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"I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from
ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will
do all My pleasure . . . . . yea I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed
it, I will also do it."
We will not multiply passages, the Bible is insistent on this grand fact that the God
Who purposes is the God also Who fulfils. This was the secret of Abraham's faith, for it
is recorded in Rom. 4: 17-21:--
"Before Him Whom he believed, even God Who quickeneth the dead and calleth
those things which be not as though they were . . . . . being fully persuaded that what He
had promised He was able also to perform."
Nothing is so strengthening to faith, even in the small details of daily life, as this
glorious fact that God is the fulfiller of His own will.
The next truth we would bring to notice is that the great centre of the purpose of the
ages is the Lord Jesus Christ. Going back into the past we find that creation is the work
of the Son of God. John in chapter 1: of his Gospel speaks of Christ as the Word, Who
was God (verse 1), Who became flesh, the only begotten of the Father (verse 14), and
says:--
"All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was
made" (John 1: 3).
Heb. 1: 10 says of Him:--
"And Thou, Lord, in the beginning has laid the foundation of the earth; and the
heavens are the works of thine hands."
Col. 1: 16 speaks further of the creation, not only of visible but of invisible and
mighty beings in the heavens, yet all the creatures of the Son of God. The first man
Adam is "a figure of Him that was to come" (Rom. 5: 14), and is placed in contrast with
"the last Adam", who is a life-giving spirit, "the second man" who is the Lord from
heaven (I Cor. 15: 45-47). The promise of the seed of the woman (Gen. 3:) finds its
fulfilment in the Person and work of the Son of God. All typical events and institutions,
such as the Ark built by Noah, the Passover Lamb, the Tabernacle, the Offerings,
the Priesthood, all find their anti-type and fulfilment in Christ.
Every prominent figure of the Old Testament pre-figures either Christ or Antichrist.
We have only to think of some like Joseph, David, Moses, Pharaoh and Joshua to see
how fully this can be demonstrated. However stupendous may have been such
interferences with the course of nature at the Flood, the redemption from Egypt, the
giving of the Law from Sinai, or however important such events as the fresh start after
the flood, the entry into Canaan, the setting up of David's throne, yet all these events but
lead on to one point called by God "the fulness of the time," marked by the most
wonderful event made known to men:--
"When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman,
made under the law; to redeem them that were under the law" (Gal. 4: 4, 5).