God’s purpose for his world and his church: a glorious unity
/What is God’s purpose for his world and his church?
It is said no more clearly than in Ephesians:
With all wisdom and understanding, he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfilment – to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ. (Ephesians 1:8–10)
God’s purpose for the world is ‘to bring unity to all things’ under Christ ‘when the times reach their fulfilment’. It includes ‘all things in heaven and on earth’ – everything, everywhere, all brought under the rule of God’s righteous King, the Christ.
Waiting and groaning
Presently, we are all too painfully aware of how our world is not unified under Christ. We find ourselves out of relationship with people we love. Many of us come from families that are splintered and divided. Our world is ravaged by war and fighting.
Our hearts groan and long to be free from this broken, divided world:
We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. (Romans 8:22–23)
Groaning, decay, division. It’s not how God intended his world to be. But after Adam and Eve rebelled against God in Genesis 3, sin entered our world and damaged our relationships – both with God and with each other.
Sin brought disunity between us, and between humanity and our world. There is now toil and struggle in our work, and conflict, sickness and pain in our lives.
And as we continue reading through the Bible, we see greater and greater disunity and division. Individuals oppress, harm and murder each other. Nations war against nations.
Not Plan B
God’s purpose, however, was not thwarted by human sin. Saving a people who had rejected God’s purposes was not ‘Plan B’, devised after ‘Plan A’ failed. It was always God’s Plan A to rescue us through Jesus:
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. (Ephesians 1:3–4)
God chose to save us before the creation of the world. And now, in fulfilment of God’s eternal purposes, God is restoring what is broken and reconciling all things, both on earth and in heaven, to himself through Christ:
For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. (Colossians 1:19–20)
What’s the ultimate goal?
We are given a glimpse of God’s ultimate goal at the end of the Bible, where we read:
After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice:
‘Salvation belongs to our God,
who sits on the throne,
and to the Lamb.’
All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshipped God, saying:
‘Amen!
Praise and glory
and wisdom and thanks and honour
and power and strength
be to our God for ever and ever.
Amen!’ (Revelation 7:9–12)
People from every nation, tribe and tongue, together with angels and other heavenly creatures, stand together around the throne of God, worshipping and praising God and the Lamb.
This is a word picture of what Paul described as God’s ultimate purpose in Ephesians 1:10: ‘to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ’.
Until then …
We do not currently see all things unified under Christ. This will not be completely realised until Christ returns again and all those who have continued in rebellion against God and his King are banished to hell.
But this picture in Revelation 7 is the sure and certain future for those who trust in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour.
In anticipation of this glorious future living in perfect unity, what is God doing in this world that we, his people, have the great privilege to participate in? How do we see our part in God’s plan for his church? And how does this relate to making disciples of everyday people?
This article is one of a series that I’ve written about making disciples of ‘everyday people’.
It can be read on its own, but if you’d like to gain a greater understanding of how my thoughts around this important topic have developed, you may wish to read the full series of articles in order.
All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™