The REAL Reason Why Jesus Died For You!

Now then, you might say, brother, that it is the coming of the birth of the church. Others would say to you, “The fullness of time is at the very end.” And that will come the moment when all things are summed up in Jesus Christ, and He will fill all with all. Now, I’m holding back some words here. I really don’t care whether it was at Pentecost or in Cornelius’s house when the Gentiles spoke in tongues, or if you’re Pentecostal and received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. I don’t care if it was at the time that Epaphras preached the gospel in Colossae, and I don’t care if it was when I was sitting out in the backyard in a hammock or in a shower stall in New York. Oh, Lord, when did I see? But there was a fullness of time for me, when in a flash of revelation I saw something. Now, maybe it has already happened. Maybe it has not happened yet. It doesn’t matter. As far as I am concerned, when Paul said to the Colossians, “In the fullness of time,” he must have also been surely letting them know there was a precious moment for them. Let’s have our precious moment.

Whether it took place on Calvary or at the tomb, whether it took place on the day of Pentecost, whether or not it will take place on the day when Jesus Christ returns, I am not bound by space and time. If it took place in the birth of the church in Chicago or the birth of the church in Atlanta, or the birth of a church in Constance, it doesn’t matter. Or I can say to you that all of these things work toward a time when God will take everything, and this is the best I can describe it, and bring it all back to Christ, and then He will fill all with all.

Now let me read the passage. He has made known to us in all wisdom and insight as He peered down the corridors of time and eternity. And His will, the counsel of His will, is working, and His will is saying, “This is wise. And this is insightful. And what you have done here is full of wisdom.” He made known to us the mystery of His will, and I want to know what that mystery is. Whatever that mystery is, God was kind when He thought it up and when He worked it out. And God had a will, and God had a mystery which He purposed, and I want you to take this great carpet we’re looking at that stretches across time and eternity, and look at that word “purpose” again and say that it was inside of Jesus Christ that God purposed. He did it when He was in a mood of being very, very kind, and whatever it was, it was His will, and it was a mystery, and it is toward a time. It is toward a moment. It is with a view toward a working out of this plan through the ages, that at a time that was full and pregnant, it would no longer be a working out, but a completion of the following: the summing up of all things in Christ, things in heaven and things on earth.

Now, to me, that can only mean one thing: that when Almighty God created, He created through His Son and by His Son, and if you please, He created in His Son. And if you want to know where creation is located, it’s located in Jesus Christ. Not Christ of Galilee, but the great cosmic Christ. And one day, all of creation, both this earth and the heavens that lie between us and the clouds, and the heaven that lies between the clouds and as far as these galaxies go, and the heavens that lie beyond the created visible heavens, but the heavens that are spiritual. He will bring them all back. From out of His creating hand, they flowed; they will come back to Jesus Christ, and all things will be Christ again. I don’t mean C-H-R-I-S-T- apostrophe S. I mean that it will be Christ, and He will fill whatever He chooses to fill. He will fully fill everything with all of Him. If it’s there, if it has not died with the old creation, whatever is left, the only thing in it will be Jesus Christ. And that doesn’t include just the “in”, but it also includes the rim. If you see something that’s full of Christ, include the rim, but it will all be Christ.

Well, Gene, that’s wonderful, but I don’t understand what you said. You think maybe I do? He had a will; there will be a moment when He will take all things back to Himself, and there will be a fullness of Christ, and He shall be all in all. When will that take place? When does that take place? Hmm? In the fullness of time. When is that? I have no idea. Now, the brothers and sisters from Chicago have heard me talk about this so much that I’m sure they’ll want to head for the door.

This is Christ. This is creation. Where is creation? Inside of Jesus Christ. And right there, and about this much, a very fragile temporal thing is time.  Now, to illustrate, I’m going to blow it up just a little bit. Here’s Christ. Here’s eternity and creation. Let’s take time. And I know that every one of us thinks that God is here and He’s kind of going along with us, you know, He’s kind of keeping up with us and the clock as it goes along, but time is inside of Jesus Christ. Are you following me? Okay, then God only knows the beginning of time. That’s over here on my left, you’re right, that’s the beginning of time. And that’s all God knows. That’s not possible, because God’s over here too. I’ve used the illustration: if a log is going down to…the county I live in has a big river in it. And if I’m standing there, you’re standing here, and someone else is standing here, he can see the log, and I can’t. The log gets to me, and I can see it, but he can’t. Then in a minute, he can see the log, but he can’t, and I can’t. But if I’m standing on a hill, I can see the log and you and you and you, and I see them all at once. Well, God does better than that.

