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Resurrection and The Purpose of the Age.
by Stuart Allen
No.1.
pp. 133 - 136
In Eph. 3: 8-11 the Apostle Paul refers to the unfolding of the dispensation of the
Mystery (secret) "according to the eternal purpose which He (God) purposed in Jesus
Christ our Lord". Sometimes it is necessary to sacrifice the magnificent prose of the
Authorized Version in order to get nearer to the meaning of the original Hebrew and
Greek. A more literal rendering of verse eleven would be "according to the purpose of
the ages which He made in Christ Jesus our Lord". The ages are the great platform of
time on which God is working out a mighty plan embracing heaven and earth, centred in
the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Bible is God's record of this plan, revealed step by step
according to His matchless wisdom. A careful study of the New Testament shows that
this mighty purpose is said to be by, through, in or with Christ and we do well to
realize that there is no phase of it that is not essentially connected with Him and His
atoning death and resurrection. In fact we can say that the truth of resurrection connected
with the Lord and His redeemed people is the basis which holds this great plan together.
What a pity then that this doctrine has been practically jettisoned by modern Christendom
or mere lip service paid to it! How many Christian preachers and expositors give it a
place in their ministry apart from Easter Sunday? Yet the apostle Paul did not hesitate to
write to the church at Corinth: "If Christ be not raised, your faith is VAIN; ye are yet in
your sins." Such was and still is the hopeless position of living believers apart from the
resurrection of the Lord. And what of God's children who have died? "Then they also
which are fallen asleep in Christ are PERISHED." This is strong language, but the
Apostle was dealing with truth so fundamental that it was warranted. Let us notice the
various ways in which the great truth of resurrection impinges upon the purpose of the
ages.
(1) The Lord Himself.--It is hardly possible to read the eleventh and twelfth chapters
of Matthew's Gospel without realizing that events recorded there were working to a
climax. The Lord had come to His earthly people Israel and presented His credentials as
Messiah by working daily in their midst the very miracles that the Old Testament had
predicted He would accomplish at His advent. He was indeed a man "approved of God
among you by miracles and wonders and signs" as Peter expressed it (Acts 2: 22). But in
spite of all this, unbelief was doing its deadly work in the hearts of the people of Israel.
"Then began He to upbraid the cities wherein most of His mighty works were done,
because they repented not" (Matt. 11: 20). "And He did not many mighty works there
because of their unbelief" (Matt. 13: 58). This unbelief was such as to cause the Lord to
marvel (Mark 6: 6). He had presented Himself in His threefold capacity as Prophet
(Matt. 12: 41), Priest (verse 6) and King (verse 42) and yet they had the impertinence to
ask for a sign:
"But He answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after
a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas; for as