God's Plan

A Brief Look at God’s Plan for Man’s Perfection 

God is Holy

“For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior” (Isaiah 43:3).

“He who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power. Amen”(I Timothy 6:15-16).

Inference: Since God is holy and righteous, only those who share the same nature as God can approach Him.

My Response: God is holy and He is great and powerful and majestic.

Man is Sinful

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

“There is none righteous, no, not one” (Romans 3:10).

“Who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath (Ephesians 2:1-3).

Inference: Since man is unholy and unrighteous and sinful, man cannot approach God and have personal relationship and fellowship with Him.

My Response: I am nothing in the presence of God and I am unworthy to approach a holy God.

Wall of Separation

“But your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear” (Isaiah 59:2).

“They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity” (Ephesians 4:18 19).

Inference: The wall that separates God and man is sin.

My Response: I am sinful in nature and I admit myself as the cause of separation.

Christ and His Redemptive Work on the Cross

“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His life for us” (I John 3:16).

“This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (I John 4:9-10).

“But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity” (Ephesians 2:13-16).

Inference: Christ—the Son of God loved man and so He came into this world to pay the penalty of man’s sin by dying on the cross in man’s place, which God required of him or her.

My Response: The sacrifice of Christ was offered for my sins and He bore my punishment on the cross.

Man is United to Christ

“For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit” (I Peter 3:18).

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (II Corinthians 5:17).

“So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another” (Romans 12:5).

“Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually” (I Corinthians 12:27).

Inference: As a result of the finished work of Christ on the cross, God will accept anyone who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thereby, unite him or her to the body of Christ. It is now possible to establish personal relationship and fellowship with God.

My Response: Please forgive my sins and I accept Christ into my life as my personal Savior.

God’s Plan for Man was Purposed in the Eternity Past

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved” (Ephesians 1:3-6).

“For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified” (Romans 8:29-30).

“He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you” (I Peter 1:20).

Inference: God’s plan for man was laid out even before man was ever created and even before the foundation of the world.

My Response: God’s care and love as revealed through His great plan for me is incomprehensible. I worship you by giving You all glory and honor.