IT pleased God that all fullness should dwell in the Son. The mind of the blessed Trinity was, that in Him all the divine abundance that has been and will be made known to creatures, should have its abode. The Son expresses the fullness of the Godhead; He is the Word, and by Him God is made known, and His glory displayed. By the Son the whole of the creation was called into existence, “by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers.” Hence, all that displays God in His creation is called forth by the Son. Such a truth completely destroys, in the devout Christian’s soul, every infidel notion respecting evolution, and fortifies it against the deadly poison of Darwinism.
“By Him and for Him” were all things created—not only by, but also for—for His glory and good pleasure. The beginning and the end of creation and its glories, are thus presented to us, and healthful words are these to have in the soul, where the miasma of unbelief in the Creator is so often breathed.
Now, it is too true, that a part, at least, of the things visible and invisible, some, at least, of the thrones and dominions, principalities, and powers of His hand are in revolt against Him. The fallen angels, and fallen men, are enemies to God. Satan is God’s foe, and fallen men are alienated from God, and are enemies to Him by wicked works. The enmity is patent on the earth where we see it, the enmity exists outside the earth where we do not see it, but by God’s revelation we know of its existence outside the world. Men are apt to reason solely from their range of vision, but God tells us of things “invisible,” and we believe.
Now, out of the fullness that dwells in the Son, God has purposed to reconcile to Himself the things in earth and the things in heaven. God will not permit that forever the earth shall be in rebellion against Him, and given over, in chief part, to the worship of demons, nor will He permit that the heavens shall be forever sullied by the presence there, though it be but on occasions, of Satanic powers.
The way whereby God will reconcile these things to Himself is like the reconciliation solely of God Himself. He planned the reconciliation, and He planned the means whereby it shall be effected. No enemy of God can reconcile himself to God. God ever maintains His own glory as the Reconciler.
The means whereby the reconciliation is effected is the blood of the cross of Christ; thereby, in His own good time, God will purify both earth and the heavens, and bring all into perfect purity and peace before Him. The Lamb of God is He, who of the fullness that dwells in Him, bears away the sin of the world; and in the coming day the sin of the world will be taken away, and the smile of God shall fill it with joy. By the body of His flesh, through death, at this present moment the saved soul is brought into friendship with God, and by that sacrifice all things in earth and in the heavens will enjoy the uninterrupted favor of God.
The fullness of Christ—the abundance of power, of glory that dwells in Him—expresses itself nowhere more marvelously than in His cross. His cross is the center from which radiate countless blessings to the creature, and endless glories to God. His death is the fountainhead whence the river of divine favors to fallen men flows forth, while forever to God the savor of the death of Christ will be abiding freshness.
The present blessing of the true Christian is, that he is now reconciled, that he is now in the friendship of God, while devils are stirring up wrath, and fallen men are in rebellion. The Christian is delivered from the kingdom of darkness, and he is translated into the kingdom of God’s dear Son.
God created all things by Christ—God will reconcile all things in the heavens and on earth by Christ—and these two glories of His in creating and in dying, are those which the infidelity in Christendom is this day so boldly denying.