Sermon Tone Analysis

STEM Publishing*:* The writings of J. N. Darby*:* The Purpose of God

The Purpose of God

J. N. Darby.

{Geneva, about 1839.

Translated from the French.}

<02010E> 266

"Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself; that in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth."

Ephesians 1: 9, 10.

Introduction

The good pleasure of the Godhead was that all its fulness should dwell and manifest itself in Christ.

Such was the purpose of God, a purpose full of blessing.

The way in which God is about to manifest that purpose, and in which we are associated with its blessings, is infinitely interesting to us.

In the following pages only a small part of that purpose has been treated of, the outward part, so to speak, a part which nevertheless is none the less interesting.

It was designedly that God was pleased to accomplish it in a visible way, in order that that purpose might be revealed to us by means of positive truths, which, while bringing the Christian into fellowship with God, who is their source, preserve him - weak creature that he is - from substituting the wanderings of his own imagination for the holy manifestations which God has given unto us of Himself.

The subject we are treating is contained in the prayer of the apostle Paul, which we find at the end of Ephesians 1.

This subject finds a still deeper source (to which we have alluded) in what is announced to us at the end of Ephesians 3, and we cannot truly enjoy the subject treated in Ephesians 1, without having felt in some measure the power of Ephesians 3.

For the rest, in communicating what follows, I only respond in weakness to the desires of a few persons, and I am confident that God will deign to make up for what is lacking.

THE CHURCH AND THE JEWS THE RESPECTIVE CENTRES OF THE HEAVENLY GLORY AND OF THE EARTHLY GLORY IN CHRIST.

Two great objects are presented to our contemplation by the prophecies and testimonies of the Scriptures, which refer to the millennium: on one hand, the church and its glory in Christ; on the other, the Jews and the glory which they are to possess as a nation redeemed by Christ.

It is the heavenly people and the earthly people.

The Son Himself, who is the image and glory of God, will be their common centre, and the sun which will enlighten them both; and although the place where His glory dwells in the church be the heavens, where He has "set a tabernacle for the sun" (Ps.

19: 4), the nations will walk in the light thereof.

It will be manifested on the earth, and the earth will enjoy its blessings.

When all is accomplished God will be all in all.

The tabernacle of God will be with men, not coming down, so to speak, but come down from heaven.

267 All these things, and the way in which they will have their accomplishment, are revealed in detail in the Scriptures.

Although the church and the people of Israel are each respectively the centres of the heavenly glory and of the earthly glory, in their connection with Christ, and although they cast on each other a mutual brightness of blessedness and joy, yet each of them has a sphere which is proper to itself, and in which all things are subordinate to it.

With respect to the church, angels, principalities, and powers, with all that belongs to heaven - the domain of its glory; with respect to the people of Israel, the nations of the earth.

We will confine ourselves here to the history and condition of the church, on one hand, and to those of the people of Israel, on the other.

"In the beginning God created," the Old Testament tells us.

"In the beginning was the Word," says the New, proclaiming the foundation of a higher glory and more durable than that of the first creation, and on which was to rest the restoration of the latter, when ruined by the weakness of man and by sin.

"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth."

When they came forth from the hand of the Creator, all His works were "very good."

Sin appeared, and they were marred.

Compare Colossians 1: 20, with Ephesians 2: 10.

For a moment, God rested, so to speak, in them; but that rest came to an end.

The Scriptures say but little as to the evil which sullied the heavens: all that we know is, that there were angels who fell.

But it was on the earth and among men that the divine and wonderful work of redemption was to be displayed; and this subject is revealed to us in all its fulness.

268 THE REST OF GOD IN THE NEW CREATION BY MEANS OF THE SECOND ADAM

The rest of God, after the first creation, was short.

The rest of man with God passed away like a morning-dream.

But the blessing of God was not to pass away in the same manner.

That which was transient, on account of the weakness of the first Adam, was to be restored on an infinitely more excellent footing by the display of the might and power of the Second Adam; the will of God being to head up in Him all things which are in the heavens and upon the earth; Eph.

1: 10.

CHRIST THE HEIR - THE CHURCH JOINT-HEIR WITH HIM, THROUGH RESURRECTION

It is on this gathering together of all things unto Christ and in Christ, as their Head (Greek, anakephalaiosis - heading up), that depends the character and the substance of the hope of the church, until God be all in all.

In this point of view, Scripture speaks of Christ manifested, as being Heir of all these things, and of the church as being joint-heir with Him.

