Daily Bread – October 18, 2023 (The Fourth Day – Genesis 1:14-19) Ephesians 1:23 – …who is his body, the fullness of Him that fills all in all. The mystery of how the Church is the body of Christ is revealed in part in Ephesians 5:31-32. Because the Church has been joined unto the Lord even as a man is joined unto his wife, the Church is one flesh with Jesus even as a man is with his wife – bone of bone and flesh of flesh (Genesis 2:23). The Church is able to be the fullness of the Lord Jesus Christ because of the fullness of the Holy Spirit that has been given. The Greek word ‘pleroma’ designates something that is filled up and overflowing. This same word is used in John 1:16 which declares of all the saints, “And of His fullness have all we received…” It is also used of the believer in Ephesians 3:19, “…that you may be filled with all of the fullness of God”. And again in Ephesians 4:13, “come to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” All fullness dwells in Christ, and Christ dwells in us (Colossians 1:19; 1 John 4:4, 3:24; John 14:23). Those who would relegate the function of the Holy Spirit and the measure given to the apostles solely to the first century Church have no basis to do so. In fact, Scriptures such as these emphasize how the same revelation and measure of the Spirit is available to all for all time (John 14:16, 16:13-15; Colossians 1:26; Galatians 3:14; and Luke 11:13; Acts 2:39, 11:15-16, 15:8-9). Blessings, Pastor Mark Spitsbergen
Daily Bread 10/18/2023
