God Has Brought Us to Himself

God Has Brought Us to Himself

Ephesians 2:13a

I think one way of thinking of eternity is that that’s one second [Pastor makes a mark on a long line on the whiteboard]. And then so that we would understand it, it came out like that from whatever it is [Pastor makes a mark at the left end of his line]. It obviously is much longer ago than 4,000 BC, but whatever this is going to be [Pastor makes another mark at the right end of his line]. I don’t know if it’s going to be 20,000 AD, but whatever it is. Time then: and God in the one second -- in order that we would understand what happened in the one second -- he requires all this time, and time and space: all these numbers of years, and all this space, and all these billions, and billions, I don’t know it’s six billion [the earth's population] at the moment. But maybe by the end it might be 30, 40 billion. I don’t know. But through all these people, God then brings out all the things that happen in that one second. And maybe -- I don’t know if it’ll be like those black holes that are intensely dense -- if it will all then come back into one second, the great eternal moment, but it seems to me that’s probably something of the reality of time and eternity.

That is really the main purpose of this part [the years between the marks on the timeline] that we’re in at the moment is so that God could bring out in detail, so that as many as six billion or 30 billion of us could enjoy what is present in Christ. And that’s the reason for it. That certainly is the reality that we’ve been discussing over these months and years really. And sometimes I think it’s important to see why we say this, because you know, what I’m saying is what comes pretty naturally to your own common sense. It’s just that from time-to-time it’s good to see the scriptural background for it.

But it does seem commonsensical to us that if our dear Father is infinite, and if he is the one that conceived of our existence, then he knows everything. It just seems commonsensical to us that he did not make anything that he did not fully understand. It just doesn’t seem logical to us that the Being, the Supreme Being that is infinite in his abilities and in his powers would ever conceive of something that he didn’t understand: he wasn’t sure what way it would go. We can’t imagine that at all. It just seems foolishness.

Immediately our mind asks the question, “Well, then who did know? Was there anybody knows what he didn’t know? Because of course if there is, then that person is the supreme being.” But the Supreme Being, almost by definition, is someone who made us and who knew fully what our potential was. In other words, he did not make Adam and then think, “Let’s see what happens when Adam and Eve get together. Let’s see what happens when they have children. Let’s see what happens when these children have children. Let’s see what happens when their children have children. Let’s see what happens.” You just can’t imagine God, the person that we know as God, who is infinitely wise, and is infinitely loving, and kindly, and responsible, we can’t imagine him doing that.

Really, it comes naturally to our common sense to conceive that God did know it all from beginning to end. That God conceived of his Son Jesus, and he conceived of us inside his Son Jesus, and then he conceived of what we would do, and he made provision for all of that. And where I think we have troubles at times, and where I think I had troubles through my own foolishness was, I thought, “Oh but, if God knew what I would do then didn’t he make me do it?” And of course, I thought in those terms because I was thinking of God’s mind in the light of my mind. And I thought, “That’s what I would do. If I knew somebody was going to do something I didn’t want them to do, I’d just stop them from doing it.”

Of course, the truth is that God himself is able to foresee what each of us would do at every point in our lives, and then he is so intricately and complicatedly infinite in his thinking that he is able to foresee all those things that our computers would see, and yet devise ways to bring us around to see what his will is; see what his will is. We turn this way he devises something to see; devises another way; devises another way without ever forcing our wills to do it. But through his long suffering love, continually bringing us round, bringing us round, bringing us round.

And of course, that’s the truth that scripture really presents to us, that here [the first mark on the time line] God foresaw everything in one second. And that’s why the verse runs that, "He was slain from before the foundation of the world." God foresaw it all in one second and then allowed it to work itself out here on earth. And in fact, of course, it shows us the reality that this [the stretch of time of mankind's existence] is in fact a picture of the world if he had not crucified it in Christ. And so in a way, certain people are right when you say, “Oh, are we talking 'sad', or are we talking 'depressing' today when we’re talking about the terrible state of the world?” Well, in a sense we are. We’re talking about a world that has gone astray. But we’re talking about the world that has gone astray, but has already been crucified. And all we’re seeing is a temporary picture of what that world would have been like outside of Jesus.

