The Ages and the Eternal Purpose of God

A Purpose That Existed Before Us

God Has Chosen to Reveal His Purpose Through the Ages

Scripture speaks about God's dealings with humanity in terms of times and ages. Paul said that God “hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation” (Acts 17:26). Jesus spoke of “this world” and “the world to come” (Matthew 12:32). Paul said that Christ has been exalted “far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come” (Ephesians 1:21). The writer of Hebrews speaks of those who have “tasted ... the powers of the world to come” (Hebrews 6:5). Paul also speaks about “the ages to come”, when God will show “the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:7). We should not turn these expressions into a timetable that Scripture itself does not give us. But neither should we treat them as empty ways of speaking. They show that God's work is larger than the portion of history we presently occupy. There is a present age, an age to come, and Scripture speaks of ages to come. The Bible does not give us every detail concerning these ages, but it gives us enough to know that God's purpose extends beyond the limits of our present experience. We are living inside a story that is larger than our generation.

The Mystery Was There Before It Was Revealed

One of the most remarkable themes in Scripture is the mystery of what God was doing before He made it known. Paul writes, “Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints” (Colossians 1:26). The mystery was not created when it was revealed. It was already in God's purpose. What changed was not God's intention, but what He made known. This helps us understand the history of revelation. God spoke to Abraham. He established His covenant with Israel. He gave the law. He spoke through the prophets. He gave Israel promises, patterns, sacrifices, priesthood, kingship, and prophetic words. Yet there were dimensions of God's purpose that those generations did not see in their fullness. Peter says that the prophets searched and inquired concerning the salvation that was to come. They were serving a generation beyond themselves, even though they did not possess the fullness of what they were announcing (1 Peter 1:10–12). Then Christ came. What had been hidden began to be unveiled. The apostolic preaching did not introduce a new idea into God's purpose. It announced what God had now revealed in Christ. There is something humbling about this. A person can genuinely belong to God and still live at a point in history where only part of what God is doing has been revealed. The fact that we can see what earlier generations could not see should produce gratitude, not pride. And even what has been revealed to us does not mean we have comprehended the full extent of God's purpose.

Christ Is the Centre of the Purpose

Paul says that God “made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself”, and that this purpose is “that in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ” (Ephesians 1:9–10). This gives us one of the clearest statements concerning the direction of God's purpose. God's purpose is centred in Christ. The mystery is revealed in Christ. The promises find their fulfilment in Christ. The destiny of redeemed humanity is understood in relation to Christ. And God's purpose for all things moves toward Christ. When we considered man, Christ, and the age to come, we saw that Jesus is not merely the One who rescues humanity from sin. He reveals what redeemed humanity is being brought into. The One who was made lower than the angels in His humanity was crowned with glory and honour, and He is bringing many sons to glory. Now we see that this destiny is part of something even greater. Christ is not simply the answer to man's problem. He is the centre of God's eternal purpose. If we want to understand God's purpose for humanity, we must look at Christ. If we want to understand the future of creation, we must look at Christ. If we want to understand the Church, we must look at Christ. The ages themselves must ultimately be understood in relation to Him.

The Present Age Is Not the Fullness of God's Purpose

One of the dangers of living entirely within the present is assuming that what we see now is the final expression of what God is doing. Scripture does not allow us to make that assumption. Paul says that “the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now” (Romans 8:22). He then says that believers also groan within ourselves, even though we have the firstfruits of the Spirit, because we are waiting for “the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body” (Romans 8:23). Something has already happened, and something is still coming. We have received the Spirit, but we await the redemption of our bodies. Christ has been raised from the dead, but death has not yet been finally destroyed. We belong to God, but the full manifestation of what we shall be has not yet appeared. John writes, “It doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him” (1 John 3:2). The present therefore matters enormously, but it is not the whole story. The Christian life is lived between what God has already accomplished and what He has promised to bring to fullness. This is not an indication that God's work is incomplete in the sense of being uncertain. It means that Scripture distinguishes between what has already been accomplished and what awaits its appointed manifestation.

