THE WORK OF GOD, IN RELATION TO THE ETERNAL STATE
NOTES OF A READING AT LEICESTER
John 5: 17; 2 Peter 3: 13; 1 Corinthians 15: 29
The end of all God’s work will be God’s eternal rest in a state of things in which everything is according to God. This must be the result of God’s work, wrought by the One who said, “Lo, I come ... to do thy will, O God”, Heb 10: 7. Hence it will be the display of the glory of God, and the glory of the Son of God. It will be for the pleasure of the divine Persons by whom it is brought to pass. At the same time, it will be a state of supreme blessedness for the creature. It will all be the product of divine love. It will be a universe permeated by divine love. Love rests in what it brings to pass for its objects, for the satisfaction of the love that does it. “He will rejoice over thee with joy, he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing”, Zeph 3: 17.
The eternal state will be the consummation of the work of God. Every bit of the work of God will find its place in the eternal state, nothing will be lost. At the present time the work of God is a spiritual work, carried on in the souls of His people by the Holy Spirit.
When the Son of God was here, they complained because He did His works on the sabbath day. His answer was, “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work”, John 5: 17. It was impossible for God to rest in the presence of a scene of misery and death, the fruit of sin. He had rested in the first creation when He saw that all was very good. But this rest was soon marred by man’s sin. Hence He begins to work anew. This will eventuate in an eternal order of things, wholly according to God. When this is brought to pass, it will be said, It is done, and God will rest.
Ever since the fall God has been working with this great end in view. He is the First, and He is the Last. Each one is the subject of this work, “He who has begun in you a good work, will complete it unto Jesus Christ’s day”, Phil 1: 6. The new creation has already begun, “If anyone be in Christ, there is a new creation”, 2 Cor 5: 17. Christ in resurrection is the beginning of the creation of God. God creates all things by Jesus Christ.
Peter presents the eternal state in the simplest way: “We wait for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwells righteousness”, 2 Pet 3: 13. The believer, who was born in sin, is being formed in righteousness to fit him for that world. The new man is created in righteousness and holiness of truth. “Every one who practises righteousness is begotten of him”, 1 John 2: 29. “He that practises righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous”, 1 John 3: 7. In the epistle to the Romans we see how God is bringing to pass a generation characterised by righteousness, those in whom the righteous requirements of the law are fulfilled, to whom the will of God is good and acceptable. Thus we are being prepared to fill our place in a universe in which righteousness dwells.
In 1 Corinthians 15: 28 it is described as a state in which God will be “all in all”. Thus it will be a universe pervaded by divine love. God will be the supreme Object, engaging and satisfying the mind and affections of every intelligent being, known and loved and worshipped by all. He will be “in all”, so that there will be a perfect response to the revelation of Himself; the whole creation will utter His glory. He is working to bring this about in us now. He has given us of His Spirit, and the result is that every one who confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, “God dwelleth in him, and he in God”, 1 John 4: 15. “He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him”, v 16. If we dwell in God, He is to us the all-satisfying Object, for we dwell in love, and then the Spirit shedding abroad this love in our hearts forms us in the divine nature, so that God comes to dwell in us; the result is “we love”. Thus God works in us, preparing us for the eternal day, when “God may be all in all”, 1 Cor 15: 28.
According to Revelation 21: 1-7 the central object in the day of God will be “the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband”. It will be the eternal dwelling-place of God, in which He will tabernacle with men, they will be His people, and He will be with them their God. It will be a wholly new creation condition; the former things, all the fruit of sin, will have for ever passed away, and all things will be new, and all things will be of God. In that eternal state all His will is accomplished, all His purposes fulfilled. It will be a scene of perfect rest; there will be no more sea. God will rest in the result of His work, and find in it the satisfaction of His love. We shall enjoy that rest with God for ever.
Christ, too, will have His satisfaction in His bride, made in every way suited to Himself. Then we may think of the church as the bride, the Lamb’s wife. This is the time of the building of the woman. She is being formed by the work of God, so that she may be a suitable companion for His Son; one capable of responding to His affections, capable in intelligence to have communion with Him in all His thoughts, the true helpmate, His like, or counterpart; a companion worthy to share His position and glory as the Head over all principality and power. She is the object, too, of the present service of Christ; He is sanctifying and cleansing her by the “washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but ... holy” (Eph 5: 26, 27), in every way suited to Himself, fit to be His companion through the eternal ages. The church is of Himself, one flesh, His body, therefore morally like Himself. As in the case of Eve, the woman was taken out of the man and then united to him, Gen 2: 21-23. This formation of the bride is going on now in the souls of the saints. It is wholly new creation. She will display all the moral beauties and perfections of the second Man.
How important that we should understand what the work of God is at the present time, and the end to which He is working, that we should be in sympathy with it, lend ourselves to it, so that it may not be hindered in any way by us. It is here and now that our stature is being built up, that we are being developed in love and intelligence, and so being fitted for the place we shall fill in the eternal world. Of what immense importance is the present short moment of our life in this world.
From Mutual Comfort vol 17 (1924)