In a funny way, we’re seeing actually here [that same stretch of time of mankind's existence] a virtual world. We’re not seeing the real world. The real world is the world 'crucified in Christ' which we touch every time the Holy Spirit makes the power and healing of Christ manifest in one of our bodies, or in our minds. In a way, every time our mind rises in joy, we’re touching the real world. In a very real way, when we sorrow unto death, when we touch depression and sadness, part of the reason it’s extremely sad to us is that we’re touching unreality. We’re touching a world that has been destroyed in Christ. And much of what we see in the newspapers, of course, is that world. And if you ask, “Well, why would God do that?” Well, there’s one very obvious way I can see, he wanted us to have real choice. He wanted us to choose which we would have, life or death. And this [that same stretch of time of mankind's existence] is the picture of death. We see it very clearly there. Every time we touch, in him, through our perception of reality, and our understanding of our real position in Jesus, every time we touch that we’re touching reality. And so we’re seeing in a very clear way the choice that is before us.

So it seems to me that’s the presentation that we’ve been making over these months and years. And it is important to be clear in our minds some of the verses of scripture that set that forth, because it’s easy to say, “Well, where do we get all this from? Where do we get it all from?” Well, I’ll try to put them one-by-one so maybe if Marty is able to get them on the camera at least they’ll be there, though I’m not writing it very clearly there.

But that’s Colossians 1:15-20. And that’s one of the plain verses if you’d like to look at it. Colossians 1:15, “He,” Jesus, “Is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation; for in him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities – all things were created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the first-born from the dead, that in everything he might be pre-eminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.”

And it’s from those verses that we extrapolate the rather simple statement that I have tried to share at times, that when God conceived of making us, he knew he would give us the free will that his Son has, and he knew that we could use that free will to oppose him and yet he wanted to hold onto us. And so instead of making us out there like that chalice, or making us a thing out there like that Bible, he made us inside himself. So that whatever we did, he would bear it, and bear it, and bear it, and continue to give us life, and hold us within his own heart in his Son Jesus. And it seems to me that that’s the extrapolation of those verses.

And it’s the only picture that kind of makes sense of this, because you can see them if you look at them again, “Jesus is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation.” What sense can you make of that, because physically Jesus was born in 6 BC maybe? Well, that was long after Adam, long after the beginning of the world, and yet this is stating clearly that Jesus is the 'first-born' of all creation. That means he was born before Adam. And of course the only way to see that is that when God conceived of his Son as his own divine Son, he conceived of him also as the first human being.

And I’ve mentioned before to you, what a remarkable thing that is, that it means that humanity is something very dear and central to our Father. Humanity is not just another little play thing that he’s created for himself, humanity is something that he has made part of his own Son and so when we talk of Jesus we talk of a person who is completely divine and is also the first human being, and is the first-born of all creation.

And of course, you can see easily how you move to the truth that God made us in him, because it’s right there. "First-born of all creation," verse 16, “For in him all things were created.” In Jesus everything was created. “In heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities – all things were created through him and for him.” In other words, God made everything inside the one who was the apple of his eye so that that [Pastor indicates the timeline] was all inside himself.

And it would share his life, and it would subsist by his power, and his strength. And I don’t know what you have seen that to mean for yourself, but for me it’s overwhelming. I mean, I'd never imagined it. If you said, “Didn’t you believe God made you?” Yes, yes, I learned it in Sunday School, but I never grasped that I was actually part of Jesus. I never grasped that I was part of God. I just thought I was a funny little piece of flesh that came from my mother and would disappear, and might somehow during this life, manage to -- I don’t know -- get close to Jesus. But I didn’t grasp that I was made in Jesus and was part of Jesus and was something very dear to God, and was part of God himself, and that he would love me on through it all, and would as soon cut off his own hand as cut me off. Because, that’s what it would be like. It would be cutting out part of his own heart. And therefore, if you like, I had a guaranteed existence. I mean, I had a failsafe situation.

