At some point, whether before or after this rebellion, the God of Heaven, the Father, developed in His mind a plan for a kingdom—a kingdom that would restructure the organization of His creatures. Included in this plan is a Wife for the Lamb, and the birth and maturing of many sons in the image of His Firstborn—Christ.

The kingdom of which God has conceived is to be created by and in Christ. Christ is to be in every aspect of the kingdom and is to be the Lord and Center of all.

The kingdom that God is creating is to have Christ, the righteous One, as its Life, and also is to have a material form. It was necessary, in the carrying out of the Father's plan, that Christ come into the world, make an atonement for sin, and then that His earthly form be glorified.

After this the Life of Christ is to be grafted on other human beings, causing the fruit of righteousness to be borne by them—the righteousness that is of Christ. When the fruit of righteousness comes forth in other people, their material form also will finally be redeemed. This process will continue until there is a great Kingdom of which Christ is the Life and the Center.

Since God is the Life of Christ, what we then will have in the material creation is one comprehensive expression of the invisible God. God will have become All and in all.

The creation and development of such a kingdom requires the bringing into existence of a new kind of being—man. Man's role is to be in the image of God and to rule all the works of God's hands. The angels, who may have been the former rulers of the creation, are to serve as helpers of God's sons and heirs.

In order for man, the ruler of God's new world, to learn obedience, he first must be subjected to numerous afflictions and testings. He must be made lower than the angels for a season until his obedience to the Father has been assured.

Mankind itself is to be divided into two groups: a called-out, royal priesthood; and then nations of people who are ruled, guided, and blessed by the royal priesthood.

Such is the Kingdom of God—that which was completed in detail in God's mind before the events described in the first chapter of the Book of Genesis came into existence. The Lamb was slain, the elect were glorified, the works were finished, from the creation of the world. So great is God!

This is a marvelous plan. It depended for its successful implementation entirely on the bringing into the world of the first Man—He who would make an atonement for the sin which had entered the creation with the rebellion of angels and on whom could be constructed the Kingdom of God.

It may be noted that God's works, as described in the Scriptures, often depend on the obedience of one individual whom God calls out and draws to Himself by various means. Noah, Abraham, Moses, and the Apostle Paul come to mind. The inheritance and kingdom we have been describing depended on the willingness of Christ to come and obey God by faith. In so doing Christ became the Firstborn of many sons to come and the Captain of their salvation.

To be continued.