Summing up (346) (anakephalaiomai not from kephale = head but from kephalaion = summary or sum total) means to bring something to a head or bring together under one head or in literary terms under one heading. When a column of figures was added up, the total was placed at the top. In another illustration of the use of this word in secular literature we read of the summarizing of the argument of an orator as he would do at the close of his discourse. Here it means to sum up, to "head up" all things in Christ in orderly and harmonious completion. Christ is the center of the universe, which some day will be integrated into one harmonious whole. It conveys the idea that all things will be brought into meaningful relationship together under Christ. At the end of the age everything will be seen to add up to Christ. At present there is fragmentation and frustration. Things do not “add up.” On that day, however, under Christ, everything will add up or rather be summed up in Christ. This recognition of Christ's preeminence will ensure that the original harmony of the universe is restored (see Ro 8:18-21). The mission of Christ extends beyond the human race and assumes cosmic dimensions. Paul's use of anakephalaiomai in Romans is illustrative of the meaning... For this, "YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY, YOU SHALL NOT MURDER, YOU SHALL NOT STEAL, YOU SHALL NOT COVET," and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, "YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF." (See note Romans 13:9) Comment: the summation of the Ten Commandments in the one rule “Love your neighbor as yourself” Thus the command to "love" is the category heading & all the other commands are listed under love as part of it or expressions of it. Rienecker adds "This is a rhetorical term used of the summing up of a speech or argument and hence of including a large number of separate details under one head." In context the Head is Christ for He is the goal of History ("His-story") which achieves its culmination in Him Alone! Paradise lost in Adam is Paradise regained in Christ to Whom every knee will bow and every tongue confess as LORD. Have you bowed while you still have breath to declare "My Lord and My God"? If not today could be the day of your salvation. The aorist tense is a definite summing up at a point in time. The middle voice pictures God as the Initiator of this action of summing up all things in Christ for Himself. The infinitive mood expresses purpose. MacArthur comments that... History is written and directed by its Creator, who will see it through to the fulfillment of His own ultimate purpose—the summing up of all things in Christ. He designed His great plan in the ages past; He now sovereignly works it out according to His divine will; and in the fulness of the times He will complete and perfect it in His Son, in whom it will forever operate in righteous harmony and glorious newness along with all things in the heavens and things upon the earth. (MacArthur, J: Ephesians. Chicago: Moody Press) All things (3956) (pas) (literally "the things") means all without exception, (Col 1:17; Heb 1:3) and includes the whole creation. Paul's point is that Christ will gather the entire universe (now corrupted by sin and the whole world lying in the power of the evil one, Satan, 1John 5:19) into unity (Heb 1:8ff). Everything in heaven and on earth will be subjected to (and thus be summed up in) Christ (1Cor 15:24, 25, 26, 27, 28)... Therefore also God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE SHOULD BOW, of those who are in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth, 11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (See notes Philippians 2:9; 2:10; 2:11). After the Millennium Satan will be thrown into the lake of fire forever (Rev 20:3,10). God will establish unity in Himself of all things that remain." In (1722) (en) means in the sphere of, in this case in the sphere of Christ. In other words, after the one thousand year Messianic Kingdom, immediately follows the Great White Throne judgment at which time all the lost (those who never placed their faith in Messiah as Savior and Lord) are judged. At this time the cursed material universe is restored and saved men live on New Earth and endless ages begin. All things are thus summed up in (in the sphere of, the influence of) Christ. Christ (5547) (Christos from chrio = anoint, consecrate to office) is the Anointed One, the Messiah. God will accomplish all restoration in and thru Christ and His atoning death on the Cross. He is the Head, the center around which God revolves everything He does relating to sin and salvation. God made known to us the mystery of His will, how everything is summed up under the headship of Christ. The world thinks it’s falling apart, but in actual fact it is coming together moving toward the final summation of everything under the headship of Jesus Christ. In Christ - the vital and organic connection John MacArthur explains God's administration or "management" of the fullness of times as follows... God redeems men in order that He might gather everything to Himself. The time of that gathering will be the millennial kingdom (see note), which will be an administration suitable to the fulness of the times. When the completion of history comes, the kingdom arrives, eternity begins again, and the new heaven and new earth are established, there will be a summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things upon the earth. Jesus Christ is the goal of history, which finds its resolution in Him. The paradise lost in Adam is restored in Christ. (MacArthur, J: Ephesians. Chicago: Moody Press) Alexander Maclaren explains that in this passage the great aim of that divine sovereign will, self-originated, full of loving-kindness to the world, is to manifest to all men what God is, that all men may know Him for what He is, and thereby be drawn back again, and grouped in peaceful unity round His Son, Jesus Christ. That is the intention which is deepest in the divine heart, the desire which God has most for every one of us...The philosophy of history lies there; and it is a true instinct that makes the cradle at Bethlehem the pivot around which the world’s chronology revolves. For the deepest thing about all the ages on the further side of it is that they are ‘Before Christ,’ and the formative