God wants that His all-inclusive, extensive, and preeminent Christ would become our everything for the church, the Body of Christ.
The Christ unveiled in the book of Colossians is the all-inclusive, extensive, preeminent One, the centrality and universality of God’s economy; God wants to work such a Christ into us so that we may enjoy Him and become the fullness of Christ, the Body of Christ.
When we read the book of Colossians with the Lord and in the Lord, having an exercised spirit, we will see that to God Christ is everything, and He wants that His Christ would become our everything.
The will of God is in Christ; the will of God is concentrated in Christ and is for Christ, for Christ is everything in the will of God. So if we are doing something and Christ is not in it, or if we sense that He is not made known to us, this is an indicator that we are off.
We need to return to Christ again and again, putting aside any replacements and distractions from Him; Christ needs to become our everything.
For example, we may be in the process of courting someone in view of marriage; our main indicator shouldn’t merely be the love and attraction but whether being together causes us to gain more of Christ and love the Lord more.
The more we love the Lord, the more we love the person we’re courting, and the more we love this person, the more we love the Lord; the Lord has to be the source and the center. When this happens, there’s such a peace, rest, outflow of life, and unmitigated joy, and many prayers are ascending for such couples to come together.
Christ needs to become our everything not only in our concept but also in the practical aspects of our daily life; in the way we dress, we behave ourselves, we speak to others, we choose things, and we act, in all these things Christ needs to practically become our all.
To God Christ is everything; in the old creation and in the new creation He is the Firstborn, which means that He is both all-inclusive and extensive.
This extensive Christ – the Christ who is more vast than the universe – wants to become everything to us.
On one hand He is on the throne in the heavens ruling over the universe, and on the other hand He is indwelling us to be our everything.
Christ, the Savior and Lord in whom we believe, is limitless and inexhaustible; since He is without limitation, the revelation concerning Him must also be without limitation.
May we come to the Lord again and again to ask for a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of the all-inclusive, extensive Christ, and may we allow such a Christ to be our everything in our daily life!
Christ is the All-inclusive, Extensive, Preeminent One, the Centrality and Universality of God’s Economy
The book of Colossians reveals not a simple Christ but One who is all-inclusive and extensive, One who is preeminent; this One is the centrality and universality of God’s economy.
Christ is the image of the invisible God, the Firstborn of all creation (Col. 1:15). In Him all things were created – in the heavens and on the earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or lordships or rulers or authorities – all things have been created through Him and unto Him (v. 16).
Christ is before all things, and all things cohere in Him (v. 17). This shows that in the old creation Christ is both the center and the circumference; He is both the means by which all were created and the One who holds all things, for all things cohere in Him.
In the new creation, that is, in the church, Christ is the Head of the Body, the church; He is the beginning, the Firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself may have the first place in all things (Col. 1:18).
In Christ all the fullness was pleased to dwell (v. 19); all that the Triune God is and has was pleased to dwell in Christ.
When we heard the gospel, God willed to make known to us what are the riches of the glory of this mystery (Christ) among the Gentiles, which is Christ in us, the hope of glory (Col. 1:27).
Christ is the reality of all the positive things in the universe; He is the reality of eating and drinking, He is the real feast, and all the positive things are a shadow – but the Body is of Christ (Col. 2:16-17).
This Christ, this all-inclusive and extensive Christ who has the preeminence, has become our life; when Christ our life is manifested, we will also be manifested with Him in glory (Col. 3:4).
He is the Head of the Body, the church; as we put on the new man – which is being renewed unto full knowledge according to the image of Him who created him – Christ becomes our all in all, and there’s no Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave, or free man (Col. 3:10-11).
In God’s economy Christ is the center and circumference; He is both the centrality and universality, for the mystery of God’s will according to His good pleasure is unto the economy of the fullness of the times, to head up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens and the things on the earth, in Him (Eph. 1:10).
God’s eternal purpose and economy was made in Jesus Christ, our Lord (Eph. 3:11) and was revealed to us; now we can know God’s economy, and we can see the all-inclusive, extensive Christ who is the preeminent One to God. Hallelujah for such a Christ!
Lord, unveil us to see a revelation of the all-inclusive, extensive, preeminent Christ, the One who is the centrality and universality of God’s economy! May we realize that the all-inclusive Christ is both God and man, and He is the reality of all the positive things in the universe. Oh, what a wonderful, preeminent, and all-inclusive Christ we have – this One is everything in God’s economy, and He wants to become our everything! Amen, Lord, may this all-inclusive, extensive Christ become our everything in our daily living!
God wants His All-inclusive, Extensive Christ to become our Everything for the Church
In God’s economy Christ is everything; God wants Christ and Christ alone (Matt. 17:5; Col. 3:10-11), for He wants this wonderful, preeminent, all-inclusive One to be all and in all.
