The Purpose of God: July 2014
Table of Contents
The Purpose of God
“The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him, and He will show them His covenant” (Psa. 25:14).
The Word of God, the only standard of truth, has been effectually hindered by man, by the habit of generalizing God’s truth and being interested in only a certain set of subjects of personal interest, as if they contained the whole of His revealed will. Hence has arisen a great impatience of searching the Scriptures, for we presume that we are in possession of all we need, when we confine our interest to that which respects our salvation or which we think is a present need. We revere the Bible, because it ministers to our necessities as fallen sinners, rather than because it reveals God and His glory. It is for this reason many Christians are ignorant of the Word. It has not been searched as containing God’s whole revelation, but only as some object of faith or hope, intended to be morally influential upon our souls. May we rather search it as those whose privilege it is to be interested in all the counsel and revealed purposes of God our Father.
J. L. Harris
Rich in God
It is well for us to acquaint ourselves with the many deep and wondrous interests we have in God — as, for instance, in His affections, His counsels, and His doings. These things are taught and illustrated in Scripture.
Divine affections, Divine counsels, Divine doings, make us their object. God’s eternity that is past took knowledge of us, having been then chosen, predestinated and written in the Book of Life. Time, in God’s hand, in all its stages or successions, has concerned itself with us. God’s eternity that is to come will owe much of its joy and glory to our history, to that which has been done, in abounding grace, for the redemption of us sinners.
Having chosen us before the world was, He has been training us in the wisdom of His ways in all the ages of the world; and when the world is rolled up like a scroll, we shall still be an object. Heaven acquaints itself with our history — angels gather fresh light and joy from it; and the result of it will be the revelation and full display of the glory of God in all His manifold and infinite perfections forever. What interests in God are these! His righteousness is ours — as His love is ours. We are made “the righteousness of God,” and with the love wherewith Christ is loved, we are loved.
People speak of their large and varied interests, their properties here and there; and they range in thought over these wealthy places, marking them well, and pleasing themselves with the clearness and sureness of their title to them. But do we survey in like delight, our possessions in God, in His affections; His counsels; His eternity, whether past or to come; in time as now under His hand and ordering; in His righteousness; in His works for us and His operations within us through His Son and by His Spirit; in the sufferings He has accomplished, and the glories He has won? What riches! What a blessed truth this is for the soul to seize upon!
The epistles to the Romans and to the Ephesians, among others, show us largely our interests in Divine counsels; John’s epistle shows us our interests in Divine affections. All Scripture tells us how God has been ministering to us in all His arrangements in the successive journeys that time has run, and the place we have already had, or shall have, in His eternity. And the gospel preaches to us our interests in His sufferings, His glories, His righteousness, and the operations of His Spirit.
The saints will be rich in circumstances by-and-by, as now they are rich in God Himself. The kingdom will be established, “the world to come” will shine in its glories, and the saints shall be there. And the saints ought now to be rich towards God, as they are rich in Him, laying out their energies and their advantages, their talents, whatever such be, in His service — as Luke 12:21 speaks.
Adapted from J. G. Bellett
Elect of God, Holy and Beloved
Ephesians 1:4-14
God has purposed in Himself to have before Him that which shall reflect His own blessedness — He taking pleasure in us, and we taking pleasure in Him; as it is said here, “that we should be holy, and without blame before Him in love.” He will have His people of the same nature as Himself, gathered around Himself, happy here, and for Himself. His thought is not merely that we should have an inheritance; more than this, God is working for the display of the riches of the glory of His grace.
This lifts up the soul. God has taken up poor sinners that He might act towards them worthily of Himself, to the praise of the glory of His grace. Of course it remains true that God is a Judge, and “we have redemption, forgiveness of sins, through His [Christ’s] blood”; we must understand this before we can enjoy our privileges in Christ.
Our very existence in the new creation is the fruit of His purpose and thoughts about us. This has a double bearing. It shows how we measure what God is doing for us, as a question of His purpose, and it makes us understand the source of it all. And this has a most happy effect: instead of looking at ourselves, and judging from ourselves, we look at God. Our thoughts about God are that He is the source of all our blessing.
