17 APR – God’s End: Christ All and In All
The intention in the heart of God in bringing this universe into existence was that, ultimately, the whole creation should display the glory and supremacy of His Son, Jesus Christ; and this one little fragment, “and in Him all things hold together”, says quite clearly that but for the Lord Jesus Christ the whole universe would disintegrate, fall apart. It would be without its uniting factor; it would cease to have a reason for being maintained as a complete and concrete whole. Its holding together, its failure to disintegrate and break up, is because of this: God has determined that the Lord Jesus shall be the centre, the governing centre, of this whole universe, and He, God’s Son, is the explanation of creation. But for Him, there never would have been a creation. Take Him out, and creation loses its purpose and its object, and need not go on any longer. “Christ is all, and in all”, was the thought, the ruling thought, in the mind of God in the creation of the universe.
That may leave you cold in some measure and not get you very far, but I venture to think that what I am now going to say will get you a little further and warm your hearts; for the prospect is this, that when God has things as in eternity past He determined to have them and He is going to have them so every atom of this whole universe will display the glory of Jesus Christ. You will not be able to look at anything or anyone without seeing Christ glorified. A blessed prospect!
It is a happy thing when, as a company of the Lord’s children, we can be together for hours on end or even days on end when we are occupied with the Lord as our one common interest and are all taken up with Him. When we have a time like that and go back into the world, what a different atmosphere we find! How chilled we feel! It is a fine thing to meet the Lord in His children and to be shut up to Him like that; but even then it is only in part. But the eternal day is coming when there will be no going back into the world on a Monday morning after a day in the courts of the Lord, when we shall be touching nothing else but the Lord Jesus, and the whole universe will be full of Him – “Christ all, and in all”! That is God’s end. That is what He has determined; all displaying the Lord Jesus; all for Him.
Day by Day with T. Austin-Sparks (Mid-Europe) 