GOD'S PURPOSE OF THE AGES.
The apostle Paul declared that the grace or gift of a minister of Jesus Christ was given unto him that he should “preach unto the gentiles [the nations of earth] the unsearchable riches of Christ; and to make all men see what is the dispensation [the stewardship] of the mystery which from all ages hath been hid in God who created all things; to the intent that now unto the principalities and the powers in the heavenly places might be made known through the church the manifold wisdom of God, according to the purpose of the ages which he [God] purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Eph. 3:8–11, R. V. We have not time, nor do we purpose at this time to even attempt, to develop this wonderful passage, in which is involved all the Gospel of Christ, the exceeding riches of God’s grace. Suffice to say that God has revealed this mystery in and through the apostle. Christ was revealed to him on his way to Damascus, and Paul was converted. Christ was revealed to him when he gave himself to God, and Paul was justified. And Christ was revealed in Paul that he might preach Christ and witness to his power to save. Gal. 1:16; Acts 26:16–18; 22:14, 15; 9:15, 16. This was Paul’s mission in word and life. He further tells us that this Gospel had not been revealed in the past as it had then, in his day, been revealed, but many of its wondrous riches had been hid in God, waiting the fullness of time (see Rom. 16:25–27; Eph. 3:5); that even then a new revelation was made known through the church even to heavenly beings of the manifold wisdom of God, and that all this revelation, or manifestation, was according to the purpose of the ages purposed in Christ Jesus in the beginning. The purpose is ever the same, namely, the gathering into one all things in heaven and earth through Christ Jesus. That purpose is expressly declared to be the purpose2 (34)of the ages, by which is meant those periods, or dispensations, of time in which the great plan of redemption has been divided. These dispensations, or ages, have shown progression in the manifestation of God’s plan of saving men, but unity in principle and purpose. While the purpose is the same, the manifestations of the ages have been different. All these were known of God in the beginning. All these were marked out by our Lord Jesus Christ. Two expressions in the book of Hebrews will make this plain. “God . . . hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things by whom also he made [appointed, ordained] the worlds [ages].” Heb. 1:1, 2. The word rendered made is from the Greek poiēō, and is, by Strong and others, given the following definitions: “To make or do, in a very wide application.” It is translated “appoint” in Heb. 3:2, and “ordain” in Mark 3:14. The word from which “worlds” comes is aiōn, defined to be “duration, finite or infinite, a period of duration, past or future, a time, age, lifetime.” It is many times translated “world,” but its use and the context will always show that the principal thought is the period of time, or the state of the world during the period or age under consideration. So the Revised Version renders in the margin, “Greek ages.” Rotherham renders, “Through whom also he made the ages.” Young and Anderson similarly. The Emphatic Diaglott, “On account of whom also he constituted the ages.” The thought is that the various steps or periods of development in the great plan of salvation were ordained through our Lord Jesus Christ. This of necessity includes the creation of the material world, but the primary thought in the word is the time, the period, the age. Another text is Heb. 11:3: “Through faith we understand that the worlds [ages] were framed [adjusted] by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.” The word “worlds” is from the same Greek word as “worlds” in Heb. 1:2, and “ages” in Eph. 2:7. It means ages, or dispensations. The word “framed” is from the Greek katartizō, defined, “to complete thoroughly, repair, adjust.” It is rendered in our common version by fit, frame, mend, prepare, restore. Young translates the text: “By faith we understand the ages to have been prepared by a saying of God, in regard to the things seen not having come out of things appearing.” Rotherham renders: “By faith we understand the ages to have been adjusted by declaration of God; to-the-end that not out of appearances should that which is seen have come into existence.” The Emphatic Diaglott reads: “In faith we perceive that the ages have been so thoroughly adjusted by God’s command that not from things then manifest the things now seen have come to pass.” That is, human sight could not see in the things manifested what God was working out. In the present appearances of each age the natural eye could not see the more glorious development of future ages. It is only by faith that it could or can be perceived or understood. The whole of the eleventh chapter is an illustration of this thought. Let us consider the ages brought within the limit of man’s history. Before these periods were the eternal ages of God. “When the fullness of the time was come,” God called into existence the earth in which his purpose was to be demonstrated. That earth was made to be a home, an eternal home, for man, to be peopled by a certain number of an upright and holy race, who would choose life by choosing righteousness, peopled