Ephesians is a particular book in that it gives us a full revelation of the church and also shows us the way to experience the church, which is to experience Christ. In the previous chapters we have seen that Christ is the mystery of God and that the church is the mystery of Christ. Ephesians 3:3 refers to something called the mystery. The church comes out of God, who is a mystery, and who is embodied in Christ. Christ also is a mystery. Even according to history, Christ is a mystery. In the six thousand years of human history, no one is as mysterious as Christ. He was God, yet He became a man. He is both God and man. He is one person of two natures and two lives—human and divine. Our mind cannot grasp how one person could have two lives and two natures, how Christ could be God and man at the same time. As a mystery, Christ has been embodied in the church. Thus, the church is the mystery of Christ, just as Christ is the mystery of God. Like God and Christ, the church is a mystery. Most people do not understand what the church is. Many think that it is a building with a cross on it, but this is not the church. As the church, we are a mystery. There is a mystery in us, and this mystery is Christ, who is the mystery, the embodiment, of God.
The mystery mentioned in Ephesians 3 includes the unsearchable riches of Christ, which are being dispensed into us (v. 8). Verse 9 calls this dispensing the economy of the mystery. Something mysterious is being dispensed into us. We experience the economy of the mystery daily and hourly as the riches of Christ are dispensed into us. In every situation and at every moment, while we are eating, washing, and talking to others, Christ is dispensed into us.
The economy of the mystery produces the church. The church, which comes out of this dispensing, is not material or physical but altogether spiritual and mysterious. It is the expression of God Himself. Verse 19 tells us that the church is the fullness of God, the outflowing and overflowing of the riches of God, which result from a constant filling. We Christians have the privilege of being filled with the Triune God until we overflow Him. To overflow God is to manifest God, to express God. The church as the fullness of God is the expression of God.
The church is not a physical building but the expression of God. Because we are constantly filled with God, He overflows from us. The overflowing of God from us is the church. If a group of Christians is not filled with God, they will not overflow or express God. We need to be Christians who are filled with God so that we are flowing out God in whatever we do. When we function in a meeting, God flows out. When all the saints function, the church becomes the fullness of God, God’s flowing out.
Paul composed Ephesians 3 with seven main points: the mystery, the unsearchable riches of Christ, the economy of the mystery, the church, Christ making His home in our hearts, the dimensions of Christ, and the fullness of God. These seven points show us what the church is. The church comes out of the mystery, the unsearchable riches of Christ, the economy of the mystery, and Christ making His home in our hearts. When the church experiences the immeasurable dimensions of Christ, it becomes the fullness, the expression, of God.
Ephesians 3 can be described by the word rich, and Ephesians 4 can be described by the word deep. Chapter 4 reveals mingling, growing, and renewing. We need a thorough understanding of what is meant by these three words.
Verses 4 through 6 mention the Spirit, the Lord, and the Father. These three are the Triune God, the three-one God. This does not mean that there are three Gods. There is one God, yet He is the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. Verse 4 begins, “One Body and one Spirit.” The Body and the Spirit being mentioned together in this way indicates a mingling. The Lord and the Father are also grouped with matters related to the believers to show the Triune God mingled with our being. Ephesians 3 reveals the church as the fullness, the outflow, of God. Chapter 4 goes on to reveal something further—that the Triune God mingles Himself with us to cause us to become the Body. The Body, which is the fullness, the expression, and the overflow of God, comes out of God mingling with us.
In order for the Triune God to mingle with us, we first must believe in the Lord. When we call on the Lord, we spontaneously believe in Him. By calling on the name of the Lord, faith comes into us, we believe in the Lord, and the Lord enters into us. Immediately, we are joined to the Lord in an organic union. First Corinthians 6:17 says, “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.”
Ephesians 4:5 says, “One Lord, one faith, one baptism.” We are united with Christ, joined to the Lord, by believing. However, many worldly things or things of the old creation still hinder us. Therefore, we need to be baptized. By being baptized, we are freed from the world and cut off from the old things. We are one with the Lord and are members of His Body, which is filled with the Spirit.
Ephesians 4:6 says, “One God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” Over all refers to the Father as the source, the origin; through all refers to the Son as the course; and in all refers to the Spirit, who abides in us. The Triune God is over us, through us, and abides in us. Thus, we are full of God. This is the mingling of the Triune God with the believers, causing the believers to become the fullness of God, the church. According to Ephesians 4, the church is produced by God being over all, through all, and in all. The Triune God mingled with us is the genuine church.