Ephesians 4:10

Ephesians 4:10

Christ Filling all Things.

I. Let us understand, first, how Christ fills all things, not with His body, for, as it has been well said, "Christ's body may be anywhere at any time; but Christ's Spirit is everywhere at all times." Of that body of Christ, of spiritual body at all, still more of spiritual body glorified, we know, and we can know, nothing; but as far as our faculties can reach, body must occupy definite space. How then does Christ fill all things? (1) By His influence. We know that even here a person may occupy a much larger sphere than he actually fills with his presence, and the range in which a man may thus go on filling circle after circle is almost without limit. Carry on that idea of the power of extending influence infinitely, and you will arrive at some conception of the way in which Christ can fill all things. (2) By His sovereignty and care. The Queen fills her realms, and we are always conscious of the power of our Queen. How much more does the royal, superintending power and love of Christ fill the universe? There is nothing so small that it is below it, and there is nothing so great that it is above it, nothing independent of it, nothing despised by it. (3) Higher still than this all-diffusive power of Christ's majesty, there is that actual living Spirit that we call the Holy Ghost. By the presence of the Holy Ghost Christ is present everywhere, and not only present, but He is the very life of all that lives; He is the soul of every being in creation. "He fills all things."

II. Why does Christ fill all things? And what is the design of this grand arrangement in God's great empire? (1) It is that all honours should be to Jesus Christ in every degree; (2) that no man upon this earth should ever find any real satisfaction out of Christ; (3) that there may be always in Christ a fulness suited to every man's want.

J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons,4th series, p. 174.

References: Ephesians 4:10. Homilist,3rd scries, vol. i., p. 272; Preacher's Monthly,vol. vii., p. 305.Ephesians 4:11. Clergyman's Magazine,vol. xii., p. 215; Homiletic Quarterly,vol. ii., p. 204; Fletcher, Thursday Penny Pulpit,vol. vii., p. 32.Ephesians 4:11, Ephesians 4:12. S. Pearson, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxvi., p. 35; Clergyman's Magazine,vol. iv., p. 224.