If one is given a bow and arrow and a target with a bull’s eye, a purpose is logically defined—aim, shoot, and hit the bull’s eye. To shoot arrows randomly is without purpose and certainly without reward. The Father has a divine purpose for Himself and mankind, and man may randomly seek one way or another, but to hit the mark is the ultimate in God’s plan and purpose.
The message of the eternal purpose of God continues but is becoming more focused as the foundation of understanding the new birth and that of inheritance and calling has been laid in previous episodes. An important point was made in the previous discussion on inheritance; and that is that the believer’s inheritance is intricately intertwined with God’s inheritance, so that our inheritance is complete as God’s inheritance is fulfilled. So here, too, we will find that the plan and purpose for every believer’s life is intricately intertwined with God’s eternal plan and purpose for His creation.
If we have a plan for our lives, we have set forth a series of actions or steps to achieve a goal. This plan may take years or a lifetime to fulfill upon which a secular goal will end with death, but a spiritual goal will continue on into eternity. Why such a plan established and pursued in the first place defines the purpose for the plan; it is the reason or reasons why we do it; it is what gives meaning to our lives. In the natural things like success, power, authority, security, financial gain, and pride often define the purpose. Spiritually, faith, obedience, humility, submission, and the love of God governs our purpose and sets forth the plan for this earthly walk.
Status Quo
There is, however, an antithesis to the pursuit of plan and purpose; it disregards the need for it in our lives and denies God having an eternal purpose and ultimate plan for His creation; and this thing that stands in contrast to and in opposition of “Divine purpose” is the acceptance of status quo. Status quo, a Latin phrase meaning “the existing state of affairs.” It is used to refer to the present situation or state of affairs which is considered normal, what we do on a regular basis. You may have heard someone say something similar to, “we’ve been doing it this way for as long as I can remember; it is the way we have done it and will continue to do it.” That statement defines status quo. It locks the individual in a short-sighted current condition.
While it may be true that maintaining status quo might be good in some instances, such as defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman, many in today’s society may object to this status quo and want to approve same sex marriages. The greatest harm to maintaining status quo is in the Church today. The Church seems to have evolved to a point where things have become rigidly defined and practices have become routine; denominations are often defined by a narrow set of doctrines, ordination conferred by the successful completion of a set of courses, services are structured and predictable, and rituals are routinely practiced as memorials or duties.
In this scenario the status quo confines believers to a box, and in that box is everything one needs to believe in order to gain salvation, to worship, and to do service, and to stay busy until we die and go to heaven. Status quo creates a “static” unchanging church which, while honoring God outwardly, is filled with “good” people behaving as puppets whose strings are manipulated by those in authority, all locked into this system called religion. These are hard words, difficult to receive, and in all reality describes a church as an organization instead of a vibrant, dynamic, living organism known as the Body of Christ; a Church sharing in the plan and purpose of God for their lives; a participation that brings forth continual change in lives.
Some scriptures to consider are: Eph. 3.11 – what is “the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord;” and, what does it mean in Rm. 8.28 – “that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose;” and just what is that knowledge in Eph. 1.9 that God supposedly “made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself,” and finally, the question posed by Eph. 3.9 – “what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ.” These are extremely powerful scriptures in which the revelation of, or spiritual understanding leads us to understand more fully the eternal purpose of God.
Do you see that when we begin to search out the deep things of God, His purposes, His mysteries, His plan for our lives, religion has no answer for this, other than an academic knowledge of the Word of God. These answers come from, not the pursuit of strict religion, but by progressive revelation by the Spirit of Christ. This knowledge is living, it is life changing, it is transforming, it is the power of God at work in our lives. Let’s now poke and probe into these thoughts of God for our lives.
A Glimpse into the Eternal Purpose
Have you ever peeked through a narrow opening in a door to see who or what is on the other side? There is a whole world on the other side, but you are only able to get a small glimpse of it. I know a woman who grew up in a small village on the isle of Sicily. The Mediterranean Sea was just 10 miles away, and she never knew it existed. She only knew life in the village. But then a day of awakening happened, and she eventually came to the United Sates. She experienced an altogether different world. The apostle Paul said it this way, 1 Cor. 13.12– “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face, for now I know in part.”
