The same God who planned the complex design of living things on this earth also planned the story described by the Bible. There is a plan in the word of God - a central theme and design that runs from beginning to end. Each book, chapter, and verse contributes to the development of this plan. Once you understand the plan, you are well on your way to understanding all of the seemingly unrelated stories it contains.

Introduction

Our God is a God of design - a God of planning. The whole creation around us has been uniquely and carefully planned. To observe some of that planning is intriguing.

For example, you may be familiar with one of the so-called "Prison Flowers" that trap and feed upon insects. The best known is the Venus Flytrap. There is another member of the Prison Flower family that behaves just a little differently. It is commonly called the "Jack-in-the-Pulpit." The Jack-in-the-Pulpit has two kinds of flowers - one male and one female. When a fly crawls down into one of these flowers, his life depends upon the sex of that particular flower. If he chooses a male flower, he crawls in, the walls of the flower constrict around him just enough to cause him to panic and attempt to get free. The frantic insect buzzes until he is covered with pollen. Then the flower opens just enough to release him. If the next flower he visits is a male, the same thing happens. However, if it is a female, once again he is trapped by the flower just enough to cause him to dust the female flower with pollen from the male flower. But this time he cannot escape. He dies right there in the female flower and is consumed. How did that plant, which has no brain, figure out how to do that? The answer, of course, is that the plant didn't figure it out. The plant is the product of an all wise Designer.

As another example of planning, consider the Giraffe, the tallest animal in the world. The largest Giraffe ever measured was 19 feet, 3 inches from the bottom of its hoof to the top of its head. About half of a Giraffe's height is in its neck. This extra-long neck serves many purposes. It provides a watchtower so that the Giraffe can spot his enemies a long way off. It serves as an elevator to lift the Giraffe's head to reach the tender leaves of the trees from which the animal gets its food.

One of the problems that having a neck that long presents, though, is that the Giraffe's heart must pump oxygenated blood nine feet straight uphill to reach the Giraffe's brain. To accomplish that difficult task, the Giraffe has a heart that is two feet long and weighs 25 pounds. The Giraffe has the highest blood pressure of any animal on earth.

Consider something with me. The Giraffe has all that hydraulic pressure for the purpose of pumping blood uphill to his brain. What happens when he suddenly lowers his head to take a drink of water? Well, imagine taking a gallon jug of orange juice, climbing up on a 9 1/2 foot step ladder, and throwing it down onto the pavement. That would be roughly equivalent to the force of gravity along with the pressure from the Giraffe's pumping heart. If there were no planning, all that liquid would come crashing down into the Giraffe's head and blow his brains out every time he got a drink! (I would just love to ask someone who believes that life on earth evolved from simple to complex by random chance, just how many Giraffes blew their brains out before one finally survived!) Anyway, into this complex problem of applied hydraulics stepped a wise Designer to devise a built in G-suit from the Giraffe. At the base of the animal's brain is a network of very elastic blood vessels that suddenly constrict. Then another amazing thing takes place. Little valves shut down the diameter of the arteries in the Giraffe's neck to slow the blood. These same vessels prevent the heart from being ruined by back pressure when the Giraffe raises his head again.

Things like that don't happen by chance. Rather, they reflect the design of a wise Designer and Planner.

And so it is also with the Word of God. The Bible, though it is a book with more than forty different authors who wrote over a period of 1600 years, it exhibits the same kind of design and planning that is characteristic of the God who made the Flytrap plants and the Giraffe. Such design is characteristic of all the things God does. Yet most people are unfamiliar with God's design in the Bible so the book is widely misunderstood.

That the God of the Bible had a plan for what is revealed in the Bible is evidenced in a number of passages.

In Acts 2:23-24 we read the words of Peter to the Jews assembled on Pentecost: "…this Man, delivered up by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death."

In Acts 3:18 we read, again the words of Peter: "But the things which God announced beforehand by the mouth of all the prophets, that His Christ should suffer, He has thus fulfilled." You don't announce something beforehand unless it is planned.

Jesus implied this planning when He said to His disciples in Luke 22:22: "For indeed, the Son of Man is going as it has been determined; but woe to that man by whom He is betrayed!"

The same God who planned the complex design of living things on this earth also planned the story described by the Bible. There is a plan in the word of God - a central theme and design that runs from beginning to end. Each book, chapter, and verse contributes to the development of this plan. Once you understand the plan, you are well on your way to understanding all of the seemingly unrelated stories it contains.

