Perfect Plan

By The Good News

February 25th, 2024

Possibilities

Have you ever asked yourself; why God came up with the death and resurrection of Jesus, to be the plan for our salvation? Why is believing that Jesus died for your sins the only way to heaven? God created us all, so why aren’t we all headed to Heaven? I will attempt to breakdown this plan to show you that a hope and belief in something unseen is true faith, and without that faith it wouldn’t be possible to submit, worship, and glorify God. God wants fellowship with his creation, and before Adam and Eve sinned, they had perfect fellowship with God. After they decided to disobey God’s instructions and follow their own desires, Adam, and every human being after him would forever be separated from God because of sin. Because of that sin, we all must be judged and held accountable.

So, what are some of the options that God could come up with? Remember, he cannot just overlook our sin. There would have to be a payment made on our behalf that God would accept. Since God is the creator of everything, He determined that Jesus’s death and resurrection would be that sacrifice or payment for all humanity.

Option 1) - Every person ever born, regardless of what they believe, would spend eternity in Heaven with God.

Option 2) - Nobody is saved from their sin, and we are all separated from God’s presence for eternity.

Option 3) – God choses to share His grace and mercy with some people. These chosen people will receive God’s grace and put their trust in Jesus and will spend eternity with the Lord. Everyone else will fall under judgement and be separated from the Lord for all eternity.

Before we explore and breakdown the possibilities of these 3 options; ask yourself which of the 3 options brings the most honor, glory, praise to God?

Option 1)

I would say this is the most popular option. Most people, regardless of what they believe, think they will spend eternity in some sort of paradise or rest.

The problem with this option is, we don’t appreciate the magnitude of the gift we have received from God. Imagine a world where everyone ever born was automatically given grace. No one would pray for themselves to receive mercy. No one would live in gratitude for the salvation they have received. No one would think about repentance and maintaining a holy and righteous witness. What’s the point in those things when everyone ultimately receives God’s grace? Even God Himself would be an afterthought to humanity. God would receive far less glory in a world where His grace was taken for granted.

Option 2)

This option is the least accepted or makes the least amount of sense. God didn’t create his most important creation, just to be separated from Him forever. This view implies that there is no plan of redemption and God doesn’t have control. Creating us would ultimately have been a mistake, and God doesn’t make mistakes. Everything God does is perfectly planned out, which includes all of creation from beginning to end.

The Lord’s criteria for every choice He makes, is what will maximize His glory. If He saved none, then clearly there would be no one to praise His name and His glory into eternity.

Option 3)

This option brings God the most glory, honor, and appreciation. If we willingly believe, accept, and proclaim who God is and what he’s done for us, then this will bring him the most glory.

What criteria does the Lord give for why He creates anything, and why does everything exist at all?

Isaiah 43:7

Bring all who claim me as their God, for I have made them for my glory. It was I who created them.

Psalms 86:8-10

8No pagan god is like you, O Lord. None can do what you do! 9All the nations you made will come and bow before you, Lord; they will praise your holy name. 10For you are great and perform wonderful deeds. You alone are God.

Gods Choice

Man was created in God’s image and was to have perfect fellowship with God for eternity. Life was perfect in the garden; there was no sin or death. The only rule God had for man and women was to not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. So, man and women made the wrong choice. They chose to follow their own desires and ate from the tree that God told them not to. Once they sinned, they could no longer be in Gods presence, forever. Every human being born after Adam and Eve share the same fate now, eternal separation from God.

Because God is perfect, he cannot just overlook our sin. There would have to be a payment or a sacrifice for that sin and be acceptable to God. Blood would be that payment. Look at it as a life sacrificed for a life. Starting with Adam and ending with Jesus’s death on the cross, an animal’s blood was used for that payment of sin. Now the animal sacrificed had two purposes; first it’s a temporary payment to God for your sin, second, it’s showed you had faith in God’s commands. Remember, this animal sacrifice was not performed just once in a person’s life. It was an ongoing event throughout their lives.

