In the revealed purposes and counsels of God we can look into a scene which reminds us of a family at home. We see the Father's joy in His children and the children's joy in their Father and in the Son in whom all is made known and bestowed. The Father will have His eternal delight and joy in His children and Christ in His Church.
These two truths are brought before us in Ephesians 1. The first blessing brought out is that of the Father and the children, "that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love: having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself." God purposed a family for His own delight and marked us out in Christ for the adoption of sonship. Second, God gave Christ "to be the head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him that filleth all in All.”
“Christ loved the church" refers to eternity, when the Church was given to Christ in His own eternal counsels. When He gave Himself for the Church was not in eternity, but was in the past. What is the present? It is that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word." What is the future? "That He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing.”
What a wonderful thing it is, then, to see these two truths: the Father and the family, and Christ and the Church. We enjoy the Father's love to the children and His delight in them and Christ's love to the Church and His delight in it. When the Father has His children according to His purpose all will be complete. How long will that last? It will last forever. All had its origin, not in time, but in eternity. All had its origin in the love and wisdom of God, The Church of God is His dwelling place. In Ephesians 2 it is, "Builded together for a habitation of God through the Spirit" But in Revelation 21 it says, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them." The Church's relationship to God is as a house where He dwells; with Christ it is His body. These are two distinct lines of truth: one is relationship to God, the other to Christ.
When God rests again, He will not rest in the works and fruits of His creative power. He will rest in the fruits of redemption, a redeemed creation. It is evident His joy will be much fuller in a redeemed creation, for mere creation only tells of the power and goodness of God. But redemption tells of His love and the holiness of His righteousness. In short, it tells of His character. In creation we might say we see the attributes of God, but in redemption we see Himself, His whole character and being—what He is in Himself. His in this that God will rest eternally.
In Leviticus 23 God has told us what He is doing. Those feasts begin with rest and creation; they end in the fruits of redemption—a new creation—the eighth day. They began with the Sabbath, then came the Passover. Because the Sabbath was broken, God began again. How did He begin? He began with the Passover, and that is redemption. All that comes between, until the seventh feast with its eighth day, are the ways of God.
W. Potter