The Mystery Covenant

Introduction

In the first lesson of this series, The Fractured Kingdom, we saw how the rebellion of Lucifer “fractured” the Eternal Kingdom of God by causing a portion of the Kingdom (God's government) to deviate from the will of God. This created a situation in which God had to restore His will and His Kingdom in accordance with His own righteousness and justice. Rather than simply “slap Satan out of existence” God implemented a plan that had been hidden in His own heart that would reveal His wisdom and righteousness, completely resolve the rebellious issue with Satan, and bring forth the fulfillment of His heart's desires.

God, being God, was not taken by surprise with Satan's rebellion. With His foreknowledge, He already had a plan in mind that would accomplish His purposes. Now, we need to see if we can determine what those purposes were/are and how God intends to bring them into reality.

The Mystery of God's Intention

As we saw in the previous lesson, the beautiful being that we now call Satan aspired to be God.¹ He thought of himself as the most beautiful creature ever created by God and by the description given of him this may be true. However, he was not satisfied with who he was, where he was, nor with what he was going in the Kingdom of God. He aspired to more. Now, it doesn't make any sense that any created creature could ever think that he could replace God, so I don't think that was the intention. Let's look carefully at the Scriptures regarding this.

Isaiah 14:13-14 NKJV For you have said in your heart: 'I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation On the farthest sides of the north; (14) I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.'

What is really said of him in these verses?

1. “I will ascend into heaven...” This probably means the “heaven of heavens”--the throne room of God.²

2. “I will exalt my throne above the stars of God...” In the Scriptures stars are often symbols for angelic beings. He wanted to raise his throne (he has a throne to exalt) above any of the other angels.

3. “I will also sit on the mount of the congregation...” The Scriptures identify the mount as Mount Zion³ on the sides of the north, which is the place of God's government, the City of the great King.

4. “I will be like the Most High” According to the lexicons, “like” means similar, same, equal. He wanted to be equal to God and of the same and similar nature not replace God.

Now, when you put all of this together we can get a glimpse of what was in the heart of the beautiful being who became Satan. He wanted to be equal to God. He wanted to participate in the Godhead. He wanted his throne to be with God's throne in the place of government and he wanted to be above all of the other angels in this. It was the pride of his beauty, place, and function in the Kingdom of God that made him think that he could do this.

It is my opinion that this beautiful creature thought that he could assume the place of the “son” in the Godhead. Let me explain that and why I believe it. First, we need to understand that the Son of God was not incarnate at the time that the rebellion occurred. We don't know what form the Son had at that time but it was not the form of a human, because Paul explains to us that He took that form.

Philippians 2:5-8 NASB Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, (6) who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, (7) but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. (8) Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

John refers to Christ's existence prior to His incarnation as the Word, “ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”⁴ Christ existed in the form, the essence, the nature of God but did not grasp and try to maintain an equality but humbled Himself by taking on the form, the appearance, the nature of a man, a human. He did not come to us as deity, as God, (even though He is) but as a human, obedient to Father though the anointing of the Holy Spirit.

It appears that it may have been God's intention to establish His King at His right hand and that the angels may have been aware of this. I think that it was this position that Satan was seeking. He saw equality with God as something to be grasped, taken as a rightful possession⁵. Of course, he had no idea of the intention of God to bring forth the mystery hidden in His heart.

This mystery was kept secret by God from the time the world began.

Romans 16:25 NKJV Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery kept secret since the world began

Ephesians 3:3-5 NKJV how that by revelation He made known to me the mystery (as I have briefly written already, (4) by which, when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ), (5) which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets:

1 Corinthians 2:7-8 NKJV (7) But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, (8) which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

Colossians 1:24-26 NKJV (24) I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church, (25) of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God which was given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God, (26) the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints.

It is clear from these Scriptures that God had purposed something within Himself and kept it hidden from all so that it could be revealed through the Holy Spirit to His saints.

Paul, in Ephesians, give us a little insight into the nature of this hidden mystery:

Ephesians 1:9-10 NKJV having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, (10) that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him.

We see in this that God intends to gather together, to sum up, to head up all things in Christ, both heavenly things and earthly things. This is the One New Man, Christ in magnitude, the corporate Body.

Ephesians 3:9-11 NKJV and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ; (10) to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, (11) according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord,

God's purpose in this is to reveal his manifold (manifold means “much variegated”, that is, multi-faceted like a diamond) wisdom to all of the principalities and powers that are in the heavens. These are the same principalities and powers with which we wrestle⁶, that is, the fallen ones.

The way that all of this is being worked out by the Lord is not something that the angels understand. Even though the prophets of old spoke of Christ, the coming salvation, and the sufferings and glories which would follow, it wasn't understood until the Holy Spirit came and began to reveal it to us. These are the things that the angels desire to look into⁷ which means that the mystery of God's will is still not understood in heaven.

However, there is coming a day when the mystery of God will be fully revealed and His plan and purpose will be finished.

Revelation 10:7 NKJV but in the days of the sounding of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, the mystery of God would be finished, as He declared to His servants the prophets.

When this happens all aspects of God's intention will be completed, that is, brought to a fulfillment, a closing of the age.

