Part I: The Eternal Purpose

Years ago, my understanding of life’s purpose was a disorganized collection of Biblical facts and expectations that I did my best to sort out and live by. As I got older, I began to wonder if God was after something bigger than my showing up at church and going to heaven someday. Did He have some kind of master plan? Certainly God just didn’t create all of us just to save us from our sins, then have us wait around on this dirty little planet until we are yeeted to glory. I figured if I knew what that plan was, then maybe some of what I was doing as a believer might make more sense. Then maybe I could do a better job aligning my effort with His goal.

I began to ask serious Christian friends, “Just what are we supposed to be doing here on earth?” I think the best answer I got was that our purpose here was to “imitate Jesus”. But this answer just wasn’t very satisfying. Maybe it was part of the answer.

Maybe.

In the field of process improvement, I was taught that if you ask the question “why?” at least five times, you’ll eventually arrive at the root cause.

Q: Why should we imitate Jesus?

A: Well, that’s what Jesus wants.

Q: Why does he want that?

A: Hmmm…. I’ll do some research and get back with you on that.

The root cause of Christianity was apparently something deeper than anyone in my life at that time had yet touched on, let alone explained. Years later, through my own study, I learned that God actually had an ultimate goal from the very beginning. An eternal purpose that He never deviated from. What follows is a brief explanation of this idea that caused a monumental shift in my Christian understanding.

Intermediate Objectives vs. the Ultimate Purpose

Unless we’re careful, we can mistake an intermediate objective of the Lord for His ultimate purpose. I would also wager that many of the intermediate goals we project onto the Lord will have a lot to do with the emphasis of our religious upbringing.

For example, in the Old Testament, if our focus is man’s sin in the Garden of Eden, we can easily convince ourselves that God’s ultimate purpose is to save man from their sins. If our focus is Abraham and his descendents, we can falsely believe that the blessings and material wealth they received under his covenant with the Lord is God’s foremost desire for His children. If our focus is the words of the prophets, we could mistake the idea that the restoration of the nation Israel as a sovereign nation is God’s ultimate goal.

We can do the same thing with the New Testament. If our focus is the gospels when Jesus walked the earth, we can convince ourselves that God’s ultimate intention is to see healing, forgiveness, miracles, social justice, and giving dignity to the oppressed. If our focus is in Acts, we can believe that God is ultimately about missions, church planting, and spreading the gospel. If our focus is the Book of Revelation, we could be convinced that the Lord’s foremost desire is to judge the wicked, reward the righteous, focus our minds on eschatology, and for us to be vigilant for the Lord’s return.

If a curious on-looker had no knowledge of the Bible, what could they discern as God’s ultimate desire by looking at the modern church? Persuasive speaking? Large crowds? High-tech presentations? Talented worship teams? Effective programs? Personal gain and benefit? Will they think that this is what the Lord is ultimately after?

Please don’t misunderstand what I’m saying.

I’m not saying that many of these intermediate purposes I mentioned above aren’t important. Yes, some are misguided. But others are critical. What I am saying is that some of these are a means to the end, but none of them are the end as far as the Lord’s deepest, eternal desires are concerned.

So what is God really after? The answer may surprise you.

To answer this question, we have to go back to what was happening before Genesis–before God created the universe and before sin entered the world. Now, you might say, “But we don’t have any scriptures that talk about that…” Well, it turns out we do! But it won’t be found in one or two proof passages. To find it, we have to examine the Biblical narrative as a whole. The answer is found in a common thread that runs throughout the whole of scripture.

Communion of the Uncreated

So what existed before things were created? There was no physical universe, no earth, and no humans to walk upon it. It may surprise you that at one point in the past there wasn’t even a heaven, angels, or throne upon which God would rule. So what was there?

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.
John 1:1-2 (ESV)

And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.
John 17:5 (ESV)

Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.
John 17:24 (ESV)

Before anything was created, there was only the uncreated Trinitarian Community: the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. What were they doing? From the scriptures above, it would seem that they were focused on a single activity: Engaging one another in eternal fellowship, unbroken communion, and boundless intimacy. It was eternal because its members had no beginning. (The Trinity is uncreated.) It was unbroken because there was nothing from which to divide their attention. Their intimacy was boundless because boundlessness is the nature of God and everything that flows from Him. The Father loved the Son by way of the Spirit. The Son returned the Love to the Father by way of the Spirit. And this was all there was–a fellowship based on fathomless intimacy that was beyond human description.