Our redemption and the final payment for our sin came when Jesus sacrificed his life on the cross for all of humanity, past and present. He sacrificed his life for yours and raised himself from the dead to defeat death once and for all. You see, the animal sacrifice was just a picture, or a representation of what was to come through Jesus. So, if Jesus took care of the sin payment once and for all, then all that’s left is to believe that He did it.

God the Father revealing this truth about Jesus to you is called “grace”. You didn’t earn it, it’s not owed to you, you don’t deserve it, and you can’t repay it. It is a gift because God chose you. If you were always meant to go to heaven, then there would be no appreciation for what God has done for you. Really, what would be the point of even living on earth, if we were all just destined to be with the Lord in eternity anyways? You need to understand that there is a purpose for this short amount of time that we spend on earth. Which affects our eternal destination and for some, our eternal rewards.

Unjust?

Earlier I mentioned that God reveals the truth about salvation to us. We cannot find salvation or understand it on our own. God chooses to reveal this to some of us. Paul writes about a conversation God had with Moses.

Rom. 9:14-18

14Are we saying, then, that God was unfair? Of course not! 15For God says to Moses, “I will show mercy to anyone I choose, and I will show compassion to anyone I choose. 16So it is God who decides to show mercy. We can neither choose it nor work for it. 17For the Scriptures say that God told Pharaoh, “I have appointed you for the very purpose of displaying my power in you and to spread my fame throughout the earth.” 18So you see, God chooses to show mercy to some, and he chooses to harden the hearts of others so they refuse to listen.

Does this sound fair that God selects only some to receive His promises? We know God is good and righteous in all that He does, but these verses seem to say otherwise. Does this portray God as cruel and unfair? Isn’t a God who only extends His grace to some unkind & unloving to those He overlooks?

In v.14. Paul says God is never unfair. God is both selective with His mercy and just in doing so. We assume that God owes every human being an opportunity to receive grace, as if we were born with an entitlement to His mercy. We define “justice” and “love” as extending opportunity for mercy. But this is not a biblical truth nor is it even logical. The Bible never claims that love is defined as giving everyone an opportunity for mercy.

In v.15 Paul gives the example from Exodus 33, where the Lord told Moses that He decides who will receive His mercy. God says He will have mercy and show compassion on those whom He chooses. Some people receive God’s compassion and His mercy, and some do not, and this outcome is solely God’s prerogative. God isn’t moved to showing us mercy by who we are or even in response to something we say or do. God says He extends His compassion and mercy solely based on His sovereign will and purpose.

If God is the God over physical life and death, then He is also God over spiritual life and death and that’s what God declares concerning Himself. In v.16 Paul says it does not depend on a man’s choice, or works, but on God’s choice. Our will refers to our desires, our thoughts, and assumptions about God. No man or woman chooses their way into receiving God’s mercy. In Chapter 3 of Romans, Paul already demonstrated that man never seeks for God in any case. So, our will is not a factor in God’s decision to extend mercy.

Next, Paul says God’s mercy won’t depend on the man’s works. God’s mercy can’t be earned, and this is God’s sovereign right. Paul says in v.18, God extends mercy to those He chooses, softening their hearts, and bringing them into glory. Likewise, God hardens those He chooses, ensuring their just verdict.

Not For All

We must accept that v.14 and v.18 work together. Everyone is born a sinner and justly due God’s judgment, so by the mere fact that he grants mercy to anyone is evidence of His goodness. Most of us have a hard time accepting these truths. If it’s true God’s mercy doesn’t depend on our will or works but only on His choice, then it means God could grant salvation to everyone, and if God has the power to grant salvation to everyone, then why wouldn’t God save everyone? Paul addresses these questions next.