And I think sometimes we’ve backed off that because we’ve thought, “Oh, you can’t leave God as weak as that. You can’t leave him full of these Hitler’s, and full of all these wicked people with no protection.” Isn’t that what the blood of Jesus is? Isn’t that what it means? Isn’t that what the blood of God means? But of course, that is the terrible truth, that our dear Father has borne all this all through the years, and has committed himself to bearing it. And we with our own selfishness tend to say, “That’s ridiculous! You can’t leave God as open as that, as exposed as that; the world won’t work that way.” That’s it. Our Father’s only power that he insists on is the power of his own love. And he keeps on saying, “I will bear and bear until the end of time.” And so that’s where these truths come from.

You can see it. It just goes on like that. If you see in Verse 17, you see, “He,” Jesus, “Is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” So still – still, even those two little guys that killed -- that’s remarkable -- even those two little guys that killed the little boy, Bolger, isn't it -- even those two little guys, God held them inside himself. And he still holds them inside himself. And he still bears, not only the pain of the little guy himself that was killed, but he bears the agony and the strain of their own guilt, and their own attitudes. “In him all things hold together.” To us it’s unthinkable, but he gave them the strength to destroy the other little fellow, bearing the infinite pain of both of them, far more pain than the mother bore, far more pain than anybody else bore. And yet he gave them strength to do it.

“He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the first-born from the dead.” And of course, it means that he is the one that bore the destruction of all that is evil, inside himself, because that was the miracle of making us in Jesus, that when we eventually turned against God, God actually destroyed all our evil, and the evil of ourselves inside Jesus. “That in everything he might be pre-eminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.” And of course, that’s the great miracle of it, that God made us in Jesus. And he crucified us in Jesus, so that we, in fact, could live here, and yet could be changed by his power.

And that’s the same truth that is in Ephesians 2:10. And I think we’ve looked at that so often. But that’s really just another verse that states part of what we’ve just read in Colossians. “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” And it’s again, "prepared these things beforehand," that we are not little bits of flotsam and jetsam trying to find our way through this weary world. We are not just little human beings trying to find out what our particular talent or ability is. We are men and women who are made part of Jesus who has planned what he wants to do in us, what works he wants to do through us.

And so we come – well really, Wordsworth was right, “We come trailing clouds of glory.” He said, “Little children come from heaven trailing clouds of glory behind them.” And in a way that’s it, we come trailing the cloud of Jesus’ life behind us, because Jesus comes to the earth in each one of us to do works that his Father has prepared beforehand for him to do.

And many of those works are done by people who don’t acknowledge Christ at all. It seems to me that’s the only explanation of James Galway and the flute. And it’s the only explanation of the geniuses that write novels, and poetry, that in fact, Christ again and again, does works that are beyond what the people think. Mozart was very conscious that he was hearing music. Elgar said it. Elgar says, “Music is all around me." And I think here in England, "You can hear music in the air.” Well, 'he' could hear it in the air because Christ was creating it in him, so that he was only just writing down what Christ was telling him.

And even we ourselves, in our little moments of inspiration, know that we write better than we know. And that’s one of the things we always said in literary criticism, that poets write better than they know. They write beyond what they know. That’s what makes sense of Shakespeare; certainly Shakespeare did not understand everything that he expressed. He at times expressed things that were beyond him himself. And so it is Christ that is working in all of us, doing works that "God has prepared beforehand that we should walk in them."

That’s why there is such order that comes about in the world, because Christ is bringing it about. It’s not chance that the medical discoveries are made, it’s God who has planned everything. So that when there is an AIDs epidemic there will be eventually an antidote to that discovered, so that all of it is planned by our Father. And yet the remarkable thing is, planned in such a way that we do exercise fully our free wills. And he – he lovingly puts up with our free wills. And the reason for all that is of course, that he does not want robots. He wants his Son, in all his freedom, and loving him because he wants to love him, not because he has to, but loving him in each one of us, who are – Luther said, “Little Christs.” And Barth has objections to that because he says, “Well, we aren’t separate from Christ. You know, we are part of Christ.” And yet we are beings; we’re not nothing.

