Way back in the book of Genesis, God created people. Listen to this story carefully from Genesis 1:26-27. “God spoke: "Let us make human beings in our image, make them reflecting our nature so they can be responsible for the fish in the sea, the birds in the air, the cattle, and, yes, earth itself, and every animal that moves on the face of Earth. God created human beings; he created them godlike, reflecting God's nature. He created them male and female.” God, as in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (three persons yet one God), spoke about the creation of the galaxies, the universe, the earth, people, and even mosquitoes before the beginning of time. The plan was clear and it has never wavered. Many people assume that the fall of humanity, when Adam and Eve disobeyed God and ate from the tree, made God step back and wonder, “What
do I do now?” That was not nor has ever been the case. God is sovereign. In other words, while we live in linear time and look clearly back upon the past and wonder what the future may hold, God has never been so limited. God has always, from the beginning of time, known that Adam and Eve and you and I could not keep the commands of the Law. Jesus was never Plan B. His birth, life, death, and resurrection was always Plan A. A plan that was brought to fruition at the moment God conceived creation. Jesus was always destined to be a part of the story… history… His story!Do you think that Jesus arrived that first Christmas looking “like us”? On the contrary, Jesus, as revealed in the first chapter of the gospel of John was in there from the start. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.” In other words, Jesus was there at creation. He was not born to fit our image, we were created in His. Now that’s awesome!
I also want to point out that Jesus loved people. You may have already known that. But it is good to be reminded that Jesus never went around creating suffering or mayhem upon people, even those who were mean. He never withered someone’s arm or made anyone blind. He healed, taught, and even wept. Do you know what God the Father is like? Like the Son! The other day I was at a basketball game and one of my daughter’s friends, Kylie, came over to me. She is four years old. She loves my daughter and she felt comfortable enough to give me a kiss me on the cheek. Isn’t that like the way we know God? We know Jesus through the revelation of scripture, thus, we also know the heart of the Father.
Plan A was always meant to be a mission of rescue. God knows each one of us and wants to have a relationship with us. Plan A demonstrates that God is good and what God created is good. The Son went on the one man/God mission to bring us home to His Father. Some people thought or still think it was a foolish suicide mission, but that was not nor ever will be the reality. The reality is that Christ’s mission was fulfilled. The world is reconciled to God through the work of Christ. He has cleared away our sinfulness and erased the fall of humanity. He has reversed the curse of Adam. In doing so, we are faced with the reality that we cannot be good enough or keep enough laws to stand before God. It is God and only God who has made it possible for us to be with God both now and into eternity. Jesus (Emmanuel… God with us) has prepared the way. In Him there is wholeness and a home. Jesus came because God already loved and loves us and God wants us face to face with Him. That was always the one and only PLAN. Merry Christmas!
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