Adoption
God has “predestinated us unto the adoption of children.” We cannot boast in anything, except in this, that God has taken delight in us to give us the adoption. The effect is most blessed; we know Him — “after ye have known God, or rather are known of God.” What He has predestinated us unto is not a distant thing, nor yet merely salvation; it is the nearest place He could have put us into; we are adopted with the “adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved.” Here we get not only the source but the manner — the source, God’s love; the manner, in Christ.
“The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us” — the Word that was in the beginning with God, and was God. Predestinated unto the adoption of children, it is in Him. Called according to God’s purpose, we are to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Of His fullness have all we received, and grace for grace. We are brought into the presence of God in Jesus Christ. Therefore, when Jesus goes away, He says, “I ascend unto My Father, and your Father, unto My God and your God.”
God’s Delight
It is God’s delight to bring us, in Christ, and by Christ, into His own presence. We can go no farther; “truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ,” writes John. We may enjoy it more and more, we may delight in it in deepened measure, but we cannot have anything beyond. When God speaks of glorifying Himself, or of our glorifying Him, it means through the display of what He is; it is God’s glory to display Himself; therefore, in this, which is to the glory of His grace, we have the display of Himself. And let us not suppose that this goes beyond what we may think about. The Apostle says further on, “For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ ... that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man: that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith: that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height, and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God” (Eph. 3:14-19). It is not a matter of human wisdom, learning, or attainment; in proportion as we become simple as little children, we shall understand these things, through the Holy Spirit.
The Good Pleasure of His Will
“The good pleasure of His will” is not simply sovereignty. God is acting in His love, displaying the will of His grace, and ministering of the fullness of His blessing to us. Here the soul gets established. The measure of His goodness is not the measure of what we are; it is His good pleasure — the good pleasure of His grace. And further, to learn what He is, to be delighting in the goodness of God, is that which sanctifies. If I could be always thinking of what He is, I should be perfectly happy, and there would be the reflection in me of that with which my soul was occupied. It is such a comfort, to get to God and feel that all is in Him, and from Him.
My thought of being accepted is not merely that my sins are put away, so that I could stand before Him. I am the object of His delight; holy affections are drawn out, and I pass through the world as a beloved one of God. When Christ was going through this world, He was the beloved One of God, and He was going through the world as such. Thus, too, should the Christian walk through the world with the consciousness of being beloved of God. With this, we do not want the world; without it, we are obliged to turn to something that makes self the center.
Having placed the saints in all this fellowship and blessing, He imparts unto them His thoughts. Not only has He accepted us in Christ, but He will have everything brought under Christ’s dominion and power. He is to gather together in one, all things in Christ — “even in Him, in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will: that we should be to the praise of His glory, who first trusted in Christ. In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of His glory.” We are joint-heirs with Christ; hence the prayer at the end of the chapter.
We have obtained an inheritance in Christ, and all things are going to be put under Christ; meanwhile “having nothing and yet possessing all things,” the Christian walks through the world, as one beloved of God, in the consciousness that he is the object of God’s purposes, and of God’s delight. Our proper delight is in knowing that we are beloved of God, and that God will have us before Himself, and for Himself — His delight in us, and our delight in Him. It is as a consequence of this love, that we shall have the glory of the inheritance.
Adapted from J. N. Darby
God’s Good Pleasure
It is very striking how the thoughts of God’s heart, which were before the foundation of the world, come out in connection with the Lord Jesus Christ as a man. It is striking too that in the New Testament God passes over the history of the first Adam with a brief notice of what it has been and what God has done with him, while connecting what God is, and His eternal thoughts and purposes, with Christ.
Now in Proverbs 8:22-31, we find a passage of exceeding beauty which tells us of the thoughts which were in God’s heart, and His purposes in connection with His Son, before the world was. Before all things which had a beginning, even “from everlasting,” the Son was there. He is presented here as “wisdom,” and Christ is the “wisdom of God” (1 Cor. 1:24). He was rejoicing always before Him — rejoicing in the habitable parts of His earth before it came into being by the Son — and His good pleasure (or delight) was in the sons of men. The heart of God has had, and has, its eternal satisfaction conceived, made good, revealed, and accomplished in Jesus and, more wondrous still, to God’s glory by us.
