v. 10, 11: “His intent was that now, 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.”

Deciphering the holy Word of God, His plans and intentions, His will and His ways comes not from biblical knowledge, higher learning, or deep thought.  It is a product of God’s grace (v. 2, 3), and only given in part to some, never in whole, except to Christ himself. Even the great leaders seated before God in Heaven did not know the entirety of His redemptive plan for His people, but watched from their front-row seats as it unraveled before them on Earth below (v. 10, 11).   Even now, they watch us, the body of Christ, to see what we will do with the grace lavished upon us by our generous and merciful Father in His redemptive plan.  They are, as Hebrews states, “a great cloud of witnesses”. 

God’s eternal purposes have already been accomplished in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ (v. 11).  However, what we do now with that freedom, that grace, that knowledge of and personal familiarity with the person of God is what the leaders now seated in Heaven - Abraham, Noah, Moses, David, Paul, and the like - wait to see. On pins and needles, in anxious anticipation of God’s final movement to replace our old fallen earth with a new perfect one, they wait to see how we will administer our knowledge of Christ to the unsaved. How will we lead them to the same confidence and freedom we have, so that God’s redemptive plan will be measured in full?