Rom. 9:19-24

19Well then, you might say, “Why does God blame people for not responding? Haven’t they simply done what he makes them do?” 20No, don’t say that. Who are you, a mere human being, to argue with God? Should the thing that was created say to the one who created it, “Why have you made me like this?” 21When a potter makes jars out of clay, doesn’t he have the right to use the same lump of clay to make one jar for decoration and another to throw garbage into? 22In the same way, even though God has the right to show his anger and His power, He is very patient with those on whom His anger falls, who are destined for destruction. 23He does this to make the riches of His glory shine even brighter on those to whom He shows mercy, who were prepared in advance for glory. 24And we are among those whom He selected, both from the Jews and from the Gentiles.

Another way to phrase the questions in v.19 would be, “Why doesn’t God just save everyone? Why condemn anyone?” Paul calls us out for our unbelief. Who are we to doubt God’s word? God didn’t have to reveal this truth to us, yet in His mercy and kindness He has given us this truth.

These verses should cause you to reflect on God’s mercy. God, the creator of everything could immediately destroy all ungodly mankind in the moment of their birth. Which is what they justly deserve. Yet God patiently endures their ungodliness. He allows even the most ungodly men and women to live long and even enjoyable lives. These people are an offense to a holy God and every day they live on earth they test God’s patience. They mock God, persecute His children, and pollute His earth with their evil ways. Still, God allows them to be born, to live long lives, to prosper and even to grow rich and powerful. That’s more mercy and grace than such people ever had reason to receive.

The very fact that God allows these people such mercy during their lives on earth is evidence of his long-suffering patience and mercy. But Paul says this will be the extent of God’s mercy for the wicked. Like dishonorable pottery, the Lord has brought these people into the world on a course leading to destruction. Why did God even allow such people to be born in the first place? Paul gives us that answer in v.23. The verse opens with “He does this to…”, meaning, here’s the reason God allowed people destined to destruction to be born and to live side by side with the chosen. That reason was to teach His people about the riches of His mercy. God patiently permits the wicked to exist on earth so that God’s elect could appreciate the magnitude of His grace extended to us. So that we who have been elected to receive God’s mercy might see the lives of the ungodly and appreciate what we have received.

Contrast

If you have never known darkness, you can’t possibly appreciate light. Or if you’ve never known sadness, then the concept of joy has no meaning. The same is true for grace, mercy, forgiveness, and love. If no one received God’s judgment, then how could we appreciate God’s forgiveness. If no one was rejected by God, then who would praise Him for His love?

God made this Creation and everything in it to reflect glory upon Him. So that we might know God and glorify Him for Who He is, we must know all of Him. We must know His love, His anger, His mercy, His judgment, His grace, and His wrath. So, there must be people who receive this knowledge and others who do not.

The Lord has patiently endured ungodly men and women to teach us something about grace. In v.24 Paul says God established this plan for our benefit, those who are called by God into His grace, both Jew and Gentile. People predestined from before the foundations of the earth to know Him and to receive His mercy. God has established this plan for our sake, and we should appreciate what it means that the Creator of the Universe has chosen to rescue us from that hopelessness. Our gratitude should increase more as we come to understand that our present circumstances were assigned to us before the foundation of the earth. Not for any reason of ourselves, but purely because the Lord chose us to receive it.

How humbling is this truth to us? How exciting, marvelous, freeing, and glorious! To understand the doctrine of election is to truly understand God’s love. We still know sin; we still experience suffering. But we know these things will not be the end of us, and we can rejoice knowing we have been prepared for glory.

Love is defined this way:

John 15:13-16

13There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14You are my friends if you do what I command. 15I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn’t confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father has told me. 16“You didn’t choose Me. I chose you, I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.

Jesus says the greatest love is laying your life down for friends, not for everyone. He also adds that these disciples were His friends because He chose them, they didn’t choose Him. So, to say that all mankind has a right to God’s mercy is contrary to the very meaning of the word grace. Grace means receiving something you were not entitled to have. No one has a right to grace, and God is not obligated by fairness or justice to extend salvation to everyone. The Bible says plainly God extends His mercy to those He chooses.