What is the ultimate intention of god for the salvation of mankind?
Unless we set out to SATISFY THIS QUESTION ADEQUATELY, we will not reach the goal of God, nor satisfy His rich intention for creation. Instead, we will take the purposes of God hostage in an egocentric manner, and consume the grace of God on our manmade religious ideas and desires.
To understand the ultimate, intent of God, WE MUST GO BEYOND HIS SAVIOURHOOD AND ALL HIS MINISTERIAL ACTIVITY to see Him before time began as the Eternal King.
What astounds my finite mind, is that God has done nothing to become the father, and the Lord Jesus was always the eternal son. So, it is not His doing (activity), but in His being (existence) that overshadows all else.
The Apostle Paul never starts his writings with CREATION, OR SIN AND REDEMPTION, but instead takes us back into the Father-Heart of God to see what is the DESIRE, PURPOSE, AND INTENTION which He cherished in Himself before the foundation of the world was laid.
Ephesians. 1: 3-4 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.
Thus, we recognize that our HIGHEST AND FULLEST CONCEPTION OF GOD, AS FATHER, DETERMINES our calling, dedication, and CONCEPTION OF MATURITY.
What does a believer look like that has come to full maturity in Christ?
As Kingdom citizens, we are called to BE EXPRESSIVE of the Lord Jesus Christ, and not mere instruments in His hand working for Him, but rather allowing Him to live and manifest Himself through us. To fully comprehend we MUST go back “BEFORE THE BEGINNING OF TIME” ‘IN ETERNAL ANTIQUITY’, where in our FATHER’S heart we see how He purposed to share Himself with a vast family.
THUS, IT WAS NOT MAN’S SIN OR DEFECTION THAT DETERMINED THIS PURPOSE OF THE FATHER SHARING HIMSELF. IT WAS IN HIS ORIGINAL PLANNING, long before man was ever created or before he sinned, that He determined to share Himself through his only Begotten Son
When God set out to create, the purpose was to provide an inheritance for his Son and to provide an arena and instrument in which his nature and character could be expressed (in its narrow perspective, earth & humans)
THEN WHAT HAPPENED WHEN MAN DEFECTED?
- God’s plan did not change one bit!!!
- He will still share Himself through His Son, only now He will provide redemption through the cross AS THE IMPORTANT GATEWAY.
But having believed and received this divine Life, GOD THEN INTENDS FOR MAN TO MOVE UNTO MATURE SONSHIP. Too many live only for the immediate purpose of the cross (forgiveness of sin) and do not embark on the PRESENT CONTINUOUS PARTICIPATION IN THE POWER OF THE CROSS, WHICH LEADS TO SPIRITUAL MATURITY
LET ME PROVOKE YOUR THINKING WITH THIS QUESTION.
Did Jesus Christ visit this earth only because Adam and his descendants sinned, or was it in the original plan and eternal purpose of the Father that his Son should visit Earth, become incarnate, and thereby make possible a vital union with mankind?
We have been so engrossed with the sin-problem and the time perspective that we have become nearsighted and allowed a redemptive consciousness to overshadow our thinking.
To understand the eternal purposes of God we must move out of the time perspective into the eternal perspective where we can view every part of God’s program as it is related to the whole background. The Apostle Paul gives us an eternal vantage point from which we may keep all the parts together as they relate to the Father’s purpose.
IN THE OPENING VERSES OF HIS LETTER TO THE EPHESIANS, SEVERAL THINGS ARE CLEAR:
- Paul starts with the Eternal Father- not the fall of man
- He indicates that God’s purpose was ‘before the foundation of the world’.
- He emphasises that God’s purpose is to be realised through, and is to centre in the Son.
- All this was determined in God’s Father’s heart, not because of the fall, but before the world was made.
FROM THIS PERSPECTIVE LET US NOW CONSIDER THESE VERSES:
- “He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world’ (1:4)
- “Blessed us with all spiritual blessing in Christ’ (1:3)
- “Predestinated us unto the adoption of sons by Jesus Christ” (1:5)
- “He hath made us accepted in the beloved” (1:6)
These things the father has settled in his heart before the foundation of the world was laid. Paul later points out that because man did sin and needs redemption, this provision was also available in Christ the Son.
“In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace” (1:7)
THEN FINALLY THE APOSTLE BRINGS US TO SEE THE GOAL TOWARD WHICH GOD THE FATHER IS WORKING:
Eph 1:10 [He planned] for the maturity of the times and the climax of the ages to unify all things and head them up and consummate them in Christ, [both] things in heaven and things on the earth.
Eph 3:11 This is in accordance with the terms of the eternal and timeless purpose which He has realized and carried into effect in [the person of] Christ Jesus our Lord,
By focusing our attention on these verses which OUTLINE THE ETERNAL PURPOSE WE LIFT THE SON out of the usual time perspective that he may be seen more clearly from the Father’s ETERNAL PERSPECTIVE.
We need to understand more clearly, how the Father determined that His Son should become incarnate as the means of bringing a vast family of sons into the glorious measure of full stature. Things look different when we are, in Paul’s words, “seated with Him in heavenly places” viewing the whole picture from the veranda of eternity’
INCARNATION AND REDEMPTION CORRECTLY RELATED TO ETERNAL PURPOSE.
