Two weeks ago we left off talking about the mystery of God’s will, revealed, or made manifest in these last days, according to God’s plan and purpose.
It is a mystery that, says Paul, had been kept secret for long ages past.
We glean from scripture that Lucifer, one of three archangels given names in the Bible, rose up in rebellion against his Creator, intending to take the throne. Now we don’t know when that happened. We don’t know if it was shortly after creation, or somewhere back in the eons of eternity. One hint we get is in the passage I’ll be reading to you in a moment, where God says of him, “...You had the seal of perfection; full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering; “
Those may be separate thoughts about this one to whom God is talking, but it could also be taken that after creation, and after God gave this particular angel rule over the beauty of Eden, his heart then became full of pride for his own beauty and he fell.
It is not made clear; but let’s look at what we do know.
In Ezekiel 28:11-19 the prophet speaks against the evil of the king of Tyre, and that king seems to represent Satan. As the prophecy progresses it becomes obvious that the Holy Spirit, through Ezekiel, is not talking about any mortal man:
“Again the word of the Lord came to me saying, ‘Son of man, take up a lamentation over the king of Tyre, and say to him, Thus says the Lord God, You had the seal of perfection; full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering; the ruby, the topaz, and the diamond; the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper; the lapis lazuli, the turquoise, and the emerald; and the gold, the workmanship of your settings and sockets, was in you. On the day that you were created they were prepared. You were the anointed cherub who covers, and I placed you there. You were on the holy mountain of God; you walked in the midst of the stones of fire. You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created, until unrighteousness was found in you. By the abundance of your trade you were internally filled with violence, and you sinned; therefore I have cast you as profane from the mountain of God. And I have destroyed you, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom by reason of your splendor. I cast you to the ground; I put you before kings, that they may see you. By the multitude of your iniquities, in the unrighteousness of your trade, you profaned your sanctuaries. Therefore I have brought fire from the midst of you; it has consumed you, and I have turned you to ashes on the earth in the eyes of all who see you. All who know you among the peoples are appalled at you; you have become terrified, and you will be no more’.”
The prophet Isaiah gives us a more specific picture of the actual rebellion itself, in chapter 14, verses 12-14
“How you have fallen from heaven, O star of the morning, son of the dawn! You have been cut down to the earth, you who have weakened the nations! But you said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God, and I will sit on the mount of assembly in the recesses of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High’.”
Was God taken by surprise? Did Lucifer, referred to as ‘star of the morning, son of the dawn’, disappoint God and force Him to come up with some plan to save His universe?
Hardly. It is my belief that this mystery we’re talking about here... this secret plan of God, hidden from long ages past, was discussed by the Holy Trinity, determined and finished long before Lucifer was even created.
If you’ve never read C. S. Lewis’ “The Chronicles of Narnia”, I recommend them to you. They are supposedly children’s books, but there is much for the adult Christian to learn from them too.
In the first of the series, “The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe”, four human children who have been transported magically to the world of Narnia, are having their adventures there. It is a place where a Lion named Aslan is symbolic of Christ, and an evil witch is representative of Satan. Edmund, one of the human children, has turned traitor and helped the White Witch find the other children, but Aslan has come on the scene to save the day. I want to read just a few extracted portions of this story for you:
“You have a traitor there, Aslan,” said the Witch. Of course everyone present knew that she meant Edmund. But Edmund had got past thinking about himself after all he’d been through and after the talk he’d had that morning. He just went on looking at Aslan. It didn’t seem to matter what the Witch said.
“Well,” said Aslan. “His offence was not against you.”
“Have you forgotten the Deep Magic?” asked the Witch.
“Let’s say I have forgotten it,” answered Aslan gravely. “Tell us of this Deep Magic.”
“Tell you?” said the Witch, her voice growing suddenly shriller. “Tell you what is written on that very Table of Stone which stands beside us? Tell you what is written in letters deep as a spear is long on the trunk of the World Ash Tree? Tell you what is engraved on the scepter of the Emperor-Beyond-the-Sea? You at least know the magic which the Emperor put into Narnia at the very beginning. You know that every traitor belongs to me as my lawful prey and that for every treachery I have a right to a kill.”
Now I’ll fill in the story for you and skip ahead for the sake of time. Aslan offers himself in exchange for Edmund. Edmund goes free, and late that night Aslan surrenders himself to the witch and her evil hordes, who torture him, tie him to the Table of Stone and kill him.
The next morning, two of the human children, Lucy and Susan, are crying in the woods because they witnessed from a distance what had happened. Suddenly there is a loud CRACK!
They run to see what has happened, and find the Table of Stone broken in two and Aslan alive and well and looking grander than ever before.
“Oh, Aslan,” cried both the children, staring up at him, almost as much frightened as they were glad.
