God's Plan and Promises for His People预览

CHAPTER I

GOD'S PLAN AND PROMISES FOR OUR SALVATION

What was in God's mind when Adam and Eve sinned? Was their sin a surprise to Him? Or did He already have a plan to deal with it? What is the divine plan for our salvation?

Here it is in a nutshell. God's plan is to rescue men and women from the consequences of their sin and to conform those rescued to the likeness of His Son.

This brings to mind some difficult questions of our own about God's plan. Let's explore them.

Why is God's plan necessary?

Why must God rescue men and women from the consequences of their sin? The answer relates both to the character of man and that of God.

Man's character is sinful. We don't like to think about it, but man is born in sin (Ps. 51:5). We are by our very nature sinners (Rom. 5:19); we choose to sin every day (Rom. 1:21- 32); in fact, we are slaves to sin (John. 8:34) and thus condemned by God (John 3:18).

Sin slays our spirit leaving us spiritually stillborn and born dead spiritually (Eph. 2:1; 4:17-19; I Cor. 2:14). There is nothing we can do to breathe life into ourselves. We are dead in sin. That's why God's plan for our salvation is so necessary. Without it, we are hopelessly and helplessly lost in the consequences of our sin.

This explains why men and women need to be rescued, but why does God bother to save us? Why doesn't He leave us to bear the consequences of our sin?

The four-letter word L-O-V-E answers this. God rescues men and women because He loves us. If it were not for His great love, we would face the consequences of our sin alone.

Ephesians 2:1-3 speaks about our being dead in trespasses and sins. These verses tell us how we walked in the ways of Satan and conducted our lives by the lusts of the flesh. We were deserving of God's wrath (Rom 1:18). However, verses 4 and 5 completely change the picture. "But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ."

God devised a plan to save us because we desperately need His salvation and because He loves us so much. Our need and His love reflect both man's character and God's character. How thankful we should be that God looked beyond our faults and saw our need!