The Fullness of Christ
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11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers,
12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ,
13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;
A few weeks ago we began to look these specific gifts which Paul mentions in verse 11. Apostles, prophets, evangelist, and pastors and teachers. We noted then and I’ll reiterate now that these are not all the gifts that Paul referenced in vs 7
“But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift”
The gifts that Paul speaks of here are “to each one of us” and there are many of them. The Bible mentions about 21 gifts, though some say 7 some say 12 some say 18 and some say 27. I believe the number of gifts is the exact number that the Holy Spirit deems necessary at any given time. And I believe that He gifts us with gifts such as are required for what ever purpose He has for each of us. But the important thing to see here, I believe, is that God has a special purpose for each and every one of us and His grace is sufficient to supply all that we need to fulfil His purpose.
In vs 11, however, Paul mentions these four gifts or offices some would say five if you separate pastor and teacher but I read that as pastors who are teachers. But these offices have been given for the purpose of equipping the saints. The word equipping here mean “complete furnishing or perfecting. That does not mean that those who are apostles, prophets evangelist and pastor teachers are perfect or complete themselves because these are all part of the whole body which is still in the process of being perfected.
This is where I want us to focus for a moment on the end goal.
13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;
Take notice here. “Till we all” That is each and every one of God’s elect from the beginning of creation until the return of Christ. That mean every individual that is God’s elect must grow until all become a “perfect man” singular. That’s one perfect complete body. Remember what Paul said in
16 and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity.
So the end goal is that we all are made into the perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
Just pause and take that in for a moment. Sometimes we read things in the Bible that are too great for our minds to comprehend and it can cause us to just gloss over it. Paul ha just said that you and I along with all the saints are being made into the fullness of Christ.
Let just jup back to something Paul said back in chapter 1
22 And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church,
23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
Christ is the one who fills all in all. The word fills mean to perfect or complete, accomplish or satisfy.
Paul mentions this again in Eph 4:9-10
9 (Now this, “He ascended”—what does it mean but that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth?
10 He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.)
So through the death burial and resurrection of Christ and His ascension God has put all things under His feet, Christ has conquered every enemy and He has done this in order that Christ completes and perfects and satisfies all things. That’s total perfection of all. That is what Christ has done, is doing and will complete.
But the staggering thing that Paul is telling us in
22 And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church,
23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
Is that the church is the body of Christ, we are the fullness of Christ. He is the head and we are the body. That is the head governs is the authority and the body is the action, the body does what the head directs. Let consider then the great honour that God has given His elect. We are one with Christ who is head over all things.
1 Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unrighteous, and not before the saints?
2 Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world will be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters?
3 Do you not know that we shall judge angels? How much more, things that pertain to this life?
21 To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.
5 Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
So lets start putting all this together The church is the body of Christ the fulness of Christ but the church is not quite mature yet.
So Christ, who has conquered and ascended has given gifts to us. Some apostles, some prophets who have through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit given us the scriptures, Some evangelist who preach the gospel of the scripture and some pastors/teachers who teach the scriptures, why? For the equipping of the saints why? for the work of the ministry. What ministry for the building up of the body of Christ till we all come to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, What is that perfect man? The measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
The great work of Christ and the ministry of the church is that we become the fullness of Christ.
There is one aspect of this work that is focus of evangelism. He gave “some evangelist”. Evangelism is an essential part of God’s plan to perfect His elect. If no one is converted then there are no saints to equip. However, evangelism should not be the entire focus of the church the work of the ministry is primarily the building up or maturing, growing up the body of Christ. And this ministry is done primarily by the saints who have been equipped for this ministry by the pastors evangelist and the prophets and apostles. So in answer to an age old questions that Christians have “what is the primary purpose of our church meetings”? Is it to save the lost or edify the saved. The answer would have to be to edify the saved. Sure evangelism can and does take place in church services but our primary purpose in gathering together is to be equipped and to edify the body of Christ.
Now we look around at the church as we see it and we may be concerned. If we are to be the body and the fulness of Christ then we have a long way to go. Certainly we do. So has God left the huge job up to us? Although Christ has gifted us and called us and equipped us he has not left us to it. This is a work into which Christ in completely invested. This is His own body.
We haven’t gotten to this part of Eph yet but lets just peak forward a bit.
22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.
23 For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body.
24 Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything.
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her,
26 that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word,
27 that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.
28 So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself.
29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church.
9 “I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours.
10 And all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them.
11 Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are.
3 I thank my God upon every remembrance of you,
4 always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy,
5 for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now,
6 being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;
We have this confidence that God will complete this work. God is making us in the perfect body of Christ. That is the whole church. And He has gifted us so that we can build up not tear down. The whole body must mature together. The work of the ministry is not complete until we all come into the fullness of Christ. So be patient with one another, love one another, build up one another and pray for one another. In doing these things we do the work of the ministry and we help the church move closer to the fullness of Christ.