“Aren’t you dead then, dear Aslan?” said Lucy.
“Not now,” said Aslan.
“You’re not - not a -?” asked Susan in a shaky voice. She couldn’t bring herself to say the word ghost.
Aslan stooped his golden head and licked her forehead. The warmth of his breath and a rich sort of smell that seemed to hang about his hair came all over her.
“Do I look it?” he said.
“Oh, you’re real, you’re real! Oh, Aslan!” cried Lucy and both girls flung themselves upon him and covered him with kisses.
“But what does it all mean?” asked Susan when they were somewhat calmer.
“It means,” said Aslan, “that though the Witch knew the Deep Magic, there is a magic deeper still which she did not know. Her knowledge goes back only to the dawn of Time. But if she could have looked a little further back, into the stillness and the darkness before Time dawned, she would have read there a different incantation. She would have known that when a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor’s stead, the Table would crack and Death itself would start working backwards.”
It’s an allegory and not scripture, of course. But it helps to demonstrate revealed scriptural truth.
The glory is, that this mystery, hidden from long ages past, is now made manifest. It is revealed in its completion, in Christ. There is no longer any need to keep the secret, because the plan reached its fruition; the victory was won, when He died on Calvary’s cross. The Table of Stone was broken; that is, the dividing wall broken down, the decree of our debt was taken out of the way, an innocent who had committed no treason stood in the place of the traitor, and he crushed the serpent‘s head.
So let’s talk about what has been revealed.
Simply stated, what has been revealed by the coming and ministry of Christ, is God’s plan of redemption. Now that is all inclusive. It is not talking only about the day of the crucifixion and Christ’s subsequent resurrection and ascension.
It is a reference to His entire plan of reconciling back to Himself, all that was lost in the Fall.
We as believers are redeemed. Yet our bodies are not yet glorified and we do not dwell in the Heavenly realm, side by side with angels and standing literally before the Throne. God has not made His new heavens and new earth. All of that, from our perspective, is yet to come. And it is all part of the redemptive plan.
In Hebrews 2:8,9 the writer says:
“For in subjecting all things to him, He left nothing that is not subject to him. But now we do not yet see all things subjected to him. But we do see Him who has been made for a little while lower than the angels, namely, Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone.”
Nevertheless, the plan has been revealed, the mystery has been made known. Satan is a defeated foe, thrashing about and doing all the damage he can in these last days because he knows his time is short.
“Love’s redeeming work is done,
Fought the fight, the battle won,
alleluia!”
- C. Wesley
Looking now again at verse 10 of our text:
“...with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things upon the earth.”
This ‘summing up’ refers to a reunion. A reuniting of all things with their Creator, the rightful Heir of all things by virtue of His sacrifice.
In Colossians 1:15-20 we read:
“And He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities - all things have been created by Him and for Him. And He is before all things and in Him all things hold together. He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the first-born from the dead; so that He himself might come to have first place in everything. For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.”
and again over in chapter 2 verse 10,
“...and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority...”
In the beginning of the creation, there was only order and unity and perfection. At the end of each creation day God looked about at His works and declared them to be good.
All of creation, from the vegetation to the creatures of the sea and land, to the first man himself, was in perfect harmony with God and with one another.
As a result of the fall that harmony was destroyed. Unity ceased to exist and creation fell immediately into discord.
Romans 8:20,21 says “For the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption...”
Back in chapter 5 of Romans Paul writes, “...just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned - “ (vs 12)
There is plenty of evidence all around us to prove the destruction that was brought to creation through sin. It is a simple fact of life that only fools would attempt to deny.
When I go for my morning walks I see it. I look at the fields and see thorns and thistles. I see dead trees and an occasional dead bird or other small animal. At the edge of a field of sheep I saw the leg and hind quarters of a lamb, apparently killed and eaten by coyotes; another indication of the violence and disharmony brought on by the Fall. I witness man’s struggle against death and disorder as they rise early to water or to till the ground. I think about my wife’s job in the hospital lab and realize that her work only exists because sin was introduced into the world and death through sin.
I am not a scientist, but I understand that true science has determined that the second law of thermodynamics defines an increase in randomness or disorder in the universe.
This idea is diametrically opposed to the theory of the evolutionists, who say that species evolve into better and higher states of being; but actually, the evolutionists themselves prove this notion of increase in randomness or disorder, in that the longer they talk, the more their absurdity increases.
The day Adam sinned he set into motion a process of death and destruction that has grown in its intensity over the centuries, and if left unchecked would eventually result in the disjointed, reasonless, meaningless end of all things.
But the mystery revealed to us now at the end of the ages, is that God will ultimately restore His harmony, and reunite all things in Christ.