I want to describe God's plan to you in this message. Obviously, I must present an abbreviated version, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. Often the best way for us to understand something is to first get the "big picture."

To simplify my presentation of the plan, I will express my summary in just six points. You might want to write these down for future reference. If you are new to the Bible, or really have never understood what this Great Book is all about, please, get these main points down and refer to them in your study. I believe you will benefit.

As the Bible opens in the book of Genesis (the word "genesis" means "beginning,") the first point becomes evident:

1. God Began His Plan by Giving Man a Test of Obedience.

An outstanding truth from the first two chapters of Genesis is that man was created differently than other living things. Man alone was created in the image of God. Man alone was given freedom of choice. He alone could choose to serve or not serve his Maker.

It's a well-known story. God placed all kinds of edible plants in the beautiful Garden of Eden where the first two human beings lived and told them they could eat whatever they might choose to eat - with only one exception. There was one tree from which they were forbidden to eat. Genesis 2:16-17 says,

"And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, "From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you shall surely die."

Adam and Eve disobeyed God's command and death came into the world and upon the entire human race.

That story has troubled some people. They imagine God as some sort of divine spoilsport for placing that forbidden tree in the Garden.

It really isn't that difficult to figure out what God was doing. His intent wasn't to spoil paradise. The issue that He brought to the front with the tree was choice.

If you were choosing a mate and you had the choice between one who was forced to marry you because there were no other choices and one who was choosing to marry you by his or her own volition, which would you pick to spend the rest of your life with? I think it's obvious that it wouldn't be very desirable to live with someone knowing that they were merely stuck with you because there were no other choices available. When you choose a life partner, you also want that person to choose you. Freedom of choice is a fundamental need and something we all believe is right and good. God's placing the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was, therefore, the right thing to do.

But what about that law? "From any tree in the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat…" Does it bother us that God made a law to restrict choice? It shouldn't. Laws are important to restrain us from making the wrong choices. What if there were no traffic laws? It wouldn't be safe to drive. Every intersection would be a disaster zone. We would all kill each other. The human race needs laws. Laws are like guardrails that keep us traveling safely on the road of life. So God gave a simple law: Don't eat from the tree! The formulation of laws is the right thing to do whenever people have the freedom to do right or wrong.

Then there was that penalty. "The day you eat from it you shall surely die." Why such a stiff penalty? Why not, "The day you eat from it you shall surely have to sit in the corner for five minutes"? The answer is obvious, I think. Without stiff penalties for breaking it, people don't respect the law. What if we kept all the traffic laws in place but removed the penalties? It would be disaster again, wouldn't it? The human race, with the freedom of choice, needs laws. So God gave a very simple law in the garden: Don't eat from the tree. And God gave a stiff penalty: "The day you eat from it you will die." Each of these concepts is consistent with common sense. Every time you pull up to an intersection and someone stops for you, you illustrate that these concepts are reasonable, good, and right.

So Adam and Eve made their choice. They disobeyed the law. That first disobedience was called sin. That is still what God calls disobedience today. Because of their sin, Adam and Eve were removed from the Garden. Their children, right down to you and me, were born separated from the tree of life. We all have to die physically.

"But why should we have to suffer for what Adam and Even did?" someone asks. "It isn't fair to punish us for what they did."

The one who says that misses an important point. Clearly state in Romans 5:12 we read: "Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned." Which one of us has lived without breaking God's law at some point? (Yes, there are more laws because there are more people.) The answer to that question is "none." Though we might think it would have been different had we lived in the Garden instead of Adam and Eve, we have proven by our own wrong choices that the outcome really would have been the same.

So far, then, we have a dismal story. Man is created and put into a perfect place. He is given freedom of choice. He blows it. Now he's under the death penalty. Since he only has one life, he's in over his head. He can only die once. Made in the image of God, his life is too valuable to exchange something for it. Is that what God intended? Did God create man to destroy him?

No, that isn't the end of the story. It's just the beginning. The rest of God's plan is devoted to solving man's problem with sin and death. Understand that and you are well on your way to understanding the Bible.

That brings us to our second point in God's plan:

2. God Promised a Savior.

Man is in trouble and we aren't even out of the third chapter of Genesis! But God didn't create man just to destroy him. It's reasonable to believe that He created man to live with Him and share life with Him. The Bible clearly states that "God doesn't desire that any should perish." That's why, before the third chapter of Genesis ends, there is a very important promise.