Our knowledge may be imperfect today compared to what it will be in the age to come, but the good news is that “something” of God is becoming known, something spiritual and eternal, and the world has no knowledge of, for it lies in darkness. When the disciples asked Jesus why He spoke to the people in parables, Mt. 13.11 — “He answered and said to them, ‘Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.’” It is not because He selects or loves certain people more, but unless we are born anew of the Spirit of Christ we too are in darkness trying to understand with our minds the spiritual things of God, which is futile.
We must remember the all-important principle, of being “in Christ.” 1 Cor. 1.30 — “But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. All the mysteries of God are awaiting to be revealed to those who are “in Christ;” the plans and purposes of God are waiting to be unfolded to those who are “in Christ;” it is only those who are “outside Christ” who, Eph. 4.17-18 — “walk, in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God.”
Divine Purpose and the Trinity of God
We must now understand the Divine purpose as it relates to the trinity of God. For example, if there is an inheritance for God in His creation, as stated in Eph. 1.18 in which Paul prayed for the Church, “the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,” and if our eternal inheritance is intertwined with His, then it would do us well to understand the nature of God and what specifically will be His inheritance and His plan and purpose for our lives.
Consider the closing statement of Paul in 2 Cor. 13.14,
“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.”
This verse clearly involves the trinity of God, The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Christian belief in one God differs from other monotheistic faiths. Christians believe that there is only one God, and only one divine essence, but that the one divine essence is equally shared by three distinct divine persons. God is not merely Yahweh, also known as YHWH or Jehovah, or Allah for example; in reality He is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In other words, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all fully God, possessing identical divine attributes, each being self-existent, eternal, and are unchanging and perfect. Being fully equal, none is more or less God than the other, yet are distinct from one another. This is known as the Trinity of God and is unique to our Christian faith.
If God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and God has an inheritance in the Saints, then all three have an inheritance involving the saints, believers of the Church of Jesus Christ. The Father stands to inherit a family, the Son will inherit a bride, and the Holy Spirit will inherit an eternal dwelling place. Let’s look more closely at each, discussing each in separate messages.
For The Father – Establishing a Paternal Relationship
Though all mankind may be considered the creative children of God, those born of the spirit and of the seed of Christ become the procreative children of God, which means a new life is produced within the believer; it is receiving God’s own eternal life, becoming His spiritual offspring. It does not mean a reforming of the old natural life, for that is now, by faith, considered dead. How amazing this is, a true miracle. It is the unveiling of the mystery of the new birth. It is written in Jn. 1.12-13,
“But as many as received Him (meaning Christ Jesus), to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”
Born of God. To the Father, His eternal purpose is achieved in this spiritual filial or family relationship with many sons and daughters. God may have a creator/created relationship with His creation, but also has a Father/child relationship with believers born of His Spirit. All other attempts at religion fall short and have no effect on God achieving His purpose in His creation. So, any thought of heaven or hell, or the afterlife, or eternity, without first considering a Divine relationship and spiritual fellowship fall infinitesimally short of God achieving His eternal purpose for His people.
This is an awesome promise, to be born again of the seed of Christ; yes, it is of the actual spiritual seed of Christ. (See also 1 Pet. 1.23) This establishes once, for all time, our relationship with God as our Father. As the life of God is in Christ, and the seed of Christ is in us, we are now, this day, a member of the family of God. Those about you are not merely fellow members of a church, much more, they are your brothers and sisters in Christ. Though our bodies are still in need of redemption, by way of the resurrection, and our souls are day by day being transformed, we are presently spiritually alive to God. We are in that spiritual position to draw near to Him and to know His fellowship. Read with me these profound words from Ephesians 3:14-21
”For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”
This passage speaks of the “whole” family of God. This does not mean all of creation. Rather, “the whole family” means all His children, born of His Spirit, all that bear the same name derived from His Son, Christians, and all now belong to this one family. The following hymn is from an unknown source…
“Let saints on earth unite to sing
With those to glory gone;
For all the servants of our King,
In earth and heaven, are one.
