Unfolding Purpose

Introduction

In the first lesson of this series we saw how the rebellion of Lucifer “fractured” the Kingdom of God and brought forth a piece of the Kingdom where the will (that is, desire) of God is not done. This became what we know as the “kingdom of darkness”. In the second lesson we saw how God dealt with Satan by bringing forth His purpose from the hidden covenant of His heart—the mystery that is now being revealed to the heavenlies. In this lesson we will begin to look at how the “mystery covenant” that God made with Himself—the Son to the Father—is being unfolded in time.

The Seed of the Kingdom

Jesus presented the Kingdom like a small seed, a mustard seed, that is planted and grows into a large tree¹. He also presented the word of the Kingdom as a seed² and the Sons of the Kingdom as seeds³. It is the seed concept that explains the way the Kingdom of God works.

Mark 4:26-29 NKJV And He said, "The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground, (27) and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how. (28) For the earth yields crops by itself: first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head. (29) But when the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come."

We don't know exactly how the Kingdom of God grows. It is like a seed. First, it sprouts and puts forth the first blade, then the stalk, then the head. Then the head ripens with a full head of grain and then the harvest. The parables of the Kingdom in Matthew 23 show us that the word of the Kingdom is planted in us to produce fruit, and we are planted in the world as sons of the Kingdom to produce fruit.

Jesus is the first seed of the Kingdom planted in the earth and He follows the pattern.

John 12:24 NKJV Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.

His death, burial, and resurrection is the process of planting the seed in the earth and having it grow up and produce fruit to be harvested. Scriptures tell us that Jesus and those that rose with Him⁴ at His resurrection were the first fruits of the harvest⁵. We see in this seed-to-harvest process the unfolding of the Eternal purpose of God in the earth. This is part of the manifestation of the manifold wisdom of God unfolding as the mystery covenant.

Jesus—The Kingdom Seed

As we said in earlier lessons, the Eternal Purpose of God has three components: 1) a family for the Father; 2) a body and a bride for the Son; and 3) a temple, a dwelling place, for the Holy Spirit. These three components are but facets of the same purpose that is contained in the “mystery” covenant that God made with Himself that is unfolding in time. These three components are expressed in the Scriptures as seeds. These three seeds compose the full seed of the Kingdom of God.

The Seed of the Woman

The first prophecy recorded in the Scriptures is given to us directly by God in Genesis.

Genesis 3:15 NKJV And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel."

This was spoken to the serpent as part of the judgment of God for the disobedience of Adam as a result of the temptation from the serpent. The scholars all agree that this is a messianic prophecy that speaks of Jesus as The Seed that will crush the devil's head. Eve certainly believed this because in the first verse of Genesis 4 Eve says, "I have acquired a man from the LORD."(NKJV) showing that she thought that she had given birth to the redeemer Seed. Of course, we know from our perspective that the Seed would not come forth “until the fullness of time”.⁶

Based on what God said Genesis, we can determine that the primary purpose of The Seed of the woman was to deal with Satan and his works.

1 John 3:8 NKJV He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.

When we say that Jesus came to save us for heaven, or save us from our sins, or anything of the other by-products of the first coming of Christ, we fail to see the full purpose of God and reveal our lack of mature understanding of His “mystery covenant”.

The Son of God was manifested, revealed, shown, in order to destroy the works of the devil. While this would include the devil's work in the Garden with the temptation, it primarily refers to the rebellion of the devil and the “fracturing” of the Kingdom of God and the creation of an alternative kingdom—the kingdom of darkness.

The fall of Adam by his disobedience cut him off from God and made him and his descendants an ally of the enemy. However, God had a purpose for man that had not been accomplished at the time of the fall so He did not leave man in that condition. Instead of simply destroying man along with the devil, His manifold wisdom is revealed by the Lord redeeming man from the enemy's grasp—translating him out of the kingdom, the realm, the rule, the power of darkness into the Kingdom of His dear Son⁷—and providing a way for man to fulfill God's original intention for him. The Seed of the woman accomplished all of this completely and thoroughly.

To complete this work required the Son to be incarnated⁸ as a man and that the disobedience of Adam and the devil would be defeated by the obedience of the Second Man, the Last Adam⁹. This obedience included death, the shedding of blood as an atonement for sin, so that man could be restored back into a relationship with God that was lost in Adam.

When we are delivered from the power of darkness into the Kingdom of the Son, we become citizens of the Kingdom and we are born into the family, the household of God¹⁰. This makes us fellow-heirs with Christ of the things of God.

Romans 8:16-17 NKJV The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, (17) and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.

So, the accomplished work of The Seed of the woman has produced:

1. the destruction of the works of the devil

2. the restoration of man back to a place where he can fulfill the purpose of God

3. the heirs of God, the joint heirs with Christ, as a family.

The first facet of the Eternal Purpose of God has been accomplished by The Seed of the woman—the Father has a family of many sons who will inherit the things of the Father.

The Seed of Abraham

Abraham was promised a son, an heir, by God and Abraham, in faith, believed God. God promised Abraham that his descendants would be as numberless as the stars¹¹. We recognize, today, that the Jews, Israel, are the natural descendants of Abraham, but we also need to recognize that there is a spiritual lineage of Abraham.

