Q: What does Paul mean when he speaks about the bringing of “all things together in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth” (Eph. 1:10, NASB)?*
A: Ephesians 1:10 is part of a long passage covering verses 3-14, packed with theological insights. Within the passage, verse 10 summarizes Paul’s central message to the Ephesians.
The Divine Plan
Paul aims to display before the Ephesians God’s plan for the reunification of everything in Christ. The cosmos, under Christ’s power as a result of His sacrifice, is heading toward this most important divine goal. Essentially Paul offers a vision of the future of the cosmos from the Creator Himself. This futuristic vision presupposes that the cosmos was originally created in Christ (see Col. 1:16), but something went wrong, and it is no longer fully in Christ. The intrusion of sin fragmented it, making it necessary to restore all things to oneness in Christ. The magnitude of the divine plan greatly exceeds our personal interests.
We are part of something bigger than ourselves that reaches to the deepest recesses of the cosmos. Paul challenges us to shift our focus from the world we know and to look by faith into the future of a cosmos unified in Christ. Indeed, this vision of the divine plan for the cosmos offers us a vision of the future that is beyond what any other spiritual or human power could achieve.
Involvement of the Godhead
What God offers us is so significant that the Father (Eph. 1:3), the Son (verse 3), and the Holy Spirit (verse 13) are personally involved in its realization. In fact, the plan was formulated in the divine mind long before the creation of the cosmos. It is called “the mystery of His [God’s] will,” that at the right moment was made known to us in Christ (verses 9-11). He is the divine instrument through whom the Father “blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ” (verse 3) and “chose us in Him [Christ] before the foundation of the world” (verse 4), and in Him we have redemption (verse 7). This redemption will reach cosmic dimensions. After the cosmos returns to God at the consummation of redemption, it will again sing praises to the glory of God (verse 14). For Paul this portrait of the future is not a false utopia or an illusion formulated by human desperation. It is being realized within human history, not as a natural result of human progress, but as a result of God’s activity.
A Present Reality
According to Paul, we witness the beginning of the implementation of the divine plan for the cosmos in the presence of the church in the world. The existence of the church is God’s first move in the enactment of His plan to unify the cosmos in Christ. It has already been activated on this small planet through the saving work of Christ, who, through the work of the Spirit, has been wooing humans to place their faith in Christ in order to be incorporated into Him (verses 11-13). Such believers are now in Christ, and He will not stop until His work encompasses the whole cosmos. The divine intention reached first the Jews, who, according to Paul, were the “first to hope in the Christ” (verse 12, NASB), followed by the Gentiles, who, “after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation . . . also believed” (verse 13, NASB). Yes, the reunification of the cosmos in Christ has been initiated, and we are already part of it. We, believers, are the objective evidence of this cosmic event.
* Scripture quotations marked NASB are from the New American Standard Bible, copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. All rights reserved.