Maybe an eternal exchange of boundless love would seem boring to us. If it does, that probably speaks more to our own brokenness and our attachment to the shadows of God’s desires than it does to the reality of continuous fellowship amid the Trinity. Besides, I think deep down inside, everyone seeks a boundless exchange of love–though the object of that love is too often sought in the form of power, wealth, lust, or entertainment. These are twisted and inferior versions of what God offers by way of His fellowship. King David, who was known for his deep and abiding love of God was approaching this awareness when he wrote:

You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
Psalms 16:11 (ESV)

King David experienced the love of God through a deep and abiding pursuit. He had nothing but incredible things to say about it. Maybe he was on to something. But I digress…

Today we have creation that extends beyond the Trinitarian Community. So what prompted the Godhead to ‘create’?

The Eternal Counsel

In the first chapter of Ephesians, Paul explains:

In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will…
Ephesians 1:11 (ESV)

This verse has a couple of interesting elements. First is the phrase “predestined according to the purpose of Him”. Predestined is a word that carries a lot of theological baggage–but let’s look at it closely. To predestine something is to mark its destiny out beforehand. The outworking of destiny requires time. Therefore, the predestining would have to be done before creation (of which time is a part). This predestining was done “according to the purpose”. If the predestination was according to the purpose, then the purpose would also have to have occurred before creation.

Second is the phrase “according to the counsel of his will”. The Greek word here is boule (βουλή), which when used in secular contexts contemporary to scripture typically conveyed the idea of deliberation amid a group of people. Let’s cross-reference this idea with what we find in the Book of Jeremiah…

For who among them has stood in the council of the Lord to see and to hear his word, or who has paid attention to his word and listened?
Jeremiah 23:18 (ESV)

The word council here clearly carries the meaning of a group of two or more. When you take what’s implied in this verse and refer back to the meaning of Ephesians 1:11, it fortifies the idea that there was deliberation between the members of the Trinity as the Father, the Son, and the Spirit crafted their plans even before time began. Paul repeatedly refers to this plan as the “purpose” or the “eternal purpose” throughout the first three chapters of Ephesians.

The Eternal Purpose

So what exactly is God’s eternal purpose?

The answer is found scattered throughout scripture, but there are certain parts of the Bible that focus on it more than others. From my own studies, there is notable focus in Genesis 1-2, John 17, Romans 8, Ephesians 1-3, Colossians 1, and Revelation 21-22. If we really want to know and understand God’s ultimate intention these are good places to start. These chapters stand out as unique among their surrounding content. I’ve already mentioned the significance of these chapters in Genesis and Revelation. Chapter 17 of John’s gospel contains Jesus’ “high priestly prayer” where he’s pouring his heart out to His Father on behalf of His disciples just before His crucifixion. His teachings contain His unfiltered heart–no longer shrouded in parables and mystery. The opening chapters of Ephesians and Colossians contain arguably the highest revelation of Jesus Christ in all of scripture.

From these passages we derive God’s purpose. Connecting the dots, we can see it is made up of several common complementary and reinforcing objectives:

First we learn that God wants His Son to be preeminent–the center of all things and for everything to be summed up in Him. (Col. 1:18; Eph. 1:9-10)

Preeminence. Supremacy. Holding first place. These are the things that the Trinity wants for the Son. This fact rubs a little against my sense of perfect egalitarianism and balance within the Godhead. But there it is. Among its members, it was Jesus Christ that they wanted to see high and lifted up. In the heart of the believer the Son looms above all other things. Not only that, but creation itself derives its meaning, purpose, origin, and final consummation in Christ alone.

Second, we see that God wants to extend the eternal fellowship of the Trinitarian Community to a people of His own creation. He wants to share in the joy and unbroken fellowship that had previously been shared between the Father, Son, and Spirit with mankind. (John 16:4; John 17:21)

At some point we have run out of ‘whys’ to ask, but can only stand in awe of the heart of God. It’s no longer just the Father, the Son, and the Spirit in perfect communion. By God’s grace we’ve been added to this fellowship. We are, to quote John Nugent, “caught in the crossfire” of divine, superlative, inexhaustible love exchanged among the Godhead.

We can speculate as to why God would invite such fellowship. In my mind, this ravenous love, this consuming occupation, was too massive to contain. It simply had to expand outside of itself to another realm (creation) made for the express purpose of allowing God’s love to grow. Think about that. Astrophysicists tell us that the universe is expanding at an accelerating rate. Could there be any connection with the eternal fellowship expanding at an accelerating rate?