Galatians 3:16 NKJV Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, "And to seeds," as of many, but as of one, "AND TO YOUR SEED," who is Christ.

The promise to Abraham was about one seed, Christ, The Seed of Abraham. Those of us who are in Christ are also descendants of Abraham.

Romans 4:11-13 NKJV And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while still uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all those who believe, though they are uncircumcised, that righteousness might be imputed to them also, (12) and the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also walk in the steps of the faith which our father Abraham had while still uncircumcised. (13) For the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.

Abraham believed God and through the righteousness of faith entered into the promises of God and all who are of like faith are heirs of the promise of Abraham.

Romans 9:6-8 NKJV But it is not that the word of God has taken no effect. For they are not all Israel who are of Israel, (7) nor are they all children because they are the seed of Abraham; but, "IN ISAAC YOUR SEED SHALL BE CALLED." (8) That is, those who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted as the seed.

Paul puts the clincher on this in Galatians. He clearly says that we who are not natural descendants of Abraham are still of the seed of Abraham, sons of the promise.

Galatians 3:7 NKJV Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham.

Galatians 3:29 NKJV And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.

Christ Jesus, as The Seed of Abraham, procured for us an inheritance—the same inheritance promised to Abraham and to his descendants¹². As we have seen, The Seed was a spiritual version of the natural promised son; so it is with the inheritance. Our inheritance, as descendants of Abraham, is a spiritual version of the natural Promised Land—a land of Promises. Since all of the promises of God are in Christ¹³, the King, our land of promises is the Kingdom of God—our inheritance¹⁴.

We have the second facet of the purpose of God accomplished by the Seed of Abraham. The sons have received an inheritance in The Son¹⁵. This relates to the Kingdom of God and to the summing up of all things in Christ as part of the mystery of His will¹⁶.

The Seed of David

We need to remember that just as the Eternal Purpose of God is one purpose with three components, which overlap to bring completeness, the unfolding in time of The Seed into three components does not separate the function of the seed. There is overlap between the seeds to bring completeness to the work of Christ as the seed of the Kingdom. The Seed of David deals with the Kingship of the Lord and of His throne.

Romans 1:3-4 NKJV concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, (4) and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.

When God sent the angel Gabriel to tell Mary about what was to happen to her, he spoke of David and the throne of David and that Jesus would be a Son and a King who would reign over the house of Jacob forever.

Luke 1:31-33 NKJV And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name JESUS. (32) He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. (33) And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end."

Jesus is the fulfillment of the promise of God made to David concerning his son and throne.

Jeremiah 33:17 NKJV "For thus says the LORD: 'David shall never lack a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel;

So, in The Seed of David we have the establishment of a Kingdom which will endure as long as there is night and day and on the throne of this Kingdom will sit a descendant of David—Christ Jesus¹⁷.

The Kingdom in the Earth

When Jesus came, He came as THE SEED of the woman, THE SEED of Abraham, and THE SEED of David. He, Himself, was THE SEED of the Kingdom that was planted in the earth and was raised with resurrection life. In Him we have all aspects of the “mystery covenant” and the purpose of God coming together as one.

Christ Jesus finished all of the work of the Father that was given to Him. He made two “it is finished” statements. The first was in His high priestly prayer to the Father as shown in John.

John 17:4 NKJV I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do.

The statement by Jesus that is shown above was before the more famous one that was made while on the cross, which is shown below.

John 19:30 NKJV So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, "It is finished!" And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit.

We see from this that two aspects of the work of Jesus was completed during His earthly life. The cross completed the work of Jesus as the Seed of the woman, making atonement for man and being made victorious over the devil. The priestly prayer showed that Jesus completed His work as the Seed of Abraham—the way was now open for the sons to receive an inheritance to the glory of the Father. So, how was His work as the Seed of David completed? The simple answer is that it is not complete, that is, not in time.

In temporal reality, time, this work of Jesus is still unfolding, even though it is complete in the spiritual reality of the heavens from the viewpoint of the Father and His purpose. The completion process began when Jesus was raised from the dead.

Acts 2:36 NKJV "Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ."

By His life and His death, Jesus became Christ. By His resurrection, He become Lord—sovereign Ruler of the Kingdom of God. His rule will continue until all rule that is opposed to Him is completely dealt with, that is, until all things are put under His feet.

1 Corinthians 15:24-28 NKJV (24) Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. (25) For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. (26) The last enemy that will be destroyed is death. (27) For "HE HAS PUT ALL THINGS UNDER HIS FEET." But when He says "all things are put under Him," it is evident that He who put all things under Him is excepted. (28) Now when all things are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God may be all in all.

Where we are now in the timeline of God that extends from Eternity past to Eternity future, is the time frame of the King being seated at the right hand of the Father to rule until all operations of illegitimate authority and power are brought to a halt. After that the Kingdom will be turned over to the Father.

Now we are in between. The next step in the completion of the work of the Seed of David is the physical return of our Lord and King to establish the physical 1000 year reign of Christ on earth. During the millennial reign, the last enemy, death, is put under His feet and destroyed at the close of the millennium. Then, the Kingdom is turned over to the Father, who now has a “unified” Kingdom that is no longer “fractured”. The Eternal Kingdom continues in the new heavens and the new earth throughout Eternity without end.

Lesson 4 of this series will be “Subjects of the Kingdom”

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