R.C. Sproul

And I think Paul means more than that here.

I don't think that this revelation is given simply to be announced to the devil and his demons, but also to the good angels, to those angels who looked into these things in times past, but even from them was to a certain degree hidden.

But now that this mystery is made known,

It's part of our task to show it to the angels, the powers and the principalities, the heavenly places.

According to what?

To the eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Again, I've mentioned in the past that when we talk about the five points of Calvinism, the one point that causes so much stumbling is the idea of limited atonement.

How can you believe that the atonement of Jesus is limited and given only for the elect?

The Bible talks about His dying for the world and all that sort of thing.

Well, it's not about the sufficiency of the atonement or the efficiency of the atonement.

The whole question is about the design of the atonement.

God in all eternity had a plan of salvation.

And that plan was designed that God would initiate redemption, that His Son would accomplish that redemption, and the Spirit would apply that redemption to the elect.

So God didn't just say back in eternity, well, I'm going to send my son and make salvation possible for some people who will believe in him, and I'm going to wring my hands up here in heaven and hope and pray that somebody will put their faith in him and somebody will get saved.

No.

God had a plan from all eternity to save every person that he was going to save, and he sent his son to save them.

And again, this all comes back to our understanding of the character of God.

God never has a plan B. He doesn't have a halftime where they change the strategy.

This was the eternal plan.

That's what Paul is saying.