are the dimensions of the universe. Ephesians 1:23 speaks of the fullness of Him who fills all in all, and 4:9 and 10 reveal that He who descended into the lower parts of the earth also ascended far above all the heavens that He might fill all things. When we enter into the new heaven and new earth to dwell in the New Jerusalem, we shall realize that Christ the Lord is our universe. Nevertheless, at present, in the Body life, we can apprehend with all the saints the breadth, the length, the height, and the depth of Christ.
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