No wonder God kept this secret hidden through all the millennia since He overthrew Satan’s first world back in Genesis 1:2. But this wonderful truth about God’s GRACE is out now and you can read about in this article.

You see the “mystery” – a long hidden secret only revealed now by the Apostle Paul in his letters from prison - is that it is through his GRACE that Christ will triumph over the evil principalities and powers in “heavenly places” who now misrule our world.

That’s why Ephesians 1:6-10 declares that the reason God has “raised us up to sit with and in Christ in heavenly places”, is that:

In the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

And not just to us but through us to “the principalities and powers in heavenly places”. For already we, the grace-saved saints called on high (Phil. 3:14), have been made to see the “fellowship of the mystery” (Eph. 3: 9). And this long held secret has been revealed to us through Paul for a special purpose:

To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church (that is the “called out” ones) the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord (Eph. 3:10-11). 

Do you begin to glimpse how the battle in the heavenlies will be fought? I am convinced it will be waged and won only by GRACE from the God of love. For the grace of the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ is what has saved us and it will also save all those “in heaven and on earth” by gathering them into Christ (Eph. 1:10). And that includes the principalities and powers.

Else why would the Lord commission us to show them “the manifold wisdom” of God, which evidently is his GRACE? As E. W. Tozer says, “God’s heart is and always has been full of grace. He is “the God of all grace”: (1 Peter 5:10), “I

Evidence for this is that no actual end is signalled for the end of the “dispensation of the grace of God” (Eph. 3:1-4). Rather, if Eph. 2:7 be believed, grace will continue through all the ages to come:

That in the ages to come He might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved and; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.

The truth we need to know is that already all the powers of “spiritual wickedness in high places” have been made subject to Him (Eph. 6:12, 1 Peter 3:22). And soon, along with people they will be made to publicly “bow the knee and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father” (Phil. 2:9-11).

That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth… (Phil. 2:10).

So, through grace, and grace alone, the dark powers that be on high will be brought to kneel before the Lord and confess that He is the “King eternal, immortal, invisible the only wise God” (1 Tim. 1:17). But as the author of Hebrews declares:

“But now we see not yet all things but under Him. But we see Jesus who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that He by the GRACE of God should taste death for every man (Heb. 1:8-9).

You see it’s by grace that Christ died for our sins, and it’s entirely by grace through faith that we are saved (Eph. 2:8-9). And now the “mystery” – God’s biggest secret unveiled – is that it is by the same grace that saved us that the arch enemies of Christ in the heavenly host will be brought to surrender to the Lord of eternal glory and of all grace (1 Peter 5:10-11).

Often we’ve seen the forthcoming battle in the heavenlies in fleshly terms. The Lord will send out armies of angels (i.e. saints) riding on horses and armed with sharp swords. Metaphorically speaking oceans of blood will be shed and bodies galore will strew the ground. And certainly there will be real destruction of the evil powers above but again I submit only through grace.

This is how it was with Saul who became Paul. Once the arch enemy of Jesus, whipping, jailing and even killing the Lord’s people on earth, he was arrested by the grace and love of the Lord Jesus on the Damascus road. In his own words:

And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with and love which is in Christ Jesus…, now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen. (1 Tim. 1:14 1:14 and 17).

 In Phil. 3:21 we are told that Almighty God, the King of all future ages, the Lord Jesus Christ will one day soon “change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his “glorious body”. And, more than that, that He is “able to subdue All THINGS unto Himself”. So, in the same way He subdued enemy Saul in grace, mercy and love, commissioning him on the spot as an apostle, He will also subdue the dark powers warring against Him (and us) in the heavenly places.

You see, grace, whether it be applied to us human beings or to dark angelic powers is for ever and ever. Evidence for that is that God has vowed that “In the ages to come He might shew the EXCEEDING riches of his GRACE in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:7).

John Dudley Aldworth

You can contact John at the email address below.

Email: john.aldworth@hotmail.com

Website: https://www.dayofchristmnistries.com/rss/all.xml