Excerpt from the article, The Church in God's Plan by Howard A. Snyder
Why You Need A Church Family • The Minimum Of What Makes a Church • Core Values in a Local Church • The 5 Purposes of the Church • 5 Circles of a Healthy Church • The Ekklesia
Simply this:
That God may glorify Himself by uniting all things under Christ. God's plan is to unite and reconcile all things in Christ so that people can again serve their Maker. God's plan is for restoration of His creation, for overcoming the damage done to persons and nature through the Fall.
Central to this plan is the reconciliation of persons to God through the blood of Jesus Christ. But the reconciliation won by Christ reaches to all alienations that resulted from sin—alienation from ourselves, between people, and between humanity and the physical environment. As mind-boggling as the thought is, Scripture teaches that this reconciliation even includes the redemption of the physical universe from the effects of sin as everything is brought its proper headship in Jesus Christ...
"For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are. Against its will, all creation was subjected to God’s curse. But with eager hope, the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay." - Romans 8:19-21 NLT
Under Christ's Lordship everything is to be brought to a greater fullness that it experienced before the Fall...
God's cosmic plan, Paul says, is that "through the CHURCH, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to his eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus."(Ephesians 3:10-11)...
By God's "manifold wisdom" the Church displays an early fullness of what Christ will accomplish at the conclusion of all the ages...
"In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to people in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God’s holy apostles and prophets. This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus."- Ephesians 3:4-6 NIV
"For Christ himself has brought peace to us. He united Jews and Gentiles into one people when, in his own body on the cross, he broke down the wall of hostility that separated us. He did this by ending the system of law with its commandments and regulations. He made peace between Jews and Gentiles by creating in himself one new people from the two groups. Together as one body, Christ reconciled both groups to God by means of his death on the cross, and our hostility toward each other was put to death." - Ephesians 2:14-16 NLT
"Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him. In this new life, it doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized, slave, or free. Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us." - Colossians 3:10-11 NLT
"There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus." - Galatians 3:28 NLT
What then is the mystery of God's plan? It is that in Christ, God acts so powerfully that He can overcome hatreds and heal hostilities... The church is to be God's display of Christ's reconciling love... God reconciles all alienated persons and peoples to Himself through the blood of the cross. It started with the reconciliation of Jews and Gentiles and extends to free and slave, man and woman, black and white, rich and poor. It will ultimately extend to "every family on heaven and earth." (Eph. 3:15)...
The Church is the Body of Christ, the community of the Holy Spirit, the people of God. It is the community of the King and the agent in the world of God's plan for the reconciliation of all things...