GOD'S DECREES

There is an order to God's decrees, or eternal counsels. God first ordained the end, and then the means necessary to secure that end. God's grand end was the glorification of Himself by the Mediator. To that end the Triune God first predestined that the Second Person should take, a created, natural manhood, into union with Himself, so that this manhood in union with the Logos, should be his ''fellow,'' the ''delight'' of His soul. These references refer to the eternal decree, to unite manhood to the person of the Logos [I Peter 1;20; Isaiah 42;2, Colossians 1;15. Second, to the grand end that the Triune God should be glorified by the Mediator, God ordained that the God-man should be the Head of a people, church, family, taken into union with Himself,which people he ''blessed with all spiritual blessings'' in heavenly places [Ephesians 1;3]-which spiritual blessings are listed in Ephesians 1;6. Third, God purposed the entrance of sin, and the Fall of His people, in their natural ''head,'' to make way for the glorifying of Himself by the redemptive work of Christ. The church was given to Christ, as His Bride and Body altogether apart from and before His fore-view of sin, as Eve in her purity was given to Adam before his Fall. Thus, Christ sustains a dual relation to the church; note the order in Ephesians 5;23-''Christ [first] the Head of the Church, and [second] He is the Saviour of the Body.''