Good Pleasure in Man — Jesus
In Bethlehem of Judea, nearly two thousand years ago, the glory of Jehovah shone out from heaven on the darkness which really and morally enveloped the earth. The hosts of heaven joined the angel of the Lord, and proclaimed with bursts of praise, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good pleasure in men” (Luke 2:14 JND). When the world had come forth from God in creation, and “the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God [angels] shouted for joy” (Job 38:7); now its Creator had become a man. Adam, the head of creation, had fallen, and his history was past. Another Adam appeared, the “last,” and God’s glory now has its highest expression, for His Son has become a babe. Peace was proposed to the ruined earth, and it was refused, but still God has His “glory” in the highest, and His “good pleasure” is now to have its fruition.
Thirty years pass on and a lonely Man, in whom all the fullness of the Godhead bodily was pleased to dwell, passed along His lowly path of obedience. He had patiently waited God’s time, and He recognizes that God is now at work in men. His delight (or “good pleasure”) was to do the will of Him that sent Him, and to finish His work; and so He says, “My goodness extendeth not to Thee; to the saints that are on the earth, and to the excellent [Thou hast said], In them is all My delight” (Psa. 16:2-3 JND). The lines had fallen unto Him in pleasant places indeed; His goodly heritage was filling His heart in the foretaste of God’s good pleasure or delight being fulfilled. The instant He is there according to God’s thought, the heaven is opened on Him, and the Father’s voice is heard proclaiming, “Thou art My beloved Son, in whom I have found My delight [or good pleasure]” (Matt. 3:17 JND).
Time passes on, and after confronting the devil, and binding the strong man in obedience, He comes forth to serve in obedience still, but with a power that could remove every ill that had entered the world and brought men into misery. He feeds the hungry, heals the sick, raises the dead, cleanses the lepers, drives out Satan from man; but it brought God too near to men for them to enjoy their own wills and their own ways; they beseech Him to depart from their midst.
Then He goes to the mount of transfiguration and, while transfigured before His wondering disciples, the Father’s voice is again heard, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I have found My delight [or good pleasure”] (Matt. 17:5 JND). Men have refused Him, but God’s heart has not changed in Him. Thus a rejected Christ receives His Father’s heart’s expression, “In Thee I have good pleasure.”
The Cross, Death
and Resurrection
He leaves the mountain and turns to meet the cross and shame which awaited Him at the end of His pathway, but in all this He was alone. The corn of wheat must fall into the ground and die, or He would abide alone; and so He passes down to the cross, meets His people’s need as to their sins, Satan’s power of death, and the judgment of God. He takes up our sins and bears them as His own, and blots them out forever. He meets and destroys Satan’s power of death, by death, and bears the judgment and all the demands of God’s righteousness as to sin. He dies and rises again; tells His disciples that His Father is now their Father, and His God their God, and ascends as man to glory.
Then come out all those wonderful counsels and purposes of God’s heart. The orbit of the “good pleasure” of God is described, and His people are blessed “with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: according as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world” (Prov. 8), “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, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the beloved” (Eph. 1:3-6). The circle is complete, and we are brought into all these delights of God’s eternal purposes, and the thoughts of His heart which were before the foundation of the world!
The Fruition
Thus we have the eternal bosom revealing this “good pleasure” which was there before the world was made (Prov. 8). Now the “good pleasure of His will” is brought to fruition, and we are set in its fullest expression in heavenly places in Christ (Eph. 1).
But there is an age to come in which the preface of this eternal purpose is seen — the millennial glory. And still the “good pleasure” is expressed. He unfolds to us “the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He hath purposed in Himself” to gather all things in heaven and earth in one in Christ; and in Him we also have obtained this inheritance in the age to come, where we shall reign with Him until He puts down all authority and power. Then He gives up the kingdom after the perfection of His administration, and becomes, in the eternal age, in the new heavens and the new earth, the Son, subject as man to His Father, and we with Him in that scene where God’s delights are fully expressed and fulfilled according to His good pleasure in the sons of men forever.
