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Scripture Reading: Eph. 1:4-5, 9, 11; 3:11; Rom. 8:28-29; Heb. 2:10
In this chapter we will fellowship concerning redemption in God’s plan. Let us read a few portions in the Scriptures concerning God’s plan. Ephesians 1:4 says, “He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world.” According to this verse, God’s selection was made before the foundation of the world. Verse 5 says, “Predestinating us...according to the good pleasure of His will.” According to Darby’s New Translation of the Bible, the word predestinating means “to mark out beforehand.” God marked us out beforehand, determined our destiny, according to the good pleasure of His will. Verse 9 says, “According to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Himself.” God graces us according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Himself through His plan. Verse 11 says, “In whom also we were designated as an inheritance, having been predestinated according to the purpose of the One who works all things according to the counsel of His will.” The word purpose here refers to God’s plan. We were predestinated by God according to His plan. Verse 11 of chapter 3 says, “According to the eternal purpose which He made in Christ Jesus our Lord.” The eternal purpose is the eternal plan that God made in eternity past.
The above verses show that God had a good pleasure before the foundation of the world. This is what pleased God in eternity past. God’s good pleasure became His purpose, and based on His purpose He made a plan in Himself. In this plan God chose and predestinated us. Then in time He called and redeemed us according to His plan. Hence, our redemption is through God’s plan and in God’s plan. Our redemption was not random, accidental, or by chance; rather, it was planned by God. In eternity past, before time began, God made a plan to redeem us according to the purpose of His good pleasure.
We often think that our salvation was by chance. However, from God’s perspective we were predestinated unto salvation; our salvation was planned by Him. Before the foundation of the world God planned our salvation in Himself according to the purpose of His good pleasure.
In 1937 I met an elderly Western missionary who had come to preach the gospel in China at the end of the Ching Dynasty. While I was giving a message, I asked her when she was saved. When she answered that she had been saved for more than fifty years, I said that I was saved before her, because I was saved before the foundation of the world. God had already determined to save me before the foundation of the world. In eternity past God predestinated me and marked me out for salvation. Hence, from God’s point of view I was saved before the foundation of the world.
God’s redemption is not a last-minute remedy to solve the problem of man’s fall. Redemption is God’s eternal plan. It was not added as an afterthought; it was determined before the beginning of time. Even though redemption was accomplished in time, God planned redemption before time began, even before the foundation of the world.
Let us now consider the purpose of God’s plan. Ephesians 1:5 says, “Predestinating us unto sonship through Jesus Christ.” God predestinated us so that we might have the sonship. According to Romans 8:28, those who love God have been called according to His purpose. But what is God’s purpose? Verse 29 says that those whom God “foreknew, He also predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the Firstborn among many brothers.” God in His purpose predestinated us to be conformed to the image of His Son so that Christ might be the Firstborn among many brothers. Hebrews 2:10 says that Christ is leading many sons into glory. Hence, God’s purpose is to lead many sons into glory.
The verses above show that God predestinated and called us to receive the sonship so that we would become His many sons and so that Christ might be the Firstborn among many brothers. The purpose of God’s plan is to lead many sons into glory.
The common understanding of God’s salvation is not high. Most people view God’s salvation from the human perspective. A brother might say that he was miserable and on his way to hell because of his sins; therefore, God saved him out of pity. Although such an answer is not wrong, it is very basic. This brother understands God’s salvation from the human perspective, not from God’s perspective. This brother knows God’s salvation according to himself, not according to God.
Most of the saints understand God’s salvation according to their feelings. They think that God saved them because they were sinful and pitiful. They believe in the Lord because they want to receive forgiveness of sins, peace, and joy and also because they want someone to rely on, they want to be delivered from the lake of fire, and they want to enter into the kingdom of God. These reasons are right, but they are according to our feelings. If we would be willing to enter into God’s feeling and consider His view, we would understand God’s salvation in a different way.
