88 - The Plan

What Jesus was about to do would change everything. All that God had done with the human race, from the time of Adam and Eve onward, looked forward to this moment. Even before He made the world, God peered into the future and saw everything. Listen to how Peter explained this, 
“…knowing that you were ransomed, not with corruptible silver or gold from your futile conduct [which was] given to you by [your] fathers, but with precious blood, as from a lamb without blemish or spot (stain), [the blood] of Christ, [who], having been foreknown from the foundations of the world, but revealed [for who He truly is] in the last times because of you who, through Him, believe in God who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God” (literal) (1Pe 1:18-21).

God saw human sin and all the trouble it would bring, yet His loving heart refused to let that sin ruin His plan to form a great family of children, as uncountable as the stars in the sky, filled with sons and daughters with whom He could fellowship forever. So, even though He knew we would misuse the freedom He gave us, He also knew there was a way He could save those who chose to use that same freedom to repent of their rebellion and return to Him. His plan would be terribly costly to Himself and His beloved Son. It would require His Son to leave heaven and join the human race. He would live on the planet for about thirty years, and during that time He would raise up disciples who would proclaim Him after He was gone. He would be brutally executed, but in doing so His death would become a substitute for all those who were willing to repent and believe. And then God would raise His Son to life, defeating the power of death by removing the condemnation that allows it to keep us in the grave.

But His plan contained even more. The cross and resurrection of His Son would cleanse the guilt of sin from even the physical bodies of those who believed in Him. Then the Father would lift His resurrected Son up into heaven, and there His Son would constantly intercede as a high priest before Him whenever one of those believers might sin. Now, because they were perfectly holy, God could send the Holy Spirit to dwell within a human being, empowering that person to serve Him in ways which would have been unthinkable before those events took place. Now, like a great army, men and women, young and old would go forth into the world with a new power and a new message. With the Spirit within them they would minister to lost and broken people just like Jesus did during the years of His earthly ministry. And they would proclaim a new message. They would announce that the Son of God had come, and had died, and that God had raised Him from the dead and then seated Him at His right hand. They would announce that He was now Lord of all creation, and that His cross and resurrection had defeated Satan, the ruler of this world, allowing humans to escape the strongman’s grip.

God saw all of this before He made the first human, before the first sin was committed, before the earth was cursed, before humans fell under the control of Satan. So as human history progressed, He was always steering it toward that moment in which these great events would take place. And because He foresaw that moment, He was able to be merciful to those who sought after Him long before that moment arrived. But as Jesus spoke to His disciples that evening they did not understand God’s plan. They had been taught a different plan. They did not understand that they were about to observe the most important events in all of history. All they heard was Jesus saying He was going to leave, and that made them sad. But Jesus, though He was already experiencing enormous stress, knowing what was about to happen to Him (Jn 12:27), was joyful in His spirit because He knew the plan. He knew the forgiveness His death would bring. He knew He was about to release a doomed human race from the power of death and Satan. He knew He would rise from the dead and return to heaven. And He knew that because of what He had done, He would send forth the Holy Spirit into His people, and then a great harvest of souls would begin.

Jesus saw the plan that night, and He wanted His disciples to see it too, because if they really saw it, it would change their perspective, it would turn their sorrow into joy. They would realize that they were about to be the first humans to step into the new era of the Holy Spirit, to taste for the first time the powers of the age to come (Heb 6:5). They would realize the honor they had been given to announce to the world the name of God’s Son, and to declare to them that the salvation God had promised, beginning in the Garden of Eden, had finally come. He knew that if they understood God’s plan, even though they would face tremendous opposition in the years ahead, they would remain joyful. And He knew that if we, who believe on Him through their word, understand God’s plan, we will too. Let’s listen to what He promised them that night.