All posts tagged God’s eternal purpose

God has an eternal purpose and does everything with His goal in view.

God’s Multifarious Wisdom Made Known

Ephesians 3 tells us that God wants to enlighten us concerning His eternal purpose. God “created all things, in order that now to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenlies the multifarious wisdom of God might be made known through the church, according to the eternal purpose which He made in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

New JerusalemGod’s purpose is to display His magnificent wisdom now through the church and much more to display it through New Jerusalem for eternity.

New Jerusalem shines with the glory of God. This is not merely a brightness but a display of all that God is and has accomplished.

God has forgiven our sins but that is not His goal. Forgiveness cleanses us to receive His eternal life. But that is not the goal. Eternal life is in us to grow and build us together as the house of the living God (1 Tim. 3:15), the church, through which God is manifested in humanity.

Today the world is full of corruption, wars, murders, deceit, homelessness, and many more problems. All these negative things are the dark background for the manifestation of God’s infinite wisdom. If the entire human situation were simple, smooth, and clean, such wisdom would not be needed.

God has allowed Satan some freedom to work in humanity but eventually all Satan will be able to do is to provide the opportunity for God to manifest His wisdom. God wants this today in the church and will fully realize it in New Jerusalem.

Photo courtesy of pixabay.com.

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by Don on November 15, 2019  •  Permalink
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Posted by Don on November 15, 2019

https://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2019/11/15/gods-multifarious-wisdom-made-known/

God’s Eternal Purpose in Song (3)

A song* about God’s purpose begins with God in Christ becoming life to man so that God and man can be united for God’s eternal glory, expressed through New Jerusalem. The third verse:

New JerusalemBy the flow of life divine,
Man becomes a precious stone
Fit for building God’s abode,
That His glory might be known.

Through His redeeming death and life-imparting resurrection (1 Peter 1:3), Jesus Christ has become our life. Now, as the song says, this life wants to flow, as pictured by the river of life in Genesis 2.

The flow of life transforms us (2 Cor. 3:18) to become precious stones. This is seen in Old Testament symbolism by the gold, bdellium, and onyx stone brought forth by the river in Genesis 2. We who believe into Him are the real stones for God’s living building. As Peter tells us, “You yourselves also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house” (1 Peter 2:5).

This verse in Peter matches, and undergirds, the second and third lines of the song’s verse above. Peter goes on to say we were chosen and acquired so that “you may tell out the virtues of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light” (v. 2:9). This is to glorify God now (and much more in New Jerusalem).

The purpose of becoming stones is the building and the goal of the building work is that God’s glory might be known. Ephesians speaks much about building and 3:21 says, “To Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus unto all the generations forever and ever.” Glory to God forever is New Jerusalem “having the glory of God.”

——
* music (composer unknown), words by Witness Lee

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by Don on October 30, 2019  •  Permalink
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Posted by Don on October 30, 2019

https://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2019/10/30/gods-eternal-purpose-in-song-3/

God’s Eternal Purpose in Song (2)

God is eternal. He created time and the universe because He has a plan and a goal. The center of His goal, in Revelation 21–22, is New Jerusalem, His eternal expression.

New JerusalemA song (music, words by Witness Lee) presents highlights of God’s actions to accomplish His purpose, to arrive at New Jerusalem. Here are the second part of verses 1 and 2:

He to man is everything
That He might fulfill His plan.

God as life that he may take
And with Him have oneness true.

In the first verse God wants to be everything to man, but how? The second verse answers—God wants to be life to man. This is symbolized by the tree of life shown to Adam in Genesis 2 and plainly spoken by the Lord Jesus in John 3:15-16 and many verses in John 6. By His resurrection life, we can be in Him and He in us (John 14:20); this is God being one with man as the song states.

To believe into Jesus Christ is to receive Him as our eternal life and to become one with Him. “When Christ our life is manifested, then you also will be manifested with Him in glory.” (Col. 3:4) Christ is our life today and He will appear in glory. Then we will be glorified with Him.

He and we will be a corporate expression of God’s glory. This is New Jerusalem, “having the glory of God” (Rev. 21:11).

Photo in Germany by Jenny Grosh.

