To see the place of the church in the plan of the ages one needs to remember a bit of history which will be readily admitted as historic by any Bible believer.
First, sin entered the universe among the angels. Since angels are an order of beings, not a race, each one obviously a separate creation, sin affected only a part of the angelic order. When, through Adam’s disobedience, sin came into the human race, according to the Bible, it brought mortality and death— “dying thou shalt die” (Gen. 2:17). Paul shows that the weakness and depletion accompanying mortality and death are the source of our proneness to sin. A literal translation of Romans 5:12 is— “On this account, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and thus death passed through to all men, upon which all sinned.” Death passed through to all men by the process of heredity. And then because we are all mortal and dying—all weakened and sapped and depleted–we sin. We are all born with a tragic bent or tendency to sin. No child has to be taught to give vent to his temper; he has to be taught to control it. No child has to be taught to lie; he has to be taught to tell the truth. The pull of our natures is down and not up. No unaided mortal has ever yet been able to resist every evil tendency in his hereditary weakness.
Here, then, we have the setting or background against which God puts forth His plan of the ages. Part of the angelic host affected, and all of the human race affected by this virus of sin, the wages of which for man is death. What does God do about it?
Of course, the fallen angels were cast out of heaven (see 2 Pet. 2:4; Jude 1:6). Then later man is cast out of Eden, and the whole earth is also affected by man’s sin. “For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now” (Rom. 8.22).
Until the time of the flood, there was just one kind of man; all were simply one common lot of sinners. Yet in the age after the flood, beginning with Abraham, men were divided into two groups—men in general, plus a Chosen Family. Later we recognize these two groups as Jews and Gentiles. The Chosen Family, or Israelites, were selected to bear witness to a wicked and idolatrous world of the truth of the one true God. They remembered that they were chosen, but quickly forgot what they were chosen for. Instead of bearing witness to the Gentiles, they only hated them.
In the New Testament, however, another group has appeared, a group called the Church. It is a “called-out” group, composed of both Jews and Gentiles, chosen especially to proclaim, not only the power and wisdom and righteousness of God, but, particularly, His grace. They are to proclaim to the world God’s solution of the problem of sin and evil, the solution God wrought out in Christ.
So far, what has been said in this chapter is proclaimed widely in Christian churches. But what is not generally taught is what God is planning to do with the church “in the ages to come.” This is made clear especially in Paul’s epistle to the Ephesians. Let us look at it briefly.
First of all, the members of the Church were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, predestinated unto the adoption of sons by Jesus Christ to God, and accepted in the Beloved (Eph. 1:4-6). To the selection of that chosen group the activities of God in the world are now devoted. It may sound like a startling statement, but it is Biblically true to say that God is not now trying to convert the whole world! He is calling out the Church! As recorded in Acts 15:13,14, James said, “Men and brethren, hearken unto me; Simeon hath declared how God at the first (or for the first time, in the house of Cornelius) did visit the Gentile: to take out of them a people for His name.”
The Scofield Bible has the following note in connection with these verses “Dispensationally, this is the most important passage in the N.T. It gives the divine purpose for this age, and for the beginning of the next. ( 1) The taking out from among the nations of a people for His name, the distinctive work of the present, or church-age. The church is the ecclesia — the ‘called-out assembly.’ Precisely this has been in progress since Pentecost. The Gospel has never anywhere converted all, but everywhere has called out some.” The whole speech of James, however, is one which is generally overlooked in forming a Christian viewpoint. It is as follows: “After this I will return (the Second Coming of Christ), and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down: and I will build again the ruins thereof, and wiIl set it up: that the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the nations, upon whom My name is called, saith the Lord, Who doeth all these things. Known unto God are all His works from the beginning of the world” (Acts 15:16-18).
That Christians can read these stirring words and have no idea of what God plans to do in the coming ages seems to be past belief. Yet the writer read them for years before their meaning dawned in his own mind, so why should he be critical of others who see no further than he used to see ? But he does ask that you not only read about all the nations seeking after the Lord, (following the Second Coming), but that you put with it the clear statement in Rom. 11:26, “And so all Israel shall be saved.” God is not done with humanity in this age! He has much still to do “in the ages to come.” And in the doing of it He will make use of His church. the called-out assembly.
