BEFORE THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD

God had a plan before the foundation of the world, and it is ‘this plan’ that unfolds in scripture, expressed in covenant. From eternity God’s desire has been to reveal Himself, and all creation is God’s way of doing so. It is through humanity, though, that His ultimate plan is to be realized. No events throughout the ages, beginning with Adam, have taken God by surprise. Nothing has deterred Him from fulfilling His purpose.

". . . God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began." II Tim.1:8, 9

When we look at the Lord Jesus, "the brightness of God’s glory and the express image of His person," we see God realizing His desire. But when we look at His activity with His Bride (the Church), we see God seeking His expression in a fuller way – beyond the individual person of the Lord Jesus and beyond the individual believer – to reproduce Himself in the corporate [Body of] Christ, His many - membered family. It is through the Body of Christ that God will be "ALL in ALL" and will "fill the earth with His glory." (See also Eph. 4:13-16)

Regrettably, most Christian teachings are centered on man, portraying God as man’s need-meeter:

• For those who are primarily occupied with personal salvation, their teachings are focused on the redemption of man – beginning with man’s fall into sin and ending with man’s redemption and getting to heaven. But since it starts with man, it ends with man and what man gets. While we certainly do not discount redemption, we must recognize that it is only part of God’s plan, and not the whole.

• The emphasis of others is in establishing God’s kingdom and His righteous government on the earth. Starting with Adam as king in the garden, they end with man as universal king on the earth. This teaching tends to focus on man and what God will do through him. We can all agree that God intends to rule and reign through His Church, but the scope of God’s purpose is broader than ruling on the earth.

• Then there are those who start with the Eternal God as Creator. Beginning with God in His Genesis creation, they seek to find meaning and reason for this vast creation. This framework seems to stop with man transformed into the image of God and finally enjoying all that God intended in a "new creation" – still focused on man and what we get. This emphasis also neglects to see individual believers as a part a whole, the corporate Christ as ‘one man.’ Indeed, God purposes to transform believers into His image, but to begin at creation misses what God planned before the foundation of the ages. Again, this is a part of God’s purpose, but not the whole.

If we don’t begin from God’s point of view, we end up with man at the center. But if we begin before the foundation of the ages, before Genesis 1:1, we start from another point of view. We start from this question: what is God’s intent? Answering that question is like Galileo discovering that the earth wasn’t at the center of the universe; the sun was. We are not the center of the universe; the Son is.

It’s easy to live as if we are the center of the universe. We wouldn’t ever say it, or even think it consciously, but we can live as if God is here for us: God is here to bless us, to be successful, prosperous; God has to respond to our faith; God is obligated to bless us if we do the right things. All of which mean that man is the center of the universe.

If we start before the foundation of the world, though, we discover that God has a plan – a plan conceived before time began. Paul revealed God’s plan most clearly in the first chapter of Ephesians.

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. . ." (Eph. 1:3) It is absolutely God’s intent to bless us. In fact, He has already blessed us with every possible blessing in the heavenly (spiritual) realm.

". . . just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world. . ." (Eph. 1:4) God had purpose for us before the foundation of the world. He chose us for that purpose.

". . . that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself. . ." (Eph. 1:4b-5a) God’s plan involved having a host of sons and daughters – a family – who would be holy and blameless in His sight. Through the subjection of the Son to the cross, God intends to bring all of humanity into glory (Heb. 2:10).

". . . according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved." (Eph. 1:5a-6; see also Eph. 1:12, 14) The Body of Christ exists for the praise of His glory. And He "works all things after the counsel of His will" (Eph. 1:11b) to accomplish that purpose. And what exactly is it that glorifies God? What has He set out to accomplish before the foundation of the ages?

"In all wisdom and insight He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Christ; He planned in the fullness of the times to sum up all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth." (Eph. 1:8-10) God’s plan was to bring into being a host of sons and daughters whom He would indwell; through whom He would live and manifest Himself; and in and through whom Christ would reign supreme. We are the beneficiaries of that plan. God, in His love and grace, has made us a part of His plan. But we are not the center – Christ is. We are participants in the plan, participants whom God loves and cherishes and nourishes, as a husband does his bride (Eph. 5:25-32).

We are God’s inheritance. We tend to focus on what we inherit in Christ, but we are God’s inheritance: "I pray that the eyes of your heart will be enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints" (Eph. 1:18)." His inheritance is His Body – the corporate Christ – accomplishing His purpose.

And though the Bible records man’s fall, that calamity has not done one thing to change God’s purpose. In fact, Adam's choice in the garden was a part of His plan (see Divine Humanity by John Gavazzoni).  His intention was always to have a vast family of sons and daughters. The fall did not deter that plan. God incorporates our redemption into that plan, but the plan’s goal is still the same. We are here for the praise of His glory. Romans 11:36 amplifies this marvelous truth: "For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever." From– everything comes from God. Through – by means of Him. To – the ultimate end is into Him, not unto us.

When we look at the cross, we see Christ’s work on our behalf. Praise God for that truth. Even more than that, though, the cross was God’s work on His own behalf. Through the cross God accomplished what He needed to fulfill His own eternal purposes, that ALL things might be summed up in Christ (Eph. 1:10).

Christ lives in us to manifest His life through us. Christ in us accomplishes His own purposes. Part of His purpose is intimacy with us, but His plan encompasses more than that. He is working toward His own ends, and we are the vessels through which He works. We are the visible manifestation of what God is doing, with Himself as the ultimate goal, "that God may be ALL in ALL" (I Cor. 15:28). That is why the Father wants us to be filled up with ALL the fullness of God (Eph. 1:23).