As he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment —to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ. (Ephesians 1:9-10)
Preferences and personal wishes aside, I think that in the deepest part of us, each of us long for the same world. We all want a world of love, peace, and justice. Good news, according to this passage and many others, it’s on its way! Better yet, he’s on his way!
God is going to reunify everything under the headship of Jesus Christ when he returns! That’s the world we long for.
Let’s unpack this brief passage about that world in two posts. Please read both parts in order to see the full picture and appreciate where this journey leads.
The world you long to see is the world God has always planned to bring
Aren’t you so pleased that God not only has a plan, but one that gives him pleasure? He’s got a purpose, an eternal one, a plan in which Christ inhabits the very center. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s just bask in the thought that there is a plan, one that God forged in the beginning and is as pleased to bring about as we’ll be when he does! He didn’t make it up on the fly. Everything he does, dare I say, and doesn’t do, has something to do with his strategy to restore everything to its original design!
That original design was upset––nay, shattered.
A. Did the devil do it?
B. Did the devil make us do it?
C. Satan was in on it, tempting us to join his side. But we took the bait and became criminals in our own right?
If you guessed “C” you win!
God set the whole thing up in perfect harmony. There was no death, no disease, no discrimination. Everything worked together with everything else with Christ at the head. Until it didn’t. After that, everything began to break down and decay. The united became disunited.
Was his plan busted beyond repair? Certainly not. God’s big picture plans are always resilient.
The world you long to see will come when the time comes
Don’t know about you, but I can get pretty impatient, even a little cranky in the meantime. And I’d say the times we’re in are pretty dang mean. Don’t get me started on the number of wars being waged, dictatorships preferred over democracy, the planet boiling over, the shocking number of displaced migrants around the world, the resurgence of racist attitudes, mass shootings, and homelessness at epidemic levels.
“My soul is in deep anguish. How long, Lord, how long? / How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart? / None of us knows how long this will be.” Can you relate?
It can be frustrating. We don’t know how long this present state of affairs will last. And if you hear anyone proposing a date, even a year or a decade when Jesus returns to repair everything, reject it.
But I do love that there’ll be a time, the best time, when the “times reach their fulfillment”! In other words, it’ll happen when it’s time––God’s time. For now, he’s waiting for that perfect time to bring everything together, to bring “unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.”
Until then we’ll have to not only patiently wait, but actively build for the ultimate kingdom now. Our job is not to get people saved in preparation for an evacuation of a burning planet. Salvation is a restoration, not an evacuation! It’s not like pushing people on to the last plane leaving Afghanistan. When asked what he would do if he knew the world would end the next day, Martin Luther said, he would plant a tree. So, while we’re waiting let’s get our hands dirty and plant some trees!
The world you long to see is up ahead. Only Jesus can make that world come. In the meantime, let’s contribute to that world by working with him and with each other in this one. When he comes, will he find us on the job or standing on our roof waiting for him to whisk us away?
The world you long to see is where everything in heaven and on earth is united UNDER CHRIST
His “bringing unity to all things under Christ” is one of Scripture’s most beautiful and inevitable realities! Please come back next time so we can unpack this glorious guarantee together.
barney wiget 