Before we can grasp the full scope of God’s redemptive purpose, we must consider what God possessed before creation and what He will possess when all things are made new.
God in Eternity Past
Before the creation of the angels or the human race, God existed solely as the Triune God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Within the Godhead there has always been perfect, unbroken fellowship. The joy of the eternal Trinity is found in the mutual love and communion of the three Persons. This relational reality is not incidental to God’s nature; it is essential to it. God is, in Himself, a divine relationship of perfect love, holiness, and unity.
From this eternal communion, God freely chose to create additional beings capable of relationship with Him. He first formed the angels—holy, perfect, and without sin—because holiness is the standard of His own nature. Yet He also endowed them with free will. God, who is Himself free and sinless, granted His creatures the capacity to choose. His desire was that they would freely return the love He had lavished upon them as they dwelt in His immediate presence.
The Fall of the Angels
Scripture reveals that Lucifer, the highest of the created angels, exercised that free will in rebellion, seeking equality with God and the worship due only to Him. One-third of the heavenly host followed him in that tragic choice. Though God foresaw this rebellion from eternity, it still grieved Him, for these angels had enjoyed the highest privileges: sinless perfection, unbroken access to God’s presence, and every blessing heaven could bestow. Each had been created for personal fellowship with the Creator.
Because God is eternal and inseparable from eternity itself, no sin can ever permanently dwell in His presence. Eternity and the divine nature are one; therefore, rebellion could not remain in heaven. The fallen angels have no provision for atonement. In a realm without death, there is no possibility of a substitute dying to pay the penalty of their sin. Hell was prepared as the place of eternal separation from God for those who rejected Him.
The Creation of Humanity and the Realm of Time
Following the angelic rebellion, God acted in a manner markedly different. He created a new order of beings—humanity—and placed them within a created universe governed by time. On the earth He prepared a habitation, filled it with life, and formed Adam and Eve holy and without sin, yet possessing free will. From the beginning He knew they would fall. The serpent’s deception of Eve, followed by Adam’s willful disobedience, introduced sin into the human race. In Genesis 3:15, the Lord declared enmity between the serpent’s seed and the woman’s seed—an early announcement of the gospel that would culminate at the cross.
The universe of time serves a critical purpose. Unlike eternity, where sin cannot remain, the temporal realm can accommodate the reality of sin and death. “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23), and the entire cosmos bears witness to that truth: stars burn out, planets decay, and every living creature eventually dies. Within this framework of time, however, God has provided opportunity. Every human being is given a span of days in which to respond to the gospel, to enter into a personal and intimate relationship with God through Jesus Christ.
Atonement and Intimate Union
Jesus Christ, the eternal Son made flesh, entered the temporal realm to die in the place of sinners. His atoning death is possible only because death exists in the universe of time. Through faith in Him—repentance, trust, and surrender—believers are forgiven, declared righteous, and sealed with the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God takes up residence within the redeemed, uniting them to Christ in a living, personal communion that angels never experience in the same way.
Human beings are created in the image of God in a manner unique among all creatures. This image includes the capacity for the most intimate fellowship imaginable: the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. Angels enjoy a personal relationship with God; redeemed humanity is brought into an intimate, Spirit-mediated union that Scripture describes in the language of marriage.
The Bride and the Wife of Christ
God’s design for human marriage—two becoming one flesh—mirrors a far greater reality. The Church is called the Bride of Christ. In the near future, the Bridegroom will come for His Bride, and after the marriage supper of the Lamb (Revelation 19), the Church will stand as the Wife of the Lamb. This is not a temporary designation. The marital union of Christ and His people is everlasting.
I once feared the possibility of sinning once entering heaven. Yet God has made such a fall impossible. The redeemed will be forever united to the Triune God through the indwelling Spirit. Just as God Himself cannot sin, those who are joined to Him in this eternal union will be preserved from all sin forever.
The Consummation of All Things
After the marriage in heaven, the Church returns with Christ to reign during His thousand-year kingdom on Earth. At the close of that reign, Satan is released for a final deception, the last rebels are judged, and the great white throne judgment consigns all whose names are not written in the Lamb’s Book of Life to eternal separation. Then God creates a new heaven and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Time and the curse are abolished. The New Jerusalem descends, and God dwells with His people—His Wife—forever.
Thus the plan that began with the Triune God alone ends with the Triune God sharing eternity with a redeemed people who can never again fall. The ultimate definition of salvation is the complete and permanent removal of sin, secured only through an intimate, Spirit-wrought relationship with Jesus Christ.
The Heart of the Matter
Much of Christian teaching rightly emphasizes that the Church is the Bride of Christ. Far less attention is given to the full implication of that imagery: in eternity the Bride becomes the Wife. God’s entire redemptive purpose may be summarized in a single, profound truth:
God desires a wife from the human race.
“What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived—these are the things God has prepared for those who love Him” (1 Corinthians 2:9).
Maranatha. Come, Lord Jesus. Your Bride awaits.
David Cogburn
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