Filled with All the Fulness of God

Last evening I conducted a Bible study on the prayer of Paul in Ephesians 3:14-19. I zeroed in mainly on the petition of verse 19:

Ephesians 3:19 …that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.

After the Bible study I had a lively discussion with Elder Conrad Jarrell and my grandson, Justin Sperry. In this discussion I gained a further insight that I would like to add in this blog.

By means of the auxiliary verb might Paul is letting us know that the Christian has both the capability and the opportunity to be filled with all the fulness of God. But how can this be, given that we are finite beings and God is infinite? Not even the universe can contain the immensity of God.

1 Kings 8:27 But will God indeed dwell on the earth? behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have builded?

It is obvious from this that we cannot be filled with all the immensity of God quantitatively considered. So I used this illustration to make the point of how we can “be filled with all the fulness of God.” Take a drop of water out of the vast ocean. That single drop of water has the same composition as all the water in all the ocean. Quantitatively considered, it is not the fulness of the ocean. But qualitatively considered, it is fully all that the ocean is. Elder Jarrell elaborated on that illustration in our discussion by suggesting that you take that single drop of ocean water and drop it on a tiny ant. In doing this the tiny ant becomes filled with all the fulness of the ocean in that he is overwhelmed in all that the ocean is in terms of its character and composition. Remember, one drop of water from the ocean is fully all that all the water in the ocean is. Take one drop of that ocean water and you have what every other drop of ocean water contains individually and collectively.

So to apply the illustration, while we cannot “be filled with all the fulness of God” quantitatively, we can “be filled with all the fulness of God” qualitatively. Whatever of God fills us, is fully the same in nature and character as all the immensity of the infinite God. The God that fills me is the same God that spoke creation into existence, the same God that brought Israel through the Red Sea, the same God that thundered from Mount Sinai and gave forth the Ten Commandments, the same God that caused a virgin to conceive and bear His Son, the same God that indwelt the body of Jesus Christ and bled on the cross of Calvary, the same God that raised Christ Jesus from the dead, the same God that empowered the church with His Holy Spirit on Pentecost, and the same God that will judge the world at the end of its history. And this same God that can fill me can at the very same time fill you so that we both are “filled with all the fulness of God.”

Oh, to “be filled with all the fulness of God”! That is, for all of God to have all of me. No life is empty and meaningless that is “filled with all the fulness of God.” For as God fills me, my life takes on His character so that I become more and more godly, which means to be like God. I can never be like God in the infinity of His Person, power, knowledge, wisdom, holiness, and goodness. But to the limited extent that my finite being is capable, I can be strong, knowledgeable, wise, holy, and good like God. The difference in my godliness and God Himself is the difference between finite and infinite. My little finite self when it is filled with all the fulness of God can be a testimony of God in this world so that men can see God in and through me by seeing the likeness of God in my character and conduct. Imagine God, all the very fulness of God in me, in you, in us! And imagine God so much in us that men can see and testify to His presence in us.

Isaiah 45:14 Thus saith the LORD, The labour of Egypt, and merchandise of Ethiopia and of the Sabeans, men of stature, shall come over unto thee, and they shall be thine: they shall come after thee; in chains they shall come over, and they shall fall down unto thee, they shall make supplication unto thee, saying, Surely God is in thee; and there is none else, there is no God.

1 Corinthians 14:24 But if all prophesy, and there come in one that believeth not, or one unlearned, he is convinced of all, he is judged of all:

25 And thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest; and so falling down on his face he will worship God, and report that God is in you of a truth.

Ephesians 4:6 One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.

1 John 4:12 No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.

13 Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit.