Plan B – God’s plan to fix a broken world
What’s really broken?
Sin
Any action taken by humanity apart from God’s goodness is destructive
God’s 5 Steps to fix what is broken
Step #5 | Eternal Life
Okay … so here is something really crazy and interesting! With all the emphasis on eternal this week, apparently this week’s video was so temporal, it just up and disappeared! Alright, that’s not even close to being true, but it sounds so much better than “nobody hit record.” Please forgive us this week and read on to learn more about the final step in God’s Plan B … Eternal Life.
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.
John 10:27-29
Concepts that will melt your face
We are conditioned in our humanity for beginnings and endings. We have appointments and tasks that have both, we watch sporting events, TV programs and movies that start and end, and it’s the reality of each new day and the entirety of our lives. But an ending was never in God’s plan for our lives, and His desire for that didn’t change after we broke things. How would your life change if you knew (really knew) and lived (really lived) out the truth that our lives in Christ are eternal?! How would it change every minute, every decision and every act of your everyday?! I can promise you that once you believe in your heart, in the core of who you are, it will change everything. Consider these truths from Scripture that serve as pillars to this final step in God’s Plan B…
- You will live forever
For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage one another with these words.
1 Thessalonians 4:16-18 - Your life will end
Show me, LORD, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting my life is.
Psalm 39:4 - A world without sin
Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh,the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.
1 John 2:15-17 - A life without the curse
Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!”
Revelation 21:1-5
Would you stop with me for just a moment? Stop and consider the beyond imagination imagery in that last verse. Try to picture the first heaven and first earth passing away, seeing the Holy City descending, God wiping the tears from your eyes and hearing the audible voice of God saying, “I am making everything new!” Oh, that we would all collectively be transformed by the truths of this final step in Plan B and begin living each moment of our lives from the joy and perspective that it births!
The Crescendo of God’s Plan
“Look, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to each person according to what they have done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.
Revelation 22:12-13
It all leads to this. The whole of human history from the garden until the last number of “right now’s” that God has prescribed for the only world that we know. It all points to Him, and it all leads to the cataclysmic moment where He makes everything right again. The moment when He reunites us with the realness of the world that He breathed into being. It was perfection, and there is no denying that we broke it. So what did He do in response? He…
- Cursed the world – because sin separated us from Him. sin had consequences for the created world, and it was necessary for us to humble ourselves and return to God. (Step #1)
- gave us The Law – because God loved his people and wanted them to remember what He had done for them. (Step #2)
- became a man – because we still chose our own way after being given a way back to Him, and we needed a perfect sacrifice that would atone for every thought and act that separated us from God (sin). (Step #3)
- gave us The Holy Spirit – because a merciful and gracious God saw fit to allow us to be part of his Plan B. He gave us His Spirit to live inside of us and guide us as we carry the message of hope and His love to the ends of the created and broken world. (Step #4)
- gifts Eternal Life – because this is what He wanted all along; to be forever with us. because sin and all it’s destruction never was, nor will it ever be, powerful enough to defeat God’s plan for us. (Step #5)
I pray that God uses the last five weeks of our collective focus to either encourage the hope that is already inside of you because of your belief in Him and what Jesus did for us, or it has stirred the possibility of hope in your yet believing heart. If it’s the latter, please know that we are here every moment of every day to be the hands and feet, and voice of Jesus in sharing that hope with you.
