God’s Plan From The Beginning
By Tammy Lacock
“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.” (Ephesians 1:4 KJV)
Warren Litzman speak of the intricate relationship between Jesus and the Apostle Paul. Their relationship is more intimate than any other relationship in the Bible as we begin to see, through Paul’s epistles, God’s plan for humanity as we transition from law to grace.
From the beginning of His earthly life, Jesus was royally mistreated. His life was threatened first by King Herod, being told the Messiah and King of Kings would be born, when he ordered the death of all boys under 2 years old. His own family rejected Him. And as an adult, He was not only rejected by His own people, but He was also nailed to and hung on a cross, left to die by them. He faced the peril of His humanity more than anyone. Jesus never had it easy as He came to preach to the Jews the Kingdom gospel, which is heaven on earth. As we have learned, this gospel was postponed by their rejection of Him. In His obedience to God, Christ knew He must fulfill His Father’s ultimate plan for humanity by His death on the cross. We must understand that Christ was and is a person. He felt all the emotions and feelings that humans did—and He still does—not as Jesus of Nazareth now but through us.
When He arose from the dead, He brought the message of peace to His people. And on the Day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit delivered the incorruptible seed of Christ into every believer. Christ’s life on earth was never beautiful and never peaceful. But His perfect peace now resides in every believer and this is exactly where He wants to be. He went from being in the body of Jesus of Nazareth to being in the body of His church, in every believer. He is alive and well in us! God’s plan from the beginning was finally complete.
In Ephesians 1:4, Apostle Paul tells us about God’s plan from the beginning. The word according in this verse tells us that God’s original plan, before anything, was to place Christ in every believer. In fact, it tells us that this is God’s plan for every single one of us, every single human being. Every one of us has been chosen to live in Christ. We must understand though that not everyone has Christ in them at this point in time. Nonetheless, all made in His image and likeness were chosen by God to have this new life. The only prerequisite is believing in Christ as our Lord and Savior (Acts 16:31).
The Apostle Paul was the only one raised up by Christ Himself to reveal to us that we no longer live by the law. Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection ushered us into a dispensation of grace; and Christ living in every believer is God’s grace being poured out onto humanity. Paul was the first person through whom Christ would manifest His grace and the only person He revealed it to. This is why Paul tells us, “Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1). His gospel of grace is not a corporate gospel but individual to each believer. Christ comes through each of us differently and uniquely, just how God created us to be.
Since most of us have been raised under law-religion, we’ve been programmed to live this way. Therefore, humanity is still struggling to understand Paul’s gospel of grace. Focusing on our works blinds us to Christ living in us as our new life. The Holy Spirit helps with our constant mind renewal so we may live fully in grace now. Paul’s gospel tells us, by grace, being joined to Christ in one spirit (1 Corinthians 6:17), God sees Christ in us as our righteousness.
Paul’s gospel reveals the completion of God’s plan for us. God knew, from the beginning, that He would never have a people that would be able to put ourselves aside and love Him reciprocally on our own. Only by placing His incorruptible seed (Christ) and uprooting our sin-nature from the curse of Adam would we not only be seen as righteous by God but we would now be able to grow in a true and loving relationship with Him as His bona fide sons and daughters. As believers, we are crucified with Christ, and we arose with Him to a new life in Him. This is our completion. Our minds need to catch up to this truth.
We were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. And now, since Christ’s death and resurrection, God’s plan is complete in every believer. Now that we have Christ in us, Paul says, no longer are we under the law. We now live by His grace.
Yet, as believers still living under religion and law, most of us can only say we know all about Christ. Paul says, it’s time to put away our childish ways (1 Corinthians 13:11) and know Him as our very life! Only then can we begin to understand who we are and who God created us to be.