fact for all the ages after it is that they are Anno Domini... I take it that what the Apostle means here is that the purpose of God, which we have thus seen as sovereign, self-originated, having for its great aim the communication to all His creatures of the knowledge of Himself, and running through the ages, and binding them into a unity, reaches its entire accomplishment in the Cradle, and the Cross, and the Throne of Jesus Christ our Lord. He fulfils the divine intention. There is that one life, and in that life alone of humanity you have a character which is in entire sympathy with the divine mind, which is in full possession of the divine truth, which never diverges or deviates by a hair’s-breadth from the divine will, which is the complete and perfect exponent to man of the divine heart and character; and that Christ is the fulfilment of all that God desired in the depths of eternity, and the abysses of His being. Did He will that men should know Him? Christ has declared Him. Did He will that men should be drawn back to Him? Christ lifted on the Cross draws all men unto Him. Was it ‘according to the good pleasure of His goodness’ that we men should attain to the adoption of sons? By that Son we too became sons. Was it the purpose of His will that we should obtain an ‘inheritance’? We obtain it in Jesus Christ, ‘being heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ.’ All that God willed to do is done. And when we look, on the one hand, up to that infinite purpose, and on the other, to the Cross, we hear from the dying Him, ‘It is finished!’ (John 19:30) The purpose of the ages is accomplished in Christ Jesus. (Read full sermon) (Bolding added) Vance Havner writes... Now, Christ is the Great Gatherer, and if we do not gather with Him He makes it plain that we scatter, we work against Him. The only way we can help Him gather is by winning souls and fishing for men. Mind you, if we are not engaged in some form of this great gathering we are not merely indifferent; we are not neutral. He made it plain that we are instruments of division and discord, that if we are not active with Him we are active against Him. No matter how much you may wave a Bible, if you are not gathering with Christ you are not merely wasting time, you are working against the only unifying force in all existence. THINGS IN THE HEAVENS AND THINGS ON THE EARTH. IN HIM: ta epi tois ouranois kai ta epi tes ges; en auto: Heavens (3772) (ouranos) in the physical sense refers to the over-arching, all-embracing heaven beneath which is the earth and all that is therein. First heaven = the atmosphere. Third heaven = God’s abode 2Cor 12:2-4 (Click note). Earth (1093) (ge) means the earth in distinction from heaven. Martyn Lloyd-Jones writes that... “The perfect harmony that will be restored will be harmony in man and between men. Harmony on the earth and in the brute creation! Harmony in heaven, and all under this blessed Lord Jesus Christ Who will be the head of all! Everything will again be united in Him. And wonder of wonders, marvelous beyond compare, when all this happens it will never be undone again. All will be re-united in Him to all eternity. That is the message; that is God’s plan. That is the mystery which has been revealed unto us. … These things are so marvelous that you will never hear anything greater, either in this world or the world to come.” (Lloyd-Jones, D. M. : God’s Ultimate Purpose: An Exposition of Ephesians 1:1 to 23 Grand Rapids: Baker, 1979) In Him (846) (autos) fits more appropriately at the beginning of verse 11 than at the end of verse 10. But in either place the phrase clearly refers to Jesus Christ (v10), Who is the Source of our divine inheritance. All things in Him - Be aware that Unitarian-universalists, liberals, some neo-orthodox, and other groups use this verse to support their belief that everyone will eventually be saved. Norman Geisler refutes this false conclusion reasoning that... A careful examination of this verse reveals that Paul is speaking here only of believers, so, there is no support for universalism. The whole context is about those chosen in Christ “before the foundation of the world” (Eph 1:4). The phrase “in Christ” is never used in Scripture of anyone but believers. That unbelievers are excluded is clear from the fact that Paul does not refer to those “under the earth” as he does elsewhere when speaking of the lost (Phil 2:10). There is abundant evidence elsewhere in Paul (cf. 2Thes 1:7-9) and in the rest of Scripture that some will go to their eternal destiny without Christ (e.g., Mt 25:31-46). (Geisler, N. L., & Rhodes, R. When Cultists Ask: A Popular Handbook on Cultic Misinterpretations: Baker Books. 1997) Did you know that.... Rhodes scholarships were originally designed by Cecil Rhodes as a means of reestablishing British hegemony over the earth. An unreconstructed imperialist, Rhodes envisioned all the world as British subjects. His will directed that his massive estate be used to expedite his dream, in particular recovering the United States for the Crown. Fortunately, the trustees of the estate revoked his political views and have awarded the scholarship to anyone who is academically qualified. While Cecil Rhodes had a dream and the resources to fulfill it, he had the wrong intention. God never decreed that the world should be British. He has decreed that not only humanity but the entire universe be brought to renewal through Jesus Christ. Since God has both the resources and the intention, his will shall be accomplished: Through Jesus Christ everything in heaven and on earth will be brought to complete unity. (Hurley, V. Speaker's Sourcebook of New Illustrations Dallas: Word Publishers) Ironside - In the future there will be another glorious economy, “The dispensation of the fulness of times.” That will be the last glorious age, which has been called ever since the dawn of the Christian era “the millennium” or “the reign of righteousness,” when, Jesus shall reign where’er the sun, Does his successive journeys run; His kingdom spread from shore to shore, Till moons shall wax and wane no more. Isaac Watts That final dispensation of blessing is not merely for this world, but Heaven and earth will be brought into wonderful unity, and heavenly saints and earthly saints will find their headship in Christ. 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