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by Don on October 28, 2019  •  Permalink
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Posted by Don on October 28, 2019

https://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2019/10/28/gods-eternal-purpose-in-song-2/

God’s Eternal Purpose in Song (1)

The Bible concludes with the new heaven and new earth and New Jerusalem at their center. This is God’s desire and God’s goal. Humanly we do not always reach our goals but God is fully capable and He will reach exactly what He desires.

God’s purpose and goal is portrayed in the creation of man in Genesis 1 and the garden of Eden in Genesis 2, as described in posts on The Garden of Eden and New Jerusalem.

New JerusalemWe begin review of a song with highlights of God’s actions to accomplish His purpose, to arrive at New Jerusalem: the music (composer unknown) and the words (Witness Lee). Verse 1 begins:

Lo, the central thought of God
Is that He be one with man;

God created all the plants and animals “according to their own kind.” But in Genesis 1:26 God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.” This shows man’s special place in God’s creation. Man was created for God, so that God could work in and through man to reach His goal. Verse 2 begins:

Earthen vessel man was made-
Body, soul, and spirit too.

This is Genesis 2:7, “God formed man with the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.” The three parts of man are also clearly in 1 Thessalonians 5:23, “may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete.” God uses all three parts of man as He brings forth New Jerusalem for His eternal exhibition.

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by Don on October 25, 2019  •  Permalink
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Posted by Don on October 25, 2019

https://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2019/10/25/gods-eternal-purpose-in-song-1/

New Jerusalem, the Eternal City

New Jerusalem is an eternal city. All the positive eternal things in the New Testament point toward this city. This is the first of a few posts looking at these eternal things.

Romans 16:26 speaks about “the eternal God.” And Ephesians 3:11 says that this God has an eternal purpose. God has a definite purpose underlying His creation of the universe. This purpose is to gain a corporate humanity for a wonderful expression of Himself.

God’s purpose is first indicated in Genesis 1:26, where man was made in the image of God. This man fell away from God but God’s purpose is eternal. God came in the man Jesus and through death created a new man (Eph. 2:15). This new man fulfills God’s purpose and expresses God here on earth now and becomes New Jerusalem, the city “having the glory of God” (Rev. 21:11).

New JerusalemThe new man expresses the eternal God by having the eternal life. This eternal life is emphasized in John and 1 John and is also touched in about 20 other verses in multiple New Testament books.

This eternal life comes to us through “the eternal redemption” accomplished by Christ shedding blood on the cross and bringing it into the heavenly holy of holies (Heb. 9:12) as the reality of Leviticus 16.

The Lamb of God on the throne of New Jerusalem reminds us of the eternal redemption, and the river of water of life is the eternal life flowing to supply the entire city, the city of life, for eternity.

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by Don on November 30, 2018  •  Permalink
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Posted by Don on November 30, 2018

https://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2018/11/30/new-jerusalem-the-eternal-city/

New Heaven and New Earth with Rejoicing

New JerusalemJohn tells us, “I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and the sea is no more. And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem…” (Rev. 21:1-2)

What John saw had already been promised centuries before. in Isaiah 65:17 God promises, “I am now creating new heavens and a new earth, and the former things will not be remembered, nor will they come up in the heart.” The new heavens and new earth are again promised in Isaiah 66:22.

What are the former things which will not be remembered? Isaiah 65:16 says, “the former troubles are forgotten.” In New Jerusalem the Lamb is on the throne. This surely indicates remembrance of His redemption. This fact together with Isaiah 65:16 suggests that we will remember everything related to bringing forth the new creation but will forget everything negative of the old creation.

In New Jerusalem we will remember Gold’s eternal purpose, His selection and predestination, His redemption, His impartation of eternal life, and all that His life accomplished in us. We, and the whole new creation, will also rejoice. God’s word in Isaiah 65:18 is, “rejoice and exult forever, in what I create, for I am now creating Jerusalem as an exultation and her people as a rejoicing.”

You might say that God’s promise was a long time ago and you haven’t seen anything. True, but God’s sense of time is not the same as ours. What He promises, He will achieve. We will see New Jerusalem at the center of the new heavens and new earth, and we will rejoice.

Photo courtesy of pixabay.com.

