Had the opportunity to speak in my parents’ church in Utrecht again. The topic I spoke on (after much deliberation) was ‘Project X – Gods secret plan’. Based on Ephesians I laid out Gods plan for mankind:
- Eph 1:10 – God’s secret revealed
- Eph 2:10 – God makes preparations
- Eph 3:10 – God involves the apple of his eye (the church) into his plans
- Eph 4:10 – The plan is executed
- Eph 5:10 – Delivery time for the church
- Eph 6:10 – ‘What if’ guide: where to find the power, how to deal with some major issues
I even learned a thing of two myself while preparing this message. I discovered that in Ephesians when Paul speaks of a mystery he really means that God’s plan was hidden, a secret. Not so much for man, but for the heavenly powers! God did not want Satan to be aware of his plans, in order to bring the solution to mankind. From Genesis on you see how Satan is trying to find out what God is up to. He even thinks he wins – man is not capable of living up to Gods standards. And because God is holy, every man is bound to be separate from him. So sin is the main instrument for Satan to win this cosmic battle. But then the solution comes in the appearance of Jesus, a sinless human with the power of God, robbing Satan from his main instrument. This way, the very weakness of mankind marks the victory of God and the defeat of Satan!
Eph 3:10 says that through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms. We tend to think that this is still to happen because we’re still weak and imperfect. I think it is the other way around: the heavenly powers have seen what happened on the cross. They have seen sin being robbed from its power to separate from God. They see ordinary people being accepted by the Almighty, holy God. And in the weakness and imperfection of us, human beings, Gods wonderful grace and glory shines through!
For Dutch readers: here is my outline.