God’s Grand Design for His People

I believe that ever since the cross, God has had but one great intention for his people, and it will not change until Christ returns in glory. His intention is for us to understand the mystery of the gospel, revealed first to Paul the apostle. “By revelation [God] made known to me the mystery...which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as has now been revealed...by the Spirit…. And to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery...” (Ephesians 3:3-9, NKJV).

What is the “mystery?” It is simply this; Christ's body is still here on earth! The head is in heaven, but we who love and serve him are his hands and feet and heart, his visible body. Paul emphasizes this in his letters. “For we are members of his body, of his flesh and of his bones” (Ephesians 5:30). “And he is the head of the body, the church...” (Colossians 1:18).

God's full intention for these last days is that every member of his body, each one of us, must be a true expression of who Christ is. People who don’t know Jesus should be able to see him in us as clearly as if he were here in the flesh. We are called upon to appropriate so much of his character and glory that the world will be filled with hope and will find the answers to their needs.

That is a tall but essential order. It isn’t enough to know Christ. We are called upon to be full and true expressions of him. We must ask ourselves, “Do my actions represent who Christ is? Would Christ, in his physical body, abuse his body? Would he indulge in adultery or other sexual sins? Would he cheat, gossip or lie? Would he try to spread the light with a pocket of darkness in his own heart?”

God tells us to continually keep before our eyes his one great intention, that we as his body honestly and purely reflect who he is. Set your heart on being a true expression of Jesus Christ.