Crystallization-Study Outlines
Ephesians

Message One

The Dispensing of Christ
for the Gradual Building Up of His Body
and the Transmitting of Christ
for the Sudden Raising Up of God’s Churches

Scripture Reading: Eph. 1:4-23

1. The dispensing of Christ to dispense all the riches of the embodied Divine Trinity (Col. 2:9) into His believers is for the gradual building up of the Body of Christ—Eph. 1:4-14:
   1. The church as the Body of Christ is the issue of God the Father’s dispensing, speaking forth God’s eternal purpose:
      1. We were chosen by God the Father to be holy—v. 4:
         1. This is for us to partake of God the Father’s holy nature to be made the same as God in nature—2 Pet. 1:4; Rom. 15:16; cf. Rev. 21:2.
         2. This is to be sanctified, separated from all things as God is and saturated with God—Rom. 15:16; cf. Rev. 21:2:
            1. 1) We need to love God and not love the world (1 John 2:15), being separated from the world by God’s word of truth (John 17:14-19; Eph. 5:26), not being fashioned according to this age (Rom. 12:2a).
            2. 2) We need to present ourselves to God to be saturated by God with the element of His holy nature (Rom. 6:19) unto the eternal life (v. 22) to be renewed by the Spirit for our transformation into the image of Christ (Titus 3:5b; Rom. 12:2b; 2 Cor. 3:18).
      2. We were predestinated by God the Father unto sonship—Eph. 1:5:
         1. This is to have God the Father’s life (John 3:16), being made God’s children, the same as God in life by being born of God after God’s kind through regeneration (1:12-13; 1 Pet. 1:3).
         2. This is for our being “sonized” with God the Father’s life in our entire tripartite being— 1 John 5:11-12; Rom. 8:10, 6, 11; 1 John 3:2.
      3. God the Father chose us to be holy by predestinating us unto sonship—Eph. 1:4-5:
         1. This is the divine sanctification for the divine sonship as the center of the divine economy and the central thought of the revelation in the New Testament—Heb. 2:10-11; 1 Thes. 5:23; Rev. 21:2, 7.
         2. In order to be sanctified for sonship, we must care for the sanctifying Spirit speaking and working in our spirit—Rom. 8:4, 6; 15:16.
   2. The church as the Body of Christ is the issue of God the Son’s dispensing, speaking forth the accomplishment of God’s eternal purpose—Eph. 1:7-12:
      1. We were redeemed by God in and unto Christ, who is the element of the Divine Trinity; Christ’s being the element means that He is for dispensing to accomplish God’s economy to head up all things in Christ—vv. 7, 10.
      2. This heading up takes place by Him, as the element of the entire Divine Trinity, dispensing Himself into us for the building up of His Body; when the Body is built up, Christ is the Head in actuality— vv. 10, 22-23.
      3. The Son’s dispensing in His redemption transforms God’s chosen people with Christ as the element of life into a treasure for them to become God’s inheritance, His private and personal possession—v. 11.
   3. The church as the Body of Christ is the issue of God the Spirit’s dispensing, speaking forth the application of God’s accomplished purpose—vv. 13-14:
      1. The Spirit’s sealing saturates us continuously unto the redemption of our body—v. 13; 4:30:
         1. This sealing transforms us into a treasure to God as His inheritance—1:18; cf. 2 Cor. 4:7; Eph. 3:8.
         2. The more we are sealed, the more we bear the image of God—2 Cor. 3:18b; Col. 3:10; cf. 2 Cor. 3:3.
      2. The Spirit’s pledging guarantees that God is our inheritance—Eph. 1:14:
         1. The Spirit is the pledge, the foretaste, the sample, of what we will inherit of God in full— 1 Pet. 2:3; Psa. 34:8.
         2. This pledging is unto the redemption of our body as God’s acquired possession—Rom. 8:23.
2. The transmitting of Christ is for the sudden raising up of God’s churches—Eph. 1:19-23:
   1. Paul prayed that we would have a spirit of wisdom and revelation to see the fourfold surpassing greatness of God’s power—resurrecting power, ascending power, subjecting power, and heading-up power—v. 17:
      1. Christ overcame four layers of opposition by transcending through Hades, the earth, the air, and even the third heaven—Matt. 16:18; Acts 2:24; Eph. 1:21; Heb. 4:14; 7:26.
      2. Christ transcended far above all the layers of trouble to transmit not only His authority but also His transcending power to the church that the church may be formed—Eph. 1:19, 22-23.
   2. The sudden raising up of God’s churches over the whole earth is because of the transmission of the transcending Christ:
      1. The fine dispensing in the Lord’s dealings with us constitutes the Body of Christ, whereas His transmitting brings forth the Body of Christ:
         1. Christ as the Spirit of life is gradually dispensing Himself as the element of God’s riches for the growth, the building up, of the Body.
         2. Christ as the Spirit of power is striking suddenly to raise up the churches of God for the spread, the increase, of the Body.
      2. His transmission is like that of a rushing violent wind to set up the churches, which are the Body of Christ—Acts 2:2:
         1. On the day of Pentecost, such a step was taken by the ascended Christ to have a sudden “strike” among the human race—vv. 1-11, 16-21, 41-47.
         2. This sudden “striking” brings the churches into being and makes them transcendent over all the four layers of persons, matters, and things which oppose the raising up of God’s churches— cf. 4:19-31.
   3. Since the transcending Christ is the embodiment of the Triune God, His transcending transmission includes all the rich threefold dispensing of the Triune God—Eph. 3:20-21; Phil. 4:13.