Broadlands Bible Church
December 6, 2023
(Download Audio)
These notes are the same as the last study, but the audio is a continuation.
Thesis: The will of God has been, and always will be, directed to one ultimate objective.
Introduction: In our last study of "The will of God and the will of man", we considered that God's ultimate objective for man will have a major impact upon us with the primary "will" being that of God, and our "will" is to have its own secondary place in our future.
We considered the primacy of the ultimate objective of the divine will in respect to man's "outcomes" as they relate to the final state of man with regard for all of the exercises of "will" that he pursued. This issue has its roots in the record of the two major "judgments" to which men are subjected: the Judgment Seat of Christ; and the Great White Throne Judgment. We also took an extended look into the absolute chaos that exists in the minds of men as they propose to answer the question, "What is the chief end of man?" and then go immediately into multiple answers. When a man can raise the question of "the chief end of man" and then turn right around and list 59 answers, he clearly has no sense of reason. Then we also considered what is involved in "the chief end of man" as far as God's "will" is concerned. The "chief end of man" refers to why God made humanity so that whatever answer we give must include Adam and Eve and every offspring of Adam from that beginning point: any "purpose for man" has to include all men; it cannot apply to only some men. Then we considered the fact that any legitimate statement of God's "purpose for man" has to arise out of a "T"heology that does not rest upon some deficiency in God that He is striving to overcome: such striving would be inherently self centered and, thus, be most fundamentally contrary to everything the Bible says about the primacy of the Love of God.
Therefore, we are going to continue our investigation of "the chief end of man" by looking into the biblical declarations regarding "man" as he moves to the final end.
- I. Our First Parameter: An Everlasting Kingdom Of Righteousness, Peace, and Joy: (Revelation 21:4, 7).
- A. An "ultimate objective for the creation of man" must be accomplished in such a way as to have "man" in a final condition of "purpose" which is not "methodological", i.e., does not simply lay the groundwork for some other "purpose" (a "final" purpose has no purpose beyond itself).
- 1. Given the magnitude (mostly beyond our comprehension and mental capacities) of God's creation with "man" in a kind of central focus, we must expect a certain level of confusion.
- 2. The vast majority of the "purposes" for created beings are methodological, being as they are simply "steps" along the way to lead us to the "end".
- 3. Also, we must differentiate between "the chief end of man" and "the chief objective of God".
- B. The "ultimate objective for the creation of man" must take into account the fact that "man" exists in two extremely diverse ultimate realities.
- 1. There are those whose final state of existence includes a harmonious relationship with God according to Revelation 21:7 ("...I will be his God and he will be My son.").
- 2. And there are those whose final state of existence includes a final and permanent estrangement from God according to Revelation 14:11 ("...the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever; [and] they have no rest day and night...).
- 3. Any "chief end of man" must apply equally to both categories of "man".
- II. Our Second Parameter: The First Coming Of Christ As The Lamb Of God (John 3:16).
- C. The "ultimate objective for the creation of man" must also take into account the multiple accounts of the biblical mandate that God's "creation" must come out of, and make manifest, "the glory of God" as a "methodological" mandate with an "end" in mind that results from those "glories" being made comprehensible to "creatures".
- 1. Near the top of God's settled intentions is His sharing of Himself with that segment of man which participates in "Eternal Life".
- a. The primacy of "Eternal Life" is everywhere established.
- 1) The most severe action of God (the crucifixion of Jesus) has the experience of Eternal Life as the purpose for those who are in the category of "man" that includes "the harmonious relationship with God" mentioned above.
- a) The "most severe action" must, therefore, by reason of its severity, be very close to God's "ultimate end for man".
- b) That this "most severe action" is restricted so that it only positively affects some men means that we must have that factor that makes it "positive" in our minds as we consider "the ultimate end".
- c) But, that this most severe action is denied to a certain class of men must be included in our considerations of "the chief end" because both classes are involved in our question: "What is the chief end of man?"
- 2) This most severe action of God, however, also has the impact, upon those who are excluded from Eternal Life, that the Bible calls "The Second Death".
- a) The most severe action of God argues for the greatest expression of "Love" by God for some men: the cross is everywhere a statement of the greatness of God's "love".
- b) But this most severe action of God also argues for the greatest expression of "Hate" by God because the severity is an expression of white hot rage like nothing any man has ever yet understood.
- c) What some men gain by this most severe action of God, others not only lose, but become participants in the opposite: a burning lake where torment is everlasting.
- b. The primacy of "The Second Death" is also everywhere attested.
- 1) The "first death" is a reality that surrounds us with "awareness" and pervades the vast majority of our sub-conscious, off of our radar, mental activity.
- a) This "first death" is the physical level reality that gives us some major hints regarding the nature of the "Second Death".
- b) In every discipline of thought, this "first death" takes a primary place [one of our most primary physical "laws" is that "energy can not be created, nor destroyed; it is only transformed from a potent force to a latent existence"].
- c) This "first death" has its "witnesses" in the always present realities of doctors, hospitals, diseases that cannot be healed, flaws in the genetic makeup of the body that present horrific circumstances for those subject to them and to those who are care-givers for those so afflicted ... and that is not to even mention the regular collapse of the physical into "death", sometimes rather immediate and sometimes over a long lingering process of gradual disintegration.
- 2) It is because we call the "first death" a "death" that it is so closely linked to The Second Death -- so that we might have at least an inkling of what it is.
- 2. Because "Eternal Life" and "The Second Death" are so close to the top considerations of the final state of men, it is imperative that we have at least somewhat of a grasp of the major difference between the two.
- a. Both have some of the same characteristics.
- 1) Both are precipitated by a "resurrection" of the physical body that puts it into an indestructible condition that compels us to think in terms of the issue of "everlasting, inescapable, existence".
- 2) Both have the underlying factors that make "Life" and "Death" descriptive terms that are beyond the "resurrected body".
- 3) Both are seriously connected to the issue of a real connection to God as Spirit: "Life" is tied to a harmony between a "man" and "God"; and "Death" is described in terms of a vast separation between a "man" and "God" that is not physical, but relational in respect to the issue of "harmony-in-relationship".
- b. But they are vastly distinct in terms of what their primary characteristic creates for man.
- 1) "Life" can be reduced to "the presence of joy in the realm of conscious awareness".
- 2) "Death" can be reduced to "the presence of grief in the same realm".
- III. Our Conclusion From These Parameters.
- A. The "chief end of man" is not a "promoting factor"; i.e., "harmony with God" or "antagonism toward God".
- B. The "chief end of man" is the final reality of God's use of man as the premier demonstration of the legitimacy of a "Kingdom" involving angels and men (Ephesians 3:10).
- 1. It is man's "inescapable link" to God's ultimate objective that makes the "chief end of man" the demonstration of the experience of man under the glory of God: God's purpose for man is that experience as it reflects the legitimacy of God's objective of a "Kingdom".
- 2. Ultimately, the experience of "Life" is the experience of man in a direct linkage with the glory of the "grace" of God, and the experience of "Death" is the experience of a direct linkage with the glory of the "justice" of God.
- 3. This boils down to this: God has determined that man will never be disconnected from Him.
- a. This means that the outcomes of that "connection" will be determined by the nature of which aspect of the glory of God a particular man is primarily "connected".
- b. That there are "will" issues involved simply means that some men will be primarily connected to the "justice" aspect of God's glory by the impact of "loves" and "beliefs" and other men will be connected to the "grace" aspect of God's glory by "loves" and "beliefs".
