Making Known the Mystery of His Will

Jim Elliot along with several others paid the ultimate price to bring the hope of Christ to one of the most murderous indigenous people groups in the world.

⁷ In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, ⁸ which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight  ⁹ making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ ¹⁰ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.—Ephesians 1:7-10, ESV

Here Paul states very plainly what God’s will or desire is which, hidden for past ages, has now been revealed through Jesus Christ. This plan is to unite all things in Jesus Christ. Is there any question, then, what Christians should have as the general purpose to their lives? No. All of us Christians should have the same general plan for our lives—to live with the goal of uniting people to Christ. The way that we carry this out will look differently for each person, but it is a sad day in America when the purposes and dreams of Christians’ lives look just like the rest of Americans and have no eternal purpose of reconciling people to Jesus Christ.

It is also a sad day in churches when the extent of the teaching to this end is “Invite your friends.” That’s well and good, and God does use it, but the people that have the greatest spiritual needs are not going to come to a church building. They are most likely disillusioned by the church, and we must go to them and love them and tell them the truth of the gospel.

When we do live out God’s general purpose or will, we will experience every spiritual blessing (v. 3) and the riches of his grace (v. 7). This precludes many material blessings, but those things are passing away. They don’t matter in heaven. What matters now is knowing God and making Him known to people. Let us not lose sight of this, and let us do all that we can to win the lost and build up the found to pass on this Great Commission lifestyle.