In 2:15 and 16 we see that Christ is also the new-man-creating Christ. For centuries, Christians have spoken about Christ’s death on the cross without seeing the consummate point that He died for the creation of the new man. He abolished in His flesh the ordinances in order to create in Himself one new man. The cross is not only for salvation, release, and victory; it is also for the creation of the new man. The creation of the new man required that all ordinances be abolished. Praise the Lord that He is the new-man-creating Christ! By abolishing the ordinances on the cross, He has created the Jews and the Gentiles into one new man.
In 1:20-23 we see that Christ is also the all-things-heading-up Christ. God has seated Him at His right hand in the heavenlies and has subjected all things under His feet. Furthermore, Christ has been made Head over all things to the church. The headship over all things has been given to Christ as a gift from God.
Chapter four reveals that Christ is the gift-making and gift-giving Christ (4:7-8, 11-12). Because Christ is the Head over all things to the church, He is able to make gifts and to present them to the church. Ephesians 1:22 says that Christ is the Head over all things to the church. The little word to is crucial. It implies transmission. Whatever Christ, the Head, attained and obtained is transmitted to the church, His Body. In this transmission the church shares with Christ in all His attainments. Because all that Christ is and has is transmitted to the church, He is able to constitute us as gifts to the Body.
We have pointed out that it is through His descending and ascending that Christ constitutes us into gifts to the church. By His traveling, by His descending and ascending within us, we are made useful gifts to the church.
When the church life first began in Los Angeles, we all had the sense that we were weak and useless. We wondered how we could possibly take care of the church. However, by Christ’s descending and ascending, many have been constituted into useful gifts. The leadership needed for the spread of the church life is produced in this way. As brothers experience the descending and ascending Christ, they become proper leaders to take care of the churches that are raised up by the Lord. This leadership is not produced by man’s education or training; it is constituted by the descending and ascending Christ. We need to praise the Lord for His traveling, for the marvelous two-way traffic between heaven and earth and between earth and heaven. It is through such traffic that the gift-making and gift-giving Christ produces gifts for His Body.
Finally, as 3:17 reveals, Christ is the home-making Christ. He is no longer homeless, for He is making His home in our hearts. The more Christ settles down in our hearts, the more He can boast to Satan that He has a home in His believers.
May we all be impressed with these five aspects of Christ. He is the church-loving Christ, the new-man-creating Christ, the all-things-heading-up-Christ, the gift-making and gift-giving Christ, and the home-making Christ. What a Christ we have!