The Will to Do
His Good Pleasure
But between this calling into the orbit of the good pleasure of God and its fruition in the ages to come, is God to have no “good pleasure”? We turn to Philippians 2:12 and we find a feeble people always obedient when the church had apostolic care, but now when it was gone, much more in its absence; and God was working in them “to will and to do of His good pleasure” still.
If there was a broad line of light seen before God’s eye in Jesus’ path on earth, a tiny streak of light is found in the path of those who have, with broken wills and hearts subject to Him, sought and found in the footprints of Jesus the “good pleasure” expressed in doing the will of His Father, and have yielded themselves to Him.
What can we say then, beloved, to these things? Shall we not say, “Amen” to the Apostle’s prayer in 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12? “Wherefore also we pray always for you, that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfill all the good pleasure of His goodness, and the work of faith with power: that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and ye in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Adapted from F. G. Patterson, Words of Truth
The Gospel of Our Salvation
When Jacob fled from his father’s tent with a bad conscience, he came to a desert place, where night overtook him. Laying his head upon a stony pillow, he fell asleep. Then God showed him His mercy — opened His heavens above Jacob, and discovered to him a ladder set up from the earth, the top of which reached to heaven. Upon this shining way the angels of God ascended and descended, and the Lord promised him that in his seed should “all the families of earth be blessed” (Gen. 28:14). Having promised, God declared that He would perform. He assured Jacob that He would be with him, and keep him, and not leave him until all the word of His grace had been fulfilled. Thus was Jacob blessed with the promise of earthly blessings in earthly places, and all was secured to him in the Seed — Christ.
A Ladder of Blessing
From Heaven
Let us turn to a ladder of blessings, another shining way even more excellent than that which Jacob saw. We, like Jacob, are by nature ready to perish, but God is rich in mercy. Of His own great love He loves us, even as we are, dead in our sins. He opens His home above to us, and shines upon us in His own love. He “hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ.” All is God’s own doing, all His sovereign grace, and He Himself secures every blessing to us irrevocably in Christ.
The ladder Jacob saw was set up upon earth and reached to heaven; the shining way of spiritual blessings, which God presents to the Christian’s eye in the opening verses of the first chapter of the epistle to the Ephesians, is let down from heaven, and reaches us, just as we are, on earth. Its stay is the very heart of God, from the heart of God it descends to us, and by it we reach to the heart of God.
CHOSEN in Him before the world’s foundation.
HOLY — BLAMELESS — “Holy and without blame before Him in love.”
ADOPTED — “Predestinated unto the adoption of children by Christ Jesus to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace.”
ACCEPTED — “Accepted in the Beloved.”
REDEEMED — “In whom we have redemption through His blood.”
FORGIVEN — “Forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace.”
It is the riches of God’s grace which meet the sinner in his helplessness and in his sins. God is “rich in mercy,” and the treasury wherein the riches of His grace are stored is none other than His own heart. According to His own heart He abounds in grace towards the sinner.
The Heavenward Step
Forgiveness is our first blessing. The heavenward step upon which we first set foot is “forgiveness of sins.” We cannot know even one of the blessings wherewith we are blessed in the heavenly places in Christ until we, by grace, believe and know that God has forgiven us all our sins by virtue of what Christ has done for us.
Redeemed, brought to God, is the next step; redemption in Christ, through the blood of Christ. Here we discover a nearness to God such as even the knowledge of His pardoning grace does not afford. The forgiven sinner is purchased for God. He is taken out of the prison and brought into liberty; and it is in Christ, where Christ is, that he has the redemption. The redemption is connected with the person of the Redeemer. It is not simply that a price, even that of His precious blood, has been paid for us, but in the Lord Himself “we have the redemption.”
