The Eternal Purpose

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 23, 1902

“The Eternal Purpose”

In the eternity of unmeasured time, before the foundations of the earth were laid, it was determined in the divine plan of government that the only begotten Son, the second person of the Godhead, should be Head over all creation. The decision that he should be “Lord of lords, and King of kings,” was not an arbitrary one. The decree that he should be King on the holy hill of Zion was based upon his sonship, as is shown by these words: “I will tell of the decree: Jehovah said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee.” And so the Son was “appointed heir of all things,” because “all things were made through him; and without him was not anything made that hath been made.” And he, the eternal personal Wisdom of God, in the following language sets forth his own relationship to the Father of all, and to the things that are made:—

“The Lord possessed me, the beginning of his way, Before his works of old. I was anointed from everlasting, From the first, from the beginning of the earth. When there were no depths I was brought forth, When there were no fountains abounding with water. Before the mountains were settled, Before the hills, was I brought forth. While as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, Nor the first clods of the world. When he prepared the heavens, I was there; When he set a canopy over the face of the deep: When he established the skies above: When the fountains of the deep waxed strong: When he gave to the sea its bounds, That the waters should not pass their border; When he appointed the foundations of the earth; Then I was by him, I the Builder; And I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him; Rejoicing in his habitable earth; And my delights were with the sons of men.”

This is “the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God.”

It required no change either in the character or in the purpose of God in order to deal successfully with sin after it was introduced into our world. The principles of the gospel are older than sin. The eternal counsel was broad enough to include even rebellious subjects. The law of self-renouncing love asserted itself. The eternal Son, “the firstborn of all creation,” through the mystery of the incarnation became the Head of the new creation, “the last Adam,” the Head of a new humanity. The Son of God became Son of man. “Christ brought human nature into a personal relation with his own divinity,” and as Son of man won back for himself in his humanity all the power and prerogatives which belonged to him as Son of God. Through this most wonderful exhibition of the divine condescension heaven and earth were again united under the headship of the eternal Son, “according to the purpose of the ages which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Of the working of this plan the apostle Paul thus writes: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ: even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blemish before him in love: having foreordained us unto adoption as sons through Jesus Christ unto himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, which he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved: in whom

we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, making known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he purposed in him unto a dispensation of a fullness of the times, to sum up [to reunite for himself under one head] all things in Christ, the things in the heavens, and the things upon the earth; in him, I say, in whom also we were made a heritage, having been foreordained according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his will.”

It thus appears that Christianity is not one of a long catalogue of religions equally good; it is not one of many ways of salvation, all of which are to be accepted as revelations of different but successful plans through which “the divinity within us” may struggle to bring us up to a higher plane of being. Christianity stands alone. It is in its very nature an exclusive religion. It is the one and only divine provision for the restoration and preservation of a lost humanity. In Christ, the eternal Son, the whole family in heaven and earth is reunited. Only the eternal Son could do this. And he could do it only by clothing his divinity with humanity, and thus providing in himself, the God-man, a place of meeting between God and humanity. This is the one only way for an eternal redemption. “In taking our nature, the Saviour has bound himself to humanity by a tie that is never to be broken. Through the eternal ages he is linked with us. ‘God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son.’ He gave him not only to bear our sins, and to die as our sacrifice; he gave him to the fallen race. To assure us of his immutable counsel of peace, God gave his only begotten Son to become one of the human family, forever to retain his human nature. This is the pledge that God will fulfill his word. ‘Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder.’ God has adopted human nature in the person of his Son, and has carried the same into the highest heaven. It is the ‘Son of man’ who shares the throne of the universe. It is the ‘Son of man’ whose name shall be called, ‘Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.’ The I AM is the Daysman between God and humanity, laying his hand upon both. He who is ‘holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners,’ is not ashamed to call us brethren. In Christ the family of earth and the family of heaven are bound together. Christ glorified is our brother. Heaven is enshrined in humanity, and humanity is enfolded in the bosom of Infinite Love.”

“Thou hast given me the shield of thy salvation; And thy right hand hath holden me up, And thy condescension hath made me great.”