Learning To Cut It Straight
A Lesson In Pauline Theology
Lesson Four
Paul’s Distinctive Teaching Of The Church As The End Or Purpose Of All God’s Dealing With Humanity And Of Creation Itself
The Church is both the purpose of God in creation, and the prime vindication of the whole scheme of things planned by God.
Through a number of texts, Paul reveals the startling fact that the Church is both the goal God had in mind in creation, and through all His dealings with man, and the prime justification of the wisdom of God’s dealings. The average Christian fails to grasp the broad scope, the eternality of the plan of God, Who before the foundation of the world chose the church.
God made man with a free moral will, knowing that he would fall, and that billions would go to hell, lost forever. God knew that there would be a vast torrent of tears flowing like a mighty river through the sons of history, God knew the suffering, the sorrow, the failure of men, the raging of the nations, the gnashing of teeth against God. God knew the blasphemy of man, whereby they would defile His holy Name, yea, God knew the end from the beginning. In the council chambers of God I the past eternity before God ever made one grain of matter or one angel, while He still mused, “Let us make man,” He saw the great white judgment throne, at the end of the whole plan, the last great assize, with the vast unnumbered throng of poor lost souls, the human dross poured off the refining furnace, that the pure gold might remain, and shine the brighter forever, and though He loved those lost multitudes with the same unlimited, infinite love, wherewith He loved the company of the saved, He saw the oh-so-little flock of the blood-washed, the Body of Christ, partakers of His Own nature, and said, “It is worth it all, let us make man in Our Own Image.”
He counted the cost and said, “It is worth it all.” God wanted to share His Own divine Life, and He saw the Church, the Bride of His Son, sharing His Own divine Life, partaking of His Nature, loving and choosing Him freely without compulsion, loving God only because they wanted to do so. He instituted the whole scheme for that end. You can glimpse to a small degree this whole idea, in the price God was willing to give to obtain this Church. “Christ loved the Church and gave Himself for it.” To make a world or a universe, all God had to do was speak the Word, yea, think the thought, and lo – there it stood. If He had wanted a hundred billion universes or galaxies, it would have taken but a word of creative power, but to save one sinful soul, win him from his sin, pay his debt, win his love, wash him clean, to take him into God’s family and home, and give him as part of the Bride of His Son, Christ must have come to earth, suffered and died for him.
· The church is the end or purpose of God in creation for all the ages.
1. All the former dispensations find their converging and culmination upon the Church
1Co 10:11 Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends (telos) of the ages (aion) have come. (MKJV)
Paul illustrates some of the experiences of the Israelites, then says, “All these things happened to them as an example (Bible type), and were written for our admonition (Conybeare, warning) upon whom the ends (Gr. telos – climax, consummation, termination point) of the ages are come (Gr. – met, reached, to arrive). So Paul in many ways shows the supremacy of the present dispensation of grace to that of the Law (Gal. 3:24; 4:1-7.
2. The Church has received God’s best over all the other dispensations.
Heb 11:40 because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they would not be made perfect. (NASB)
This text shows more clearly that Paul doesn’t mean that there is a mere convergence for time upon the Church, but a culminating, summing up, and elevation, “God having provided some better things for us.” He picks the most illustrious of all the old dispensations, and the exploits, but then intimates the least now under this new covenant is far better, as “a son has a higher position than a servant.”
3. The church is the eternal showcase and epitome of God’s kindness and grace.
Eph 2:4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus (NASB)
Eph. 2:4-7 (Especially v. 7) After showing us the kind of grace God gave to such unworthy sinners as we, in quickening us together with Christ, raising us together with Christ in the heavenlies, he says, “that He might point out, openly shew, manifest thoroughly openly, exhibit unto us (in the middle voice-so for His Own glory, for His Own benefit) throughout all the oncoming ages (without end) the surpassing wealth of His grace, in His kindness (benevolent acts) toward us through Christ Jesus.” What does He mean? Simply this, all for His Own glory, He gave His Son to die for us, saved us for His sake, and throughout all eternity, all the oncoming ages. He is going to exhaust infinity just to make me happy forever, exhibiting the surpassing wealth of His grace, being kind to me. Forever, He shall reveal new facets of His infinite nature to me. This makes all our talk of “sacrificing for God” ridiculous.
4. The Church is the fullness/completion of Christ.
Eph 1:22 And He (God the Father) put all things in subjection under His (Jesus) feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, 3 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. (NASB)
Understand that the church adds nothing to Christ’s eternal glory as God by the Church, but is given opportunity to display that glory. The Church is Christ’s Body, “the fullness of Him,” the plentitude of Him, the full development of Him, the complement of Him. As the Bride is the complement of her husband, the other half of him, as the literal body is the complement of the head to complete the fullness of the whole man, so the Church is necessary to complete Christ, as He is incarnate and Savior.
· The Church is the greatest vindication and justification of the purpose of God.
1. The purpose of God is then brought about by His Own will, and purpose, and pleasure or desires, that His wonderful glory might receive all the praise.
So must it always be. it all centers in Him and His glory, and the consummation of the mystery of the Church will so prove.
