August 30 2025

Saturday August 30

“The Mystery of His Will”

Ephesians 1:7-10

“In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace, which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth--in Him.”

First, let me thank you for your prayers yesterday as we drove to Roanoke, Virginia for our echo stress test there at Roanoke Hospital. Everything went fine and I believe that I'll get a good report, but we'll find out the details this next week. Again, thank you for your prayers. Now, today we're driving on up to Pennsylvania to celebrate, as we said, the 50th anniversary of New Life Church and the retirement also of my brother-in-law Ronnie Riggins, my sister Beverly, and their 50 years of ministry there as they founded that church 50 years ago. So, thank you again and we're looking forward to trying to do a couple chats while we're up there, but we'll see how that goes.

Today, we want to continue in Ephesians 1. Now remember the chapter starts with two long sentences. The first long sentence begins in verse 2 through verse 6, and tells us how God our Father has given us a great spiritual blessing in the fact that He has chosen us, He has adopted us, and He has accepted us in Christ. All because of what His Son Jesus Christ has done for us. We are a blessed people. We're rich in Christ. That's the theme of the book.

Then in verses 7-10, we have another long sentence. And this is what Jesus Christ the Son is continuing to do for us even today. We have redemption through His blood. We have forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace. Yesterday we talked about how through His grace He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence. We have the wisdom of God and the discernment of God to do what's right to please Him.

Today we are looking specifically at verses 9-10: ”Having made known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of times, He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are in earth in Him”. And that's the last part of this big sentence. What we find out here is that not only has He redeemed and forgiven us, He has also made known to us “the mystery of His will”.

This letter has much to say about God's plan for His people. A plan that was not even fully known even in Paul's day. The word mystery that we read here, and is used several times in the book, has nothing to do with something eerie. It actually means in the Scripture a “sacred secret” once hidden but now revealed to God's people. We believers are part of God's inner circle. We are able to share in the secret that God one day will unite everything in Christ. Ever since sin came into the world, things have been falling apart, as you well know. First man was separated from God (Genesis 3). Then man was separated from man as Cain killed Abel (Genesis 4). People tried to maintain some kind of unity by building the tower of Babel in Genesis 11. But God judged them and scattered them across the world.

God called Abraham and put a difference between the Jew and the Gentile. A difference that was maintained until Christ's death on the cross. Sin is tearing everything apart. But in Christ, God will gather everything together in the accumulation of the ages. We are a part as His church, even as Gentiles of His eternal program. He unites all things in Christ. What a blessing that the mystery of God's will, bringing everything back together in Christ will be fulfilled one day when Jesus Christ comes back again and sets up His kingdom.

That's God's plan for the ages. Oneness in Jesus Christ. No matter who we are, rich or poor, educated, uneducated, no matter our language, our culture, we are all rich in Christ. And one day we will experience that final unity. But even now, we can have that unity because we're in Christ. It doesn't matter whether we're from India or China or America or Africa or South America. It doesn't matter. As I go to different places in the world, there is this oneness despite our language barriers in Christ.

This is the will of God that we can have this unity in Christ. This is the will of God that we can be saved from the sin that separates us. God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9).

My friend, what a great blessing we have in Christ today. And we ought to enjoy this blessing of unity, knowing the will and plan of God for the ages. A mystery that was hidden but now is made known to us in Christ.

God bless!