December 31

I declare the end from the beginning, and ancient times from what is still to come. I say, ‘My purpose will stand, and all My good pleasure I will accomplish.’ — Isa 46:10 BSB

There is one grand theme running through the entire Scripture, from Genesis to Revelation. This theme runs through every part of the sacred text and, like a golden thread, ties the whole together. What is this grand theme?

God has many thoughts, just as we do, for He tells us that “the thoughts of His heart stand to all generations.” But we also read in the same verse of “the counsel of the Lord, which stands forever,” and elsewhere of His “working all things after the counsel of His own will” (Psalm 33:11; Ephesians 1:11). In God’s mind, as in His mode of existence, there is both unity and variety. There is His one grand purpose, and there are many thoughts flowing from it. Though His thoughts are many, His counsel is singular: the exaltation and glorification of His dear Son. It is worth briefly tracing this unity of thought and the variety of its expressions.

We see this grand thought first expressed in the creation of the first man, Adam, who was made “in God’s own image, after His own likeness.” This was an expression of God’s singular thought, for Adam the first was a type of Adam the second—Jesus Christ. Since Christ was, by lineal descent, “the son of Adam,” the creation of the first man foreshadowed the incarnation of God’s Son, who is the brightness of God’s glory and the express image of His Person.

Next, notice how all things were placed under Adam’s feet, making him the visible head of creation. This exaltation of Adam is explained in Psalm 8, and the Apostle interprets it in Hebrews 2:7-9, seeing Adam’s dominion as a type of Christ. God has crowned Jesus with glory and honor, setting Him over the works of His hands and putting all things in subjection under His feet.

Look further at the first promise after the fall—that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent’s head. Here, once again, we see God’s grand thought, His dominant counsel, expressed in the promise of His Son’s incarnation, through whom Satan would be defeated.

Consider Noah, preserved in the ark with his family, when the rest of the world perished in the flood, ensuring that from Adam’s line would come the promised seed. Look at Abraham, called by a special calling, so that in him and his seed all nations would be blessed. This is once more an expression of God’s singular thought.

Then consider the whole Levitical system. Every rite, every sacrifice, every type, and every ordinance bears the stamp of God’s one great purpose—the exaltation of His dear Son. Indeed, every part of Scripture is but an unfolding of this one thought of God’s heart, this singular counsel of His eternal will.

The word of God remains a mystery to us, and we see no beauty or unity in the various books of the Old and New Testaments until we see the mind of God behind it, gathering up His thoughts, especially the grand thought that binds everything together: the exaltation of His dear Son to His right hand, the promised reward for His sufferings and death, and the glorious result of His resurrection and ascension to the courts of heaven.