Universe, and love as revealed in Scripture not only 'gives' but seeks, and

desires the association of others.  Man, when created, was endowed with the

inalienable privilege and responsibility of being able not only to say 'yes'

but to say 'no' to the command and will of God.  While no one has a free

'will' (for however much we may say 'I will' it does not follow that what we

freely will, will be the consequence), we have freedom of 'choice', and

freedom of choice marks an intelligent moral agent, as distinct from the rest

of the animal creation which is activated more by instinct and appetite.

Adam in the Garden of Eden was given this freedom of 'choice'.  If only

Satan had known enough, he might have held back, and allowed man freely to

eat, but he overshot his mark, and by the addition of temptation, coming as

it did to a pair of innocents, who had no previous knowledge or experience,

no histories or biographies, he left a door open, foreseen by Divine mercy,

and though Adam became involved in sin and death, which also involved his

seed, the mercy of God planned and provided a remedy, a remedy that should

satisfy all the claims of justice, and at the same time, satisfy all the

desires of love.

We have caught a glimpse of this divine mercy in progress, in the

preceding section where the story is traced from the fall to the perfect day,

by means of the usage of the word paradidomi, 'deliver up'.  Here we are

concerned, not with the process but the goal.  We move from Genesis 1, where

God is 'All', to the End where God will be 'All in All'.  It is idle for us

to speculate on the character and extent of this all -pervasive oneness, but

we can gather something of its meaning by considering other occurrences of

the expression, 'all in all'.  Perhaps the nearest approach that has yet

appeared, to this oneness, is seen in the constitution of the Church which is

'His Body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all' (Eph. 1:23).  This is

an incomplete quotation, and demands one other feature to bring it into line

with the goal of the ages.  It is, to quote similar words as those found in 1

Corinthians 15:24 -28,

That all things have been placed under His feet.

That He, in that capacity, has been given to be Head over all

things to the Church,

Which is His Body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all

(Eph. 1:22 -23).

Christ is seen at one and the same time 'far above all',

yet 'all -pervasive'.  To prepare the way for this great objective, He not

only descended to the lowest parts of the earth, but He also ascended up 'far

above all heavens, that He might fill all things', and in that capacity 'He

gave gifts unto men'.  In the practical outworking of this, we have the unity

of the Spirit, the seventh item of which reads:

'One God and Father of All,

Who is above All,

And through All,

And in you All' (Eph. 4:6).

In the epistle to the Colossians this is set forth a little differently, but

to the same effect: