 "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the
LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than
your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." (Isaiah 55:8-9)I would like to think that God had a plan in mind even before He began the act
of creation. Some have said that a man like Michelangelo could look upon a raw
stone and see the moving, living form trapped inside. His statue of David is a
piece of art that has lasted through centuries of time; but once it was nothing
more than a large stone with Michelangelo walking around it, looking at it,
thinking about that first blow with the hammer and chisel. As he broke away the
excess stone, the lifelike image of David appeared. Now we know that Michelangelo made something from something else; God, on the
other hand, made something from nothing. If He didn't have something He needed,
He created it. I suppose that is the essence of the difference between
"Creationism" and "Darwinism" or evolution.
 Evolution must start on the premise that "something" was already available (Big
Bang, ocean, etc.), and from that available "something," life forms began to
evolve. In the beginning of many evolution books, especially textbooks, on
about the second or third page, tucked away in the middle of a paragraph, inside
a sentence, is a little phrase that usually says "the inorganic became organic."
The writer then moves, without fanfare, to build the theory of evolution on the
foundation of that little phrase without ever stopping to explain how that event
happened. The difference is that God created something from nothing. He then formed
mankind from the soil of the ground. God then did something that answers the
question about the inorganic becoming organic: God breathed into the man's
nostrils the breath of life. The man came alive with actual life from the
Creator God, animated with a soul and spirit that gave him a conscience no other
part of the creation had. Man had a spirituality that had capacity to link with
God's Spirit and commune with Him and have relationship with Him. (Review this
by reading Genesis Chapters 1 and 2.) God is credited with being all-knowing
(omniscient), all-powerful (omnipotent) and everywhere present at the same time
(omnipresent). Knowing that about Him, it only stands to reason that He doesn't do
anything haphazardly, unknowingly or without thinking. Therefore, I would like
to believe that He had very deep thoughts about what His creation would be prior
to His creative actions. I wonder if He didn't see the fall of mankind from the perfect relationship even
before it actually happened; I wonder if He didn't see the entry of sin into His
creation at the beguilement from Lucifer (in the form of a serpent) long before
it actually happened. At that very moment when sin entered into a world of
perfection, God seemed to have a plan in mind that would heal that wound and
bring mankind back into a relationship with Him. (See Genesis 3:15 for details.)
He knew that there would be a great separation between Himself and His creation,
mankind. So He created a plan of redemption for those who wanted to choose Him
over Satan. Adam and Eve had chosen Satan over God and thereby brought death and
ruin into the creation. But God's plan was to reconcile all of mankind to a
position and opportunity to exercise free will and choice to choose God to
regain that close relationship and receive life with Him.
 The Apostle Paul wrote a letter to the Christians in Ephesus and with the
inspiration of God the Holy Spirit explained the plan God had even before the
foundations of the world. The following is that account:
"1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints which
are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus:
2 Grace be to you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus
Christ. 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us
with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:
4 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that
we should be holy and without blame before him in love:
5 Having predestined us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself,
according to the good pleasure of his will,
[to top of second column] |
 6 To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us
accepted in the beloved.
7 In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of
sins, according to the riches of his grace;
8 Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence;
9 Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his
good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:
10 That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather
together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and
which are on earth; even in him:
11 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated
according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the
counsel of his own will:
12 That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in
Christ.
13 In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth,
the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed,
ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
14 Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of
the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory." (Ephesians
1:1-14 KJV)
 It seems that what God may have had on His mind prior to creation
was the plan to redeem us from sin and death. He wanted to establish
a plan where He completed the work that required sacrifice, and in
order to do that, He needed to do it Himself. His plan, established prior to the "foundation of the world," was to
complete the requirements of sacrifice to pay the price of sin and
overcome the power of death and separation from Himself to His
creation, mankind. His plan made a way for anyone who believed in
Christ to accept Him, be washed in His blood and be saved into an
eternal relationship to be with Him forever. The plan was
"predestined" even before the presence of sin and became the only
plan acceptable to God as a means for salvation. Those who exercised their choice to yield to Jesus Christ, the Son of
God, would be making their choice to be saved by God only on His
conditions of accepting the blood of Jesus and yielding to Him and
be covered by that specific redemptive blood. It is that blood of
Jesus that takes away our sins through the work that He did on
the cross to present Himself as a perfect, unblemished sacrifice (paschal
lamb) that allows us to be adopted as His sons (and daughters)
through Jesus Christ, because that is what He willed and was given
through His grace. God does not "cause" us to be saved or unsaved by forcefully
directing us against our will. He has "predestined" His plan for
redemption through the blood of Jesus Christ, and only when a person
chooses to accept God's grace and yield himself to Jesus Christ
through accepting His sacrifice does the person enter into the
"positional" place of adoptive child and be justified in God's
sight. From my perspective, to sum it all up, I think I know what was on
God's mind before He began the work of creation. I believe He was
thinking about me. And if you are reading at this very point in this
article, and you have accepted Jesus Christ and have been buried
with Him into His death and raised to a new life in Him, God was
thinking about you too. Now if you are outside of Christ and have not yet believed in Him or
accepted Him as your Redeemer, you need to accept Him, be buried
with Him in His death through baptism, be raised up to walk in a new
life with Him, yield to Him as your Lord as well as Savior, and
receive the gift of His Holy Spirit so you can grow in Christ.
Associate yourself with a Bible-believing group of Christians and
begin to gather with them to worship and continue to learn and grow
in Christ. Submit yourself fully to Him and be assured that even
before the beginning of creation, God was thinking of you as well.
[By JIM KILLEBREW]
Click here to respond to the editor about this
article. |
