As we consider the month of December, we are taken up with plans. We make plans for parties, get-togethers, family times, concerts, cookie-making, and visiting. Folks ask, “What’s the plan for Christmas?” when it comes to having family celebrations.
God had a plan for Christmas! Galatians 4:4-5 says, “But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.”
1. God made the plan. It is the perfect plan in conception, timing, execution, and completion. God’s plan is by grace through faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the Cross (Ephesians 2:8-9). His plan included Himself as Redeemer — “Yet I am the Lord your God … For there is no Savior besides Me” (Hosea 13:4). In Christ, He planned redemption, He carried it out, and He will bring all to completion for Christ.
2. It was established from the beginning. God conceived His plan in eternity past. “He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you” (1 Peter 1:20). Peter and Paul use this phrase, “before the foundation of the world.” Jesus Himself used it in John 17. That plan included the creation, the redemption, and the glorification of man.
3. To demonstrate God’s grace and justice. This plan is a grand demonstration of all that God wants to show to a watching universe. Some speak of the “problem of evil,” yet God Himself permitted the existence of evil for the very purpose of exhibiting His wisdom, His power, His love, His mercy, His grace, and His ultimate justice. God determined that the perfect way to show these attributes was to permit evil (yet not originate evil Himself). All His attributes would shine through this plan.
4. By saving a people for Himself. God decided that the plan would include people such as you and me, if we are in Christ. He wanted to have a special people all for Himself whom He created, He redeemed from sin, and He would glorify in the fullness of all things.
5. To give Him glory. The ultimate point is that He will receive glory again and again throughout eternity. The Gospel lifts up the everlasting glory of God. God has done this, through His perfect grace that He might receive all praise and honor, every part of the plan of salvation from creation to glorification and beyond.
As you plan what will happen in your own life in December and beyond, recall that God had a plan. That plan includes you, redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus Christ. Rejoice, give thanks, sing, worship, and tell! The Plan of Salvation is good news for you and all who believe. To the glory of God forever and ever! Amen!
He wanted me to remind you!
Craig Alan Myers – CBC Executive Board member
