God's Plan and Promises for His People预览

When did God conceive of His plan?

The second difficult question about God's plan for our salvation concerns its timing. When did it first enter God's mind to save us? When did He lay the groundwork for our salvation?

If you think it was only after Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden that God concluded that we needed His salvation, you have underestimated the knowledge of God. He was not surprised when man sinned. God knew Adam would sin long before Adam knew it, long before Satan knew it. God's knowledge is perfect; it encompasses everything and is not time-bound.

Here's what Paul says about the time when God drew salvation's plan. Ephesians 1:4, "He chose us in Him [Christ Jesus] before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love." God's plan for salvation was not a reaction to man's sin; it preceded man's sin by the eons of eternity.

Before the foundation of the world, before any star ever twinkled, before light streamed through the universe, long before man was created, God had laid the groundwork for our salvation.

Romans 8:29-30 demonstrate that God's plan began in eternity past, dipped into the present, and will conclude in eternity future, stretching from eternity to eternity. Indeed, God's plan for our salvation was no afterthought but was conceived in His mind even before the existence of time and space.