The Purpose Of God In Redemption

I Corinthians 15:28

The Scriptures reveal that God has a fivefold purpose in the redemption of his people. In the great works of salvation God is determined to accomplish these five things.

1. ALL HIS ENEMIES MUST BE PUT UNDER HIS FEET (I Cor. 15:25). God's goodness will at last be triumphant. Satan shall be confounded. All the works of satan shall be destroyed (Gen. 3:15; I John 3:8).

2. GOD ALMIGHTY WILL RETRIEVE HIS CREATION FROM THE RUINS OF THE FALL (Acts 3:19-21). MAN'S SOUL was ruined by the fall. The image of God in man was marred. Man's nature was corrupted. He became dead in sin. It is God's design to restore the souls of his chosen to life, to restore his elect to the image of his Son, in whose image they were created. This he does by regeneration, sanctification, and glorification. MAN'S BODY was also ruined. By the fall our bodies became subject to death. The design of God is to restore the body. Not only will he deliver our bodies from death in the resurrection, he will deliver us from mortality! He will make our bodies like Christ's glorious body, bodies of immortality! THE WORLD was ruined too, as effectively as if it had been reduced to chaos again. But God will also retrieve it. He will create "a new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness" (Isa. 65:17; II Pet. 2:13). Satan shall be triumphant nowhere! The slime of the serpent's trail shall be totally expunged from God's creation!

3. GOD WILL GATHER TOGETHER IN ONE ALL THINGS IN CHRIST (Eph. 1:10). All elect creatures in heaven and earth, angels and men shall be at last perfectly united in Christ, who is Head over all things (Heb. 12:22-24).

4. GOD IS DETERMINED TO PERFECT AND COMPLETE THE GLORY OF HIS ELECT IN CHRIST (I Cor. 2:9). He is determined to make his people perfectly holy and perfectly happy forever. God intends to bring us into the highest degree of honor and raise us to ineffable heights of pleasure and satisfaction with his dear Son in the perfection of holiness!

5. GOD IS DETERMINED TO GLORIFY HIMSELF (Eph. 1:6, 12, 14). God will be glorified in us and by us forever (Eph. 2:7; Rev. 5:9-12). Indeed, all things shall praise and magnify our great God (Psa. 76:10, Prov. 16:4; Rev. 5:13). "God shall be all in all!"

Don Fortner