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The merger of the universe and the church through the redemptive offering of Christ (Ephesians 1:9-10)
Ephesians 1:9
1:9 Having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth – in Him” (Eph. 1:9-10).
Paul wrote of the mystery of a revelation that had been given to him following much prayer during lengthy house arrest in Rome. It reveals five levels in the coming together of the earnest plan of salvation of his Lord:
The solid and inevitable will of God, composed according to His free decree, purposed in Christ before time began with a timeplan for the realization of salvation, in order to be precisely carried out in His time.
What did these five levels of the coming together of the salvation plan of God mean to Paul? First of all, in Semitic thinking, the will of God is the motor and the compass of all existence. No man and no spirit could ever resist the great power of the will of God. What the Almighty has promised and determined to do must unquestioningly come to pass, even when all earthly situations seem to mandate against it. Islam takes its teaching of predestination from a similar understanding, which stamps and cements the entire thinking and actions of a Muslim. With the choosing of the children of Abraham and the enacting of the covenant of their LORD with the obstinate nation in the Sinai, the Old Testament pierced through this distressing determination of all things. Paul himself was firmly convinced that nothing in his life could happen which did not arise from the will of his Lord. He did not see himself to be a prisoner of the Jews or the Romans, but as the prisoner of the Messiah Jesus, or as a prisoner in the Lord Jesus (Eph. 3:1; 4:1). According to Semitic understanding, the will of God arises out of His free decree or His good pleasure. The LORD considers the possibilities of His plan in His innermost Self. He does not rush through what He has resolved to do, but rather, discusses it in all detail with Christ, His Son. This One lived with Him before the beginning of time, and, as His Word, decisively took part in the creation of the world, the giving of the law to Moses, and the carrying through of redemption. According to the Martin Luther translation of this text, the final form of the plan of salvation came about in Christ, for its implementation was made sure through Him.
In our technical age, one that is controlled more and more by computers, we have, to a large extent, lost an understanding for eternity, for the existence of God and His good pleasure. With our planning we think we can shape the fate of the world ourselves. Yet it is precisely the uncontrolled asteroids in space and time that go whizzing by us that we take note of to measure and observe. Calculations are made of how great the damage would be if one of these would collide with the earth (Rev. 6:13). Other scientists calculate the heating up of the climate on our small, round earth through the melting of the icecaps in the extreme north and south. Others have calculated that the unhindered population growth on our planet will bring with it great environmental pollution, that will continually contaminate the water and the air. One does not readily speak of the danger of exploding atomic bombs, since the existing arsenal of radioactive warheads is already enough to destroy the entire population of our earth ten times over. Few sense that the words of Revelation will be realized: “And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?” (Rev. 6:15-17). A world that rejects or neglects Christ is like a courtyard to hell.
The gathering together of all creatures in Christ
Nearly 2,000 years ago Paul received yet another revelation – one that comprised the redemption of our world through Christ and the overflowing riches of the grace of the Holy Trinity. Imprisoned under house arrest, the apostle was overwhelmed to hear the words of God in which all things that are in heaven and on earth are gathered together in Christ once time is fulfilled. These words are so great and far-reaching that the human mind can never comprehend them, but only try to approximate an understanding.
First, the Lord Jesus had, on several occasions, testified that His Father had given all things to Him. He revealed this mystery to His disciples, who were mostly fishermen by trade, and who had attained no theological education: “All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and he to whom the Son wills to reveal Him” (Matt. 11:27).
After Jesus had, on the cross, judicially completed the salvation of the world and overcome the power of death through His resurrection, He appeared to a large number of His believers on a mountain in Galilee. There He spoke to them: “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations” (Matt. 28:18-19).
Following His discussion with Nicodemus, the member of the Sanhedrin, the Lord summarized the conversation and revealed: “The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into His hand. He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him” (John 3:35-36).
On the evening before His death, Jesus spoke His comprehensive, High-Priestly prayer:
“Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him. .. And all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them” (John 17:1-2; 10). The goal of Christ´s authorization was not the fulfilling of His dreams to rule, but the passing on of His eternal life to all those that followed Him. Spiritually dead sinners are to become, through the grace of the Messiah, children of God who will live for eternity.
The revelation of Christ to John on the Island of Patmos shows us how the Lamb of God was Almighty from the very beginning. He sent the Holy Spirit out from Himself into all nations for the purpose of world mission. Accordingly, the Lamb accepted from His Holy Father authorization over the entire universe. Therefore, the elders of the Old and New Covenant worshipped Him, unconditionally casting themselves down before Him: “And I looked, and behold in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as though it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent out into all the earth. Then He came and took the scroll out of the right hand of Him who sat on the throne. Now when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying: “You are worthy to take the scroll, and to open its seals; for You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and have made us kings and priests to our God; and we shall reign on the earth”''' (Rev. 5:6-10).
