The Summing Up of All Things

The Gospel of Grace

Seeking the Sacred

Books by Chad:

1 Corinthians

2 Corinthians

Study Workbooks by Chad:

Archived Notes

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The Summing Up of All Things

©Chad Sychtysz

This lesson is designed to more fully expound upon the teaching of Eph 1:9-10. God did not have to reveal anything to us, but He chose to do this so that we might better understand our relationship with Him. “Administration” refers to the oversight of a house or estate. Our own oversight is insufficient for what is required for salvation; only Christ’s oversight of God’s “house” (cf. Heb 3:6) is “suitable.” All things are summed up in Christ—whatever was necessary for sinners to be reconciled with God, Christ has done. It is not enough to merely know this information; it is necessary that we live as though we believe it.

For a person to assume that he (or his world) is the center of everything manifests great ignorance and arrogance. Compared to the vast domain of the universe, his existence is microscopically small and feeble. However, Christ fills the entire universe with His power, glory, and excellence. “All things originate from God” (1 Cor 11:12), but Christ is God and reigns upon the throne of God. The Father has given “all things” to His Son, which includes headship of His church but also far exceeds this (Eph 1:22-23). Christ created “all things” (John 1:1-3, Col 1:16-17), and He “upholds all things by His power” (Heb 1:3). He is the heart of the universe and at the same time is the divine force that holds even the smallest particle together. He truly is the center of everything that has been created. Indeed, Christ has created all things in honor of God the Father; “all things” are a praise “to Him [God]” (Rom 11:36). Paradoxically, the greatest honor to the Father was the obedience of His Son while “in the flesh” (1 John 4:2). For this reason, God has exalted His Son to the highest position in all of heaven and earth (Phil 2:9). The Father is the Source of all authority, energy, and life; yet the Son has full right to that authority, full creative ability over that energy, and gives access to eternal life to whomever He approves. As powerful as the Father is, He cannot rescue a single soul from condemnation apart from the Son; yet the Father’s love for every soul is demonstrated in His willingness to give His Son for this very purpose. Nonetheless, Christ still earned His worthiness as our Redeemer: He is deserving of all glory and praise, and we cannot compare to Him.

Our own worthiness, virtue, or merit is insufficient for even the smallest divine honor. For all that God has done for us, we have nothing to offer God in return—except our genuine faith in His desire and ability to redeem us. We are saved not by faith alone or by grace alone, but by divine grace through human faith (Eph 2:8). Thus Christ is the summing up of each individual’s salvation: He is the personification of grace, and He is the “author and perfecter” of faith (Heb 12:2). Anyone who tries to be complete apart from Christ is in perilous error; such a person has been “bewitched” by Satan to believe such a lie (cf. Gal 3:1). No one can be perfected “by the flesh” [i.e., through human effort] (Gal 3:3). Self-sufficiency is not an expression of faith; self-protection denies any real surrender to Christ. We may have great talents, jobs, resources, intelligence, etc., but none of these do or can even be compared with what Christ does. If anyone desires to attain to the highest purpose in life, he must surrender his life to Jesus Christ, who is the summing up of all that will ever matter, all that is eternal, and all that is of God.

“By His [God’s] doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption” (1 Cor 1:30). Think about the tremendous power in that thought: Christ has become “all things” that we have miserably failed to become. Wherever we have failed, He has succeeded; whatever we have ruined, He has restored (and then some). So it is with regard to your personal obedience, holiness, purpose, honor, hope, and inheritance: left to yourself, you have failed to maintain or have forfeited all these things. However, Christ has succeeded in all these things: He is your righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. All things—that is, all your “things”—are summed up in Him. You are not complete, left to yourself; but He becomes your completion when you trust Him with “all things” that are presently under your control. If the Father trusts His Son with the oversight of His entire kingdom, then certainly you can trust Him with the oversight of your earthly life and your eternal soul.

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