In the revealed purposes and counsels of God we can look into a scene which reminds us of a family at home. We can 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 in His house. Christ has His own eternal and peculiar delight and joy in the Church. These two truths are brought before us in Eph. 1.
THE FIRST line of 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, in His eternal purpose, purposed for Himself and His own delight, a family, and marked us out in Christ for the adoption of sonship.
THE SECOND we find at the end of the same chapter, "And gave Him to be the head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all," that is, the Church.
“Christ also loved the church" refers to eternity, when the Church was given to Christ in His own eternal counsels. This was when He loved us. When He gave Himself for it was not in eternity, but was in the past. The loving and the giving are both in the past. What is the present? "That He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word" is the present. What is the future? "That He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing.”
The Father and the Family—
Christ and the Church
What a wonderful thing it is to see these two truths, the Father and the family, and Christ and the Church. We enjoy the Father's love and delight in the children, and Christ's love and delight in the Church. When the Father has His children according to His purpose all will be complete. How long will that last? It will last forever and 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 2:2222In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit. (Ephesians 2:22) it is, "Builded together for a habitation of God through the Spirit." Then in Rev. 21:33And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. (Revelation 21:3), "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them." The Church's relationship to God is the house character and His dwelling-place; with Christ it is His body. These are two distinct lines of truth. One is relationship to God, the other to Christ.
Attributes of God—Character of God
When God rests again, He won't 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 very much more full 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 that we see the attributes of God, but in redemption we see Himself, His whole character and being—what He is in Himself It is in this that God will rest eternally.
In Lev. 23, God has told us in what He was engaged. 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. 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