“One family we dwell in him,
One Church above, beneath;
Though now divided by the stream,
The narrow stream, of death.” Source unknown
Our Ephesian verse concludes with, “according to the power that works in us” – This power of which this passage speaks is Divine powers working in us; it is not just some type of an invisible magical power at work in us, but is actually the fellowship of our Father who exhorts, corrects, disciplines, and who not only speaks of His plans and purposes, but invites us, His children, to grow up as “sons” and become an active partner in His plans. This is divine truth, spiritual reality. Thus, in relationship, we are born into the family of God, He is our Father; and in fellowship we grow in the power of His spiritual life that works in us, to transform us in likeness, or similarity to His only begotten Son, and to do those things which pleases Him. We are becoming the Father’s inheritance.
Communion of the Family. God saves individuals; salvation is not something just granted to the multitudes in the earth. Once saved we then become a member of His family, with brothers and sisters born of the same seed, regardless of race, gender, wealth, education, or social status. We become “one” as the family of God. At supper, He sits at the head of the table, for He is our Father and must be accorded that honor.
The Old Testament Passover was essentially a family feast; it was to be eaten as a household; as God instructed Moses, Ex. 12.3 — “Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying: ‘On the tenth of this month every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household.” God also instructed that, Ex. 12.48 —“… no uncircumcised person shall eat it.” In like-manner today, one not born into the family of God shall not participate at the communion meal, for the family of God in Christ Jesus are those circumcised not in the flesh but in the heart, as it is written, in Roman’s 2.29, “he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter;” It is a meal very soberly reserved for the family of God.
The Passover was a shadow of the Lord’s Supper to come. The Lord ’s Supper fulfilled and replaced the Passover meal; what the Passover was to the natural and temporal, the Lord’s Supper is now to the spiritual and eternal. It was established in the upper room when Christ and the twelve sat to eat the family meal. Christ, who declared, Jn. 10.30 — “I and the Father are one,” and, Jn. 14.9 —“He who has seen Me has seen the Father,” was the head of the household; the disciples were as members of His family. It was a family meal with Christ as the head, sitting at the head of the table. Fellowship occurred around the meal, the disciples with one another and with their Lord Jesus Christ.
The formality of the Church today in celebrating the Lord’s Supper seems to mask over the concept of the family, for the idea of the family brings into view the deepest thought of Christian unity— 1 Cor. 10.17 — “For we, though many, are one bread and one body; for we all partake of that one bread.” If we look about the family, we all possess a common life, each being born of the seed of Christ; without any effort on our part we have become children of the Father; we are bonded together, not by formal pledge or commitment, or by natural birth, but by a new birth into a spirit relationship and have become true brothers and sisters; we become a family and brethren to all God’s children.
This meal was a time of fellowship as the disciples were instructed of things to come, they were encouraged in adversity, and admonished for foolishness of thought. He comforted them and gave to them a sense of peace, joy, and of hope for the future. Our Father so sits with us at the table, communing with us as we with Him. There remains yet a fuller time of fellowship as we look to His coming and the consummating all things in heaven and earth. Jesus hinted to this glorious sitting at meal together, Lk. 22.15-16, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before My suffering. For I tell you that I will not eat it again until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.”
Our faith expects this to come and anticipates its fulfillment. So do you see, our inheritance is part and parcel with our Father’s inheritance in the saints. The culmination of His plan and purpose is the end product of our pursuit all of our lives.
Following episodes are the discussions of the inheritances of the Son Jesus Christ and that of the Holy Spirit.
S1.E4. The Eternal Purpose: The Father: Questions for Discussions
- What is maintaining “status quo” Church today, and how is it a hindrance to moving forward into the purpose of God?
- Explain “purpose” and “mystery” as used in Eph. 1.9, 3.9, and 3.11, and Rm. 8.28.
- Briefly explain “our” inheritance in Christ, and how is that different than ”God’s” inheritance.
- Explain the nature of God the Father’s paternal relationship with us, His children. Cite a few key scriptures.
- The Lord’s supper is a most holy and sacred sacrament. Explain.