I hope that those of you who were here last week have been waiting with anticipation to hear more about God’s eternal plan for the world. As we’ll see in a moment it’s an eternal plan because he set it out before the creation of the world, because it’s effective right now and because it reaches into the future to the end of time.
Paul begins his letter with the usual greetings to the recipients, then he launches into a hymn of praise. But in fact it’s more than just praise. It’s more like an overture to a great operatic work. Here we find themes that are repeated later in the letter. Yet, like an overture it has an internal unity that allows us to study it by itself as we’re about to do.
Last week we looked at how Paul repeats the phrase “In Christ” over and over again in this passage. So clearly this is an idea that’s central to the letter. The fact that we’re now in Christ is significant for both our salvation and our sanctification, that is, our being changed to be more Christlike.
But there’s another set of phrases that are repeated several times in this short passage. They’re the phrases like “according to his will” or “his good pleasure”, or “according to his purpose.” They’re repeated in vs 5, 7, 9, and 11. But they’re summed up in the phrase in v10 “a plan for the fullness of time”. That is, what Paul is talking about when he talks of God’s will and purpose is God’s eternal plan, set out before the foundation of the world, and set to come to completion at the last day. So what do discover here about God’s plan for the world?
Eternal
You may feel like our building project has been going on for so long it must have an eternal dimension to it. It’s something like 10 or 11 years since we first thought about the idea of us merging our two parishes and it’s still going. But here we read about a plan that dwarfs anything we might be involved in not only by its sheer magnitude, but also by its success. This plan was instituted by God before the foundation of the world. We experience the fruits of it now, and it’ll finally come to completion at the end of time, when God brings all things together under Christ.
Before the creation - he chose us and predestined us
We’re told the plan began when God chose us before the creation of the world. God worked out beforehand everything that would happen. He chose us to be made his children by adoption. And he made us with a task to fulfill which we’ll look at in a moment.
Now –adopted as his children; we have redemption
Right now, in the present, we experience the outworking of that plan as we’re welcomed into his family as his adopted sons and daughters; as we receive the redemption that comes through Christ’s blood, shed on the cross; as we experience our sins being forgiven. And it’s a plan that continues to be worked out in the present as more and more people are accepted into God’s family on the same basis.
For the fullness of time - to gather up all things in him
Thirdly, it’s a plan that stretches forward to a point in the future when God will bring all things to completion in Christ. The phrase used is “the fullness of time” or “when the times will have reached their fulfilment.” It’s the same word that we use for a train or bus terminus. Do you ever wonder about history? Does it just go round and round forever repeating itself? Or is it a linear progression getting better or worse depending on what era you live in? What we find here is that, despite what some people believe, history isn’t meaningless or without purpose. Nor is it an endless cycle. Rather it’s moving towards a final goal, and a glorious one at that. A time will come when all that is will be changed, when everything in heaven and on earth will be brought together in unity under one head, Jesus Christ. This is one of the things I love about St Thomas’. God’s intention for the human race is that all people be united under Christ. His desire is for a world where all people live together in unity. The next two chapters speak of the mystery of the gospel being that the Gentiles are now included in God’s people on equal terms with the Jews. That was the first step to this future reality. Where we are now is bringing people of different racial and cultural backgrounds together into a unity in Christ. But in fact the future reality he talks about here includes all created things. In other words this unity in Christ extends not only to races of people but to the natural world as well. It’ll be a unity that sees the end of ecological damage. It’ll be characterised, according to Isaiah, by the wolf lying down with the lamb, the calf and the lion eating together. And it’ll be a world in which even spiritual forces are at one with God’s purposes. So God’s plan stretches in eternity from the start of time through to the present and on to the end of time.
Trinitarian
The second thing to note about God’s plan is its Trinitarian nature. Last week I pointed out that the idea of being in Christ has a Trinitarian flavour to it. And here we find as this plan is described that all 3 persons of the Trinity have a part in it. v3 is almost a summary of this idea. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.” God the Father, God the Son, and by implication God the Holy Spirit by whose agency these spiritual blessings come about.
God the Father - who blessed us; - who chose us
Paul praises God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in the heavenlies. It’s God the Father who chose us before the creation of the world; who destined us to be adopted as his children; who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will.
