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Overview
From eternity past God has had a perfect plan for the world. The Fall and entrance of sin into the world did not surprise him, nor did it detract from his plan. All things have been sovereignly worked to this end. What exactly is this plan, and where do we learn about it?
In this new booklet from the Gospel Coalition, Colin Smith demonstrates that God’s plan is shown in the Bible and centers around his promise to bring sinners to eternal life, through Christ, for his glory. The Old Testament tells the story of the making of the promise, which is fulfilled in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. God’s people, the church, spread the good news of this promise to the world, and the Holy Spirit is given to believers as the seal of the promise.
The Plan offers a thoughtful explanation for point 5 of the Gospel Coalition’s confessional statement. The Gospel Coalition is an evangelical renewal movement dedicated to a scripture-based reformation of ministry practices.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781433527784 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Crossway |
| Publication date: | 03/02/2011 |
| Series: | The Gospel Coalition Booklets |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 32 |
| File size: | 187 KB |
About the Author
COLIN S. SMITH is the senior pastor of The Orchard Evangelical Free Church in Arlington Heights, IL, where he has been since 1996. He is the author of The 10 Greatest Struggles of Your Life and can be heard on his Unlocking the Bible broadcast with Moody radio.
D. A. Carson (PhD, Cambridge University) is Emeritus Professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, where he has taught since 1978. He is a cofounder of the Gospel Coalition and has written or edited nearly 120 books. He and his wife, Joy, have two children and live in the north suburbs of Chicago.
Timothy J. Keller is the founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York. He is the best-selling author of The Prodigal God and The Reason for God.
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
Some people have the idea that God had a marvelous plan for the world but that things went terribly wrong and God had to come up with a costly initiative to sort out the mess. This is not what the Bible teaches.
God is not like the government, responding to unforeseen circumstances and making adjustments for unintended consequences. He is not like a scientist, experimenting to see what works, or a business entrepreneur who succeeds by finding new ideas that respond to emerging needs.
Bringing sinners to eternal life through Christ has always been God's plan. God promised eternal life "before the beginning of time, and at his appointed season he brought his word to light" (Titus 1:2–3). Before he created the world, God saw the joy that would come from redeeming a vast company of sinners from every circumstance of life, every continent of the world, and every generation of history. And knowing the cost, he determined to do it.
This is why the Bible describes Christ as "the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world" (Rev. 13:8). Christ's death on the cross was not something that God came up with in response to Satan's triumph in the garden of Eden or as a last resort when it became evident that men and women couldn't live up to the Ten Commandments. Redeeming sinners from all nations through Jesus Christ was God's plan from the beginning.
God's plan is very different from our plans. When I say, "I'll meet you for breakfast next Tuesday," I mean, "Assuming that I'm alive, that I have transportation, that I don't have some other emergency, and that the restaurant is open and serving breakfast, I will see you on Tuesday."
Our plans are contingent. They depend on how events unfold and whether we have the ability to bring them about. Many things in life are beyond our control.
But God is sovereign. He fulfills his own plan in his own time by his own power, and no one can stop him. God knows exactly what he is doing at every point in history in every nation of the world and through every event in your life.
This should be a great comfort to you. Nothing you have ever done has taken God by surprise. Nothing that has happened to you has caught him unaware. Nothing you do and nothing that happens to you can stop God from fulfilling his plan or even slow him down. That is what it means for God to be sovereign.
God knows exactly what he is doing. You can have confidence in knowing that the events of your life are not spinning out of control or settled by random chance but that they are in the hands of God, who plans for you in love. Christians find joy in knowing that God's plan will lead to the greatest possible display of his glory and the greatest possible joy for his people.
I invite you to join me on a whistle-stop tour through the Bible's storyline, where God reveals the splendor of his breathtaking purpose that sweeps from eternity past through the ages of human history into eternity future.
We begin with the Old Testament, where God lays out the blueprints for his plan. Then, in the Gospels, we look at how Jesus Christ achieves all that is needed for the plan to be accomplished. And finally we look at the New Testament letters and rejoice in how the Holy Spirit delivers all that God has promised and all that Christ has accomplished in the lives of all God's people.
God Makes a Promise: The Story of the Old Testament
God unfolds his plan through seven initiatives that are full of promise for all his people.
Creation
"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" (Gen. 1:1). Try to imagine nothing. It's almost impossible! But before the creation there was nothing, except God. God created all things, and all things belong to him. "The earth is the Lord's and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it" (Ps. 24:1).
Take a fresh look at what God has created today. Look at the sky; it proclaims the work of God's hands. Listen to the birds; they testify to God's gentle care. Every snowflake bears witness to his majesty. Every sunrise speaks of his faithfulness. "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. ... There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard" (Ps. 19:1–3).
The whole creation reflects the glory of God, but God did something of a different order when he made the first man and woman. We know this because God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground" (Gen. 1:26).