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by Don on March 21, 2018  •  Permalink
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Posted by Don on March 21, 2018

https://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2018/03/21/new-heaven-and-new-earth-with-rejoicing/

New Heaven and New Earth

Revelation 21:1: “I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away.” God created the heavens and the earth for His purpose, but it is not until there are a new heaven and a new earth that New Jerusalem appears.

The new heaven and new earth are also in 2 Peter, “according to His promise we are expecting new heavens and a new earth.” The “promise” is God’s word in Isaiah 65:17.

New JerusalemIt is easy to understand that the earth was damaged by the fall of man, and thus God plans a new earth. We need to realize that heaven was also damaged by the rebellion of Satan. At least two verses speak of God’s response to this damage.

Colossians 1:20: “Through Him [Christ] to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross—through Him, whether the things on the earth or the things in the heavens.” Here the things in the heavens need reconciliation to God, which was accomplished by Christ.

Ephesians 1:10 “Unto the economy of the fullness of the times, to head up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens and the things on the earth, in Him.” God’s intention is to head up things in the heavens in Christ, indicating that some were not headed up since Satan’s rebellion.

Although there will be “the restoration of all things” (Acts 3:21), God desires to go further and have a new creation for His eternal dwelling, New Jerusalem. Thus, there will be the new heaven and the new earth and the new city Jerusalem after everything negative is cleaned away by the judgments in Revelation 20.

Photo courtesy of U.S. National Park Service.

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by Don on January 10, 2018  •  Permalink
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Posted by Don on January 10, 2018

https://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2018/01/10/new-heaven-and-new-earth-2/

New Earth is Coming; What to Do Now?

New JerusalemGod created the earth for His purpose, and allowed Satan and man to corrupt it. God’s purpose in creation is to manifest His unlimited riches and immeasurable wisdom (Eph. 3:8-11). Despite the opposition, God will accomplish this through the church now (3:10) and through New Jerusalem on the new earth eternally.

Although the earth and mankind has been severely damaged, Acts 3:21 tells us that there will be a “restoration of all things” at the Lord’s second coming, at the beginning of the next age. After that, Revelation 21:1 tells us, “I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away.”

Since the earth will be restored then replaced, what should our attitude be today toward the earth? First, remember that God “created all things…according to the eternal purpose which He made in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Eph. 3:9, 11). We are on earth to live, and let Christ live through us, for God’s purpose.

God will “destroy those who destroy the earth” (Rev. 11:18). We should never be among them. We should have a proper, upright human living, as spoken of many times in the gospels and epistles. Thus, we should not damage the earth. On the other hand, we should not be so environmentally conscious and active that we are like those who “worshipped and served the creation rather than the Creator” (Rom. 1:25).

“For to me to live is Christ” (Phil. 1:21)—this is the balance in our Christian living. While we are living towards New Jerusalem, we are here living for God’s purpose now, conscious that “the earth is the Lord’s” (1 Cor. 10:26). Christ our life is the governing principle while we are living on earth for the building up of the Body of Christ as the living expression of God, the precursor of New Jerusalem.

 

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by Don on January 5, 2018  •  Permalink
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Posted by Don on January 5, 2018

https://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2018/01/05/new-earth-is-coming-what-to-do-now/

God’s Eternal Purpose for the Earth (6)

God created the earth and man for His purpose. Man was deceived by Satan and captured by the world, but God in Christ saved us. The world was judged and will be totally eliminated and God will gain a new earth with New Jerusalem for the fulfillment of His eternal purpose.

New JerusalemIn Christ we are not of the world, but the world remains around us and attracts the fallen portion of our being. We need to cooperate with the regenerated part of our being to overcome the world.

Like James, John warns us about the world, “Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in him; because all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the vainglory of life, is not of the Father but is of the world” (1 John 2:15-16).

John also encourages us, “And the world is passing away, and its lust, but he who does the will of God abides forever” (v. 17). Our secret to overcoming the world is to love the Father to let Him energize us to do His will. Then we “abide forever,” being in New Jerusalem.

First John 2:17 is similar to the Lord’s word in John 14:23, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make an abode with him.” Again, our love is the key. Then the Father and Son can be active within us and their presence will save us from the attractions of the world.

