All Things

"And 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 will have reached their fulfillment - to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ. ... And you also were included in Christ, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation.  Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit."  (Eph. 1:9-10, 13)

The story of God's people is a long one, stretching back thousands of years to the beginning of creation.  What purpose did the Lord have in mind in this strange and beautiful world?  What was He aiming for when He began the redemption story with a chosen family?  What were all those Hebrew biographies and chronicles about?  What ultimate purpose was it all pointing to?

God's ultimate aim was and is to bring everything in heaven and earth under Jesus.  That goal was present in the Hebrew Scriptures, but it's only unveiled in completeness in the New Testament.  This purpose is why we take every thought captive to Christ (2 Cor. 10:5) and rejoice in the fact that every knee will bow to Him (Phil. 2:10).  The fall of humanity scattered elements of creation out from under God's good dominion, and in Christ they are brought back into His hand.  Jesus, as other translations of this passage say, is the "sum" of all things.

We often miss the significance of "all things."  We think Jesus reigns over compartments of our lives, especially the spiritual things.  But His reign is comprehensive; the whole earth, and in fact the whole universe, is coming into His dominion.  The world doesn't always look that way, but that's the direction we're headed.  Every knee will bow - it's inevitable.  And all things, even the physical creation, will be restored.

That's why the New Testament is so insistent on a bodily resurrection.  Jesus is Lord of every atom in the universe.  And that's why our tendency to confine His lordship to the purely "spiritual" aspects of our lives often leaves us with a sense of defeat and discouragement.  But there's no need to limit our expectations of what we can bring to Him or what He might do.  We can be encouraged that He is interested in every detail of our lives because every detail is ultimately His.  Our whole life - including whatever we might be facing today - belongs to Him.

"There is not a thumb's breadth of this universe about which Jesus Christ does not say, 'It is mine.'"  - Abraham Kuyper