(Read Genesis 3:15)

As strange as this verse sounds at first, it is a promise that someday the score would be settled for what the Serpent did in the Garden. Someone (here called the "seed of woman") would crush the Serpent's head.

Actually, this verse sets in motion the theme of the rest of the Bible. Everything from Genesis 3:15 onward figures into the fulfillment of this promise. From this point onward, the theme of the Bible becomes Someone is coming. This "seed of the woman" will come and destroy the works of the devil.

At this point Satan didn't know who this "seed of woman" was. Man didn't know either. Only God knew. But as the biblical record progresses, this Someone becomes more and more evident. His identity is revealed in the writings a tiny bit at a time in the history, poetry, law, and prophecy of the Bible story as it unfolds. Finally, as stated in Galatians 4:4 in the New Testament, "When the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, in order that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons."

From Genesis 3:15 onward, the plan is unfolded, a piece at a time. Satan struggles to thwart the plan, but he has a problem. He doesn't fully understand it. God keeps the details of the plan under wraps that the Bible calls a "mystery." The Bible narrative follows this struggle and the people who are involved in it. God works His plan through a certain family - the bloodline of a faithful man named Abraham. Again and again Satan strikes out against the faithfulness of Abraham and his descendants. His intent is to prevent the coming of the "seed of the woman" who was to crush his heard. Again and again God's providence prevents the plan from being derailed as He preserves the integrity of this special bloodline. The Someone, the "seed of the woman" who was to come would be known by many descriptive names and titles as his time of arrival approached. One of the prominent names as the time approached for his appearance was Messiah. The word means "Chosen One" or, more specifically, "Anointed One."

Then, with the time of the Messiah's coming close at hand, thousands of years after the promise in Genesis 3, the angel Gabriel is dispatched to announce to a carpenter named Joseph that his virgin fiancé will give birth to this Messiah.

Matt 1:21: "And she will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for it is He who will save His people from their sins." (We could say, "It is He who will undo the effects of what happened in the Garden of Eden.")

Jesus is born of a virgin, the "seed of a woman." Satan opposes Him with all his power and might. In the struggle, it appears that Satan has won. Jesus is crucified. Then, three days later, Jesus rises from the grave, victorious over death. What Satan thought was a major blow turns out only to be a minor injury. Remember in the prophecy of Genesis 3:15, "You shall bruise his heel"? A heel injury is a minor injury. With Jesus' resurrection, Satan's stranglehold on death is broken. The head of the Serpent is crushed and, though his body still writhes as a snake is prone to do in that condition, he is a defeated enemy for all who will accept the Messiah.

But I'm getting ahead of myself….

We've seen so far that God began His plan by giving man a test, then He promised a Savior. Thirdly,

3. God Prepared Man for the Coming of the Savior by Giving Some Preparatory Laws.

One of the first laws given was animal sacrifice. The first mention of it is in Genesis chapter 4. Animal sacrifice isn't a pretty picture. God never intended for it to be. So why is it there in the Bible?

Remember that man was under the death penalty after what happened in the Garden. God justly could have ended his life. But that wasn't his plan. He didn't create man just to destroy him. He created man to live with Him. Yet there had to be a penalty for sin or man would not respect the law. So God provided that the lives of animals could be offered as substitutes for the lives of men so humans could continue to live.

No, the life of an animal is not worth the same amount as the life of a human being made in the image of God. According to Hebrews 10:4, "It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins." Animal sacrifices were only a temporary act of mercy toward man, to keep him reminded, until God could ultimately offer His own Son's life on man's behalf.

But the animal sacrifices were also a perpetual lesson: Sin always brings death. Later in the Bible it would be stated in several ways: "The person who sins will die." "The wages of sin is death." Each time the life of an animal was taken, the person who had sinned was reminded of the hideous consequence of sin. God was preparing man for the time when He would offer His own Son as a substitute for sinful man - once for all time.

Another very important preparatory law God gave was the Law of Moses or what we refer to as the Old Testament. This law was given to Israel at Mt. Sinai. Because most of the world's population turned away from God after the flood of Noah, God continued to work through the descendants of Abraham, also called the "Jews." God's law to them included the well-known Ten Commandments. These laws would govern the Jewish people for 1500 years until the coming of the Messiah or Christ. In Galatians 3:24-25 we are told that this Old Testament law served as a "tutor to lead us to Christ." As a tutor it did several things. First, it made man aware of God's standards of right and wrong. Second, it frustrated man.

