Until We All Attain
By John Gavazzoni
In order to adequately impress upon the reader what the apostle Paul understood to be the normative way...God's intended way... by which He will bring all humanity to its full maturity in Christ as outlined in his inspired explanation found in his letter to the church in Ephesus (actually what's called an encyclical meant to be sent on to other churches), below, I've referenced three translations as representative of how clearly...differences of translation not withstanding...Paul makes his point.
From the NAS, Eph. 4:10--13:
He who descended is Himself also He who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things. And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers,for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ;until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.
From the AMP:
He Who descended is the [very] same as He Who also has ascended high above all the heavens, that He [His presence] might fill all things---the whole universe, from the lowest to the highest. And His gifts were [varied; He Himself appointed and gave men to us,] some to be apostles (special messengers), some prophets (inspired preachers and expounders), some evangelists (preachers of the Gospel, traveling missionaries), some pastors (shepherds of His flock) and teachers.His intention was the perfecting and the full equipping of the saints (His consecrated people, [that they should do] the work of ministering toward building up Christ's body (the church), [That it might develop] until we all attain oneness in the faith and in the comprehension of the full and accurate knowledge of the son of God; that [we might arrive] at the really mature manhood---the completeness of personality which is nothing less than the standard height of Christ's own perfection--- the measure of the stature of the fullness of the Christ, and the completeness found in Him.
From JMNT:
11. And He Himself at one point gave (or: gives; [p46: has given and it now exists as a gift]), on the one hand (or: indeed), the folks sent off with a commission (the emissaries; the representatives), yet also those who have light ahead of time and speak it before others (the prophets), and on the other hand those who announce goodness and well-being and bring good news, and then the shepherds, and finally teachers (or: the shepherds-and-instructors),
12. facing and with a view toward the bringing down of the fresh and timely, for the complete preparation (tight dovetailing-together; full mending or knitting together; qualifying adjusting; corresponding fitting; repairing restoration; perfectly adjusting adaptation; patterned equipping; completely furnishing) of the set-apart folks (from the holy ones) unto a work (or: into an action; into the midst of a deed or task) of attending service and dispensing, [leading] unto (or: into) construction (house-building) of the body which is the Christ (or: whose source, character and quality is from the Anointed One; or: the body formed by the Anointing),
13. [to go on] until we - the whole of mankind (all people) - can (or: would) come down to the goal (or: attain; arrive at; meet accordingly; meet down face-to-face): into the state of oneness from, and which is, The Faithfulness (or: the unity of, that belongs to and which characterizes that which is faith; or: the lack of division which has its source in trust, confidence and reliability, has the character of and is in reference to the loyalty and fidelity), even which is the full, experiential and intimate knowledge (or: and from recognition; and of discovery; as well as pertaining to insight) which is (or: of; from; in reference to) the Son of God, [growing] into [the] purposed and destined adult man (complete, finished, full-grown, perfect, goal-attained, mature manhood) - into (or: unto) [the] measure of [the] stature (full age; prime of life) of the entire content which comprises the Anointed One (or: which is the result of the full number which is the Christ; of the effect of the fullness from the [Messiah]; from the effect of that which fills and completes that which refers to the Christ; of the result of the filling from, and which is, the Christ)
[End translation quotes]
By quoting at length (at length, especially in the case of the AMP, JMNT translations) I hope to draw attention to the fact that facing us is the clear apostolic expectation of the means by which God intends to, and most certainly will, bring to completion His (and I must emphasize "HIS") task of building up the body of Christ...whose membership is daily being added to...so that every member of the body will be equipped to serve by participating in the service of the One who came not to be served, but to serve and give His life a ransom for many. In the larger context of that section of Ephesians, it is clear that the building up of the body of Christ is a building up of a body whose membership is being added to, daily, with the end in view that the division between Jew and Gentile would be torn down, and they both will become one body of glorified humanity. In short, as membership is added daily, down through the ages, ultimately the members of the body of Christ will be all the members of the human race.
In the first two translations referenced, we have those particular ministries that are uniquely representative of the ministry-nature of the whole body in action "until" the task is complete. In the last, we have similarly, the action [leading] unto or into the final goal. There is no suggestion that there will be a time, or that we have reached a time, when the services of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastor and teachers will no longer be required, that we should think of them as in some sense temporary until a company of manifested sons of God appear on the scene to finish the job for the Lord. No ministry, no service, in fact, has any validity unless a manifestation, uncovering, unveiling of the servant's sonship is intrinsic to his or her service. Let me be clear: if in ministering to the body of Christ, your sonship (which is the sonship of THE Son) is not being manifested, is not being uncovered/unveiled, then in fact, you are not ministering at all.
We need, and will continue to need, apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers "until," or leading unto the finishing of the task. The problem has been that so much of what we have observed, and been told to reckon, as apostolic, prophetic, evangelistic, shepherding and instructive, has at best been sadly subnormal, or at worst, mere caricatures of the genuine, that it has led to a false expectation that even the genuine must be left behind in anticipation of "a new order." There is no new order. Our text lays out God's order, and He is sticking with it.
Side by side with such a misunderstanding is the notion that we must leave behind the church for the kingdom. I suspect there's been some corruption involved that is traceable to the influence of dispensationalism that makes a clear (false) distinction between the age of the church and the age of the kingdom. Pray tell, brethren, when has there been an age when the kingdom of God has not been the above-all reigning presence? Likewise, how can we leave behind the church in favor of the kingdom, when the church is "the church which is His body, the fullness (or completeness, or complement) of Him who fills all in all." [I'm making a concession here in speaking of "church" as a translation of the "ecclesia"/"ekklesia," because of its familiarity on the part of many readers. It is better translated as "the called-out ones," or "the summoned assembly or congregation."]
In the matter of sonship, we have mistakenly laid primary emphasis upon it being something arrived at the end of our spiritual maturation, or as a goal to be attained, rather than it being about who we...the sons of God... are, and that it is intrinsic to our sonship that it be uncovered/unveiled. "Unveiled" and/or "uncovered" is more to the point in the Greek than "manifested." Sonship is manifested in its unveiling. Sonship IS; it is not something yet to be. It is normative for sons of God to be unveiled. If folks aren't seeing your sonship, you're not in a normative son-state. (Been there.) The experiences of life, or as it's often described, being processed by God through life's testings, do not produce manifested sons. Rather, they remove the veils off our sonship. Life's experiences prove, and show forth, the nature of who we are.
Yes, there will be a final unveiling, but it is now happening; in fact, we'd do well to always keep in mind that what will be in the administration of God is always right now, in the present, ongoing and leading to its glorious finality. In fact, the unveiling of our sonship is always, in a measure, intrinsic to the experience of regeneration. That morning, some 66 plus years ago at the time of this writing, when I knelt at my bedside as a teenage gang member, who'd suddenly become terribly aware of my need of salvation, yes, it was a deeply personal encounter with Christ as my Lord and Savior, but it was also the beginning of the unveiling of my sonship to myself. In a moment, the whole false persona-construct of my identity, was replaced by my (true) identity as a son of God beginning to shine forth out from within the darkness of moments before.
Our predestination to be conformed to the image of God's Son is, as much as anything, a matter of the unveiling of our sonship. It's not yet a complete unveiling...
"...but until then, my heart will go on singing; until then with joy I'll carry on. Until the day my eyes behold that city; until the day God calls me home." (Ira Stanphill). (Apply a more mature understanding of "that city" and "home" to those lyrics, and I think they'll bless you.)