God made the man and the woman in his image. This is why you are different from a plant, an animal, a fish, or a bird. They were all made by God, but only humans were made like God. That gives human life unique value.
God chose to bring you into being. He has never made anyone quite like you before, and he will never make anyone quite like you again. You are not an accident. Your life is not a product of random chance. You were made by God, and you were made for God. The ultimate purpose of your life is that you should radiate a unique reflection of Jesus Christ. You were made to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.
What does God promise? God promises to give life to people who reflect his glory.
The Bible never fully explains the origin of evil; it simply tells us that God placed the man and the woman in a garden where everything was good. Their food was provided on the trees; their work was fulfilling; their union and joy in marriage was complete; and they lived in fellowship with God, who appeared to them and walked with them in the garden.
There was a tree in the garden called "the tree of the knowledge of good and evil," and God told the man and the woman not to eat from the tree (Gen. 2:17). Since everything they knew was good, the only thing they could gain by disobeying God was the knowledge of evil.
A serpent came enticing them with the knowledge of evil, and that is what they chose. In the act of disobeying God, they got the knowledge of evil, and we have all been stuck with it ever since. But God took the initiative and made another promise.
Destruction
God said to the Serpent, "Cursed are you" (Gen. 3:14). To curse means to assign to destruction. God was saying to the Serpent, "What you have done will not stand. You will be destroyed, and all that is evil will be destroyed with you." God's curse on the Serpent opens the door of hope for us.
Then God said to Adam, "Cursed is the ground because of you" (Gen. 3:17). The ground hadn't done anything wrong! Adam deserved the curse because of his sin. But God diverted the curse away from the man and woman and onto the ground so that instead of being destroyed with the Serpent, they might be reconciled to him.
What does God promise? God promises to destroy evil and rid the world of its curse.
How would this happen? God said to the Evil One, "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel" (Gen. 3:15).
The human race would always be in conflict with evil. That has proved true for every person in every culture in every generation. But God speaks of an offspring, someone who will come into the line of human history, born of the woman. He will be on our side. He will stand with us in this great conflict and act for us against all the powers of evil. Satan will strike his heel, but even as the Serpent bites his feet, our Champion will crush the serpent's head.
Life continued for Adam and Eve outside the garden of Eden. God's grace had saved them from immediate judgment and given them the hope of eventual restoration, but they soon discovered that the evil unleashed through their disobedience brought devastating changes within them and around them.
The first human family was torn apart when Cain murdered his brother Abel and then spent the rest of his life in fear that his deed would be avenged (Genesis 4). The knowledge of evil was already proving a liability. It had already separated the man and the woman from God. Now it was tearing up a family.
As violence increased, people came together to build a city, hoping that collective security would be the answer (Genesis 11). But what started with great hope ended in disappointment as people dispersed to the north, south, east, and west, driven by fear and divided by language.
Then out of all the emerging tribes and nations of the world, God chose one man.
Election
"I will bless you ... and you will be a blessing. ... All peoples on earth will be blessed through you" (Gen. 12:2–3). Abraham knew absolutely nothing about God. He was an idolater, living in complete spiritual darkness (Josh. 24:2). But God swept into his life uninvited and changed him forever.
If God waited for you or for me to seek after him, he would still be waiting. No one seeks God (Rom. 3:11). No one! By nature we run from God. If we seek him, it is because he has taken the initiative to seek us and to draw us to himself.
God made it clear to Abraham that this was precisely what he intended to do in the lives of people from every nation on the planet. God would gather a people from every race and language, every level of education and income, and bring them into the full knowledge of his blessing.
What is God promising now? God promises to bless people from all nations.
This blessing would not come to people from all nations through Abraham himself or through his descendants in general, but through one child called "the seed," who would be born into Abraham's line (Gal. 3:16). That is why the Old Testament follows the story of Abraham's descendants.
Abraham and Sarah were getting old, and they had no children. But through a miracle of God's grace, Sarah conceived in her old age and gave birth to a son, Isaac. Isaac's son, Jacob, had twelve sons who became the fathers of the twelve tribes of Israel.
God cared for this extended family in a special way. When famine threatened their lives, God provided food for them in Egypt. In the years that followed God blessed them by multiplying their number so that the extended family of about seventy grew to a community of about two million people over a period of about four hundred years.
God's people were despised as they grew in number. They were treated with great cruelty and became slaves in Egypt. But God saw their suffering and had compassion on them.
Redemption
"The Lord said, 'I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. ... So I have come down to rescue them ... and to bring them ... [into] a land flowing with milk and honey'" (Ex. 3:7–8). God raised up a man called Moses and sent him to Egypt's pagan king with this command: "Let my people go" (Ex. 5:1). The king did not recognize God's authority, so he refused God's command and came under his judgment. God sent a series of plagues that led to a devastating judgment in which death came across the whole land.
