Eternal Purpose

"...according to the eternal purpose He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord" Eph 3:11

God has never had a short-sighted plan for humankind.  He has never had a short-sighted plan for any of us on a personal basis either.  He is from everlasting to everlasting and lives in the eternities of the eternities. (Ps 90:2)

Christ's death and resurrection had eternal consequences for us and for as many as God will call.  The act of the cross and His resurrection has lost no power in the time that has passed by.  The healing Christ paid for 2000 years ago,  the redemption and the forgiveness of our sins, are all recorded in the eternal realm of the Kingdom of God, and will facilitate healing and salvation as long as the sun shall rise and set on humanity.  The bible teaches us that Jesus Christ was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

 

All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Rev 13:8 

It blows my mind and is beyond my finite thinking that God planned things before He actually created them and the effectiveness of His plan will go on to the eternal realm. 

Amazingly, before the world was created, He knew us and He already had a plan and work for us to do. (Eph 2:10)  If any of us thought we were a mistake – we were wrong.  Ps 139 teaches us that all our days are already "fashioned" for us.  And God gave us gifts and talents so that we, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, will complete all He has called us to do.  These works have eternal value and eternal consequences.   I wonder if we live our lives with the eternal purpose in mind.  Jesus was very clear in His teaching that the fruit we produce on earth will result in our eternal destiny as to whether we live with Him or have to depart from Him.

Therefore by their fruits you will know them. "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!' Mat 7:20 - 23

God's plan for us is two-fold.  We were created to love Him and we are to love others and so reach them for eternity.  Each and every one of us is a minister of reconciliation and this is the "will of the Father", the eternal work that will bring the most reward.

 
And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to Himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to Him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, no longer counting people's sins against them. And He gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation.  So we are Christ's ambassadors; God is making His appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, "Come back to God!" 2Co 5:18-20

 Jesus lived His life with eternal purpose and focus.  And His focus was purely on people.  He went to the cross to give us eternal life and to reconcile us to Father to whom we now have access to the very throne room as children of God.  Let us live our lives with an eternity focus for His glory and bring as many as He will call through us into the eternal realm.