Third, God wanted His people to bear His image in the created realm as they live by the Life of His Son. (Gen. 1:26-27; 2 Cor. 3:18; 2 Peter 1:4)

If we were to travel back before time and physically “see” God’s eternal fellowship, what would it look like? There was only the Father, Son, and Spirit. They did not occupy space–literally, they were all there was. The Bible tells us that the Lord dwells in unapproachable light (1 Tim. 6:16). However, there was no form. Speculating a little, it would seem that the Lord desired a form. He wanted to be visible. He desired for others to bear witness to the expression of His love and fellowship. Humanity was therefore created to bear God’s image. Humanity would be the increase of God.

Of course, it wouldn’t be enough for people to “try” to bear God’s image. Sin has its effects and has marred that image. So to properly bear God’s image, humanity was designed to contain and express Divine Life. (We’ll discuss this fact in much more detail in later posts.)

Fourth, God wanted His people to rule and reign over His creation. (Gen. 1:26-27)

I find this part of His purpose fascinating. But it seems somewhat irresponsible of God. If He has control over creation, if He wields absolute authority, and if He is completely sovereign and capable in His own right, why turn the wheel over to a people who can barely keep their own lives in order? Isn’t that a bit reckless? If He is sovereign, trustworthy, and perfect, that answer would be “no”, which only leaves us to ponder some pretty staggering implications.

Lastly, it seems God wanted a family for the Father (Heb 2:10; Rom 8:29), a bride for His Son (Rev. 18:23; Rev. 21:9), and a temple for the Spirit to permanently dwell (1 Cor. 6:19; 1 Peter 2:5).

I find it interesting that there is a piece of the purpose unique to each member of the Trinity. Though I’m certain there will be those who will disagree on a theological basis, there seems to be a level of fulfillment that the eternal purpose brings that is unique to each member. What father, who loves their son, does not want to have more children like his son? What bridegroom doesn’t seek to have, hold, and love their betrothed bride who exists solely for their mutual completion? What spirit does not seek a way out of endless wandering to find a body into which they breathe life?

Was God completely satisfied before creation? Absolutely. But we are the increase of Christ. The purpose, as realized through mankind, is to bring to the Lord even greater glory.

A Planned Detour

If you look closely, there’s something notably absent from the above list.

Nowhere on it is mentioned sin, its effects, and Christ’s work of redemption. Why? Because redemption is not an eternal purpose, but rather a necessary detour–a recovery plan to get the universe moving toward the eternal purpose once again. Interestingly, all but about four chapters in the Bible speak to or are written about the detour. Genesis chapters 1 and 2 precede the detour since sin had not yet occurred. Revelation chapters 21 and 22 speak after the detour since sin and death have been brought to their end. Most of the Bible is written about the detour around God’s eternal purpose!

This is not to say that redemption is not a part of the Lord’s plan. Not that God planned the Fall, but that He planned for it. This should give us incredible encouragement to know that God wasn’t surprised by sin and had to quickly work out a “contingency plan” for Adam’s failure. It was all deliberated, planned out, and set in motion before Genesis 1:1 happened.

If sin hadn’t occurred, He certainly would have achieved his eternal purpose more directly. But He is patient; and this detour (which included the masterful arrangement of history to allow mankind’s redemption through Jesus Christ and the subsequent advance of the Kingdom of God through His Body) was a necessary step in fulfilling His purpose.

It just goes to show us that understanding the Biblical narrative is not a matter of finding emphasis based on the occurrence of key words. Contrary to popular sentiment, the Bible is not primarily an “instruction manual”. Rather, it’s a grand narrative that chronicles the work of the Lord in the fulfillment of His eternal purpose.

One thing that is clear is that God does not exist for us. His desires originate from within the Trinity, independent of us. However, we were created as the means of fulfilling His purpose.

That is our sacred privilege.

2 Replies to “Part I: The Eternal Purpose”

Brent A Baker says:

September 25, 2021 at 5:42 am

Mike, this provides great perspective to keep us from getting focused on one of God’s intermediate purposes and not understanding how those fit into his ultimate plans and purposes. You are a blessing to the church for putting this out there!

1. Mike says:
  
  September 25, 2021 at 12:56 pm
  
  Brent,
  
  Thanks for dropping a comment on this and thanks for the encouragement!

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