We’re not just little cells in the body. We use that expression to try to make real in some way that we’re an integral part of Christ, but we’re not just a cell, we’re actually a being with a will, and intellect, and emotions. So there is a miracle in that. That in some sense we are simply part of Christ, but in another sense he exists in us in a way that he exists in nobody else. So it’s a remarkable creation that God has brought about in each of us. So in a sense we are little "Christs", but in a way we’re Christ in a different form. We are Christ derived from Christ himself. So we’re not Christ in our own right. But we are a life of Christ that is unlike anybody else’s life of Christ. And that’s what makes us unique, and that’s what makes us valuable. And that’s why you’re different from everybody else. And that’s why I’m different from everybody else, because we are a unique life that Jesus is living, that he’s living in nobody else. So that’s part of the reality of that Ephesians 2:10.

And then Colossians 3:3, you remember, if you’d look at it. It’s again, the same truth just expressed in some ways a little more clearly, because this expresses the truth of what God has 'done' to us in Jesus, “For you have died, and your life is hid with Christ in God.” Well, he was talking to the Colossians, Paul. And obviously they had not died, otherwise he couldn’t even have written that to them. But he says to them, “For you have died, and your life is hid with Christ in God.” And of course, what he is referring to is the "Lamb that was slain from before the foundation of the world." God foresaw what you would be like, foresaw the selfish, angry, envious, prideful creature you would become, and he destroyed you in his Son.

I tried to say last Sunday in Raleigh, "We talk about the blood of Christ. It’s the blood of God." It’s the blood of God. It’s God’s blood. He had to – he either had to get rid of us and avoid the pain or he had to bear us in himself and bear the pain. I think part of it obviously is, that our Father is responsible and wants an honest personal relationship with us. The words that I’m using are stupid and inadequate for these infinite truths. But God does want an honest relationship with us, and so he is like any parent. Any parent that has a child commits himself to facing the consequences of having that child. And that often, for many parents, means a lot of agony, and a lot of torture as a child rebels and does all kinds of things, and can even destroy the parent in certain situations. But a parent commits himself to that! So our Father does!

Our Father cannot make billions and billions of us and let us slaughter each other unless he himself bears the pain of every one whose hand is cut, or whose head is bruised, unless he bears the pain of every little one that cries herself to sleep at night. He is not a God who makes people who will suffer unless he himself suffers. He is a God who will face all of the consequences of his actions. And so that’s another reason why he made us inside himself. So when he made us inside himself in that one second, at that one second, he bore all the pain and all the agony of every human being who has ever lived and who will ever live.

And so in a real way we talk of the blood of God when we talk of the blood of Christ, because of course, Jesus’ crucifixion here [Pastor indicates 33 AD on the timeline], you can see is just the outward expression in this space/time world of the lamb that was slain from before the foundation of the world, or, if you like, of God’s own heart the moment he conceived of our existence. And so that’s why Paul says, “You have died. You with all your evil, all your cruel and your selfish ways, all your desire for your own way and your insistence on your own rights, all that was crucified in Christ from before the foundation of the world.” So you have died and your life is hid now with Christ in God.

And this showy outward life that you have here, so often full of its desire to draw other people’s attention to it, that has been crucified and your own life is hid with Christ in God, which is part of the reason we can experience the peace of God. When we at last accept that, suddenly the world is crucified to us and we’re no longer hurt by the world, or by what the world says, because in reality we’ve entered into the eternal position that we have in God’s heart. We’re "hid in Christ with God," and that’s why we’re able to be indifferent to ourselves and to be freed from ourselves, because we are actually hid with Christ in God and that place is so precious to us that any outward show, or any attention from other people seems unimportant. So that’s why Colossians 3 says, “Your life is hid with Chris in God.”

And then Revelation 13:8 of course, is that well known one which emphasizes the truth that we’ve spoken about several times, because it’s that verse you remember, that refers to the lamb. “And all who dwell on earth will worship it, every one whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb that was slain.” And of course, the adverbial phrase of time, “Before the foundation of the world,” actually follows and modifies the verb, “Was slain.” So the Greek actually reads, “Every one whose name has not been written in the book of life of the Lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world.”

