Ultimate Intention - Chapter 2 - The Proper Starting Point

This is a sample chapter from the book Ultimate Intention by Devern Fromke

HOW SHALL WE PICTURE IT--the fact that most often our conceptions are wrong because we start at the wrong place? Too often human history has been interpreted from the Fall. If this is the starting point (“D” on the blackboard), it is natural that all history would have a redemptive coloring. God’s purpose is then seen in the light of man’s need for redemption. Of course, the need for redemption must not be minimized, but neither should it become the overshadowing truth. 

It is often made to seem that man appeared on the stage of time just so he could be saved. Thus, it seems man becomes important in God’s purpose only in his Fall. Consequently, God’s chief work is seen as redemptive. 

We cringe at the thought, and deep within we are sure there must have been some “better purpose.” Yet if we start with man and his Fall, we seem to be carried along in a conception which makes man and his restoration to be central. Because our controlling conception was born from the wrong starting point--man and his Fall--we can but end with man and his restoration. 

But there are others, sensing this danger, who have started with man--God’s commission to Adam, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth, and subdue it” (Gen. 1:28). From this starting point (“C” on the blackboard), all history is interpreted with a governmental or kingdom purpose centered in man. Since man was created to rule, he sees everything as colored by this conception. The kingdom becomes the central theme. 

Then there are those who have realized the need for starting with God instead of with man. So they have started where God starts in Genesis 1:1--with God as Creator. From this starting point (point “B”), the resulting scheme and purpose of God has an architectural or sovereign coloring. But while allowing for a God-centered approach, this doesn’t fully answer the purpose in His creation, nor describe His sovereignty. 

We wonder if there is not a more ultimate starting point which will solve the enigma of life and purpose? Suddenly we recognize why the Apostle Paul always started back in the heart of the eternal Father before the foundation of the world. Paul always started with God’s vital, or self-sharing, Fatherhood. (See point “A” on blackboard.) It was not with the Father’s varied activities, nor with His wondrous attributes, that Paul started; it was with the Person, who He chiefly is--the Father. Thus, God’s vital Fatherhood is seen to be the controlling and ultimate factor which determines all His activities. 

From this (ultimate) starting point, looking out from His paternal eyes, we see all that the Father purposed as His ultimate intention or eternal goal. Everything takes on full meaning when it has a paternal coloring. We understand why He has done all He has. New light breaks on the future. What would a Father desire, purpose, and ultimately intend? So the following summarizes the different starting points which regulates both our outlook and our behavior in daily life: 

• Man’s Fall (D on blackboard) 
• God’s Commission (C) 
• God’s Creation (B) 
• God’s Fatherhood (A) 

The next lesson will consider this eternal outlook from the heart of the Father. But before turning to a more detailed consideration of God’s original purpose, let us make sure we understand how imperative it is to have an ultimate starting point. 

If you will open almost any present-day religious book or periodical, you will discover the degree to which modem Christendom is centered in man. Furthermore, God’s primary purpose is set forth as redemptive. The overshadowing theme of religious writing is man’s Fall, his various needs, and God’s provision for meeting them. In this way God is always related to man’s benefit, blessing and future. Man becomes central. But is this God’s intention? 

This evidence of a man-centered approach and message indicates the desperate cancer which is eating at the heart of Christendom. It is the result of a warped concept developed by blinded man who has, ever since the Fall, made all to center around and for himself. 

To discover the truth of this broad indictment against modern Christendom, the reader is invited to consider not only how God is central in the universe, but also how His vital Fatherhood is the controlling factor which determines His plan, purpose, and intention. 

What did the Father intend, in the eternal past, had sin never entered the world? The line on the blackboard was to have gone straight, without a downward break. It has been this writer’s conviction for many years that Paul unveils in the Ephesian letter that which had always been in the mind of the Father. A moral Father could not do otherwise than allow a moral agency to His created children. Thus the entrance of sin was not in any way necessary, nor was it designed, nor has it altered God’s ultimate intention or purpose. The crisis arose because of man’s action outside God’s purpose. Therefore, the line dropped to “D,” from which it must be brought up again. This is what we see as we observe man’s failure. Yet God’s ultimate intention has never changed. 