Father, I love You! Lord Jesus, I love You! Strengthen Your abode within me now and unto New Jerusalem!

Bible verses are quoted from The Holy Bible, Recovery Version, published and © by Living Stream Ministry, Anaheim CA, 2003. The New Testament of this Bible, with its outlines, footnotes, and cross-references, is at online.recoveryversion.org; this too is © by LSM.

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by Don on January 3, 2018  •  Permalink
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Posted by Don on January 3, 2018

https://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2018/01/03/gods-eternal-purpose-for-the-earth-6/

God Created the Earth for His Purpose

New Jerusalem

 

“God, created all things…according to the eternal purpose which He made in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Eph. 3:9-11) The ultimate outcome of creation is the new creation with New Jerusalem as the center.

Photo courtesy of NASA.

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by Don on January 1, 2018  •  Permalink
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Posted by Don on January 1, 2018

https://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2018/01/01/the-lord-created-for-his-purpose/

God’s Eternal Purpose for the Earth (5)

God created the earth and placed man on it for His purpose. However, man fell and was captured by Satan’s system, the world. This problem has become an opportunity for God to demonstrate His unlimited wisdom (Eph. 3:8-11). This demonstration involves many actions, including Jesus Christ dying to redeem us, save us from the world, and give us eternal life. The goal of all of these actions is New Jerusalem, the consummation of everything positive in the Bible.

Today we have eternal life in us so that we may cooperate with God to manifest His wisdom through the church on the way to New Jerusalem. Yet, although we are not “of the world” the world still tries to attract us. James warns us, “Do you not know that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever determines to be a friend of the world is constituted an enemy of God” (4:4).

New JerusalemThat is serious, but we should not try to avoid the world by our own effort! Peter tells us that God “has granted to us precious and exceedingly great promises that through these you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption which is in the world by lust” (2 P. 1:4).

It is by the rich supply in God’s word that we escape the attraction of the world. We need our physical Bibles but must also realize that “the word of God is living and operative” (Heb. 4:12). In coming to the Bible, we open to the Lord so that He may be life to us and operate in us as we read and muse on the written word*. This saves us from the attraction of the world.

To be saved from the world is for God’s purpose but the real purpose is that we partake of the divine nature to have it expressed through us on the earth in the church and on the new earth in New Jerusalem.

* For more, click on Pray-Reading the Word.
Photo courtesy of U.S. National Park Service.

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by Don on December 29, 2017  •  Permalink
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Posted by Don on December 29, 2017

https://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2017/12/29/gods-eternal-purpose-for-the-earth-5/

God’s Eternal Purpose for the Earth (4)

New JerusalemGod created the earth for His purpose, but Satan arranged the world to take mankind away from God. God judged the world and its ruler in the death of Christ. Through His death and resurrection we have been transferred from the world to God’s purpose for the earth with New Jerusalem as the goal.

“World” refers not only to Satan’s system but also to the fallen human race, as in John 3:16, “God so loved the world…” God loves the human race, and sent His Son to die to release us from Satan’s usurpation and to accomplish our redemption. As a result of redemption, we receive eternal life by believing into Jesus Christ.

In John 17 we are in the world but not of the world, and the Lord asked the Father to keep us “out of the hands of the evil one.” Further, He prayed for our being “perfected into one” that the people of the world may know God and believe. This exhibition is to the people in the world, but does not have its source or content from the world. The source and content are Christ in us, and this exhibition is a precursor to a much greater exhibition in New Jerusalem.

We have ben saved from the world and have received eternal life,and now we cooperate with this life. An example of cooperation is in 1 Corinthians 7:31: we live in the world but do not abuse it (not engrossed in, attached to, dependent on things of the world*).  Thus, we “shine as luminaries in the world” (Phil. 2:15), an answer to the Lord’s prayer in John 17.

The world has been judged and is passing away. By the time the new earth appears there will be no world, but our shining will continue forever with New Jerusalem.

* Various translations in 1 Cor. 7:31, thanks to Bible Hub.

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by Don on December 27, 2017  •  Permalink
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Posted by Don on December 27, 2017

https://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2017/12/27/gods-eternal-purpose-for-the-earth-4/

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