And so that’s the truth, that all this was solved and took place before the foundation of the world, which is another reason why we say that the problem that you’re meeting tomorrow has already been solved in Christ’s death. And it is what enables you actually, to solve it, when you think of it. I mean, you don’t really change anything nor do I. We don’t really change a person’s mind so that they buy 200 Pounds [British Sterling] of earrings when they didn’t intend to buy them. God changed that in Jesus’ death before the foundation of the world. That is one of the works that he has prepared for us to walk in. We don’t actually solve anything; we don’t cause anything to change.

It’s very obvious in many cases. It’s most obvious by the early medical – one of the classic medics in the early days said, “No, I don’t make a wound to heal. I sew up the skin and the skin heals itself.” And so it is with many things. And probably medics themselves, would say, “Yes, we just change things around a little, but it’s the power of the body itself that actually brings about the healing.” And so it is in all kinds of situations: the world has been crucified in Christ; the problems have been solved already by God in Jesus, and what we are seeing is the manifestation of those solutions as we do the things that God guides us to do. But we do not really cause anything; we just do what God tells us to do, and he brings about an appropriate result through the work he has done in Christ.

So that’s part of the meaning of the "Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world." And then of course, there’s the summary of it in Ephesians 2:4-9. I just thought I’d give these verses, because for some of you who are beginning to try to work these details out, probably it will help you to know that those are some basic verses that present the glory of this gospel in a clear way. And this 2:4-9 is one of those verses in Ephesians where Paul expresses it all in wonderful running sentences that have a profundity and a depth to them that just is bewildering. “But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with him, and made us sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God – not because of works, lest any man should boast.” And then, “For we are his workmanship...”

And so Paul summarizes it all and shows that it has already been done. It’s all done in this second here [Pastor points to the beginning of the timeline]. It’s all been done there and it’s all finished so that in the coming ages here [the right part of the timeline], he might show forth the greatness of his kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. And that’s what we’re experiencing. And then there’ll be more coming ages there [Pastor indicates the eternity beyond the end of time] in which he will show it even more clearly to us.

Now, what our dear Father did in the early days of the human existence was: Everybody here [the early part of the timeline] was experiencing a death, a fallen world. And so God chose a little group called Israel, and he gave them little signs that there was light at the end of this tunnel. He gave them little assurances that "though their sins were scarlet they would be as snow, as wool," and that he would forgive them and would raise them up; that he would make the "desert here blossom as a rose," that this was not the final reality, that there was a true reality that he had created inside himself. And so he gave to Israel a covenant through Abraham, “I will make your children as the sand upon the seashore.” And in a world where everything was falling apart and everything was chaos, he was promising life, and new life, and prosperity; and he was giving to them the covenant, and he was giving to them the temple worship to show them that he was present with them and they could enjoy his fellowship. And so in that sense, Israel was regarded as 'near to God' and the rest of us, of course, Gentiles here, we were regarded as 'far from God'. They were regarded as near because in some sense they had some hope. We saw no hope. We knew nothing of God’s fatherly love and mercy. They knew little bits of his fatherly love and mercy, not the fullness that was there [Pastor indicates the Jesus' crucifixion at 29 AD] in the cross, but they saw signs of it.

Now that’s what this verse means in Ephesians 2:13, that we’re studying today. And of course, I’ll finish virtually here with just a few comments that will be plain and clear to you. “But now in Christ Jesus you,” you Gentiles, “who once were far off,” because of course, you lived in this world and had none of the signs that the Jews had, “You who once were far off,” because they [the Jews] were near you see. In Verse 12, “Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ,” you Gentiles, “Alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world,” because you had none of those things that the Israelites have and who were near to God, “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near in the blood of Christ.” And he’s saying that now that you know the truth of what has happened in God’s heart you have immediately been brought near.

I would just point out to you, it doesn’t say, “You have managed to get near,” or, “You have brought yourself near.” The Greek is actually "egenaethaete" [writes the Greek word] and it is the passive aorist. And that means two things. First of all, it’s not active: you’re not the active ones; you’re the passive; you’re the receiver of the action. You have been brought near. And then aorist means, "At one moment". "You have been brought near instantaneously."