God’s Eternal Purpose

From the dawn of eternity God had a purpose in mind, and that purpose was to have a being that He could love to the fullest capacity of His love and with whom He could have perfect fellowship and most intimate communion. You, dear reader, are that being. This purpose was wrought out through Christ. That God might have His purpose realized He must bring man up to a perfect likeness of Himself. God loved man in his sins, but did not love him for what he then was, but for what he could become in Christ Jesus. The likeness of God was in Christ. The great task of God is the bringing of man up to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. To do this Christ Himself must be formed in man. Man becomes the likeness of God in Christ. God looks on the man in Christ and sees the fullest realization of His purpose. Christ Jesus came to save man. This is what salvation is—fellowship, likeness, communion with God. Salvation is in being like God. This is accomplished by Christ coming into the life of man and taking that life up into His own and making them one life. Christ and saved man are not two, they are one. This is the new creation.