Ultimate Intention for Man

DeVern F. Fromke has written the following eye-opening words regarding what God created we humans for in his book The Ultimate Intention:

"If you had one son in whom you found unspeakable delight, would it not be normal as a father to want many more? It is exactly so with the eternal Father, who by nature and choice, has desired and purposed to have a vast family of human-divine sons who are just like His only begotten Son.

"Further, as we view from His heart, it seems evident that the Father makes all His plans with His eternal Son in view; that in the unfolding ages ahead, Jesus Christ might have a glorious Body in which to express His very life, and a family of brothers with whom He might enjoy fellowship.

"Then as we understand the innermost purpose of the Son, we see how in turn He dedicates Himself to helping the Father realize His intention for Himself; that He (the Father) might have a family of sons in whom He can have paternal honor, glory, pleasure and delight. The Father plans for His Son, whereas the Son lives unto the Father.

"So it is in the Godhead. In a sense no member lives for or unto Himself, but each for the other. The Father intends that in all things the Son might have pre-eminence. The Son lives to reveal the Father and thus brings glory and pleasure to Him. Likewise the Spirit speaks not of Himself (nor for Himself) but dedicates His activity to the revealing of the Son and to realizing for both the Father and Son.

"What is this inner attitude, spirit and purpose of selfless giving, serving and sharing but a divine rule of action which has always been expressive of God? This is the principle revealed in the Cross.

THE ETERNAL CROSS

"It may come as a real surprise to some when we suggest that the Cross has always been an eternal principle in God. It is not an after thought or accident in the universe, nor is it a principle read into things by loving hearts. It is inherent in God. This Cross-principle which seems woven into the very bosom of the Father is demonstrated by the Son and interpreted by the Spirit. It has ever been the principle of action by which the Godhead would surely bring to pass the divine intention.

"We see then the Cross is far more than an act in history. It expresses the very qualities and manner of life of the triune God. It is the life-giving, light-sharing and love-bestowing principle by which God has dealt with man from the beginning.

"Now let us see . . . how this eternal Cross in God was to become the inwrought Cross in man. Only when man refused this, was it necessary for an outward demonstration of the historic Cross on Golgotha.

GOD'S PLAN FOR THE INWROUGHT CROSS

"In thinking of the Cross only as a redemptive measure, we have missed God's larger intention. Yet the total inference of Scripture is that from the beginning the Father longed for a family of sons who would embrace the same Cross-principle that has ever governed His own heart. It was His intention that the Cross might be so inwrought in these sons as to become their manner and purpose of life. And until this giving and sharing can be accomplished in man there is no real basis of fellowship for God and man.

"But we might ask, 'How much did the first man, Adam, know of God's intention for him?'

"Once again it becomes evident that when we begin at the right place--in the Paternal Heart--we shall always see in God's larger perspective. The Cross which has usually appeared only redemptive becomes more--it becomes expressive of God's manner of life which He intends in due time to be reflected everywhere in the universe.

"From our present viewpoint we know that the Father was inviting Adam to embrace the Cross-principle as the manner and purpose of his life. This, however, could not be thrust upon him, but must come as the exercise of moral choice--the choice of living to give, to serve, and thus, to share. We are sure that God was waiting to make a fuller disclosure of His inner being which would have unfolded more and more as Adam went from obedience to obedience.

"Had Adam chosen the divine intention for his life--a choice represented in the two trees--then through each successive choice this divine way of life would have been more fully inwrought in him. His first choice of the Cross, as an operating principle, would call for a continued ratifying to make it an operating practice in his daily walk. Thus God and man would have become two hearts living in complete harmony.

"When God first presented His intention to Adam, it was simple--easy to understand. Adam was to enter into the highest calling open to man: He was to be a father who would fill the whole earth after his kind; then as a paternal king, he was to rule over all.

"Would he choose God's intention or pursue a private goal? This was the great issue. For Adam, who stood in pristine neutrality, to choose God's intention would mean the yielding back to Him of his very right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and to come under the divine government and purpose.

"Choosing his own way meant that Adam would feed upon the tree of knowledge and thereby develop his own private goal [really the serpent, Satan's goal]. By choosing God's intention and sacrificing the natural, Adam might have entered into God's own life and into true liberty. He could have partaken of God's tree of life, God's provision for realizing the divine goal and intention.

"So the first Adam stood at the gateway of choice. Would he accept God's call to embrace the divine rule of action and allow the Cross-principle to be inwrought in him; or would he choose to live for his own purpose and thereby reject God's purpose?

WHY THE HISTORIC CROSS WAS NEEDED

"We know, all too well, the way Adam chose. We realize how through his selfish choice he became blind to the heavenly way of life. Moreover, his posterity has ever since lived under a veil of darkness. Although the eternal Cross is everywhere written into the very fabric of the universe, blinded man, limited by sin and his natural senses, could not understand the Cross-principle of self-giving without an outward demonstration.

"For this very reason the Father robed His Son in human flesh and sent Him to walk among men. Every step He took from the hour the Father attested to His Sonship at the River Jordan, was a revelation of this divine way of life. Immediately He was led into the wilderness where He met Satan and perfectly demonstrated what was to be His manner of life: He would do nothing for Himself. (He refused to make stones into bread.) He would do nothing of Himself. (He would not cast Himself down from the temple and use His power to save Himself.) He would do nothing with Himself. (Committed to His Father's purpose, He would not bow to the purpose of another.) Here in three simple prepositions: for, of, and with we have the clearest expression of the heavenly way of life.

"So as a divine Invader of the human family, Jesus demonstrated heaven's way of giving to minds darkened by grasping. Every step along His earthly pilgrimage was a continuous conflict with the evil powers uncovered by His guileless simplicity. The world's great would not accept Him because of the way of life He represented. Having come to reveal His Father, He was also revealing them and they hated to be seen as they really were.

"Now that we have this clearly before us, we can understand the many crosses strewn all along Jesus' route to Golgotha. All those who represented earth's way of saving one's life got crossed up. To blinded man He seemed to be a great 'Cross-upper'--though He really was the great 'Harmonizer.' In every such encounter there was a double exposure: the contrast between man's way and God's way.

"In the wilderness He crossed Satan and unveiled his clever scheme of offering this world's kingdoms apart from the Cross. He crossed Peter and the disciples every time their self-saving purposes led them astray. He even crossed His own mother when she forgot her Son's divine mission and sought to press her motherly claims to His affection. Yes, He crossed the human grain of an entire race of fallen men and in anger they finally nailed Him to THE CROSS.

SHALL WE MISS HIS ULTIMATE INTENTION?

"While we marvel at the blindness of those who made this fatal choice, we must be sure we have fully escaped their error. To interpret the redemptive work of the historic Cross only as a happy remedy for sin, and a source of blessing and power, may be just another example of man-centered blindness. Alas, such a one has only seen the Cross as the answer to his own need. He has completely missed the eternal Cross which God intends to be inwrought in man. It is only as this inwrought principle of giving becomes operative that suddenly man becomes alive to all that God longs to realize in his life.

". . . the Holy Spirit interprets the historic Cross in its wonderful redemptive and rectifying work as it recovers man for God, but we shall ever keep before us this overshadowing theme: it was and still is the Father's ultimate intention that He might have a vast family who embrace the inwrought-Cross which they have seen reflected from His paternal heart. Let us never forget that this Cross-principle was revealed in the Father-heart from eternity, long before the Cross of Christ (in time) made this principle redemptive. Our choice, then, is either the Cross for me, or the Cross in me for God. Let us never stop short of His full intention."