This is, as it were, the formal character which is attributed to Him with regard to all things; that we may understand what is our place with Him.

Thus it is written, that God has appointed Christ "heir of all things" (Heb.

1: 2); that, in Him, "we have obtained an inheritance" (Eph.

1: 11); that we are "heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ," Rom.

8: 17.

This glorious title of Christ - the Heir - has a still more glorious origin.

He is "the firstborn of every creature, for by him were all things created that are in heaven, and that are in earth . . .

and for him," Col. 1: 15, 16.

The church, the children of God, are therefore joint-heirs with Christ.

How are they such?

It is this which we are about to develop.

Christ receives the inheritance in His character of man, of risen Man, once our companion in sufferings because of sin, and then the Head, the root and spring of all blessing.

We must first remark that the first Adam, "the figure of him that was to come," is a type and figure of the Second Adam of whom we are speaking.

He is referred to in this respect in Ephesians 5: 30, 31.

Before His manifestation, the last Adam is, as it were, hidden, as the first Adam was buried in sleep;~* Eve, who prefigures the church, is taken from his side, and God presents her to him as the help meet for him, to be his companion in the government and the inheritance of all things given to him of God in paradise.

{~*This analogy is very questionable.

It is rather as dead that Adam is a figure here of Christ.}

269 Thus Christ, who is God as well as man, presents the church to Himself, when He awakes in His glory, that it may share that glory with Him and that dominion which He already possesses in title and by the gift of God.

"And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them," John 17: 22.

Adam and Eve, taken collectively, are called Adam, as if they were but one (Gen.

1: 27; 5: 2), although, in a certain sense, Eve was inferior to her husband, and had come after him.

So it is with Christ and the church, who are but one mystical body.

This type, familiar to those who read the Scriptures, presents, in a most simple way, all the forms of the reality prefigured, with this exception, that the Second Man, being "out of heaven" (1 Cor.

15: 47), is also the Head and Lord of the heavenly things.

ALL THINGS PUT UNDER THE FEET OF MAN

Let us now consider the passages which speak of the dominion of man, and of the union of the church with Christ in that dominion.~*

It clearly results, from the terms in which they are worded, that their accomplishment has not yet taken place.

All these passages rest on Psalm 8.

There the Holy Ghost says, "Thou hast . . .

crowned him" (man, the Son of man) "with glory and honour, . . .

thou hast put all things under his feet"; then He tells us (Heb.

2: 7, 8, 9) that this is not seen as yet, but that Jesus has been "crowned with glory and honour," that He might be pointed out to the church as the one who, as man, is to have all things put under His feet.

Meanwhile, and until the purposes of God are accomplished, until the enemies of Christ, who hold the power in unrighteousness, are made to be His footstool - in a word, during the period of the present dispensation - Christ is seated on the right hand of the Majesty on high; He sits, as having overcome, at the right hand of God the Father.

It is thus that He will grant to him that overcometh, to sit on His own throne (Rev.

3: 21), when He takes possession of it and reigns.

{~*Note to translation.

- The association with Christ, we must remember, is more blessed than the dominion which flows from it.}

Ephesians 1: 17 to 2: 7 shews us the church united to Christ in all these circumstances, according to the working of the might by which Christ was raised from the dead; chapter 2: 7 points out the cause, the glorious motive of it.

In chapter 1: 22 we find again the quotation of Psalm 8: "And hath put all things under his feet."

The apostle adds: "And gave him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all."

270 Thus, therefore, the church is united to Christ, as a body of which He is the Head, and under whose feet God has put all things.

"Christ is head over all things to the church, which is his body."

See the Greek.

As to this character, it is as having been raised from the dead that He possesses it, as the passage itself clearly establishes.

But this last point is treated in a special way in 1 Corinthians 15, in which we find again the quotation from Psalm 8.

"Since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.

For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming.

Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom [that which He possesses as being risen, which is the subject of the chapter] to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.

For he must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet.

The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.

For he hath put all things under his feet: But when he saith, all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did put all things under him.

And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject [always as last Adam, as risen man; for it is always in this character that He is spoken of in this chapter] unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all,"~* 1 Cor.

15: 21-28.

{~*God, but not Christ, considered under the aspect of His mediatorial character.

It is not said, "that the Father may be all in all"; because, although Christ delivers up the kingdom as Man-mediator, He is none the less God over all things, blessed eternally with the Father and the Holy Ghost.}