The Fullnes Of Him

Ephesians 1:22 - 23
And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

Paul states matter of factly as past tense accomplished: all things are under the feet of Jesus. Just as equally certain and as fully accomplished as the resurrection. And just as equally certain and fully accomplished is God's view of the Community. It is His Body. It is the fullness of Him. By definition. It is what it is.


Hebrews 2:8-9
"You have put all things in subjection under His feet." For in that He put all in subjection under him, He left nothing that is not put under him. But now we do not yet see all things put under him. But we see Jesus...

And painfully, just as certain as the resurrection, and just as matter-of-factly stated in the book of Hebrews is God's reminder: "But now we do not yet see all things put under him." Accomplished but not yet visible.

But we see Jesus. Or do we? What are the implications of the accomplished but not yet visible contradiction. How have we compartmentalized the true but not visible? If I'm confused by that or if I've compartmentalized it off into an Alice In Wonderland fantasy funhouse, I might not be seeing Jesus either. I might have Jesus locked away in the Santa Clause category. And I probably won't be seeing the Community of His Body as His fullness either.

The Community, His Body, is His fullness. There are deep doctrinal wells to dig and theological tricks that can be played with this. But I don't think the heart of the matter is captured by saying that the only meaning of His Body being His fullness is that the mystical Body of Christ universal is filled with or will be full of His presence. Any more than saying my body is filled with me. My body is me. It is my fullness, it's all I've got. I'm not capable of functioning in this visible realm somewhere else in another form. Yes I understand people have described out of body experiences. But the body is my fullness in the sense that I am a unified integrated whole of flesh-spirit. I understand the need to identify body-soul-spirit separations. I understand the need to emphasize that our true identity is not based on our physical being only (nor our stunningly good looks). But we need to be careful not to drift too far toward platonic or gnostic exaggerated divisions. The living creature, the thing alive that God created and that bears His image is flesh-spirit. It is a body in this visible realm. All other living creatures lack the breath of God. Angels lack the dusty wrapping of flesh. So until Jesus wraps up visible reality and I burst forth in a new body of glory, I am a spirit-flesh experiment, part animal, part spirit, all image of God. For now, for here, my body is my fullness. I must glorify God in my body, not while my consciousness is in a trance.

The Community, His Body, is His fullness. It is His flesh-spirit experiment in this visible realm. Yes His Spirit works outside of, independent of His Body. And no we are not Jesus. And Yes Paul describes in Ephesians chapter four the process of building up the Body until it comes to a completion reflecting the stature of the fullness of Messiah. There is the growth of equipping children to become men, of every part learning to work effectively. But the Community is His Body, it is His fullness. For here, for now.