When the goal of God is never an issue

With a question about whether God has a goal, you can create confusion excellently. Not that this should ever be a goal. However, I have found countless times that this question causes astonishment, if not dismay. After all, one had never thought about this before – not even if one had been in and out of a church or congregation for decades. There, a question of God’s purpose was never an issue.

When I realize this, I myself am dismayed and amazed. Because faith is described as a relationship. It seems that many people in this relationship have no idea about the thoughts and plans of the big other. One wants to be familiar with God, but has no idea towards which goal he is working – if he already has a goal. That is simply unimaginable.

In keeping with this impression, it is also easy to see that “Christian culture” as we see it today is often simply focused on people. There is talk of God, but only in the sense that we ourselves get something out of it. It is about praise and therefore about our feeling. It is also about worship and therefore about our community. It is about me, rarely about Him, even when in excessive piety some maneuver themselves out of existence and want to be “nothing” anymore. This is also a very selfish thought.

Nothing about all of this is entirely wrong. The intentions are often excellent. There is simply something missing. The thoughts of God are missing. Is there no curiosity about what God Himself has in mind?

Get to know God

There is a special power in getting to know the thoughts of God more closely. For His thoughts are quite different from our thoughts (1 Cor. 2:11). No secrecy or special enlightenment is needed for this. Well, there is a need for understanding, for which we can ask Him, according to Paul’s prayer:

“Therefore it is that I also – since I hear of the good of faith coming to you in the Lord Jesus (also that for all the saints), that I do not cease to give thanks for you and to mention in my prayers that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory. give you spiritual wisdom and spiritual knowledge of Himself (after the eyes of your heart have been enlightened).”
Eph 1:15-18

Isn’t that amazing? Paul is not writing to unbelievers here. It is aimed at believers – who need spiritual wisdom and spiritual knowledge from God Himself, as well as enlightened eyes of the heart.

Beyond one’s own horizon

Paul writes this prayer asking for enlightened eyes of heart for believers to realize something:

“…that ye may know (1) what is the expectation of His calling, (2) what is the riches of the glory of His lot among the saints, (3) what is the all-surpassing greatness of His power (for us who believe).”
Eph 1:18

We should learn where the road is going. This expectation that Paul is pointing to is certainly not simply a picture of heaven wherein we sit on a cloud and play a harp for endless ages. I am dreading this idea. Paul also says nothing of the sort.

Close reading is not only about recognizing something, but also about perceiving something of the here and now. Something should become visible. It is about the riches of glory within the church or as he writes “in the midst of the saints.” So it’s about something that may become visible in the community. Paul famously wrote to a church (presumably it was a newsletter).

For whom this is still too vague, the apostle adds: “and what the all-surpassing greatness of His power is (for us who believe)”. This is about feeling in the here and now. But beware: this is not about us. We ourselves are not the focus, even if the power is for us. God is not a gas station where we quickly fill up with strength for everyday life and then speed away again on our own ways. Although this may be true in other ways, the apostle is concerned here with something else.

Paul just mentioned before that he prays for us to know God, to know Him. So this cannot simply be about consolation for our own weaknesses. Such desires are understandable, but Paul speaks of a different dimension. This is not about us, but it is about something God is doing. We have a part in this, but only in the second instance.

Paul draws attention to the fact that it is about a horizon that is far beyond our own horizon. The apostle speaks of God’s horizon.

Christ as an example

Using Christ as an example, Paul now explains how God proceeds and what He intends to do. For this power of which Paul writes just before is as follows:

“[sie ist]…According to the efficacy of the power of His might, which wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the midst of the Supernal, exalted above every principality and authority, power and dominion, even above every name that is named, not only in this eon, but also in that which is to come.”
Eph 1:19-21

It’s about effectiveness. The whole example shows how God works according to the power of His strength. We see this effectiveness in Christ, who was raised from the dead by God. In Him we can see what God’s work is aiming at. Not only the resurrection should be mentioned – He also received a place at the right hand of God in heaven and in the midst of the super-heavenly.

What is happening here is not simply a story, but the adaptation for the present time and for the future time, the change of the future par excellence. Christ receives a name over every name that is named in this eon (age) or the next.

The power is seen from the efficacy of God shown in Christ. We should know God, and learn His work in Christ.

The Goal of God

When Paul focuses our gaze on God’s activity, it is not the end goal. We should not just look to God. He goes on to show: we should look to what God will do. We should recognize His work and His purpose.

“All things He subordinates to Him, at His feet; and Him He gives as head over all things to the called-out church, which is His corporate body, the completion of Him who completes the all in all.”
Eph 1:22-23

These two verses are full of references to God and Christ. If we try to clarify it, it might look like this:

1. He subordinates everything [Gott] to Him [Christus], Him [Christus] at His feet;
2. and Him [Christus] He gives [Gott] as head over everything
3. the called-out church, which is His [Christi] corporation,
4. the [Körperschaft ist die] completion of its [Christi],
5. the [Christus] completes the universe in everything”.
Eph 1:22-23

In 5 statements, Paul summarizes what we find like this only in very few places in the Bible. It is about the goal of God and the way to get there. And that also has something to do with us.

First of all, Paul outlines that it is God who subordinates all things under Christ. Since it was said just before that Christ stands at the right hand of God in the midst of the super-heavenly (beings), this is not just about this earth, but about everything in this creation. God lays the universe at Christ’s feet.

Next, Paul mentions that God has also given something special to Christ (as Head), namely the church as His “corporate body” (cf. 1 Cor. 12:13). He is the head, we are the rest of the body. This imagery shapes the understanding of the church today and has done so since New Testament times. It is this church that has been called out for about 2000 years now. It is not about denominations, about certain churches or dogmas, but about these people whom God has called. In other words, it is the vocation that unites us, nothing else.

This church is something very special to Christ. Paul describes it as this church being the “completion” of Christ. The word suggests a “make full.” A completion is the addition of what is still missing. This is how the church fits Christ. Christ works through the church, which is His body. Only together can the task be accomplished. Let’s try to think about this quietly.

But what will this body be for, and what will this connection be for? The story is not finished yet! There is still a task for Christ and the church. But Paul only comes to this in the last sentence. The Christ completed by the church is the one who then completes everything in everyone else. Its completion enables to fulfill a task up to the completion of the universe. There is added what is still missing. Thus, everything works together toward the goal of God.

And what is this goal now? Paul summarized this as follows: God wants to become all in all (1Cor 15,28). This does not happen automatically. However, it happens safely. This is the outlook of the apostle that he shares in his letters. For this, Christ is the chosen one, and we are with Him. We are the completion of Him who completes the universe in everything.

Know God

Paul prays for the church to know God. But we know God in and through Christ. But not only that. God Himself gives us as a church to Christ as a completion, so that under Christ as the Head, we will help shape God’s purpose. This is an incredible outlook that Paul picks up again in the very next chapter. It says there:

“He raises us up together and sets us down together in the midst of the superheavenlies in Christ Jesus, to display the all-surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus in the eons to come.“
Eph 2:5-7

Our task as a corporate body, as the church of Christ, will be to display God’s grace to the end that God Himself will one day be all in all (1 Cor. 15:28).

Living purposefully

We can live purposefully. We can be inspired by God’s purpose. Because of these things, we sense and feel God’s power. For this, however, we need a vision like the one Paul has just outlined. Whether God has a purpose is not a minor matter; it has everything to do with you and me.

If we get to know the God of the Bible more closely, all this is included there.

It’s the end that matters. It is there that the vision arises from which the present lives.