God Has a Plan
The Bible's unfolding of God’s epic story of the ages speaks to the desire of our hearts. Each person longs for meaning and purpose in life, and God’s grand drama speaks to this need as it describes His amazing creative work. God made this universe because He is a God who desires to show and share His love. After describing God's creation and His plan for mankind, we see a villain enter the story. Scripture clearly shows that Satan continues his rebellion against God through his attack on mankind. The story seems to take a tragic turn when Adam and Eve follow Satan’s lies and disobey God. With the fall of mankind, God’s paradise was destroyed. Man was expelled from Eden and this world has endured the curse of sin ever since. As we read about the fall of mankind and the downward spiral of this world, it seems that God’s story was destined to be a tragic tale. However, tragedy is not the final chapter of this drama. If we were to compare God’s story to the multiple acts of a theatre production, we would say that the curtain of God’s final act rises to reveal an unexpected culmination that centers on rescue and redemption.
In this final act we see the challenge God faces in rescuing a people who have no idea that they are prisoners in a spiritual conflict. Mankind is oblivious to the reality that they are in a desperate situation. People are ignorant that their sinful, rebellious ways lead them to certain destruction and divine judgment. Interestingly, we long for a better place, but we hesitate to give ourselves back to the loving God who made us. We are captivated by the lies and deceptions of our enemy, Satan. This final act reveals that God has something up His sleeve. God himself, the King of all Creation, takes on human flesh and enters our story as one of us. He sets aside His glory, clothes Himself with humility, and enters the enemy camp. Unseen and unnoticed by the world in general, Jesus comes to save lost mankind. He has a message that He shares with lost mankind: “I have come for you. I have come to save you. I will pay the price that you could not possibly pay.”
This final chapter of God’s story reveals God’s loving heart. God’s epic story is a love story. We have been born in love, by love, and for love. C.S. Lewis said, “From the laughter of the Trinity we came, and to the laughter of the Trinity we will return.” Jesus drove this point home in the words recorded in John 15:9, “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Now remain in my love.” God created us in freedom to be His intimate allies, and He will not give up on us. He is always searching for those who will follow Him with all their heart. This is the heart of the Christian message, the Gospel. God calls us to be His beloved children. He invites us to be friends of the deepest sort. This idea is throughout God’s great epic. Centuries before the arrival of Jesus, God spoke through Jeremiah the prophet and said, “I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the LORD. They will be my people and I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart.” (Jeremiah 24:7)
Remember, God warned us back in the Garden that the price of our mistrust and disobedience would be death. Not just physical death, but a spiritual death—to be separated from God. Through an act of our own free will, we became hostages of the Kingdom of Darkness and death. The only way out is ransom. Jesus is the one who paid that ransom. The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus answered once and for all the question, “What is God’s heart toward me?” Because of our rebellion and sin, we have run from God. We have gotten so lost that there is no hope of finding our way home. That is, no way without God’s help. Jesus came and died to rescue us. We have never been loved like this. In this final act, we are offered the opportunity to claim a future. God calls us to lift our eyes and gaze on a future that includes Him and His great promises. That future is glorious, and it centers on a wonderful God who has an amazing, crazy love for His creation—you and me. Keep looking up!