Accepted — “Accepted in the Beloved.” Notice these wonderful words, and behold how we have mounted upwards! All that the beloved One of God is to God as the Accepted One on high, so is the humblest believer in Him. Christ is personally accepted, and as such He is the object of God’s delight — we, too, being in Him, are accepted even as Christ. Christ is the measure of our acceptance before God. We are graced in the Beloved, robed in His beauty, adorned with His perfections.
God’s purpose of grace is to bring His people into perfect nearness to Himself. His will is to have His own before Him, not simply as forgiven sinners, but as dear children. And the fulfilment of this, His purpose, God will display in eternity to the glory of His grace. We find in the father kissing the prodigal, despite his rags and misery, the riches of grace; and in the father seating the son at his table, the glory of grace. Before his father, at rest in his father’s love, the prodigal was the expression of the father’s heart to all within the house, a heart which not only forgave him his sins, but brought him into the honors of his house. Here in our sins we prove the riches, there in His presence we shall ourselves be the joyful expression of the glory of His grace.
Adopted into God’s family is the common lot of all God’s people. God has destined that His people should be His children. Angels are His servants. Sinners saved by grace, forgiven, redeemed, accepted, are nearest to His heart. And thus it is given to us, before it is manifested what we shall be, to rest in the love of God in the affectionate intelligence of His dear children; “Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God!” We are already made partakers of the divine nature and have the spirit of adoption given to us whereby we cry Abba! Father!
With the present blessing of adoption and with the prospect of God having us before Him to the glory of His grace, we may enquire, “Are there any fears left?” God is holy; we are by nature still sinful. God is light; we are, though believers, often sinning. What a word then is this which next meets us: —
Blameless! — “Without blame before Him.” Under His eye, in whose sight the very heavens are not clean. Before Him, who charges even the angels with folly. But “blameless” is God’s own word. No fault before God is what He declares respecting His children. Such is the result of God’s great salvation for us.
Holy! is also His word. The nature holy, the actions blameless. The fountain pure, the waters undefiled. Such is the purpose of God respecting His own.
In love we are to be before Him thus. Not as if He would excuse or pass over our weakness and willfulness. No, but God is love, and in the joy of that love we are to be before Him. God is light, and in the holiness of that light, and in the liberty of it, we are to be before Him. Holy as to our inmost being, for God is holy, and looking to be conformed to the image of His Son. Finally we are:
Chosen, and chosen, not because of what we are, but in Christ, for it is His work and His worth which God regards with ineffable delight, and it is in Him alone that all these blessings are ours. “Now He that hath wrought us for the self-same thing [the glory] is God” (2 Cor. 5:5), but the present reality, “Ye are of God,” and, “Greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world” (1 John 4:4), is in no wise short of the future glory. Let us weigh them together and enquire whether one is more rich in blessing than the other — whether the present blessing or the secured blessing is the greater. The secured blessing is but the display of the present. All is ours now in Christ. We are heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.
God’s Perfect Love
If there is not complete rest in God there is something lacking in our hearts. If we cannot lay hold of “holy and without blame before Him,” the weakness arises from lack of the sense of sin within our breasts. A deep sense, a thorough sense of what sin is, will be the best practical interpreter of our being blameless before God. If we have indeed learned what sin is at the cross, we shall not dread God’s holiness, for we shall then be shut up to the love which gave His Son to be made sin for us and to suffer in our stead. God’s perfect love casts out fear from its presence. Our sinful nature has been condemned; what is there left to us? The nature of God Himself, Light and Love! Our sins are pardoned; what then is left to us? The holy liberty of children in the presence of Him who gave His Son to be the propitiation for our sins! Well may we say, “What hath God wrought?”
Adapted from H. F. Witherby
The Purposes of God in Christ – Practical Effects
It is indeed wonderful to our souls, as believers, to know that we have been chosen “in Him [Christ] before the foundation of the world” (Eph. 1:4), and that God thought of us in a past eternity, when He was considering His purposes concerning His beloved Son. However, there is a right way, and a wrong way, to think about these purposes of God. If we think about God’s purposes mainly as they affect ourselves, we shall fall short of the real blessing God intends for us; at the same time, we shall dishonor God, in failing to realize all that those purposes are as they affect His beloved Son. On the other hand, if we consider God’s purposes from His perspective, and that of Christ, we shall not only honor God, but we shall be far more blessed. Our scope of understanding will be eternal, and will be enlarged by what God is, rather than being bounded by time and our experiences in this world.