God not only chose the church, He not only predestined it to the adoption of sons, He not only accepted it in the Beloved, but He also does for its members exactly what He did with Christ. He has “quickened us together with Christ (by grace ye are saved), and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:5,6). God has given to the church the highest standing that it is possible for Him to give it. The church is not only “beside” Christ in its standing; it is to live and reign with Him as well; best of all, it is to be like Him (1 John 3 :2). But that is not just to honor the church. It is part of God’s program for the church, “in the ages to come.”
What is that program? Here it is: “That in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (Eph.2:7, R.V.). Show it to whom? Not to those who already know it—that would be useless nonsense. But to those who do not know it! That is, in this age to living men, and in the ages to come to resurrected men. More than that! To the angels, also! That is Paul’s daring faith. “Unto me who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the nations the unsearchable riches of Christ; and to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the ages hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ: to the intent that now unto the principalities and authorities in the heavenlies might be made known through the church the manifold wisdom of God, according to the purpose of the ages which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Eph. 3:8-11). To all on the earth the grace of God must be made known; and to all in the heavenlies, also. This is the calling of the church.
The plan of God for the ages has the church in its center. He has revealed in the Bible a progressive unfolding of those plans, principally covering human history, but giving also glimpses of His purpose in the “ages to come.” In the center of that purpose stands the church. Christ, the Head of the church, has been given the place of highest authority in the entire universe. “Far above all principality, and authority, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come” (Eph. 1:21). But to rule with Him, to reign with Him, to demonstrate His grace “in the ages to come” —this is the task of “the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all” (Eph. 1:22,23).
But the objection will be made that “in the ages to come” men will not deserve an opportunity to accept Christ. Of course there will be countless millions there who have never had an opportunity for salvation, who never heard the name of Christ in Whom alone men find life. How much will the apathy of the church today be responsible for that fact? But here will be other countless millions who have heard the message and have rejected it. So men say, “Let them go to hell! They will be getting just what is coming to them. They do not deserve the grace of God.”
May the writer say that he does not deserve the grace of God. And without any thought of being insulting, but just to state the fact according to Bible estimate, you do not deserve the grace of God, either! All men are undeserving sinners. That is why it takes grace (unmerited favor) to save.
“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast” (Eph.2:8,9). Why do these verses follow immediately the statement, “that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus”? And why do these verses begin with the word “for”? The word “for” shows a relationship between what precedes and what follows. In the ages to come, He will demonstrate His grace, for He has already shown it to us, His church, whom He will use as the demonstration.
No member of the church deserves to be saved by grace. Not one thing can we claim that has any merit in it. Some will say that at least our faith is our own. “For by grace are ye saved through faith” —and surely the faith is ours. But Paul will not have it so, for he adds, “and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.” Yes, God gives to us our faith, “according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith” (Rom. 12:3). And He gives it to us through “Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith” (Heb. 12:2). Not only does He give us grace: He gives us the faith to receive it. Otherwise we would still be in stubbornness or unbelief. “For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that He might have mercy upon all” (Rom. 11:32).
So God chooses a few undeserving sinners in this age through whom He will demonstrate His grace to other undeserving sinners, “in the ages to come.” And the demonstration will be convincing, too. It will accomplish what God intends that it shall accomplish: “That in the dispensation of the fullness of times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in Him” (Eph. 1:10).
Oscar Lowry, in “Scripture Memorizing for Successful Soul-Winning,” tells us about George Mueller, perhaps the greatest man of prayer since the apostle Paul, and how this great man of God with all his spiritual power was not able to bring his own father to faith in Christ. One wonders if God will use George Mueller “in the ages to come” to accomplish what the same George Mueller was unable to do in this age! For George Mueller is a part of the church which God will use to demonstrate His grace. All of us have dear ones who are unsaved. Will God give us the privilege “in the ages to come” of showing the exceeding riches of His grace to them personally? There is no promise like that in the Scriptures, so far as I know. But there is the definite promise that the church will be used “in the ages to come” to demonstrate both the grace and the manifold wisdom of God. And every member of the church will share in that universal revelation of God’s infinite love. In the end, God will be “All in all,” “for out of Him, and through Him, and unto Him are all things” (Rom. 11:36).