What will that be like?
First, let’s be very clear that by saying “all things”, Paul is not teaching some kind of ‘universalism’; that in the end everyone will be brought into the kingdom of God no matter what choices they made in this life, or what their deeds were.
The scriptures make it very clear throughout, that those who rejected God and His Christ will spend eternity apart from Him, and there is no provision made anywhere for some later purging; some after-death cleansing.
I Corinthians 6:9 is one of the many places that warns:
“Or do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God?”
Jesus Himself warned about Hell in the gospels, more than He talked about Heaven.
And He said, “I am the way, the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me” (Jn 14:6)
The Good Shepherd is not going to let the wolves in among His sheep. He is not going to cheat the faithful by rewarding the faithless.
Paul can rightly say that there will be a summing up of ‘all things’ in Christ, because that and those outside of Christ will remain outside.
They will be outside of His new heaven and new earth. They will be outside of His kingdom; outside the realm of this harmony He will ultimately restore.
God sees the fulfillment of His plan and speaks of it as a thing already done ~ and in the end only that which is redeemed by His blood and restored to Him will be counted. Therefore, “all things in Christ” will be reunited; things in the heavens and things upon the earth.
So what will it be like?
First and foremost, we will see Him as He is. We will worship at His throne. He will reward us with crowns! Listen!
“...in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing.” (II Tim. 4:8)
and again, in I Peter 5:4,
“And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory”
Of course, we will cast those crowns at His feet, acknowledging that only He is worthy to wear the crown as Head and King over all.
We will stand with the angels and sing His praises. Revelation 5:11-13
“And I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders; and the number of them was myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing”. And every created thing which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all things in them, I heard saying, “To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever.”
We will stand by and watch the heavens, destroyed by burning, and the elements melt with intense heat. Then we will gaze in amazement as He creates His new heavens and new earth where perfect righteousness will reign. (II Peter 3:12,13)
We will see, finally, the vindication of all the martyrs of all the ages; and our own vindication for all that we suffer in His name, as His enemies are made a footstool for His feet (Heb 1:13 10:12,13)
Isaiah tells us:
“...the wolf will dwell with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the kid, and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little boy will lead them. Also the cow and the bear will graze; their young will lie down together; and the lion will eat straw like the ox. And the nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra. And the weaned child will put his hand on the viper’s den.
The will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the
knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.”
Isa. 11:6-9
We will stand and witness, as Buddha and Muhammad, and Confucius and Marx and Lennon and Voltaire, and Bertrand Russell and Madelyn Murray O’Hare, and Satan himself, all bow the knee and confess with their mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
What will it be like; this reunion?
It will finally be perfect peace and eternal bliss. It will be the perfect realization of all the spiritual blessings with which He has blessed us in the heavenly places.
It will be the love and comfort of all our loved ones who have been assembled by His Holy Spirit, without any of the tensions or prejudices or squabbles or differences that have marred our relationships through these years in the flesh.
Perfect harmony in Him, enjoying in fact, the unity that He has already established by His Spirit and according to the working of His own will.
We will be lords over creation; but not only in the sense that Adam was given lordship over Eden. I Corinthians 6:2,3 says,
“Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world?” and in verse 3,
“Do you not know that we shall judge angels?”
We shall rule and reign with Him for eternity, with perfect confidence that there will be no end, no interruption, no shaking of this blood-purchased harmony for ever and ever!
Listen to I Corinthians 2:7-9:
“...but we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom, which God predestined before the ages to our glory; the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory; but just as it is written,
‘THINGS WHICH EYE HAS NOT SEEN AND EAR HAS NOT HEARD, AND WHICH HAVE NOT ENTERED THE HEART OF MAN, ALL THAT GOD HAS PREPARED FOR THOSE WHO LOVE HIM’.”
I have to ask you; do you know these things? Do you realize the truth of them?
Do you know that you belong to Him through faith in His shed blood, and do you realize that as one of His redeemed you are, now, an heir of God and joint-heir with His Christ?
Are you confident that you will be a part of the ‘all’ referred to in Ephesians 1:10?
When all things in heaven and on earth are summed up in Christ, will you be there?
If you’ve never confessed with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believed in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, then I call you today to turn from sin and self to Him. All that are not His will be cast out. But He promises that He will certainly not cast out any who come to Him in faith.
Come to Him today and accept Him as your substitute. Today, death can start working backwards for you. He can cleanse you and give you life. He will count you with the ‘all things’ of Ephesians 1:10
“And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He shall dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be among them, and He shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there shall no longer be any death; there shall no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away. And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new”, and He said, “Write, for these words are faithful and true”. and He said to me, “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost. He who overcomes shall inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son.”
...
The great Reunion.