The Church Is Already Part of the Eternal Purpose

This is where Ephesians 3 becomes especially profound. Paul explains that the mystery of Christ, once hidden, has now been revealed: Gentiles are “fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel” (Ephesians 3:6). But he does not stop there. He says that God's purpose is also: “To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God” (Ephesians 3:10). The Church is therefore not merely waiting for God's purpose to happen in the future. The Church is already part of the present revelation of that purpose. The bringing together of Jew and Gentile into one body was not a secondary development in God's plan. It belonged to the mystery that had been hidden and was now revealed in Christ. God is displaying His wisdom through what He has accomplished in Christ and through the people He has brought together in Him. This gives the Church a significance that cannot be reduced to gathering for meetings, receiving blessings, or simply waiting for heaven. The Church is living evidence that God's purpose in Christ is already unfolding.

The Manifold Wisdom of God

Paul's language is striking. He does not merely say that the Church knows the wisdom of God. He says that through the Church, the manifold wisdom of God is made known to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places. There are dimensions of God's wisdom that become visible through what He is doing in Christ. The cross itself demonstrates this. What appeared to be defeat became the means of victory. The One who was humbled was exalted. The One who died was raised. The One who entered human weakness is now glorified. And those who belong to Him are being brought into what He has accomplished. This is part of why the story cannot be understood from the perspective of one moment in history. The wisdom of God is larger than what can be seen at any single point in the unfolding story. Some promises have already begun to be experienced but await their fullness. Some realities are known now only in part. Some things God is doing will become clearer only as His purpose moves toward its appointed end. The ages therefore remind us that God's wisdom is not exhausted by what we can presently see.

The Ages to Come Will Display the Riches of His Grace

There is another statement from Paul that deserves our attention. After speaking of our being raised with Christ and seated with Him in heavenly places, Paul gives the reason: “That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:7). Paul does not attempt to describe every detail of those ages. Neither should we. But he tells us something remarkable: God's grace has a future dimension. The grace we know now is not something whose significance is exhausted by our present experience. There are ages to come in which God will show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ. That should enlarge our understanding of salvation. We are not merely being rescued from something. God is bringing us into something. The salvation we have received has a present reality and a future fullness. Its significance reaches beyond the limits of what we presently experience. We should therefore resist reducing the Christian hope to what happens immediately after death. The biblical vision is larger.

We do too. Our lives matter within God's purpose, but our generation is not the destination. We have entered a story already in progress, and God's purpose continues beyond our lifetime until what He has purposed in Christ reaches its fullness.

Hebrews says that some died in faith without receiving the promise, having seen it from afar (Hebrews 11:13, 39). Their faith was not made meaningless because they did not see the whole outcome. They belonged to a purpose larger than themselves.

The ages remind us that God's purpose is larger than any one generation. Abraham, the prophets, the apostles, and the saints who have gone before us all lived inside a purpose that extended beyond their own lifetime.

God's Purpose Is Larger Than Our Lifetime

The Eternal Purpose Is in Christ

After all the language of ages, mysteries, generations, the present age, the age to come, and the ages to come, we must return to the centre: Christ. Paul does not say that God's eternal purpose is merely about time. He says it is “the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Ephesians 3:11). Christ is not one part of God's purpose among many. He is its centre. In Him, the mystery has been revealed. In Him, redemption has been accomplished. In Him, humanity's destiny is understood. In Him, the Church has been formed. In Him, the inheritance is secured. And in Him, God will gather together all things. The ages therefore cannot be understood apart from Christ. If we want to understand where history is going, we must look at Christ. If we want to understand what redeemed humanity is becoming, we must look at Christ. If we want to understand the Church's place in God's purpose, we must look at Christ. If we want to understand the hope of the age to come, we must look at Christ. The eternal purpose is not an abstract plan. It is God's purpose in Christ.

Paul speaks of “the dispensation of the fulness of times” when God will gather together in one all things in Christ (Ephesians 1:10). The next question is therefore not merely what the ages are, but what God is bringing them toward.

The ages are not the purpose themselves. They are the framework within which God's purpose is progressively revealed.