What about us? Doesn’t God want us? Yes, He does want us, but He wants us for Christ and in Christ; God wants man to be a human vessel saturated with Christ, part of the corporate expression of Christ.
And this Christ is the wonderful, preeminent, and all-inclusive Christ who is all and in all! God’s economy is to work this wonderful Person into our being; He wants to work the all-inclusive Christ – who is the reality of every positive thing in the universe – into our being.
This Christ possesses all the divine attributes and human virtues, and He is the reality of love, light, grace, humility, patience, power, wisdom, mercy, righteousness, and holiness.
The enemy, however, wants us to be distracted from knowing, enjoying, and experiencing such a Christ, so he uses our standards, ordinances, practices, philosophy, and many things to cause us to focus not on Christ but on something else.
May we realize that God’s intention is to work Christ into us so that we may have the full enjoyment of Him for us to become the church, the Body of Christ!
May we all see Christ, have a revelation of this Christ, and condemn our cultural standards, repudiate our philosophy, and stay away from anything that replaces Him from being everything in us.
God’s desire is focused on Christ; He wants that Christ as the life-giving Spirit would be in us, live in us, saturate us, and have a free course throughout our being.
May this wonderful, preeminent, all-inclusive Christ, the One who is all and in all, be everything to us. Both in the Christian life and in the church life Christ must become our everything.
God doesn’t want us to do a lot for Him; He wants rather that we stop our doing and enjoy Christ, let Him live in us, and allow Him to grow in us. May we cease from all our trying, realizing that we are nothing and nobody and that Christ is everything.
He is everything to us – He’s our holiness, our power, and our wisdom; He needs to be given the opportunity to be everything in us.
May we give Him the ground so that He may come in to be everything and do everything in us, so that we may live Christ.
As branches abiding in Christ the vine, we simply need to receive His divine dispensing; if there’s a need we are aware of, we can present it to Him, and if we’re not aware of a need, He as the source is aware and He will supply.
Moment-by-moment Christ knows where we are, what’s going on, what we’re going through, what is happening, what we are thinking, how are we feeling, and how things affect us; He knows all things, and He is for us.
He wants to work Himself into us and He needs our Amen, our cooperation for Christ as the Spirit to dispense something very specific into us so that we may experience Him, enjoy Him, live Him, and express Him effortlessly and spontaneously!
God’s will, His intention, in His economy is to work the wonderful, all-inclusive, extensive Christ into our being as our life and everything so that we may become the corporate expression of the Triune God (Col. 1:27; 3:4, 10-11); this is the central work of God.
We believe that one day will come when, in spite of all the outward differences, we will have the inward sense that we are no longer divided or separated by the self, the natural life, culture, age, social class, or educational level, but that we are on Christ!
There will no longer be Americans, Chinese, Korean, Russians, Germans, Polish, Greek, or any other kinds, but Christ will be all and in all!
This doesn’t mean that there’s an outward change to make us the same; rather, essentially we all are being constituted with the all-inclusive, extensive Christ, and everything in our natural being is replaced by Him until He becomes everything to us.
Then the Lord will gain one person with one mind, one soul, one mouth, speaking one word with one ministry, doing one work, and having one goal! Amen!
Lord, it is Your will in Your economy to work the wonderful, all-inclusive, extensive Christ into our being to be our life and everything, so we pray, Do it in us, Lord! It is Your heart’s desire that this all-inclusive Christ would become our everything, and we pray that this would also be our desire. Amen, Lord, work Yourself into us a little more for the church, the Body of Christ. May today be another day of saturation; saturate us more with Yourself until You become our everything in our daily life!
Read this article in the Romanian language / citiți acest articol și în limba română la următorul link, Dumnezeu vrea ca Cristosul Său atotinclusiv și vast să devină totul al nostru pentru biserică.
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. Ron Kangas for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Colossians, msgs. 5, 14, 24-25, 37-39 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Knowing and Experiencing the All-inclusive, Extensive Christ (2019 Thanksgiving Conference), week 1 on the topic of, The Will of God concerning the All-inclusive, Extensive Christ.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Once it was my working, / His it hence shall be; / Once I tried to use Him, / Now He uses me; / Once the pow’r I wanted, / Now the Mighty One; / Once for self I labored, / Now for Him alone. (Hymns #513)
– We have seen Christ is reality: / But it’s not sufficient just to see: / He in our experience must be / Everything to us. / We in prayer behold Him face to face, / In the Word and meetings know His grace; / But in daily life, in every place, / What is He to us? (Hymns #1178)
– Thou art the hope of glory, / Thou art the mystery, / The center and the focus / Of God’s economy; / The secret of the ages, / Veiled from eternity, / The hidden dispensation, / The Triune God in me! (Song on, Christ in Colossians)
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