Every spiritual blessing, Part 4
The mystery of God's will
Ephesians 1v8b-10
5th February 2016
We're looking at the verses in Ephesians Chapter 1 in which Paul spells out what he means when he says:
Ephesians 1v3
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.
We've studied verses 4-8a and now we move on to:
Ephesians 1v8b-10
With all wisdom and understanding,
he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ,
to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfilment - to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth
under Christ.
The idea that God would come to earth in human form, allow Himself to be executed by crucifixion, lie dead for three days, and then rise again, and that He endured all this so that you and I could have our sins forgiven and could become children of God, would be an outrageous claim, if not for the fact that it's true.
God has revealed it to us.
The wisdom of God is not like human wisdom. God knew that the only way justice could be satisfied would be for Him to take the punishment for our sin on Himself, so He did. And He reveals this to you and me.
And when we accept God's amazing offer of freedom from sin and total forgiveness for all we've done wrong, then we begin to grow in wisdom. God sends His Holy Spirit to make us wise. He explains the Bible to us, so we understand. The Bible teaches us about God, and about mankind, and about justice, and ethics, and history, about earth and heaven and hell, about angels and demons and guilt and freedom and love and forgiveness and power and community and faithfulness, and many other things. It's filled with God's wisdom, which is far beyond the wisdom of human philosophers.
There's more knowledge in a university than a church, but there's more wisdom in a church than a university.
So here's the next spiritual blessing: God made known to us the mystery of His will.
Who are we, that we should understand what God intends to do?
The Bible teaches us about God's plan. God will bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ. He will do this when the times reach their fulfilment. The day will come when Jesus comes back to earth. On that day, as Paul wrote in Philippians 2:10-11, at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Satan will be destroyed and, as Revelation 21:1 says, there will be a new heaven and a new earth, and as verse 4 of that chapter says, There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain.
Praise be to God!