- It is imperative that we see the eternal purpose of God in the incarnation.
- For the Father, it seems, planned to visit this planet by the incarnation of His Son – not because man sinned.
- Rather than to interpret the incarnation as an emergency measure because of man’s defection, it was purposed in eternity.
- Sin and the Fall did not alter God’s eternal plan, but only necessitated that redemption should be incorporated.
- Whilst we know that Jesus came to this earth to die upon the cross, his coming had a more far-reaching purpose.
The realization of the Father’s original ultimate intention: To demonstrate to man the possibility of incarnating the human and the spiritual into one construct.
WE CAN ONLY APPRECIATE REDEMPTION AS WE OUGHT, AS WE SEE IT CORRECTLY RELATED TO ALL OF GOD’S PLANS.
2 Timothy 1: 9-10 “God, who has saved us and called us to a holy life – not because of anything we have done BUT BECAUSE OF HIS OWN PURPOSE AND GRACE.
- This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time.
- But it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus,
- Who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.
The lamb of God was slain before the foundations of the world were laid.
HOW DID THE FATHER BEGIN TO AFFECT HIS ETERNAL PURPOSE?
Having first created the earth and the world, he created Adam as His son and placed him in the Garden of Eden.
HOWEVER, WE NEED TO ANSWER TWO VERY CRITICAL QUESTIONS!!
- Was Adam in the full stature that God intended for him?
- Did he have all the life God intended for him?
Some believe that Adam, as he came from the creative hand of God, was all God intended he should ever be. Therefore, after Adam’s fall, they contend, man’s greatest need is the restoration of that stature from which he has fallen. In this trend of thought, it seems to them, God’s present program is the restoration of all things to Adamic and Edenic perfection.
Although Adam did receive the divine image by God’s creative hand, there was much more in God’s purpose for Adam’s race. The plan required a vital union with the Source of Life, and man’s co-operation.
While Adam was created perfect and innocent, he was wholly untried and undeveloped in his moral nature and character.
Further, we must distinguish between what Adam was by creation, and what he was to become by union and co-operation with God. By natural endowment he had created life, and was to be a vessel which could receive the divine life of God when he would choose it. Thus, in the master design, ADAM WAS TO BECOME A SON IN FULL STATURE THROUGH INNER SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT.
Like a flower bud moving to full blossom, SO WAS GOD’S DESIGN FOR ADAM’S FULL DEVELOPMENT; AND IT IN NO WAY NECESSITATED SIN OR THE FALL AS MEANS FOR ACCOMPLISHMENT.
- However, as Adam stood in the garden, there were two trees – representing two ways of life before him.
- There was an opportunity for development along TWO MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE LINE
- The tree of knowledge of good and evil = development of the soulish powers.
- Tree of life, = a living union with God.
Either choice would bring development in stature, either soulish or spiritual.
Since we as Adam’s descendants have tasted of the tree of knowledge of good and evil and developed our soulish powers, there must be a radical deliverance from this wrong development before there can be any spiritual development unto full stature. In our desperate need for deliverance, we are prone to forget that deliverance is only the doorway to spiritual development. We are more engrossed with being delivered from than being developed unto.
This dominating deliverance consciousness has warped and blinded the average church into lethargy. Because our goal has been escaping from sin and its penalty, we have not considered God’s calling to the full stature (mature sonship).
CONCLUSION:
- It is possible to be saved from hell and destruction and yet be lost to the ultimate intention of God?
- Is it possible to clean up our lives from moral blemishes and yet live in sin?
To sin means to miss the mark or the intention of God.
WHAT IS THAT INTENTION?
- The intention of God for our salvation is that we should represent Him in the earth.
- The method for reaching this goal is the Father’s adoption of us as sons in Christ Jesus.
- The goal is to bring forth his image and likeness in every one of his sons, through the revelation of Christ, who dwells in our spirit, by the power of his Word and Spirit.
Romans 8:29 (KJV) For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among (in) many brethren.
- The issue of ‘identity’ radically determines the effectiveness and efficiency with which we execute the purpose (destiny) of God for our lives.
- God created mankind in His image and likeness and instructed him to be fruitful, multiply and have dominion (Gen. 1:27,28).
- ‘Image’ has got to do with exactly representing all of God’s nature/character.
- Dominion, the exercise and expression of Divine rule and administration, was given to the ‘image’ of God in man.
We have been saved, to reveal God to the world, in the same manner, that Jesus revealed His Father
- Sonship is not something you strive to ‘do’; it is who you ‘are’ in Christ, (as he progressively becomes this in you).
- It involves a very important & substantial mind-shift, shifting from orphanity into sonship.
- This progressive becoming is in response to Him increasing in our perception, understanding and operation as the firstborn son of god.
- The term ‘OF’ in the phrase ‘son OF God’ denotes that the son is literally ‘OF’ God, i.e. the son is constituted exactly as the Father is.
- We as God’s sons, have the fullness of the nature of Father God within us.
- We have his EXACT GENES.
- We are sons of the Father AND thus we are heirs of the Father and joint heirs with Christ.
For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory. Heb. 2:10a
If you can FULLY CAPTURE with your SPIRIT, SOUL AND BODY, what it means to be sons of God, and build that concept into your corporate identity, then you will be UNSTOPPABLE AS A FORCE IN THE EARTH.