Finding Jesus in the Bible…So We Can Follow Him in Life
Bible Reading Plans
- Plan One: New Testament Only
- Plan Two: New Testament + Psalms
- Plan Three: New Testament + History
- Plan Four: The Entire Bible – Year 1 of 3, Year 2 of 3, Year 3 of 3
Don’t know which plan? Go to A Christ-Centered Bible Reading Plan: Quick Start.
Extras
Verse of the Day, Audio Capsule, and Video Minute
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(Today’s Reading)
The Implications of the Second Coming as Accomplished Fact
(Book Installment 52)
The Plan Behind the Second Coming
Chapter 4 – The Predetermined Plan
The purpose of the first part of this book – “The Scope of the Second Coming” – was to outline the breadth, width, and depth of that great cosmic cataclysm. Having surveyed the Second Coming in this way, we come to realize the prophecies that pointed to it – both from the Old Testament and New Testament – were about something much more than the Second Coming itself…even much more than the coming of the kingdom of God. That is, we come to see this great event as the concluding phase of a project that had been long in the works before Jesus’ first coming – even before the prophecies of Isaiah and Daniel. In fact, we’re going to find out that this plan had been drawn up – and settled – even before Genesis 1:1. This second, and much shorter, part of the book outlines that plan.
In the first public declaration of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, the apostle Peter boldly proclaimed:
Acts 2:22 “Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know–
Acts 2:23 this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death.
Acts 2:24 “But God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power.
Peter wanted that crowd gathered for Pentecost in Jerusalem 50 days after Jesus’ resurrection to know that what he was declaring to them about Israel’s Messiah was not God’s Plan B. It was not the case that something had gone awry to cause Israel to reject its long-promised Savior. On the contrary, God had foreseen this outcome long before – again, even before Genesis 1:1.
Peter wanted that crowd to know for certain that God was in that moment doing something profound – even more profound than what He’d done at Mount Sinai through Moses. For the events of Sinai were as much a part of this predetermined plan as was the crucifixion of Jesus.
Every major event of the Bible – in both testaments – was part of that plan. Even Noah’s Flood. Even the exile from the garden of Eden. Even creation itself as described in the first chapter of Genesis.
I am not saying that everything was planned in a fatalistic sense. Let me say that again for emphasis: what I am saying has nothing at all to do with fatalism. On the contrary, what I am talking about is the plan God put together to insure the success of a free-will creation – His plan to install a safety net beneath the human race so that, if and when it fell, none of its members would ever be permanently lost. Their free wills could get them in a lot of trouble, and that trouble might last a long time, but the “mercy that endureth forever” would always outlast the sins of men and even the judgments of God…for “mercy triumphs over judgment.” This part of the book – a single chapter – is about that fail-safe plan.
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