Before God sent this judgment, he gave his people a command and a promise: each family was to slaughter a lamb and take the blood and paint it on their doorframe to indicate that death had already come to their house (Ex. 12:7). Then God said, "When I see the blood, I will pass over you" (Ex. 12:13).
On the night of the Passover, God's sacrifice brought his people out of slavery and delivered them from his judgment. After this, God made a covenant with them: "I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people" (Lev. 26:12).
God gave his people commandments and sacrifices. We need the commandments because God calls his people to walk in his ways. Those who bear his name must reflect his character. But God's people need more than commands. We need the sacrifices, because at our best we are still sinners who fall far short of the glory of God.
God's people had been delivered from judgment by the blood of a slaughtered lamb. In the same way, their fellowship with God would be sustained through a sacrifice offered for their sins. What is God promising now? God promises to reconcile sinners to himself through a sacrifice.
God's people were not satisfied with this arrangement — they wanted a king. God gave them the kind of king they wanted, and he turned out to be a disaster. Then God gave them another king, and to this man God gave an extraordinary promise.
Dominion
"I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever" (2 Sam. 7:12–13).
God's people had a taste of his blessing in the time of King David that surpassed anything they had known before. With their enemies subdued and their borders secure, God's people prospered. But what would happen after David?
Every father wants the best for his son, so God had David's attention when he spoke about David's offspring: God promised to raise up David's own son and establish his kingdom. David's son would fulfill David's dream to build a house for God's name.
Then God gave a promise so great that David had to sit down to take it in. God promised to establish the kingdom of David's son forever, and he said, "I will be his father and he will be my son" (2 Sam. 7:14). The first son in view is David's immediate son Solomon, who follows his father to the throne. But the promise of an eternal dynasty of David (2 Sam. 7:16) anticipates a son who will outstrip both David and Solomon. How can any kingdom last forever? And in what sense will this son of David also be the Son of God?
As we travel through the Old Testament story, we're building a picture of God's plan and of the person who will deliver what God promises: to give life to people who will reflect his glory, to destroy evil and rid the world of its curse, to bless people from all nations, and to reconcile sinners to himself through a sacrifice for sins.
The one who fulfills this promise will be born of a woman; he will be the seed of Abraham and a descendent of David, a king who will bring the blessing of God's rule. God will be his Father, and he will be God's Son. God will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. What is God promising now? God promises that his people will live under the blessing of his rule forever.
After David there followed a line of kings; some were good, but most were bad. God's people worshiped other gods and walked in their ways. God sent messengers called "prophets" to call his people back to obedience. Their message was largely ignored. So God, whose word never fails, moved to discipline and correct his people.
Correction
"This is what the Lord says: 'When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future'" (Jer. 29:10–11).
The land God had given to his people was overrun by enemies, and God's people became exiles. They lived in Babylon under the discipline of God and wept their way through seventy years of sorrow and repentance.
But even in this most severe discipline, God was advancing his purpose for his people. God receives us in our sin, but he never leaves us in our sins. He is relentless in calling us to follow his ways and in correcting us when we depart from them. What is God promising now? God promises that all his people will walk in all his ways.
When God's redeeming work in your life is complete, you will love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, you will love your neighbor as yourself, and you will share the joy of this love with all the people of God forever.
Until that day, God will not rest content where his people cling to sins that he has clearly told us to forsake. God is not in the business of ferrying unchanged, self-centered sinners into the joys of eternal life. God calls us to obedience, and when we resist his call, we should expect to come under his loving discipline that refuses to let us go.
After seventy years, God brought his chastened people back to the Promised Land. This restoration was a miracle of God's grace that had seemed impossible. But then God gave one man a vision of what he was about to do.
Restoration
"Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, 'Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.' Therefore prophesy and say to them: 'This is what the Sovereign Lord says: O my people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord'" (Ezek. 37:11–13).
God's promises are so great that faith staggers before them. That's how it was for God's people in the time of Ezekiel. Jerusalem lay in ruins; most of its people had fled or died; and those who survived were exiles in Babylon under a regime that had no intention of letting them go.
God's people knew his promises, but the destruction of evil, God's blessing on all nations, and the joys of the Davidic kingdom seemed like another world from their daily grind. God's people found it hard to sing his praises in this strange land.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "The Plan"
by .
Copyright © 2011 The Gospel Coalition.
Excerpted by permission of Good News Publishers.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
God Makes a Promise: The Story of the Old Testament, 8,
Christ Fulfills the Promise: The Story of the Gospels, 15,
The Church Communicates the Promise: The Story of the Acts, 22,
The Holy Spirit Delivers the Promise: The Story of the New Testament Letters, 23,
Conclusion, 30,
Notes, 31,
The Gospel Coalition, 32,