“According to the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 3:11).
According to this verse, God has an eternal purpose. Some translations will call it “the purpose of the ages.” From eternity past, there was nothing haphazard about what happened. The Lord did not see Israel rejecting His Son, and say “Look at that, Gabriel, I must do something or they’ll crucify My Son.” Of course, nothing like that ever happened.
God had an eternal purpose which He ordained for us in Jesus Christ our Lord, and that eternal purpose is revealed to us in the Bible. It is an orderly revelation. From Genesis to Revelation there is a flow of thought that reveals God is completely in control of what is planned—the purpose of the ages, in Christ Jesus the Lord.
In the first two chapters of Genesis the subject of the Creation is brought before us. In Genesis 3–11 we see the corruption of man, the resulting corruption of God’s creation, and his condemnation. Then in Genesis 12, and throughout the rest of the Bible (but specifically through Exodus 18), we have the Covenant, the promise to Abraham. The rest of the Bible revolves around this covenant. From Exodus 19 all the way through to Malachi at the end of the Old Testament, you have the commandments, that is the law containing the commandments, the covenant of law, which is the commandments as we know them. The rest of the Old Testament is concerned somewhat with that.
When you get to the New Testament, and into the four Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke and John—the theme is that Christ, the Messiah has come. Then from the book of Acts and through the epistles to Revelation chapter 3, the main subject there is the Church, the body of Christ. And from Revelation chapters 4–20, you’ll see the conquest, the great conquest of the Lord. Finally, in the last two chapters of the Bible, Revelation 21–22, you’ll see the consummation of the eternal plan.
Written by Randy Amos