Whenever man is to know anything about God, or from God, it must be God Himself who, in His sovereignty, reveals it to Him. To be sure, something of the glory and majesty of God can be learned from creation, for “the heavens declare the glory of God” (Psa. 19:1), and thus man is “without excuse” (Rom. 1:20). But to obtain any deeper knowledge of God, man is dependent on divine revelation, which always comes downward, from God to man. When this order is observed, everything will always be kept in the right perspective.
Reasoning About God
However, it is all too common a fault that the mind of man begins to reason upward, from man to God. When this happens, man’s mind begins to take the place of divine revelation, and he finds himself reasoning in the things of God, and making deductions, based on his own experience and what he sees around him, instead of being subject to divine revelation. Let us look at a few areas where this tends to happen.
First of all, the natural man, without God, loves to reason about the things of God, for man by nature is a religious creature; he was created in the “image and likeness of God.” Without divine revelation, the atheist, for example, complains about the suffering in this world, and wonders how a loving God could allow it to go on. On this basis, he denies the existence of God. Some wonder why God allowed sin to come into this world. Others may become angry because of serious illnesses, tragedies and other troubles that occur in their lives, and end up blaming God for them. Still others find fault with God’s way of salvation, arguing that there ought to be multiple ways to salvation, not merely one. The list goes on and on. But the only way to have a right outlook on anything that goes on in this world and in our lives, even as unbelievers, is to be subject to divine revelation, which always involves Christ. As another has said, to have the right view of anything in this world, bring Christ in.
The Right Focus
All of this becomes even more important in the life of the believer. In the profession of Christianity, man has tended to turn everything inward toward himself, instead of recognizing that all must come from, and devolve upon, God Himself. To quote another, “Our strength in doing anything must be in proportion as we are in the line of God’s mind and purpose.”
Thus, in preaching the gospel, to be effective, it must always be from God to man. It is true that man has a need, and that need must be pressed upon him. However, if man’s need and how God has met that need, are the primary foci of the gospel, once again our hearts are centered on ourselves, rather than on God. Of course, souls may be saved with this focus, and we thank God for it, for He is gracious. But God’s greatest thought was to make Himself known, and while this surely brings blessing to man, there is much more than that, which we miss if our thoughts are mainly on ourselves. Paul tends to begin any discussion of the gospel with a reference to God’s purposes in Christ, as in Romans 1 — “the gospel of God ... concerning His Son Jesus Christ ... declared to be the Son of God with power” (Rom. 1-4). His preaching was “unto God a sweet savour of Christ” (2 Cor. 2:15), whether souls accepted or rejected it. It is not mainly for man’s blessing that the gospel is preached, rather, the Lord Jesus is worthy of the reward of His sufferings, and His worthiness should be before us, even before man’s needs. If what engages my soul in preaching the gospel is the benefit man will receive from it, I am making man, and not God, my object.
We hasten to point out that our having God and His interests before us would not in any way dampen our concern for lost souls, or our zeal and energy in seeking to reach them. But in our passion for souls, there would be the conscious sense that I was speaking for God, not merely for man’s benefit. The preaching of a gospel that centers on man has done great harm in Christian circles down through the ages, and the ascendance of secular humanism today has accelerated this, even among those who are true.
Our Blessings in Christ
When it comes to our Christian blessings, once again we find, according to Scripture, that all are ours (Eph. 1:3), but they are “ours in Christ.” They are connected, not merely with ourselves, but with the revelation that God is about to “gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth” (Eph. 1:10). It is only after God has made this stupendous statement (a truth not known in the Old Testament), that He says, “In whom also we have obtained an inheritance ... ” (Eph. 1:11). God’s purposes in Christ are paramount; then we are brought in to share it all!
