Recently I wrote about "regret" ... about the idea that we can and should "regret" our sin as in "repent," but in the long term, God uses our sin for our good and His glory, so long term regret is pointless. So, I'm studying in Ephesians and I was looking at the text in chapter 1. Paul says that God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing (Eph 1:3), and then starts giving examples. For instance, He has chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world (Eph 1:4).
So I'm thinking about it. "Before the foundation of the world." That would be ... before Genesis 1:1. Genesis begins, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." The foundations of the world. Before that ... He "chose us in Him." Think of that. Maybe the angels are standing around and God is making a list (Rev 17:8). Michael says, "Um ... God ... what is this list?" "What? Oh, the people I plan to save." "But ... there are no ... what did you call them? ... people." "Oh, Michael ... you're so funny." And God creates ... everything ... including people. "See, Michael?"
Your name, if you belong to Him, was already in that book ... before Creation itself. But ... wait. "Regret," remember. So Michael says, "Oh, I see ... You're making them. Great! But ... You plan to save them? From what?" You see, before the foundation of the world, your name was in the Book of Life. You were slated to be saved before there was anything to be saved from. And when did that necessity come into being? When Adam fell. God planned to save people for Himself before there were people or the need to save any. He planned for a "Christ" before any Christ was needed. If there had been no sin, God's entire plan from the foundation of the world would have failed. And, no, a sinless world was not His plan. So when you think, "I may have messed up God's plan for my life or the lives of those around me by my failure," stop. He's got this. He has always had it. He will always do what's best. He cannot fail. And ... you're just not that influential to ruin His plans. He has no Plan B. He doesn't need it.
11 comments:
It's been in my mind of late about which is the first Covenant chronologically. And it has to be the one within the Trinity that included Christ dying on a cross to redeem His people for Himself. God didn't create humanity and come up with a plan for their rebellion. It was the plan from the beginning. That truly is amazing grace, that He would even bother to create a rebellious people in the first place.
Yes, clearly, God has no Plan B. Indeed, with His sovereignty, power, wisdom, omniscience, etc., there would be no conceivable need for a backup plan; no “back to the drawing board” or to “square one.” None of His plans shall be thwarted (Job 42:2, Isa. 14:27) by anything or anyone within His control (including Satan, of course).
Your mention of the angels watching God work brings to my mind 1 Peter 1:10-12 and how the angels “long to look into” the entire salvation plan for God’s human creatures. Got Questions states that, “The Greek word for ‘to look into’ means ‘to physically stoop down, peer intently, and inspect curiously.’” Like the angels, I find the entire topic of “what on earth is God doing?” fascinating (I actually own an interesting book with that very title and theme). The best part, as you say, is knowing my destiny was settled from the beginning. Praise God!
Interesting thought. I would question whether or not it's a covenant in the sense of the other two, but I agree that there would have been some sort of agreement between the 3 persons regarding the ultimate plan.
It is amazing to think that YHWH set this in motion before He created humans.
As a slight aside to this post but also regarding the matter of “God’s Plan A vs. Plan B,” I must say that I have no problem believing that God knew Adam and Eve would sin and therefore would need a Savior (for which He planned “from the foundation of the world”). It is obvious from the biological design of humans, which includes the processes of growing, aging, and dying, that God foreknew all that was to come. Therefore, Adam and Eve were designed to also reproduce and to nurture young (with Eve’s ovaries even pre-loaded with oocytes at her creation, presumably). Of course God knew fully every detail of every event from the onset. And as you point out, nothing any of us can do alters His plan.
Luke 22:29 "And I confer on you a kingdom, just as my Father conferred one on me," the Greek word translated here as confer/conferred can also be covenant/covenanted. Typically, the covenant I described is called the Covenant of Redemption. And it follows the standard outline of a covenant, the One in authority makes stipulations that the Son must meet in order to receive the reward.
Is there any reason to believe that had Adam and Eve not fallen, they would not then have produced offspring? The command to be fruitful and multiply precedes the Fall.
David, I would not even begin to guess about alternative scenarios, since I can’t know what other plans God would execute under different circumstances. (For example, I would not even presume the existence of Adam and Eve at all [or their theoretical offspring, etc.] in a different plan of God’s.) While the command to Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply preceded the Fall, as you say, it was given with full knowledge of all that would occur, of course--and the ability to obey that command was clearly incorporated in God’s biological design of human beings (enabling the coming of the Savior within that design, of course). The gist of my thought was that God’s full knowledge of the Fall--and mankind’s need of a Savior--was factored in at Creation.
As I said, I hesitate to speculate on any other scenario, which would be uniquely different from the current one (although I have indeed thought about it). However, I can say this: If Adam and Eve had been created and were existing immortally without ever having fallen into sin, and if they were reproducing (in some fashion) to create new humans, then clearly their design (in that scenario) would have been different from the gestation/birth/growth/aging/death life cycle we know now (which wouldn’t function within immortality, of course).
I am curious, David, if you have postulations on an alternative scenario such as you mention, which perhaps prompted your question to me. (Full disclosure: I have no familiarity with the Christian science fiction subgenre, which perhaps has fully explored this question.)
I have no "what if" scenarios I dwell on, but when people make claims about how something has to be, my brain asks these kinds of questions. As regards this topic, I have no reason to believe that gestation, birth, growth, or aging would have been exempt from a sinless world. They would have been smoother processes, and aging would have stopped at a certain point.
I simply have issues with these types of claims as proof of something. Just like the claims of the RCC that all blood samples taken from Eucharistic miracles only have one X chromosome, proving that Jesus had no earthly father. It forces my brain to probe deeper and ask questions and implications.
Clearly, the hypothetical scenario you brought up would fuel an interesting discussion. However, since it is off-topic to the theme of Stan’s post (“God needs no Plan B”), as well as irrelevant to my original comment regarding the earthly existence we are experiencing, I will resist adding any further conjecture that might come across as “claims” of any sort.
Good point. Thanks.
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