FROM ETERNITY THE PATERNAL PURPOSE IN THE SON 

How shall we make it clear that there is an eternal purpose hidden in the Father which has never been involved in time? This is clearly set forth by Paul in Ephesians 1:4, “According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world. . . .” Here is something that moves on the eternal level--not at all affected by sin or by time. It is something the Father has already seen in consummation. Furthermore, we must see how the eternal Son is related to this eternal purpose of the Father. We have been so prone to relate Christ to the redemptive activity that we have hardly appreciated how He is related to eternity and the Father’s purpose. 

Perhaps we can move the eternal Christ into a proper frame of reference by asking: if man had never sinned, would all things have been summed up in Christ (Eph. 1:10)? If man had never sinned, was it God’s plan for all to be “in Christ”? If man had never sinned, would Christ have been incarnated into the human family? It seems evident from Paul’s writing in Ephesians, as he moves on the eternal level, that the Father intended for His Son to be a means of accomplishment, not because sin entered, but even if sin had never entered. Consider these statements in Ephesians chapter one: 

• v.3 “. . . blessed us . . . in Christ” 
• v.4 “. . . chosen us in Him before the foundation . . .” 
• v.5 “. . . predestined unto adoption . . . by Jesus Christ . . .” 
• v.6 “. . . accepted in the Beloved . . .” 
• v. 10 “. . . gathered together all things . . . in Christ . ..” 

We must cease interpreting God’s purpose and plan in the light of the Fall. This which we see in Ephesians is what the Father intended to realize in His Son, and it has never been affected by sin, the Fall, or time. 

It was this purpose which had previously been a mystery, that the Apostle Paul was now unveiling. The Father intended for His Son to have a Body to express His life--Himself--in the world now, and before all creation in the ages to come. 

We can quickly see how this ultimate intention for THE SON and His Body springs out of God’s paternal nature and desire. We can also understand how the Father “marked out for Himself” a vast family who would share His life, nature, spirit, vision, purpose, and dedication. We can further see how this family purpose was to be accomplished both through and for His eternal Son. 

We have said that God’s line of purpose was to have gone upward, without a break. But because of man’s free will, he must be allowed opportunity to choose cooperation in God’s purpose; we see how man also could choose to go his own way. As a result, God’s plan in time necessitated the incorporation of the redemptive plan. But He never intended that this redemptive phase was to overshadow His original eternal purpose. As we have said, in temporarily “spotlighting redemption” we have too often thrown the matrix out of which it emerged back into the shadows, until it has almost been overlooked. 

I like the way Watchman Nee puts it: 

“We only see history back to the Fall. God sees it from the beginning. There was something in God’s mind before the Fall, and in the ages to come that thing is to be fully realized. God knew all about sin and redemption; yet in His great purpose for the Church set forth in Genesis 2, there is no view of sin. It is as though (to speak in finite terms) He leaps in thought right over the whole story of redemption, and sees the Church in future eternity, having a ministry and a (future) history which is altogether apart from sin and is wholly of God. It is the Body of Christ in glory, expressing nothing of fallen man 

but only that which is the image of the glorified Son of man. This is the Church that has satisfied God’s heart and has attained dominion.” 

As we move away from our earth-bound viewpoint to the heavenly vantage point of eternity, we shall see the wonders of His eternal purpose encompassing, but far exceeding, the wonders of redemption. For the Father from eternity had a wonderful purpose for Himself which of course included man. Redemption is not the end, but only a recovery program. It is but a parenthesis incorporated into the main theme. 

This is the reason for our insistence on starting in His Fatherheart--with His desire, purpose, and intention. By doing this we shall see Christ from a very different point of view. He is not related primarily to man’s need, but to the Father’s ultimate intention. Since God’s plans and purposes are not determined by man’s need, let us henceforth see how all things take on new meaning and purpose when they are properly related to Him for His honor, glory, pleasure, and satisfaction.