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Articles 2018-2020
He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him
The NAS informs us in its margin that the more literal reading is that God is making known to us the mystery of His will (See also the Amp., ESV, and ASV). It is not that any of us has a full grasp of God’s will. But He is making it known to us in an ongoing way. He is unfolding among us His purpose over time. And it is a mystery. In other words, no one on their own will ever figure out Heaven’s intent either for themselves or for those around them. But if we will humble ourselves before Him and seek His face, He will mercifully give us insight.
The reason He is progressively unfolding His purpose is in order to establish on earth His eternally designed strategy.
with a view to an administration (Greek, OIKONOMIA) suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth.
God is establishing Heaven’s administration appropriate to the fullness of the times. Our word economy comes from this Greek term OIKONOMIA. Every economy has its currency. For the USA it is the dollar. In God’s kingdom it is grace. Just as one has received grace to be an apostle, another has discovered His powerful grace on their knees in intercession. Then there is grace to exhort others, to serve in various leadership capacities, to prophesy, etc. (See Romans 12) Heaven’s arsenal is filled with the riches of His grace which He lavishes upon His people. And all the many diversities of that grace are revealed on earth as each of His people discover it in their individual lives.
It is then as we submit to the grace of God in each other that He establishes among us functional corporate unity – His economy on earth coming into clarity. Of course, for this process to work, He is making known to each of us His will in an ongoing way.
OIKONOMIA comes from two different Greek words, OIKOS – house and NOMOS – law. It could be translated as the law or management of a house. If a wealthy man wanted to administrate the care of his home, he might put someone in charge of the kitchen, another to oversee yard-care, and still another to handle the finances, etc. There would be an integrated order for the proper functioning of his place of residence.
So also, God has a divine order, a Heaven-designed arrangement for the corporate functioning of His people on earth. It is fueled by grace and recognized by discernment. And the Holy Spirit has been slowly bringing it into view over the last two thousand years. God’s administration is not the Roman Catholic Church. It is not the Methodist Church, any other particular denomination, or the House Church movement. But it is coming into clarity as He makes known among us in an ongoing way the mystery of His will. So, we must walk in the Spirit and listen. And we must have patience for one another because we are all in different places on this journey.
And Heaven’s administrative order is for the fullness of the times. When is that? Jesus said that the times were now full and that the Kingdom of God was now at hand (Mark 1:15). Paul informed the Corinthians that the ends of the ages had come upon God’s people in the first century (1Corinthians 10:11). Then the writer to the Hebrews lets us know that it was at the consummation of the ages that Christ was manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself (Hebrews 9:26). It seems that the fullness of the times occurred in the first century and continues even in our own day.
How did time come to fullness? In those days the Eternal One stepped into human history. And after His ascension He poured out His presence into the hearts of His people causing time to now be infected with eternity. The age to come had broken into this one. As a result, God’s people now stand with one foot in this age and one foot in the next one. Or to put it another way, we are clay pots filled with a glorious eternal treasure. No wonder we sometimes feel like bursting – with joy over His love, with grief over sin, both our own and that of others, etc.
But God’s divine order for the universe is to gather all things into a functional unity, integrated around Christ, with the whole creation finding its identity summed up in Him. And the way forward from where we are is for the Church to get Heaven’s strategy right. We simply do not have the right to “do church” in the way that is most comfortable to ourselves. God is establishing among His people the way forward for the creation.
In fact, all of creation is waiting eagerly – not for some new political movement but for the revealing of God’s sons (Romans 8:19).[7] What defines this company?
...if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.
God’s sons are the ones being led by His Spirit in putting to death the deeds of the body. Specifically, God is establishing a people who by the Spirit live lifestyles of turning from self and embracing Him. And as they respond to Him, they are revealing the way forward for the whole creation.
The way of fallen man is to exalt the power of self; the way of the Lord is the cross. But only one of these two ways can experience resurrection life. The other will know only frustration and ultimate failure.
The way of man is to reach up to the heavens; the way of God is to mercifully reach down from heaven into the affairs of sinful humanity. Consider the tower of Babel (Genesis 11). Fallen men sought to reach into the heavens (i.e., to achieve their destiny apart from God). They used manmade bricks, seeking unity through uniformity instead of using what God had made; His way is to build with stone. And they were unified as they sought to make a name for themselves. But Heaven’s perspective on their project became quite clear when the Lord came down, confused their language, and scattered them across the earth.
In contrast to the men of Babel, in the very next chapter of the Bible (Genesis 12), we find Abram who listened for and then responded to the voice of God. And what the builders at Babel had arrogantly striven for – to make their names great, the Lord offered to Abram if he would simply follow Him.
Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father’s house, to the land which I will show you; and I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and so you shall be a blessing;
It seems that God’s people have always had the choice of two different roads forward – that of Babel or that of Abram. There is a wide and broad road with many on it. And there is a narrow one. But only one leads to life. And in our day, the Church must make the correct choice.
The world has already made its decision. By and large, it has rejected God’s judgment at Babel and has sought to reach for the heavens and make a name for itself – by any means necessary. Over the centuries, they have endeavored to gather as one around different great military leaders, different economic theories, or different political systems. Even in our own day many are trying to unify the world around a violent expression of Islam while others see a secular “progressive” humanism as the way forward. And what they offer are counterfeits. In the end, their labors will come to the same fate as that of Babel.
The way forward for humanity is revealed in an unfolding revelation from Heaven of an economy, a divine order suitable for the fullness of the times where all are invited to gather as one around God’s appointed King – the One anointed to rule while still in the midst of His enemies.
Christianity is to be the gathering of believers to the person of Christ. The Lord Jesus – central in the individual lives of His people and central in our assemblies. To the degree that we bring our own strength, our own ideas, or our own priorities, we bring a certain element of Babel to God’s house. And to the degree that we bring a desire to make ourselves known or to make our name great, we again bring an aspect of Babel. But God is arising to purify His house, His economy of all that is counterfeit.
Only He can sum up human history and gather around the person of His Son all who would respond to his call. And so, to implement His strategy, He has given to His people an inheritance.
In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will…
Paul identified our inheritance when he informed us that we are heirs of God (Romans 8:17). Our Lord has actually given us Himself. And when we turned to Him, we came to realize that our destiny in Him is in fact a pre-destiny. He had foreknown us from before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4). And based on what He had determined to do, He began His work in our lives according to the counsel of His own will, according to His eternal purpose.
And it seems that He is still taking counsel from His will. But now, the mystery of His will is progressively being made known on earth among those in whom He dwells. And as His people hear those priorities of His heart, we give expression to them. We prophesy, we preach, we exhort, we counsel, we evangelize. And as the Lord hears His will increasingly articulated among His people, He takes counsel and arises to act. It is not as though we are counseling Him; He is obviously the author of His own will. But He has included us into the process whereby He is extending His work among men on earth.
And He shall succeed where all “Babel-like” projects have failed. Throughout the centuries, fallen men have inherently known that they should be unified and that there is some purpose greater than themselves. But because of their rebellion against the Lord, He has resisted and opposed their efforts. And the present/coming era of globalization will ultimately prove to be just as unsuccessful.
But what will succeed is His project of integrating His people around His Son. We must get this right. The whole creation is waiting for the emerging of those who by the Spirit are turning from self and embracing Heaven’s agenda – even Christ.
Donald Rumble – June 2019
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