The Manifold Wisdom of God Is Made Known

“... that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the principalities and pow­ers in the heavenly places. This was according to the eter­nal purpose which he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Verses 10-11.

God determined in eternity past that by the church He would make His manifold wisdom known to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places.

From the depths He called to us; from Egypt He fetched His Son. He raises up the poor from the miry clay and sets them among princes. He who was stricken, tormented, and afflicted, the One who was esteemed as nothing, Him has God seated at His right land, that He might rule the world to come. God has chosen that which is nothing in this world to put to shame that which is something.

The wisdom of God springs up among the poor—those who are of no account in the eyes of others. From such as these a people arises that will bear the scepter forever. When principalities and powers in the heavenly places, which have always lived in their own power and glory, see this, they will be utterly amazed at God’s wisdom. Then with full understanding they will be able to praise God from the depths of their soul. In this way the blood of Christ, by the church, has a direct and powerful effect on principalities and pow­ers in the heavenly places, bringing them to a deeper understand­ing of God.

In the wilderness the angels were able to slay three thousand in a day, and they could also stand guard for the armies of the Lord. They could deliver Lot from Sodom and Peter from prison, but they were unacquainted with the power and wisdom of God that devel­oped in poor and wretched human beings, making them, despite their weakness, overcomers of Satan. The angels long to look into this manifold wisdom in order to gain knowledge about how the seed of the woman—weak as it is—could possibly crush the ser­pent’s head.

God’s rest, as well as our rest in God and that of the principali­ties and powers in the heavenly places, is perfected when the pur­pose He had from eternity past concerning Christ Jesus is fulfilled in all its fullness—without limits. When this takes place, principali­ties and powers will have attained, by the church, to full insight into the deep things of God. The honor whereby they can honor the Father by this knowledge will thus be perfect, because God’s work in the Son is perfect.