God's Covenant with Himself

There is much preaching and teaching on the various covenants of the Bible such as the Adamic Covenant, the Noahic Covenant, the Abrahamic Covenant and various other covenants up to and including the New Covenant. Usually, it is the Dispensationalists that emphasize the covenants. They see each covenant as a phase or dispensation of God's plan. Each phase is presented as complete in itself and nothing carries over to the next phase of God's plan. Each phase stands only until all aspects are completed. As a result, we have God's dispensation for Israel and a separate dispensation for the Church. The Kingdom of God is only seen as it relates to Israel with the fulfillment of Israel's promises occurring during the Millennial Reign after the Gospel or Church dispensation is completed.

[Note: How you understand this dramatically effects your understanding of end time events and the return of the Lord. Receiving spiritual understanding through the revelation of the Holy Spirit is absolutely essential if we are to persevere to the end.⁸]

These dispensations are presented in such a manner that one gets the impression that God made each of these covenants with man and, as each one failed, He would make another one. The impression is that God is somehow fumbling around with man trying to find an arrangement that will work. Entire books are written about the various covenants and covenant relationships and how important they are. Most of this comes from a lack of understanding of God's purpose, what He intended from the beginning and how it relates to man. It also reveals a lack of understanding of the manner in which God is accomplishing His intention.

The Scriptures tell us that the Lamb was slain before or from the foundation of the world⁹. That means that before God made man, the sacrifice for his sin was already done. God has not been fumbling around trying to make something work, but His plan included the perfect sacrifice of the Perfect Lamb so that His purpose for which man was created could be accomplished in spite of man's sin.

This means that in Eternity past, that is, before the world was created, God's purpose was already realized within Himself. This would include the Son taking on the form of a man and offering His body as a sacrifice and His blood as an atonement¹⁰. It would also include the Son destroying the works of the Devil¹¹, purging the Heavens and the earth of the taint of rebellion and disobedience¹², and saving us from the present evil age¹³. This means that the Son had agreed to all of this before the foundation of the world. This agreement, this covenant, would restore the Kingdom, create a creature with the potential of becoming a replacement for the job functions of Satan and his angels, create a Body and a Bride for the Son, build a dwelling, a temple, for the Holy Spirit and produce a family for the Father.

So, we have in that agreement between the Son and the Father within the Godhead the only true covenant ever made. It was a covenant that God made with Himself in order to realize the fullness of His purpose. God's actions occurred in Eternity; however, they unfold in time. Each time a piece of paper that is folded multiple times is unfolded, more of the written message is revealed and we can read more of it. It is the same way with God's unfolding purpose in time. As He unfolds more, we see and understand more.

We have given separate covenant names to God's agreements with men when, in actuality, each touches on the unfolding of God's original plan, which dealt with the realization of His purpose. The various covenants in the Scriptures are not separate dispensations of God but, instead, are the continuing revealing, unfolding, of the Eternal purpose of God, which is manifesting His manifold wisdom to all creatures in Heaven and earth. He is restoring His Kingdom and providing an upgrade in administration at the same time.

If you have ever used a computer for any length of time, you understand upgrades. Software and systems are upgraded regularly to add features, fix problems, and otherwise enhance the performance of the system. God is doing the same thing to His Kingdom. The upgrade path will fix the problem of Satan and correct or eliminate all of his works. It will also upgrade the performance functions of the job position once held by the Devil. The One New Man with Christ Jesus as the Head will become the new administrator of the Kingdom of God. This is all the outcome of the covenant that God made with Himself.

We know from the Scriptures that one of the Father's goals is to have a family, to bring many sons to glory¹⁴. We also know that another goal is to have a body¹⁵ and a bride¹⁶ for His Son and to build a dwelling place, a temple, for the Holy Spirit¹⁷. While each of these are presented in a manner that makes us think of them as separate, thus lending credibility to a dispensational concept; however, they are actually just different aspects of the same purpose.

God is One; however, there is an aspect of God that is Father, an aspect that is the Son, and an aspect that is Holy Spirit. Thus, doctrinally we conclude that the Godhead is a Trinity. However, some have taken that to an extreme, even to the point that when discussing the Godhead it sounds like three Gods instead of One. We must remember that there is only one God, not three. Just like there is only one of us, yet, created in God's image, there are three aspects of us, body, soul, and spirit, even though there is only one us.

In the same manner, the purpose of God is one, even though it is presented in three aspects:

1. a family of sons for the Father;

2. a body and a bride for the Son; and

3. a temple for the Holy Spirit.

When these three aspects of the Father's purpose are put together we have the full expression of the Kingdom of God, where the Son, as King, is Head of all things and all things are summed up under Him¹⁸. As we enter into His purpose, we become fellow citizens in the Kingdom with the saints and a member, child, in the household, family, of God.¹⁹

Therefore, instead of separate dispensations throughout the history of man, we have the Plan of God, produced from His manifold wisdom, unfolding in a consecutive manner to accomplish God's purpose. This means that there is a beginning, a process, and an end to God's Plan, resulting in a New Heavens and a New Earth with New Jerusalem, the Holy City, operating as the City of God, Mount Zion, the City of the Great King throughout all Eternity.

Lesson 3 of this series will examine the “Unfolding Purpose” of God as the preparation of the coming Kingdom.