In the New Testament the fullness is the expression through the completeness of the riches. This is the reason that in 3:8 Paul speaks of the unsearchable riches of Christ and then in 1:23 and 4:13 speaks of the fullness of Christ. The riches of Christ are the various aspects of what Christ is, and the fullness of Christ is the result, the issue, of our enjoyment of these riches. As we enjoy the riches of Christ, these riches are assimilated into our being metabolically. Then they constitute us into the fullness of Christ, into the Body of Christ, the church, as His expression. Therefore, the fullness of Christ in 1:23 is the very fullness of God in 3:19. The fullness of God is the issue of the believers’ being constituted metabolically through their experience of the riches of Christ.
In order to assimilate Christ metabolically, we need to be strengthened into our inner man. We also need Christ to make His home in our heart, that is, to occupy, possess, and metabolically saturate every part of our inward being with all that He is. Then we shall be rooted for the growth in life and grounded for the building. Furthermore, we shall become strong to grasp Christ experientially in all His universal dimensions. Along with this, we shall know through our experience the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ. When we have experienced Christ to such an extent, we shall be filled with the riches of Christ unto all the fullness of God. All this is for the constituting of the church in a practical way as the Body of Christ for His expression.
We all need to see the vision of how the church is constituted. How we need to be strengthened into our inner man! Every fiber of our being needs to be strengthened into our inner man. Not one part of our inward being should remain in a weak condition. We need to be strengthened so that the indwelling Christ can spread Himself throughout our being and make His home in our inward parts. As Christ spreads within us, He saturates every area of our inner being metabolically with all that He is. Then we are rooted and grounded in love, we lay hold of the dimensions of Christ, and we know His love that surpasses knowledge. Then, ultimately, we are filled unto the fullness of God which is the church. What a high revelation of the church this is!
In the light of such a vision we see that it is utterly wrong to regard the church as a material building where “services” are held. It is also not adequate to view the church merely as the ekklesia, the gathering together of God’s called-out people. Although many Christians today use the term “the Body of Christ,” few have any clear realization of what this term signifies. The Body of Christ is the expression of Christ. It is also the fullness of Christ, which is the fullness of God. This fullness of God comes into existence in a practical way by our being strengthened into the inner man, by Christ making his home in our hearts, by our being rooted and grounded in love, by our grasping the dimensions of the immeasurable Christ, and by our knowing Him as the knowledge-surpassing love. When we have been filled with all the riches of Christ and metabolically saturated with all that Christ is, we become the fullness of God. Surely this is the highest definition of the church.
Only by receiving such a vision do we truly know what the church is. Although chapters one and two of Ephesians give us a definition of the church, this definition is still not adequate. We need chapter three to show us how the church is constituted organically and metabolically with the riches of the living Christ. Not until chapter three does the church come into existence actually and in a practical way. As we have seen, in this chapter the church comes into being as the expression of God, that is, as the very fullness of God. It is at this point that Paul is able to sound a high praise, even a doxology: “To Him be the glory in the church.” Now that the church has come into existence in a practical way, Christ can be glorified in the church. Such a church is not merely a gathering of God’s called-out people; it is the actual fullness of God.