When we, as believers, allow the focus of our blessings to be on us, we will measure all our enjoyment of those blessings on our own state of soul, and on our apprehension of them. Our spiritual state will indeed “ebb and flow,” as our own peace and rest will be the benchmark by which we judge those blessings. On the other hand, if Christ is before us, we will value far more our intimacy with Him and our knowledge of Him; our continued desire will be to know more of Him. Like Paul, we will want to seek to comprehend with all saints “what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge” (Eph. 3:18-19). On an even more practical level, it is sad to see how easily we as believers can fall into the pattern of looking on God as a philanthropist, who is there with a largesse of mercies, ready to give whenever we approach Him with a need. Without wanting to be critical, many popular hymns today espouse this philosophy and outlook, with the result that, once again, the focus of the believer tends to be constantly on himself. But when the mercies are before me, the Lord is not my object. Without perhaps perceiving it, I am subtly carried into the current of the world; I am occupied with that which is temporal, rather than that which is eternal.
The Knowledge of God
In this respect, it is very instructive for us to notice the character of a father in the first epistle of John. Twice over fathers are mentioned, and the only thing said about them is that they “have known Him that is from the beginning” (1 John 2:13-14). There is nothing higher than this, for in the knowledge of that One who is from the beginning is contained the knowledge of everything else. It is well for young men to be strong, and have the Word of God abiding in them, and it is equally well for “little children” to know the Father; yet maturity in divine things is always characterized by a deeper knowledge of “Him that is from the beginning.” The object in Paul’s heart, as expressed to the Ephesians, was that they might come “in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God” (Eph. 4:13). It is Christ and all that He is, and God’s purposes in Him, that must be everything!
We must be careful to occupy our hearts with Christ’s interests, and Christ’s thoughts, down here. It is all too easy for us to be taken up with our own thoughts, our own ambitions, our own wishes — all things that have to do with “the affairs of this life.” Doubtless these things are necessary, but they should be a means to an end, not an end in themselves. It is only by walking with Him that I can know His thoughts, and it is only in knowing His thoughts that I can follow Him with a full heart. Paul could say of believers, “But we have the mind of Christ” (1 Cor. 2:16), and this is generally true for every believer. But only the one who is really interested in the mind of Christ will find that mind revealed to him. It is only in the “full knowledge of the mystery of God” that we can find “all the treasures of wisdom and of knowledge” (Col. 2:2-3 JND), for it is Christ who is of God made unto us “wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: that, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord” (1 Cor. 1:30-31).
W. J. Prost
The Latter End
“O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!” (Deut. 32:29). In the life of a man of purpose everything takes its coloring from the end to be attained. And if this is so in the natural life, so surely should it be in the exercise of the divine life. Hope — that is, something beyond — is the spring of human life from the cradle to the grave, even when a man’s view is limited to this world. True hope has to do with God and His purpose.
In the daily life of a Christian, when the end to be attained is clearly seen, and God’s purpose is accepted by the soul, still, I think, we must learn it in a practical way along the way. Nature always resists God’s purpose for us, and we have to learn God’s estimate of it as the flesh. I think we shall find there is no other way to go on. God’s heart is set upon the end for me, and not on the necessary present process through which I am passing. He wants my heart to be set upon it too. Nothing diverts Him, and everything moves on in my circumstances, which He has arranged, toward the accomplishment of His purpose for me. Whatever may happen to me on the road, God’s heart has in view the end, where there shall be no flesh and no evil. He would have us now, as we thread our way along His path for us (the everyday circumstances of each human life), to be in communion with His mind about this. He would occupy us with what are His ultimate purposes and counsel respecting us.