The angels in heaven, also, worshiped the Lamb of God. They subjugated themselves to His love and authority when He took the scroll of Revelation from the right hand of His Father: “Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures, and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice: “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom, and strength and honor and glory and blessing.” And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, I heard saying: “Blessing and honor and glory and power be to Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, forever and ever!” Then the four living creatures said, “Amen!” And the twenty-four elders fell down and worshiped Him who lives forever and ever” (Rev. 5:11-14). This worship of the Lamb of God by every creature did not only signify their recognition and respect of Him, but also their submission to the Lord of all lords.
After these things I looked , and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” And all the angels stood around the throne and the elders and the four living creatures, and fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying: “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom, thanksgiving and honor and power and might, be to our God forever and ever. Amen.” (Rev.7:9-12).
At the worship of all angels in heaven, after they saw the great multitude of the “born-again”, such that no one could count, we no longer read of God and His Lamb, but rather, of the one singular Triune God, who reigns over the entire universe.
The uniting of all believers in Christ
In all of his three missionary journeys, Paul encountered a fundamental problem. Whenever there was an existing synagogue, he first entered there to evangelize the Jews. Usually that brought about a split among the members. The apostle would then remove the Jews who had come to believe in the Messiah Jesus from the synagogue and organize a new assembly. The newly established fellowship came to be composed mainly of Messianic Jews and Hellenistic Gentile believers.
Yet there arose within these newly established assemblies considerable problems and tensions. The Jewish Christians held to their faith in their spiritual fathers: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah and other messengers the LORD had used to speak to this rebellious people. Added to that, there was their rigid holding to the 613 commands of the Old Testament, along with its dietary restrictions. Again and again Jewish Christians demanded that newly won Greek and Roman believers be circumcised, keep the Sabbath, and that they no longer be allowed to eat forbidden foods.
All this, however, contradicted the message of the justification of sinners by grace alone through the blood of Christ alone, and their new life received in the power of the Holy Spirit. Paul was continually required to forge links between the traditions of the Old Covenant and the liberating message of the New Covenant.
The new revelation that Paul received during his imprisonment, that all the heavenly and earthly principalities striving with and against one another would one day be united was balm to the wounded soul of the chained apostle. The fathers of faith were also sinners, like us, and were retroactively justified alone through the redemption that came by Jesus Christ. Jesus Said: “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.” Then the Jews said to Him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?” Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I Am.” Then they took up stones to throw at Him; but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by” (John 8:56-59).
The glorious Christ, in the radiant light of His splendour, who appeared to Paul before Damascus, is also the Lord who saves and keeps those who wait for Him on the day of His return. He is the Guarantor of salvation and will represent us as High Priest on the Day of Judgment – not only for believing Jews, Greeks and Romans who trusted in Him while He was here on earth - but also for Europeans, Africans, Asians and Americans who abandon themselves to Him in our day and age. Apart from Him there is no salvation and no peace with God.
Furthermore, Jesus gave a new law that both united and abrogated all earlier laws of the Lord: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35). Jesus made His unconditional love for His friends and enemies into the law of His new government in heaven and on earth.
For Jewish Christians and for Christians from non-Jewish peoples, it is a consolation that the 24 elders around the throne of God worship the Lamb and confess to Him: “You have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation” (Rev. 5:9). The “tribes” mentioned in this hymn point to the believers in Christ from the twelve tribes of Israel (Rev. 7:4-8). The “tongues” refers to the more than 6,000 known languages of our earth. The “people” speaks of the more than 11,800 people groups of our planet, and the “nations” refer to the, at present, 192 countries represented in the United Nations building in New York. Yet not everyone is saved, nor can they have peace in their hearts save through the blood of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. In Him alone have heaven and humanity become a lasting unity. Whoever does not incorporate into this spiritual expanse of the riches of Christ´s mercy is vegetating away – even amidst his wealth and prosperity. Those who have been cleansed and saved make up a new race, one that does not exalt itself above others. Rather, they serve and love others, desiring that they, too, can have a share in the love of God. The comprehensive unity of justified Christians in heaven and on earth lives from the power of the risen and glorious Christ. Christ´s church will never fail and will remain throughout eternity (Rev. 21:3-22, 5).
Prayer:Father in heaven, we thank You and praise You, for You have brought about a lasting peace in heaven and on earth in Jesus Christ. In this united assembly no one is better than the other. All live from the grace of Your slaughtered Lamb. We ask you today to also call Chinese, Hindus, Muslims and the children of Jacob into the spiritual kingdom of Christ. Amen.
Questions:
- What are the five levels of the plan of salvation, according to Paul?
- How does the New Testament testify of the unity of Christ´s Kingdom?
- What unites Jewish Christians and Christians from among the nations?