The Mystery and Majesty of God
The Holy Spirit has commissioned the church to serve God’s eternal purpose by revealing the mystery and majesty of Christ’s crucifixion. The crucifixion of Jesus Christ is the most momentous event in history and the triumph of the ages. God the Father planned this epoch event from before the beginning of time. In Christ’s crucifixion is hidden God’s perfect wisdom and power. God’s eternal purpose was for His Son Jesus Christ to be revealed in glory to all heaven and earth through His church, which is His body. Christ’s death on the cross is the door into God’s heavenly realm and eternal purpose. Salvation is just the beginning not the end of God’s divine plan. God predetermined to use His Son’s death on the cross to redeem the body of Christ from this fallen world. God also predestined to use His Son’s death to prepare the bride of Christ for eternal union and co-rulership with His risen Son in the age to come. If Satan and his forces of darkness had understood God’s glorious purpose in His Son’s death, they never would have incited fallen mankind to crucify Jesus.
Through His death on the cross, Jesus Christ provided us with not only forgiveness from the penalty of our sins but also deliverance from the power of sin. On the cross, Jesus drank the cup of God’s wrath for our sin so we might drink His cup of salvation. God used the sacrificial death of His only Son to perform a divine heart transplant and save us from the power of sin and certain doom. When Jesus died on the cross, God exchanged our terminally sin-sick heart with His Son’s divine holy heart. God then raised Jesus Christ from the dead and exalted Him as the eternal King of glory. Thus God included us in His Son’s death so that His resurrected Son might now sovereignly live in us. This divine heart transplant is the promise of the New Covenant, the purpose of Christ’s Atonement and the power of Christ’s gospel. We have been born of the Spirit through faith in Christ’s sacrifice on the cross and we now live by the Spirit through faith in Christ’s victory on the cross. From His Son’s death and resurrection, God has created a new man in His Son’s image – the church, the body and bride of Christ, who is destined to triumph over Satan and fulfill God’s eternal purpose.
At the end of this age – at the marriage supper of the Lamb, God the Father will present the overcoming body of Christ as a glorious bride for His Son. This bride will then become the Son’s eternal companion and sit with Him on His throne to rule the universe. Having brought many sons and daughters to glory by His death and resurrection, the Son of God will present this heavenly family to His Holy Father so that God might be all in all. Since God is the Lord of history, this is the glorious consummation and purpose of history (“His story”). “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them… And there will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign forever and ever (Revelation 21:3; 22:5). To this end we preach Christ crucified.