God's Total Plan for Us

The Scripture reveals that God has a total plan for every one of us. We are created not without purpose. This message concerns the many stages in the conceiving and outworking of His plan for us from eternity to eternity.

Paul said, "For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His son that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified" (Romans 8:28, 29, NKJV, emphasis added).

The five stages of His total plan are: He foreknew us, He predestined us, He called us, He justified us and He glorified us.

However, in order to get a more complete picture of these stages in God's plan and how they relate to one another we need to look at two other passages, both from Paul's epistles, in the New Testament which add to our understanding of this plan.

1. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will" (Eph. 1:3 - 5, emphasis added).

The additional information is "He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world".

2. ".... who (God) has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began" (2 Tim. 1:9, emphasis added).

The additional information is "God has saved us and called us with a holy calling".

The Eight Stages of God's Total Plan

If we sum it all up from the above passages of Scripture we'll notice that God's total plan for us works out in eight distinct stages from eternity to time and then from time to eternity again. In other words, He began His plan before time began and right through beyond time into eternity!

Here are the eight stages:

1. God foreknew us

Peter greeted the Jewish believers (the elect) in the midst of their persecution:

".... to the pilgrims of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: ..." (1 Peter 1:1, 2, NKJV, emphasis added).

There is no attribute of God that is more awesome than God's knowledge and foreknowledge.

John said, "For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things" (1 John 3:20, NKJV, emphasis added).

When the Scripture says "God knows all things" it means there is nothing that God doesn't know.

David said, "O Lord, You have searched me and known me. For there is not a word on my tongue, but behold, O Lord, You know it altogether. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain it. Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence" (Psalm 139:1, 4, 6, 7, emphasis added)?

Here are some statements of truth:

A. God foreknows our thoughts. He knows what we are going to say before we say it!

B. The key to how God knows everything - is through His Spirit. The Spirit of God permeates everywhere and anytime. The past, present and future and even before time began. Through His Spirit God knows everything about us, even before we were born (Ps. 139:13 - 16).

2. God chose us

On the basis of God's foreknowledge, He chose us. God took the initiative to choose us. It is important to note that in all God's dealing with man, and in fact the whole universe, God always retain the initiative which never passes out of God's hand. This is true in various God's dealing as recorded in the New Testament:

A. The New Birth - Salvation

In contemporary Christianity, many people think that they gotten born again because they'd decided to be a Christian. But the Scripture says we are born again because God decided in the first place. The fact is, our job is to respond to God's decision to choose us, and without His decision it wouldn't have happened by our decision alone:

Paul said, "But we are bound to give thaks to God always for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth, ..." (1 Thess. 2:13, emphasis added).

B. Apostleship

Jesus said to His disciples, "You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, ..." (John 15:16).

Peter applied this to his own experience as he said to the Jerusalem Council:

"Men and brethren, you know that a good while ago God chose among us, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe" (Acts 15:7).

In relation to this, Peter didn't go to the household of Cornelius because he chose - he went because God chose (Acts 10).

This is also true for the apostle Paul's conversion at Damascus Road (Acts 22:14, 15). Paul didn't become an apostle because he chose, but because God chose. It fact if left to himself, this would be the furthest thing from his thinking. Furthermore, no one in the early Church would have chosen Paul to be an apostle. He would have been at the very bottom of the list!

I think there is a certain confidence when it is God's choice. Instead of figuring out ourselves what we should be we can find out what God has chosen us to be. Never get the attitude that God has chosen you to do something but you are not capable of doing it. God knows you can do it, otherwise He wouldn't have chosen you. God's foreknowledge leads to his choice.

We need to apply this spiritual truth to our own life. Don't try to be something that God hasn't chosen you to be. Don't make your own plan; don't work out the best you can do - that is not sufficient. Wait upon the Lord and find out what He has chosen you to do.

Let me make a rather controversial statement, which to me is also a spiritual truth. God makes His own selection; He does not call for volunteers. The only thing He wants us to do is to respond to His choice.

3. God predestined us

On the basis of God's choice for us, He predestined us. People in general, don't like the word "predestination" - it frightens them. In simple language "predestination" means "God worked out, in advance, the course that our life is to take so that His purposes would be fulfilled". To me this is very logical.

4. God called us

At this stage we moved out of eternity into time - life's clock started to tick. God's call comes in real time - during our life's journey on earth. His call impacts us individually. At this stage it is left to us to respond to His call. God's call means two things:

A. He invites us to join His Family through faith in Jesus Christ.

B. He summons us with the Authority of the King.

5. God saved us

When we respond to the call of God positively then God saves us - we enter into salvation as we are regenerated instantly. We are quickened and made alive in the Spirit. We are saved from sin, from its guilt, from its power, from its defilement. God has provided total salvation through Jesus Christ.

6. God justified us

When we are saved God also justified us. The word "justify" means "to acquit" or "to reckon righteous".

Paul said, ".... being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus" (Romans 3:24, NKJV).

The basis of our justification is the death of Christ:

"Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him" (Romans 5:9).

Justification was brought to us through Christ's resurrection:

"It (righteousness) shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification" (Romans 4:24, 25, emphasis added).

7. God called us with a Holy Calling

God saved and justified us so that we are qualified to be called by Him to do His work and to fulfill His purpose for us (2 Tim. 1:9). This is also our sactification and salvation process. This is on-going until we step out of time into eternity. Every believer in Christ has a unique calling according to 2 Tim. 1:9.

Here are some important statements of truth from 2 Tim. 1:9:

A. Your calling is holy. This means you are set apart to do God's will. God also sets limits and boundaries around your life - your calling is not unlimited.

B. Your calling does not depend on your works. It has nothing to do with your talent, your effort or your ability. When He calls you He will enable you to do His work. All you need to do is submit yourself to Him.

C. Your calling is God's choice and not your choice. He worked out His calling for you before time began.

8. We shall be glorified together with Christ

At this stage (at the fullness of the times) we are going to pass out of time into eternity again. We shall be glorified together with Christ.

Paul said, "... that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth - in Him. In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will" (Eph. 1:10, 11).

Paul also said, "The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs - heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together" (Romans 8:16, 17, emphasis added).

Notice there is a condition attached - we must suffer with Christ first! The spirtual principle is - The road to glory is suffering!

Take comfort in what Paul said in the next verse:

"For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us" (Romans 8:18).