That's right! Man could not keep the law perfectly and every time he broke it he proved once again that he could not keep the law himself. He needed help. He needed a Savior. In all the 1500 years of Israel's history under the Law of Moses, no mortal man or woman ever succeeded in getting out from under the penalty of death. Everyone broke the law!

If man's track record with the law was so dismal, why did God give it? The Living Bible answers it quite well in Galatians 3:19 when it says, "Well then, why were the laws given? They were added after the promise was given, to show men how guilty they are of breaking God's laws."

Thus the law prepared man to receive the Savior by showing him he needed a Savior.

That brings us to the fourth point in God's plan:

4. God Brought the Whole Plan into Focus at the Death of Christ.

If you've ever played with the focal length of a camera lens you have a good illustration of the development of the Bible story. Remember that I showed you the theme of the Bible from Genesis 3:15 on was Someone is Coming. As the story unfolds, the more of the record that is revealed, the sharper the image is focused on the One called the "seed of the woman." Throughout the law, history, poetry, and prophecy of the Old Testament, the image is developed until it can be see clearly by anyone willing to take the time to look. At that point, the theme of the Bible shifts from Someone is Coming to Someone is Here. The fourfold message of the New Testament books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, present the clear picture of that Someone. These are the biographies of Jesus Christ.

Then suddenly, Jesus is crucified. It catches His followers fully off guard. How could this be? How could this One who was the promised Savior be defeated and killed? Not even Satan understood what was going on until it was too late. The Son of God came to offer his life as a substitute for man so that those who wished could again live in fellowship with God. His death was a key part of the plan. His victory over death shown by His resurrection would take away the drastic results of what happened in the Garden of Eden. Satan was beaten at his own game. He actually participated in the death of Christ, inciting the Jewish leaders against Jesus. He was fully unaware that the death of Christ would break his absolute control over death.

That is what Christianity is all about - Christ's substitutionary death on our behalf so that those who accept His atonement for their sins can become as though they never sinned. This solves the original problem of man's wrong choice in the Garden. It binds those who wish to live with God back to Him in love and gratitude and it satisfies the judicial requirements of the Law man has broken.

"But God demonstrates His own love toward us," writes Paul in Romans 5:8, "in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."

Peter puts the same truth a little bit differently in 1 Peter 3:18, when he says, "For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, in order that He might bring us to God…."

That brings us to point number five in God's plan:

5. Christ Built His Church to Carry His Plan to the World.

I haven't time to develop this thought very far. Suffice it to say that the Savior said in Matthew 16:16, after Peter's confession that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the Living God, "Upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of Hades shall not overpower it."

That church still exists today. The gates of Hades have not overpowered it. It exists yet today for a primary purpose. That purpose was stated by Jesus just before He ascended back into heaven: "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."

That is the business of the church today. It always has been the business of the church. Any church not engaged in that grand commission today is disobedient to the will of Christ!

Just one more point in God's plan:

6. The End of God's Plan is Judgment and Eternity.

While God is far more patient and merciful than you and I, there is a limit to His plan. It has an end. One day He will call a halt to all we see around us. Those who have accepted Him will be with Him forever. Those who have not will be apart from Him forever.

Listen to one of the Bible's descriptions of judgment from 1

Thessalonians 1:7-9: "…the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. And these will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power…."

Conclusion

I have some sobering news: Every part of God's plan has been finished except this last one. According to the teaching of the New Testament, it could happen at any time.

You and I have a choice to make and a choice to keep until death. We will choose either to serve God through Christ or we will choose to serve ourselves. Where are you in light of God's plan for the ages?

Dave Redick is Minister of the Hwy 20 Church of Christ in Sweet Home, Oregon and Editor of The Preacher's Study. He may be reached at pstudysupport@comcast.net.

Copyright © 1996-2008 by The Preacher's Study. Permission is granted to subscribers to use this document in total or in sermon preparation in the context of the local congregation only. Publishing it in a book, on the Internet, or anyplace beyond the local congregation is prohibited.

All Scripture quotations and references are from the New American Standard Version unless otherwise stated.

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