In our meeting at Cippenham as we considered the theme of being Jesus’ “TEAM” we looked at Ephesians 4 where the strange phrase occurs: “So the one who came down is the same one who went up, above and beyond the heavens, to fill the whole universe with his presence.” (or literally “to fill all things”). What on earth (or heaven) does that mean? I suggested that, in the context of Ephesians 4, it means that all of us who are his (sort of) delegated team should be taking something of him into every place that we go. We are to spread the Christ everywhere. I still think that’s a relevant part of the meaning of his “filling all things”. But it could only be part of it.
There’s another phrase Paul uses earlier in Ephesians – at the end of Chapter 1. There he says, “the church is Christ’s body, the completion of him who himself completes all things everywhere”.
Or again, earlier in Ephesians 1 Paul speaks of a plan of God “to bring all creation together, everything in heaven and on earth, with Christ as head”.
What do these texts mean?
Then in the evening at our EBB celebration in Maidenhead Jem Sewell spoke on being “ready at all times to answer anyone who asks you to explain the hope you have in you” and he alluded to the verse (Col 1.27) “Christ in us – the hope of glory”.
It made me think – if my hope is more than just “getting to heaven when I die”, then what is this “glory”? Glory sometimes means “praise” but it can also mean “revelation” (as when Jesus says “father ‘glorify’ your name). So what is my “hope”? Is it that since Christ is in me I have a part in the ultimate revelation of Christ in all things? The one who is in me, the one who is changing me (from one degree of glory to another!) is the same one who is in all things everywhere bringing them to a “completion” and who is bringing everything into a style of unity where (as it were) everything “dances to the beat of his heart”? I think I could put my hope in that – and give my life’s effort to it!!
Couple to that the thought that “Christ” is a term which indicates the outpouring of God’s pleasure and welcome and empowering: God’s got quite a treat in store for all he has made: something worth waiting for and working towards!!
As Paul says again: “God uses us to make the knowledge about Christ spread everywhere like a sweet fragrance”.
Thanks for the post Robin, I can’t wait to listen to the recording when it comes though later in the week.
An image I really like is the one used by Paul in 2 Cor 2:
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20Corinthians%202:14-16;&version=51;
We are to be smelly people!
We are distinctive in every situation we find ourselves in (like it or not) and even when we leave, our smell lingers on
Yes, there are several “smelly” references – all based on the ancient idea of the smell of a sacrifice reaching the noses of people and of God. Maybe the idea of sweet-smelling smoke going up into the heavens “into the nostrils of God” has “feely” links with the idea of the Christ ascending up, up and away to “fill all things”. Certainly they’re both using picture-language to express something which is too big to tie down rationally but which is about the bigger picture of God.