The Bible presents two sides of God’s salvation. One side is from the human perspective, and the other side is from God’s perspective. Ephesians speaks of God’s salvation from God’s perspective, which is a higher view—a view from heaven to earth, from God to man. Romans, however, speaks of God’s salvation from the human perspective, which is a lower view—a view from earth to heaven, from man to God. Although Romans begins with the human perspective, it ascends step by step and reaches God’s plan in chapter 8. Most people talk about God’s salvation from the human perspective. They remain on a lower level without ascending to a higher level. In this chapter we will ascend to God and to heaven in order to look at salvation from the perspective of God, heaven, and eternity.
If we look at salvation from God’s perspective instead of from our perspective, from heaven instead of from earth, and from eternity instead of from time, we will see that the purpose of God’s salvation is high and great. God’s salvation includes forgiveness, peace, joy, deliverance from the lake of fire, and entrance into the kingdom of God. As soon as a person is saved, his sins are forgiven, and he has peace and joy, and a saved person will certainly enter the kingdom of God instead of going to the lake of fire. However, these things are not God’s purpose in saving us. God’s purpose for saving us is much higher than these things.
The purpose of God’s plan, which He made according to His good pleasure, is high and great. This purpose is for His redeemed ones to receive the sonship, that is, to have the life of His Son and to be conformed to the image of His Son so that the Son may be the Firstborn among many brothers.
God’s desire for us to receive the sonship means that He wants us to be like Him. A son has the life of his father; hence, he looks like his father. To receive the sonship is to receive God’s life in order to be like Him. According to God’s plan, His purpose in redeeming us is for us to receive His life and thus have His image. The Lord Jesus is the Son of God; hence, He has the life of God. The life of God is in His Son (1 John 5:11). Therefore, he who has the life of the Son of God has the life of God (v. 12).
The Son of God has the life of God and also the image of God in order to declare God (Col. 1:15; John 1:18). Hence, to be conformed to the image of the Son of God is to be conformed to the image of God (Rom. 8:29). The Son of God has the life of God and thus declares God in the universe. God desires that we would receive the sonship so that we would have His life and express His image in the universe.
Without Jesus Christ, the Son of God, there would be no way for God to be declared. God is manifested through the Son. The Son of God is the effulgence of God’s glory and the impress of God’s substance (Heb. 1:3). When people saw the Son of God, they saw God (John 14:9).
Initially, the Lord Jesus was the only begotten Son of God, having the life and image of God and declaring God among men (1:18). The Bible, however, reveals that God desires to have many sons who possess His life and express His image. It is marvelous that God desired this even before the foundation of the world. This desire became God’s eternal purpose and His mysterious plan (Eph. 1:4-5, 9, 11; 3:11). According to God’s desire, eternal purpose, and mysterious plan, He wants to put us in the Son as the model so that we would be conformed to the image of His Son. For this reason God caused us to receive the life of His Son, which is His own life, and to have the image of His Son, which is His own image. This is the way that God gains many sons, who have His life and His image in order to declare Him in the universe. Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, now has many brothers as His companions, making Him the Firstborn among many brothers (Rom. 8:29). This is God’s good pleasure, which He purposed in Himself. This will be accomplished by God’s eternal purpose, and this is the goal of God’s mysterious plan.
The purpose of God’s plan is to gain many sons. The purpose of God’s redemption is to conform man to the image of His Son. When we received the Lord, God put the life of His Son into our being. From that day onward, He causes all things to work together in coordination with the working of the Holy Spirit to conform us to the image of His Son (vv. 28-29).
The day that we were saved, God put us in His Son as the model. God is now working to conform us to His Son. We are saved, but many parts of our being still do not express the Son of God. The life of the Son of God is in us, but God still needs to do a conforming work in our being so that we would express the image of the Son of God. God is working to conform us until we express the image of His Son (v. 29), that is, until we are brought into the glory of His Son (Heb. 2:10). This is the purpose of God’s plan. This is the purpose of redemption.