Jesus Christ; in Christ; all things under Christ,
But it’s in Christ, or through Christ alone, that all these things come about. Now let me suggest that this is a concept that you must come to grips with if you want to properly understand the Christian gospel. The only way we can stand before God, is if we do so in Christ. The only way we can have our sins forgiven is if we’re in Christ. One of the images that Paul uses later is that of putting on Christ. It’s an image of us being enclosed in Jesus’ person, the way we might put on a cloak that covers us so completely that all you can see is the cloak. But that’s only a poor comparison. When we put on Christ we’re actually incorporated into his being. It’s as though all that we are is now determined not by our own character or our own efforts, but entirely by Christ. So if you’re trying to be holy and blameless before God, as it says in v4, that’s excellent, but unless you’re doing it from the perspective of being in Christ, that is, already accepted and adopted and forgiven because you’re in Christ, then you’re wasting your time. It’s a question of what you want God to see when he looks at you. If he looks at you and sees your efforts to meet his standards, you’re in trouble, because you won’t have met them, no matter how hard you try. But if what God sees when he looks at you is Christ, not you, then you’ll be OK, because Christ has met those standards.
Sealed by the promised Holy Spirit, the pledge of our inheritance
Thirdly, the way we know now that what God has promised will come true is that we have his pledge in the form of the Holy Spirit, sent to dwell within us. In fact the Spirit himself is a sign that God keeps his promises. He’s God’s promised Holy Spirit. God promised to send him in the Old Testament. Jesus promised his disciples that he would send him to them. So the fact that we experience his presence with us today is a reminder that God’s promises can be trusted.
Did you notice that Paul uses two different but related words to describe this idea of the Spirit as a pledge? First he speaks of the Spirit as a ‘seal’. The seal is a mark of ownership or of authenticity, indicating that we belong to God, that we’re truly his children by adoption. But he also calls the Holy Spirit God’s deposit or pledge by which God shows he’s in earnest when he promises to bring us safely to our final inheritance. It’s like the deposit you pay on the purchase of a house. It’s the first payment that secures your legal claim on the property and it’s also the first instalment on the final purchase price. So it is with the Holy Spirit. In giving him to us God isn’t just promising us our final inheritance, he’s also giving us a foretaste of it; that is, he’s giving us our first experience of being part of his family, connected to him in a personal way.
Christ Centred but intimately involving us
Thirdly, if God’s plan is Eternal and if it’s Trinitarian, it’s also both Christ centred and at the same time intimately involving us. So let’s look at where we fit in this eternal plan of God’s?
Our place in God’s plan
We were chosen to bring praise and glory to God
He tells us that we’ve been chosen with one purpose in mind: to bring praise and glory to God. Some Christians seem to think that God’s purpose is actually to make them happy. So they’re surprised when something happens that makes them sad or that upsets their plans for themselves. But they’re way out aren’t they? That theory derives more from popular culture than from the Bible. God’s plan for us isn’t to make us happy, though that might be a by-product of us doing what he wants us to. No, what he wants of us is that we bring him glory and praise. He wants the people of St Thomas’ Burwood to be a byword for godly living. He wants people to look at us, talk about us, with praise, because they see God at work in our midst. Not praise for us, notice, but praise for God.
We were brought in through the preaching of the gospel
Next notice that the means by which we entered into this cosmic plan was the preaching of the gospel: “13when you had heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and had believed in him.” This is why we need to constantly remind one another that the preaching of the gospel is critical to the life of the Church. This is why the first line of our mission statement is “Speak the Gospel”: because people come to Christ through hearing the Gospel. No-one will hear the gospel unless we tell it to them.
To be holy and blameless before him in love
But then we discover that our calling isn’t just to the heavenly realm. We mustn’t be so heavenly minded that we’re no earthly use. No, we’re chosen for a purpose: to be holy and blameless before him in love (v4). Part of God’s plan is that his people show, by their lives, the sort of world God intended us to live in. He wants us to live holy and blameless lives so we reflect his character to the world.
The Focus: Always to God’s Glory.
Finally notice the focus of this eternal plan. Always in God’s economy the focus is on the glory of God. Everything God has done is to the praise of his glory. Our life as a Church, our preaching of the gospel, our final redemption and rising to eternal life will result in God’s name being praised.
Notice that there’s lots in here about what God has done and not a huge amount about what we’re to do. Later in the letter he’ll address our response to God’s amazing grace and mercy but for now just notice those two things I’ve already mentioned. First our life as a Church should result in God being glorified. If that isn’t the case then we need to do something about it. We need to work out whether our life as a Church is transparent to those around us or are we hidden away from the sight of our neighbours? Do we talk about the life we enjoy here at St Thomas’ or do we hide the fact that we belong to God’s church?
Secondly we need to be speaking about the gospel to those around us or they’ll never be able to experience the joy of knowing God and will never learn to praise his name. That may be the same as what I just said. It might just be talking about the church God has put here for us to be part of; talking about the grace and mercy of a God who lowered himself to become one of us; of the sense of peace that comes from knowing that God is looking after us.
God’s great, eternal, cosmic plan is being worked out day by day and we’re part of it. I hope you’ll go away from our service today excited by the fact that you’re part of the greatest project in human history - the salvation of the human race.
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