That in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:
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Gaius Marius Victorinus
AD 400
It is not all things indifferently that are restored but all things that are in Christ— both those that are in heaven and those that are on the earth but only those that are in Christ. Others are strange to him. Whatever things then are in Christ, it is these that are revitalized and rise again, whether in heaven or in earth. For he is salvation, he is renewal, he is eternity. .
In the dispensation of the fulness of times. It may perhaps be translated, at the appointed fulness of time, which is generally expounded to signify at the time decreed from eternity.
To establish (or restore) all things in Christ. The Greek is to recapitulate, or, as the Protestant translation, to gather together all things in Christ; which St. Jerome expounds, by a fulfilling at once in Christ all the ancient figures and prophecies of the former law. (Witham)
Thus Christ unites … in himself all that is earthly and all that is spiritual. He unites humanity to Spirit and places the Spirit in humanity. Being himself made the fountainhead of the Spirit, Christ gives the Spirit to be the head of humanity. Thus through the Son by the Spirit we ourselves now see and hear and speak. .
And yet again, "All things are gathered together by God in Christ.", and the advents, and the birth from a virgin, and the passion, and the resurrection from the dead, and the ascension into heaven in the flesh of the beloved Christ Jesus, our Lord, and His.
There is therefore, as I have pointed out, one God the Father, and one Christ Jesus, who came by means of the whole dispensational arrangements.
Into this paradise the Lord has introduced those who obey His call, "summing up in Himself all things which are in heaven, and which are on earth;"
Heavenly things, he means to say, had been severed from earthly. They had no longer one Head. So far indeed as the system of the creation went, there was over all One God, but so far as management of one household went, this, amid the wide spread of Gentile error, was not the case, but they had been severed from His obedience.
Unto a dispensation, says he, of the fullness of the times.
The fullness of the times, he calls it. Observe with what nicety he speaks. And whereas he points out the origination, the purpose, the will, the first intention, as proceeding from the Father, and the fulfillment and execution as effected by the agency of the Son, yet no where does he apply to him the term minister.
He chose us, says he, in Him, having foreordained us unto adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself; and, to the praise of the glory of His grace, in whom we have redemption through His blood,— which He purposed in Him, unto a dispensation of the fullness of the times, to sum u...
To “recapitulate” is to join together. But let us press on closer to the fuller truth. In our customary usage a recapitulation is a brief summary of what has been said at great length. It is a concise expression of everything that has been detailed. That is what it is here as well. The providential ordering that has occurred over a long time, the Son has once for all “recapitulated.” Everything is summed up in him…. There is also another meaning: In Christ’s incarnation God has given a single head to all creation, both angels and humans. .
See how precisely he speaks. The origin is from the Father—the design, the resolution, the first initiative. The embodied fulfillment of the design came through the Son, who is never called servant but always Son. … What the Father has willed in the Son is not external to his will. What the Son has done has not deprived the Father of his willing action. All is common in the relation of Father and Son. .
The “fullness of time” was the Son’s appearing. When, then, God had done all through angels, through prophets and through the law, yet nothing had improved, there was a danger that humanity had come into being for nothing. It was not going merely nowhere but to the bad. All were perishing together, just like in the days of the flood but more so. Just then he offered this gracious dispensation—to ensure that creation should not have come into being for nothing or in vain. The “fullness of time” is that divine wisdom by which, at the moment when all were most likely to perish, they were saved. .
As much as Adam’s sin had never tainted Him, we are then truly renewed in Christ. We therefore are cleansed through Christ; His very being is incorruptible, even though He came into corruption, His is eternal, even though He died, and from paradise He came, and left paradise for us. These things proceed from God, therefore to summarize and repeat, and truly on behalf of the Only-Begotten Son of Man, if He has destroyed death, and destroyed corruption, and sin He has cast out, we can truly be born again in Christ. This One, therefore, is in the heavens; This One had the means; for the world’s sorrow was great and unceasing, and His message of redemption was for sinners, and by Him being cursed. And I declare it was truly said of the Lord "Grace is born of heaven and comes upon the repentant sinner." It is said, therefore, that when the Lord came, that the whole earth came to life, and the very heavens themselves, that the sorrow of the angels came to and end, and the anguish of mankind ...
After reprobation (on earth) taken up (into heaven) and raised sublime for the purpose of consummation.
He refers to the conduct of those persons who "held not the Head" even Him in whom all things are gathered together.
