The Right Plan

I played basketball for Irving High School which was a 5A school in Texas. We were not very good. We went 4-12 in district my senior year. We were the game that every school looked forward to.

Before every game, our coach would write out the game plan. We would run this offense against a man defense and this offense against a zone defense. We would run this defense after a basket and this defense on a change of possession without a score. We would press in this situation, etc.

The last thing the coach always wrote on the board was “WIN!” We were playing to win. That was the plan. But, in our best laid plans, the games often turned out different than what we would have wanted. We lost. We had great plans. We just could not pull off the plan.

Think about God’s plan. He had a marvelous plan that was also a costly plan. The beauty is in the love displayed through a Savior being the perfect substitute to take on Himself the wrath that our sin deserves. The cost comes with the recognition that “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). The perfect substitute would have to die.

To outsiders, the plan would seem like foolishness. But, to those who receive the grace from that amazing sacrifice, the plan is “the power of God given to us who are being saved” (1 Corinthians 1:18).

Here is an interesting dynamic. God’s wisdom is always greater than ours. So, any plan of salvation that we would concoct is by definition a worse plan than His plan. Our wisdom does not measure up to His. In fact, any human wisdom is very far short of God’s “foolishness,” as if He had any. (See 1 Corinthians 1:25).

Yet, in the arrogance that only humans can muster, many claim that God’s plan of salvation is “foolishness.” For too many, they do not see the need for a Savior nor the identity of the Savior in Jesus the Christ. Why? Because “I would not do it that way.”

But, for those who believe the simplicity of God’s plan of salvation through Christ alone, we think it is the perfect plan. It would be a perfect sacrifice that was required, and a perfect sacrifice was given. In the cross of Jesus, the remission of sin is made possible through the body of the Lamb nailed to the cross and the shedding of the blood to make the payment required.

“According to the the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” (Hebrews 9:22).

Who could devise such a plan for our redemption? The only One who could also pull off the plan. God in His infinite wisdom was the architect. And, God the Son, Jesus, in His love and obedience, was the One who fulfilled the plan.

(Responses/Questions? jeff.perkins@mbclife.org)