The World Ordained to Display Gospel Glories

When the time came for God to send his Son into the world, did he do so in the light of the categories that happened to be in place? In other words, did God look around for fitting symbols and patterns and analogies (e.g., sonship, kingship, priesthood, temple, bridegroom, etc.) with which Christ might be understood?

No way. Not in ten million ages. The whole of creation and human history has been ordained to display the glories of Christ and the good news he brings. God made and rules the world in such a way that all the categories for understanding the fullness of the Son and the Gospel are woven into reality from all eternity. When the Creator created, he created all things in view of what he wanted to communicate about his Son. He ordained the world, he governs the world to display the realities of redemption.

Edmund Clowney underscores this with the example of Jesus as the bridegroom of his people:

When Jesus came to gather to Himself the people of God, He revealed Himself as the Bridegroom, come to claim His church as His bride. The figure is not accidental. It is not that God looks down from heaven to discern some human relationship that might prove to be a fitting symbol of His love. The reality is the other way around. When God formed Eve from the body of Adam, He was providing the means by which we might be prepared to understand the joy of an exclusive love.

—Edmund P. Clowney, The Unfolding Mystery: Discovering Christ in the Old Testament (P&R: Phillipsburg, 1988), 26.