Paul says that the chronological march of clocks and calendars started by the Big Bang is going somewhere rather than nowhere; he says that time itself is progressing toward a "fulfillment." He tells the Ephesians that the "mystery of God's will," hidden in eternity past, is revealed in the first century Jesus. All creation will receive its redemption when God "brings all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ."
Paul's remarkably comprehensive vision embraces all space and time. The future redemption of the original creation is so central to his thought that he repeats these ideas in nearly identical language in four additional epistles besides Ephesians. It's like Paul had a computer and did a cut-and-paste of his thoughts to five different churches.
The ultimate destiny of all creation is liberation and freedom, adoption and redemption. The scale and scope of this future hope encompasses "the whole creation" (Romans 8:12–25; cf. 1 John 2:2). God "created all things in heaven and on earth" (Colossians 1:16). He seeks the worship of all "things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth" (Philippians 2:9–11). He will "reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven" (Colossians 1:20). Since He will sum up or bring together "all things in heaven and on earth" (Ephesians 1:10), then of course God delights in bestowing his fatherly favor on "the whole human family in heaven and on earth" (Ephesians 3:15). Paul's incremental logic is palpable —redemption is the destiny of each person, every nation, all creation, and the whole cosmos — not only on earth but "under the earth and in heaven."
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