Light Out of Darkness
When a poor sinner considers his “latter end” as a sinner, it must land him in the blackness and horror of despair. And it is just at this point that the gospel comes in with all its blessed and gloom-dispelling light. “God who spoke that out of darkness light should shine who has shone in our hearts for the shining forth of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor. 4:6 JND). I see here that it is all settled, all finished for me, a poor guilty sinner. “While we were yet sinners Christ died for us.” And that glory which shines now, and which I see in the face of Jesus Christ, is God’s warrant and rest for my soul. “The true light now shines.” All is done. Thus the heart is set at rest as to the question of sins and judgment. But still I have to learn with God what the flesh is, and its corruption. This is the process when I have accepted God’s purpose and counsel respecting me, and as I accept the one I have to learn the other. But God would teach me the incurable nature of the flesh that is in me, not by occupying me with it, but rather with His purpose respecting me. I am privileged to say, wherever I may be along the path, “But we do know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to those who are called according to purpose” (Rom. 8:28 JND). I can say that it matters little what the fare on the road may be, as long as I know surely and clearly what awaits me at home. God’s desire is to occupy you with what awaits you there. Christ is there, and the joy of that scene is what He is. You are going to be exactly like that Christ.
Occupation With His Purpose
It is in this way that I learn what the flesh is, not by being occupied with it, but by being occupied with God’s final purpose and counsel for me. I say, Is this God’s purpose to conform me to the image of His Son? How unlike Him I am now! What a wretched thing is this flesh in me — nothing but rebellion in every way. This is true; but as your eye is upon the end and that blessed Object (to which, remember, it is God’s purpose to conform you, and not yours to conform yourself), you are “changed into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Cor. 3:18).
It was not when the Apostle Paul was looking at himself that he saw how imperfect he was, but it was when he was looking at Christ. “I press toward the mark.” “Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend [lay hold of] that for which I am also apprehended [laid hold of] by Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:12). Perfection here is complete likeness to Christ in glory. This was God’s purpose for Paul, and nothing else is His purpose for each of us. When the Apostle saw that purpose it got hold of his inmost soul, and set him running faster in the race. “I press toward the mark.” It was clear and distinct before his eye, and it eclipsed for him everything else. He said, “That I may win Christ.” Has it become the eclipsing substance for us all?
Occupation With Myself
Satan always is seeking to occupy me with myself. This occupation never leads to a true judgment of myself, though to be moaning over my inconsistencies may appear to some to be pious and humble. The true object is outside; and as I am engaged with it, and with God’s purposes respecting me, I fashion my way and judge myself as an obstruction to those purposes. But Satan can get a good man occupied with himself. Job is an example of this, and in twenty chapters he expresses it; but God had to empty him of all that (Job 42:5-6).The object of the enemy is to get you so completely occupied with yourself that God’s purposes respecting you are accounted as nothing.
I am going to be like Christ in glory; and as I look at Christ I am “changed into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord.” God’s desire then for me, as expressed in Deuteronomy 8:16 and Deuteronomy 32:29, is, that I should consider the end — His end for me; and like Paul, to “press toward the mark.”
Adapted from H. C. Anstey
Those That Have and Have Not
Saints make their necessity the measure of God’s action for them. It is true that my necessity is met; but it is never the measure of God’s action for me. If we make our necessity the measure, we never get beyond it — we do not value His purpose. God does not give us that which we do not value. Everyone has what he values. One may think that he values God’s truths more than he has; but the fact that he does not is shown by his not possessing it — walking in it. God says, you do not value more, therefore I do not give you more. He does not cast His pearls before swine; it is according to the amount of interest that we take in it that we have it; according to our appreciation of the truth is the measure that we have it; “unto him that hath shall be given, and he shall have more abundantly.”
Adapted from Food for the Flock
The Eternal Counsel
In deep, eternal counsel,
Before the world was made,
Before its deep foundations
On nothingness were laid;
God purposed us for blessing,
And chose us in His Son,
To Him to be conformèd,
When here our course was run.
In present, blest acceptance
In Him who came to die;
In Him who now is seated
At Thy right hand in high;
In grace, which is unchanging,
We stand from day to day,
And prove the boundless mercies
Which strew our pilgrim way.
And when the day of glory
Shall burst upon this scene,
Dispelling all the darkness
Which deepening still had been;
Oh, then He’ll come in brightness,
Whom every eye shall see,
Arrayed in power and glory,
And we shall with Him be.
For He who left His glory,
To die upon the tree,
Will soon complete the story
And come again, and we
Conformèd to His image
As known, be brought to know,
And with increasing fervor,
Our ceaseless praises flow.
G. W. Frazer