THE PURPOSE OF GOD

^[p. 266] THE PURPOSE OF GOD

Romans 8:28 to end

Death terminates all down here, and rests upon everything in this scene. It is the end of the best thing created, i.e., man himself, the best of God’s creatures upon earth. But what is pointed to in this Scripture as outside of all this scene of death is the purpose of God. It is a line of life and light outside the whole order of things which have been marred by sin and death here below. The purpose of God brings us to conformity to His Son out of death, and where nothing but life pervades the whole scene. And if the Son of God is thus brought forward in resurrection as the Man of God’s purpose and delight, the next point is that He must have companions. He delighted in companions while upon earth, He delighted in them after He rose from the dead while still here, and He delights in them now, and will do so for evermore. We are to be conformed to His image “that he should be the firstborn among many brethren”. It is the purpose of God to surround His Son with the companionship of those who are called to glory! What He looks for now before we reach actual conformity to His image, is moral conformity to Christ in the power of the Spirit. The next point is that the called ones while on earth have a Priest at the right hand of God. He lives there to make intercession for weak ones, not for the strong. If we are conscious of weakness we can appropriate the Priest and prove His strength and sympathy. If Priesthood is alone for weakness then the strong cannot thus appropriate Him, and the weak only have claim upon Him in this, though He is there for all saints. He intercedes for us on high so that all that may happen to us here such as ‘tribulation, distress, persecution’, etc., can in no wise separate us from Him or His love. When we have to face the fact that death rests upon us down here we shrink ^[p. 267] from it as painful, for the bitter waters of Marah were not pleasant to take, but thank God we can rise above it all into the light and joy of the purpose of God, and dwell in spirit where death can never intrude, for death can never enter where Christ is in resurrection life! What saints need is to get away in spilt from present things, and the world, and sorrows here, into the light of God’s purpose. In verse 28 the called are those who love God, so it can be said without hesitation of any one who loves God, that he is plainly called of God, but in verse 39 we get God’s love to us from which there is no separation. No power in heaven or on earth can turn away infinite love from resting upon those who are the objects of it according to eternal purpose. We need to rise up to the spring and centre of it all which is Christ Himself, and while abiding in the light of His love, be the expression of it in gladness of heart before a world that knows Him not.
1898.