God’s Magnificent Plan

CHAPTER ONE THE THINGS THAT GOD CANNOT DO

When I was a child, I couldn’t understand why God didn’t simply declare us to be forgiven. My reasoning was, “He is God and can do anything He wants to do.” While it is true that God is sovereign, it is also true if He wanted to provide a way for the salvation of mankind, He had some major obstacles to overcome. It was one of those sweet moments of revelation when I finally came to realize there are things God cannot do. If we hope to gain more understanding about God’s plan for the salvation of mankind and why He reacted to Adam and Eve as He did, then we must first grasp the fact there are things God cannot do. It is those things that were among His biggest obstacles in finding a way for the reunion between God and man, which is the ultimate objective of salvation.

Obstacle One

The first and most important thing God cannot do is change the fact that He is holy. It is His holiness that makes it impossible for Him to come in direct contact with sin. Even worse, He cannot come into direct contact with those things that are simply imperfect. His holiness and glory will automatically destroy sin or imperfection if it comes into His full and direct presence. There is nothing God can do about it except separate Himself from it. Ezra declares to God, “O Lord, God of Israel, you are righteous! Here we are before you in our guilt, though because of it not one of us can stand in your presence” (Ezra 9:15)

In the Old Testament stories, God never allowed anyone to come directly into contact with His powerful presence. He concealed Himself in a burning bush; He hid in a cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night as He led the Israelites. He protected Moses under a cleft of rock instructing Moses not to even look at Him as He passed. The power of God’s holiness is so strong the people at the base of the mountain waiting for Moses to receive the Ten Commandments were warned not to touch the mountain while God was present because they would die if they did. God cannot change who He is and He cannot come into direct contact with sin and imperfection. There must be some kind of barrier, covering, or distance to protect that which is sinful or imperfect from His powerful presence.

Obstacle Two

It is true that God cannot change who He is and it is equally true that God cannot change who we are without our permission and cooperation. He made us to be free agents with a will of our own, giving us the right to make our own decisions. This is another major obstacle that stood between the reconciliation of God and His fallen citizens. This old joke says it best, “I have good news and bad news. The good news is God gave us free will and the bad news is God gave us free will.”

Our autonomy is one of God’s great gifts to us; without it we would simply be programmed robots without a choice of our own. Since all God’s gifts are irrevocable, our free will was something He had to deal with as He planned for our salvation. It is because of this, the plan of salvation had to include our choice to accept or reject it. The truth is, God forgave us the moment humanity fell into sin. The problem for God has always been how to implement that forgiveness and get us to accept the way of salvation through the power of our own decision.

Obstacle Three

There are other problems God faced in His efforts to find a way of reconciliation with mankind. These obstacles exist because of what I call God’s self-imposed containment. These consist of His laws, His covenants with us, and His promises to us. He cannot lie and He cannot go against His own word; it is simply not in His nature to do. We can be sure He will not change His laws that enable us to know what is right and what is wrong. If He makes a promise, we can be sure He has limited Himself to that promise, and this is true with any covenant He makes with mankind. God is always faithful to His covenants, promises, and word, even when we are not faithful to keep them.

It is because of His self-imposed containment that we can learn to trust what He says and rely on Him to do what He promises. If we think this through, we can see how difficult it would be to trust God for our salvation if we could not count on Him to fulfill His promises and keep His covenants. Nevertheless, God’s very own trustworthiness and faithfulness made it even more difficult to implement His plan for the salvation of mankind.

Obstacle Four

It is because God cannot go back on His word that salvation is also a legal matter. God not only had to come up with a plan of salvation but it also had to answer the demands of the law in both His heavenly spiritual realm kingdom and the naturally created realm world here on earth. In other words, it had to be done in the perimeters of God’s existing laws. This was another major issue. He had to follow the law for all involved, including Satan and his followers. The rebellion against God demanded a death sentence. The wages of sin is death, so under the law, a price had to be paid for that sin. The challenge God faced was how the demands of the law could be accomplished without destroying everyone who was affected by the rebellion against God.

In Summary

These are some of the issues God faced in finding a plan for the salvation of mankind. We cannot hope to understand all of the problems, but we can be sure they were many and daunting. God had before Him the awesome task of making that which was sinful to be without sin and of making that which had become imperfect perfect again. Furthermore, this had to be accomplished without having direct contact with those who were in the state of sinfulness or imperfection. Added to those issues, the plan also had to answer the demands of the law and it had to be each individual’s choice to accept or reject it. We can see the formidable obstacles God needed to address for the salvation of mankind to be accomplished. How He designed His plan of salvation is way beyond brilliant, and it takes my breath away when I think of it.

Sin is what caused imperfection, and sin is why God had to be separated from mankind. Nevertheless, it is the will and desire of God’s heart to be reunited with all mankind. The entire goal of God’s Plan of Salvation is that we can once again come into His direct presence and live in His Heavenly Kingdom forever. The more I learn about His magnificent plan, the more in awe I become. God, the Father, designed the Plan, Jesus, His Son, implemented the plan, and the Holy Spirit draws us to Christ Jesus enabling us to accept the plan.