When He said, “I am the Alpha,” He did not say, “And someday I’m going to be the Omega.” I am at this present moment: I am the Omega, the end of time, and at the beginning of time. In God, it has already taken place; I just haven’t caught up with it yet. I’m an ant on that log, and God…Hebrews 4:3 or 3:4 says, He completed everything before He began everything. And all things have taken place in Him. He is not only yesterday and today; He is forever. He is not only the past and the present and the future; He is all three at once. Or, if you want to put it in two words, just two words: “I am.” Not “I was” and “shall be.” I am. Therefore, He floods His creation at all points on the clock, at all points on the map. Praise the Lord.

Now then, this is who you are. Now we come to a little bit more of who you are. If you stick with me, it would be better if we got this all at once, because tomorrow morning you’re not going to remember a thing I said. Can you give me another 15 minutes? Can you handle it, Randy? You’re getting lower and lower and lower. Bobby, you’re completely lost, aren’t you? You have no idea what I’m talking about. So-so. Then you’re ahead of an awful lot of Christians. Can you imagine someone having the audacity to write all this stuff to a young church? And I beg you, Constance, I beg you to start off here. Don’t get cheap and don’t start cheap. I’m imploring you to take these things and take them on the highest ground possible. Let this be your thought.

Okay, I’m going on. This strange verse: “With a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of time, that is the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things upon the earth, all things summed up in Him.” Then he stopped and remembered and said, “Oh yes, also there is something else about the mystery, about His will and its mystery. You, the church in Constance, the fellowship of believers in Constance, have obtained…not an individual, but a group of you…have obtained an inheritance.” And he does not define it; therefore, I will not. But you were predestined to this purpose, and again, this is just exactly the way He planned it. That’s the way Paul puts it. Oh yes, you have also obtained an inheritance because you’re predestined to it, that inheritance, and that’s just the way He planned it. It’s just the way God planned it. Yes, the God who works all things out according to the counsel of His will. So, when you get an inheritance, and when He sums up all things in Christ, that’s just exactly the way He planned it, when He counseled with Himself, and then agreed with His opinion. Okay.

Well, he just got through saying, with a view to the moment of the fullness of time, and He also adds, “You will have an inheritance.” Then He says, “All of that comes to another end, to the end that we who first hoped in Christ…and I’m sure He makes a reference to the Jews here, but He gives the same inheritance to the Gentiles and to Constance and to Colossae and to Chicago. “To the end that we who have hoped in Christ shall,” and this is exactly the way He planned it to be, “that ultimately, and in the end, we shall be a praise to His glory.  Where I’d like to go, to the end of creation, and see all things melted into Christ.” I would like to see myself gaining Christ, gaining my inheritance. I would like to see Christ gaining His inheritance. And then I would like so very, very much to see that in His final work, that those riches of His glory, the riches of His grace, the riches of His kind intention, the riches of His mercy, and the super bounding abundance and the lavishness of His grace, in working all these things out, has caused me, as all thing slip back into Him, including us, that the last shout of our lips as we are filled with all the fullness of Christ and all things have come to an end, that the last thing that I ever do as an individual is to shout my praises to Him, and that I become like the incense on the altar that rises up with the, in the fire, the incense becomes a praise to God. As Romans says the same thing, I become part of that which rises together, a praise to Him, a praise to all that He has done so far.

Now, brothers and sisters, I’m going to quit, but boy, I don’t want to. I’d sure like to go into the rest of this, but it will take at least until tomorrow night to finish these last few verses in chapter 1. Now, would you please do me a big favor? Please do me a favor. Randy, sit up straight. Darlene, sit up straight. Margaret, are you sitting up straight? Would you just say something, please? I don’t care what it is. Have you nothing to say in the presence of these things? Please, just say anything…to the glory of His grace.

Did I ever want a Christ this wonderful? Absolutely not. These things reach beyond anything I can understand, and I have to tell you that we haven’t even started talking about who you are now. We haven’t gotten to that. That’s the next verse. Who you are now. We saw your second state; we saw God before creation in His state at that time. We’ve seen you in your first state, and we’re warming up our motor to get to our present state, because we already know we are blameless, because we have been ever since He marked us off in Christ.