What Is God’s Plan – Did It Start With Adam and Eve?
I remember Mom telling me about Adam and Eve and the garden God built for them. It answered my questions about the origin of man. It even answered my questions about where sin started.
As a child, I had all the answers I needed, but as a young minister, I had other questions.
I believe that the bigger question we should ask is what is God’s plan. Did He have a much larger and more sweeping plan? Did His plan start way before Adam and Eve?
Is it fair to ask ourselves what came before Adam and Eve? You were probably taught the story of creation as I was. However, is that where it all started. Adam and Eve. My answer is no. Creation started a long time before with God deciding to make man.
Maybe you think that it all started when God created the world. Or before that, when He created the heavens, but you would still be wrong. These events were way down the line when we talked about the beginning of man.
Our God is a God of order. Like any master builder, He planned from beginning to end. We are only told about the point where He spoke the heavens and the earth into existence. However, God planned all the way to the end of time as we know it and beyond.
What is God’s Plan
1In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. (Genesis 1:1-2)
God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit had a plan before they created anything. The goal was not just to make the heavens, the earth, and man, but to provide a way for man to have an eternal relationship with God.
God chose to give man free will to decide what he would and would not do.
God first planned everything they would need to live and spoke it all into existence. But He went much further than this.
He knew before He ever breathed the breath of life into Adam that Adam would sin. So even with the elementary rules, He gave him, He knew that there would be a failure to obey.
Later Paul says in Romans 3:23, “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”
So the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost decide to provide a way for man’s reconciliation with Him. Scripture says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23 NKJV)
First, the Father would send His only Son, Jesus, to take on the form of a man and lay down His life for all the sins of all mankind.
Jesus would pay the price for sin on the cross. He would take your sins and mine and remove them by His blood.
Secondly, God would raise His Son from the dead as an example of what He would do for those who choose to believe in and accept His gift of eternal life with Him.
God’s plan was, of course, much more complicated than this. It involved His creation multiplying and becoming a large population.
The Old Testament
As God allows the earth’s population to grow, He selects one man, Abram, and renames him Abraham to father a nation with a special purpose.
The Old Testament tells the story of God creating an exceptional nation surrounded by other nations who worshiped false gods. Then, he uses these nations to help mold a people He calls His people.
Following His plan, He builds them into a strong nation and gives them the law to guide them. He then sent prophets to instruct and led them back into following God.
This preparation was to get things ready for the coming of His Son.
That’s Not All
He prepares the world for the coming of His Son by establishing nations to help set the stage. The most notable two are Greece and Rome.
When it was close to the time for Him to send His Son into the world, he prepared the world to make the spread of the gospel message easier.
He used Greece to establish a stable language throughout much of the world. For example, when Greece conquered a country, they established Greek as the language of trade.
When Rome replaced Greece, they established a road system to move troops and supplies easily throughout the empire. The same system Paul and others used to spread the gospel.
God set the stage for the coming of the Messiah and the spread of the message of salvation.
What is God’s Plan For Me?
I hope that you are asking yourself that question because God does have a plan for you! God would never have created you if He did not have a plan for you.
One of your jobs after accepting Christ into your life is to seek His will for you. You can start this by reading your Bible and asking God what He wants for you. He will guide you!
You might start with the Book of Romans and the two scriptures I have used above. These two scriptures will give you tools to share your faith with others. All of us need to share the gospel. You have a talent that God gave you. Maybe more than one. Use Your Talents For God!
The following scripture points out some of the leadership positions Christ gives, but note that they are positions to train up the body of Christ for service. Your church should be training you to serve.
And God has appointed these in the church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, varieties of tongues. (1 Corinthians 12:28 NKJV)
God’s plan is for you to use what He has given you. He does not call you to do what He has not prepared you to do. However, He may use you outside of your individual calling for some particular task. We need always to be ready
What is God’s Plan For Us
We always need to look first at God’s plan for “me,” but each of us is a tiny part of the whole. The church is the “us” to which I am referring.
Often if we do not look at what God plans for us as individuals, we fail to see the bigger picture. Instead, we find ourselves filling church seats and listening to messages about all kinds of things we should and should not do.
Sometimes we are fooled into thinking that Christianity is a waiting game. We accept Jesus as our Savior, go to church and wait to go to heaven. That is not God’s plan for us! Instead, we are a part of a much grander plan—the salvation of all humanity.
God’s plan for us as a church is laid out very clearly in Jesus’ own words. He said, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.” (Mark 16:15-16 NIV)
Whatever gift God has given you ties into this command.
As a part of God’s Church, your job is always reaching the lost for Christ. Timothy says, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16-17 NIV)
The challenge is great, the rewards are also great! Why not do what God created you for?