Eph 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ; 4 according as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, 5 having predestined us to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, in which He has made us accepted in the One having been loved.
7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace, 8 which He caused to abound toward us in all wisdom and understanding; 9 having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself,
10 for an administration of the fullness of times, to head up all things in Christ, both the things in Heaven, and the things on earth, even in Him, 11 in whom also we have been chosen to an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His own will, 12 for us to be to the praise of His glory, who previously had trusted in Christ;
The previous texts seem to center attention upon the Church as the end or purpose within itself, but that is not only foreign to all Scripture, but to Pauline Theology, as well. God, Himself, must be the end or purpose of all things. Eph. 1 carefully guards this great truth, “According to the good pleasure of His will,” “to the praise of the glory of His grace,” v. 9 _According to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself” and v. 11 “According to the purpose of Him Who worketh all things after the counsel of His Own will,” and v. 12 “Unto the praise of His glory” v. 14 “Unto the praise of His glory.” That last expression shows it is all that His doxa (glory) might receive all the praise. Glory seems to be all the virtues, all the Excellencies of His wonderful nature in one blaze of ineffable glory.
2. The multiple dimensions of God’s wisdom is displayed by a singular means.
Eph 3:1 For this cause, I, Paul, am the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you nations, 2 if you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given to me toward you, 3 that by revelation He made known to me the mystery (as I wrote before in few words, 4 by which, when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ) 5 which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it is now revealed to His holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit, 6 that the nations should be fellow heirs, and of the same body, and partaker of His promise in Christ through the gospel. 7 Of this gospel I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given to me by the effectual working of His power. 8 This grace is given to me (who am less than the least of all saints) to preach the gospel of the unsearchable riches of Christ among the nations, 9 and to bring to light what is the fellowship of the mystery which from eternity has been hidden in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ; 10 so that now (Gk. “inahina” “to the intent” has the force of “purpose, design, result – so most literal translations translate it, “in order that” for the sole purpose of ) to the rulers and powers in the heavenlies might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, 11 according to the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord;
In Eph. 3:1-11, We have the grandest sweep of the whole plan and purpose of the ages ever penned by the apostle Paul. Here alone is the only text which plainly reveals this truth. It grandly announces the very purpose of God for all time. Read it carefully, an then note verses 10 and 11. The context plainly shows the Church as a new revelation, and Paul as the revelator, then: Verse 10 makes it plain that “God created all things by Jesus Christ to the intent). So God created all things by Jesus Christ for one single purpose, and all else is secondary and contributory.
What is the purpose?
“That now unto principalities (governments) and powers (authorities) In the heavenlies (all the spiritual creatures fallen and unfallen) might be known by (through or through the means of) the Church. (Note the singular means here or instrumentality), “the manifold wisdom of God.” Eph. 3:10
The greatest admirers shall be angelical hosts
Here is the prime vindication to all spiritual beings of God’s wisdom for making the plan that He did to get the Church.
I have no doubt that spiritual beings have questioned the wisdom of God concerning the course of redemption, but in eternity, God is going to put the Church on exhibition as the prime vindication of His manifold wisdom, THE MANIFOLD WISDOM OF GOD. One word in the Greek is “polupoikilos,” literally, “the richly variegated wisdom of God. Diaglot “Much diversified wisdom of God,” Williams “Many phases of God’s wisdom,” Berkeley, “the many-sided wisdom of God.”
Here only in the Bible – taken from “a cloth or painting of many colors” (Thayer). I call it, “the multi-faceted wisdom of God.” Not the singular wisdom we possess, but the infinite wisdom of God which could know to all perfection before He started the best possible course to pursue to obtain the desired end, and He is going to exhibit the Church to prove it, says Paul.
Eph 3:11 according to the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord;
Verse 11 confirms this “According to (Gk. “in agreement with” kata) the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus, our Lord,. How emphatic this is! God created all things because of, or in agreement with, a fixed eternal plan of the ages, which He formed for His anointed Son, Christ Jesus.
This plan devolves upon the Church as the one Body of His Son, and this Church shall be put on exhibition throughout eternity as EXHIBIT A to the richly variegated wisdom of God in taking the plan that He did.
Note the hymn of, or psalm of Paul – Rom. 11:33-36. First, God’s manifold wisdom “O the depths of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out.” Then v. 36 “For of Him (as to its source) and through Him (as to the instrumental cause) and to Him (as to its ultimate end or purpose) are all things to whom be glory forever. Amen.”
3. The glory of the church will be fully exhibited by God.
Not of any intrinsic worth of us, nor any human attribute, but of the internal Christ within us, His glory, the glory of the new creation within us, which Paul calls, “Christ in you the hope of glory.” What a wonder that God chose the redeemed personality as the vehicle to display the glory.
2Th 1:10 when He comes to be glorified in His saints on that day, and to be marveled at (Admired by) among all who have believed--for our testimony to you was believed. 11 To this end also we pray for you always, that our God will count you worthy of your calling, and fulfill every desire for goodness and the work of faith with power, 12 so that the name of our Lord Jesus will be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.