by a race whose characters, precious above all things else in the sight of God, beautifully and perfectly harmonizing in every particular, were named and written in the book of life before the foundation of the world. To one of these names and characters and crowns God calls every soul brought into being in this earth. If the soul submits to God, he will, through discipline, instruction, encouragement, be fitted for the eternal position in the kingdom of God which will best glorify his Creator, and bring him the most happiness. All these things has God “made known unto us” in “the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed.” Eph. 1:9. Nay, God’s plan, God’s purpose, can not be thwarted by sin. A great adversary has endeavored, and is endeavoring, to thwart God’s own purpose of redemption and eternal unity of the whole family of heaven and earth, but he has not accomplished it, nor will he. On the contrary, the manifestations of God’s grace will shine all the more brightly in the triumph of eternal righteousness over sin. The sin is but an incident, made necessarily possible by the fact that man is a free moral agent, and that free choice is necessary for development of character. But the incident did not take God’s government by surprise, nor find it wanting in resources to meet Satan’s assault. Every device of Satan, every attack which could be made on the government of God, were all met in God’s plan of the ages in the beginning. Before sin entered it was by faith that man could attain to the character predestinated of God. The plan is the same now. He could not then see its end only as he saw it by faith in God’s promise; neither can he know it now, except by faith. In the patriarchal age, or period, of earth’s history it could not be seen by human eyes how man could be restored, how death could be abolished, by “the Seed of the woman,” but faith understood that out of the things not then seen God would bring to pass the things he had promised. And Abel and Enoch and Noah and others knew that the ages were in God’s power, and would work out God’s purpose, even as predicted by Enoch. Jude 14, 15. Abraham could not perceive by natural powers how God could bring forth from a barren wife him who would be the father of multitudes, but faith saw it and was rewarded. “When the fullness of the time was come,” God called Israel out of Egypt. Human wisdom was not consulted, but confounded. Human power was not sought. Human power could not accomplish, human knowledge could not perceive, nor human wisdom plan, all that God did in the redemption and deliverance of Israel. But faith understood that God could and would do it all. And he did, bringing the things that actually came to pass out of the things not seen. “When the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.” And here again was manifest the wonderful wisdom and power of God in bringing out of the things not seen the things which do appear. From the Babe of Bethlehem, from Jesus, the carpenter of Nazareth, from the cross, from the sealed grave, God brought triumphant victory for the entire race. Satan’s minions rejoiced when the voice of infinite searching was silenced. Satan and his angels laughed in hellish glee when the stone was rolled to the door of the sepulcher. But everlasting righteousness was triumphant over destructive sin. “He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh; the Lord shall have them in derision.” The grave could not hold the Prince of Life. Out of what the natural man could not see, God brought again eternal victory. At this time was seen the vindictiveness of sin, which stopped not short of the destruction of the universe by destroying Him who in love came to save the lost. Here also was seen the wonderful love of God poured out upon a rebellious race. Here was a revelation of infinite love which even the dwellers in heavenly places had not before seen. It was the same purpose as in the beginning; it was in the succession of the ages a fuller development of the purpose than ages before had seen. The unbelieving rejected it, and died hopeless. The believing, even to him who believed in the darkest hour (Luke 23:43), sleep in the hope of the promise. “When the fullness of the time” shall come that Christ our King shall return, then will be manifest the fullness of God’s purpose as never seen before. Then will the glory, possessed while here, be seen upon not only him but his. The word of his power will make all things new; the earth will be renovated from the curse, God’s people established (Isa. 45:17, 18), Mount Zion and the New Jerusalem, to which we are now come by faith, will be literally manifest, and throughout all “the ages to come,” God will “show the exceeding riches of his grace, in his kindness toward us, through Christ Jesus.” Eph. 2:7. The above, reader, are only slight hints concerning God’s purpose of the ages, a few rough-cut gems from the great mine. These ages may well be likened, as they have been, to a musical scale, vibrant with sad minor wails because of sin, and with grand major harmonies because of triumphs. Some of the great events in these periods rise like giant mountains, and some of them are well symbolized by Sinai, Calvary, and the Mount Zion to come,—sin and its condemnation, the infinite sacrifice of love for the sinner, and the eternal triumph of right over wrong.