(Col. 3:11)

The goal of the ages, and the climax of the purpose of redemption, is

found in 1 Corinthians 15:24 -28, which may be set out thus:

A

Then cometh the end.

B

a

15:-24-.  when He delivers up the kingdom.

b

when He abolishes all rule.

c

for He must reign.

d

15:-25.  Till all enemies under foot.

d

15:26-.  The last enemy; death abolished.

c

15:-26.  for He hath put all things under His feet.

b

15:27.  when.  The one exception.

a

15:28-.  when.  The Son Himself subjected.

A

That God may be all in all.

Something of this complete and concordant unity is envisaged and

foreshadowed in every calling, but in none so fully and so clearly as in the

dispensation of the Mystery.  This can be seen in the words of Ephesians

'That in the dispensation of the fulness of times (seasons) He might

gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven,

and which are on earth; even in Him'.

The word translated 'gather together in one' is a compound, formed of

ana 'up' and kephale 'head', and so suggests that the Church of which Christ

is 'Head over all things' now, is the most perfect foreshadowing of the

goal of the ages.  There is, however, more in this word anakephalaiomai, for

as Irenaeus, a martyr of the second century, observed, and Dionysius II who

lived about 30 b.c. agrees, the word translated 'to gather together in one'

is a figure of rhetoric, known to us as 'recapitulation' or, as Liddle and

Scott have it, 'to sum up as at the close of a speech'.  All the outstanding

types of Scripture find their recapitulation and exhaustive fulfilment in

Christ.  As figures they set forth more than human frailty could fully

exemplify, but they all pointed forward to Him in Whom alone all fulness

could dwell.

Adam, who was of the earth, earthy and failed so tragically, was

nevertheless a 'figure of Him that was to come', the second man, the last

Adam.  The blood of Christ speaketh 'better things than that of Abel' yet

Abel is a type.  The divinely appointed sacrifices, while setting forth the

need of a ransom and a propitiation, never touched the conscience.  Every

priest failed, not only because he was a sinful man as were all the rest, but

because he was not permitted to continue by reason of death.  David and

Solomon were types of Christ as King, but how many blemishes besmirch the

record of those two kings, even though one was 'after God's own heart' and

the other was called 'Jedidiah' 'the Beloved of the Lord'.  See Kingdom2.  In

Christ alone can all the fulness of the Godhead dwell bodily wise, and

'bodily wise' (Col. 2:9) includes the Church, the Body, and this church of

the One Body is given a most wonderful title in Ephesians 'The fulness of Him

that filleth all in all'.  See Pleroma3.